For your Final Research Paper, you will use your articles to build arguments and conclusions about your research study findings.
Sections
1. Title Page
2. Abstract: a summary of your project and its findings, which should tell the whole story of your study, including:
- the overall purpose of the study and research problem(s) you investigated
- the basic design and methods of the study
- the major findings and trends found in your analysis of the study results
- a brief summary of your interpretations and conclusions
3. Introduction and Literature Review: a review of the literature that you used to build your research study hypothesis. Your Introduction should:
- Be more than a summary of the articles you read
- Bring together theories and results from a number of studies to provide background for your project and demonstrate how your research study hypothesis fits into this current research area
- Be a compelling narrative about how the articles you've read have built up to your study and make the case for why your research study is important
- End with your study hypothesis
4. Methods: provides detailed information about your research study design. Your Methods section should include:
- the study populations and subject recruitment procedures
- the experimental design of your study and why it was appropriate for your research area
- the procedures your research design followed
- the statistical analyses you ran
5. Results: report the findings of your research study, written in the past tense, without bias or interpretation. Your Results section should:
- Focus on being concise and objective
- Organize your results around tables and figures that summarize the results of your statistical analyses
- Include summary text that describes the results in your tables and figures
- Organize your key findings in a logical sequence, generally following your Methods section
- Don't omit relevant findings, even those that don't support your predictions
6. Discussion: interpret and describe the significance of your findings in light of what is already known about the research area you're investigating. Your Findings and Discussion should include:
- Explanation of results: whether or not the results were expected, explanations for the results, and patterns and trends that emerged from your results and their meanings
- References to previous research: compare your results with findings from other studies
- Use evidence from research sources to build arguments about what your study findings mean
- Analyze your evidence and observations to show how they link to your broader research question
7. References List: a list of the sources you cited
- Cite your sources in APA Style
- Format your References list in APA Style
8. Appendices: all research/presentation materials used with participants, consent form, additional figures and tables, etc.
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