Research Question and Hypothesis Exercise 1. Start your assignment with an introductory paragraph about your research topic: (POLICE LEADERSHIP) and why it is of interest (I am a police officer, and want to understand how effective leadership can inspire or destroy moral within an agency, and if education is a factor in good leadership or not, and why does changes could be made to promote better community relationships through effective leadership) and a research “puzzle.” You want to guide your reader from your research area to your research topic, then on to your general research question (need to form a general research question), and specific research question (need to develop a specific research question). I want to pro’s and the con’s of police leadership, but I want to show how it can be improved, remember I am a police officer so it needs to stay somewhat pro police. Feel free to write the paper how you would like as long as the topic remains within police leadership. While there are many ways to frame a research question, your research questions should be 1) openended and start with “How,” “Why,” “What,” or “To what extent;” 2) should incorporate the variables you seek to assess and their relationship; and 3) should indicate how you intend to test the nature of that relationship. You want to make sure that your question has an appropriate amount of complexity so that it requires a significant amount of research and analysis. A simple Google search should not be able to answer your research question. Unclear: How can the need for power be harmful? Too simple: What is Hillary Clinton’s position on Obama Care? Too simple: What is Hillary Clinton’s operational code? Too broad: To what extent is Hillary Clinton different from Bill Clinton? Appropriately Complex and Focused: To what extent is Hillary Clinton motivated by a need for power by comparison to Bill Clinton, and how might this impact access and control of information within the White House? 2. Next, provide a purpose statement that conveys your intentions about what you hope to produce. See the reference in your Lessons and review that it will usually be prefaced by some phrase like the following: "This paper examines . . .," "The aim of this paper is to . . .," or "The purpose of this essay is to . . .". Remember that a purpose statement makes a promise to the reader about the development of the argument but does not preview the particular conclusions that the writer has drawn. Your purpose statement should demonstrate what you are hoping to find out, and also explain what you want your readers to understand (motivation or argument of the research). This formula and example set from the Baruch College Writing Center may be helpful: I am studying... (Narrowed Topic) Differences in Bostonbased and Philadelphiabased abolitionist rhetoric... ...because I want to find ....so that readers understand... out... (Motivation or Argument) (Research Question) ...why Boston-based ...how previous scholars may have abolitionists emphasized overlooked the role of free black broad themes of social Bostonians in shaping anti-slavery ideals. justice... ...that their motives resulted not from The origins of the Glass- ...why lawmakers careful economic analysis but rather from Steagall Act supported its passage... ideological preconceptions about the role of commercial banks in society. (From Baruch College Writing Center "Focusing Research Topics Workshop" www.writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu) 3. Pull out the dependent (DV) and independent variable(s) (IV) that you are interested in looking at. This needs to be specific and you need to discuss ideas for how you might go about measuring the impact that the IV as on the DV. You need to focus in on one or two specific variables (and discuss how they are defined), otherwise your research will quickly spin out of control as you will not have the capacity to effectively address the relationship between all the variables. The PRS Group offers a good list of variables they use in their research. This list is just an example of variable to show you what a variable might look like and how it might be defined. From here develop a hypothesis that reflects your educated guess as to the relationship between those variables. You may use an “if” “then” statement or you may formulate it as a narrative statement. Hypothesis: A statement for how a change or condition in one or more independent variables cause(s) a change or condition in a dependent variable. Finally, explain why these are the important variables to look at within this research project. Why focus on these variables and not other variables? By the time you are done you should have at least 3-4 pages of content (double spaced in timesnew roman font), to include the title page, and a "references list or bibliography" page for a total of 5-7 pages. Your writing should be consistent with the professional/academic writing style in APA Format.
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