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Results Section
This section of your research paper should be 2 to 4 pages long (double spaced,
standard 12 point font), including your three tables - in other words, you do not
need 2 to 4 pages of narrative, just 2 to 4 pages total where the narrative is interspersed
with your tables.
You should:
1. Fill in all three tables by placing the count and the row percentage
from your spss output into each of the 4 cells of the table. Place the row percentages
first and place the counts in parentheses afterward. Make sure that you look at
the example and fill in your table in the same manner.
2. Make certain that the percentage in each row sums to 100%
3. Provide a brief summary where you compare the percentages across one of the columns
as we discussed in class.
4. Make certain that your draft looks something like the example I provided in the
prior student paper.
5. Because this is an introductory class, we will not be applying the concept of
"statistical significance" or "confidence intervals" because we only briefly covered
these concepts in class discussions. Instead, we will use the following [somewhat
arbitrary] convention. (this convention is also not contained in the prior student
paper, but yours should use this):
a) if the difference between groups (the two cells in either the first column
or the two cells in the second column) is 1% or less, say that
there is no difference between the categories/groups.
b) if the difference is greater than 1% and less than 8%, say that there is a moderate
difference.
c) if the difference is 8% or more, say that there is a large difference.
As discussed in class, if the independent variable is on the rows, you should compare
the cells in either column 1 or column 2. Do not repeat this
comparison by also comparing the cells in the other column and make certain that
you don't compare cells in the same row.
6. Discuss whether your analysis supports or does not support your hypothesis. Although
not technically correct, for this introductory class, you can use the conventions
above to speak about the amount of support for your hypothesis. If the difference
falls under category a (step 5a above - 1% or less) say that you found no
support for you hypothesis, if it falls under category b say that you found some
support, and if the difference falls under category c say that you found strong
support for your hypothesis. If the difference is in an opposite direction than
you anticipated, than obviously there is no support for your hypothesis, but there
may be support for a competing one. Do not use the term "significant" when speaking
about the differences between your categories because we are not using significance
tests in this paper (unless you use apply the option below).
Optional - If you have taken a statistics course or another methods course
and have learned to use a "chi-square" test of significance, you are free to do
so and discuss what this means in your paper. This is entirely optional and not
required for this class. If you choose to do this, you should substitute the appropriate
language for testing the differences between two groups rather than using the [arbitrary]
conventions above.
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