Developing Your Introduction for the Campus Survey Paper

 

You should all have or be considering  hypotheses for the campus survey at this point.  The purpose of this assignment is to try to get you to express the line of logic that led you to your hypothesis.  For many students, the hypothesis may seem to just “come to them” or may simply seem patently obvious.  Unfortunately, an introduction cannot be limited to a discussion of  divine enlightenment or obviousness when presenting the hypothesis.  You must create a logical progression of thoughts and findings from past research that, together, create an argument favoring the hypothesis. This assignment will hopefully help you begin to articulate your thoughts on paper.

 

 

At the top of the page, please type out your hypothesis for the campus survey data set. The do the following:

 

Step 1

 

Write three to five complete sentences, each of which clearly and fully expresses a separate and distinct reason you believe the hypothesis you have selected will be supported.

 

Step 2

 

Study your five sentences and begin to think about how you will turn each of them into a paragraph supporting your position.  Use copy and paste to repeat the sentences from Step 1, but this time arrange the sentences into the order in which you will discuss them for your introduction. Also, for each sentence, make some notes elaborating on the sentence.  What evidence from the literature will you discuss to make your point in more depth?

 

Step 3

 

Repeat the sentences (minus the notes) from Step 2.  This time, elaborate after each sentence by specifically indicating the logical transition you will use in your paper to get the reader from one idea to the next. (I.E., how will you avoid simply listing past findings?) If this requires more sentences than you generated in Step 1 or re-ordering the sentences from Step 2 that is fine – do so here.