Week 1: January 20

Distance learning is often defined as taking place when the instructor and student are separated by physical distance. I like to add the twist that the student and instructor are separated by time as well as physical distance. Distance learning is very flexible! In some cases, such as this course, you have the opportunity to log on and participate in lessons at times that are most convenient to you. 

One important thing for you to do if you have not done so is to order your texts for this course. The required texts for this course are:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 5^th Edition (2001). APA: ISBN: 1557987912.

Lesson Activities

• Order your texts. Once you receive the APA text begin reading Chapters 1 and 2 for next week.

Much of the beginning of this class will focus on being able to read and understand published research in your area of interest. Published research is often difficult to decipher because of 1) the highly technical language used, 2) the format of research articles, and 3) the statistical language and methods that lay people are generally unfamiliar with.  To begin becoming familiar with published research we will start with a basic introduction to the structure of a research article. 

A research article will typically have four main sections that will appear in this order:

1) Introduction (what and why) - The introduction of a research article introduces the topic of the article, defines the purpose of the research, provides a rationale for why the research is important based on previous knowledge in the field of study (literature review), and proposes specific research questions that will help add to the body of knowledge in that field. These concepts should be made explicitly obvious in the introduction. There shouldn't be any guessing as to what the research is about, what the research questions are specifically,  why the study was conducted,  why the study is important to the field, or what contribution the author hopes to make. It is the authors responsibility to clearly convey these ideas to the reader, and thus it will be your responsibility when you write your paper for this class.

2) Method (how) - The method section of a research article describes in detail the methodology used to answer the research questions that were posed in the introduction. The introduction lead the reader to understand that there are specific research questions that are important to be answered, so the method section explains how those research questions will be answered specifically. In this section of a research article you can find out who the participants were in the study, what kind of information was collected, what variables were manipulated or tested, what design was used to orchestrate the study, and what data was collected in addition to the main variables to insure that the study is valid and reliable. 

3) Results (what was found) - The result section of a research article is where all the information collected, using the previously described method, is reported. This section should be very mater-of-fact, with absolutely no interpretation. All information collecting processes described in the method should have a corresponding sub-heading in the results. In short, the two sections should clearly match. There shouldn't be information reported in the results that weren't first described in the data collection process in the method, and vice versa. 

4) Discussion (why it's important) - The final section of a research article is the discussion section. This is where the author summarizes the finding for the reader and is aloud to make educated interpretations of the findings. The author typically interprets the findings in light of previous research by tying the section back to the introduction. A good author will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of their own study while interpreting the findings. Finally, authors will often offer future research questions that other researchers may want to investigate. In a sense, the article comes full circle with the discussion section in that it is tied to the content of the introduction. 

It is important to become familiar with these four main sections of a research article and kind of information you will be able to find in each section. Your APA manual offers helpful guidelines on both format and content of articles. I highly recommend reading the first chapter of the APA manual now so that you get a clear sense of what information belongs in each section and where it does not belong. The APA manual will be used to format your final papers, so beginning to read it now will help introduce you to the major project of this class, which is writing an APA style manuscript that is suitable for publication. 

Lesson Activities

Read chapter 1 of the APA manual. You will find that there are other parts of a manuscript that come before or after the four main section described above. For instance, before the introduction, there is a title page and an abstract. These are all important supportive pieces that, as a whole, make up an APA style manuscript. It is important for you to know about the organization and structure of the articles so that you can begin to intelligently read these articles in your area of interest and eventually write one of your own. 

Go here for a copy of the UALR Graduate School's Thesis Guide for formatting requirements:

UALR Thesis Guide

The student is 100% responsible for consulting the APA style manual and the UALR thesis guide to meet all formatting requirements.

Need Help?  Have a question but can't find the answer? Here are some options:

• Email the Head Librarian
• Email the Assistant Librarian/Media Specialist

Don't Forget to stop by the Circulation Desk on your way out!