Rationale for Research Project

8/12/2019 Rationale for Research Project

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IRE2002Y 2006-2006 Radhakrishnan

Rationale for Your Research Project (15%)

This assignment encourages you to develop your skills in inquiry. That is, it gives you an

opportunity to learn and deonstrateyour skills in describing aphenomenon ofinterest, definingconcepts to study that phenomenon, and in making argumentsfor and

against expecting the phenomenon to occur. Follow the steps provided and answer the

questions below as best as you can in the assignment to demonstrate these skills.

Unlike other courses written assignments, this assignment does not have any page limit

nor stylistic requirements. nstead, it requires you to devote your attention to developing

content. will assess you on how well you can convey your descriptive, definitional andargumentative skills via writing

!teps to follow

. To demonstrate good writing, you will need to read good writing. The first step for you

to take before you attempt completing this assignment is to gather good articles. Thisclass provides you with a session and assignment on library research skills that will

enable you to gather good research articles.

. "nce you have gathered good research articles, the second step is to select parts that

you will write about in your paper. The first thing you will have to select is your

hypothesis. #gain, this class provides you with an assignment to help you generate a

good hypothesis, namely one that is not too broad or not too narrow.

. #fter selecting the hypothesis, you will then have to describe the studies that supportand do not support that hypothesis. $hen describing a study, you will have to not onlyreport the relevant result of the study as it pertains to your chosen hypothesis, but also the

relevant context in the finding was reported. !ay for instance, your hypothesis is that

happy people are more productive than are unhappy people. !o you describe an empiricalstudy %lets call it !tudy &' that supports this hypothesis. (owever, the assignment also

requires that you find at least one empirical study that does not support your hypothesis.

!o you describe another study %say !tudy )' that demonstrates that happy people were

less productive than unhappy people. *ow to make sense, you will have to write aboutthe similarities and differences between the studies to help me understand why these two

studies find such different results. Therefore, to demonstrate good writing skills you will

have to learn how to describe relevant and specific details about a study.

+. "nce you start describing the evidence you will realie that you need to define the

terms used in the research. Thus it becomes important to gather research articles that helpyou in defining the concepts. These articles may not specifically describe evidence that

supports or does not support your hypothesis, but they are useful nonetheless. !o do not

hesitate to do read and research further so that you are better able to explain what the

terms mean.


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+. #fter you have described the evidence and defined the terms the next writing task for

you to do is explain the evidence for and against the hypothesis. -oing back to theexample of the hypothesis that happy people are more productive, explaining in this case

involves writing why happy people are more productive. s it because happy people are

more motivated and this increased motivation makes them more productive "r is itbecause happy people get more help from others which makes them more productive

These are two possible explanations for why happy people are more productive. /our

writing task is to write about these explanations and use the research articles you read assupport for these explanations. #fter explaining why happy people are more productive,

you also have to explain why there is at least one empirical study suggesting that they are

not more productive.

+. 0emember that after you have completed the writing tasks required of the first writing

assignment, go back and read what you wrote. 1nsure you have organied the material to

flow logically from one part to another.

1ngaging in these three writing tasks of description, definition, and argumentation should

help you think critically about a particular hypothesis. This is exactly what theassignment is promotes and what has been shown to improve writing quality %(illocks,

&234'. "nce you have submitted the assignment, you will get feedback on the quality of

your writing in terms of your skill in description, definition and argumentation. /ou willalso get feedback on the quality of the research material you read5described to generate

the writing content you did.

6uestions to #nswer

&. $hat is the practical and theoretical significance of the phenomenon chosen for

study $hy is the chosen phenomenon important for theory and practice in 05(0$hy does it interest you 7ite relevant popular and academic sources while 8ustifying

your choice.

). 9escribe the phenomenon: what is the two;variable hypothesis Focus your proposalon the relationship between two key variables. /ou will have an opportunity to

describe additional control variables in your section of your final report

and discuss the impact of other %unmeasured' variables on your chosen phenomenon

in the section of your final report. (owever, for the proposal you shouldnarrow down to two key variables.

?. 9iscuss how the chosen phenomenon is similar to #*9 different from another,

closely; related, phenomenon. That is, using academic sources define each variable inyour hypothesis outlining how each is similar to #*9 different from a variable that it

is commonly mistaken for.

4. 9escribe the empirical research %cite at least ) empirical studies found in academicsources' supporting the hypothesis. $hen @ where is the phenomenon exhibited

-ive only relevant and sufficient details of the research.

A. $hy @ how does the empirical research support the hypothesis $hat reasons did

you find in your readings of previous research for why the hypothesis is supported in


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this research /ou can also give reasons not considered by the current literature for

why the hypothesis is supported after adequately reviewing existing literature.

B. 9escribe the empirical research %cite at least one empirical found in academic sourcesstudy' supporting the counter hypothesis. $hen and where is the phenomenon not

exhibited -ive only relevant and sufficient details of the research.

C. $hy @ how does the empirical research support the counter;hypothesis $hatreasons did you find in your reading of previous research for why the hypothesis is

not supported. /ou can also give reasons not considered by the current literature for

why the hypothesis is supported after adequately reviewing existing literature3. Dased on your answers to B @ C above, why might the hypothesis you propose not be

supported

#dditional nstructions

&. Use only a staple to fasten your slides %no heavy binder clips, cerlox etc. due to weight

considerations'

).$rite your name%s', student ids and on your submission?. 9ouble;spaced lines, character sie is at least &) point font, &> margins on all sides

4. Erovide adequate information about the source %i.e., title of 8ournal, issue, volume,page number, year, author, and title of article' as footnotes, endnotes, reference section,

or in the body of the text so source quality can be 8udged.

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Rationale for Research Project