March 16, 2023

Week 3 – Assignment: Create a Purpose Statement Top of Form ?? Hide Folder Information ? Instructions ? Your assignment is to create a purpose of the study by ??indi

Week 3 – Assignment: Create a Purpose Statement

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Instructions

Your assignment is to create a purpose of the study by indicating the intent, goal, and rationale for researching the problem addressed in last week’s assignment. The purpose statement should begin with “The purpose of this (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) study is to…” Use the following list to create the purpose statement:

Study method
Study design
Constructs/variables
Target population
Research setting
Sampling frame
Sampling method
Sample size (Justified by scholarly sources and a power analysis for quantitative studies)
Data collection method (including instrumentation)
Data analysis method
Software to be used for analysis
Closing statement as to how the study results may inform educational theory

Length: Approximately 1 page, not including title and reference pages

Your purpose be directly aligned with the problem statement. Your purpose statement should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.

Week 4 – Assignment: Develop Research Questions

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Instructions

Your assignment is to draft two or more research questions. These questions can be either qualitative or quantitative or a mixture of both.

Qualitative: Research questions must be aligned with the purpose statement. Qualitative research questions should be open-ended and reflect the nature of the qualitative design (avoid yes/no and closed-ended questions).

Quantitative: Research questions must be aligned with the purpose statement and should include proposed hypothesis(es). Ensure the research questions and hypothesis(es) are aligned with the purpose statement. The research questions and hypotheses must be directly answerable, specific, and testable based on the data collected.

Hypotheses
(Quantitative/Mixed Studies Only)

Both null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses should be stated. Each must directly correspond with a research question. Hypotheses must be stated in testable, potentially negatable, form with each variable operationalized. Note: Each hypothesis represents one distinct testable prediction. Upon testing, each hypothesis must be entirely supported or entirely negated.

Length: 1 page, not including title page (reference page not required)

Your research questions should be directly aligned with the purpose statement. Your research questions should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards where appropriate. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy..

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Week 5 – Assignment: Integrate Feedback

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This assignment will be submitted to Turnitin™.

Instructions

Your assignment is to combine the problem statement, purpose statement, and research questions into a single document and apply all requested changes and integrate improvements based on feedback from your professor.

Length: 2-3 pages, not including title and reference pages

Your work should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.

Upload your assignment using the Upload Assignment button below.

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Sage Research Methods

Encyclopedia of Research Design

Author: Michael A. Lewkowicz

Pub. Date: 2012

Product: Sage Research Methods

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288

Methods: Confidence intervals, Dependent variables, Sample size, Correlation, Independent variables, Null

hypothesis

Disciplines: Anthropology, Business and Management, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Communication

and Media Studies, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Economics, Education, Geography, Health, History,

Marketing, Nursing, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Social Policy and Public Policy,

Social Work, Sociology, Technology, Medicine

Access Date: March 15, 2023

Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.

City: Thousand Oaks

Online ISBN: 9781412961288

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288

A purpose statement is a declarative statement that summarizes a research project's main goal or goals. A

purpose statement provides some guidance in establishing a research question and serves as an introduction

to the resultant paper or dissertation chapter.

Developing the Purpose Statement

At the beginning of a research project, it is helpful for the researcher to use a declarative sentence to state

the main goal or goals of the project in specific terms. Statements that begin with the phrase “I wish to learn

…” or “I plan to examine …” can be helpful insofar as they can move the topic's abstract notions to a con-

crete research question, which is the springboard for the resultant research design. Furthermore, a purpose

statement can ground the researcher, providing a point of reference to which the researcher may return, par-

ticularly as the study increases in complexity. However, this does not imply that the purpose statement is final,

because the researcher may revise the statement as needed. If external factors such as unavailability of rel-

evant data force the researcher to make substantial changes to his or her research design, he or she may

want to update the purpose statement to reflect those changes.

Using the Purpose Statement

In addition to serving as a catalyst for the underlying research project, a purpose statement can be worked

into subsequent papers or dissertation chapters derived from the project. Always near the end of the introduc-

tion, a purpose statement states the paper's intent, scope, and direction. Specifically, it provides for an abbre-

viated preview of the paper's main topic, while avoiding a discussion of the author's specific conclusions.

In research papers, purpose statements often start with phrases such as “This paper examines …,” “The main

purpose of this study is to …” or “The aim of this article is to Purpose statements should be specific and pre-

cise, and should avoid vague, ambiguous, or confusing language. This ensures that there is no doubt in the

reader's mind as to the research project's intended direction.

