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Lab Manual
Lab Manual:
Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology
Last revised: Fall 2020
Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau, Donald J. Foss, Gunes Avci
Author Note:
This laboratory manual is based in part on PSYC 2301: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, which was a publication of the University of Houston Department of Psychology with its last major revision in 2012 by Evan Weinberger and Kristen Capuozzo.
The authors thank Krissy Nguyen and Lynh Vu for generously allowing the adaptation and editing of their research proposal papers as sample papers for future students in Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology.
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Section One: Reading and Writing Research Papers 5
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style 6
Summary and Guide to APA Style 9
Guide to Citations and References 24
Guide to Avoiding Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism 33
Section Two: Article Reviews and In-Class Exercises 38
Sample Study Summaries for Critique: Brief Study Summaries 39
Longer Sample Study Summaries for Critique 41
Additional Assignments and Exercises 49
Section Three: Further Resources for the Research Proposal Assignment 89
Writing a Research Proposal for this Class 90
Steps in Writing a Research Proposal 92
Using Library Resources for your Research Proposal 93
Sections of the Research Proposal 99
Appendix: Sample Research Proposals 105
Introduction to the Lab Manual and Introduction to Methods in Psychology Lab
How do we know about the effects of personality on, say, success in college? Or how do we know about the effects of child rearing practices on the personality of teen-agers? Or what leads people to be depressed, and what are the most effective ways to treat depression? Or…well, you get the idea: how do we know about any interesting question about human (or animal) behavior? The Introduction to Methods in Psychology class is in part designed to explore how we do know, and to give you the tools to further explore it yourself. To say it somewhat differently, the Methods class is designed to clarify some effective ways of asking such questions and some valid ways to go about answering them.
The Lab component of Methods is meant to give you hands-on experience using some important tools that will help you discover and understand what professional psychologists think we already know. Among these tools will be (1) the skillful ability to determine what has been studied in the past and what those studies have shown. Another aim of the Lab component is (2) to provide you with the experience of formulating your own test of an idea about how we humans function—speaking very informally, an idea about what makes us tick. Finally, the Lab component aims (3) to teach you the tools of scientific communication—how to describe your research to other scientists in a way that lets them understand what you did, why it is important, what you learned, and what questions have not been answered by your research.
In order to comfortably read what psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, and others have already studied and written, you have to understand the “culture of communication” in the sciences. In practice what this means is that you have to learn about the components of a research report and how they are organized. This culture has developed in order to facilitate written communication: authors do not have to worry anew about how to organize their reports every time they write one, and readers do not have to hunt for information but instead know where and how different kinds of information will be reported. To accomplish this, there is standard tradition that guides the structure and organization of such professional works. For you to successfully discover and make use of what has been done in the past, you have to understand and adopt that standard tradition.
Though they share broad outlines, there are minor differences in the way that various sciences structure their research papers. In psychology and a number of related disciplines, the standard is set by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (the APA). The Pub Manual, as it is typically called, has been around for decades and is now (as of October, 2019) in its 7th edition. These standards are frequently referred to simply as APA style.
We are going to get familiar with APA style in two ways. First, you have to grasp its organization and component parts in order to comfortably read the existing work—what some people call the technical literature of psychology. Second, the capstone project in this part of the Methods course involves your proposing an investigation (a study, as we often call it) that you will design. In addition, for that project you will write up the study as though you had actually carried it out. You won’t in fact actually conduct the study—among other reasons, we don’t have time for that here—but you will design a study that you could conduct and you will produce a written paper in APA style just as though you had. We’ll return to that assignment later. For now, let’s introduce you to APA style by discussing the overall organization of a research paper written in that style, as well as issues surrounding how you will acknowledge the work of others on which you will base your own research paper.
Section One: Reading and Writing Research Papers
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style
Summary and Guide to APA Style
Guide to Citations and References
Guide to Avoiding Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style
Let’s say that you’ve found a research paper on a topic of interest. (In a separate lesson we’ll cover how you can efficiently find such papers.) What will you want to know when you read that paper? Of course, the big picture answer is that you want to know if it answers a question of importance to you. But now, as a student of psychology, you’re learning that one research paper won’t completely settle the matter. Therefore, you’ll have to critically assess that paper along with others.
To do that you’ll have to look closer at that paper, to give it a critical reading. So let’s consider what you’ll want to find out when you take that closer look. For one thing, you’ll want to pay attention to its title and who wrote it, and you’ll probably be curious about what positions the author(s) had when they did the work. It would certainly be nice if you could then read a single paragraph that quickly summarized the whole thing—one that could tell you whether you want to really dig in and read the entire paper. If you do decide to read it, you’ll quickly want to know what the authors (and others) thought about the problem when they started the work—what the existing ideas about it were, whether there were competing ideas, and what predictions the authors had about what would happen in their study. Once you’ve got that, you’ll no doubt wonder how they carried out the study—about the methods they actually used to try to answer the question behind the study. For example, who were the participants? Were they children or adults? Were they representative of the gender and ethnic diversity in the country, or of just a subset of it? Of course, your questions about their methods go beyond knowing about the participants. You’ll also want to understand exactly how the study was organized (its design) and how the participants were treated; plus you’ll want to know if there were multiple groups of participants (the typical situation), and how each group was treated. In addition, you need to know what the researchers measured and exactly how they measured it. Then, naturally, a key thing of interest to you will be the results of the research; that is, how did things come out? So the authors need to tell you that—to describe and analyze the data they gathered. And they’ll probably want to tell you what they think about the outcome. Did it support their ideas? What general lessons can we take from this study? Are there limitations to what we should conclude from it? And finally, you might be curious about whose work influenced these authors. No one works truly independently, so honest scientists need to give credit where credit is due. If the report leaves any of these things out we’ll feel that we didn’t get the whole story—and we should always get the whole story.
The previous long paragraph presents an extensive list of things you want and need to know after reading a research paper. Remember, science is a public activity, so it is essential that all these things are stated in enough detail that, in principle, you could copy (replicate) the study if you had the time and resources to do so.
If we were to make a list of the sub-topics just mentioned, or try to outline them, we would be developing the structure of a standard research paper. In short, we would be (re-) inventing the outline of a standard style, for example, the APA style. One purpose of standardizing this list is to ensure that all these key aspects of the work are reliably communicated to the reader.
What follows, then, is an overview of the “official” APA style, which is currently embodied in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). This overview is organized by the major components of a research paper. There will be two sub-sections for each component: one on content—that is, what needs to be covered; and one on some key details of the style itself. This overview can be read in two ways—and should be reviewed at least twice during the semester. First, this overview—especially the content sub-sections—should be studied before you begin to read the scientific literature in order to help you get the most from each study you read about. Second, both sub-sections within this overview should be treated as an outline or checklist of requirements as you do your own writing in APA style, which will be a large part of this class later in the semester.
In addition to this overview, we’ll provide pointers to some excellent web sources, and to some very fine hands-on help housed here at UH, that can answer further questions you may have about APA style. You will probably have specific questions that lead you to consult those resources, but this overview is a great place to start!
