Write your idea/title/topic/thesis in the center of a piece of paper. Draw a circle around it. For the purposes of this exercise, you will use the topic of your Literature Review.

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This discussion task is designed to help you analyze some research studies on the topic on which you will be writing WA #3.

To complete this task, you find three articles through UMUC’s OneSearch that report on research studies.  Many scholarly articles are actually reports of the findings of a research study. For this reason it should not be difficult to find three such articles.  For example, if your topic is teleworking (which is a very general topic), you could easily find three studies on teleworking.  If your topic is white-collar crime, you could find three studies on the very general topic of white-collar crime.

After you find your three articles, please read over the three articles and complete the following for each one:

· list the source in APA format

· list key terms in the article

· describe the focus of the study

· describe the methodology the author used

· summarize the study’s findings

· write your reflections on the article itself.  Comment on whether you found the study difficult to interpret, whether you understood the methodology, or other items that might be of interest to your fellow classmates.

This task will help you become more familiar with finding research studies on your topic, reading them over, gleaning the main points of them, and summarizing their findings.  These skills will be helpful as you continue to research for WA#3.

Post 2

In this discussion topic, we will explore some resources that are designed to help students understand the concept of a literature review. Please browse these resources and then complete the discussion post below.

· the article by Ted Zorn and Nittaya Campbell, “Improving the Writing of Literature Reviews through Literature Integration Exercise” — this article is available in the e-reserves section of this class.  To access the article, please take the following steps:

o  click Content

o  select Class Resources

o  select eReserves

o  select the icon for eReserves in the middle of your page.

o  in the list of items that appears, locate this article and download it.

· the tutorial from The University of North Carolina on writing literature reviews.  It is linked to at the top of the Content for this week.

https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/litreview/

· the tutorial from UMUC’s Effective Writing Center on writing the literature review.  It is linked to at the top of the Content for this week.

http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/web/writ_synth.html

Task:

After reviewing the material on the Literature Review posted above, please return to your annotated bibliography and begin developing “categories” to help you to organize your sources. Post one category below and list several sources that might fill that category. Remember that some sources may fall into more than one category.

Post #3

You can use a spider diagram to help you to structure your discussion of sources for writing assignment #4, the synthesis of sources essay (literature review). The spider diagram can also help in coming up with gaps and unanswered questions that you found as a result of writing it.

A spider diagram is a visual tool usually used for planning your writing. However, you can also use it for evaluating and thinking about a topic in detail.

To use the spider diagram, please print out your draft of writing assignment #4. Then place a piece of paper in front of you and complete the tasks listed below.

For more information on the Spider Diagram, please visit the link at the top of this week’s Content, Spider Diagrams: How and Why They Work.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/9839678/Spider-diagrams-how-and-why-they-work.html

Task :

· Write your idea/title/topic/thesis in the center of a piece of paper. Draw a circle around it. For the purposes of this exercise, you will use the topic of your Literature Review.

· Draw a “leg” from the central “body” of your Literature Review topic towards the top right hand corner of the page. Label this “leg” with the first topic/category that you dealt with in your Review.

· Add more legs moving clockwise around the page until all the sections have been included, with the final one being somewhere near the top left of the page.

· Now divide each “leg” up into smaller “legs” with all the points that you made in each section. (Again work clockwise from the top left so that the sequence of ideas is maintained).

· Finally, please be sure that one section is devoted to identifying any gaps or niches in the research literature in your synthesis of sources essay (literature review), or WA#3.

· You may have to redraw your spider diagram several times until you find a structure that works for you. Make sure that you find a proposal structure that suits the needs of your Niches and Gaps paper. Please post your spider diagram below.

· Respond to this discussion topic with one paragraph describing how this task might have helped you or why it did not help you in organizing your thoughts for WA#3.

Identify one independent variable from the selected research question.

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Read the following research experiment conducted by the Police Foundation in 1974:

Kelling, G. L., Pate, T., Dieckman, D., & Brown, C. E. (1974). The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment: A summary report. Police Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.policefoundation.org/publication/the-kansas-city-preventive-patrol-experiment/

Brief summary:

The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment: Police Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.policefoundation.org/projects/the-kansas-city-preventive-patrol-experiment/

The experiment focused on the following research questions:

· Would citizens notice changes in the level of police patrol?

· Would different levels of visible police patrol affect recorded crime or the outcome of victim surveys?

· Would citizen fear of crime and attendant behavior change as a result of differing patrol levels?

· Would their degree of satisfaction with police change?

Pick ONE of the research questions above and complete the following five exercises.

1. Identify one independent variable from the selected research question.

2. Indicate how the independent variable identified in #1 could be measured (conceptualize, operationalize, and describe the level of measurement for this variable).

3. Identify one dependent variable from the selected research question.

4. Indicate how the dependent variable identified in #3 could be measured (conceptualize, operationalize, and describe the level of measurement for this variable).

