Running Head: SHORT TITLE (3-5 WORDS)

Perceptions and Motivations of Faculty Members in Conducting Research for Professional

Development (Sample Only)

[Name of Researcher]

Saint Paul School of Professional Studies

Month 20XX

Author’s Note

[Name of Responding Researcher] Saint Paul School of Professional Studies.

Running Head: SHORT TITLE (3-5 WORDS)

Corresponding concerning this paper should be addressed to [Name of Responding

Researcher], Saint Paul School of Professional Studies, Campetic, Palo, Leyte 6501. E-mail:

gsuite.account@spsps.edu.ph

Perceptions and Motivations of Faculty Members in Conducting Research for Professional

Development (Sample Only)

Before getting started you will notice some things about this paper. First, everything is

double-spaced. Second, margins are 1.5 inches on the left and 1 inch wide on all sides. Third,

there are several headings used throughout to separate different parts of the paper; some of the

headings are in bold. Fourth, there is exactly one space after each punctuation mark. Fifth, the

upper left of each page has a running head in all capital letters, and the upper right has the

page number. Try to pay attention to all of these details as you look through this paper.

Now that those details are out of the way, you should know that this first part of the

paper is called the “Introduction” section, yet it does not have a heading that actually says

“Introduction.” Instead, the title of the paper is typed at the top of the first page (be sure to

center the title, but do not put it in bold). In this section you would often start with a topic

paragraph that introduces the problem under study.

The Introduction is usually two to four pages in length and composed of at least four

paragraphs. The first two paragraphs present international discussion related to the problem.

Note that the importance of the topic should be pretty clear from these paragraphs.

The succeeding paragraphs discuss the problem in the Philippine setting, while the third

paragraph situates the problem being studied, focusing on its current situation in the Philippines.
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Remember to cite your sources often in the Introduction and throughout the manuscript.

Articles and books are cited the same way in the text, yet they appear different on the

References page. For example, an article by Cronbach and Meehl (1955) and a book by

Bandura (1986) are written with the authors’ names and the year of the publication in

parentheses. However, if you look on the References page they look a little different.

Remember that APA style does not use footnotes or anything like that for citations. Two other

things about citations are important. When a citation is written inside parentheses (e.g.,

Cronbach & Meehl, 1959), an ampersand is used between authors’ names instead of the word

“and.” Second, when citing an author’s work using quotations, be sure to include a page

number. For example, Rogers (1961) once wrote that two important elements of a helping

relationship are “genuineness and transparency” (p. 37). Notice that the page number is

included here. Unless a direct quote is taken from a source, the page number is not included.

The last paragraph of the Introduction states the purpose of the research. The purpose

can usually be summarized in a few sentences.

Literature Review

The bulk of the Introduction section is background literature on the topic. Here a

literature review is often very helpful to provide a theoretical or empirical basis for the research.

Try to provide the reader with enough information on the topic to be able to conclude that the

research is important and that the hypotheses are reasonable. Any prior work on the topic would

be useful to include here, although prior work that is most directly related to the hypotheses

would be of greatest value.

Discussions in the literature review should be thematic. This can be achieved by

grouping the literature and studies that are related to each other; each theme should have a
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title. Remember to use transitional words when writing this section. Cite at least 10 related

studies in this subsection.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

A research paper should have a theoretical/conceptual framework, or both, depending

on the type of the study. Usually, quantitative studies use a theoretical framework, while

qualitative studies use a conceptual framework.

When writing the theoretical framework, look for one or two theories that will discuss the

phenomenon being studied. In the first three paragraphs of this subsection, discuss the

theory/theories and highlight the concepts or important elements of the theory. In the fourth

paragraph, discuss how the theory will explain the phenomenon being studied and how the

theory will assist your research topic.

If you opt for a conceptual framework, draw a model that will show the relationship of all

the variables in your study. Each variable must be discussed in one paragraph.

Research Questions

This subsection is composed of two paragraphs. The first states the general problem of

the study, while the second paragraph states the specific questions the researcher seeks to

answer.

The specific problems must meet the following criteria: (1) must be in question form; (2)

must define the population and the sample of the study; (3) must identify the variables being

studied; and (4) must be empirically testable.

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According to Cristobal and De la Cruz-Cristobal (2013), there are four classifications of

specific research questions, which are listed according to their order of difficulty, namely factor-

isolating questions (“What is the profile of school managers in terms of age, sex, etc.?),

factor-relating questions (“What relationships are observed between variable A and variable

B?”), situation-relating questions (“Is there a significant difference in the performance of

group A and group B?”), and situation-producing questions (“What policy is to be formulated

to manage the personnel in government agencies effectively?”).

Research Hypotheses

This subsection lists the research hypotheses (null hypotheses) related to the situation-

relating questions in the previous subsection. This may not be included in your paper if your

research does not have situation-relating questions.

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Method

The Method section is the second of four main parts of an empirical paper. (Be aware

that some papers are reviews of the literature and therefore would not have a separate Method

section.) There are typically three or four major subsections in the Method although there can

be more. These subsections are separated by headings.

Participants

This brief subsection describes the people who participated in your study. (They should

be called “participants,” not “subjects,” by the way.) Mention the number of participants, the

sampling technique used, the percentage of female and male participants, the mean age (where

“mean” is abbreviated M), and their ethnicity or . Any other demographic information would be

appropriate here.

Research Design

This subsection discusses the method that you used (or will use, as in the case of a

research proposal) in the study. The first paragraph discusses the quantitative/qualitative

method used, with citations and references. The second paragraph discusses why the

quantitative/qualitative method is appropriate for the study, and the third paragraph discusses

why survey/interview/content analysis/etc. was used, with citations and references.

Measures
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This subsection describes the tests or instruments used to collect data. It would be

appropriate to describe any questionnaires that you used. For example, if you used the

Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in your research, you may say that the Marlowe-

Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSD; Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) comprises 33 true-false

items that measure social desirability. You would also provide the reader with information

regarding the MCSD scores’ reliability and validity. Do this for each and every measure used in

the study. In the event that the purpose of your paper is to develop a new questionnaire, you

may wish to describe reliability and validity in the Results section. However, you would only do

this for a scale-development project.

Procedure

This subsection describes in great detail the data-collection procedures. Describe how

participants were recruited, whether they participated alone or in groups, how informed consent

or assent was obtained, what they were asked to do, how they were compensated for their

participation, etc. It is hard to make this section too detailed. You should describe the procedure

in a way that another researcher could conduct the same study (i.e., replicate it) just by reading

about the procedure.

The statistical software and tools used is also appropriate to be discussed here. Define

each statistical tool (e.g. mean, frequency, rankings, t-test, analysis of variance, etc.) and state

how they were used in the data analysis.

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References

Cristobal, A.P. & De la Cruz-Cristobal, M.C. (2013). Research Made Easier: A Step-by-

Step Process. C&E Publishing House, Inc. Quezon City

Kahn, JK. (n.d.). Writing a Paper in APA Style. California State University Channel

Islands. https://www.csuci.edu/cis/CIS_Science_Writing_Pilot/apa-sample1.pdf