Paper Structure:
Research Study Summary: Your paper should begin with a short summary of the research study you selected. (50 words minimum to 100 words maximum)
This should be the first paragraph of the paper.
This should be only a single paragraph.
This should be a summary of the key points. Avoid going into so much detail that you lose sight of the big picture.
Explain the critical points of the study such as: the research question, the type of research design, the important details of what the researchers did, what is the target population, who was the sample, what did the participants have to do, and the general findings/results.
Exclude unnecessary details about the study (e.g., article title, author/researcher name, institution/location of research, number of participants, background information).
Example summary with relevant course terms underlined: “The researchers wanted to understand how well VR experiences replicate real-world fear responses. Using an experiment with a convenience sample of college freshman, participants were randomly assigned to a fear inducing activity that was either in VR or in-person. Participants then completed a survey about how much fear they felt during the activity. Results showed that participants in the VR experience demonstrated a relatively equal amount of fear during the activity as participants in the in-person activity, meaning in this study a VR activity was able to produce a realistic fear response when compared to the real-world.”
Critical Evaluation: Starting after the research study summary, write a critical evaluation of the research study. (350 words minimum to 400 words maximum)
This should include two parts (1) a thesis statement about your stance for or against the paper and (2) three claims that provide evidence in support of your stance.
(1) The thesis statement should be a stance for or against the research study. You are taking a stance that will either support the research study with 3 research-based advantages, or a stance against the research study with 3 research-based disadvantages. Your thesis statement identifies the topic, your stance, and your justification (the three claims you plan to explain).
The thesis statement should be the first sentence of your first paragraph in this critical evaluation section.
Example Thesis Statement, “The study examining the impact of meditation on PTSD (this is the TOPIC) was a strong study (this is the STANCE) because they (claim 1) included a control group, (claim 2) measured potential confounding variables, and (claim 3) used simple random assignments to assign participants the levels of the independent variable (this is the JUSTIFICATION aka 3 claims).”
(2) Your three advantages or disadvantages you list in your thesis are your claims. They will be topics from the Research Methods portion of our class. You will also want to use critical thinking (review that content from Week 1). These three claims need to be supported by evidence/explanation.
Each claim should be taken from the Research Methods lecture or reading. An example claim is the following about simple random sampling as a claim:
“One advantage of the research study from Brown and Sanchez (2020) was that they used a simple random sampling method to collect participants for their experiment. Their target population was Native American men who are Navy veterans recovering from PTSD. Because they coordinated with Veteran services to randomly select all participants in this population, every member of the population had an equal chance of being selected to participate. This ensured the the participants in the study represent the individuals in the target population. Overall, the results of the study will generalize to the target population because this method was used for sampling participants.”
In your critical evaluation, present clear evidence, based on the course readings and materials on either how the study is well supported or how the study could be improved. Note, this is not an opinion-based evaluation and should be grounded in the information from the course.
This critical evaluation section of the paper should be three paragraphs (1) the first paragraph is your thesis statement and about your first claim, (2) the second paragraph is about your second claim, and (3) your third paragraph is about your third claim.
You will use a separate paragraph for each of your 3 claims.
In the evaluation, don’t include opinion, personal stances, or use the word “I”.
Focus on using evidence from our “research methods” topic to make your claims.
If you are making points that the study is weak you might point out a small sample size, that participants weren’t blind to the study purpose, conclusions draw on incomplete evidence, or researchers claiming causation with correlational results.
If you are making points that the study is strong you might point out that random assignment was used, that an objective measure of an operationally defined variable was used, and that a representative sample for the population was used.
Conclusion: In a new paragraph, write a short conclusion summarizing your the paper (i.e., the research study, thesis statement, and claims). (50 word min to 100 word max)
Although the research study about paying employees for performance appeared to demonstrate that employees are more motivated by higher wages (), the study was weak () because of the small sample of 12 responses, it relied on supervisor opinions which don’t generalize to employee opinions, and it implied causation for correlational data. Based on this evidence we can see that the research does not meet a high quality of scientific rigor and the results are not dependable and should be considered cautiously.
Paper Format:
Use American Psychological Association (APA) Formatting style for your paper.
Include a separate APA formatted title page as the first page (must have a running head, a page number, paper title, you name, institution which would be San Francisco State University).
Do not list the course information, the assignment name, an author’s note, or any other details.
Include a separate APA formatted reference page as the last page with at least 1 reference for your research study.
If you choose to cite other references, only cite peer reviewed research articles.
Your paper should be typed in Times New Roman, size 12 font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins.
Submission Guidelines:
Review the grading rubric that will be used for grading this assignment.
Do not include quotes in your paper. All content should be paraphrased and cited using APA style in-text citations.
Don’t pose any questions in your paper. If you are using a question mark, you want to remove that sentence from your paper.
You are writing this paper for an academic audience. Speak as an objective scientist who is focusing on the facts and avoid creative writing techniques.
Use simple and direct language. Focus on being concrete and factual.
Focus on using relevant terms from the course materials.
Build structure into your paper (go from broad content to specific content aka the funnel method).
Use complex sentences of simple sentences.
Use active voice.
Write with 5 sentence paragraphs (Topic sentence, 3 supporting sentences [might be 1 supporting sentence in some instances], concluding/transitions sentence).
