As you develop your research proposal, the first step is to conduct literature research to learn more. In this assignment, you will find at least two scholarly articles via the Web of Science. You will use these articles to develop your research question and a hypothesis.
The assignment includes two major steps: Developing your research question and finding two scholarly articles about your research question.
Step 1a: Identify your outcome of interest (DV)
Select a social issue that interests you. This will be the “thing-to-be-explained” or dependent variable.
Name your outcome of interest (i.e., dependent variable)
Define your dependent variable (in your own words)
Explain why it is important to study.
(e.g., if your outcome of interest is “grazing behavior of the common mountain unicorn,” then briefly explain what you mean by that and why it’s important to study grazing behavior).
Step 1b. Identify a factor that shapes or predicts your outcome (IV)
Identify one factor that affects or explains your social issue. This is your key explanatory or independent variable.
Name your explanatory variable
Define your explanatory variable
(e.g., if your explanatory factor is “seasonal weather patterns,” then explain what you mean by that).
Step 1c. Formulate your Research Question (RQ)
State your research question. This question should link your dependent and independent variables. You can use the example below to develop your question. Be sure to pay attention to the direction of causality in your question!
How does X (independent variable) affect Y (dependent variable)? What is the effect of X on Y?
How do seasonal weather patterns affect the grazing behavior of the common mountain unicorn?
Step 2: Find two scholarly articles:
You can find your articles using the Web of Science or Sociological
Abstracts via the UNCC Atkins Library. The articles need to be peer-reviewed and related to your research question. They should also be empirical, using qualitative or quantitative data to answer a research question. See the instructions below for further information on what articles qualify and how to search. If you have trouble finding articles, contact our subject librarian, Bridgette Sanders (btsander@uncc.edu).
Focus on finding literature that helps you address the following questions:
General trends and prevalence of your “thing-to-be-explained” / key outcome.
Articles that define your concepts.
Articles that help you predict how your IV will affect your DV (i.e., articles that have examined this relationship before).
Save your articles as PDFs and upload a copy on Canvas.
Step 3. Describe the state of your outcome/ thing-to-be-explained / DV.
Briefly describe the current state of your dependent variable. Discuss recent trends or the overall prevalence of your phenomenon. If available, you can talk about recent statistics. By the end of this section, your reader should understand your thing-to-be-explained.
For instance, if you examine how a patient’s race affects the likelihood of medical misdiagnosis by a doctor, this section should explain how common misdiagnosis is and why that is a problem (regardless of the patient’s race).
Step 4: Describe and evaluate empirical evidence regarding the relationship between your IV and DV.
To develop your research expectations (i.e., hypotheses), you need to find out what other empirical studies have found. These empirical studies can be based on qualitative or quantitative data. Ideally, the articles have examined the relationship between your IV and DV. Sometimes, you can find studies with a similar question to yours, but if empirical studies are limited, you can draw on studies that look at related topics.
Write ~2 paragraphs in your lab describing the empirical research on your key research question. Talk about:
Summary of the findings: Have prior studies generally found a positive, negative, or no relationship between your key concepts?
Critical evaluation of the findings:
What type of data did these prior studies use? If your research articles come to contradicting conclusions, can differences in research methods explain that differences
Is the research missing anything, for instance, limited regarding the populations they look at?
Use in-text citations when referring to specific studies – we will grade you on the correct usage of in-text citations!
Step 5. Generate a complete list of references
For this assignment, you must cite specific scholarly work to describe your research problem (step 3) and discuss empirical evidence that informs your research hypothesis (step 4). You need to use in-text citations in these sections to indicate your sources.
Additionally, you must provide a full list of references at the end of your assignment. Use ASA style. Want to make your life easier? Usecitation software like Zotero, which you can download for free from Zotero.org.
What you need to hand in to complete the assignment:
A. A digital PDF copy of your 2 research articles.
B. Word Document with your description of your research question (steps 1a-1c), description of the research problem (step 3), and empirical findings (step 4). Your document must include in-text citations and a list of references (step 5).
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