Experimental Study (ES)

To write critiques, you may find articles that interest you from any research journal in the general fields of library and information sciences -- reading RESEARCH JOURNAL, not newsletters, not bulletins, not newspapers, not magazines, and not pop-science or pop-tech journals. It works best if the articles you found happen to be on the same research problem as you have chosen for your thesis proposal. Keep in mind that you need to have one article for each research method. The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement and the National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning publishes executive summaries of research projects funded during the years of 1983-1997.

If you follow THIS LINK, you will see a table (Table VA) that lists funded research projects, wth one column briefly describes what each research project is about and another column specifies what research method is used in the project. Armed with researchers' names and title keywords of their research, you can easily hunt down their corresponding research publications. Nevertheless, I have rounded up some articles for each type of research method. You may choose one off this list to criticize if you have run out of time or just plain tired of hunting. Click on THIS LINK and it will take you there.

How to Approach

Once you have chosen a target piece, you will proceed to carefully read the article, not to look for spelling errors, but to critically examine how the researcher(s) defined the research problem, set up the overall research design, and handled the processes of data gathering, data processing, and data analysis. Although content presentation may be an issue worthy of commenting, your real focus should be on the research design and methodological issues.

You will need to "see through" the article's wording to uncover the researchers' plan of design and what actually happened during the process of their research implementation. Based on a good understanding of uncovered essentials and armed with knowledge you have learned about reserach methods, you proceed to form critical opinions about the research, by asking reflective questions like below.

(Note that the questions listed here are suggestive only and some may not apply to the study you are reviewing.) • Is the research problem well defined? Is it sufficently rooted in existing literature? • Are the research questions relevant to the stated research problem? And hypotheses properly formulated? • Is the author's choice of research method/design appropriate for investigating the research problem?

If not, what is a better alternative and why? • Is the research population properly identified? How are subjects/objects sampled, and what is the implication (bias) of the sampling/selection procedure? • Is the data gathering (measuring) instrument appropriate? Is it pre-tested for reliability and validity? Is the instrument administered properly?

Any potential bias introduced during the data gathering process? What measures have been taken (and should be taken) to ensure data quality? • Are qualitative data (primary/secondary evidences) properly collected, processed, and interpreted? • Is the data coding done correctly? Any coding sheet and guideline used? If two or more people involved in data coding, any check for coding reliability and inter-coder consistency? • Are statistical analyses of quantitative data appropriate, especially for testing stated hypotheses? Did the researcher apply correct statistical procedures?

Were statistical significances of findings reported? Were statistical results reported and interpreted appropriately? • Any gaps in the research design, methodological setup, and implementation process? • Were conclusions properly drawn from research findings? Did the researcher claim more than actually achieved?

Writing the Research Critique

Upon completion of critically examining the research, with notes handy and mind still fresh with ideas, you move on to write the critique draft.

Write succinctly, accurately, and clearly, and avoid commenting on trivial and obvious things. Use the "header and footer" function to insert the course number, your last name, first initial, and page numbering within the top margine. Neither cover page nor abstract is needed. Use subheadings to mark sections, but do not break into separate pages. Avoid block quotes, tables, and figures, unless it's absolutely necessary.

The maximum length is five pages, excluding references and appendix. • Bibliographical entry of the research article you choose to work with, at the top of first page. • Digested summary of the research (your own. not copying the abstract. no more than half a page) • Critique (what YOU want to say about the research. This is the main body of your work) • References if any work is cited in your own writing, not including the one under review. A sample critique is provided here to give you some idea of how your work should be like. When submitting, include a PDF version of the original article.

Use Excel. Results Section: In this section of your college research paper, you should summarize the data from the experiments without discussing the implications of the results, or attempting to explain why particular results occurred. The data should be organized into tables and graphs. These should be labeled (e.g. Table 1, Figure 1) with a descriptive title. A brief sentence or two (legend) describing each table or graph should accompany the data. For this lab, include the following in your results:

1. Tables showing the mean and standard deviation of the circumference of the 25 largest hardwoods in the upslope plots and the downslope plots for your lab sections. 2. Make a column chart showing the circumferences of the 25 largest hardwoods (not just the means) for the upslope and downslope plots in your lab section http://bit.ly/2Za6Gy4.