Finally, you should be aware that some of the articles you read and cite might not completely comply with APA style! This is because most journals—even most Psychology journals!—are not actually published by the APA. Even though these non-APA journals often roughly follow APA Style, they may deviate from APA style in some ways. The following overview notes which elements of APA style the authors of this lab manual believe are most frequently changed in non-APA journals, but your Intro to Methods lab instructor will be the final authority on what you have to do when you write for this class. Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you are expected to strictly follow APA style for student papers. APA style for student papers is a little less fussy than APA style for professional papers. In the overview found on the following pages, you will find explanations of both, but remember that as a student, you can follow the student paper style in this class.
Summary and Guide to APA style
General writing guide:
Avoid language that may cause irritation, distraction, or interruptions. This includes:
Linguistic Devices
Heavy alliteration (beginning each word with the same sound)
Accidental rhyming
Poetic expressions or idioms (particularly those that may not be clear to people without shared cultural background with the author)
Clichés
Mixed metaphors
Casual or conversational language (e.g., kids instead of adolescents or children)
Biased Language
Words that carry some type of implied or irrelevant evaluations of the sexes, race/ethnic group, or social status of people.
Words with surplus or unintended meaning (i.e., cop instead of police officer).
Words that are considered to be offensive, either in the broader population or by the specific groups that the words are used to describe.
You should also avoid using a storytelling tone, especially once you are past the first paragraph of the introduction (which can be used to “sell” the reader on the importance of your topic or research question).
Avoid the use of “you” (i.e., the following is unacceptable: “You might expect violent TV to cause violent behavior in children.”).
Avoid the first person (I, we, us) throughout the entire paper. Non-APA journals often disagree on this point, allowing the first person (and a more narrative account of research in general).
Use the minimum number of words necessary to get the main point of your research paper across.
General formatting guide
Research papers should be typed and double-spaced throughout—including the Title page, Abstract, and References.
Your instructor may specify a particular font. If not, you may use any easily readable font. This document is printed in 12-point Cambria. The APA recommended fonts include 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, or 11-point Georgia.
If you include any figures in your paper, the text within the figures should use a sans serif font (a font where the ends of the lines making up each letter do not have “feet”) for figure images. Popular sans serif fonts include Arial or Calibri.
Your paper should have 1.0 inch margins on all sides.
The paper should be left-justified, but not right-justified. That is, the right margin should be “ragged,” as in this document.
Page numbers should be on the upper right hand corner of every page, starting on the first (Title) page and running consecutively throughout the entire paper.
In professional papers (but not student papers), each page should have a “running head” at the top left corner. The running head is an abbreviated title and is written in all caps, but you will not need to include one in a student paper.
Make sure to indent the first line of each new paragraph throughout your entire paper, except for the abstract.
Organization and Style
One way to think about writing an APA style research paper—or a paper in many other formats, for that matter—is to think of an hourglass. Just as an hourglass is broad at the top, narrows, and then widens again, your writing should take you from general to specific and then back to general again. Similarly, an APA style paper includes an Introduction section, which begins by defining a big problem or question and gradually narrows to specific hypotheses. After the Introduction comes the Method and Results sections, which are detailed and specific. Finally, the Discussion section relates the specific findings of the study back to the broader literature and the original problem(s) described in the Introduction.
Papers written in APA style contain the following sections. For convenience the sections are numbered here but they are not numbered in the actual paper, though they do occur in this order. Even non-APA style papers will include these sections, though the order or the exact names of the sections could be different.
A Title page.
The content:
The title should inform a prospective reader about the research project.
The title should be specific to your project; it should not be “Literature Review,” or “Methods Project,” or anything else that is about the class instead of the topic.
You should avoid titles that are funny or catchy but do not clearly explain what your study is about. You should also avoid vague titles that are too general to be informative (e.g., “A study of how people solve problems”).
The title should be concise, meaning that it should use as few words as possible to clearly communicate its meaning.
Information about the author(s), called the byline, follows the title.
In a professional paper, you would provide your name and institutional affiliation.
In a student paper, you will provide your name, the course number and name, the instructor’s name, and the assignment due date. Your instructor may ask you to include additional information.
A professional paper will include an author note, but student papers will not. The author note identifies each author’s departmental and institutional affiliation, acknowledges financial support (like grants), acknowledges technical help or feedback from people who may not have contributed enough to attain authorship (such as technicians who helped collect data or colleagues who commented on the manuscript), and provides contact information for the corresponding author.
Style guide:
While the APA Publication Manual (7e) does not limit the length of a title, it emphasizes keeping titles as short and concise as possible. For this class, it is recommended that your title fit on 1-2 lines and not exceed 12 words.
The title should use upper- and lower-case letters.
The title should be in bold print and centered on the first page about three or four double-spaced lines down from the top of the page.
Then add an extra blank line of space followed by your byline (see content sub-section, above). Each element of your byline (e.g., your name, the course number/name, etc.) should be presented on a separate double-spaced and centered line. Your byline should not be in bold.
Abstract page.
The content:
The purpose of the Abstract is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the study. Most savvy investigators write the Abstract after completing the rest of the paper (in other words, after they have all the details in place that will be summarized in the abstract). Because space is so limited, it is critical to be clear and concise. Do not include any extraneous details or even extra words. A good test for this is to try reading a sentence leaving out a word or phrase; if the meaning does not change when the word is left out, you should probably leave it out. However, you should include:
Information about the topic of the paper
A statement of the research question
Why the topic/research question is important
Information about the participants
The research hypothesis(es)
The methods used (in extremely brief form)
What you found (the results)
A statement about the conclusions and/or the implications (for example, the practical significance) of the results.
After the Abstract itself, professional papers include keywords. These give the reader a highly compact idea of the main topics of the paper.
Style guide:
The Abstract starts on the second page. In other words, you will begin a new page (after the title page), just for the abstract.
Just like all pages of a paper, the Abstract page should include the header. For a student paper, the header consists only of the page number at the upper right. (A professional paper would also include the running head.)
The word “Abstract” is centered above the text and in bold print (and not in quotation marks or italics).
Do not indent the first sentence of the Abstract itself.
It is written in one paragraph. (Some non-APA style journals, especially those written for a medical or practitioner audience, will break the Abstract into paragraphs/sections corresponding to the Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion.)
The Abstract should be no more than 250 words. (Abstract length varies among non-APA journals, ranging from 100 to 500 word limits.)
After the Abstract itself, professional papers will list keywords. To do this, indent and type “Keywords:” (italicized, but without quotation marks), and then list your keywords (typically, 3-5) separated by commas.
Introduction.
The content:
The goals of the Introduction are to introduce the reader to the problem being investigated and to review key background research and theory. You should “set the table” for your current study by:
Stating the problem or question being investigated
Explaining why this problem or question is important.
Then, describe influential past research on the variables of interest. State (when relevant):
The basic approach and method of past studies
Conflicting or uncertain prior results, or inconsistencies between prior studies
Limitations of previous studies
Gaps in our (collective) knowledge.
The overall idea of the preceding review is to motivate why one would do the work that you’ve done in this research. After you review the prior research, go on to perform integration of the reviewed information with the new ideas that you bring to the table:
Describe the goals of the present study, and how they flow from or seek to refine or question previous work.
State the variables of interest and how you are operationalizing them.
Describe in detail the predictions that your theory or perspective makes about the results of the current study.
List the formal hypotheses that you have about the expected outcomes.
Style guide:
The Introduction section begins on a new page after the abstract (typically, page 3).
