General Format of a Research Paper, Thesis, or Project

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Title of Project

Begin your presentation with the title of your project.  State the name of the University and your faculty research mentor’s department, team names, and the name of your faculty research mentor.

Introduction

State why you chose your particular project; tell why it is of interest or worthy of the attempt.

Research questions, hypothesis and purpose

Background and literature review

Research methodology

Research design used for study.

Sampling technique with randomization method used, if applicable.

Description of data collections instrument (questionnaire, interviews…).

Statistical or data analysis techniques used.

Results
Present a summary of your data. This is where you cite your figures and tables. Graphs will usually be most appropriate for showing your findings, but data summaries (do not reproduce all your data) may be tabular. Include any non-quantitative observations in the text. Describe the analysis of the data including any statistical tests performed.

Discussion/Conclusion
State your conclusion.? How much confidence may one have in your results; how reliable are your results? Have additional questions been raised? Have you satisfied the objectives of your project?

Appendix

What is an article critique paper?

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An article critique is a written communication that conveys your understanding of a research article and how it relates to the conceptual issues of interest to a course.

This article critique paper will include things:

  1. Summary of the Article:

An article critique should briefly summarize, in your own words, the article research question and how it was addressed in the article. Below are some things to include in your summary.

  • The summary itself will include the following: (Note – if the article involved more than one experiment, you can either choose to focus on one of the studies specifically or summarize the general design for all of the studies)
    1. Type of study (Was it experimental or correlational? How do you know?)
    2. Variables (What were the independent and dependent variables? How did they manipulate the IV? How did they operationally define the DV? Be specific with these. Define the terms independent and dependent variable and make sure to identify how they are operationally defined in the article)
    3. Method (What did the participants do in the study? How was it set up? Was there a random sample of participants? Was there random assignment to groups?). How was data collected (online, in person, in a laboratory?).
    4. Summary of findings (What were their findings?)

 

  1. Critique of the study
  • This portion of the article critique assignment focuses on your own thoughts about the content of the article (i.e. your own ideas in your own words). For this section, please use the word “Critique” below the last sentence in your summary, and have the word “Critique” flush left.
  • This section is a bit harder, but there are a number of ways to demonstrate critical thinking in your writing. Address at least four of the following elements. You can address more than four, but four is the minimum.
  • 1). In your opinion, are there any confounding variables in the study (these could be extraneous variables or nuisance variables)? If so, explain what the confound is and specifically how it is impacting the results of the study. A sufficient explanation of this will include at least one paragraph of writing.
  • 2). Is the sample used in the study an appropriate sample? Is the sample representative of the population? Could the study be replicated if it were done again? Why or why not?
  • 3). Did they measure the dependent variable in a way that is valid? Be sure to explain what validity is, and why you believe the dependent variable was or was not measured in a way that was valid.
  • 4). Did the study authors correctly interpret their findings, or are there any alternative interpretations you can think of?
  • 5). Did the authors of the study employ appropriate ethical safeguards?
  • 6). Briefly describe a follow-up study you might design that builds on the findings of the study you read how the research presented in the article relates to research, articles or material covered in other sections of the course
  • 7). Describe whether you feel the results presented in the article are weaker or stronger than the authors claim (and why); or discuss alternative interpretations of the results (i.e. something not mentioned by the authors) and/or what research might provide a test between the proposed and alternate interpretations
  • 8). Mention additional implications of the findings not mentioned in the article (either theoretical or practical/applied)
  • 9). Identify specific problems in the theory, discussion or empirical research presented in the article and how these problems could be corrected. If the problems you discuss are methodological in nature, then they must be issues that are substantial enough to affect the interpretations of the findings or arguments presented in the article. Furthermore, for methodological problems, you must justify not only why something is problematic but also how it could be resolved and why your proposed solution would be preferable.
  • 10). Describe how/why the method used in the article is either better or worse for addressing a particular issue than other methods

 

  1. Brief summary of the article: One or Two paragraphs
  • Write the words “Brief Summary”, and then begin the brief summary below this
  • In ONE or TWO paragraphs maximum, summarize the article again, but this time I want it to be very short. In other words, take all of the information that you talked about in the summary portion of this assignment and write it again, but this time in only a few sentences.
  • The reason for this section is that I want to make sure you can understand the whole study but that you can also write about it in a shorter paragraph that still emphasizes the main points of the article. Pretend that you are writing your own literature review for a research study, and you need to get the gist of an article that you read that helps support your own research across to your reader. Make sure to cite the original study (the article you are critiquing).

