Differences of scholarly writing

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Differences of scholarly writing

• Reference citations are always provided. You
  can check the source of facts or claims they
  make.
• Mention alternative explanations or other
  evidence for or against the conclusions
  presented. (not one-sided)

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Strategy to find other sources

• 1. Find a relevant research article
• (consult the reference section of textbooks or
  other books or tracking down an article using a
  periodical index or computerized database.
• 2. Use the reference section of the article you
  found to locate other articles
• Use terminology used to locate other articles
• Search by researchers of that topic.
• 3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each relevant
  article
• 4. Use a variety of indexes

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American Psychological Assoc. Style - Books

• Author -- last name, first initial. (Year).
  Title of book, Location of publisher
  Publisher.
• Allen, H. (1982). The betrayal of
  Liliuokalani, last queen of Hawaii,
  1838-1917. Honolulu Mutual Publishing.

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Book - Multiple authors

• Hudson, J., Morris, A., Maxwell, G., Galaway,
  B. (1996). Family group conferences
  Perspectives on policy practice. Leichhardt,
  NSW, Australia The Federation Press.

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Chapter in book

• Altshuler, S. (1999). The well-being of
  children in kinship foster care. In J.
  Gleeson C. Finney Hairston (Eds.), Kinship
  care. Improving practice through research
  (pp.117-143). Washington, D.C. Child Welfare
  League of America.

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APA Style - Journal articles

• Author. (Year). Title of article, Title of
  Journal volume (issue number), page numbers.
• Berrick, J. D. (1997). Assessing quality of
  care in kinship and foster family care.
  Family Relations, 46(3), 273-280.
• Gleeson, J., ODonnell, J. Bonecutter, F. J.
  (1997). Understanding the complexity of
  practice in kinship foster care. Child Welfare,
  76(6), 801-827.

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Journal article retrieved from web database

• Maggs-Rapport, F. (2000). Combining
  methodological approaches in research
  ethnography and interpretive phenomenology.
  Journal of Advanced Nursing 31(1), 219-226.
  Retrieved September 21, 2002, from EBSCOhost
  database.

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Website

• Klicka, C. (2000). Practical ways to reform the
  child welfare system. National Center for
  Home Education, Home School Legal Defense
  Association. Retrieved October 22, 2002 from
  http//www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000
• /00000058.asp

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• Review APA style!
• Cozby
• Manual in lab or library
• Publishing location of your book
• (not London and Pennsylvania)

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• No need to say World Wide Web
• Say Retrieved ___(date) from http//www.etc....
• If full text is on-line, say in the reference,
  for example, Retrieved September 12, 2002
  from PsycARTICLES database.
• Difference between a citation and a reference?

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Instructions for research proposal -- Part 1

• Part 1 Draft research project proposal Due
  Jan. 30
• Research topic
• Brief description of the problem
• Possible research questions

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What is the problem?

• Who is affected?
• How are they affected?
• What is problem related to?
• What causes the problem?...
• Other issues related to problem

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Homework 3) Literature review Summary of two
articles (Part I)

• Due Feb. 4 (Feb. 6 is OK)
• Each student - write short summary of 2
  scholarly journal articles about a research
  study)
• This info will be used to develop intro section
  of your research proposal.
• (See page 260 of Cozby).
• Each group member should use different articles.

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Each summary should include

• Summarize main message, key information or
  finding, or recommendation from the article
• (a few sentences to 2 paragraphs)
• . Describe how this info justifies the importance
  of your project
• (a few sentences to 2 paragraphs)
• and/or Describe how this article helps you
  develop research hypotheses, measures, or
  procedures for your group project.

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Part II Practice evaluating literature

• For both articles, write (or summarize if long)
• 1) the studys research questions,
• 2) hypotheses,
• 3) the problems that their research study
  addresses.
• 4) Describe how the authors justified the need
  and importance of their study.
• Find the above in the introduction section of the
  article.
• Attach your articles to the assignment.

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Reflect about the article...

• What was important for you about the article?
• How does it relate to your project?
• Strengths and weaknesses?
• What you liked and problems you noted.
• What might you do differently if you were going
  to repeat that research?
• How might it help you improve your research?

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Anatomy of a research article

• Abstract
• Introduction
• problem
• hypotheses
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• References

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Introduction

• Purpose of study and research question(s)
• Problems related to study topic
• Literature review
• Rationale (justification) for the study
• Hypotheses

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Methods

• Description of how study carried out
• Participants
• (age, gender, number, ethnicity)
• Research design
• Measures (survey, questionnaires, etc.)
• Procedures

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Results

• Presents summary of data
• Presents statistical significance of findings,
  size of differences, statistics used,
• may be displayed in text, tables figures
• Relationships among variables

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Discussion section

• Authors interpretation of results
• Discussion of findings compared with previous
  research and theory
• Limitations of study
• May discuss their speculations about why they
  found the results and about other things that may
  have influenced the findings
• Suggestions for further research

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Confirmation bias

• We seek evidence that confirms our view of the
  world
• and we may not look for conflicting results

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Guidelines for evaluating reports

• Dont confuse pseudoscience or nonscience with
  science
• Be skeptical
• Be aware that scientists may disagree
• Keep in mind that research is about averages
• Whenever possible, go to the original source.
• Find out who sponsored the research
• Zechmeister, J., Zechmeister, E. Shaughnessy,
  J. (2001)

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Intro to measurement
Measure

• Reality can be known only indirectly
• Research uses a measure to know reality

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Conceptualization ? Operationalization
Idea
What do I mean by ____?
Clarification
Conceptualization
How will I measure ___?
Operationalization
Measureable Observable
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Operationalization

• Re-define a variable in terms of steps to measure
  
• What the researcher must do to measure it

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Operational definition

• A definition used to measure the concept
• Breakdown the concept into specific, objective,
  measurable components
• Specific and clear
• -- any two people
• measuring the same phenomenon
• would get the same result

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Examples
Conceptual Definition
Operational Definition
Amount of Sunshine
The number of hours exposed to sun
Growth of Plant
Daily growth of plants in height
Happiness
Choice from Very happy Happy Neutral
Unhappy Very Unhappy
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EXAMPLES

• Weight

• Weight in street clothes and stocking feet
  rounded to the nearest full ounce as measured by
  the Zabutron 2000 electronic personal scale.

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Operationalizing concepts -- how to measure
concepts

• Complex human concepts /
• Multidimensional variables
• Goal all on research project agree on same way
  to measure/collect data.
• Operationalize
• how will you specifically measure
• knowledge of local culture
• easy going
• Other examples (good student, patriotic)

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Types of measures

• Self-report
• Behavioral
• Physiological