Begin with the title of the paper at the top of this page, centered, and in bold print. This title should be the only heading at the start of the Introduction; do not head this section “Introduction” or “Literature Review.”
After that, the Introduction is written in normal paragraph form, with every paragraph indented. This includes the very first paragraph after the title.
Write each section clearly:
Each paragraph moving your argument forward.
Every time you refer to someone else’s work, include a formal citation of the work (and a corresponding reference in the References section; see below).
Each paragraph should end by setting up a smooth and clear transition to the next one.
Method
The content:
The Method section describes in detail how the study was conducted. In this section, you must provide enough detail that another researcher could replicate your study. It has a number of sub-sections:
Participants
If using non-humans, this sub-section is labeled Subjects, instead.
Tell how many were in each condition of the study.
Explain from what population(s) they were recruited and how.
State the demographic composition of the sample as appropriate (e.g., the sex, ethnicity, education level, etc.).
If applicable, explain your inclusion and/or exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria are characteristics that the potential participants must have if they are to be included in the study. Exclusion criteria are the characteristics that disqualify prospective participants from inclusion in the study.
At minimum, sex and age of the participants should be described.
Explain if/how the participants were compensated for participation in the research.
Note that your participants all gave informed consent to participate in the research (or explain assent or exemption from informed consent) under a protocol approved by the IRB.
Design
Describe the overall design of the study, including any detail that would be needed if someone wants to repeat your work.
State clearly the independent and dependent variables and how they were operationalized in this work.
Specify the type of design—for instance, experimental, quasi-experimental, or correlational; cross-sectional or longitudinal; within-participants, between-participants, or mixed.
For a design in which the appropriate analysis is not self-evident, explain how the data you collect will be analyzed. In other words, what conditions will you compare? Or, what variables will be used as predictors vs. what materials will serve as outcome (criterion) measures?
Explain the experimental conditions of the study (for experimental or quasi-experimental studies) and how they were organized.
Be clear about which variables were studied between-participants versus within-participants.
Procedure
State what happened in your study/to a participant in your study, generally in chronological order.
Walk the reader through the procedures you used to collect the data.
State how the participants were selected.
If relevant, describe how participants were assigned to groups.
Explain:
What, in appropriate detail, did the participants do at each point during the study?
What was the typical amount of time the participants were in the study?
If there was more than one session, how long did each session last and how much time intervened between the sessions?
This section is only complete when someone else could use it to replicate your procedures.
Materials
Describe any standard tests/instruments/measures/materials you may have used, with appropriate citations.
If you use standardized surveys or questionnaires, provide information about reliability and validity.
Describe in greater detail any special materials that you put together for the study (though complete copies of these materials should be deferred to an appendix unless they are extremely short).
Describe any special apparatus used in the study or any special measures you may have employed.
Just as you did for the procedure, you should use the standard that the reader needs to know enough about what happened such that they could do it, too, based only on the information in your paper.
Style guide:
The Method section continues immediately after the end of the Introduction; that is, it does not start a new page (unless it just works out that way).
The word “Method” is centered on the page, in bold print, and capitalized (and without the quotation marks used here).
Each of the sub-sections begins with the appropriate heading (e.g., Participants).
The sub-section headings are each flush left on the page and in bold print.
Each sub-section immediately follows the end of the previous one (that is, they do not start on a fresh page unless it happens to work out that way).
Results (note: you likely will not be asked to write a Results section without actually having results).
The content:
Summarizes the data collected and the analyses you conducted on those data.
Describe the analysis(es) you carried out, with descriptive (e.g., means, standard deviations, correlations) and inferential tests (e.g., t-tests, ANOVAs, etc.) as appropriate.
Provide the results of those analyses—report the data and the statistics.
You may include tables or figures (e.g., graphs) to provide clear and readily understood summaries of the results.
This is not the place to interpret or evaluate the results. (Non-APA journals might allow for basic interpretation within the results section in order to remind readers of the key question addressed by each analysis, and how well the results of the analysis answered the question.)
Style guide:
The Results section does not begin on a new page; it immediately follows the Method section (unless it just works out that way).
The word “Results” is in bold print (without the quotation marks used here) and centered.
In past versions of APA style, if you used tables or figures they were not inserted within the Results section. Instead, they were included as separate pages at the end of the paper. However, in the APA Publication Manual (7e), the options have expanded: you may either include tables and figures at the end of the paper, or you may insert them in line with your text. If inserted in line, each table or figure is inserted after the end of the paragraph containing the first time it is called out (directly mentioned) in the text.
In the Results section you will refer to tables by sequential numbering (e.g., Table 1 for the first table, Table 2, etc.) and similarly for any figures (a graph is a figure)—Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. For example: “As shown in Table 1, the 3rd grade students in the SuperSpecial Condition had consistently higher scores than those in the BlahBlah Condition, but this was not the case for the 4th graders.”
Discussion
The content:
This is where you interpret the results, discuss their implications, relate them to previous studies/theory, and explain limitations of your study.
Open the Discussion by briefly summarizing your key result(s) and stating whether your hypothesis(es) was or was not supported.
Compare these results with others in the published literature:
Are they consistent or inconsistent?
Discuss possible reasons for any differences between your predictions and the results you obtained.
Discuss possible reasons for any differences between your predictions and the other published results.
State implications for the theories on your topic and/or for practical applications.
Suggest limitations of your study—in other words, critique what you have done. That may help you suggest avenues for follow up work, which can be included in the Discussion as suggestions for future work.
Throughout the Discussion, do not simply reformulate and repeat points already made elsewhere in your paper; each new statement should contribute to your conclusions.
Conclude by summing up the one or two most important contributions of your study to the overall body of knowledge and scholarship on your topic.
Style guide:
The Discussion section directly follows the Results section, with the word “Discussion” centered and in bold print (and without the quotation marks used here).
The Discussion section does not begin on a new page; it immediately follows the Results section (unless it just works out that way).
Discuss findings in the order that the hypotheses pertaining to them were presented in the Introduction
You may include sub-headings for Limitations and Conclusions; regardless of whether you include these as distinct sub-headings, you will generally discuss these only after reporting support/rejection of your hypotheses and the relationship of your findings to the previous literature.
References
The content:
The purpose of the References section is to give credit to the work o
Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology
Lab Manual:
Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology
Last revised: Fall 2020
Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau, Donald J. Foss, Gunes Avci
Author Note:
This laboratory manual is based in part on PSYC 2301: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, which was a publication of the University of Houston Department of Psychology with its last major revision in 2012 by Evan Weinberger and Kristen Capuozzo.
The authors thank Krissy Nguyen and Lynh Vu for generously allowing the adaptation and editing of their research proposal papers as sample papers for future students in Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology.
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Section One: Reading and Writing Research Papers 5
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style 6
Summary and Guide to APA Style 9
Guide to Citations and References 24
Guide to Avoiding Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism 33
Section Two: Article Reviews and In-Class Exercises 38
Sample Study Summaries for Critique: Brief Study Summaries 39
Longer Sample Study Summaries for Critique 41
Additional Assignments and Exercises 49
Section Three: Further Resources for the Research Proposal Assignment 89
Writing a Research Proposal for this Class 90
Steps in Writing a Research Proposal 92
Using Library Resources for your Research Proposal 93
Sections of the Research Proposal 99
Appendix: Sample Research Proposals 105
Introduction to the Lab Manual and Introduction to Methods in Psychology Lab
How do we know about the effects of personality on, say, success in college? Or how do we know about the effects of child rearing practices on the personality of teen-agers? Or what leads people to be depressed, and what are the most effective ways to treat depression? Or…well, you get the idea: how do we know about any interesting question about human (or animal) behavior? The Introduction to Methods in Psychology class is in part designed to explore how we do know, and to give you the tools to further explore it yourself. To say it somewhat differently, the Methods class is designed to clarify some effective ways of asking such questions and some valid ways to go about answering them.