 

  1. References
  • Provide the reference for this article in proper
  • If you cited other sources during either your critique or summary, reference them as well (though you do not need to cite other sources in this assignment – this is merely optional IF you happen to bring in other sources). Formatting counts here, so make sure to italicize where appropriate and watch which words you are capitalizing!

Perfect Paragraph Assignment [Body paragraphs that incorporate quotes from the text]

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For much of the writing we do in this class, the following, schematic model should be used in writing body paragraphs, not introductory paragraphs, or paragraphs you would write in the conclusions of your essays.  But paragraphs in the BODY or your essay where you are doing most of the analytical work in support of your overall thesis/argument.

Keep in mind that this is only a model, and can be amended or altered in various ways, but not in its overall scheme.  When writing a coherent body paragraph that uses a quote from the text, simply do the following.

When finding quotes from the texts for this paragraph assignment, keep the upcoming ESSAY #1 ASSIGNMENT question in mind.  In other words, find quotes that respond/answer the upcoming Essay #1 question:

“What is the role or significance of ‘reading’ in either MX or Douglass text?”

THE PERFECT PARAGRAPH—5 PARTS

  1. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence (1-sentence: this is the main idea in the paragraph that you want to convey to your reader, and that you will pursue throughout the paragraph as a whole.
  2. Then, introduce the quote you wish to cite. Keep it brief, just giving your reader a general sense of the passage to follow (1 or 2 sentences).
  3. Cite the passage you have in mind–a passage that provides evidence for the claim you’re making in your topic sentence. Your quote should be long enough for you to develop some form of analysis, so rule of thumb, between 2-4 sentences.
  4. Then, explain the quote in your own words. Go into as much detail as possible; that is, don’t let the quote speak for itself.  This is where you begin to analyze the quote and show how it, again, helps elaborate and develop the major claim/topic in your paragraph.  Also, to develop your analysis/commentary on the quote make your explanation of the quote longer than the quote itself.
  5. End the paragraph with a transition sentence (1 or 2 sentences) to the next paragraph that gives your reader a sense of where you’re headed in the next paragraph. That is, this will be a 1- or 2-sentence transition into the next topic sentence of the next paragraph.

This brief model can be amended by, perhaps, adding a secondary quote (and subsequent commentary/analysis) after the 4th part.  That is, perhaps you want to develop your claim in the paragraph by citing another passage.  In other words, you can continue to develop and support your idea by citing another quote as evidence for you claim.

 MY EXAMPLE OF A PERFECT PARAGRAPH THAT FOLLOW THIS MODEL

 Here’s an example of a paragraph I wrote around a passage from Douglass and that follows the Perfect Paragraph model we’ve discussed in class.

  1. TOPIC SENTENCE: In “Learning to Read,” Douglass begins to develop a complex, double-edged notion of what it means to read.
  2. INTRODUCE THE QUOTE: In the following paragraph, he discusses how one of Sheridan’s speeches on Catholic emancipation led him to his own understanding of the reading process.
  3. CITE THE PASSAGE: “What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights. The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery, but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved. The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers” (410).
  4. EXPLAIN THE QUOTE IN YOUR OWN WORDS: In this passage, Douglass argues how his reading of Sheridan allowed him to articulate his own thoughts against slavery. In other words, for Douglass, Sheridan’s arguments in favor of Catholic emancipation enabled him to challenge many of the common arguments put forth by those who support the institution of slavery in America. His reading had the effect of creating strong hatred toward what he calls “my enslavers.”  Therefore, reading, for Douglass is both a liberating activity and what he calls a “painful” one that draws strong negative emotions out of him.  As a doubled-edged sword reading for Douglass, as he writes, “had been a curse rather than a blessing” (410).
  5. TRANSITION SENTENCE TO NEXT PARAGRAPH: Douglass continues his analysis of this ambiguous notion of reading in other passages.

