This is an exercise to help you identify the major parts of a research study as well as preparing you to present on this study for the Research Study Analysis assignment. This assignment is adapted from the document “University of Guelph Student Worksheet: Analyzing a Journal Article” for the purposes of the Social Informatics course.
Using the study assigned, write up a document answering the following questions:
● What is the exact statement in which the authors of your study describe what they were testing. (Hint: This information may be provided in the article as a hypothesis or a research question(s). Include quotation marks around the exact wording and indicate page number(s).
● Describe the purpose of the study in your own words.
● What was the “gap” in the research that the authors were trying to fill by doing their study? How many sources do the authors cite?
● What are some of the authors’ major conclusions or findings as written in the article? Include quotation marks wherever you are quoting from the article and indicate page numbers.
● What is your understanding of these findings in your own words?
● Briefly summarize the main steps or measurements the authors used in their methods. Explain these methods in your own words as much as possible.
● Do the authors suggest any problems with their methods? Do you see any problems or limitations with their methodology?
● How did the authors analyze their data? Describe their tests in your own words.
● Do the authors suggest any problems with the study that could lead to unreliable results?
● Do the conclusions about the nature of the study results discussed by the authors make sense to you? Do the claims seem in proportion to the size or the nature of the study?
● Based on the accuracy of the methodology and the reliability of the results, do you think the conclusions can be believed?
● Based on what you’ve discussed in this exercise, how could the findings of your study be applied in new software development or implementation of existing tools?
Information you need to do well:
● This is a draft of an essay, so I strongly suggest answering all of the questions in more detail than you think you might need and write it up as paragraphs of prose not bulleted points.
● Cite the assigned study in a correctly formatted APA citation at the end of the essay.
● No additional sources need to be cited for this essay beyond the assigned research study. Use APA in-text citations to indicate the page number of where any direct quotes from the study appear in your essay.
● If you encounter qualitative or quantitative methods of analysis in your study, be prepared to briefly explain what they are (a sentence or two is sufficient) and refer to the method(s) by the names used by the authors of the study.
Revisions of this assignment will be expected for the Research Study Analysis/Presentation assignment. It’s OK to discuss your answers with other members of your Class Meeting group, but it’s not OK to use the same language as other members of your group unless it is directly quoting from the research study and appropriately cited.
