Literature Reviews (including using theory and writing H/RQ) and Paper Structure
Outcomes: Your goals for this first unit should be to:
January 11th
Literature Review: Rubric
Review one or two of these sources:
Purdue OWL - brief description of parts of literature review and how to write one
Scribbr - explanation of literature review with detailed steps on the process
UC San Diego - steps of literature review with explanation
Sample communication literature review
Be able to answer these questions before you begin your literature review
1. What should you gain from doing a literature review?
2. What should your reader gain from reading your literature review?
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January 25th Goals:
- articulate what a theory is
- explain how a theory can inform/shape your research
- apply the evaluation criteria to a theory
- articulate the difference between a H and RQ
- be able to write a clear, useful H and R
Theories
Review at least two of these sources, including criteria to evaluate a theory and EVT video.
Six roles theory plays in research
The role of theory in your research project - nice ten minute video of what theory is and how it informs your research and your research paper
Six criteria to evaluate a theory
Consider this three minute introduction to EVT.
Be able to answer these questions before class:
3. How well does EVT meet the six criteria (be prepared to explain your evaluation based on your assigned criteria):
- theoretical scope - Raphael
- apropriateness - Cassie
- heuristic value - Jeff
- validity - Derby
- parsimonious - Lindsay
- openness - Sam
4. How could theory help my research?
5. Is there a theory that others use when researching this topic that would be helpful for my research?
Hypothesis or Research Question?
Review both of the videos and at least one of the other sources:
What's the difference between a Hypothesis and a Research Question? - 2.5 minute video explaining the difference between these
How do I write an effective hypothesis? - 3.5 minute video explaining how to write an effective hypothesis
More indepth explanations including the differences between qualitative and quantitative RQs/H
Writing a research question (RQ) and hypothesis (H) - from J.R. Cresswell's Research Design (2013) published by Sage
More information on writing a sound H - slide deck from Arizona State research course
Be able to answer these questions before class:
6. How do you choose whether to write a research question or a hypothesis?
7. Write a potential hypothesis or a research question for your qualitative paper.
Paper Structure
Be able to answer these questions before class:
8. What are the parts of the paper?
9. Why do we use APA formatting?
10. What purpose does the Introduction section have?
11. What's the difference between the information in the Results section and the Discussion section of the paper?