And here is what the paragraph would look like in your essay with the correct format: double-spaced, page numbers, 1-inch margins, etc.:

In “Learning to Read,” Douglass begins to develop a complex, double-edged notion of what it means to read. In the following paragraph, he discusses how one of Sheridan’s speeches on Catholic emancipation led him to his own understanding of the reading process. “What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights.  The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery, but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved.  The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers” (410). In this passage, Douglass argues how his reading of Sheridan allowed him to articulate his own thoughts against slavery.  In other words, for Douglass, Sheridan’s arguments in favor of Catholic emancipation enabled him to challenge many of the common arguments put forth by those who support the institution of slavery in America.  His reading had the effect of creating strong hatred toward what he calls “my enslavers.”  Therefore, reading, for Douglass is both a liberating activity and what he calls a “painful” one that draws strong negative emotions out of him.  As a doubled-edged sword reading, for Douglass, as he writes, “had been a curse rather than a blessing” (410). Douglass continues his analysis of this ambiguous notion of reading in other passages.

Describe in your own words how the sociological imagination (SI) would be used in the SA context to address the social problem of unemployment, as the dimension of poverty, particularly when there are factors that exacerbate the problem.

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Describe in your own words how the sociological imagination (SI) would
be used in the SA context to address the social problem of
unemployment, as the dimension of poverty, particularly when there are
factors that exacerbate the problem.

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Business Plan Outline

– The business plan outline below follows the textbook topics as much as possible and a grading point system has beenadded.See textbook for more specific information.

-Elements of a Business Plan –Chapter 5.

– Example of Excellent Business Plan – The Daily Perc Business Plan, Appendix.

 

I.Title Page with student name and course number.(5 pts. for Title Page, Table of Contents/Outline and Executive Summary)

Table of Contents/Outline using the outline following.

Executive Summary (not to exceed two pages)

  1. Company name, address, and phone number
  2. Name(s), addresses, and phone number(s) of all key people
  3. Brief description of the business, its products and services, and the customer problems they solve
  4. Brief overview of the market for your products and services
  5. Brief overview of the strategies that will make your firm a success

 

  1. Vision and Mission statement (5 pts.)
  2. Entrepreneur’s vision for the company
  3. “What business are we in?”
  4. Values and principles on which the business stands
  5. What makes the business unique? What is the source of its competitive advantage?

 

III. Business and Industry Profile (5 pts.)

  1. Industry Analysis
  2. Industry background and overview
  3. Significant trends
  4. Growth rate
  5. Key success factors in the industry
  6. Outlook for the future
  7. Stage of growth (start-up, growth, maturity)
  8. Company goals and objectives
  9. Operational
  10. Financial
  11. Other

 

  1. Business Strategy (10 pts.)
  2. Desired image and position in market
  3. SWOT analysis
  4. Strengths
  5. Weaknesses
  6. Opportunities
  7. Threats
  8. Competitive strategy
  9. Cost-leadership
  10. Differentiation
  11. Focus

 

  1. Company Products and Services (5 pts.)
  2. Description
  3. Product or service features
  4. Customer benefits
  5. Warranties and guarantees
  6. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
  7. Patent or trademark protection
  8. Description of production process (if applicable)
  9. Raw materials
  10. Costs
  11. Key suppliers
  12. Future product or service offerings

 

  1. Marketing Strategy (20 pts.)
  2. Target market
  3. Complete demographic profile
  4. Other significant customer characteristics
  5. Customers’ motivation to buy
  6. Market size and trends
  7. How large is the market?
  8. Is it growing or shrinking? How fast?
  9. Advertising and promotion
  10. Media used— reader, viewer, listener profiles
  11. Media costs
  12. Frequency of usage
  13. Plans for generating publicity
  14. Pricing
  15. Cost structure
  16. Fixed
  17. Variable
  18. Desired image in market
  19. Comparison against competitors’ prices
  20. Distribution strategy
  21. Channels of distribution used
  22. Sales techniques and incentives

 

VII. Location and Layout (10 pts.)

  1. Location
  2. Demographic analysis of location vs. target customer profile
  3. Traffic count
  4. Lease/ Rental rates
  5. Labor needs and supply
  6. Wage rates
  7. Layout (If virtual business, use home of office location)
  8. Size requirements
  9. Americans with Disabilities compliance
  10. Ergonomic issues
  11. Layout plan (suitable for an appendix)

 

VIII. Competitor Analysis (10 pts.)

  1. Existing competitors
  2. Who are they? Create a competitive profile matrix.
  3. Strengths
  4. Weaknesses
  5. Potential competitors: Companies that might enter the market
  6. Who are they?
  7. Impact on your business if they enter
  8. Plan of Operation (5 pts.)
  9. Form of ownership chosen and reasoning
  10. Company structure (organization chart)
  11. Decision making authority
  12. Compensation and benefits packages
  14. Financial Forecasts (20 pts.)
  15. Financial statements
  16. Income statement
  17. Balance sheet
  18. Cash flow statement
  19. Break- even analysis
  20. Ratio analysis with comparison to industry standards (most applicable to existing businesses)
  21. Reflection Section (5 pts.) Write a small section (4-5 paragraphs) with three parts.
  22. What you learned and/or found new and interesting about the topic i.e.
  23. What you learned about the process (doing) the project.
  24. How you can use the information learned in A and B to enhance your professional and personal life.

