Understanding and Evaluating Research

A Critical Guide

Sue L. T. McGregor

• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Year: 2017
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506350967
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide shows students how to be critical consumers of research and to appreciate the power of methodology as it shapes the research question, the use of theory in the study, the methods used, and how the outcomes are reported. The book starts with what it means to be a critical and uncritical reader of research, followed by a detailed chapter on methodology, and then proceeds to a discussion of each component of a research article as it is informed by the methodology. The book encourages readers to select an article from their discipline, learning along the way how to assess each component of the article and come to a judgment of its rigor or quality as a scholarly report.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Brief Contents
• Detailed Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Part I Introduction
• 1 Critical Research Literacy
• Part II Philosophical And Theoretical Aspects Of Research
• 2 Research Methodologies
• 3 Conceptual Frameworks, Theories, and Models
• Part III Orienting And Supportive Elements Of Research
• 4 Orienting and Supportive Elements of a Journal Article
• 5 Peer-Reviewed Journals
• Part IV Research Justifications, Augmentation, And Rationales
• 6 Introduction and Research Questions
• 7 Literature Review
• Part V Research Design and Research Methods
• 8 Overview of Research Design and Methods
• 9 Reporting Qualitative Research Methods
• 10 Reporting Quantitative Methods and Mixed Methods Research
• Part VI Results and Findings
• 11 Statistical Literacy and Conventions
• 12 Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
• 13 Results and Findings
• Part VII Discussion, Conclusions, And Recommendations
• 14 Discussion
• 15 Conclusions
• 16 Recommendations
• Part VIII Argumentative Essays And Theoretical Papers
• 17 Argumentative Essays: Position, Discussion, and Think-Piece Papers
• 18 Conceptual and Theoretical Papers
• Appendix
• References
• Index