The Lab component of Methods is meant to give you hands-on experience using some important tools that will help you discover and understand what professional psychologists think we already know. Among these tools will be (1) the skillful ability to determine what has been studied in the past and what those studies have shown. Another aim of the Lab component is (2) to provide you with the experience of formulating your own test of an idea about how we humans function—speaking very informally, an idea about what makes us tick. Finally, the Lab component aims (3) to teach you the tools of scientific communication—how to describe your research to other scientists in a way that lets them understand what you did, why it is important, what you learned, and what questions have not been answered by your research.
In order to comfortably read what psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, and others have already studied and written, you have to understand the “culture of communication” in the sciences. In practice what this means is that you have to learn about the components of a research report and how they are organized. This culture has developed in order to facilitate written communication: authors do not have to worry anew about how to organize their reports every time they write one, and readers do not have to hunt for information but instead know where and how different kinds of information will be reported. To accomplish this, there is standard tradition that guides the structure and organization of such professional works. For you to successfully discover and make use of what has been done in the past, you have to understand and adopt that standard tradition.
Though they share broad outlines, there are minor differences in the way that various sciences structure their research papers. In psychology and a number of related disciplines, the standard is set by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (the APA). The Pub Manual, as it is typically called, has been around for decades and is now (as of October, 2019) in its 7th edition. These standards are frequently referred to simply as APA style.
We are going to get familiar with APA style in two ways. First, you have to grasp its organization and component parts in order to comfortably read the existing work—what some people call the technical literature of psychology. Second, the capstone project in this part of the Methods course involves your proposing an investigation (a study, as we often call it) that you will design. In addition, for that project you will write up the study as though you had actually carried it out. You won’t in fact actually conduct the study—among other reasons, we don’t have time for that here—but you will design a study that you could conduct and you will produce a written paper in APA style just as though you had. We’ll return to that assignment later. For now, let’s introduce you to APA style by discussing the overall organization of a research paper written in that style, as well as issues surrounding how you will acknowledge the work of others on which you will base your own research paper.
Section One: Reading and Writing Research Papers
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style
Summary and Guide to APA Style
Guide to Citations and References
Guide to Avoiding Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
Components of a Research Paper and their Relationship to APA Style
Let’s say that you’ve found a research paper on a topic of interest. (In a separate lesson we’ll cover how you can efficiently find such papers.) What will you want to know when you read that paper? Of course, the big picture answer is that you want to know if it answers a question of importance to you. But now, as a student of psychology, you’re learning that one research paper won’t completely settle the matter. Therefore, you’ll have to critically assess that paper along with others.
To do that you’ll have to look closer at that paper, to give it a critical reading. So let’s consider what you’ll want to find out when you take that closer look. For one thing, you’ll want to pay attention to its title and who wrote it, and you’ll probably be curious about what positions the author(s) had when they did the work. It would certainly be nice if you could then read a single paragraph that quickly summarized the whole thing—one that could tell you whether you want to really dig in and read the entire paper. If you do decide to read it, you’ll quickly want to know what the authors (and others) thought about the problem when they started the work—what the existing ideas about it were, whether there were competing ideas, and what predictions the authors had about what would happen in their study. Once you’ve got that, you’ll no doubt wonder how they carried out the study—about the methods they actually used to try to answer the question behind the study. For example, who were the participants? Were they children or adults? Were they representative of the gender and ethnic diversity in the country, or of just a subset of it? Of course, your questions about their methods go beyond knowing about the participants. You’ll also want to understand exactly how the study was organized (its design) and how the participants were treated; plus you’ll want to know if there were multiple groups of participants (the typical situation), and how each group was treated. In addition, you need to know what the researchers measured and exactly how they measured it. Then, naturally, a key thing of interest to you will be the results of the research; that is, how did things come out? So the authors need to tell you that—to describe and analyze the data they gathered. And they’ll probably want to tell you what they think about the outcome. Did it support their ideas? What general lessons can we take from this study? Are there limitations to what we should conclude from it? And finally, you might be curious about whose work influenced these authors. No one works truly independently, so honest scientists need to give credit where credit is due. If the report leaves any of these things out we’ll feel that we didn’t get the whole story—and we should always get the whole story.
The previous long paragraph presents an extensive list of things you want and need to know after reading a research paper. Remember, science is a public activity, so it is essential that all these things are stated in enough detail that, in principle, you could copy (replicate) the study if you had the time and resources to do so.
If we were to make a list of the sub-topics just mentioned, or try to outline them, we would be developing the structure of a standard research paper. In short, we would be (re-) inventing the outline of a standard style, for example, the APA style. One purpose of standardizing this list is to ensure that all these key aspects of the work are reliably communicated to the reader.
What follows, then, is an overview of the “official” APA style, which is currently embodied in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). This overview is organized by the major components of a research paper. There will be two sub-sections for each component: one on content—that is, what needs to be covered; and one on some key details of the style itself. This overview can be read in two ways—and should be reviewed at least twice during the semester. First, this overview—especially the content sub-sections—should be studied before you begin to read the scientific literature in order to help you get the most from each study you read about. Second, both sub-sections within this overview should be treated as an outline or checklist of requirements as you do your own writing in APA style, which will be a large part of this class later in the semester.
In addition to this overview, we’ll provide pointers to some excellent web sources, and to some very fine hands-on help housed here at UH, that can answer further questions you may have about APA style. You will probably have specific questions that lead you to consult those resources, but this overview is a great place to start!
Finally, you should be aware that some of the articles you read and cite might not completely comply with APA style! This is because most journals—even most Psychology journals!—are not actually published by the APA. Even though these non-APA journals often roughly follow APA Style, they may deviate from APA style in some ways. The following overview notes which elements of APA style the authors of this lab manual believe are most frequently changed in non-APA journals, but your Intro to Methods lab instructor will be the final authority on what you have to do when you write for this class. Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you are expected to strictly follow APA style for student papers. APA style for student papers is a little less fussy than APA style for professional papers. In the overview found on the following pages, you will find explanations of both, but remember that as a student, you can follow the student paper style in this class.
Summary and Guide to APA style
General writing guide:
Avoid language that may cause irritation, distraction, or interruptions. This includes:
Linguistic Devices
Heavy alliteration (beginning each word with the same sound)
Accidental rhyming
Poetic expressions or idioms (particularly those that may not be clear to people without shared cultural background with the author)
Clichés
Mixed metaphors
Casual or conversational language (e.g., kids instead of adolescents or children)
Biased Language
Words that carry some type of implied or irrelevant evaluations of the sexes, race/ethnic group, or social status of people.
Words with surplus or unintended meaning (i.e., cop instead of police officer).
Words that are considered to be offensive, either in the broader population or by the specific groups that the words are used to describe.