Introductions: Purpose Statements versus Thesis Statements

A purpose statement also serves as the foundation for a thesis statement, which provides assertions about

the topic at hand and summarizes the author's conclusions. Unlike a purpose statement, a thesis statement

provides a cursory answer to the question and is developed after the researcher has gathered evidence,

which is presented in the body of the research paper.

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Sage Research Methods

Page 2 of 4 Encyclopedia of Research Design

The decision to use a thesis statement in the introduction is determined by the underlying norms of the spe-

cific discipline, as well as the author's preferences. In some cases, the author may simply state the paper's

intended purpose at the outset, delaying the discussion of any results until the end of the paper. At the very

least, a research paper introduction should provide a discussion of the research question and some informa-

tion about how the author intends to explore the question, even if the answers are not presented until the

conclusion.

Examples of Thesis and Purpose Statements

Ineffective purpose statement #1: “This paper examines the impact of elites upon elections.” It is unclear

about what types of elites, what types of elections, or even which potential electoral effects the researcher

intends to examine.

Effective purpose statement #1: This paper examines the extent to which public endorsements by political

elites shape electoral participation, particularly in proposition elections where the traditional information short-

cut of partisanship is absent.”

Thesis statement #1: Elite cues help increase electoral participation because they provide information short-

cuts to potential voters who may not be fully informed about the details of a given electoral contest.”

Ineffective purpose statement #2: “This paper examines changes to election laws.” In addition to being non-

specific as to what types of election laws are being examined, it is unclear as to whether the author is exam-

ining the sources of those changes, or the potential impact of those changes.

Effective purpose statement #2: This paper examines the potential impact of the straight-ticket voting option

upon electoral down-ballot outcomes.”

Thesis statement #2: Although Illinois Republicans appeared to eliminate the straight-ticket option in 1997

for partisan reasons, evidence suggests that Democrats might have actually benefitted from this ballot format

change.”

Michael A.Lewkowicz

Further Readings

Popper, K.(1959).The logic of scientific discovery.New York: Basic Books.

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288

SAGE

Sage Research Methods

Page 4 of 4 Encyclopedia of Research Design

https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyc-of-research-design/n383.xml

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288

Sage Research Methods
Encyclopedia of Research Design

Developing the Purpose Statement
Using the Purpose Statement
Introductions: Purpose Statements versus Thesis Statements
Examples of Thesis and Purpose Statements
Further Readings

Sage Research Methods Video

Why Is Coming Up With A Research Question So

Difficult?

Pub. Date: 2016

Product: Sage Research Methods Video

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526400116

Methods: Research questions, Planning research

Keywords: brainstorming, challenges, issues, and controversies, creativity and opportunities, gap problem,

idea generation, knowledge, maps, media coverage, prevalence, problem solving, reading (activity)

Disciplines: Anthropology, Business and Management, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Communication

and Media Studies, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Economics, Education, Geography, Health, History,

Marketing, Nursing, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Social Policy and Public Policy,

Social Work, Sociology, Science, Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine

Access Date: March 15, 2023

Publishing Company: SAGE Publications Ltd

Online ISBN: 9781526400116

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526400116

DR. ZINA O'LEARY: You'd be surprised how many people really are challenged by coming up with a

research question. It's actually an extremely difficult thing to do. So a lot of people think that research

starts with answering a research question. So when they can't come up with a question, they think,

oh my god, I can't even come up with a question. How am I ever going to do this research? But what

you have to understand is

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: that coming up with a research question is one of the most funda-

mental practices of doing research to begin with. So you have to be able to really think about what

a good question is. A good question– a question that's researchable, a question that can be done in

your time frame, a question that is valuable. So it is a really big challenge to come up with a question.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So research starts with question development. So there's a lot of

things that you can do to help you in the development of a researchable question. Things to think

about are opportunities and issues. So what's the problem situation? Most students who come to me

kind of know the area they want to research.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: They know the issue. They know the challenge. They know the thing

that they want to explore. It might be obesity. It might be something around health care. It might be

something around demographics. Whatever it might be, you have an idea. Now, there's two things

you can start to look at. One would be to look at the issues around this. What are the problems?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What are the things that come up for you that you want to fix? The

other thing you can do is start to look at opportunities. Where do you think research can help make

a situation better? So challenges and opportunities, issues and opportunities. Really start to explore

what it is around this space

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: that interests you, where you think research could help the situation.

So this means you can start thinking about what is already known about a situation. What is known

about the thing you want to study? Even more important, what needs to be known? Now, you're not

going to know what

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: needs to be known until you know what is known. And that means to

really understand where we are within a body of literature that explores a certain problem situation.

