Steven F. Freeman - Research Workshops

Since 1998, I've been teaching applied research workshops for professionals, managers and university faculty as well as for students.

For Professionals: Applied Research to help you become the leading authority in your field.

Managers: Develop and apply methodologies to answer fundamental questions about your industry and your organization, ,e.g., inexpensive experiments and other investigative techniques to test the effectiveness of marketing and other programs, tabletop exercises to determine crisis preparedness, audits to determine innovational and creative competencies, etc...

Faculty: Review research techniques and learn of new developments to help you and your colleagues publish insights on practice and education.

Inquire now about joining or scheduling a research workshop

Since 2004, I've been teaching a series of five research workshops every semester for the University of Pennsylvania to help Masters students identify and develop their Capstone projects. For additional administrative information, write to me at my upenn email address.

For writing examples, teaching notes and related messages, join the yahoo Research Papers group. For further discussion, join the LinkedIn Applied Research group.

Announcements / Archives / Discussion Groups

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ResearchPapers/

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Research-Workshop-3674674?

http://www.facebook.com/groups/316660058369734/

Sample Workshops

Choosing a Research Topic

Identifying your Interests
Mind Maps; Concept Maps
Identifying your audience

Getting Started on Research

Understanding knowledge creation: How do we know what (we think) we know?
The Research Process
Types of Research

Developing a Research Question and Thesis

Developing a research question
Problem Formulation
Developing a research thesis
The Nomological Net: Concepts and Indicators
Types of research projects and papers
Types of Relationships
Variables
Hypotheses
The Unit of Analysis
Appropriate Scope
Choosing a Topic and Question for your Reseach Paper

Library and Web Resources

Coming up to speed on current knowledge
Conducting a literature review
Using the "Deep Web"
Search techniques
Evaluating sources
Types of journals and journal articles
Primary sources and secondary sources

Obtaining and Analyzing Data

The nature of scientific evidence
Types of data
how to used and present data
Validity and rigor
Assertions and support
Healthy skepticism

Organizing and Presenting your Work

Goals to consider in writing your paper
The structure of a paper, how to organize it.
Clear thesis; clear main supporting points
Context & Connection: A hook for your audience
The pyramid process: Using each section and each paragraph to support the main argument
The structure and function of sections and paragraphs
Understanding your paper from your reader's perspective Transitions between sections
Specifics to make your writing compelling
Steps in writing a research paper
Closing: Discussion, conclusions, implications

Graphical & Numerical Display

Principals of Visual Display
Principals of Numerical Display
Telling a Story with Pictures
Telling a Story with Numbers

Case Study Research

Designing Case Studies
Preparing for Data Collection
Collecting Data
Analyzing Case Evidence
Reporting and Publishing