Due on 26/10/2020 CCIT course
Assignment 1 - CCT208 2020 Assignment 1 Communication Research Methods, Fall 2020 Basic Information • Length: 1,500 words, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins. • Only one reference is required. This reference will be a scholarly article that will be the focus of your assignment. • Due date: See the course outline. • Submission: Online using Quercus, in the “Assignments” section. Do not submit a hardcopy. Overview For this assignment you will choose one scholarly social science article that is based on numerical (quantitative) research. It should be published in a journal that is available through the University of Toronto’s library system. This should be an original study, and not a review of other studies. The scholarly article that you choose must contain basic information regarding the institution(s) that supported the research, the research design, the selection strategy, key terms, and the implementation. If it is missing any of this information, you will need to use another article. Format and Requirements At the top of the first page provide your name, student number, date, and the title of your paper. Do not include a title page. Next, provide basic information on the scholarly article that will be the focus of your major paper. The basic information will consist of: author(s), year published, article title, journal title, volume number, page numbers. Please present this information as an APA reference. All articles should be available through the UofT library system. Provide a Permalink to the article under the citation. It is your responsibility to confirm that this link is working at the time of submission. If the link to the article that you select is not working, you will receive an automatic grade of zero on this assignment. This is because the grader will be unable to confirm the validity of your claims regarding this article. When referring to this article in the assignment you do not need to use APA citation, because it should be obvious to the reader that you are referring to this paper. However, if you copy any of the original text from the article you must quote this text and provide the page number. For example, if you included text from page 10 in the article, it would appear as: “Text in quotes” (p. 10). Page of 1 3 In the remainder of the paper, provide the following subheadings with the requested discussion in each section. It is up to you to determine the length of each section. It is recommended that you keep each section succinct, while still addressing each of the items outlined below. Make sure to draw on the readings and lectures in each section. IMPORTANT: If the article that you choose does not contain the information necessary to complete any of the following items, then you must choose another article. Stating that the article did not contain the information necessary to complete a section will result in a mark of 0 for that section. 1. Institutional Support • Using quoted material from the article, state the names of the institutions that supported this research and the explicit purpose of this study. • State what you believe may be the implicit purpose of this study. If you do not believe there is an implicit purpose, explain why. • Describe how the institutions may have influenced the explicit and implicit purposes of the study. 2. Research Design • Using quoted material from the article, describe the research design used in this study. • Discuss some of the limitations associated with this research design. 3. Selection Strategy • Using quoted material from the article, describe the selection strategy used in this study. • Discuss some of the limitations associated with this selection strategy. 4. Key Terms • Using quoted material from the article, give at least two or three important key terms used in this study, and discuss each key terms is conceptualized and operationalized. • Discuss any limitations that may exist in how these key terms are conceptualized and operationalized. Also discuss any limitations that may exist in terms of their validity and reliability. 5. Research Implementation • Using quoted material from the article, discuss how this research was implemented. Was it collected through observation, in-person interviews, paper surveys, telephone surveys, or digital methods? • Discuss some of the limitations associated with the research implementation. • Using quoted material from the article, explain if this research was confidential or anonymous. • Discuss some possible ethical issues associated with the research implementation. 6. Conclusion • Discuss if you believe this study is a reliable source of knowledge based on the discussion and critique that you presented in this paper. Page of 2 3 Summary of Graded Components Institutional Support 10% Research Design 15% Selection Strategy 20% Key Terms 20% Research Implementation 25% Conclusion 5% Formatting, Spelling, and Grammar 5% Page of 3 3