Presenting the Research

Problem

1
 Title
 Introduction
 Problem Statement
 Hypothesis
 Definitions
 Assumptions and limitations
 Significance

2
 Considerations
When Choosing the Title
 Written last, not first
 Must have a title for proposal (may be
provisional)
 Purpose of the title
 Conveys focus of the study
 Problems with titles
 Too long or too short
 Useless words

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 Example of a Poor Title
“An Investigation of a Survey and Analysis
of the Influence of PL 94-142 on the
Attitudes, Teaching Methodology, and
Evaluative Techniques of Randomly
Selected Male and Female Physical
Education Teachers in Public High
Schools in Cornfield County, State of
Confusion”

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 Better Title
 PL 94-142’s Influence on Physical
Education Teachers’ Attitudes,
Methodology, and Evaluations”
 Effect of X on Y

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 Questions to ask When
Contemplating a Title
1. Does the title precisely identify the area
of the problem?
2. Is the title clear, concise, free from
jargon, and adequately descriptive to
permit indexing the study in its proper
category?
3. Does the title identify the key variables
and provide some information about the
scope of the study?
Baumgartner and Hensley, 2006
6
 Questions to ask When
Contemplating a Title, cont’d
4. Are unnecessary words, such as “a study
of,” “an investigation of,” and “an analysis
of” avoided?
5. Do nouns, as opposed to adjectives,
serve as the key words in the title?
6. Have words been selected that will aid
computerized retrieval systems?
7. Are the most important words at the
beginning of the title?
Baumgartner and Hensley, 2006
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 Writing the Introduction
 How to write a good introduction
 Demonstrate the point of the study
 Omit technical jargon and products
 Know who you are writing for
 Write introduction after the problem and
hypotheses
 Lead the reader on a journey (3 paragraphs)
1. Broad intro
2. Prior research
3. What is missing and your purpose
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Example of a Good Introduction
 General Introduction (paragraph 1)
 Cardiorespiratory fitness is generally recognized as a
major component of physical fitness. Indeed,
cardiorespiratory fitness is the most significant component
of physical fitness in the relationship to health. Direct
measurement of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) is the
single best measure of cardiorespiratory fitness or aerobic
capacity (Åstrand & Rodahl, 1986; Mitchell, Sproule, &
Chapman, 1958; Taylor, Buskirk & Henschel, 1955).
However, direct measurement is time-consuming,
requires extensive laboratory equipment, and does not
lend itself to testing large number of subjects in field
settings. Because of the limitations of direct measures,
numerous field tests have been developed to estimate
VO2 max

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 Example of a Good Introduction,
cont’d
 Background Information (paragraph 2)
 Prediction of VO2 max from field tests requires performing at
either a maximal or submaximal effort, commonly running,
stepping, or bicycling. Recently, Kline, Porcari, Hintermeister
et al. (1987) developed a submaximal field test for predicting
VO2 max using a 1-mile walk protocol. This test, which has
become known as the Rockport Fitness Walking Test
(RFWT), was developed on a broad age range (30-69 years)
of males and females who were heterogeneous in terms of
aerobic capacity. These data indicate that the regression
equations developed by Kline, Porcari, Hintermeister et al. are
valid for adults between the ages of 30 and 69 years. The
RFWT has been cross-validated in samples of subjects 65 to
79 years old (Fenstermaker, Plowman, & Looney, 1992;
O’Hanley et al., 1987) and 30 to 39 years old (Zwiren,
Freedson, Ward, Wilke, & Rippe, 1991).

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 Example of a Good Introduction,
cont’d
 Lead-In to purpose (paragraph 3)
 However, the Kline, Porcari, Hintermeister et
al. (1987) equations have not been validated
for use with groups younger than those in the
original sample. Therefore, the purpose of
this study is to…

Dolgener et al. (1994)

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 Writing the Statement
of the Problem
 Problem statement – a specific, definitive
statement that specifies the question or
issue to be investigated in a research
study (Baumgartner & Hensley, 2006)
 The problem statement should be a single
sentence that describes the problem
 What is the problem statement for the
previous slides?