Do not just put in facts you learned about the topic, but how knowing these facts will make you a better professional and/or better person.

Source:Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, 9th. Ed.,  N. Scarborough and J. Cornwall, Pearson Education Publishing, 2019.

How to write literature review

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The process you follow to develop a literature review is very similar to conducting a research study.  You begin with a research problem, collect data, evaluate the data, analyze and interpret it and then prepare your work to share with others.

Research question

  • Use concept mapping as an aid to development.
  • Make sure the question is important to you to maintain your interest.

Data collection

  • Gather appropriate articles through your searches of the Libraries’ journal article databases.

Data evaluation

  • Note common themes emerging from your readings.
  • Identify relationships among the themes.
  • Write a brief paragraph describing the themes or categories.  You can also include the relationships among them and how they connect with your overall idea.

Analysis and interpretation

  • Continue to read to make sure all relevant authors, methodologies are included and all irrelevant items are removed.
  • Write individual sections using annotations and point out relationships among articles.  Articles are the evidence to support your critique.  You will be more successful if you begin with the articles as the support rather than starting with the point you want to make and then drawing in the articles.

Presentation

  • Merge individual sections into integrated document.
  • Add introduction and conclusion sections.
  • Make sure all sections support your ideas and edit or revise accordingly.

Preparing an annotated bibliography to begin

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An annotated bibliography includes article citations with paragraphs of varying length that summarize or evaluate the article’s content.  Crafting the annotated bibliography will help you learn more about the subject you want to investigate.  it will also “encourage” you to read more critically.  When you’re finished with your annotated bibliography, you can determine each article’s contribution to the development of your ressearch question.

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab has a great section on writing annotated bibliographies with an example in APA style.  The section on quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing as well as the section on evaluating sources might be useful to you.

The Literature Review Process

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What is a Literature Review?

  • Can be a stand alone text or part of a larger work
  • Can be one of the first sections of an academic paper or article

The Functions of a Literature Review:

  • Should not be aimless or entire summary
  • Must be relevant summary
  • Summarizes and organizes each work’s ideas around a specific topic or argument
    • Organizes and synthesizes
    • Includes a critical analysis of the relationship among different texts with an eye to your paper’s argument or purpose
  • Features current relevant literature

How to Write a Literature Review (redacted and adapted from “Guidelines for writing a literature review” by Helen Mongan-Rallis. at http://www.duluth.umn.edu/~hrallis/guides/researching/litreview.html)

  1. Write in proper format (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)
  1. Decide on a topic
  1. Identify the literature for review
    1. Use relevant databases
    2. Redefine topic as needed
    3. Include classic studies in your field and/or those relevant to your topic
    4. Import literature into RefWorks or similar sources management software (check your institution’s library website)
  1. Analyze and categorize the literature (skim the articles, especially the abstracts).
    1. Identify key words, patterns, strengths and weaknesses as they relate to/support your topic
    2. Identify key quotes
    3. Evaluate for currency: depending on your field, literature should be no older than 5-10 years but can include classic studies prior to this if they are relevant to your topic.
  1. Synthesize
    1. Identify the topic or problem but avoid generalizations
    2. Early on, indicate why the topic being discussed is important
    3. Organize the works around this topic—include most relevant studies first
    4. Indicate why certain studies are important, incomplete or problematic but only if their information is substantively related to your topic
    5. Highlight and organize findings around their relevance to your topic
    6. Indicate why the time frame is important
    7. If using a classic study or studies indicate why their inclusion is important or relevant
  1. Organize the body of the Lit Review
    1. Include an overview and the purpose at the beginning (intro and thesis)
    2. Mention what will and won’t be covered and why (part intro and possibly thesis)
    3. Organize your review so that the works included logically support the thesis—though all works include should be important and relevant, further organize thesis from least to most relevant
    4. Use transitions and subheadings if needed (i.e. for longer papers)
    5. Include a conclusion

 

What is a Literature Review?

