The introduction to a research study has a prescribed purpose and functionality that sets it apart from introductions you have probably read in books and popular literature. Although the introduction should engage the reader, it should also highlight particular information about the study and its orientation.
Using the sample outline for an introduction on p. 100 and the annotated sample on pp. 100–102 of your course text, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, write an Introduction that addresses and includes the elements suggested by this week’s Learning Resources. For the purposes of this Discussion, you should assume that your Literature Review from Week 3 was exhaustive and that it included substantive breadth and depth of the scholarship with regard to your topic. Consider the following in preparing your Introduction:
Is the opening sentence engaging, and does it encourage readers to continue?
Is a problem or issue identified that justifies this study?
Is the problem framed in a way that is consistent with the research approach?
Do you refer to groups of studies to justify the problem’s importance?
Do you cite recent literature (within the past 10 years)?
Are specific deficiencies in past studies identified?
Do you explain how the study will address these deficiencies?
Do you explain why the study is significant for audiences?
Is the Introduction limited to about 2 pages?
Is the Introduction well-written and easy to read?
With these thoughts in mind:
Post your initial Introduction by Day 3. Aside from the Introduction itself, be sure to include at least two questions that will elicit comments and suggestions from your colleagues.
Consider the central theme from your Problem Statement, which you have now explored and refined through a Literature Review, Introduction, and Purpose Statement. Although your work to this point may have guided you toward a particular research method or approach, there is still value in examining your topic from a variety of perspectives. Toward that end, one useful exercise involves returning to the triumvirate of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches and creating hypotheses and descriptive questions accordingly.
Refer to Chapter 7 of your course text, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, which includes templates you can use to create research questions of each type, as well as examples and criteria related to directional, nondirectional, and null hypotheses. Use these resources to help you create research questions and hypotheses related to your evolving topic and for one quantitative section, one qualitative section, and one mixed methods section. After each section of your Application, be sure to note your rationale for each choice and how each fits the criteria and paradigmatic thinking related to the approach.
This is my problem statement: Feel free to change if needed.
Problem Statement
According to the American Community Survey, nearly 900,000 residents in Indiana Hoosiers are part of the labor force, with 820,000 people employed and the remaining 75,000 actively seeking work (Bureau, 2016)). The unemployment rate for Indiana Hoosiers with less than a high school degree was nearly 20 percent, dropping to about 4 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher (Rogers & Justis, 2016). The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics (2015) statistics demonstrated that 2.7 million workers resign their jobs in March 2015.The general problem is that unemployment rate is going down as educational completion going up leaving employees unqualified for jobs.
The specific business problem is that some managers lack strategies to use uneducated employees causes a lot of employee turnover.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. (2016). Retrieved 13 May 2016, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/hsgec.pdf
Bureau, U. (2016). Census.gov. Census.gov. Retrieved 13 May 2016, from http://www.census.gov
Rogers, C. & Justis, R. (2016). Unemployment Rate Is Lower When Education Is Higher (November-December 2010). Incontext.indiana.edu. Retrieved 7 May 2016, from