Topic 2 DQs
275 words, 1 citation: Describe the major sections of a research report used in counseling research. What is the core content included in each section of the report? Distinguish between the writing for research purposes versus writing for standard graduate level courses. How are they similar? How are they different?
275 words, 2 citations: Discuss some of the common problems that can be found in research reports as applied to counseling research? Provide at least two scholarly references you used to justify your responses.
Topic 2 DQs
Student Name
University
Course
Professor Name
Date
Describe the major sections of a research report used in counseling research. What is the core content included in each section of the report? Distinguish between the writing for research purposes versus writing for standard graduate level courses. How are they similar? How are they different?
The main sections of a research report include the abstract, introduction to the report, methods, findings, discussion of the findings, and the references. The abstract includes the summary of the entire study including the research question, a summary of the methods section, results, and significant conclusion. The introduction section contains the research question and a literature review that discusses information relevant to the research topic. The methods section describes the procedure used when conducting the study including the research design, participant selection, informed consent, and data collection procedures. The results section presents the main findings of the study including the results obtained from statistical analysis of the data. The discussion section includes the summary of the research, theoretical and practical implications, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research. The conclusion simply summarizes the study’s findings and the implications. References include a list of the literature used to complete the research report (Bowers et al., 2015).
Writing for research is similar to writing for standard graduate level courses in that both involve organizing thoughts and making arguments based on findings obtained through research. Both also allow the writers to share knowledge with others. However, the main difference between the two is that writing for research is based on an in-depth exploration of the topic at hand through actual research and entails the presentation of primary research results. Writing for research increases the body of knowledge on specific topics. Writing for standard graduate level courses, on the other hand, is based on exploration of secondary literature and synthesizing the ideas from different published material to make conclusions (Wischgoll, 2017).
References
Bowers, R., Minichiello, V., & Plummer, D. (2015). Qualitative Research in Counseling: A Reflection for Novice Counselor Researchers. The Qualitative Report. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2007.1650
Wischgoll, A. (2017). Improving Undergraduates’ and Postgraduates’ Academic Writing Skills with Strategy Training and Feedback. Frontiers in Education, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2017.00033
Discuss some of the common problems that can be found in research reports as applied to counseling research? Provide at least two scholarly references you used to justify your responses.
The main problems that may be found in research reports include the use of discriminatory language, weak abstracts that do not provide a good summary of the report, and weak transitions from one section of the report to another. In the literature review section, issues that may arise include lack of logical arguments or rationale to support the need for the study and bias during the literature review process. In the data collection and analysis sections, problems such as falsification of data and intentional omission of specific findings may be misleading to the readers. Falsifying and fabricating data are examples of misconducts that affect research conclusions. Researchers are expected to honestly disclose all methods and sources used in data collection (Brown et al., 2018). Lack of ethics approval for the research design and data collection methods is also a significant issue. It is important for researchers to obtain approval from ethics committees before conducting any research involving human subjects (Sng et al., 2016).
Other issues that may arise in research reports include plagiarism and redundant publication. Plagiarism refers to using other people’s unpublished or published ideas without referencing the sources. Redundant publication arises in situations where more than two papers share similar research questions, hypotheses, discussion points, data, or conclusions. Cases of self-plagiarism may also occur when authors republish previous works or reuse them when writing new research reports. Conflict of interest is an issue that may arise in research reports when personal, academic, commercial, or financial interests influence the researcher’s judgment on the content they publish. For instance, when counseling research is funded by a specific organization, researchers may experience financial conflict of interest that may introduce bias when interpreting and presenting the results (Sng et al., 2016).
References
Brown, A., Kaiser, K., & Allison, D. (2018). Issues with data and analyses: Errors, underlying themes, and potential solutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(11), 2563-2570. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708279115
Sng, B., Yip, C., & Han, N. (2016). Legal and ethical issues in research. Indian Journal of Anaesthesia, 60(9), 684. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5049.190627