You should also avoid using a storytelling tone, especially once you are past the first paragraph of the introduction (which can be used to “sell” the reader on the importance of your topic or research question).
Avoid the use of “you” (i.e., the following is unacceptable: “You might expect violent TV to cause violent behavior in children.”).
Avoid the first person (I, we, us) throughout the entire paper. Non-APA journals often disagree on this point, allowing the first person (and a more narrative account of research in general).
Use the minimum number of words necessary to get the main point of your research paper across.
General formatting guide
Research papers should be typed and double-spaced throughout—including the Title page, Abstract, and References.
Your instructor may specify a particular font. If not, you may use any easily readable font. This document is printed in 12-point Cambria. The APA recommended fonts include 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, or 11-point Georgia.
If you include any figures in your paper, the text within the figures should use a sans serif font (a font where the ends of the lines making up each letter do not have “feet”) for figure images. Popular sans serif fonts include Arial or Calibri.
Your paper should have 1.0 inch margins on all sides.
The paper should be left-justified, but not right-justified. That is, the right margin should be “ragged,” as in this document.
Page numbers should be on the upper right hand corner of every page, starting on the first (Title) page and running consecutively throughout the entire paper.
In professional papers (but not student papers), each page should have a “running head” at the top left corner. The running head is an abbreviated title and is written in all caps, but you will not need to include one in a student paper.
Make sure to indent the first line of each new paragraph throughout your entire paper, except for the abstract.
Organization and Style
One way to think about writing an APA style research paper—or a paper in many other formats, for that matter—is to think of an hourglass. Just as an hourglass is broad at the top, narrows, and then widens again, your writing should take you from general to specific and then back to general again. Similarly, an APA style paper includes an Introduction section, which begins by defining a big problem or question and gradually narrows to specific hypotheses. After the Introduction comes the Method and Results sections, which are detailed and specific. Finally, the Discussion section relates the specific findings of the study back to the broader literature and the original problem(s) described in the Introduction.
Papers written in APA style contain the following sections. For convenience the sections are numbered here but they are not numbered in the actual paper, though they do occur in this order. Even non-APA style papers will include these sections, though the order or the exact names of the sections could be different.
A Title page.
The content:
The title should inform a prospective reader about the research project.
The title should be specific to your project; it should not be “Literature Review,” or “Methods Project,” or anything else that is about the class instead of the topic.
You should avoid titles that are funny or catchy but do not clearly explain what your study is about. You should also avoid vague titles that are too general to be informative (e.g., “A study of how people solve problems”).
The title should be concise, meaning that it should use as few words as possible to clearly communicate its meaning.
Information about the author(s), called the byline, follows the title.
In a professional paper, you would provide your name and institutional affiliation.
In a student paper, you will provide your name, the course number and name, the instructor’s name, and the assignment due date. Your instructor may ask you to include additional information.
A professional paper will include an author note, but student papers will not. The author note identifies each author’s departmental and institutional affiliation, acknowledges financial support (like grants), acknowledges technical help or feedback from people who may not have contributed enough to attain authorship (such as technicians who helped collect data or colleagues who commented on the manuscript), and provides contact information for the corresponding author.
Style guide:
While the APA Publication Manual (7e) does not limit the length of a title, it emphasizes keeping titles as short and concise as possible. For this class, it is recommended that your title fit on 1-2 lines and not exceed 12 words.
The title should use upper- and lower-case letters.
The title should be in bold print and centered on the first page about three or four double-spaced lines down from the top of the page.
Then add an extra blank line of space followed by your byline (see content sub-section, above). Each element of your byline (e.g., your name, the course number/name, etc.) should be presented on a separate double-spaced and centered line. Your byline should not be in bold.
Abstract page.
The content:
The purpose of the Abstract is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the study. Most savvy investigators write the Abstract after completing the rest of the paper (in other words, after they have all the details in place that will be summarized in the abstract). Because space is so limited, it is critical to be clear and concise. Do not include any extraneous details or even extra words. A good test for this is to try reading a sentence leaving out a word or phrase; if the meaning does not change when the word is left out, you should probably leave it out. However, you should include:
Information about the topic of the paper
A statement of the research question
Why the topic/research question is important
Information about the participants
The research hypothesis(es)
The methods used (in extremely brief form)
What you found (the results)
A statement about the conclusions and/or the implications (for example, the practical significance) of the results.
After the Abstract itself, professional papers include keywords. These give the reader a highly compact idea of the main topics of the paper.
Style guide:
The Abstract starts on the second page. In other words, you will begin a new page (after the title page), just for the abstract.
Just like all pages of a paper, the Abstract page should include the header. For a student paper, the header consists only of the page number at the upper right. (A professional paper would also include the running head.)
The word “Abstract” is centered above the text and in bold print (and not in quotation marks or italics).
Do not indent the first sentence of the Abstract itself.
It is written in one paragraph. (Some non-APA style journals, especially those written for a medical or practitioner audience, will break the Abstract into paragraphs/sections corresponding to the Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion.)
The Abstract should be no more than 250 words. (Abstract length varies among non-APA journals, ranging from 100 to 500 word limits.)
After the Abstract itself, professional papers will list keywords. To do this, indent and type “Keywords:” (italicized, but without quotation marks), and then list your keywords (typically, 3-5) separated by commas.
Introduction.
The content:
The goals of the Introduction are to introduce the reader to the problem being investigated and to review key background research and theory. You should “set the table” for your current study by:
Stating the problem or question being investigated
Explaining why this problem or question is important.
Then, describe influential past research on the variables of interest. State (when relevant):
The basic approach and method of past studies
Conflicting or uncertain prior results, or inconsistencies between prior studies
Limitations of previous studies
Gaps in our (collective) knowledge.
The overall idea of the preceding review is to motivate why one would do the work that you’ve done in this research. After you review the prior research, go on to perform integration of the reviewed information with the new ideas that you bring to the table:
Describe the goals of the present study, and how they flow from or seek to refine or question previous work.
State the variables of interest and how you are operationalizing them.
Describe in detail the predictions that your theory or perspective makes about the results of the current study.
List the formal hypotheses that you have about the expected outcomes.
Style guide:
The Introduction section begins on a new page after the abstract (typically, page 3).
Begin with the title of the paper at the top of this page, centered, and in bold print. This title should be the only heading at the start of the Introduction; do not head this section “Introduction” or “Literature Review.”
After that, the Introduction is written in normal paragraph form, with every paragraph indented. This includes the very first paragraph after the title.
Write each section clearly:
Each paragraph moving your argument forward.
Every time you refer to someone else’s work, include a formal citation of the work (and a corresponding reference in the References section; see below).
Each paragraph should end by setting up a smooth and clear transition to the next one.
Method
The content:
The Method section describes in detail how the study was conducted. In this section, you must provide enough detail that another researcher could replicate your study. It has a number of sub-sections:
Participants
If using non-humans, this sub-section is labeled Subjects, instead.
Tell how many were in each condition of the study.
Explain from what population(s) they were recruited and how.
State the demographic composition of the sample as appropriate (e.g., the sex, ethnicity, education level, etc.).
If applicable, explain your inclusion and/or exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria are characteristics that the potential participants must have if they are to be included in the study. Exclusion criteria are the characteristics that disqualify prospective participants from inclusion in the study.
