Writing a research design
Of southern zing your social sciences research of research zing your social sciences research paper: types of research purpose of this guide is to provide advice on how to develop and organize a research paper in the social of research flaws to ndent and dependent ry of research terms. Choosing a research ing a topic ning a topic ing the timeliness of a topic idea. An oral g with g someone else's to manage group of structured group project survival g a book le book review ing collected g a field informed g a policy g a research beginning your paper, you need to decide how you plan to design the research design refers to the overall strategy that you choose to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring you will effectively address the research problem; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data. Note that your research problem determines the type of design you should use, not the other way around! L structure and writing function of a research design is to ensure that the evidence obtained enables you to effectively address the research problem logically and as unambiguously as possible. In social sciences research, obtaining information relevant to the research problem generally entails specifying the type of evidence needed to test a theory, to evaluate a program, or to accurately describe and assess meaning related to an observable this in mind, a common mistake made by researchers is that they begin their investigations far too early, before they have thought critically about what information is required to address the research problem. Without attending to these design issues beforehand, the overall research problem will not be adequately addressed and any conclusions drawn will run the risk of being weak and unconvincing. As a consequence, the overall validity of the study will be length and complexity of describing research designs in your paper can vary considerably, but any well-developed design will achieve the following:Identify the research problem clearly and justify its selection, particularly in relation to any valid alternative designs that could have been used,Review and synthesize previously published literature associated with the research problem,Clearly and explicitly specify hypotheses [i. Research questions] central to the problem,Effectively describe the data which will be necessary for an adequate testing of the hypotheses and explain how such data will be obtained, be the methods of analysis to be applied to the data in determining whether or not the hypotheses are true or organization and structure of the section of your paper devoted to describing the research design will vary depending on the type of design you are using. However, you can get a sense of what to do by reviewing the literature of studies that have utilized the same research design. This can provide an outline to follow for your own : to search for scholarly resources on specific research designs and methods, use the sage research methods database. The database contains links to more than 175,000 pages of sage publisher's book, journal, and reference content on quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methodologies. Also included is a collection of case studies of social research projects that can be used to help you better understand abstract or complex methodological vaus, d. New york: guilford, research tion and essentials of action research design follow a characteristic cycle whereby initially an exploratory stance is adopted, where an understanding of a problem is developed and plans are made for some form of interventionary strategy. Then the intervention is carried out (the "action" in action research) during which time, pertinent observations are collected in various forms. Is a collaborative and adaptive research design that lends itself to use in work or community focuses on pragmatic and solution-driven research outcomes rather than testing practitioners use action research, it has the potential to increase the amount they learn consciously from their experience; the action research cycle can be regarded as a learning research studies often have direct and obvious relevance to improving practice and advocating for are no hidden controls or preemption of direction by the these studies don't tell you? Is harder to do than conducting conventional research because the researcher takes on responsibilities of advocating for change as well as for researching the research is much harder to write up because it is less likely that you can use a standard format to report your findings effectively [i. Over-involvement of the researcher may bias research cyclic nature of action research to achieve its twin outcomes of action (e. Case study is an in-depth study of a particular research problem rather than a sweeping statistical survey or comprehesive comparative inquiry.
