One of the common issues students have when they are beginning to
think about doing research is how all of the pieces, which are necessary, fit
together. Do you begin with the research design and try to find a study to fit
it? What is the deal with theories, where do they fit into the thinking? There
actually is a way to clarify these pieces. Let us begin even broader by
considering reviewing the literature. What does that mean? It means finding
recent articles on your general topic of interest and beginning to read. Notice
what theories the authors discuss when talking about the topic. After you have
read 10 articles or so on the topic, stop and evaluate. Are there consistent
issues mentioned? What theories were discussed; did the authors make
predictions for their study based on the theory? If you are not seeing any
predictions or discussions about how the theory is impacted by the new
findings, you need to look for a new theory. It is important that you are able
to make predictions based on the theory you will finally use.
As an example, say you have narrowed the search down to two theories.
It is time to go back to the library and find some review articles using those
theories. When you have read those, you should have a good understanding of the
theories and how they relate to your topic of interest. Think about the
variables other researchers have used, which are related to your topic and how
the theory suggests the variables should interact.
Next time we will consider the prospectus from a faculty
view. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a
future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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