Principles of Research and Academic Writing

:  Your research project

1. Develop a research question you want to analyze. State a corresponding relational hypothesis.
2. On the basis of at least three academic sources (at least 1 book, 1 journal or newspaper and 1 internet source), illustrate the current state of the literature. This review must include at least one quotation of > 40 words and one of < 40 words.
3. Define a target audience for the project.
4. Choose an appropriate research design. Describe how to apply the design to your research question.
5. Describe what population and what kind of sample you used. Choose a sampling method and describe how you apply it.
6. Choose a data collection method. It must be one of the following:
7. Structured interview
8. Self-completion questionnaire
9. Structured observation
10. Design the necessary tools you need to apply your research method:
11. A questionnaire for the structured interview
12. A questionnaire for the self-completion questionnaire
13. An observation schedule for the structured observation

Include the completed questionnaires in the appendix. (A questionnaire should have at least 10 questions and an observation schedule at least 10 items).

8. Make at least 5 observations about the data collected. Sketch the main findings roughly. Depict the results of at least one item (answers to one question or one category of the observation) graphically.
9. Answer the research question and evaluate your hypothesis based on your findings.

Formal requirements:

• The report should include a title page, a table of contents, a reference list with all references used and an appendix.
• Your research report should be 2,500 words in length (not including, cover page, TOC, appendices).
• Follow the APA rules concerning style and format.
• Do not carry out research on students from your own class.

Evaluation criteria:

The CE is worth 50% of the total grade (and the final test thus 50% as well)

Evaluation:

• Clarity and relevance of your research question and hypothesis
• Quality of literature review
• Choice and description of methodology
  • research approach
  • population and sample, sampling method
  • quality of research tool [questionnaire or observation schedule]
• Presentation and analysis of main findings
  • discussion of findings
  • graph(s)
  • convincing answer to RQ and judgment about the research hypothesis
• Structure, form, layout
• Language, precision, clarity, grammatical correctness

Due at (almost) end of the course