It is often used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one or a few easily researchable examples. The case study research design is also useful for testing whether a specific theory and model actually applies to phenomena in the real world. It is a useful design when not much is known about an issue or do these studies tell you? Researcher using a case study design can apply a variety of methodologies and rely on a variety of sources to investigate a research can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous scientists, in particular, make wide use of this research design to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of concepts and theories and the extension of design can provide detailed descriptions of specific and rare these studies don't tell you? Single or small number of cases offers little basis for establishing reliability or to generalize the findings to a wider population of people, places, or e exposure to the study of a case may bias a researcher's interpretation of the does not facilitate assessment of cause and effect information may be missing, making the case hard to case may not be representative or typical of the larger problem being the criteria for selecting a case is because it represents a very unusual or unique phenomenon or problem for study, then your intepretation of the findings can only apply to that particular studies. This type of research is used to measure what impact a specific change will have on existing norms and assumptions. Research designs assist researchers in understanding why the world works the way it does through the process of proving a causal link between variables and by the process of eliminating other ation is is greater confidence the study has internal validity due to the systematic subject selection and equity of groups being these studies don't tell you? Using a quantitative framework, a cohort study makes note of statistical occurrence within a specialized subgroup, united by same or similar characteristics that are relevant to the research problem being investigated, rather than studying statistical occurrence within the general population. In open cohort studies, researchers can only calculate rate based data, such as, incidence rates and variants cohort studies [static populations, such as patients entered into a clinical trial] involve participants who enter into the study at one defining point in time and where it is presumed that no new participants can enter the cohort. Research that measures risk factors often relies upon cohort e cohort studies measure potential causes before the outcome has occurred, they can demonstrate that these “causes” preceded the outcome, thereby avoiding the debate as to which is the cause and which is the analysis is highly flexible and can provide insight into effects over time and related to a variety of different types of changes [e. Studying the effects of one group exposed to asbestos and one that has not], a researcher cannot control for all other factors that might differ between the two groups. These factors are known as confounding studies can end up taking a long time to complete if the researcher must wait for the conditions of interest to develop within the group. This also increases the chance that key variables change during the course of the study, potentially impacting the validity of the to the lack of randominization in the cohort design, its external validity is lower than that of study designs where the researcher randomly assigns p, devane d. Sectional tion and -sectional research designs have three distinctive features: no time dimension; a reliance on existing differences rather than change following intervention; and, groups are selected based on existing differences rather than random allocation. The cross-sectional design can only measure differences between or from among a variety of people, subjects, or phenomena rather than a process of change. As such, researchers using this design can only employ a relatively passive approach to making causal inferences based on do these studies tell you? Sectional studies provide a clear 'snapshot' of the outcome and the characteristics associated with it, at a specific point in an experimental design, where there is an active intervention by the researcher to produce and measure change or to create differences, cross-sectional designs focus on studying and drawing inferences from existing differences between people, subjects, or s collecting data at and concerning one point in time. While longitudinal studies involve taking multiple measures over an extended period of time, cross-sectional research is focused on finding relationships between variables at one moment in identified for study are purposely selected based upon existing differences in the sample rather than seeking random -section studies are capable of using data from a large number of subjects and, unlike observational studies, is not geographically estimate prevalence of an outcome of interest because the sample is usually taken from the whole e cross-sectional designs generally use survey techniques to gather data, they are relatively inexpensive and take up little time to these studies don't tell you? People, subjects, or phenomena to study that are very similar except in one specific variable can be s are static and time bound and, therefore, give no indication of a sequence of events or reveal historical or temporal s cannot be utilized to establish cause and effect design only provides a snapshot of analysis so there is always the possibility that a study could have differing results if another time-frame had been is no follow up to the hem, jelke.
