WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

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HOW TOs IN
WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER
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1. THEORY
INDUCTION involves inferring about a finding on
the basis of information gathered or known.
DEDUCTION moving from theory to hypothesis
5. FINDINGS
2. HYPOTHESIS
ANALYSIS summarizing, reporting and presenting
findings
OPERATIONALIZATION method of proving hypothesis
4. DATA GATHERING
3. RESEARCH DESIGN
MEASUREMENT ways to validate or apply the data
to be gathered
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A Few Important Definitions
1. Theory basically a theory evolves from
questions such as Whats the point of all
this?...What does it mean?... Why are things this
way? Theory represents a reasonable and
informed guess as to why things are as they
appear and to explain how something happens, why
someone (group or population) reacts a certain
way and maybe even why a situation, group, or
idea should be viewed from a different
perspective. Theories are usually general or
broad statements and typically precede any
attempt to collect facts.
2. Hypothesis hypotheses are specific
statements regarding the relationship between
(usually two) variables. A hypothesis is derived
from more general theories.
3. Research Design this is the plan or blueprint
for a study and includes the who, what, where,
when, why and how of a research process.
Research design should flow from the problem
formulation and critical issues so that when the
research is done, the hypotheses and findings
resolve the original theory.
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4. Data Gathering this is where information on
a subject is collected. Data gathering can be
done through observation, reanalysis of existing
data, library research, questionnaires and
interviews.
5. Findings Findings are the conclusions,
interpretations and even limitations that the
researcher has found during data collection.
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BABY STEPS in BUILDING A RESEARCH PAPER

• Basic idea is to decide what youre interested in
  if youre not interested in your subject, then
  youre not going to be interested in researching
  or spending any time writing about it. Youre
  NOT writing a book report, you are taking a view
  on a subject and exploring the possibilities that
  would support your view.

2. Once you have a topic, you have to formulate
a hypothesis or define an idea about your topic.
Start out with a broad idea like when do serial
killers decide to kill? Define key concepts
serial killers kill at random, serial killers
have patterns, S.K.s only kill at nightetc.
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• When writing a research paper, there is a plan or
  blueprint you can follow
• Who are you looking at a population, an
  individual, a group, organization or
  community?????
• What are you investigating??? attitudes,
  behaviors, records????
• Where are you going to conduct the study at
  work, in your organization, through library
  references?????????????
• When do you want to look at the subject do you
  want to look at the past, present or predict the
  future of your subject?????????????
• Why do you want to study the subject??? Are you
  going to describe it, explain it or predict
  something about it?
• How do you design a study so you can do all the
  above, present your findings and perhaps resolve
  problems about your subject?

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Typically youre going to set up a short research
paper using a basic formula

• Introduction paragraph
• Tell your reader what youre writing about,
• Why youre writing about the subject and
• What you plan to talk about within your paper.

• 2. Body of your paper
• One paragraph about a particular part of your
  topic
• Second paragraph about another part of your topic
• Third paragraph about another part of your topic

• 3. Conclusion
• Summarize what you wrote in the body of your
  paper
• Explain what you found in the research of your
  paper
• How can what you found out in your paper be
  applied to other subjects or interest groups.

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REFERENCES
Hagan, Frank E., 2000. Research Methods in
Criminal Justice and Criminology, 5th ED.