Essay Sample on Research Paper Writing

Referencing information

Referencing information is all the information about the book, research paper and the article. This is the author name, title, edition and date ("Finding Referencing Information - Books - The University Of Nottingham"). This research was carried out by the University of Iowa student Mark Andrew Baccei. The dissertation is available at the Iowa research online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/atd/1538. The recommended citation for the paper is (Baccie, Mark Andrew. "Understand College Student Leadership Development: A Longitudinal Examination of the Impact of Campus-Based Leadership Training." Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa 2015. http://ir.uiowa.edu/atd/1538.)

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Research Purpose/Question

The purpose of the study helps the readers to understand the importance of the study that is relative to a person's value ("Purpose of the Study"). The decantation by Baccie was up to point as it sought to investigate and understand the existing relationship that is there between the undergraduate students' participation in the campus-based leadership training and the students' leadership overall leadership qualities and development (Baccie, 2015). The study took in consideration the involvement experience and pre-college, the background characteristic of a student, the collegiate experience of a student (this is the community service and organizational membership) and also the institutional environment. This was a pretty good consideration as it covered all the qualities of a good leadership. The following are the questions that this study sought to answer (Baccie, 2015).

In any research, there should be a research question as it is the fundamental care of them in a research project. It determines the methodology focuses on the study and also guides all the stages of analysis, inquiry and reporting ("Writing Research Questions"). In this case, the researcher sought to understand if the participation in the campus-based education and the student leadership training can result to more significant gains in the students' leadership development than other factors like environmental/ institutional factors and other students' factors (Baccie, 2015). He sought to understand the impact individual racial and gender background can affect the students' overall leadership development. This researcher also sought to understand if there was an effect of the co-curricular involvement this is the students' leadership position, the student organizational membership, community service and the fraternity membership on the overall leadership development. The study also had a purpose of understanding if there is an effect in the curricular influence which is the academic major and the GPA on the students' leadership development (Baccie, 2015). The lastly intended to investigate if students interaction effects between the student gender and trace affect the leadership development. All the above was really a good approach to understand the college students leadership development.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework can be defined as the researcher's mat to pursue the investigation (Regoniel). The researcher in this paper did not display the conceptual framework of this study. This doesn't mean that the study didn't have a clear concept but it could be a bit necessary for the study to have a structured conceptual framework part in the study although the theoretical framework was clear. A conceptual framework helps in displaying the scope of the literature that exists, the ways that will help the readers to understand the all the phenomenon that is being researched and how other researchers have researched them and understood them (Ajjawi, and →). Conceptual framework also helps to highlight how one has chosen to frame and study the phenomenon that is being researched and so find the tradition for positioning himself/herself (Ajjawi, and →).

Data Collection Methods

The process collecting information from the relevant sources so as to find answers to a research problem, evaluate the outcome and test the hypothesis is referred as data collection methods ("Data Collection Methods - Research-Methodology"). Baccie collected his data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts (WNS). The use of WNS data was relevant because it has data and information from several universities and colleges from all the 21 state in the United States (Baccie, 2015). WNS has a pretest-posttest design which provides a statistically and a more reliable elaboration of the college students' leadership development which is more fit the commonly used cross-sectional studies. There were three cohorts (2006-2010, 2007-2011 and 2008-2012) that were used to collect the data by WNS.

Sampling Procedures

The process of selecting a group from a larger group of the population of the same trait is referred to as the sampling procedure ("Dr. Anthony Picciano - Education Research Methods"). Because the researcher collected his data from WNS he did not have to perform any sampling procedure. The researcher definitely had to use the data that had been acquired by other researchers to achieve his objectives of understanding college students' leadership development. The data had already been collected for him; he only needed to analyze the data (Baccie, 2015). The researcher utilized the sample data collected by the WNS in a good manner.

Data Analysis Methods

There are two main data analysis technique, the qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The qualitative data analysis involves the process of identifying the common patterns that are in the responses and critically analyzing them so as to meet the objective of the study. On the other hand, quantitative data analysis involves the critical analysis where the figures and numbers are interpreted and have the attempts to find the rationale behind the emergence of the main findings ("Data Analysis - Research-Methodology"). The researcher in this paper had three types of data analysis techniques. He started with the missing data which he used listwise deletion which is one of the best analysis tools for missing data and it is highly recommended. The researcher also analyzed the descriptive statistics by performing the summaries of all the variables which are the best way to understand the effects of the data you used in your variables. He also performed a correlation to demonstrate the relationship between the different variable which is also recommended in statistical analysis. Finally, the researcher performed a multiple regression this is because his study comprises of different stages. These stages are to find out whether there were significant general effects that could be brought by the participation in campus-based leadership training on the students' leadership development. The other stage is where the data analysis to find out if there is the net-effect of campus-based training directed on leadership development were conditional on individual's racial or gender background.

Findings/Conclusions

The researcher in this paper presented very elaborate conclusions and findings hence meeting his objective of understanding the students' leadership development. His findings clearly demonstrated his findings.

References

Ajjawi, Rola, and View → "Conceptual Frameworks In Research: What, Why And How | Medical Education Research Network". Blogs.Cmdn.Dundee.Ac.Uk, 2018, https://blogs.cmdn.dundee.ac.uk/meded-research/2015/02/conceptual-frameworks/. Accessed 25 June 2018.

Baccie, Mark Andrew. "Understand College Student Leadership Development: A Longitudinal Examination of the Impact of Campus-Based Leadership Training." Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa 2015. http://ir.uiowa.edu/atd/1538.

"Data Analysis - Research-Methodology". Research-Methodology, 2018, https://research-methodology.net/research-methods/data-analysis/. Accessed 25 June 2018.

"Data Collection Methods - Research-Methodology". Research-Methodology, 2018, https://research-methodology.net/research-methods/data-collection/. Accessed 25 June 2018.

"Dr. Anthony Picciano - Education Research Methods". Anthonypicciano.Com, 2018, https://www.anthonypicciano.com/Sampling.html. Accessed 25 June 2018.

"Finding Referencing Information - Books - The University Of Nottingham". Nottingham.Ac.Uk, 2018, https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/writing/referencing/books/bookciting.aspx. Accessed 25 June 2018.

"Purpose Of The Study". Unk.Edu, 2018, http://www.unk.edu/academics/gradstudies/irb/consent-assent/purpose-of-study.php. Accessed 25 June 2018.

"Writing Research Questions". Research Rundowns, 2018, https://researchrundowns.com/intro/writing-research-questions/. Accessed 25 June 2018.

Regoniel, Patrick A. "Conceptual Framework: A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Make One". Simply educate.Me, 2018, https://simplyeducate.me/2015/01/05/conceptual-framework-guide/. Accessed 25 June 2018.