As a consumer of research reports, the most important things for me in the introduction section of a high-quality research report are identifying the five elements of the study’s Statement of the problem (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015) and figuring out the study is a quantitative or a qualitative one.
Before this week, I was not aware that the topic, research problem, and the purpose statement were three different things in a study. Then I realized that the topic was a broad subject matter and an overall topic. Next, the authors would narrow the topic to a research problem (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015). I used to mix the two notions and did not consider them as two different things. The Figure 3.2 on page 91 in the textbook distinctively shows the consequence of identifying them and illustrates the meaning of them. I find these five elements significantly useful for understanding the intent of the researchers and getting a whole concept frame of the article in my mind.
I was very unfamiliar with the idea of either quantitative or qualitative study. I even made a mistake when doing the article review this week. The article was actually a quantitative one, while I thought it was a qualitative study because I found some keywords like “exploration” at the very start. After reading the chapter five, I noticed that the 10 hypotheses in the article were evidently the alternative type of the quantitative research hypothesis. Also, the variables were clearly defined in the introduction. I confess I still need to practice and to read more to identify the quantitative or qualitative studies. This is very crucial for making sure the understanding of the article is correct. Also, the figure 5.4 on page 179 clearly demonstrates the differences between the foundations of considering the two types.
Since I did not mention literature review in the previous paragraphs, and it is equally important of an article. Then, my question is: How would you organize the literature to form the theory or conceptual framework when conducting the study?
Reference
Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.