Research Topics and APA Style for Publication
Most PhD scholars continue to conduct research once they graduate with their doctorate. PhD scholars are expected to advance the research agenda in their field of study during their academic careers (Salmons & Kara, 2019). To start this journey, what types of education topics are you interested in, within your doctoral specialization? For example, a scholar in curriculum and teaching may be interested in studying effective curricula. Scholars in organizational leadership may be interested in teacher retention. There is a myriad of possible research topics in each education specialization.
What makes a good topic for doctoral research? For qualitative research, this is a topic where you can conduct face to face or electronic interviews or focus groups or observations with study participants or have them fill out an online qualitative questionnaire. For quantitative research, this is a topic that requires you to analyze archived data or have participants complete an existing or newly created survey on a particular topic using Likert-type responses, and then analyze the numerical data from those responses (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).
For this course, you will select a hypothetical research topic during this first week, which will anchor the work you do for your assignments for Weeks 2 through 8. This may or may not be the topic you eventually use for your dissertation, and that’s OK. For now, simply select an education-related topic for which you could hypothetically conduct research; for example, collect and analyze either qualitative or quantitative data and report your findings.
Once you have established a research topic, writing as a PhD scholar takes on a new meaning. As a PhD scholar, you no longer write to tell a story, using adjectives, adverbs, and hyperbole, or write as if you were writing a newspaper article. In scholarly writing, you read and synthesize research to state the facts, backed by evidence by citing your work, to create solid inquiry.
Scholarly writing is a specific type (genre) of writing. Scholarly writing follows the basic rules of grammar and composition, and conforms to the style of its genre, as outlined in the American Psychological Association (APA, 2019) publication manual. To be published, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the writing standard required by most scholarly journals and national education conferences. Mastery of the APA style does not happen in a week or a month. Learning to write in APA style is a process that takes time and practice. And, the sooner you memorize the basics of APA style, the sooner APA style will become second nature to you as you write, which builds your skills and confidence as a PhD scholar. For this week’s assignment, you will become familiar with the basic building blocks of APA style as you create an APA tip sheet for yourself. This tip sheet may evolve throughout your studies. Make notes for yourself as you progress through this course and your program. Keeping an easy-to-reference tip sheet will save you a great deal of time!
Masteryof scholarly writing and APA style occurs when you can apply the basic principles of grammar, punctuation, and usage to your writing, and prepare the most common types of citations and references without needing to refer to the APA manual or your tip sheet. But even the best scholarly writers can have an off day, so your tip sheet always serves as a handy go-to-resource.
It is highly recommended that you visit Academic Writer in the Academic Success Center during this course and your future content courses. Academic Writer contains samples of properly formatted papers and references using APA style. All of these resources are accessible through The Commons. As you progress through your courses, using Academic Writer may help you with your editing to produce polished pieces of scholarly writing.
Getting Started with APA 7
Learn the basics of APA Style, including how to format a manuscript, understand the form and function of common manuscript parts, organize and express your thoughts clearly and precisely, employ the mechanics of style, use graphic elements effectively, credit sources and acknowledge the contributions of others, and construct a comprehensive and reliable reference list.
https://apastyle.apa.org/
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_overview_and_workshop.html
Also, the SUU Writing Center is an excellent resource for all SUU students. You may submit a piece of writing or resource question anytime using the resources found on this webpage. If submitting a question to complete your assignment, ask the question as early as possible in the first part of the week and plan your time accordingly.
References
American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
Academic Writer. (2016). Getting started with APA style. American Psychological Association.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018) Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. SAGE.
Salmons, J., & Kara, H. (2019). Publishing from your doctoral research: Create and use a publication strategy. Routledge.
Weekly Resources and Assignments
Track Changes in Microsoft Word
Week 1 Assignments
Assignment: Prepare an APA tip sheet after selecting a potential research topic
Part 1
First, select a potential research topic, as discussed in the weekly introduction. Provide a summary of why this topic needs further research and include 2-3 APA cited references that support the topic. These sources should be published within the last five years. Use the following guidelines to complete Part 1:
– Select a hypothetical research topic within your doctoral specialization and type that topic in a Word document. An example would be Non-traditional Student Retention in Higher Education.
– Provide a brief summary (up to one page), with cited references, of why this is a timely topic needing further research, and two to three sentences regarding why you are personally interested in the topic. Access the SUU Library to conduct a search for those references. Present your summary as a non-biased, impartial researcher with research citations to support your assertion that further research is needed on the topic.
– List your references in alphabetical order, APA formatted, that you cited in the summary.
Part 2
Create an APA tip sheet on the second page of your Word document. At the end of the tip sheet, summarize what you learned from creating the tip sheet. Your APA tip sheet, at a minimum, must include the following:
– How to use “and” to cite authors in text and use “&” to cite authors in parenthetical format and the References page.
– How to cite three or more authors after the first citation.
– How to cite six or more authors.
– The correct punctuation for “et al” in text and “et al” in parenthetical format.
– How to correctly use “percent” and “%” when citing percentages.
– How to format the five levels of headings in a paper.
– How to format references in a reference page in alphabetical order with correct capitalization and punctuation and hanging indents. Include references for a book, e-book, journal article, a book chapter, and a webpage. Include URLs or DOIs as appropriate.
To conclude in one to two paragraphs, specify what you learned about APA in creating your tip sheet. What resonated with you? What are your plans moving forward to ensure your tip sheet is current as you work through your degree program? Explain how you will use this tip sheet to help you correctly APA format future assignments.
Total Length: 3-4 pages, not including the title page. Submit both parts of the assignment in one document.
References: Include a minimum of 2-3 scholarly resources, APA formatted.
The completed assignment should address all of the assignment requirements, exhibit evidence of concept knowledge, and demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the content presented in the course. The writing should integrate scholarly resources, reflect academic expectations and current APA standards, and adhere to the Southern Utah University Academic Integrity Policy.
Hayden Coombs 