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© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Style Guides Most common style guides :  American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (Note: This is frequently called “APA style.”)  Turabian, K. (1996). A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (6th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Note: This is often referred to as “Turabian.”)  University of Chicago Press. (1993). The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (14th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Note: This is frequently called “Chicago style.”) 2

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conventions in Research and Reporting Conventions—agreed-upon procedures that help ensure accuracy, validity, credibility, etc. of a research study Conventions of style : »Title—should indicate clearly what report is about; limit to approximately 15 words or less »Person and voice—typically written in third person and in passive voice; differences in qualitative versus quantitative reports »Tense—generally speaking, final reports written in past tense; proposals written in future tense 3

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conventions in Research and Reporting (cont’d.) »Tentative versus definitive statements— conclusions usually reported with tentative statements; procedures and results of descriptive analyses can be stated more definitively »Simplicity of language—use plain, straightforward language; don’t try to impress your readers…let your research speak for itself! (differences in qualitative versus quantitative reports) »Consistency—consistency throughout the report is essential 4

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conventions in Research and Reporting (cont’d.) Conventions of format : »Major sections of reports—not always labeled as such, but report is easier to follow if they are ◊ Introduction (Ch. 1 of thesis/ dissertation)— includes statement of problem, questions/hypotheses, limitations/delimitations, assumptions ◊ Review of related literature (Ch. 2) —organized from general to specific, older to more recent; use research questions/hypotheses to guide structure; end with a brief summary of the review 5

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conventions in Research and Reporting (cont’d.) ◊ Methods (Ch. 3)—includes description of participants and how they were selected, description of instrumentation, (including validity and reliability), data collection procedures, proposed methods of data analysis ◊ Findings or results (Ch. 4)—summarization of new information discovered through analysis of the data; may include tables and graphs; often organized by research question/hypothesis ◊ Conclusions or discussion (Ch. 5)—presents conclusions, implications, recommendations resulting from interpretation of the findings; only section where inclusion of researcher’s own thoughts are appropriate 6

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conventions in Research and Reporting (cont’d.) ◊ Front material —includes title page, signature page, acknowledgment page, dedication page, table of contents, list of tables and figures, and abstract ◊ Back material —includes references and appendices 7

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Format of Thesis/Dissertations versus Journal Articles Major differences with respect to: »Length of paper »Inclusion of front and back material 8