At minimum, sex and age of the participants should be described.
Explain if/how the participants were compensated for participation in the research.
Note that your participants all gave informed consent to participate in the research (or explain assent or exemption from informed consent) under a protocol approved by the IRB.
Design
Describe the overall design of the study, including any detail that would be needed if someone wants to repeat your work.
State clearly the independent and dependent variables and how they were operationalized in this work.
Specify the type of design—for instance, experimental, quasi-experimental, or correlational; cross-sectional or longitudinal; within-participants, between-participants, or mixed.
For a design in which the appropriate analysis is not self-evident, explain how the data you collect will be analyzed. In other words, what conditions will you compare? Or, what variables will be used as predictors vs. what materials will serve as outcome (criterion) measures?
Explain the experimental conditions of the study (for experimental or quasi-experimental studies) and how they were organized.
Be clear about which variables were studied between-participants versus within-participants.
Procedure
State what happened in your study/to a participant in your study, generally in chronological order.
Walk the reader through the procedures you used to collect the data.
State how the participants were selected.
If relevant, describe how participants were assigned to groups.
Explain:
What, in appropriate detail, did the participants do at each point during the study?
What was the typical amount of time the participants were in the study?
If there was more than one session, how long did each session last and how much time intervened between the sessions?
This section is only complete when someone else could use it to replicate your procedures.
Materials
Describe any standard tests/instruments/measures/materials you may have used, with appropriate citations.
If you use standardized surveys or questionnaires, provide information about reliability and validity.
Describe in greater detail any special materials that you put together for the study (though complete copies of these materials should be deferred to an appendix unless they are extremely short).
Describe any special apparatus used in the study or any special measures you may have employed.
Just as you did for the procedure, you should use the standard that the reader needs to know enough about what happened such that they could do it, too, based only on the information in your paper.
Style guide:
The Method section continues immediately after the end of the Introduction; that is, it does not start a new page (unless it just works out that way).
The word “Method” is centered on the page, in bold print, and capitalized (and without the quotation marks used here).
Each of the sub-sections begins with the appropriate heading (e.g., Participants).
The sub-section headings are each flush left on the page and in bold print.
Each sub-section immediately follows the end of the previous one (that is, they do not start on a fresh page unless it happens to work out that way).
Results (note: you likely will not be asked to write a Results section without actually having results).
The content:
Summarizes the data collected and the analyses you conducted on those data.
Describe the analysis(es) you carried out, with descriptive (e.g., means, standard deviations, correlations) and inferential tests (e.g., t-tests, ANOVAs, etc.) as appropriate.
Provide the results of those analyses—report the data and the statistics.
You may include tables or figures (e.g., graphs) to provide clear and readily understood summaries of the results.
This is not the place to interpret or evaluate the results. (Non-APA journals might allow for basic interpretation within the results section in order to remind readers of the key question addressed by each analysis, and how well the results of the analysis answered the question.)
Style guide:
The Results section does not begin on a new page; it immediately follows the Method section (unless it just works out that way).
The word “Results” is in bold print (without the quotation marks used here) and centered.
In past versions of APA style, if you used tables or figures they were not inserted within the Results section. Instead, they were included as separate pages at the end of the paper. However, in the APA Publication Manual (7e), the options have expanded: you may either include tables and figures at the end of the paper, or you may insert them in line with your text. If inserted in line, each table or figure is inserted after the end of the paragraph containing the first time it is called out (directly mentioned) in the text.
In the Results section you will refer to tables by sequential numbering (e.g., Table 1 for the first table, Table 2, etc.) and similarly for any figures (a graph is a figure)—Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. For example: “As shown in Table 1, the 3rd grade students in the SuperSpecial Condition had consistently higher scores than those in the BlahBlah Condition, but this was not the case for the 4th graders.”
Discussion
The content:
This is where you interpret the results, discuss their implications, relate them to previous studies/theory, and explain limitations of your study.
Open the Discussion by briefly summarizing your key result(s) and stating whether your hypothesis(es) was or was not supported.
Compare these results with others in the published literature:
Are they consistent or inconsistent?
Discuss possible reasons for any differences between your predictions and the results you obtained.
Discuss possible reasons for any differences between your predictions and the other published results.
State implications for the theories on your topic and/or for practical applications.
Suggest limitations of your study—in other words, critique what you have done. That may help you suggest avenues for follow up work, which can be included in the Discussion as suggestions for future work.
Throughout the Discussion, do not simply reformulate and repeat points already made elsewhere in your paper; each new statement should contribute to your conclusions.
Conclude by summing up the one or two most important contributions of your study to the overall body of knowledge and scholarship on your topic.
Style guide:
The Discussion section directly follows the Results section, with the word “Discussion” centered and in bold print (and without the quotation marks used here).
The Discussion section does not begin on a new page; it immediately follows the Results section (unless it just works out that way).
Discuss findings in the order that the hypotheses pertaining to them were presented in the Introduction
You may include sub-headings for Limitations and Conclusions; regardless of whether you include these as distinct sub-headings, you will generally discuss these only after reporting support/rejection of your hypotheses and the relationship of your findings to the previous literature.
References
The content:
The purpose of the References section is to give credit to the work o
LA BELLA ITALIA
LA BELLA ITALIA
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
1.0 Introduction
My name is Jing Lin. I conducted my internship at La Bella Italia. I am writing this report for Le Cordon Bleu DAC internship program. My internship duration at this restaurant was for eight weeks, where I spent most of time learning and gaining new skills that I can utilize in the kitchen such as writing new starters, and main courses. I will be applying the knowledge that I acquired from school to identify, and assess some of the problems that exist in this restaurant. The purpose of this report is to provide a description of my experience to Sue Townsend, and help her have a better understanding of my internship experience at La Bella Italia.
The scope of this report will be to cover the introduction at La Bella Italia, conduct an analysis on its background, workflow, operating procedures, staff management, and menu design. The report will also contain a conclusion, and recommendation based on my observations at the company. I will cover areas whereby the company can improve its activities to promote a better experience for students who are in the internship program, and also the restaurant’s customers.
2.0 Findings and Analysis
2.1 Background
La Bella Italia can be described as a Restaurant, Pizzeria, Deli, Retail, and Wholesale business. The restaurant is located in Petone Wellington, New Zealand, as indicated in the map below:
Figure 1: Location of La Bella Italia, it is at 10 Nevis Street, Petone, Lower Hutt 5045.
The company has eight employees. The uniqueness of the restaurant is that it offers its clients with the traditional, authentic Italian products and cuisines. An important point to note is that, the restaurant mainly imports the products that it uses for its food preparation such as: Italian cured meats , cheeses, pasta, sauces, Limoncello, and Extra Virgin Olive oils from Italy, which makes its products to be more authentic. The target market for La Bella Italia is individuals who want to experience the Italian cuisine, and people who are focused on eating healthy meals. For instance, some of the popular products that the restaurant sells to its clientele include: delicious pasta, rich risottos, and gluten free dishes.
Other than offering its clients with food products, the company offers other services such as classes to adults and children in order for them to learn how to make paste, gnocchi and ravioli. In addition to that, the company offers annual tours whereby New Zealanders, and any other tourist are taken to Italy to experience the different locations, assess where the food products are imported from, and interact with the Italian culture to have a better understanding of the rich traditions of the region. At La Bella Italia, there are seven departments. I was assigned to work in the kitchen. My main duties in this department were to write menus for starters, main courses, desserts, and pizza in the kitchen as I saw fit.
