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
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Step 3: Formulate a Hypothesis, State Your Operational Definitions, and Choose a Research Method
Hypothesis
Next, formulate a hypothesis for your research question and choose a sociological research method appropriate for testing your hypothesis. While you won’t be conducting the research, you will write up a description of how you plan to conduct your research. (HINT: Refer back to Lesson 1.3.5: Formulating a Hypothesis, Lesson 1.3.6: Collecting Data: Quantitative Approaches , and Lesson 1.3.6: Collecting Data: Quantitative Approaches for help.)
A formal hypothesis states the relationship between two variables—one is independent (IV) and one is dependent (DV). It must also be formatted as an If/Then statement, for instance:
If people eat chocolate (IV), then they will get pimples (DV).
If people go to the gym (IV), then they will be fit (DV).
Operational Definitions
Operational definitions identify important concepts related to the research. For example, If your community organization includes students, are they K-12? College? Medical? Or are students defined as: young adults between the ages of 18-21 who are attending a particular college or university?
Research Method
Deciding on a research method will also take some thought and planning:
Will you use qualitative or quantitative research or a combination?
How will you engage subjects or find your data?
What kinds of tools and assessments will be used to gather the data?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Step 4: Prepare Your Notecards
Finally, incorporate Steps 1-4 to prepare a set of notecards for your proposed research study. Use the template provided to create 8-11 notecards that present the work you completed in Steps 1-4.
Notecard Component
Introduction Your introduction notecard should introduce your audience to the community group being studied.
Research question Your second notecard will state your research question.
Literature Review (4-6 cards) Now that you’ve introduced your community group and research question, it’s time to add information to your literature review notecards. Each source should have one notecard. The notecard should describe the information and analysis you performed in Step 2.
Hypothesis Your hypothesis notecard should describe your hypothesis.
Operational definitions Your operational definitions notecard should include and explain any operational definitions you developed for your study. You may skip this card if you have none.
Research method Your research method notecard should introduce your proposed research method and explain how you propose to conduct your research.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
C. Requirements
The following requirements must be met for your submission:
Use a readable 11- or 12-point font.
All writing must be appropriate for an academic context.
Composition must be original and written for this assignment.
Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited.
Submission must include your name and the date.
Include all of the assignment components in a single file.
Acceptable file formats include .doc and .docx.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|