Although interesting, research can be time consuming and frustrating for students who have not done a research project before. As an upper level course, the standard for the finished product is high, as close to professional standard as possible. Allowances will be made for a lesser level of rigor in collecting data and/or analyzing it, but in every case the student should explain why they did not, or were not able to adhere to a higher standard (i.e. time, too large a scale, etc.) Some projects may be suitable for presentation at a conference (such as Southwest Social Science Conference in March 2001), or to send for publication.
In general, there are six steps to the project. Consultation with Instructor is essential at each stage.
1. Develop your Question: Select an area of interest. Develop your research question. The better and more clear the question, the better your research project will be. A good question will propel you through your research.
2. Literature Search: Find out what others have discovered about your questions. Each student needs at least ten sources from refereed journals. For this you will need to go to the Library DataBases. See information in the syllabus or on the Methods page. If our Library doesn't have the journals and the full text is not available in the data base, you will have to go to Inter-Library Loan and request them from another library. This process takes about two to four weeks, so be sure to allow enough time. If you need help in this process, Andy at the desk to the right of the circulation desk is ready to help you. In addition to your refereed sources, you may include other sources such as books, material from the Internet, or in depth news articles.
b. Once you have located your sources, read through them to find the pertinent information. You will not be interested in everything that is in the papers, only what pertains to your question. DO NOT WRITE A SUMMARY OF EACH SOURCE - ONLY INCLUDE THE INFORMATION THAT ADDRESSES YOUR QUESTION. Write a summary of the pertinent information that you found, giving an overview and background on your question that includes what researchers know about it at the moment.
c. When writing up the first part of your final paper (the Literature Search - which is due in October) be sure to include an introductory paragraph that explains what your research question is and why it is important. Why anyone should want to study it.
3. Plan your Study: Decide how you are going to collect your data. Who are you going to survey, interview, or observe? How many people will there be? What questions will you ask them? Be sure to make use of the information that you got from the Literature Search to ask the questions. For instance, if there is a controversy about some aspect of it, you will want to be sure to include a question about that aspect. Don't assume anything. If you collect too much information you can always not use it, but if there is important information that you forgot to get, it is hard or impossible to get the information later. Make up your survey, or interview question list.
b. BEFORE beginning to collect your data, let me go over your survey or question list. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL IT IS DUE TO GO OVER YOUR SURVEY OR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH ME. You will not have time to redo them at that point.
c. You will also need to fill out a Human Subjects Form to get approval for your project. This form is due in its final form by October 10. A copy of your survey or interview questions must accompany the Human Subjects Form. THIS IS A UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENT.
4. Collect your Data: Data collection should begin one week after turning in the Human Subjects Form. All data should be collected by the end of October.
5. Tabulate/Analyze the Data: You can do simple statistical analysis (percentages, etc), cross tab analysis, or correlations. What do the statistics indicate? Has your hypothesis been confirmed or denied? The statistical procedures should have been learned in your Statistics class. Use either SPSS - which is available in the Texas Wesleyan University computer labs, or STATA - a student version of which is included in the optional book for this class. The advantage of the latter is that you can load it on your computer at home, and do your analysis when it is convenient. At least part of the class on November 6 will be devoted to entering data, and data analysis. If you are using SPSS you will have learned how to use that program in your Statistics class. Please refer to your notes for that class. If you are using STATA, it is very similar to SPSS, but perhaps more user-friendly. I will be available to help you with STATA. If you are doing a qualitative study, it will not be necessary to analyze your data statistically, except to tabulate percentages, etc.
6. Write up the Project: Your completed paper consists of BOTH the Literature Search (which you completed in October) and the results of your data collection. There are seven sections to the final paper.
a. Introduction tells what your question is and why it is important. This can be one para, but should be thorough.
b. Literature Search tells what others have found out about your subject. Approximately four pages.
c. Methods section explains how you went about collecting your data and analyzing it. Please refer to material covered in the lecture and found in the text for details on what to include in this section. It should be one to two pages.
d. Findings tells what your data revealed. This is where you explain your statistical analysis of the data.
e. Conclusion explains what your results mean in the end. Was your original hypothesis supported? If not, why not? What ramifications do the results have for society?
f. Sources should be included in a clear manner. A suggested simple format is:
Author. Date. "Title of article." Title of Journal. Issue #, Volume number: page number.
Author. Date. Name of Book. Publisher location: Publisher.
g. Tables/Charts/Graphs are at the end. Be sure to discuss tables/charts/graphs verbally in the paper.
Final paper due in December.