2.2 Planning and Monitoring of Workflow of Your Business
The layout of the restaurant is as described in figure two below:
Figure 2: Layout of the Floor Plan of the La Bella restaurant
Dish take-out window
The Hearth
Broil, Fryer, and Oven
Desert preparation area
Two sinks, handwashing area and kitchen
Salads and Starters location
Set-up area for a variety of dishes
Work Station
Refrigerator
Frozen Ark
Washing Dishes
From my observation of the kitchen area, the hygiene standards are low. The different stations that I have mentioned are not kept clean. In particular, the two sinks, and handwashing area are regularly dirty. The dish washers do not remove the food remains from the plates while cleaning, and it is highly likely to see for instance pasta in the sink. In addition to that, at the hand washing area, one is highly likely to find remnants of soap fluids that have been poured all over, and hand tissues dumped on the sink, despite there being a dustbin at the bottom of the sink. Furthermore, the Dish take out window is not cleaned, and this means that one is highly likely to find water on this surface, which can lead to plates being dirty despite having been cleaned. Also, the Dessert preparation area, and work stations are not regularly cleaned, and this means that it is highly likely that the food that is offered to the clients is contaminated.
The flow in the kitchen is regarded as being poor. An important point to note is that, the kitchen work triangle is at the sink, stove and the refrigerator. The distance between the fridge and the refrigerator is close, however, from there is a large distance between the stove and the sink. This is a poor set-up because it means that the chefs cannot regularly wash their hands, especially after touching one food, and they want to handle another food product.
La Bella Italia has a small kitchen, which means it has one preparation area. The problem with this is that, all the meat products will be prepared at this location. Products such as poultry, fish, and beef are conducted on this bench. In addition to that, breakfast and dinner meals are prepared on this bench. This means there is a high likelihood of food contamination as the area is not thoroughly cleaned when a specific food is prepared. This is represented in figure three below:
Figure 3: Preparation Area at La Bella Italia
2.3 Operating Procedures and Compliance Requirements
Deliveries
The company orders food from the same organizations. This means that it has the same ordering process of these products. For instance, it imports things such as Italian cured meats , cheeses, pasta, sauces, Limoncello, and Extra Virgin Olive oils from Italy. In addition to that, it gets Prawns from Australia, and they are regularly delivered depending on the stock of the company.
Waste
There are different ways in which the La Bella Italia generates waste. First, it has been determined that the company makes a huge quantity of orders of more than the food products that it needs. For instance, it will make regular orders of vegetables even when they are not going to use these vegetables in their food preparation process.(Dhir, Talwar, Kaur, & Malibari, 2020) Secondly, there is waste that is generated from the Italian Parsley sticks. While the company utilizes the leaves in its food preparation, the sticks are thrown away as they are regarded as waste. Thirdly, the company when making desserts, it mainly uses the egg whites. This means that the egg yolks are mainly thrown away, which contributes to the waste generation in this company.
Storage
Figure 4: The Refrigerator with containers of different ice-creams
La Bella Italia has an inadequate storage facility. To put it into perspective, an individual has to assess the following:
The restaurant has one freezer, which is used to store all of its ice cream products. Different ice cream products require different temperatures so that they can retain their texture, and flavor. By using one freezer, the restaurant is compromising the quality of some of its products.
The restaurant uses one freezer in order to store all its bread, and poultry, and seafood products. Again, this compromises the quality of these food products, and will likely affect the end product that is provided to the customers(Mohammed & Radyabdelgawad, 2017). This is indicated in figure five below:
Figure 5: Freezer with different products in it.
An important point to note is that, there is one section that is used to preserve the hot dish and the larder section products, while the other one is mainly used for the storage of the dissertation products.
Compliance
La Bella Italia imports a majority of its food products such as Italian cured meats , cheeses, pasta, sauces, Limoncello, and Extra Virgin Olive oils from Italy.
The Prawn that the company uses is imported from Italia. Am important point to note is that the quality of this product is high, based on the experience that the company has had in the recent past in terms of their Prawns.
It is also important to note that the La Bella Italia has used the same company over the years for its vegetable products. This means that these products are of a relatively high quality. In addition to that, the main reason as to why they deal with this company is because, it is the only company that is known to wash its vegetables at-least twice before delivering them at La Bella Italia.
Reflection About The Above
One of the best strategies that the company can use in order to reduce the overall waste that it generates is by engaging in precise ordering. It has been determined that, one of the main reasons as to why the company generates a lot of waste is because it makes orders that are of a higher quantity than the food products that it needs. It means that by reducing the quantity of orders that it makes at scheduled periods, it can be able to minimize its wastage. The reason for this is that, there are times during their food preparation that they do not use vegetable and herbs. In addition to that, there are some specific parts of the herbs that they use that are not needed in their food preparation. For instance, when using the Italian Parsley sticks, they pick the leaves off, and throw away the sticks. As a means to reduce the overall wastage, they can utilize the sticks by making the vegetable stocks.
Another means of reducing waste generation is by minimizing the approach of throwing away egg yolks. The egg whites are mainly used, during the preparation of desserts. However, the egg yolk is thrown away because it cannot be used in the preparation process of these desserts. Instead of throwing it away, the egg yolk can be used in preparation of other food products such as the Mayonnaise, as a binding agent, Custard, Carbonara, and to enrich the dough and pastries. If this is achieved, then, it is highly likely to reduce the amount of waste that the restaurant generates.
2.4 Management of the Staffing Strategies and Staff Relationships
Recruitment Process
At La Bella Italia, the company uses the following practices to ensure that it has employed the right staff. First, the company whenever there is a position open, advertises using different platforms that it is hiring. For instance, there are notices in the restaurant which point out that the organization is engaged in the hiring process, and the position that it expects to fill. In addition to that, it uses both the traditional and digital media for these adverts. Secondly, it will engage in a rigorous interviewing process in order to select the right candidates(Ahmad & Veerapandian, 2012). The candidates have to have the right academic qualifications, they need to possess the knowledge and skills that are needed. For instance, they are taken to the work area, and tasked to perform specific duties to assess their competence level. This means that only the best recruits will be selected.
Induction and Training
The organization mainly utilizes the apprenticeship program. In this case, the new recruit will work under an experienced employee. They are meant to observe how they conduct their job duties, and ask them questions where necessary. This is meant to ensure that the employees have a better understanding of their job roles and what is expected of them (Hartline & Witt, 2004). In terms of training, the employees are provided with regular training by attending work shops, seminars, and in some cases going for an advanced course in order to improve their skills at the work setting.
Appraisal
The employees are subjected to regular performance feedback in the organization setting. This is meant to identify their strengths and weaknesses and highlight the areas that they need to improve. These feedback are provided bi-monthly. An important point to note is that, for the employees who have performed exceptionally, they are accorded financial and non-financial incentives such as an increase in their salaries, and being granted a free trip to Italy when the company engages in that touring process.
Teamwork
Teamwork is encouraged at all departments, especially where possible. All employees are expected to conduct their parts in the right manner to ensure that all things go as smoothly as possible, and the customers get the best, or most appropriate services in relation to their needs(Bogatova, 2012). For employees who fail to engage in the teamwork process, they are either reprimanded, and if they are repeat offenders, they will be fired for not cooperating with the other employees.