Tion and ptive research designs help provide answers to the questions of who, what, when, where, and how associated with a particular research problem; a descriptive study cannot conclusively ascertain answers to why. Descriptive research is used to obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena and to describe "what exists" with respect to variables or conditions in a do these studies tell you? Research is often used as a pre-cursor to more quantitative research designs with the general overview giving some valuable pointers as to what variables are worth testing the limitations are understood, they can be a useful tool in developing a more focused ptive studies can yield rich data that lead to important recommendations in h collects a large amount of data for detailed these studies don't tell you? Results from a descriptive research cannot be used to discover a definitive answer or to disprove a e descriptive designs often utilize observational methods [as opposed to quantitative methods], the results cannot be descriptive function of research is heavily dependent on instrumentation for measurement and tion and purpose. Blueprint of the procedure that enables the researcher to maintain control over all factors that may affect the result of an experiment. Experimental research is often used where there is time priority in a causal relationship (cause precedes effect), there is consistency in a causal relationship (a cause will always lead to the same effect), and the magnitude of the correlation is great. In so doing, it allows researchers to answer the question, “what causes something to occur? The researcher to identify cause and effect relationships between variables and to distinguish placebo effects from treatment mental research designs support the ability to limit alternative explanations and to infer direct causal relationships in the ch provides the highest level of evidence for single these studies don't tell you? Design is artificial, and results may not generalize well to the real artificial settings of experiments may alter the behaviors or responses of mental designs can be costly if special equipment or facilities are research problems cannot be studied using an experiment because of ethical or technical ult to apply ethnographic and other qualitative methods to experimentally designed s, jeane w. Slideshare tion and exploratory design is conducted about a research problem when there are few or no earlier studies to refer to or rely upon to predict an outcome. The focus is on gaining insights and familiarity for later investigation or undertaken when research problems are in a preliminary stage of investigation. Exploratory designs are often used to establish an understanding of how best to proceed in studying an issue or what methodology would effectively apply to gathering information about the goals of exploratory research are intended to produce the following possible insights:Familiarity with basic details, settings, and grounded picture of the situation being tion of new ideas and pment of tentative theories or ination about whether a study is feasible in the get refined for more systematic investigation and formulation of new research ion for future research and techniques get do these studies tell you? Is a useful approach for gaining background information on a particular atory research is flexible and can address research questions of all types (what, why, how). An opportunity to define new terms and clarify existing atory research is often used to generate formal hypotheses and develop more precise research the policy arena or applied to practice, exploratory studies help establish research priorities and where resources should be these studies don't tell you? Research generally utilizes small sample sizes and, thus, findings are typically not generalizable to the population at exploratory nature of the research inhibits an ability to make definitive conclusions about the findings. They provide insight but not definitive research process underpinning exploratory studies is flexible but often unstructured, leading to only tentative results that have limited value to lacks rigorous standards applied to methods of data gathering and analysis because one of the areas for exploration could be to determine what method or methodologies could best fit the research l, michael. Tion and purpose of a historical research design is to collect, verify, and synthesize evidence from the past to establish facts that defend or refute a hypothesis. Historical research design is unobtrusive; the act of research does not affect the results of the historical approach is well suited for trend ical records can add important contextual background required to more fully understand and interpret a research is often no possibility of researcher-subject interaction that could affect the ical sources can be used over and over to study different research problems or to replicate a previous these studies don't tell you? Ability to fulfill the aims of your research are directly related to the amount and quality of documentation available to understand the research historical research relies on data from the past, there is no way to manipulate it to control for contemporary reting historical sources can be very time sources of historical materials must be archived consistently to ensure access.
