Assignment: Locate Research Articles

Activity Description

Warm-Up Activity 1: How to Evaluate Research Materials

Previously, you reviewed how to read research articles. This activity takes you to another critical step as a researcher and academic scholar: how to evaluate the merits of research materials. This includes understanding the whys behind an article, who the authors are and their expertise, and analyzing the organizational flow and content. For a great overview of evaluating research materials, visit Colorado State University's Evaluating Resources, located under your weekly resources.

Warm-Up Activity 2: How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography

Throughout your studies, you will read many texts and journal articles. In many courses, you will be asked to prepare an annotated bibliography to assist you in preparing key assignments. An annotated bibliography is a writing and research tool that you want to master because it allows you to record important information in a concise and scholarly way quickly.

Begin this process by reading about annotated bibliographies in the Conducting Research and Forms of Writing sections in the Northcentral Writing Center (click the links in the left side navigation area of the Writing Center screen).

Use the Writing Center handouts as a guide to capture your research in a concise manner. Format the annotated bibliography per the example shown below. As you continue research in other doctoral courses, you will expand this bibliography as a record of your thinking and efforts. Here's another time-saving tip. When you locate research that you believe may fit into your eventual dissertation interest, set up a computer file in which you list your annotations. Remember to incorporate faculty feedback on your annotations because it will be of great help when you begin writing your eventual research literature review.

You may also find the following links helpful to you in understanding how to compile an annotated bibliography, located under your weekly resources.

• Annotated Bibliographies. Purdue Online Writing Lab.
• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography. Cornell University.

Warm-Up Activity 3: How to Prepare an Annotated Outline

Another great writing tool to master is an Annotated Outline. Outlining in general is helpful to writers in seeing at a glance how information is organized, where gaps may be missing or details are unnecessary. An annotated outline follows the same basic conventions of organization as an outline. The difference here, however, is that you note where you have research that supports various elements of the paper.

An annotated outline resembles a table of contents. Underneath each element of the outline, you include a notation of the source material. If you develop the habit of preparing an annotated outline for your assignments, including preparing a reference page, when you get to the draft stage, it becomes a simple matter of addressing each element in more detail. As you get more comfortable with using an annotated outline, you likely will expand upon your annotation length; in fact, some writers use their annotations from an annotated bibliography and plug them into an outline format.

Here's an example of an annotated outline that you can adapt to help you prepare your paper draft, which is due in Week 8.

Topic: Exercise motivation and self-esteem

1. Introduction
a. What motivates people to exercise
i. Health
1. Jones (2007) = health scare big motivation
ii. Socialization
1. Smith (2012) = exercising with friends beneficial to all
iii. Self-esteem
1. Doe (2013) = how we feel about ourselves affects how much we exercise
2. Taylor (2011) = how we view personal appearance affects exercise options

2. Define motivation
a. Psychological theories of motivation
i. Maslow (1954) = we want to belong, we want others to respect us
ii. Klein (2010) = Goal-setting often unrealistic for new exercisers
b. Exercise and motivation
i. Miller (2013) = Challenge of establishing routine
ii. Sunny (2012) = Fear of failure
iii. Gloomy (2011) =Social media affects motivation

3. Define self-esteem
a. Psychological theories of self-esteem
i. Maslow (1954) = we want to belong, we want others to respect us
ii. Rogers (1960) = how we feel about ourselves affects how we interact with others
b. Exercise and peer pressure
i. Chef (2011) = worry about how people view our appearance
c. Exercise and self-esteem
i. Dancer (2012) = don't exercise because look bad in workout clothes

4. Conclusion

5. References

Assignment

Your task this week is to locate at least five research articles from the NCU library databases that you will use to prepare your draft for your Signature Assignment. The paper is a synthesis of current research on a topic of psychology that you selected and

Examine potential topics for psychology research through use of the NCU Library and other available resources.