Essay Question RM 100 Semester 1.

2008
There is no such thing as black and white in research. The nature of the research process means that we must make choices. Those choices determine the confidence that the reader will have in the research findings. There are no absolutely right or wrong answers. We never prove anything. However, the quality of the choices we make has a profound effect on the quality of the research. Overall, our goal is to ensure that the benefits of the choices made in the research process outweigh the costs. In this major essay I want you to critically evaluate the article I have placed on the student server. It is quite complex butusing the evaluation criteria discussed in the lecture in week 4 you should be able to comment on all the relevant indicators of sound research and the extent that the article achieves (or fails to achieve) a good balance between costs and benefits at each stage of the research process. You should: Read the paper once. Put it aside. After a couple days read it again critically. Jot down your initial comments on each section of the article Abstract Introduction and literature review. Method Results Discussion. References The things you should look for in each of these sections were discussed in detail in the lecture in week 5. Your text also provides some tips on how to critically evaluate research. Read the article again after you have recorded your initial thoughts. Think about the material covered in all the other lectures to date. How does that material enable you to think critically about the article? Every week has provided some tips and ideas that enable you to think about research systematically and critically. Once you have critically evaluated the paper your essay should conclude with a statement about how the research could have been done differently. Note: this is not a statement about how the research could have been done using the same method but better but how the research could have been done using a different method to answer the same research question. Your

alternative should address some of benefits and costs of adopting your approach. Be creative! The scoring criteria will be weighted towards: Identification of the relative strengths and weaknesses in each section of the research article Identification of the benefits and costs of the choices that the researchers made. Use of the language of research that we have been developing. The quality of thinking that is evident in the alternative method you propose (including how it addresses some of the weaknesses evident in the source article and how it acknowledges the choices you would have to make to do it your way). Presentation and quality of writing. Week Twelve (12) 25% 2000

Due: Assessment weighting: Word Limit