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Instructions for the Research Paper
First of all, your semester paper is going to be a research paper. This is not an essay where you take a position on something. Be very clear about that.
What you will be doing is very close to an academic literature review. The purpose of a literature review is discussed on page 10 of your APA manual. There are many web sites discussing literature reviews available and your librarians are always willing to help. You will find these useful.
For this class, I want you to focus on these four issues. I will expect them to be the four major sections of your final paper, identified by headings.
1. Define and clarify the research question.
2. Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of research
3. Identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies you see in the research.
4. Suggest the next research step or steps, if any, that should be taken based on the above (note that I did not say action steps).
I hope everyone has around 35 good sources. Remember that good sources are previously-published, peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals presenting research results -- or in a good study conducted and published by a government agency.
Also remember that people\'s opinions, no matter how distinguished they may be, are not research results -- and that you want to use APA manuscriipt format.
I know the above is just repeating things I\'ve already told you, but I thought a reminder would be useful.
I\'ll use a marking template that grades the sections of the paper with the following weightings:
• Clarify the issue and its importance: 15%
• Summarize previous investigations and research: 25%
• Identify relations, contradictions, gaps, & inconsistencies in the research: 35%
• Identify further research needed: 15%
• APA format, spelling, grammar: 10%
Don\'t make the mistake of simply taking something you already feel passionate about and disguising it as a question you\'re going to research; the odds of you being objective in your research are probably not very good. The temptation to seek out evidence that supports our existing beliefs is always there, and a one-sided or biased paper will receive a poor grade.
Sections 2, 3, & 4 above are what you will be working on during the semester. Just as your research question asked \"What does the research say about....?\", your paper should tell us \"The research on this question says...\" and, after analysis, go on to suggest further needed research.
Example: A student wants to do a paper on \"What does the research say about the best job evaluation plan to use worldwide?\" Consider the variables, in terms of the different possible JE plans, the number of countries, and the level of employees the JE might be used for. How could one possibly answer that question? Wouldn\'t it make more sense to look at something like, \"What does the research say about the best job evaluation plan to use for clerical employees in Canada?\" There you at least have a chance. In fact, that could even be too narrow and you can broaden your topic a bit.
Another error, particularly for research paper, is to pick a topic that, in effect, already assumes what the outcome should be. (This is a bit of a reach, but it\'s not unlike asking somebody if they\'re still beating their spouse.)
Example: A student wants to do a paper titled, \"What does the literature say about the positive effects of diversity on organizations?\" Now granted, we all know as a generalization that diversity is good. But with that topic, you\'ve just eliminated any literature that indicates otherwise, because you won\'t be looking for it. There might be studies out there that indicate there are unique settings and situations where diversity is not the answer. A good literature review will include these, if they exist. You\'re more likely to find them if your question is simply \"What does the literature say about the effects of diversity of organizations?\" That would still be pretty broad, so you might want to narrow further; \"What does the literature say about the effects of diversity on employee relations in organizations? Or on business results? You might start even narrower, for example with a specific industry, and then broaden if you can\'t find sufficient research.
So to summarize to this point, two key points:
1. Don\'t make your topic/question so broad you can\'t possibly do it justice.
2. Don\'t let your opinion on an issue reflect your question; the issue is what does the existing research tell us? Again, this is not an essay where you take a position and defend it.
The Research
The first question that comes to mind is, \"In this context, what qualifies as research?\" Let\'s start by looking at a few things that do not qualify. Calling a few of your friends is not research. Asking your boss for his or her opinion is not research. Joe Consultant\'s opinion expressed on his web site is not research. Articles in practitioner journals are not research. Just typing your question in Google is not research (although Google Scholar might be useful).
In this context, \"research\" generally means that someone (probably in academia or a government agency) did a thorough, well-designed study and produced some credible, data-driven, findings. These findings are usually published in articles in peer-reviewed journals, or by government agencies. The librarians can help guide you to these.
The second question is usually \"How many articles do I have to have?\" The third question is usually \"How many pages does it have to be?\" Here is what instructions to faculty (the guidelines I have to follow) say:
Assignments incorporate graduate-level research (library and other sources). Note: Typical individual term papers should be between 15-18 pages of text. To help students understand the magnitude involved, they should estimate an average of 2 references per page. If you don\'t use a standard term paper, please be sure your assignments require students to research the equivalent number of scholarly sources (30-36). That is about 3 per week.
We try to bound your research question in the proposal, so you won\'t be swamped by data or not able to find enough. Don\'t submit a paper based on 3 or 4 sources. If you can\'t find more than that with the library\'s help, we need to change your topic right away. That\'s why it\'s critical to start your research immediately
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