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 Examples of Problem (purpose)
Statements
 The purpose of this study is to investigate the
psychological factors related to indicators of eating
disorders among college female cheerleaders in Iowa.
 The purpose of this study is to identify the general
patterns of leisure participation of selected urban
Chinese youth.
 The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect
of color (green, blue, red, and white) on the performance
of a controlled target accuracy task.
 The primary purpose of this study is to test the
effectiveness of the Fire PALS program on fire and life
safety knowledge and behavioral intent of elementary
school teachers.
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 Identifying Variables
 Define independent, categorical
(moderator), dependent, control, and
extraneous variables

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 Developing the Research
Hypotheses
 Research hypotheses
 Expected results based on theory or
experience
 Stated as outcomes
 Null hypotheses (assumed)
 No significant differences or relationships
 What for previous intro?

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 Making Your Problem
and Hypotheses Clear
 Operational definitions
 Key terms with specific meaning
 Examples of terms needing operational
definitions:
 Strength
 Experienced
 Fatigue
 Learning
 Obesity
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 Making Your Problem
and Hypotheses Clear, cont’d
 Assumptions
 Participants will adhere to instructions (refrain
from exercise; follow prescribed diet, etc.)
 Limitations
 Possible shortcomings
 Weaknesses of the study
 Aspects the investigator cannot control

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 Making Your Problem
and Hypotheses Clear, cont’d
 Delimitations
 Characteristics imposed by the researcher
 Scope of the study
• Type of research participant
• Number of participants
• Measures to be collected
• Instruments utilized for testing
• Time and duration of the study
• Setting
• Type of intervention or treatment
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 Making Your Problem
and Hypotheses Clear, cont’d
 Significance of the study?
 Basic and applied research
 Seeking gaps in the research
 What has NOT been done?

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 Thesis vs. Journal Article
 Thesis assumes a novice researcher
 Purpose, hypotheses, limitations, etc. are
explicitly stated
 Publishers must printing contain costs;
only essential information appears in print
 No hypothesis
 No limitations
 No delimitations

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 Different types of papers
 Primary literature
 Secondary literature
 Tertiary literature
 Primary Literature
 Research Papers
 Case Studies
 Conference Proceedings
 Dissertations
 Primary Literature
 Research papers
 Original data
 First published record of the findings of an experiment
of series of experiments
 Peer reviewed
 Normally a group of authors
 Primary Literature
 Case studies
 Medical/veterinary/psychology literature
 Normally peer reviewed
 Report the circumstances of a particular case
• i.e. an unusual repair technique for a ruptured
achilles tendon
 Primary Literature
 Conference proceedings
 Vary in length and quality!
 Sometimes reviewed, sometimes not
 Often preliminary data
 Will often appear later in research paper form
 Primary Literature
 Dissertations
 Undergraduate research (BSc, MSc, BEng or MEng)
 Graduate research (MSc, MPhil, PhD)
 University published
 MSc, MPhil & PhD theses are examined and corrected
 Secondary Literature
 Review articles
 Information about primary sources
 Compilation or synthesis of ideas and data
 Should be reasonably objective (although often aren’t)
 Usually peer reviewed
 Tertiary Literature
 Textbooks – present science theory rather than
contributing to it
 Research Paper Structure
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 Abstract
 Advertisement for the paper
 Summary of paper
 Reason for performing the study
 Hypothesis
 Important results
 Implications of the findings
 Introduction
 Background to the study
 Brief overview of the current state of the field
 Citing other people’s work

“The function of tendons can be classified into two

categories: tensile force transmission, and storage of
elastic strain energy during locomotion (Ker et al.,
1988, 2000; Shadwick, 1990; Pollock and Shadwick,
1994).”
(Maganaris and Paul, 2002)
 Introduction
 Background to the study
 Brief overview of the current state of the field
 Citing other people’s work
 How the authors arrived at their research question
 Why this is the most important question in the
world!
 HYPOTHESIS
 Simple
 Easily answered
 Materials and Methods
 Clear concise description of what they did
 Often includes figure of experimental setup if appropriate
 Subjects
 Data collection – what they were measuring and how
 Analysis
 Statistics

