Journal article synopsis
Description
Part of the course will focus on how to cite references appropriately and how to decode the content of research articles. For this week’s assignment you will be required to read the Journal Article – Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and recommendations
After reading the article you will write a synopsis for the article using the following template provided below.
In your written synopsis for the journal article, you must answer all of the following questions.
1. Research Topic:
What is the author’s general research question? [This will usually be near the beginning of the introduction.]
What is the author’s specific testable hypothesis (prediction)? [This is commonly found at the end of the introduction or the beginning of the study description.]
2. Methods:
Who are the participants in the research study?
What kind of study is this (experiment, correlational)? How was the study conducteed?
What are the main variables (IV and DV) in this study? There may be more than one of each. If it is a correlational study, there may be several variables being observed/measured, but none identified clearly as an IV or a D. If so, simply identify the variables.
3. Analysis/Results:
Highlight the most important results that test the author’s hypothesis.
4. Discussion:
Do the results support the author’s hypothesis? [Look for a simple statement of this near the beginning of the discussion section.]
What is the claim the author makes when discussing the results?
What does the author recommend as the msot interesting or important direction for future research?
What do you think would be the most interesting or important direction for future reserarch?
You must answer the 10 bulleted items in 1-4 in your synopsis for credit.
Listing your Reference in APA style:
General guidelines:
References cited in the text of a research paper must appear in a reference list or Bibliography.
This list proves the information necessary to identify and retrieve each source.
Order: Entries should be arranged in alphabetical order by author’s last names. Sources without authors are arranged alphabetically by title within the same list.
Authors: Write out the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work. Use an ampersand (&) instead of the word “and” when listing multiple authors of a single work. e.g., Smith, J.D. & Jones, M.
Pagination: Use the abbreviation p. or pp. to designate page numbers of articles from periodicals that do not use volume numbers, especially newspapers.
Indentation: the first line of the entry is flush with the left margin, and all subsequent lines are indented 5 to 7 spaces.
Underlings vs Italics; it is appropriate to use italics instead of underling for titles of books and journals.