This may especially challenging for digital or online-only al authors bring their own perspectives and biases to the interpretation of past events and these biases are more difficult to ascertain in historical to the lack of control over external variables, historical research is very weak with regard to the demands of internal is rare that the entirety of historical documentation needed to fully address a research problem is available for interpretation, therefore, gaps need to be , martha c. For example, with longitudinal surveys, the same group of people is interviewed at regular intervals, enabling researchers to track changes over time and to relate them to variables that might explain why the changes occur. Longitudinal research designs describe patterns of change and help establish the direction and magnitude of causal relationships. Data facilitate the analysis of the duration of a particular s survey researchers to get close to the kinds of causal explanations usually attainable only with design permits the measurement of differences or change in a variable from one period to another [i. Data collection method may change over ining the integrity of the original sample can be difficult over an extended period of can be difficult to show more than one variable at a design often needs qualitative research data to explain fluctuations in the results. Longitudinal research design assumes present trends will continue can take a long period of time to gather is a need to have a large sample size and accurate sampling to reach s, jeane w. Tion and -analysis is an analytical methodology designed to systematically evaluate and summarize the results from a number of individual studies, thereby, increasing the overall sample size and the ability of the researcher to study effects of interest. The purpose is to not simply summarize existing knowledge, but to develop a new understanding of a research problem using synoptic reasoning. A well-designed meta-analysis depends upon strict adherence to the criteria used for selecting studies and the availability of information in each study to properly analyze their findings. And explicit acknowledgment of any researcher bias in the identification and selection of those studies;. Be an effective strategy for determining gaps in the es a means of reviewing research published about a particular topic over an extended period of time and from a variety of useful in clarifying what policy or programmatic actions can be justified on the basis of analyzing research results from multiple es a method for overcoming small sample sizes in individual studies that previously may have had little relationship to each be used to generate new hypotheses or highlight research problems for future these studies don't tell you? Cleveland clinic journal of medicine 75 (june 2008): tion and methods research represents more of an approach to examining a research problem than a methodology. Mixed method is characterized by a focus on research problems that require, 1) an examination of real-life contextual understandings, multi-level perspectives, and cultural influences; 2) an intentional application of rigorous quantitative research assessing magnitude and frequency of constructs and rigorous qualitative research exploring the meaning and understanding of the constructs; and, 3) an objective of drawing on the strengths of quantitative and qualitative data gathering techniques to formulate a holistic interpretive framework for generating possible solutions or new understandings of the problem. Tashakkori and creswell (2007) and other proponents of mixed methods argue that the design encompasses more than simply combining qualitative and quantitative methods but, rather, reflects a new "third way" epistemological paradigm that occupies the conceptual space between positivism and do these studies tell you? Broader, more complex research problem can be investigated because the researcher is not constrained by using only one strengths of one method can be used to overcome the inherent weaknesses of another provide stronger, more robust evidence to support a conclusion or set of generate new knowledge new insights or uncover hidden insights, patterns, or relationships that a single methodological approach might not es more complete knowledge and understanding of the research problem that can be used to increase the generalizability of findings applied to theory or these studies don't tell you? Researcher must be proficient in understanding how to apply multiple methods to investigating a research problem as well as be proficient in optimizing how to design a study that coherently melds them increase the likelihood of conflicting results or ambiguous findings that inhibit drawing a valid conclusion or setting forth a recommended course of action [e. The research design can be very complex, reporting the findings requires a well-organized narrative, clear writing style, and precise word invites collaboration among experts. However, merging different investigative approaches and writing styles requires more attention to the overall research process than studies conducted using only one methodological rent merging of quantitative and qualitative research requires greater attention to having adequate sample sizes, using comparable samples, and applying a consistent unit of analysis. For sequential designs where one phase of qualitative research builds on the quantitative phase or vice versa, decisions about what results from the first phase to use in the next phase, the choice of samples and estimating reasonable sample sizes for both phases, and the interpretation of results from both phases can be to multiple forms of data being collected and analyzed, this design requires extensive time and resources to carry out the multiple steps involved in data gathering and , patricia and carolyn j.