 Methods should be clear enough to repeat the

experiment and give the same results
 Results
 What they found
 Visual representation of the
data
 Graphs
 Tables
 Good figure legends
 Description of their results - no
discussion of the implications
 Discussion
 Interpretation of the results
 How they relate to previous research
 Implication and/or applications of the findings
 How supplement A might improve endurance
 How knowledge of the forces at the knee during a
cutting manoeuvre might be used to reduce injury risk
 Future directions for research
 References
 Expansion of the citations in the text
 Record of the authors, title and journal where the
papers were published
 Critically important to avoid plagiarism – must
include the sources of all information that is
other people’s intellectual property
 Two citation methods
 Harvard System
 Numeric System
 Individual journals will request specific methods
 References
 Harvard System
 Cite references in the text by giving author’s
surname(s) and year of publication.
“The function of tendons can be classified into two
categories: tensile force transmission, and storage of
elastic strain energy during locomotion (Ker et al., 1988,
2000; Shadwick, 1990; Pollock and Shadwick, 1994).”
 References
 Harvard System
 Cite references in the text by giving author’s

surname(s) and year of publication.

“The function of tendons can be classified into two categories: tensile
force transmission, and storage of elastic strain energy during
locomotion (Ker et al., 1988, 2000; Shadwick, 1990; Pollock and
Shadwick, 1994).”
(Maganaris and Paul, 2002)
Reference list – alphabetical order
Ker, R.F., Alexander, R.McN. and Bennet, M.B. 1988. Why
are mammalian tendons so thick? Journal of Zoology,
London 216, 309-324

 Don’t use capitals for authors’ names as in library guide

to referencing
 References
 Numeric System

Each citation is given a number in parentheses. These
are numbered according to where they appear in the text.
First reference is (1), second reference is (2) etc
“However, excess tendon elongation leads to a partial or
complete tendon rupture (4), and the Achilles tendon is one
of the most frequently injured tendons in the human body
(5)”
(Muraoka et al., 2005)
 Reference list – listed in numerical order based on
number you have given each citation in the text.

