research assignment

Week 2 - Assignment

Research Article Summaries

This assignment is the first step toward completing the literature review in Week 3.

• Choose a general topic that you are interested in. Use the Area of Interest interactive to guide your efforts. Narrow the topic so that you are looking for research to answer a particular question.

For example:
“What is the experience of military families when their soldier is deployed?” or
“Is there a link between hours of television viewing and violent behavior in children aged 8-14?”
Think of a question that might be answered in a number of different ways. Briefly describe your topic and research question.

• Conduct a search through the Ashford University Library and locate a minimum of five (5) research studies from peer-reviewed sources that are related to the topic of your choice. Find at least two studies that use qualitative data and at least two studies that use quantitative data.
• Write a 350-word (double-spaced) synopsis/review of each article in your own words. Be sure to read the article fully to accomplish this goal. Do NOT simply rely on the Abstract, as the Abstract is limited in two ways: 1) it omits important information you might find useful; and, 2) it does not describe all aspects of the research that you will need for your literature review in Week 3. Thus, be sure to discuss what you find significant about the study for your topic, not just, what the author thought.
• The assignment should include:
  1. A brief discussion of your topic and research question.
     For each article, turn in
  2. The citation (properly formatted in APA style),
  3. The article’s original abstract.
  4. Your one-page synopsis, and
  5. Whether the study is a quantitative approach (uses statistical analyses) or a qualitative approach.