At this point, you should be working on two parallel tasks in your seminar paper process:
Constructing your "research instrument" (i.e., your questionnaire, interview, or other method for collecting data)
DO NOT use your research instrument until you get the approval from Dr. Backer. You want to make sure that your questions (for your questionnaire or interview) are in acceptable English, flow logically from one question to the next, and have answer-options are technically acceptable.
Send the first draft of your questionnaire (or interview) as a WORD document to Dr. Backer at drjamesbacker@yahoo.com .
Writing your Literature Review, whose first draft was due on 6 May 2025.
Prepare your first draft as a WORD doc and get it approved by Dr. Backer. When it's ready, transfer it to Google Forms. Do NOT send it out until Dr. Backer gives you the OK.
At the top of the questionnaire, briefly explain what the questionnaire is for and thank the respondents.
All questions (except for biographical information) should help answer your Research Question.
Maximum of 10 questions for students, 20 questions for teachers
Number all the questions.
Require first name. (small text box)
Require family name. (small text box) This decreases possible silliness.
Use "radio buttons" (i.e., not the check-box format)
Make sure that there is only ONE possible correct answer!
Don't have overlapping answers. (e.g., WRONG: 1-5 / 5 - 10 // RIGHT: 0 - 4 / 5 - 10)
Make sure all possible answers are available. (Use "other" at end if necessary.)
Be ready to report (in the Findings section) on a absolute numbers and percentages.
Make sure to write that there may be more than one correct answer.
Make sure all possible answers are available. (Use "other" at end if necessary.)
Be ready to report (in the Findings section) on a absolute numbers and percentages (despite the fact that the percentages probably won't add up to 100).
Be consistent throughout the questionnaire. (i.e. 1-5 or 1-7, etc.)
Least/worst on left - Greatest/best on right
Be careful of the wording of the stem.
Be ready to report (in the Findings section) on means (i.e., averages) and standard deviations.
Now, send your first draft as a WORD doc to Dr. Backer.
The Literature Review is NOT an annotative bibliography (reviewing one source after another)!!
The Literature Review is a theme-based narrative, which weaves together information form various sources as it proceeds from the most general sub-topic to the most specific sub-topic.
Use APA-style headings to announce each separate sub-topic. These are road signs for the reader.
WRITE THE ENTIRE LITERATURE REVIEW IN THE PAST TENSE (except direct quotes).
You need to cite or quote at least ten sources.
Keep notes on each source so that you can write your Literature Review, which will deal with the general topic and your specific Research Question. Remember that you will be paraphrasing almost everything as you report (using the PAST TENSE) about what other people published (in the PAST). Only quote material that is so perfect that paraphrasing would impoverish the information. If you do plan to quote something, note the page numbers of the specific text.
Make sure you note the following information for each source for the Reference List:
The last name of the author(s) and the initial(s) of their first names - If there are no authors, note the organization than produced the source.
The year of publication of the source. If you can't find the year of publication anywhere, then note: n.d.
The title of the article, book, webpage, video, or other source
if the source comes from a journal, note the name of the journal, the volume number, the issue number, and the page(s).
If the source is a book, note the name of the publisher.
If the source is a chapter in a book, note all the information about the book (above), the name of the chapter, and the page numbers of the chapter.
If you found the source on the open internet (i.e., not in a closed data base), note the URL
State your Research Questions(s) in a way that is suitable for the type of the study (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods).
Describe the participants and the context. Who were they? How did you find them? How many were there? Where were they from? What type of school were they from?
Describe the research instrument(s) and the means of data collection. Did you use a questionnaire, interviews, or some other form of data collection? Did you use online tools to collect your data? How much time did you give participants to respond?
Describe the method of data analysis. Was the data quantitative, qualitative, or mixed? How did you analyze the data from each research instrument? Did you use any online tools? Did you use any A.I. tools?
NOTICE THE PAST TENSE IN THE ABOVE QUESTIONS!! BY THE TIME YOU WRITE THE METHODS, YOU WILL HAVE FINISHED USING THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS. YOU WILL HAVE FINISHED ANALYZING THE DATA. YOU MUST USE THE PAST TENSE THROUGHOUT THE METHODS SECTION.
You will report on the rather dry data, saving your in-depth analysis for the Discussion section.
Write the Findings section, like the Literature Review and the Methods section, in the PAST TENSE!!
Report on every question you asked . You can proceed in order of the questions, or organized by themes, but make sure you report of all of them.
For each multiple-choice questions, restate the question, then report the number of respondents that answered each option and write their percentage of all respondents. Help your readers by using the same pattern in each report of multiple-choice questions.
For each scale-based questions, restate the question, then report the total number of respondents for the question, the mean (i.e., the average response), and the standard deviation. Help your readers by using the same pattern in each report of scale-based questions.
Add tables or figures ONLY IF THEY ADD TO THE COMPREHENSION OF THE DATA. Do NOT add tables or figures if they merely repeat the data for the individual questions. DO NOT use tables and figures for decorating the text.
For each qualitative question, you will have to think about the responses and look for patterns and categories that arise from the data. You will report on these patterns and categories, proceeding from the strongest data to the weakest data. Quote the respondents if the quotations ADD to the comprehension of the presentation of the data.
At the very end of the Findings section you could have separate summary tables for all the multiple-choice questions and all the scale-based questions. Each of these tables would be ordered from the strongest data to the weakest data. Make sure you include the number of the question and a restatement of each question. Remember: Help the reader!!
There is no "regular" homework for Lesson 18.
Please note that the first draft (i.e., a rough draft) of you Literature Review (of your seminar paper) will be due on May 6. Like the submission of the seminar paper proposal, submission of your first draft of the Literature Review will be weighted as three times the grade of a "regular" task.
If you use the present tense in your draft, you will just have to change it to the past tense. So, just write the Literature Review in the PAST TENSE (except for the direct quotes) and save yourself the work!!