Developing the Study

Wildemuth:

Research Question: A research question is a guiding factor in what you research and how you research it.  It is a clear statement that you can build your study around.  Having a clear research question can also help when having to request and justify funding.

Hypothesis: This is typically a statement that the researcher assumes to be true, or in other words, a question that we think we already know the answer to. Often a hypothesis is assuming the relationship between two variables.

Williamson:

Problem Statement: The problem statement states the major questions in full grammatical sentences that the researcher is trying to answer through either quantitative or qualitative research.

Sub-questions: The act of creating sub-questions when researching helps to break down research into smaller pieces, often making it more manageable for the researcher.  All sub-questions should be a part of and relate directly back to the larger research question.

Patten:

Case Study 14:

Strict Replication (of a study): A strict replication of a study is where a researcher decided to conduct a study that has already been done in the exact manner it was done before (in regards to the major and important parts of the study).  When doing this, the researcher is attempting to see whether or not the same results will be achieved.

Modified Replication (of a study): A modified replication of a study is where a researcher modifies certain aspects of a study that has already been conducted to see what differences in results will be found.

Case Study 15:

Sociofile: A digital source that has copies of the print versions of Sociological Abstracts  as well as Social Planning/Policy and Development Abstracts.

Record: In regards to a journal article, the record contains  fields with information about the article.

Case Study 16:

Topic-by-topic description (or relevant research): The topic-by-topic description of relevant research contains the subheadings  necessary to help a reader delve into a long literature review.

Steps to a Literature Review:

·      Name the broad problem

·      Discuss why the problem is important

·      Write the topic-by-topic description of the relevant research

·      Discuss the results of the relevant research

·      Summarize the literature review

Pyrczak:

Abstracts: An abstract to a study should describe the purpose, highlight the research methodology, mention the important parts of the results, discuss any theories involved and avoid any references to future research.

Literature Reviews: A research review should identify the problem and why it’s important, discuss any theories involved, have subsections when necessary, define key terms when necessary, have citations for “factual” statements, and have the hypotheses or research questions logically in the introductory material.