There's a couple things you can think about here. We can ask ourselves, do we need to know more

about the problem?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So let's say the problem is social-media bullying– bullying on Face-

book. How much do we know about the problem? How prevalent is the problem? What is the age

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Sage Research Methods Video

Page 2 of 5 Why Is Coming Up With A Research Question So Difficult?

group that's affected by the problem? What is the consequences of that problem? Is it a problem

that's only in rural areas or urban areas

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: or developing countries? So what do we need to know about the

problem itself? And maybe there's a lot already known about the problem situation. Maybe there's a

lot of data on the scope of the issue and the problem itself. But that's the place you start. Do we need

to know more about the problem? And maybe the problem is known. If the problem is known, then

you

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: can start thinking about questions around the solution. Well, how

do we begin to address this problem? What are the types of solutions that we can offer? What have

other people have done? Has there been some good strategies? Do we have good initiatives? Has

someone looked at some sort of education campaign in schools? Has someone worked with fami-

lies?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What are different communities doing? Has anything been instituted

at a policy level around social media? Social media not allowed in particular schools? There's so

many things that you might want to look at in terms of, well, how can we begin to look at this issue?

So that's a good place to come up with a question. All right.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So we've got all the questions related to your problem. And then

we have all the questions related to a potential solution. So two ways to start thinking about your

issue and your question development. The third is if a lot of people have looked at your issue, a lot

is known about the problem, a lot of solutions

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: are already been explored, and in fact people have started to look

at initiating these solutions, well then, some of the research questions you might come up with are

about evaluating those particular initiatives. So maybe a school has tried a particular campaign. You

can ask a question is, did it work?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: How well did it work? Could we do it different? Could it be initiated

it someplace else? How could we change it so that it's more effective? So lots of things you can do

in that space around evaluative research. So lots of different issues here. And one of the things that

you need to do when you're really having difficulty coming up

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: with a question is read. Reading is instrumental to the development

of a research question. And I don't just mean journal articles. We'll get to those in a minute, but

let's read. Let's think about what's in the media. And when I say read, I also mean watch TV, watch

YouTube. What's known about the situation? What is a hot topic?

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Sage Research Methods Video

Page 3 of 5 Why Is Coming Up With A Research Question So Difficult?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What is interesting to you? So really read broadly. And then as you

begin to get your interest, read more specifically. Then you can begin to turn to academic literature.

You can start to read about what other researchers have done. You have to remember that research

is about adding to a body of knowledge. You're not going to create all the knowledge in the world.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: You're just going to add to a body of knowledge. And to add to a

body of knowledge, you need to know what's in that body of knowledge. So you really do need to

read. What have researchers been working on? What have they been finding? Where are the gaps

and the holes in the literature? How can you fill in those spaces? What contribution might you be able

to make?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: Now, as you begin to read, you'll get a sense. And you realize, oh,

I can become a player in this game. No one's really looked at this question in this context. They've

never looked at it with this demographic. They've never looked at it for this age group. They've never

looked at it in relation to sexual bullying, whatever it might be. As you identify those gaps in the liter-

ature,

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: as you begin to identify some of the– maybe, the assumptions that

you don't buy into– there's going to be a whole scope for you to begin to develop a research ques-

tion. So some of the things you need to be thinking about as you're going through all the possibilities

of research is, is the question I'm starting to play with researchable?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: Can I actually gather the data that I'll need to answer that question,

because that's going to be critical. I guess it's an iterative process. You have a topic. You have a

research question that's starting to develop. And then you're going to read. And that's going to define

your ideas. And then you're going to come up with a more developed research

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: question. And then you're actually going to have some ideas for

how you're going to collect that data. And then you're going to think about your methods. And maybe

your methods will work or won't work or will be a challenge. And then you get to redefine the ques-

tion, which is going to make you read more. It's almost like this figure eight of going back and forth

between methods and reading and ideas

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: until you really form a question. And one of the best things you can

do is know that this is going to be a challenge, but know that you really can't progress too far without

this question. So talk to people. Get their ideas on what's going to be a good question for you.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: And it's essential because the research question is going to do so

much work for you. If you get a good research question, it gives you this sense of ease because

intuitively you will feel that you have direction. You will know where you're going. You'll know exactly

SAGE

Sage Research Methods Video

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Week 3 – Assignment: Create a Purpose Statement Top of Form ?? Hide Folder Information ? Instructions ? Your assignment is to create a purpose of the study by ??indi

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