Assignment:
The final assignment will combine the previous two assignments (with editing) with the substance of your research, findings, and conclusion to create a complete grounded theory style inductive research paper. Here are the elements you will need in the final paper:
Introduction and Methodology: Ask a research question; explain why you are writing the paper and include how grounded theory methodology works. (This shouldn't be more than 1 page.)
For more information on how grounded theory and inductive research works see the following book available in the Sage Research Methods section of the APUS Library: Urquhart, C. (2013). Grounded theory for qualitative research.
Case Study: Your data will have a beginning and an end, and you will organize around specific variables (because of the categorizing -- or coding -- that you devised while reading about the topic). Finish with a hypothesis (or theory) to answer the research question. (This should be about 6 to 8 pages.) This is the first assignment with revisions.
Literature on Theory: The theory section will answer the research question using theory by testing the hypothesis; this section will also be organized around the variables that most scholars on this theory use. (This should be about 6 to 8 pages.) This is the second assignment with revisions.
Findings and Conclusions: This section helps you put the data together with the previous theories AND develops your own theory. The point of the grounded theory method is to show that theory doesn't start with solitary daydreams about interesting explanations; it starts with facts. So, using the facts of the case study and the previous theory from other scholars, write your findings to answer the research question. Did your categories from the case match well with the variables that the scholars on your theory used? Did the theory help to support your own hypothesis? What are your insights and theories based on your exploration of the case study? Does your hypothesis support the answers that other scholars have concluded? Why or why not? You need to present at least two (three is even better!) more general conclusions that can be drawn legitimately from your specific case study and research to apply more broadly to internal security (which is why we are using the Case Study method and Grounded Theory approach to achieve this particular learning objective of this assignment). (This should be about 6 to 8 pages.)
Technical Requirements
• Your paper should be about 18 to 24 pages (the Title and Reference pages do not count towards the minimum limit).
• Scholarly and credible references should be used. A good rule of thumb is at least 2 scholarly sources per page of content.
• Type in Times New Roman, 12 point and double space.
• Students will follow the current Turabian Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework.
• Points will be deducted for the use of Wikipedia or encyclopedic type sources. It is highly advised to utilize books, peer-reviewed journals, articles, archived documents, etc.