ARTICLE OUTLINE ASSIGNMENT

Assigned reading:

Flett, G. L., Blankstein, K. R., Hewitt, P. L., & Koledin, S. (1992). Components of perfectionism and procrastination in college students. Social Behavior and Personality, 20(2), 85-94.

ADVICE ON READING AN EMPIRICAL ARTICLE

It is important for you to understand the purpose of each section of an empirical article and to practice your skills at dealing with complex readings. I do not expect you to understand every word or sentence of the article; the authors use a great deal of vocabulary you have not learned yet.  More importantly, empirical articles are a unique kind of writing and are not designed to be read straight through like you would a textbook chapter. You want to read empirical articles with a purpose in mind.  For example, in this assignment, you are simply reading the article to find out, in broad terms, what the authors did, why they did it and what they found. In other circumstances one might read an empirical article to learn about a specific questionnaire or methodology, to gain background information on a subject (from the Intro), or to compare and contrast findings amongst several empirical articles (from the Discussion sections). Your strategy for reading depends on your purpose. The more articles you read, the easier it gets to find what you want to know.

For your goal of simply understand what the authors did, why they did it and what they found, I would suggest the following reading strategy:

• Read the title and abstract first.  You may not understand it all, but doing so will give you a broad framework.
• Read the first few paragraphs of the discussion section next.  Again, you won’t know anything about the variables they are referring to yet, but reading this will help strengthen the framework.
• Read the introduction, method and discussion sections. Use these guidelines as you read:
• When reading these sections, read each paragraph for the “gist.”
• Avoid highlighting during your first read-through. Instead, write in the margins of the article a keyword or two for each paragraph or handful of paragraphs.
• The idea here is to get a general notion of what the article is about, not to memorize or nail down all the important details the first time through. Assume that, if you find the article interesting and/or relevant to a future research project, you will be reading it again anyway.
• Go with the flow and watch for the general picture the authors are drawing.
• But, if you read 3-4 paragraphs in a row and feel like you are drowning rather than going with the flow, that is your signal to stop and re-read from the point at which you last had a general idea of what the authors were saying.

YOU WILL BE CREATING THIS OUTLINE DURING CLASS, WITH A PARTNER

Create an outline with the following sections. 

I.  General Background Information (Introduction)

Decide what two or more constructs (variables) are central to the authors' research and write a sentence or two for each construct noting the definitions and/or major findings from past research.

II.  Research Question / Purpose of the article (Introduction)

What new information do the authors want to know?  The literature review in the Introduction should be organized such that it makes an argument for the importance of the authors' research question. Sometimes the research question is formally stated, and other times the reader must glean the information. You can find this information in the article's Introduction (often towards the end) and, sometimes, the abstract.       

III.  Hypothesis (Introduction)

What specific prediction(s) are the authors making? Often the hypothesis is formally stated in the final paragraph of the Introduction, phrased as "We predict such and such will happen.”

IV.  Variables (Introduction & Method)   

What are the independent and dependent variables (or, in the case of correlational studies, the “predictor” and the “outcome” variables)? These are usually found in the introduction and method sections (and sometimes the abstract).  You can also figure out what these variables are from the hypothesis.

V.  Method (Method)

Who participated in the study and what did they have to do?  Under a “participants” heading, briefly state who did the study.  Children?  Adults? Ages?  Gender?  Races?  etc.  Under a “materials” section describe any questionnaires or tasks the participants were asked to do.

VI.  Major Findings (Discussion)

Did the results of the experiment support their hypothesis?  What were the major findings of the article?  The research article is a story of sorts.  It starts by making a prediction and ends with telling us if they were right.  The main results are often summarized at the very beginning of the Discussion section.  If not at the beginning, then the main results will be described somewhere in the Discussion.

Note:  The results are more specifically described in the Results section. You should always at least skim this section, even if you don’t understand a word of it.  You’ll be surprised by how much of a Results section starts to make sense as you progress in this class and in the major. That said, even your professors don’t understand all the Results sections they read.  For this assignment, just focus on the Discussion section.

VII.  So What? (Discussion)

Good discussion sections will read as if they are a 2nd paper (with the intro, method and results being the first paper).  In the discussion section, authors should indicate or reiterate why their findings are important, and how their findings speak to or fit in with other existing research.