GROUP RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT – REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES
(Please read carefully)
The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate critical and analytical thinking about the Global Financial Crisis and ensuing Great Recession. It enables higher-level learning outcomes by helping students learn how to write their own research papers. Students will “[s]imulate the research process by identifying a specific area for research, proposing a definite question that requires an answer, setting out how you would proceed, realistically, by generating an hypothesis that relates to the question, and discussing expected findings” (LSO560 Course Outline and Addendum).
Students are expected to work in groups, thereby exploiting the opportunity to benefit from and demonstrate effective team-learning. So, sign up in a group under ‘Group Research Assignment’ on the Menu to the left, as soon as possible in Week 1. Then share and exchange your thoughts and ideas with your group members at ‘Group Research Assignment’ where you must record evidence of your participation and contributions. It is the responsibility of each student to work collaboratively, participate, and contribute meaningfully to all parts – A, B, and C – of this assignment.
First, establish the logistics for the operation of your group. A group contract, designed and signed by group members, is to be appended. It is suggested that each group choose a ‘Lead,’ and allocate research tasks. All group members should work together to confer, write, and review all content at every stage and part of the process. The group is to prepare a final single cohesive paper, and each member of the group is responsible for ALL aspects of the research assignment. So, if the circles below represent a group of five students, I to V, the schematic should reflect comprehensive and inclusive communications, responses, and interactions for which each student is responsible.
In undertaking this assignment, you agree to maintain the highest level of academic integrity. Review the Academic Integrity Policy, Seneca Libraries Guides, and Seneca’s Copyright Policy .
So that I can best help you with feedback as you proceed, the group research assignment has been organized in three ascending phases:
• Part A – the Preliminary Discussion,
• Part B – the Proposal, and
• Part C – the Final Paper and Power Point presentation.
Group discussions are online. Please note that Part A) and Part B) are to be undertaken, in sequence, for the development of Part C).
Part A – Preliminary Discussion – Think and Share
1. The topic is The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Canadian Stock Market.
2. So, think about the relationship between the crisis and stock market activity.
3. Appropriate indicators of a possible relationship might be:
Canada’s GDP: Gross Domestic Product by Income and Expenditure, and
Toronto Stock Exchange: various S&P/TSX Indices
4. For the TSX, there could be many different foci. For example –
1. the Canadian Consumer Discretionary Index
2. the Canadian Consumer Staples Index
3. the Canadian Energy Index
4. the Canadian Financial Index
5. the Canadian Gold Index
6. the Canadian Industrial Index
7. the Canadian Information Technology Index
8. the Canadian Materials Index
9. the Canadian Telecommunications Index
10. the Canadian Utilities Index
5. So, to keep the investigation manageable, choose one of these ten foci.
6. Then, choose and join a peer group in LSP560 with a common focus. See ‘Groups for Research Paper’ in the menu.
7. For convenience, in the preliminary discussion investigate and use the Statistics Canada website https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/start where you can research and investigate data on Canada’s GDP and Canadian Stock Market Indices over a time period relevant to the topic.
Suggestion: For navigating Statistics Canada’s website and retrieving data, view https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/sc/video/navigating-website – the section on accessing and downloading Data starts at about 00:09:35 and goes to about 00:28:15.
You may find other sites useful, such as –
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Canada/
https://databank.worldbank.org/home.aspx
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/
https://www.worldbank.org/
https://www.imf.org/en/Data
8. You will need to get to understand your data, so be sure that you know how the data are defined, what the data show, and that you can explain the data in your own words. For example, think about and investigate the following:
• How are the data defined?
• What does the data tell you about your topic?
• When you plot the data, what do the graphs show?
• What are the peaks, troughs, and trends?
• What are the relationships between the sets of data?
• Might these relationships be explanatory?
• What are possible reasons for likely relationships?
• Are relationships lagged?
• Can causation be inferred? Why or why not? (If you are familiar with statistics, you may find means, standard deviations, maxima and minima, outliers, correlations, and so on, helpful.)
• What journal articles can you identify that inform you about the topic?
• What information is missing?
• What aspects are you curious about?
• Are there aspects of the topic that have been overlooked by researchers, and for which further investigation would be informative?
• And so on….
This preliminary investigation and discussion of the data will be the basis for your group research.
