GUIDELINES
At the top of the paper write ‘Critique of Egan et al. (2011)’ as the title and place your full name and student ID number below that. No introduction or conclusion is required. Divide your assignment into the four sections below:
Topic and the research question (Suggested Total Word Count: 300 words, at least half of which address Point 2 below)
1. Citing appropriate references starting with the course text, briefly explain key ideas regarding the selection of topics and the formulation of research questions. How should topics be selected? How should questions be articulated?
2. Critique how well Egan, et al. chose their topic and articulated their research question. Did the authors outline a compelling justification for the study? Were their questions/hypotheses clearly articulated? If appropriate, argue how they could have improved their choice and justification of the topic and their articulation of questions.
Review of the literature (Suggested Total Word Count: 300 words, at least half of which address Point 2 below)
1. Citing appropriate references starting with the course text, briefly explain key ideas regarding the review of related literature. What is a review of the literature meant to do? What should it contain?
2. Critique how well Egan, et al. reviewed relevant literature. Did authors present relevant literature? If yes, was the presentation in line with what a review of literature should be? If appropriate, argue how they could have improved their review of the literature.
Choice of approach (Suggested Total Word Count: 300 words, at least half of which address Point 2 below)
1. Citing appropriate references starting with the course text, briefly explain key ideas regarding the choice of approach. What is a quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods approach? When are they useful?
2. Critique Egan, et al.’s choice of approach (quantitative, qualitative or mixed). Was the choice of approach appropriate? Is there a better approach? If appropriate, argue and justify a better choice of approach.
Design and measurement (Suggested Total Word Count: 300 words, at least half of which address Point 2 below)
1. Citing appropriate references starting with the course text, briefly explain key ideas regarding the selection of ‘cases’ and ‘time’ element for social research. What are the options for the selection of ‘cases’ and the ‘time’ element?
2. Critique Egan, et al.’s design of their research. Did their choice of ‘cases’ and ‘time’ for the research make sense? If appropriate, argue and justify a better choice of design in terms of the two aspects.
References
Use at least 5 references
ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES
• Note that the suggested word counts total no more than 1,200 words in length.
• Your main reference will be the course text. Apart from the course text, you may benefit from relevant learning resources that can be found in the UniSA eReadings. They are not required but may be useful.
• The paper must utilise scholarly literature, cited according to a standard referencing system – either the UniSA Harvard Author-Date Referencing System or the APA Style.
Course Textbook: Neuman, W. L . 2014, Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 7th [Pearson New International Edition] , Harlow Pearson Education Limited, Boston, USA.