Comparison Matrix and Outline for Psychology

Running head: COMPARISON MATRIX AND OUTLINE 1

COMPARISON MATRIX AND OUTLINE 5

Comparison Matrix

	Article 1	Article 2	Article 3
Title/Author(s)	“Socialization of doctoral students to academic norms” Weidman and Stein (2003)	“Developmental networks and learning: toward an interdisciplinary perspective on identity development during doctoral study” Baker and Lattuca (2010)	“Critical thinking distance education and traditional education” Visser, Visser, and Schlosser (2003)
Purpose of the study What is the author’s rationale for selecting this topic? Does he build a strong case?	What is it the researchers are trying to understand? What is the larger conversation that has led the researchers to try and understand a given phenomenon or question?
Research Question(s) What question(s) does the author present?	Research questions reflect the intentions and assumptions of the researcher. If you want to understand effects of violent TV on children, then you will ask questions and form hypotheses regarding the effects of violent TV on children.	All studies have research questions! You may have to dig deep and look for what the authors were seeking to examine within their research.
Literature Review How is this organized? What are the main themes found in the review? Who are the main authors used?	How did the authors of the article use others’ research to support their study? What are the main themes of the literature review? Who are the major authors cited? Please note that the Literature Review may not have a clearly identified heading. Frequently, lit reviews will be found in the introduction of an article.	The literature review is the theoretical foundation on which the authors built their research. This is not simply a list of authors in the reference list. Examine the articles and dig deep.
Sample Population(s) What group(s) is/are being studied?	Who are the participants in the study? What demographic information is provided? Is the population heterogeneous or homogenous? Why are they important? Sometimes you will have to perform math to come up with the correct number or look at the charts to get an accurate count.	Include any available demographics. Remember, not all research has a traditional sample population.
Limitations What are the limitations of the study? Why can it only encompass so much?	All studies have limitations! Consider the limitations of each study: issues with the sample, generalizability of results, biases of the researchers, etc. If I’m studying violent TV and kids, and I don’t account for confounding variables, that would be a serious limitation.
Results/ Conclusions What did the author find through the study? Was the original question answered?	What did the authors find in their study? What conclusions did they reach? Were their results valid and/or significant? Did the results support the hypotheses? Do their conclusions address the research questions?

Outline

I. Introduction

a) Capture the reader’s interest and be specific here and tell me how you will do that

b) Provide context for the paper

1. Introduce the articles’ by title, authors, year of publication and purpose

2. Commonalities/shared themes between articles

3. Why is that interesting or important?

c) Include a clear thesis statement – ensure that you actually include your thesis statement!

II. Comparison of Research Questions

a) Commonalities/shared themes between articles’ hypotheses and research questions.

Things to address in this section of the paper: What are the research questions and hypotheses asked by the authors? How do they compare to one another? Why might the differences and similarities be important? Number of questions important? Who are they directed towards?

III. Comparison of Literature Reviews

a) Commonalities/shared themes and authors between articles

b) Conclusions that can be drawn from the shared themes

a. Things to address in this section of the paper: What are the main themes of each article’s lit review? What do they share in common? What conclusions can you draw from that?

IV. Comparison of Sample Populations

a) Samples for the three articles (If there is no sample, then you want to discuss briefly why)

b) Commonalities/shared themes between articles

Things to address in this section of the paper: Who participated in this study? What is important about the participants? What do the articles have in common?

V. Comparison of Limitations (I recommend using sub-headings in this section)

a) Brief intro to section

b) Author Identified Limitations

c) Non-identified Limitations

VI. Comparison of Results

a) Results for the three articles.

b) Commonalities/shared themes between articles

Things to address in this section of the paper: What are the results of the studies? What conclusions did the authors draw? What commonalities do you see between articles? Why might that be important? What might that mean?

VII. Conclusion

a) What is your conclusion? What conclusions can you draw from their combined research? What is the overall message of the articles? Why is this important?

b) What suggestions might you have for future research, or practical application of this information?

c) REMEMBER YOU CANNOT WRITE YOUR PAPER IN FIRST OR SECOND PERSON

References

Author, A., Author, A., & Author, A. (2014). The article title is in sentence case. Journal of APA Style, 42, 74-89. doi: 48.1516.2342

Author, A., Author, A., & Author, A. (2014). The article title is in sentence case: If there is no DOI include the journal home page in the reference. Journal of APA Style, 42, 74-89. Retrieved from http://www.journalhomepage.org

Author, A. (2014). Book titles are in italics and still in sentence case. City: Publisher.

Author, A. (2014, March). Articles from a magazine or newspaper. Psychology Today, 39, 32-49.

Author, A. (2014, March 2). If an article has a colon: The first word after the colon is capitalized. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Author, A. (2012). Website formatting is a little different from articles: Make sure you remove hyperlinks from the references [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.example.com

Make sure that your references are in hanging indent.