9. Organize your findings for Part A and present them on a summary Infographic or a few PowerPoint slides. Submit in ‘Research Assignment – Preliminary ‘Think and Share’ through Assignments. See the Addendum for the submission date. This assignment will be marked out of 15%. Please see the Rubric.
Part B – Research Proposal – Introduction Summary, Question and Hypothesis, and Evaluative Annotated Bibliography
1. Students in a group are to research, investigate, and review literature on their topic.
2. Your literature search should focus on academic peer-reviewed journal articles. So, use Seneca Libraries and Google Scholar; do not just Google. You may also refer to References and Readings in Course Documents. (This list is a work in progress; it is incomplete, so your investigation should not be limited by that list.) Newspaper articles and op-eds are generally NOT appropriate or adequate.
3. Write an evaluative annotated bibliography of the relevant articles you have discovered.
4. It is important to organize your research around your key topic. Ask yourselves: How do the various journal articles you investigate inform you about the topic? Think about what is missing: Ask yourselves – What can be contributed that has not already been investigated? This will help you to identify and focus on a specific and novel area for research and propose a definite question that requires an answer.
5. The Proposal submitted is to include the following elements:
The introductory paragraph(s) which will be a concise summary of the relevant literature.
The research question that is an outcome of the literature and data you have researched.
The hypothesis, appropriately stated, that follows logically from the research question.
An evaluative annotated bibliography with approximately three to five related scholarly references, explaining why each reference is useful and how it relates to your topic. (See ‘Parts of a Research Paper’ in Course Documents.)
6. This Proposal, Part B, is to be written in Microsoft Office .docx in APA format and submitted as ‘Research Proposal’ through Assignments. See the Addendum for the submission date. This assignment will be marked out of 15%. Please see the Rubric.
Part C – Final Research Paper and Presentation
1. The Final Submission, in APA format, should include the following elements (refer to ‘Parts of a Research Paper’ in Course Documents):
Cover page.
Abstract, (of about 150 words or less, to be prepared after writing the body of the paper but inserted at the top).
Introductory Summary, concisely written, of the relevant literature, which should lead logically into, and conclude with, the Research question and the
Hypothesis.
Methodology that is PROPOSED.
Discussion of EXPECTED research findings.
Appendices with Figures, Tables, Charts, Graphs as appropriate, with sources (e.g., Statistics Canada), maintaining APA format
References; maintaining APA format
Power Point slides for presentation.
Statement of Responsibility and Group Contract signed by all group members, included with final submission.
Peer Assessment from each student, to be submitted separately.
2. The Proposed Methodology should incorporate appropriately the data you have investigated. Set out how you would proceed, realistically, to answer the research question and hypothesis.
3. The Discussion of Expected Findings is as far as you are required to go, due to the time limitation of this course.
4. In undertaking this assignment, you agree to maintain the highest level of academic integrity. Review the Academic Integrity Policy, Seneca Libraries Guides, and Seneca’s Copyright Policy . The College requires “the highest standards of academic honesty” (SAP).
5. Accordingly, to receive a grade for your paper, a Statement of Responsibility with the names and signatures of all members of the group must be included and submitted with your report attesting the following:
We, the undersigned, are the authors of this report titled (insert title here) and are responsible for the contents of this paper. We are reflecting the highest form of academic honesty and complying with the regulations of Seneca’s Academic Integrity Policy. (Group members print names and sign below.)
6. The Final Paper should demonstrate post-secondary degree-level writing. It should be approximately 6 to 8 pages double-spaced and typed – excluding the Cover page, Appendices, Annotated References, and Statement of Responsibility. It should be written in APA format – see https://library.senecacollege.ca/apa The Power Point should be in concise summary point form, using 6 to 7 slides.
7. The Final Paper, written in Microsoft Office .docx must be submitted electronically through SafeAssign. See the Addendum for the submission date. This assignment will be marked out of 15%. Please see the Rubric.
8. The Power Point, as the basis of the Presentation, is worth 10%. See the Addendum for the submission date. Please see the Rubric.
9. The Peer Assessment. Please see the Addendum for the submission date of the mandatory Peer Assessment by each student.
© 2022, 2021, 2020
Dr. B. Gayle-Anyiwe
Professor,
School of English and Liberal Studies
Faculty of Arts
Seneca College