Bethesda, md: office of behavioral and social sciences research, national institutes of health, 2010creswell, john w. International journal of multiple research approaches 8 (2014): tion and type of research design draws a conclusion by comparing subjects against a control group, in cases where the researcher has no control over the experiment. An observational study allows a useful insight into a phenomenon and avoids the ethical and practical difficulties of setting up a large and cumbersome research do these studies tell you? Researcher is able to collect in-depth information about a particular reveal interrelationships among multifaceted dimensions of group can generalize your results to real life ational research is useful for discovering what variables may be important before applying other methods like ation research designs account for the complexity of group these studies don't tell you? Of data is low because seeing behaviors occur over and over again may be a time consuming task and are difficult to observational research, findings may only reflect a unique sample population and, thus, cannot be generalized to other can be problems with bias as the researcher may only "see what they want to see. Is no possibility to determine "cause and effect" relationships since nothing is s or subjects may not all be equally group that is knowingly studied is altered to some degree by the presence of the researcher, therefore, potentially skewing any data on, paul and martyn hammersley. Tion and tood more as an broad approach to examining a research problem than a methodological design, philosophical analysis and argumentation is intended to challenge deeply embedded, often intractable, assumptions underpinning an area of study. This approach uses the tools of argumentation derived from philosophical traditions, concepts, models, and theories to critically explore and challenge, for example, the relevance of logic and evidence in academic debates, to analyze arguments about fundamental issues, or to discuss the root of existing discourse about a research problem. Can be abstract, argumentative, and limited in its practical application to real-life a philosophical analysis may render problematic that which was once simple or taken-for-granted, the writing can be dense and subject to unnecessary jargon, overstatement, and/or excessive quotation and are limitations in the use of metaphor as a vehicle of philosophical can be analytical difficulties in moving from philosophy to advocacy and between abstract thought and application to the phenomenal , dawn. Metaphysics research lab, csli, stanford university, tion and tial research is that which is carried out in a deliberate, staged approach [i. After each sample is analyzed, the researcher can accept the null hypothesis, accept the alternative hypothesis, or select another pool of subjects and conduct the study once again. This means the researcher can obtain a limitless number of subjects before making a final decision whether to accept the null or alternative hypothesis. Researcher has a limitless option when it comes to sample size and the sampling to the repetitive nature of this research design, minor changes and adjustments can be done during the initial parts of the study to correct and hone the research is a useful design for exploratory is very little effort on the part of the researcher when performing this technique. The only possibility of approaching representativeness is when the researcher chooses to use a very large sample size significant enough to represent a significant portion of the entire population. In this case, moving on to study a second or more specific sample can be design cannot be used to create conclusions and interpretations that pertain to an entire population because the sampling technique is not randomized. University of southern searchmethods experiments design statistics reasoning philosophy ethics history academicpsychology biology physics medicine anthropology write paperwriting outline research question parts of a paper formatting academic journals tips for kidshow to conduct experiments experiments with food science experiments historic experiments self-helpself-esteem worry social anxiety arachnophobia anxiety sitequiz about faq terms privacy policy contact sitemap search codeloginsign explorable? Take it with you wherever you research council of ibe to our rss blakstad on blakstad 1. Different types of research designs have different advantages and article is a part of the guide:Select from one of the other courses available:Experimental ty and ical tion and psychology e projects for ophy of sance & tics beginners tical bution in er 30 more articles on this 't miss these related articles:1quantitative and qualitative research. Most scientists are interested in getting reliable observations that can help the understanding of a are two main approaches to a research problem:Quantitative are the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?
Research are various designs which are used in research, all with specific advantages and disadvantages. Which one the scientist uses, depends on the aims of the study and the nature of the phenomenon:Aim: observe and listic , also see our survey ational sectional ational studies in -experimental : determine -experimental : determine experimental -blind ing other study before conducting a full-scale : does the design work? Essentials of research design and methodology" by geoffrey r out our quiz-page with tests about:Capitals and countries. Are free to copy, share and adapt any text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this ptive research design - observing a phenomenonquantitative research design - proving cause and effectcase study research design - how to conduct a case studyqualitative research design - exploring a subject in depthtrue experimental design - experiments with control group searchmethods experiments design statistics reasoning philosophy ethics history academicpsychology biology physics medicine anthropology write paperwriting outline research question parts of a paper formatting academic journals tips for kidshow to conduct experiments experiments with food science experiments historic experiments self-helpself-esteem worry social anxiety arachnophobia anxiety sitequiz about faq terms privacy policy contact sitemap search codeloginsign explorable? Are free to copy, share and adapt any text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this ptive research design - observing a phenomenonquantitative research design - proving cause and effectcase study research design - how to conduct a case studyqualitative research design - exploring a subject in depthtrue experimental design - experiments with control group ting educational 4: write the research from chapter 5 that my philosophy in writing a research project is to not write it from chapter 1 to chapter 2 and so on. Instead, i think it is important that the methods section of the research paper should be written first to ensure that the topic can be studied using empirical methods. Therefore, once the purposes, research questions, and research hypotheses are written, then i suggest writing the