Instruction
Assignment Instructions
At this point, you have had some experience reading abstracts. Now it is time to read the whole thing. For this assignment, you will create a synthesis from three articles.
Preparation Work
Day 1:
In this module, you will see a list of articles for your choosing. You will choose your first article from this collection. From there, the other two articles you choose must be related to the topic presented in the first article. Use your super amazing library searching skills from FYE 1220 and KINS 2535 to find the articles. You can consult the reference list of the first article for ideas or go searching for articles on your own. All three articles must be from peer-reviewed scholarly journals and must be original research (i.e., no review articles, no practitioner articles, no meta-analyses). If you are unsure if your article is original research, email me the article and I will help you.
Day 2:
Read the articles you found. As you are reading your articles, keep the following information in mind. Answering these questions will help guide your understanding of the article, but you do not need to answer each of these in your synthesis. I am not collecting this information, so bullet points and notes are perfectly fine.
What kind of quantitative study was this? Descriptive, correlational, or experimental and how do you know?
What is the purpose of the study and why are the authors conducting this study?
Provide information about the participants. How many? What demographic characteristics did they have?
Describe how the study was conducted.
Describe the kind of data collected. How did the authors ensure that their measurements were valid and reliable?
What were the results?
What are some of the limitations of the study?
Describe the practical significance of the study and/or how the study applies to the field of exercise science.
Day 3:
Writing the synthesis. Through synthesis, we can determine similarities, differences, and relationships among sources as well as combine parts, features, elements, or factors of the issues in new and or different ways.
For this synthesis, I would like for you to take a critical look at the articles you have chosen. To help in planning what you will write, look at all of the related articles and write down what you see in terms of similarities and differences in the findings or general execution of the study, common methods of data collection and analysis, methodological issues, and limitations of each study. This will come from the notes you took on Day 2. Use the synthesis matrix provided to help determine what you will write about in your paper. Be sure to provide an APA formatted reference and in-text citations for each article used in the synthesis. I have also uploaded an example synthesis for you to see.
The audience this introduction for someone who is currently taking KINS 3541 Structural Kinesiology.
The synthesis must be no more than 2 pages, double spaced. The third page will contain your reference list.
Common outline
Opening: Briefly introduce your topic and why you are studying it. Tell me the reasons why the authors are conducting the studies you have chosen (significance of the studies). Provide a general purpose statement for your paper. This will describe what you will discuss in the rest of the paper.
Body: Explain what you found to be similarities and differences, common methods of data collection and analysis, methodological issues, and limitations of the articles you read. In other words, here is where the synthesis happens. This does not have to be limited to just the suggestions above, but should always relate back to your project and the purpose for it.
Closing: Draw conclusions from what you have observed in the articles.
Assignment Expectations and Grading Criteria
For this assignment, I will be evaluating your ability to correctly and completely synthesize the research articles. You will also be evaluated on your ability to use proper grammar and sentence mechanics along with properly formatting your paper in APA style. The first draft will be worth 15 points and the final draft will be worth 55. Both will use a rubric for evaluation.