COM71504 – Research Methodology Assignment 1

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COM71504 – Research Methodology

Assignment 1 – Article Critique (20%)

Deadlines: Sunday 5 May 2024, 11.59pm Malaysia Time

Using what you have learned so far, please select three articles from peer-reviewed journals; one on a topic that you are interested in, and two based on their research methodologies, one using qualitative and another using quantitative. You may choose articles that you admire and would use their methodology for your research or articles that you disagree with based on their methods. It is up to you and I hope you will use this opportunity to look at the literature that’s available to find articles to learn more about what is of interest to you and incorporate that into your postgraduate study. Please take note to only select articles that make use of empirical research.

The critique of each article should consist of the following:

1. Overall summary of the article with a brief description of the topic, the methods used, and its findings. This should be about a paragraph long.

2. You should identify what is the problem statement for the article. These are often not very clearly spelled out, so you should try to determine them based on how they are written.

3. Hypotheses/Research Questions. This depends on whether it is a qualitative (Research Questions) or quantitative (hypotheses) article. You should highlight them and critique the quality of these statements and questions.

4. Summarize and critique the theoretical framework used. This often involves the application of theories or approaches and serves as the backbone for the study.

5. Give your reflections on the article, highlighting the positives and negatives that you found and how these can be helpful for your research or projects.

As these are articles that are published in peer-reviewed journals, they would be of a certain quality (depending on what articles you choose), so when critiquing, you will have to employ a more introspective and interrogative eye to examine their quality and issues. Try to think about what the researchers may have missed or overestimated in their research design or sometimes some very simple elements that can improve things drastically.

Here are some basic requirements for this assignment:

500 words for each critique (therefore, 500 words x 3 = 1,500 words)

Please submit an online copy to the Assignment 1 Turnitin Submission link on MYTimes by the deadline. The similarity index limit is 20% and you will be allowed to resubmit as many times as you like until the final deadline. Please take note that the similarity index will only be updated within 24 hours once you’ve submitted more than 3 times, so plan accordingly.

Any late submissions will incur a penalty (1 mark) for each day it is late (To a maximum of 3 days). Extensions of deadlines will only be provided for emergency or special cases (which require at least 48 hours' notice before the assignment deadline)

Submission must be made in a Word/ PDF file, and uploaded on Turnitin. (compile all essays into one file)

The grading rubric is as follows:

For each article critique (5 marks each x 3 articles =15 marks total)

Summary – 1 marks

Problem statement – 1 marks

Hypotheses/Research Questions – 1 marks

Theoretical framework – 1 marks

Reflections – 1 marks

Present a conclusion paragraph at the end synthesizing your main reflections on all three articles and how they have informed you of a potential research project for your study here – 5 marks

Rubrics for Each Assessment Task:

Assessment Task 1: Individual Assignment – Journal Article Critiques (20%)

Students are required to select a series of journal articles using empirical research methods and critique the research design, collection, and analytical methods