5.5 pages

Assignment 2 Quantitative Paper

Communication Research Methods Fall 2016

Basic Information

• Length: 1,400 words, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins. It is up to you to determine the length of each section.

• Only one reference is required. This reference will be the published report or scholarly article that will be the focus of your major paper. This reference does is not included in the word count.

Overview

For this paper you will choose one scholarly article OR a publicly available report that is based on numerical (quantitative) research. If you choose a report, it may be written by a market research company, a corporation, a government agency, or a not-for-profit agency. If you choose a scholarly article it should be published in a journal that is available through the University of Toronto’s library system.

Regardless of whether you choose a published report or scholarly article, it must contain basic information on the institution(s) that supported the research, the research design, the selection strategy, key terms, and the implementation. If it does not contain any of this information, you will need to use another report or article instead.

Format and Requirements

At the top of the first page provide your name, student number, date, and the title of your paper.

Next, provide basic information the published report or scholarly article that will be the focus on your major paper. If you are using a published report, the basic information will consist of: author(s) (if available), report title, publisher/organization that published this report, and the date of publication. If you are using a scholarly article, the basic information will consist of: author(s), year published, article title, journal title, volume number, page numbers. Please present this information as an APA reference. (If you are unfamiliar with APA format, you can learn more about it here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/)

All articles should be available through the UofT library system. Provide a Permalink to the article under the citation. If you use a report, you must also provide a URL link to this report under the citation. It is your responsibility to confirm that this link is working at the time of submission. It is recommended that you download a backup copy of the report in case the link becomes broken.

When referring to this article or report in the assignment you do not need to use APA citation because it should be obvious to the reader that that you are referring to this paper. However, if you

Page � of �1 3

copy any of the original text from article you must quote this text and provide the page number. For example, if you included text from page 10 in the article or report, it would appear as: “Text in quotes” (p. 10).

In the remainder of the paper, provide the following subheadings with the requested discussion in each section. The total length of the paper should be 1,400 words. It is up to you to decide how long each sections should be, but make sure that you clearly and explicitly address all of the requested discussion topics for each section.

1. Institutional Support • Using quoted material from the report or article, state the names of the institutions that

supported this research and the explicit purpose of this study. • State what you believe may be the implicit purpose of this study. If you do not believe

there is an implicit purpose, explain why. • Describe how the institutions may have influenced the explicit and implicit purposes of the

study.

2. Research Design • Using quoted material from the report or article, describe the research design used in this

study. • Drawing on what you learned in Chapter 3, discuss some of the limitations associated with

this research design.

3. Selection Strategy • Using quoted material from the report or article, describe the selection strategy used in

this study. • Drawing on what you learned in Chapter 4, discuss some of the limitations associated with

this selection strategy.

4. Key Terms • Using quoted material from the report or article, give at least two or three important key

terms used in this study, and discuss each key terms is conceptualized and operationalized.

• Drawing on what you learned in Chapter 5, discuss any limitations that may exist in how these key terms are conceptualized and operationalized. Also discuss any limitations that may exist in terms of their validity and reliability.

5. Research Implementation • Using quoted material from the report or article, discuss how this research was

implemented. Was it collected through observation, in-person interviews, paper surveys, telephone surveys, or digital methods?

• Drawing on what you learned in Chapter 6, discuss some of the limitations associated with the research implementation.

• Using quoted material from the report or article, explain if this research was confidential or anonymous. Also use quoted material that points to ethical (or unethical) considerations and choices made in this study.

• Drawing on what you learned in Chapter 6, discuss some possible ethical issues associated the research implementation.

Page � of �2 3

6. Conclusion • Discuss if you believe this study is a reliable source of knowledge based on the discussion

and critique that you presented in this major paper.

Summary of Graded Components Institutional Support 10%

Research Design 15%

Selection Strategy 20%

Key Terms 20%

Research Implementation 25%

Conclusion 5%

Formatting, Spelling, and Grammar 5%

Page � of �3 3