research purpose of the methods section of a research paper (chapter 3 at unijos) is to describe the study methods and procedures so well that anybody could exactly repeat the research study using only what was written in the methods section. Recall from chapter 2 that one principle of scientific research is that it must be verifiable, meaning that the observations must be able to be confirmed by any other individual. Thus, replication of scientific observations is a foundational principle in science: data is not valid unless it can be duplicated by other researchers. This means that researchers need to clearly articulate the exact research design, sample and sampling procedures, instruments, data collection procedures, and data analyses that were used so any other researcher can exactly replicate the results to verify their ore, the researcher needs to take great care in being explicit and accurate in reporting the research methods. Inaccurate reporting of research methods reflects either ignorance on the part of the researcher at best or unethical dishonesty at worst. It is the researcher's responsibility to ask questions or find resources to help them fully understand the research terminology and procedures that are reported to ensure that what is written in the methods section accurately reflects the research methods that were indeed used to collect the writing the methods section, keep in mind that each sub-section should report only the relevant information for that section. For example, the sample section should only report on the participants, not on the research design, instruments, or procedures. Perhaps when reading through the data analysis, the reader might decide that she needs to refresh her memory about the research instruments. If the writer has presented all of the information about the instruments in the instrument section, then she knows exactly where to look in the report to find the relevant educational research studies will reflect one of five designs listed below. By this point, the researcher should have already identified the research design that will be used. When writing the research design sub-section, the writer has three basic goals:Theoretical: describe the key elements of the research design as developed by research methodologists in ale: describe the reason why this research design was cal: describe how those key elements are practically implemented in your research less of which research design is chosen, the first part of the research design section is to explain the key elements research design. This final part of the research designs sub-section will depend on the research design actually chosen. However, you need to consult additional research methods textbooks to get a better understanding and description of the chosen research getting into the specifics of writing the research design, it is important to understand the difference between independent and dependent variables.
For example, in a study examining the effect of socioeconomic status on literacy skills, the independent variable is socioeconomic skills because that is the presumed cause whereas literacy skills is the dependent variable because it is thought to be the dependent variable can also be thought of as the variable that the researcher is trying to explain or predict. In this case, the researcher wants to explain literacy skills, so that is the dependent variable, and they think socioeconomic status can influence literacy skills, so socioeconomic status is the cause, the independent variable. For a study examining the effect of computerized instruction on math skills, the independent variable is computerized instruction and the dependent variable is maths causal-comparative, experimental, and quasi-experimental research designs have independent and dependent variables. Since neither variable in a correlational design is manipulated, it is impossible to determine which is the cause and which is the effect. Thus, correlational research designs do not have independent and dependent are the research study purposes from the previous step. After explaining what a descriptive study is and why the descriptive study was chosen, then the research design sub-section should also include the specific phenomenon of interest (the variable) in the particular research comparative comparative designs are also called ex post facto. Causal comparative designs examine the effect of an independent variable that cannot be manipulated by the researcher (i. After explaining the causal-comparative design and why the causal-comparative design was chosen (typically because the independent variable cannot be manipulated), then the independent variables should be clearly identified, as well as any dependent variables. Primary characteristic of a correlational design is that it examines the relationship between two or more variables within the same group of people. After explaining the correlational design, the variables of interest should also be clearly mental and quasi-experimental experimental and quasi-experimental research designs examine the effect of an independent variable that is manipulated by the researcher on a dependent variable. It is the researcher's responsibility to control for extraneous variables, meaning that they carefully plan the research study so that extraneous variables are limited. This means that the researcher needs to carefully consider any differences between the treatment and control group and make an effort to minimize these differences in the planning stage. The research design should report the steps that were taken to minimize the influences of extraneous only difference between an experimental and a quasi-experimental design is how the participants were placed in the groups. The researcher already has a list of names of those people who will participate in the study, so assignment refers to how those participants are assigned to the treatment and control groups. Random assignment means that participants are randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups: not assigned based on previous test scores, not assigned based on their class teacher, not assigned based on any characteristic of the person, but using random reason that researchers use random assignment is to control for extraneous variables. Researchers have developed a number of procedures for achieving "random" - whether random assignment or random selection. The researcher should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of giving a pre-test as they are planning the study. Again, if random assignment to groups is used, a pre-test is not needed because random assignment assumes that both groups are equal at the start of the summarize, both experimental and quasi-experimental research designs have a control group and at least one treatment group. The only difference between an experimental and quasi-experimental design is that the experimental design uses random assignment whereas the quasi-experimental design does not use random experimental design has three key elements: a control group, at least one treatment group (multiple different treatments are possible), and random assignment to the treatment and control groups.