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A literature review identifies, summarizes and synthesizes the previously published work on your subject of interest.  Your synthesis is key in providing new interpretations of the studies, demonstrating gaps, or discussing flaws in the existing studies.  The literature review can be organized by categories or in the order of your research questions/hypotheses.

While you have been including literature reviews in your research papers and collecting citations for your dissertation, the literature review for a grant proposal is shorter and includes only those studies that are essential in showing your study’s importance.

When you are the researcher:

                The literature review establishes your credibility to conduct the study in your grant proposal.  It indicates your knowledge of the subject and how your study fits into the larger realms of your discipline.

When you are the reader:

                The literature review benefits you as the reader by providing an overview of the subject of interest and describing current research.  This can be very helpful at the exploration stage when you are developing your ideas.  Literature reviews are written in a formal, distinctive style which you will absorb as you read and be able to replicate more easily when you write.  When you are near the end of your library research, the literature review might be helpful in determining how thorough you have been.  You will know if you have included all relevant studies.

Research Paper Guide

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Research Paper Guide

Paper Structure

  1. Introduction
  2. Literature Review
  3. Methods
  4. Results
  5. Conclusions and Recommendation
  6. Bibliography
  7. Appendices – if applicable

Using a Binder

Using binder to organize your project is a good practice. You can make a binder with sections based on the contents listed above will make it easier to track your work and keep on task. You can print out all the articles that you read and place them in the binder. You can also put your notes that you take while reading the literature.

Introduction: Research Problem & Purpose

The most important step in the research process is to identify a problem which can be analyzed. You might identify a problem in the policy or administrative setting, such as the implementation of a training program, the formulation or implementation of a strategic plan, an analysis of public perceptions of the agency, etc. It is important that you select a problem that is researchable. This means that it is possible to learn more about the problem by gathering evidence. Evidence might come in the form of statements made by experts, or responses to a survey, or from the analysis of documents that the organization has produced.

After identifying a problem to study, you will then set forth a research purpose. For example, a research purpose might be stated in the following example. The purpose of this research is to explore the barriers to the implementation of a body camera program in the Miami police department. The research purpose is a critical element in the paper because it serves to organize all the other activities of the paper.

Literature Review

Students are required to conduct a thorough literature review of the existing research relevant to the topic at hand. The literature review should include around 10 sources. The review of the literature will help identify existing information on a topic. The literature review will also assist the student in identifying more refined research questions, categories, or practices. The literature review must contain secondary academic literature, or authoritative sources of knowledge on the topic. The literature review is not a place for blogs, editorial pieces, or Wikipedia articles. The literature review demonstrates your ability to understand social science research and to synthesize this research given your research questions.

Methods

The student will specify the empirical methods by which the problem will be analyzed. In the administrative setting, the most common type of empirical method of data collection is through structured or semi-structured Interviews of experts. Structured interviews have questions that have been derived through the literature review and specified explicitly before the interview takes place. This means that you will specify the questionnaire in your paper, and you will detail the rationale for each question. Documents are also an important source of evidence. Researchers might gather documents produced in an organization that have policies or procedures. Documents also might include IRS forms or legal statutes. You might also look at how budget figures have changed over time, or whether the benefits of the particular program justify the costs. Survey research is also a very common method of data collection. Much like an interview, surveys are structured questionnaires that are distributed to many individuals.

Analysis & Results

The analysis section of the paper will include the results of the empirical research. This section is relatively free of judgment and is often a structured presentation of the results of the analysis. For example, the results of multiple interviews will be summarized by key themes or recurring response. The results of a survey will be presented in terms of descriptive statistics, for example, the average response to an item, or the comparison of averages between groups. It is important to conceptualize the results in terms of the research questions, where you show explicitly how the results address the question. Scholars often use rubrics or tables to organize their results. For example, one column may have the question, and an adjacent column has the results.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This section will provide an interpretation of the results in light of the original research questions. It will help to interpret the results given a set of ideals about what appears to be good or bad policy making or implementation. This is the section where judgment or normative evaluation comes into play. The previous results section simply presents the results in a neutral manner, while this section will interpret the results according to a policy paradigm, or in terms of some bigger picture set of beliefs or ideals regarding policy. Finally, the recommendations section will present a parsimonious set of policy specific recommendations. These are to be targeted at specific characteristics of a program or a policy, not blanket proclamations that are impossible to implement. Ask yourself, if there only a few ideas that I wish to be implemented, what would they be, and what would be the most basic way to convey the ideas.