Organizational Chart
1741805-53975Owner
Owner
257556026670
1665605160020Restaurant Manager
Restaurant Manager
2541905249555
51708052419352532380203835-125095194310-163195156210
4418330297180Kitchen Manager
Kitchen Manager
1818005230505Bar Manager
Bar Manager
-515620268605Floor manager
Floor manager
5218430321945259461022669555880287655
453263066675Cooks, Dishwashers, and Bussers
Cooks, Dishwashers, and Bussers
1779905114300Bartenders
Bartenders
-56324585725Hosts and Servers
Hosts and Servers
Reflection About The Above
The company has an effective recruitment strategy, which has positively contributed to the company hiring the right staff in terms of work skills and knowledge. In addition to that, by engaging in the apprenticeship program, it means that the employees who are recruited are easily integrated into the company. They will be aware of their work approach, and what is expected of them by working with the highly experienced employees. In addition to that, by setting up a teamwork structure at the organization it means that the employees tend to have a positive relationship with each other. An important point to note is that, for most of the employees, they realize the value of the employees in different positions in relation to the success of their work. For instance, for a cook, he or she realizes that he or she cannot be effective in his or her work without the contribution of the dish washer because the cook will need to use utensils in the preparation of the meals. What needs to be improved is the structure of the teams.
There is the need to have a team leader who will ensure that all the team members fulfil their roles, and if they fail, he or she should be answerable to the short-comings of the team. I feel that this will be a highly effective approach, than the disciplinary action that is taken against the employees, which may include being suspended, or fired for not effectively participating in the team. The reason for this is that, it may reduce the employees’ engagement and organization commitment levels. This may especially be true if the employees feel that they were unfairly treated at the work place in terms of the punishment that was meted towards them for their lack of, or low morale in the teamwork set-up.
2.5 Menu Planning, Design and Development
Who Designs Menus and How Often are they Changed
The cook, the accountant and the restaurant manager are the ones who are involved in the design of the menu that is used in this restaurant. I learned that, the reason why these three are involved is that, for the cook, he provides the types of foods that will be prepared by his team in the restaurant. The accountant has to be involved to determine the costs of preparation of these foods, and therefore set a price that will ensure that the organization is profitable, but the prices are not too steep for the targeted market audience. The restaurant manager is mainly involved in determining the outlook of the menu, to ensure that it is appealing to the clients. I also learned that the menus in this restaurant are changed after every eight months.
Seasonality in the Menu
The seasonality of the menu is dependent on two factors: the weather conditions and important holiday events in this region. For instance, during special events such as Anzac Day, and Waitangi Day, there are special meals that are prepared to signify these special events(Ozdemir & Caliskan, 2014). In addition to that, during the winter and Christmas period, there are special meals such as pizzas that are prepared to emphasize the aspect of family gatherings. The menus often change regularly in relation to the season, or holiday events that exist.
Color/Texture/Balance of the Menu
As this is an Italian-themed, or based restaurant, color, texture and balance of food is highly important. Color is an especially important factor because it affects the way individuals perceive food. Different colors such as red and green are utilized to make the food to become visually appealing. In addition to that, the restaurant places a high level of attention on the texture of the food(Ozdemir & Caliskan, 2014). It has to be either soft, crunchy, or mushy depending on the food product. There is a high emphasis to ensure that the right texture of the food is achieved as for a majority of consumers, texture is more important than even color and flavor.
Dietary Requirements
A majority of the food products and the accompaniments are designed to achieve a balanced diet(Roberto, Larsen, Agnew, Baik, & Brownell, 2010). In addition to that, most of the food products contain little fatty products. The intention of the restaurant is to ensure that its customers eat healthy and they return to the restaurant on a regular basis.
Sustainability of the Menu
The menu that is utilized in the restaurant is highly sustainable. The reason for this, the selected foods are considered to be healthy for the bodies of the customers, and they are environmentally sustainable(Roberto, Larsen, Agnew, Baik, & Brownell, 2010). To put it into perspective, the food products are bio-degradable if they are to be thrown away, and also the company only orders food products from companies that uphold environmentally sustainable practices. In addition to that, all the food products are taken from authentic sources as the company wants to guarantee the quality of food that it serves it clients.
Reflection
The company has an effective menu in terms of the approach that is undertaken in designing the menu. By involving stakeholders such as cooks, accountant and restaurant manager, they have ensured that the company is able to provide a menu that is appealing in terms of looks, the foods contained and prices to the clients. Also, the company assures the clients that the food products that they use in their preparation process are from authentic, and environmentally friendly organizations, which has contributed to the development of a sustainable menu.
3.0 Conclusion
La Bella Italia is a restaurant that is located in New Zealand. For the most part it can be considered a high-quality restaurant. It has a professional staff who are subjected to a rigorous recruitment process to ensure that the organization selects the best, or the top employees to work in their firms. In addition to that, the employees are integrated into the company through the use, or utilization of the apprenticeship program, which ensures that the employees are able to learn from more experienced employees who are working in similar job positions. It prepares them to be able to fill these positions in the future as they are aware of what is expected of them. In addition to that, the company uses a sustainable menu in which it only provides healthy and unique cuisines to its customers. The intention is to ensure that the customers eat the best food products that the organization can serve them. The company’s menu is sustainable in that all the food products are bought from companies that are environmentally friendly, and also its products are considered to be biodegradable. This means that even if they are thrown as waste, they will have little impact on the environment. All these are meant to increase the consumers volume, and sales in the company. However, it has been observed that the company has a poor kitchen plan, which means that the cooks and other people who work in the kitchen do not clean their hands as often as possible. Secondly, the company has only one work station, which increases the likelihood of the customers being served contaminated food. In addition to that, the different work stations of the restaurants’ kitchen are not regularly cleaned. These means that there is the need for some changes to be conducted.
4.0 Recommendations
Based on the problems, or challenges that have been observed, there is the need for the following things to be implemented for the restaurant to be more effective in terms of its operations:
There is the need for all the work stations to be regularly cleaned. This means that immediately after they have been used, they should be cleaned thoroughly to avoid working in dirty areas, or contamination of food.
There is the need to increase the work stations to ensure that different types of meats such as beef, chicken meat and fish are not prepared in the same location to reduce the possibility of the contamination of food.
There is the need to assign regular cleaners in the kitchen and set policies that individuals should clean up after themselves. Failure in terms of observing these policies will lead to some form of punishments.
There is the need to build a sink near the cooks’ workstation to ensure that they regularly clean themselves, i.e. wash their hands immediately after completing specific tasks.
The company should develop an effective food ordering plan to ensure that they do not generate a lot of waste. In addition to that, instead of throwing away products such as the egg yolk, it should be used for other purposes such as making of pastries.
References
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Ozdemir, B., & Caliskan, O. (2014). A review of literature on restaurant menus: Specifying the managerial issues. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 2(1), 3-13. doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2013.12.001
Roberto, C. A., Larsen, P. D., Agnew, H., Baik, J., & Brownell, K. D. (2010). Evaluating the impact of menu labeling on food choices and intake. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 312-318. doi:10.2105/ajph.2009.160226