CONFLICT RESEARCH ARTICLE SUMMARY GUIDELINES (PAGES 1&2)

AND POWERPOINT DIRECTIONS (PAGE 3)

DUE DATE: See Syllabus

ARTICLE REQUIREMENTS
 Items reviewed for COMM 606 should be from scholarly journals, AND contain primary
research. MS, People, Reader's Digest, Time, Newsweek, webpages, or online articles that are
not peer reviewed are NOT acceptable resources for this assignment and will result in a ZERO
on the assignment.

 AN ITEM (article being summarized) SHOULD BE A MINIMUM OF 10 PAGES IN LENGTH

(unless otherwise noted by the instructor).

 Questions concerning the appropriateness of an item should be addressed to the instructor

prior to your submission of the abstract.

FORMAT/CONTENT
(Your summary should be typed, single-spaced, and 1-2 pages in length.)

I. At the top of the page provide your name, course number for which the assignment is
being completed, and the semester. Next provide a complete bibliographic entry which
includes author/s name/s, journal title, article title, specific pages read, and other
appropriate data. For bibliographic format follow the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, 6th ed.

A. IF THE ITEM BEING ABSTRACTED IS QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH, the

remaining space on the page should be devoted to the following divisions.
Identify them with headings: BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE/S, METHODS
AND PROCEDURES, FINDINGS AND RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS.

1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE/S. State the general purpose/s of the study

and any essential background material that needs to be provided for clarity. If
one or more hypotheses were tested (many will have at least one), state
it/them in this section.

2. METHODS AND PROCEDURES. Describe the way in which the study was
completed: subjects used, tests given or measurements taken, and any other
considerations that explain the general design of the experiment.

3. FINDINGS AND RESULTS. Identify what the researcher discovered. If

appropriate, indicate if the hypothesis was (or hypotheses were) rejected or
accepted as a consequence of the findings of the study.

4. CONCLUSIONS. State the conclusions the researcher drew on the basis of

the study's findings. Also include implications for further research and any
limitations of the study.

B. IF THE ITEM BEING SUMMARIZED IS DESCRIPTIVE, THEORETICAL

RESEARCH OR ANOTHER TYPE OF RESEARCH, follow completion of item "I".
The remaining portion of the space on the page should be devoted to an essay
discussing the purpose/central theme of the material and key ideas contained in
the author/s work.
 Additional Tips for Writing Summaries

You should be able to identify the following parts of the article before you begin to write your
abstract:

Author(s), article title, journal name, issue, volume, page numbers: Give full citation in APA 6th
ed. style

Hypotheses (H followed by subscript number) or Research Questions (RQ followed by subscript

number). List all hypotheses or research questions. Sometimes these are not formally
stated (although most of the time they are) and you will have to hunt for them. Be sure that
you label them as H’s or RQ’s. (Hint: hypotheses indicate the nature/direction of the
predicted relationship(s))

Subjects (Ss): Number and types(s) of subjects

Independent variable(s): describe variables as constitutively defined AND as operationally

defined (how are they measured)

Dependent variable(s): describe variable(s) as constitutively defined AND as operationally

defined (how are they measured)

Design and statistics: indicate the experimental design (2x2 factorial, ANOVA, MANOVA,
correlational, experimental, etc.) and all statistical tests

Procedures: describe the method used to obtain data from the subjects (all steps in the process)

Results: list findings for each hypothesis (clearly state confirmed, not confirmed) and/or
research question

Author(s)’ conclusions: the generalizations made by the author(s) based on the results of the
statistical tests. (hint: usually in the Discussion section)

Criticism: summary of potential weaknesses and/or major strengths of the study. (Consider,
e.g.,type and number of subjects, design, operationalization of IV or DV, etc.) Generally the
author(s) clearly state these, may refer to them as “limitations of the study”.

*for summaries you write for me, add some limitations which you thought of but clearly label
which came from the article and which you thought of

******Include a copy of the article with the summary (unless you know I have a copy of it). DO
NOT COPY from the article without using quotation marks and page number(s). TRY to use
your own words as much as possible – this is your summary of the article. Remember this is an
summary – be brief.
 GUIDELINES FOR ARTICLE SUMMARY POWERPOINTS
 
Your goal with these research summaries is (1) to provide an overview of each article and (2) to identify the aspects
of the study that are relevant to the study of conflict, and how this article answers a question, provides suggestions
or enhances communication.  
DUE DATES: The research summaries are assigned on the syllabus.
 
LOCATION OF ARTICLES: You are responsible for finding and getting approved an article related to
interpersonal (family, friend, romantic) conflict, or an article related to workplace/organizational conflict.  

LENGTH: 8-10 slides of information

FORMAT: Each powerpoint should contain the following information.. If you quote directly from the article, be
sure to use quotation marks to enclose the quote and follow the quote with the pertinent page number(s) from the
source. For example: “quote” (p. 34).
 
Include a slide with:
Full Citation for Article (following APA style).
 
I. Purpose of the Study (1-3 slides)
What were the goals of the study/article? This information is provided in the introduction/review of
literature section of the article. (In your powerpoint, you might list the central research question or questions, as
well as any hypotheses (predictions) that were tested.) EVERY study has at least one goal or research question, even
if it is not explicitly stated in question form. The research question states the goal of the study in a single
sentence/question. Some studies then have several sub-questions that outline their goals more specifically.
Hypotheses are predictions about the outcomes of the study. They may be formally labeled (e.g.,
Hypothesis 1: ...; Hypothesis 2: ...) or simply stated as predictions or expectations about the results.
 
II. Method (1-3 slides)
Here you should have a slide or two with a few key things describing what the researchers did/how they
gathered the information they are using. (This information is typically provided in the method section of journal
articles.) For studies involving human participants, you should tell us how many people were involved, who they
were (e.g., college students), and how they were selected (e.g., volunteers from communication classes). If the study
does not involve human participants but analysis of texts (e.g., television shows, messages, other media), you will
need to tell us what texts were studied and how they were selected.

 
III. Results (1-2 slides)
Here you should write a brief paragraph describing how the researchers analyzed the data and what they
found. A verbal description of the results is sufficient. You would then report the key conclusions and
link them back to the research questions. For all methods, end with a sentence in which you
summarize the results as an answer to the original research question or goal of the study. The
information for this section will come from the Results and Discussion sections of the article.
 
IV. How is this linked to class? (1-2 slides)
For this part you should refer to anything we have discussed, read, or will read that supports or contradicts
the information your are providing.

V. Suggestions for non experts. (1 slide)

For this section you should briefly describe what you can take away from this information to apply to conflict
in your personal or professional life. Make sure you explain/make clear the information you found as valuable to
someone who is not in school or is not a graduate student.