Activity: How to Read a Research Report & Create an Outline
Activity: How to Read a Research Report & Create an Outline
Activity: How to Read a Research Report & Create an Outline
Instructions: Now, pick an article and follow the 4 steps outlined above to answer the questions below. As you answer the questions, use the prompts to move on to the next step.
(Step 1)
1) What is the title and date of publication?
2) What journal is it published in? Is it peer-reviewed?
3) Who is the first author? Where are they from?
4) What is the research hypothesis?
5) Did the main findings support or challenge the research hypothesis?
(Step 2)
6) Is the study theory driven? If so, is the theory clearly explained? (for future reference, jot down the theory)
7) Did the literature review provide the necessary support for the study? Make a diagram explaining how past findings led to the current study (if you think you’ll want to read a cited article, jot down the first author and year for future reference)
Example:
Marsh (1987)
Stimulant Medications for treating ADHD improve attention
Hughes (1981)
Attention Deficits in ADHD
Dilbert (2002)
Extended-Release Medications for treating ADHD
Pitts (1996)
Short-Term Effectiveness of Stimulant Medications w/ ADHD
Q: would new, extended-release mediations be more effective for treating attentional deficits?
Current Issue
8) Is this study a systematic replication or extension of previous work, or is it an entirely novel or exploratory approach?
9) How do the results relate to the findings reported in the introduction? Support, extend, or challenge?
10) Are there any significant limitations mentioned? Should others have been noted?
11) Why are the results important to the field? (If they weren’t it wouldn’t be published)
(Step 3)
12) What was the population group in the study? Summarize the key characteristics (e.g., recruitment approach, sample size, key demographic characteristics and elimination criterion).
13) How would you categorize the methods? Experimental or non-experimental, quantitative or qualitative, nomothetic or idiographic, factorial design?
14) What was the study design? (single-subject or group design, longitudinal or cross sectional, within or between participant manipulation of independent variables (IVs))
15) Were the IVs operationally defined? List the IV(s) and operational definition(s).
16) If present, how were ethical issues addressed?
17) How were the dependent measures recorded? Did this directly relate to the operational definition of the IV(s)?
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(Step 4)
18) Well, what were the main results?
19) If applicable, did the tables and/or figures help you understand the results? If so, write down the table or figure number.
20) Overall, did you have trouble understanding the results? How would you have conveyed the findings better?
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.