When you have completed these questions, please submit them either: 1) in writing directly to your professor; 2) via email with the report and appendix as attachments, or in special cases via the fax number given in class. In any event use the forms input found in the virtual discussions page of our class homepage only to indicate the vehicle by which you are submitting the report (i.e. state you name, the assignment and in the input box, state how you are turning in your report.
You are to write a report concerning the data collected from our student survey in a research report format. The analysis for this report is to include at least one zero-order crosstab (i..e an IV and DV) as well as one first order partial (i.e. controlling for at least one variable). The research report should be approximately 4-5 pages and the format should include the following:
1. Introduction: The purpose of the introduction is to establish the rationale for the subject you have choosen for your dependent variable (e.g. why parking on campus is an issue). That rationale for explaining that DV will generally be one of the following: 1) report new findings never reported before; 2) to extend and replicate seminal findings already reported; 3) to resolve long standing conflicts in findings reported in the literature to date. Beyond this function, this is the section used to review any relevant literature on the subject. I am requiring you to cite at least two references from either: 1) CSUN reports; 2) WWW references; or 3) traditional print references (e.g. books or articles). After commenting on these issues, this section should end with a statement of the "working proposition" (i.e. the relationship between the IV and DV)
2. Methods: This section articulates: 1) the population and sample; 2) the instrument and specific questions in our questionnaire that serve as the operationalization for the concepts in your proposition above (hence a restatement of the propositions in the form of an hypothesis); and 3) to provide a description of the procedures used in the collection of the information.
3. Results: The results of the analysis are presented in this section by first restating the hypothesis and presentating the appropriate table to substantiate these hypotheses. They refer the reader to the appendix, rather than to be placed in the body of the text (with a reference to "Table I Here"). No commentary should be evident here.
4. Discussion: The discussion section establishes possible explanations for the results. It also delineates any potential drawbacks in the sampling frame*, questionnaire instrument, interview technique, and/or data analysis. It should end with a specific recommendation for other research efforts, including references to additional variables that should be measured and/or controlled for in that further reserch
*Check here to view the demographic summary of the CSUN population as of Fall, 2001.
Having finished these sections, the paper should begin with an abstract (i.e. an indented summary of the four sections of the paper) and end with an appendix, consisting of the codebook, tables and references (click here for an example of this format). The references should follow APA or ASA guidelines.