After explaining the theory of experimental design and the rationale why experimental design was chosen, you need to explain each of these three elements in your particular study. Exactly how random assignment will be done in the research study also needs to be explained in this section. Furthermore, the researcher needs to explain the independent and dependent variables, as well as all steps that will be taken to control for extraneous example: the treatment group will receive six weeks of computerized maths instruction using the actionfraction program. Both the treatment and control groups will receive one hour of instruction per day for six weeks to control for instruction time, and both groups will also be taught by the same teacher to control for teacher -experimental quasi-experimental design also has three key elements: a treatment group, a control group, and groups are created without random assignment. Then, the ancova statistic (analysis of covariance) is used to statistically control for pre-test the experimental design, the quasi-experimental design should explain the treatment and control group as well as the independent and dependent variables and steps taken to control for extraneous variables (read more in the experimental design section for more information). Additionally, for quasi-experimental designs, the researcher should also explain why random assignment was not used and how participants were assigned to the treatment and control example: the principal would not allow the students to be randomly assigned to different classes. To control for extraneous factors, both pre and post tests were used for the dependent summarize, the design section should include:Statement and description of research design that will be used (theoretical). Of key causal-comparative, experimental, and quasi-experimental designs, these variables should be classified as independent and dependent experimental and quasi-experimental designs, a description of how participants were assigned to treatment and control causal-comparative designs, a description of how participants were assigned to groups (the independent variable). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs, a description of all procedures used to control for extraneous example research designs are given below. Design of this study was causal-comparative because it compared students who cheated to students who did not cheat, a variable that could not be manipulated. A causal-comparative research design examines the effect of an independent variable that the researcher does not manipulate on a dependent variable (gall, gall, & borg, 2003). The dependent variable of academic achievement was operationally defined as the final exam score in the same experimental design was used. An experimental design has three key defining features: a treatment group, a control group, and random assignment to those groups. That design was chosen because students were randomly assigned to either a treatment group where participants had teachers who attempted to build a relationship with the student or a control group where participants had teachers who did not attempt to build a relationship. Intrinsic motivation was assessed by two measures: the intrinsic motivation inventory designed and validated by ryan (1982) and the time the participant spent engaged in the teaching task after the teacher left the room for 10 minutes. For each participant, the experimenter was blind to the condition that the participant was assigned to so the experimenter would not bias the time spent engaged in the teaching task after the study was to educational research ght 2012, katrina a. Korb, all rights g about quantitative research in applied aswriting about research designauthorsauthors and affiliationslindy ctthe focus of this chapter is on writing about research design. This includes identifying the variables of the study, the research approach, research questions and methods of collecting data. This is one of the primary concerns of a reader when evaluating a research text.
In writing about quantitative research, there needs to be evidence and often justification of the design of the research project. This chapter includes the following sections:Technical informationresearch purposemethods and methodologyresearch questions and hypothesesvariablestypes of designexamplespurpose statementwriting about methodologyresearch questionsresearch designpreviewunable to display preview.