4. Butler, D.L., Grood, E.S., Noyes, F.R.and Zernicke, R.F.

1978. Biomechanics of ligaments and tendons. Exerc.
Sport Sci. Rev. 6, 125-181
 What is a literature review?
 Critical look at existing research relevant to
your question in order to
 Identify the problem
 Develop a hypothesis
 Develop a method
 It is NOT just a summary of a series of
research papers
 You must evaluate the research papers and
show the relationships between different work
 What is a literature review?
 Approach it with the following questions
 What do we already know in the area concerned?
 What are the key concepts?
 What are the existing theories?
 What are the inconsistencies?
 What evidence is lacking, inconclusive,
contradictory or too limited?
 What views need to be tested further?
 Selecting a topic
 Real World vs Theoretical
 Research at higher institution
 Controversial issues
 Relevant to your sport
 Review papers
 Interesting!!!
 Six Step Procedure
(Thomas and Nelson, 1996)
 Problem statement
 Consult secondary sources
 Reviews – Exercise and Sport Science reviews
 Be wary of www sources
 Evaluating Internet Sources
 Is it someone’s ‘personal’ page?
 What type of domain does it come from?
 academic, charity, industry, government
 Who published the page?
 What are the author’s credentials?
 Are sources documented?
 When was it last updated?
 Six Step Procedure
(Thomas and Nelson, 1996)
 Problem statement
 Consult secondary sources
 Reviews – Exercise and Sport Science reviews
 Be wary of www sources
 Determine descriptors
 Search terms
 Search for primary sources
 Read and record literature
 Write literature review
 Read and Record Literature
 Hypothesis / Question
 Methods
 Subjects
 Instruments/tests used
 Testing procedures
 Independent/dependent variables
 Analysis
 Findings and Conclusions
 Critique of paper – strengths/weaknesses
 How to Write a Literature Review
 Background
 Introduce to topic to the reader
 Make it interesting and easily understandable by
explaining it in plain language and relating to
actual or potential applications
 Explain scientific principles underlying the topic
 Define and justify the scope of the review – i.e.
your question
 How to Write a Literature Review
 Critique of the Literature
 Do not give a summary paper by paper
 Deal with themes and try to draw together the
results from several papers into each theme.
 Use sub-headings to identify your themes
 Try and create a logical progression through the
subject/argument
 Use what you have learnt about research design
to critically evaluate the results of the papers you
are discussing
 How to Write a Literature Review
 Tables and Figures
 Tables can be a useful, concise way of
summarising the findings of a number of similar
studies
 You must cite the sources of the information
 Use tables alongside your evaluation of the data
in the text, not instead of it
 Figures and diagrams can be very useful to
explain important principles
• Cite source of information
 How to Write a Literature Review
 Conclusions
 Should be short and concise
 What is your opinion
 Further Research
 Finish your review with some ideas for further
research that needs to be done in the area and
why.
 How to Write a Literature Review
 References
 As used in Journal of Sports Sciences
• Names of author (s) and date of publication in the text
• Full references listed in alphabetical order in the
reference list
• Instructions on formatting references can be found in
all issues of JSS or on the JSS website
• http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/rjspauth.pdf
Section 5(h)
 Writing Style
 Spelling, grammar and punctuation matter!
 Use spell check
 Ask someone to read your paper for you before
handing it in
 Fonts and Symbols
 Do not use stylised fonts
 Many of the symbols needed for scientific
information can be found in insert-symbol
• Normal text (° ± Δ ½)
• Mathematical operators (Ω √ ≤ ∑)
 Writing Style
 Abbreviations and Acronyms
 Keep to a minimum
 Only use if full expression is excessively long or
abbreviation is in common use
 Define the first time it is used
 Use SI (Systeme Internationale) Units
 Système Internationale (SI) Units
Seven ‘constant’* base units using the metric system
Variable Unit Symbol Accepted Derivations
Distance metre m ha for area; º for angle;
#
l or L for volume
Mass* kilogram kg t
Time second s min, h, d (not year)
Temperature kelvin K
Mole mole mol #
l or L for volume
Current ampere A
Luminance candela cd
Units always lower-case#, neither italicised nor
pleuralised (i.e. kg not KGS) and with space
between value and unit (inc. % but exc. º).
 Writing Style
 Tables
 Insert-Table in word
 Units in column and row headings
 Use a realistic number of significant figures
 Include a legend which describes the table
 Figures
 Create figure in powerpoint of graphics software
 Insert-picture from file
 Create graphs in Excel or other graph drawing package
 Paste into word
 For this review paste figures into appropriate place in the
text. For publication figures should be separate
 Writing Style
 Use of Words
 Be economical – don’t waffle
 Be precise – don’t generalise, be specific if you
can
 Don’t use however more than once in a paragraph
• changing the direction of an argument twice in one
paragraph can confuse the reader
 Don’t use however too often
• Thesaurus for synonyms
 Keep technical terms to a minimum
 Avoid colloquialisms such as steer clear of
 Writing Style
 Use of Words
 Don’t use long complicated sentences
 Beware of tenses
• When describing experiments and reporting results
use past tense
• When discussing implications use present tense
 Beware of singular and plural terms
• Datum – data
• Medium – media
• Phenomenon – phenomena
 Writing Style
 Flow of Ideas
 Focus your thoughts by writing a plan/outline
first
 The first sentence of a paragraph usually sets
the topic for the paragraph
 Check that you don’t contradict yourself
 Aim for simplicity!
READ YOUR WORK BEFORE
YOU HAND IT IN!!!

Preferably ask someone else to

read it too!