Introduction: (3-5 pages)
This section should introduce the problem, review important literature, and identify unanswered questions that lead to your study questions and hypothesis. This will be a condensed version of what is typically required of an article introduction.
Introduce the Topic/Problem (1-2 paragraphs)
What is the issue under investigation? Why is the problem important?
Define any important key terms, concepts, or theories that are relevant.
How does the problem relate to your proposed project?
What is the study objective? (e.g., “The purpose of the current study is to examine….”)
Review Important Literature (4-5 paragraphs)
Discuss at least 5 peer-reviewed articles that help develop your project.
Discuss the literature briefly (what do they generally find) and in an integrative way; do not include an exhaustive review. Make sure that your literature review and background set up the rationale for your hypothesis.
Research Questions and Hypotheses (2 paragraphs)
What are the unanswered questions or limitations in the literature and how you plan to address these limitations with your own work?
What is your research question?
What are your hypotheses? What is the relationship between your variables?
Method: (2-3 pages)
This section should carefully explain the method you used to test your key question. Your description in the method section should be detailed enough that someone could run your study exactly the way you did. The entire method should be written in past verb tense.
Participants
How many participants were in the study? What are the demographics (or other relevant characteristics) of your sample?
How did you recruit your sample?
Design
How did you operationalize your variables?
What are your independent and dependent variables, and what are the levels of each?
Procedure & Materials
What did the participants do, in chronological order? How long did the study take?
What materials did you use? (Include exact details of scales, pictures, and equipment).
Results (1/2-1 page)
This section will present your statistical findings, including statistical significance and effect size. Include a figure (graph) or a table summarizing your data in APA format.
What analysis did you conduct?
What are the outcomes of your analysis (e.g., means, standard deviations, t values, p values, etc.)?
Discussion (3-4 pages)
This section will summarize your main findings, compare your findings with past literature, discuss the limitations of the study and recommendations for future research, and summarize the contributions of the study findings.
What were the main findings from your work? Was your hypothesis supported by the data?
How do your findings relate to past literature? Do they support or contradict past findings?
What are the limitations of your study? What are your recommendations for future research?
What major contributions did you study make to the literature?
