Project 3: Primary Research Report

Having found secondary research and learned about the “scholarly conversation” surrounding your topic in your Annotated Bibliography, you are ready to develop an original research study that will allow you to contribute to the scholarly conversation about your topic.

For this project, you will develop an original “Research Question” (RQ) that you will examine through a small-scale survey. This survey will allow you to explore an aspect of the topic that no other source has yet examined, enabling you to contribute original findings to the scholarly conversation about your topic.

Project Rubric | Guide to Writing Primary Research Reports |

Sample Project (STEM Majors) | Sample Project (Animals)

Audience

As you write, keep in mind as your possible audience general academic readers who might be interested in reading and possibly conducting research on your topic.

Method of Delivery

You will write an IMRaD-style report (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). The IMRaD report is a very common genre in academic writing. Although each field varies slightly, the IMRaD report forms the basis for reporting research findings throughout most academic disciplines.

  • APA-formatted title page
  • Introduction: Attract the readers’ attention, offer an overview of the topic, discuss important perspectives and connections in previous research on the topic, and explain the “gap” in previous research (what no other study has yet examined). Explain the Research Question (RQ) you developed to fill that gap, provide your hypothesis for what results you think you will find, and justify your study by explaining how your research will help to fill the gap you identified.
  • Methods: Explain the methods you followed for your research in enough detail that another researcher could easily replicate the study to verify your results. Include specific details about the study’s methods (procedures and distribution), target population(s), participant privacy/safety, etc.
  • Results: Report in objective detail the information you collected from conducting your study. Include at least TWO graphs visualizing key data points.
  • Discussion: Offer a critical interpretation of your results by discussing what your results might show, imply, or suggest about the RQ and your hypothesis. Discuss how your results add to what other sources have said about the topic. Discuss interesting results and possible reasons for these results.
  • Conclusion: Discuss limitations of your study, and suggest implications or possibilities for future research studies. Offer a conclusion about the potential significance of your results and findings in terms of the R! or broader topic.
  • References: Include a properly formatted References page for all the sources you cite.
  • Appendix: Include the solicitation message, consent statement, and the full survey (10-15 questions, including demographic questions) at the end of the paper (if you export the survey from an online program, format it according to APA style).

Survey Development & Distribution

  • Develop the survey in Qualtrics.
  • Include a short solicitation and consent message at the beginning of the survey.
  • Obtain full responses from at least 30 participants. You can distribute a link online, or you can go in-person to places such as the Brickyard, DH Hill Library, your other classes, your dorms, etc.

Additional Information

  • Cite at least THREE peer-reviewed sources (from your Annotated Bibliography) in the Introduction and Discussion sections.
  • Use APA style for the formatting of the paper and for all citations.
  • The overall project should be 1,500 – 1,800 words in length (NOT including the References and Appendix survey).
  • This project is worth 15% of the final course grade.

*A note: your results do NOT need to support your hypothesis in order to do well on this project. Instead, the goal of this project is to practice explaining in precise, clear writing why you asked the RQ you did, how you conducted the study, what you found, and how we can reasonably interpret the findings. Good research is open to new possibilities and unexpected findings.

TARGETED COURSE OBJECTIVES
  • develop an understanding of texts as arguments generated for particular purposes, audiences, and rhetorical contexts;
  • learn to find and evaluate print and electronic sources appropriate for academic research projects;
  • learn to develop original arguments for a range of academic purposes;
  • practice critically evaluating your own and others’ work and collaborating effectively with other writers throughout the writing process; and
  • practice and refine technical skills in areas such as grammar, mechanics, and source documentation.