5. Express the research question in a measureable hypothesis statement (ensure that the hypothesis statement includes the independent variable and the dependent variable you identified in items 1 and 2 above). Use the following structure to help formulate your answer:

____ with ____ are more/less likely to ____ than ___ without ______

(subjects) with (independent variable) are more/less likely to (dependent variable) than (subjects) without (independent variable)

Post a description of a healthcare scenario where a  CI might be used, and then complete a fictitious two-sided hypothesis  test using a CI and fictitious data.

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Confidence Intervals in Healthcare Administration

Healthcare administration leaders are asked to make  evidence-based decisions on a daily basis. Sometimes, these decisions  involve high levels of uncertainty, as you have examined previously.  Other times, there are data upon which evidence-based analysis might be  conducted.

This week, you will be asked to think of scenarios where building and  interpreting confidence intervals (CIs) would be useful for healthcare  administration leaders to conduct a two-sided hypothesis test using  fictitious data.

For example, Ralph is a healthcare administration leader who is  interested in evaluating whether the mean patient satisfaction scores  for his hospital are significantly different from 87 at the .05 level.  He gathers a sample of 100 observations and finds that the sample mean  is 83 and the standard deviation is 5. Using a t-distribution, he  generates a two-sided confidence interval (CI) of 83 +/- 1.984217  *5/sqrt(100). The 95% CI is then (82.007, 83.992). If repeated intervals  were conducted identically, 95% should contain the population mean. The  two-sided hypothesis test can be formulated and tested just with this  interval. Ho: Mu = 87, Ha: Mu<>87. Alpha = .05. If he assumes  normality and that population standard deviation is unknown, he selects  the t-distribution. After constructing a 95% CI, he notes that 87 is not  in the interval, so he can reject the null hypothesis that the mean  satisfaction rates are 87. In fact, he has an evidence-based analysis to  suggest that the mean satisfaction rates are not equal to (less than)  87.

For this Discussion, review the resources for this week, and consider  how a CI might be used to support hypothesis testing in a healthcare  scenario.

Post a description of a healthcare scenario where a  CI might be used, and then complete a fictitious two-sided hypothesis  test using a CI and fictitious data.

 

Albright,  S. C., & Winston, W. L. (2017). Business analytics: Data analysis and  decision making (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 8, “Confidence Interval Estimation”
Chapter 9, “Hypothesis Testing”

Do a five minute pre-write on your image. This pre-write should be in addition to any free-writing on the topic done in class. For your pre-write, you may do brainstorming, free-writing, clustering, or the alternate strategy of your choice.

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For this assignment, you will be the “anti-Calvin” and actively analyze visual rhetoric as it relates to heroes/heroics AND/OR villains/villainy. Choosing one or more powerful pieces of visual rhetoric, write an inductive style 500-750 word essay that analyzes the rhetorical strategies and appeals used to create persuasive meaning as it relates to hero/villain figures. Your end product will be an essay in which you will “read” an image just as you would read and write about a written text.  In this essay, you should answer at least ONE of the following questions:

  • How is the heroic/villainous ideal defined by the image(s)?
  • What message about heroism/villainy does the image put forth(s)?
  • Is this message effective?

Phrases you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT INCLUDE in your essay:

  • “a picture is worth a thousand words”
  • “not all heroes wear capes”

Follow these steps to proceed with this assignment:

  1. Select your text(s). Choose a visual rhetoric text from eCampus (Unit Materials→ Unit 1: Heroic/Villainous Images→ Images for Use) that most appeals to you. You may also have an image of your choosing approved for use.
  2. Pre-writing/Planning. Do a five minute pre-write on your image. This pre-write should be in addition to any free-writing on the topic done in class. For your pre-write, you may do brainstorming, free-writing, clustering, or the alternate strategy of your choice.  Be sure to consider the question you plan on answering in the essay and think about organization and the way you will shape your essay.
  3. The Draft. Then, write a persuasive interpretation of your texts, considering both the messages within them and the cultural reality they reflect/create (i.e. how does your text go about defining a hero/villain?  Who does it identify as a hero/villain?  What does it say about heroes/heroism/villains/villainy? What heroic/villainous qualities/attributes does it convey?). Be sure you consider the assumptions underlying the texts, questions of materiality, layout, audience and purpose.

Checklist

Before you turn in your essay, make sure you can answer “yes” to the following questions.

  • Does your essay have a specific title (other than Essay 1)?
  • Does your introduction capture the reader’s attention?
  • Do you include a well-constructed research question or thesis statement at the end of the introduction?
  • Does each body paragraph seek to answer your research question or support your thesis?
  • Do you use specific visual elements from the image to develop your body paragraphs and support your points?
  • Do you answer the ‘so what’ question through the use of commentary?
  • Does your conclusion reiterate your overall claim about the image?
  • Does your concluding paragraph bring your essay to a satisfying close?
  • Is each paragraph well developed?
  • Does each paragraph transition from one to the next?
  • Is the essay written in third person?
  • Is your essay formatted correctly? (See MLA information on eCampus)
  • Is your essay free of grammatical errors?
  • Is essay at least 500 words?