Ask yourself these questions about each of the sources you select to build your narrative for your study introduction and your arguments for your study's importance, as well as build your arguments and conclusions in your Discussion section about your study's findings:
Does your source raise questions you hadn't considered or make claims that shape your thinking? -Integrate these into your arguments to develop and focus them further
Does your source provide evidence for any of your arguments? -Integrate the relevant evidence or data into your own argument and explain its significance
Does your source take a position counter to any of your arguments? -Include these sources to strengthen your own arguments by explaining and providing evidence of why you disagree with them
What relationships do you see between your sources? -Integrate the arguments and evidence from your sources together to use them as building blocks for your own conclusions and arguments
How did your sources design and conduct their research studies? -What populations were studied? What methodologies and assessments were used? How was data gathered and what statistical analyses were used to analyze the data? What information can you use from your sources to help build and justify your own study design?
What study findings do you expect and what do they mean in the context of existing research and theoretical frameworks? -Use the evidence from your research sources in your Body of Argument and Conclusions to build arguments for your expected study findings and they mean.
What do your study findings tell you about your research hypothesis? -Analyze your evidence and observations to show how they link to your broader hypothesis.
