Presenting a Research Plan
SCENARIO: Your supervisor has approved your research question and plan for studying some aspect of diversity and/or collaboration in a community group. Now it is time to conduct your literature review and develop your hypothesis and research plan.
ASSIGNMENT: In the first Touchstone, you developed a research question and prepared a preliminary bibliography for your literature review. You will now conduct your literature review, formulate your hypothesis and research plan, and develop a set of notecards that summarize your work.
REQUIREMENTS: You must create 8-11 notecards using the touchstone template below. Your notecards will include:
introduction card
research question card
literature review (4–6 cards)
hypothesis card
operational definitions card (if needed)
research method card
A. Directions
Step 1: Revise Touchstone 1
First, return to the community group description, research question, and proposed bibliography that you submitted in Touchstone 1, and make any necessary changes based on feedback from the grader. You will likely want to refine your reading list based on the feedback you received and what you learned about diversity and collaboration in Unit 3.
Step 2: Conduct a Literature Review
Next, complete your reading for your literature review.
Reminder of attributes of good readings for your literature review:
They are academic, scholarly works about research findings or they are reliable journalistic reporting based on scientifically credible and reliable data.
They should have been published in the last 20 years—unless they are a landmark work on the topic and provide important background or as a comparison.
They look at different sides of the argument and a variety of perspectives.
As you complete each reading, take notes. Some of the questions you could ask about each reading include:
Who wrote this article? Is it the researchers themselves, or is it a journalist writing about their findings?
Where was it published? Is it a scholarly publication like an academic journal, or is it for a popular audience? If the publication is for a popular audience, how would you characterize the audience?
Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
When was the research conducted?
What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
What methods did they use to study their question?
What conclusions did they draw from their results?
Sample Solution
- Revise your research question and proposed bibliography. Based on the feedback you received from the grader and what you learned about diversity and collaboration in Unit 3, revise your research question and proposed bibliography. Make sure that your research question is clear, concise, and specific. Your bibliography should include a variety of sources that represent different perspectives on your topic.
- Conduct your literature review. Read the sources on your bibliography and take notes. As you read, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do the authors say about the relationship between diversity and collaboration?
- What are the different ways that diversity and collaboration have been studied?
Full Answer Section
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- What are the different methods that have been used to study diversity and collaboration?
- What are the findings of the research on diversity and collaboration?
- How do the findings of the research relate to my research question?
- Develop your hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement that predicts the relationship between two or more variables. In your case, your hypothesis might predict the relationship between diversity and collaboration in a community group. For example, you might hypothesize that greater diversity leads to more collaboration in a community group.
- Develop your research plan. Your research plan should outline the methods you will use to test your hypothesis. This includes the following:
- The population you will study
- The variables you will measure
- The data collection methods you will use
- The statistical methods you will use to analyze your data
Here are some additional tips for conducting a literature review and developing a hypothesis and research plan:
- Be selective. Don't try to read everything that has been written on your topic. Instead, focus on the most relevant and up-to-date sources.
- Be critical. Don't just accept the findings of the research at face value. Think critically about the methods that were used and the conclusions that were drawn.
- Be creative. Don't be afraid to come up with your own ideas and hypotheses.
By following these steps, you can conduct a literature review and develop a hypothesis and research plan that will help you answer your research question about diversity and collaboration in a community group.
Here are some example notecards that you could create for your literature review:
- Introduction card: This card should introduce your research question and provide an overview of the literature on diversity and collaboration.
- Research question card: This card should state your research question in clear and concise terms.
- Literature review cards: These cards should summarize the findings of the research on diversity and collaboration. Each card should focus on one specific study.
- Hypothesis card: This card should state your hypothesis in clear and concise terms.
- Operational definitions card: This card (if needed) should define the variables that you will be measuring in your research.
- Research method card: This card should outline the methods you will use to test your hypothesis.