To do this, highlight the data for the 25 largest hardwoods in both the upslope and downslope, then create the simplest type of column chart. Excel will automatically color the upslope and downslope data differently. Your chart should look something like this (but with 25 trees instead of 10): 3. Results from 4 t-tests: a. t-test comparison (p-values) of your lab section?s data for the 10 largest hardwoods from upslope vs. downslope. b. t-test comparison (p-values) of your lab section?s data for the 25 largest hardwoods from upslope vs. downslope. c. t-test comparison of your section?s 25 largest upslope hardwoods vs. another lab section?s 25 largest upslope hardwoods d. t-test comparison of your lab section?s 25 largest downslope hardwoods with another lab section?s 25 largest downslope hardwoods. Be sure to use a 2-tailed test, type 2 (equal variance) for all t-tests. 4. Results from 3 Fisher?s Exact Tests: Perform Fisher?s

Exact Test in order to determine whether the proportion of pines and hardwoods differs between upslope and downslope. To perform the test, you?ll need to go to the following website: http://www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/contingency1.cfm and https://nursingwritinghelp.blogspot.com/2019/03/health-advocacy-issue-in-legislation.html

For this test, we are only going to be looking at the mature trees that reach to the forest canopy, so only count pines and hardwoods over 80 cm in circumference (approximately 10 inches in diameter). Simply enter the number of pines and hardwoods for upslope and downslope into the 4 squares (Upslope and Downslope can be ?groups,? # of each tree type can go in the ?outcomes?) and run a two-tailed Fisher?s exact test for the following: a. #Pines over 80 cm and #hardwoods over 80 cm upslope vs. downslope for your lab section b. #Pines over 80 cm and #hardwoods over 80 cm upslope vs. downslope for a different lab section c. #Pines over 80 cm and #hardwoods over 80 cm for both lab sections combined

You have been elected to the TAMU Honor Council and need to give a preliminary report on plagiarism in First Year Chemistry. This is in response to the fact that they are receiving severe penalties in the course of their business. You are here with a paper on the subject of research in the field of laboratory research, in particular, on lab reports. Use the information found in the "Source Materials" section of your paper. Do not forget to quote your sources in the paper.

For this paper, it is enough to give the website in parentheses after the quote or paraphrased sentence. Include at least 2 examples of plagiarism that can occur in a laboratory report and how to prevent each one. Your position paper should be reasonably brief, and should include the answers to the questions identified in â € œGuidanceâ €. Guidance: 1) What is the definition of plagiarism? 2) Why is this a crime at an academic institution and why should it be stopped, or at least minimized? 3) Why do you think that plagiarism in laboratory races occur in the first place? 4) What are 2 examples of plagiarism found in writing lab reports and a possible solution for each example? Your examples do not have to be listed in the references. They can come from real-life experiences. 5) What is the ultimate consequences of plagiarism at Texas A & M University?

Give at least two examples. 6) What is the procedure by which the Office of the Aggie Honor System will handle students accused of plagiarism? Write your short position paper in the form of a representative of the TAMU Honor Council. Discuss the definition of plagiarism and why it must be stopped or minimized. Explain why you think so often happens in laboratory races. Give at least 2 examples of plagiarism on a report and what can be done to prevent each one. Be sure that your solutions to plagiarism are reasonable so that the student body will accept them. Discuss briefly the consequences of plagiarism at TAMU and the role of the Office of the Aggie Honor System. Answer the questions identified in "Guidance."

You do not have to answer them in the order given. Have a good introductory sentence or two and watch the spelling and grammar. Be careful not to plagiarize anything yourself! All I care is that it is very clear what are your words and what are other words  http://bit.ly/2z6AEIJ .

RESOURCES given: This essay by Danielle Schuehler Sherwood in Pedagogy, Positive Approaches to Academic Integrity at the University by Tyra Twomey (Editor), Holly White (Editor), Ken Sagendorf (Editor), Patrick Drinan (Foreword by), ( 2009) The Graduate School Press of Syracuse University, gives the student and the prospect of plagiarism on lab reports.

Office of the Aggie Honor System - This is the website for the Office of the Aggie Honor System (http://aggiehonor.tamu.edu/) Turnitin - An Aggie's Friend - This site describes the purpose of Turnitin in minimizing plagiarism and how to use it. http://bit.ly/2ZjLOsA (http://hdc.tamu.edu/Systems_Software/Academic_Software/Turnitin/TurnItIn_Frequently_Asked_Questions.php) Academic Integrity - Useful tutorial on plagiarism from our TAMU Library. (http://library.tamu.edu/help/help-yourself/using-materials-services/online-tutorials/library-tutorials/page4/) Is It Plagiarism? - A fun powerpoint show to see if you really know what plagiarism is. You'll need to put it in slideshow mode  https://sites.google.com/view/personalspaces/