A brief description of the report that is attached. Include the research question and a basic description of the results. Post an evaluation of the report in terms of forma and common errors.
Must have introduction, conclusion, intext citations, and references. Attached are copies of the article, as well as the assignment expectation.
Evaluating a Research Report
Introduction
Research studies are important in enhancing the understanding of various aspects that affect people in their daily life. It provides more information about the occurrences and the way things do happen. For a research study to be credible and understandable, it is crucial that it addresses various aspects required. Furthermore, it must be well written to enhance understanding. This paper evaluates Luck’s thesis, which sought to find out the effects of personality characteristics and various aspects of genetic counseling in compassion fatigue, satisfaction and burnout. The paper provides a summary of the results and an evaluation of some of the gaps the study has investigated.
The study is guided by various research questions not stated directly but through the aims the researcher wants to achieve. The first question was assessing the interest and impact personality characteristics of genetic counselor have on compassion fatigue, satisfaction and burnout. Second was to find out the personality characteristics of perfectionism controlling and the desire to be liked predicted and increased risk of burnout and compassion fatigue (Luck, 2009). The third was to find out whether there was a specific area of genetic counseling more prone to compassion fatigue, satisfaction and burnout and lastly to investigate on the personality profile of genetic counselor s that had higher self reported compassion satisfaction.
The results which were obtained from the questionnaires, professional quality of life scale that measures satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout and the international personality item pool which measure the big five personality characteristics including agreeableness, openness, extroversion , conscientiousness and neuroticism evolved different findings. It was revealed that participants involved with counselors who had high risk for compassion fatigue and burnout were more likely to be neurotic, conscientious and agreeable (Luck, 2009). On the other hand, genetic counselors that are likely to experience high level of satisfaction in their tasks are agreeable, extroverts, conscientious and not neurotic (Luck, 2009). Furthermore, it was revealed that different counselors in different areas of practice experience satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout equally. It was also reveled that as long as a counselor has personality trait, this is likely to make the counselor to experience burnout, satisfaction and compassion (Luck, 2009). Therefore, in summary, the results indicated that experiences of satisfaction, compassion and burnout happen differently because of various factors such as the nature of clients that the counselors handle among many other reasons.
A research study or thesis is required to have a certain form and style of presenting information. Every section is required to have particular information content, extensively and concisely presented to enhance understanding (Blevins, 2007). Luck’s thesis has to some extent adhered to this structure but it is not well adhered to. Though the introduction provides background information about the areas and provides the purpose of the study, it does not state why the report is different from the previous publications. This is a mistake which should have been avoided to ensure that the report stands out from the previous studies. This therefore makes this report seem similar with the previous reports.
The literature review is an important section as it helps the researcher to build up his own thesis by relating to other previous studies (Blevins, 2007). The researcher precisely covers this section. However, there is no synthesis of information to indicate understanding of the researcher. Furthermore, the summary of the literature review is not provided making the research lack in effectiveness.
Methodology is yet another important section of the thesis because the method of collecting and analyzing information is essential in determining whether the researcher is credible or not. Unfortunately the report has not established the validity and reliability of the study and this is a shortcoming of this report. Furthermore, in data analysis there should be appropriate use of tables and figures to enhance the level of understanding. Tables, graphs and figures are essential tools to present information to ensure that it is well understand by the users of the reports. This is absent in the report.
In line with the above, there are various common errors that are made by the researcher which otherwise could have been avoided. There are different writing styles that researchers need to be acquainted to and to stick to when presenting their information such as Modern language association, American psychological association, Harvard, Chicago among many others. In this study, the author used APA style but she did not use it appropriately and this affected his overall presentation of information. The biggest and most common error in the report is the in-text citation. The author failed to cite properly as she included initials in some of her in-text citation, a mistake that could have been avoided. There are also some grammatical errors that went unrecognized which could be avoided through editing.
Though the research report even contained some errors here and there, it managed to stick to its course. The most impressive section was the conclusion where she managed to summarize the major aspects of the study and provided recommendation for further studies. However, some of the errors in the report could not have been committed if the researcher took her time to go through the report.
References
Blevins, L. (2007). Checklist for evaluating a research report.
Luck, T. (2009). The Effect of Personality Characteristics and Various Aspects of Genetic Counseling on Compassion Fatigue, Satisfaction, and Burnout, Howard University; Washington D.C.