COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION WRITTEN RESPONSE
STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL WORK
I understand that Capella University’s Academic Honesty Policy (3.01.01) holds learners accountable for the integrity of work they submit, which includes, but is not limited to, discussion postings, assignments, comprehensive exams, and the dissertation. Students are expected to understand the Policy and know that it is their responsibility to learn about Instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources in written work as specified in APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition. Serious sanctions can result from violations of any type of the Academic Honesty Policy including dismissal from the University.
I attest this document represents my own work. Where I have used the ideas of others, I have paraphrased and given credit according to the guidelines of the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition. Where I have used the words of others (i.e. direct quotes), I have followed the guidelines for using direct quotes prescribed by the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition.
I have read, understood, and abided by Capella University’s Academic Honesty Policy (3.01.01). I further understand Capella University takes plagiarism seriously; regardless of intention, the result is the same.
I understand that placement of my learner ID# below constitutes signing and attesting to this Statement of Original Work.
Attested to by:
Learner ID#: [Review the statement above and insert your learner ID here to affirm your agreement with the Statement of Original Work; include no other personal identification]
Date: [Insert date of submission here]
QUESTION 1
Review scholarly literature on three theories within your specialization. Analyze how these different theories could be integrated, synthesized, or combined to create a better perspective on your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation topic. Evaluate the extent to which these theories conflict in ways that cannot be reconciled within this context.
Please begin the answer for Question 1 here. Paragraphs must be double-spaced, with the first line indented one-half inch.
While there is no required page length for the comprehensive examination, it is essential that each component of the comprehensive examination question be substantively addressed in accordance with the Comprehensive Examination Evaluation Scoring Rubrics. Verify that you have satisfied the requirements shown in the Comprehensive Examination Rubric, which is found in Appendix C in the Comprehensive Examination Manual.
All responses will be reviewed holistically in alignment with grading criteria, regardless of length. However, satisfactory responses to comprehensive examination questions have typical characteristics: A high quality response to a comprehensive examination question generally incorporates no fewer than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, avoids referencing more than 3 textbooks and ranges between 12 and 17 pages in length, not including cover page, questions pages, and reference pages. Comprehensive examination responses should be limited to no more than 17 pages for each question, excluding cover page, question page, and reference pages, as readers are not required to read beyond 17 pages.
Both foundational and recent scholarly literature (published within the last 5 years) should be incorporated into each exam response as applicable. Doctoral dissertations are typically not considered peer-reviewed scholarly work and as such should not be included in the 20 recommended references for the comp exam responses. However, one or two dissertations that provide new information that may be of particular relevance to the learner’s topic may be used in addition to the other references.
Within the comp questions, learners may be asked to identify their proposed (or School-approved) dissertation research topic, the focus of which needs to be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization. While the focus of the learner’s proposed dissertation research topic may be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization for comprehensive examination purposes, it does not guarantee that the proposed dissertation research topic will be School-approved for dissertation purposes.
Include a separate reference list for each question’s response. Sample references for a book, a journal article with a DOI, and a journal article without a DOI may be found on the next page. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition regarding other types of references.
For your convenience, the appendix of this template includes an overview of the formatting and style rules of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition for clarification and/or more information.
References
Jones, D., & Anderson, M. (2010). Book title: Subtitle of book (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Publisher.
Miller, F., Crumfield, S., & Rewter, R. (2011). Article title: Subtitle of article. Journal of Amazing Information, 4, 54-78. doi: 10.1111/j.aminfo.20111094
Oronski, D. (2009). Article title: Subtitle of article. The Journal of Important Studies, 15(1), 154-173. Retrieved from http://www.journalhomepageurl.com
QUESTION 2
Please write the question here, double-spaced and start your answer on the next page.
QUESTION_2: Prepare and present a literature review on the area of your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation topic. Evaluate trends and ethical research issues in the scholarly research in this area and propose at least two research topics that would serve to move the scholarly dialogue further. Defend your proposed topics to show how such research would contribute to the current literature.
Please begin the answer for Question 2 here. Paragraphs must be double-spaced, with the first line indented one-half inch.
While there is no required page length for the comprehensive examination, it is essential that each component of the comprehensive examination question be substantively addressed in accordance with the Comprehensive Examination Evaluation Scoring Rubrics. Verify that you have satisfied the requirements shown in the Comprehensive Examination Rubric, which is found in Appendix C in the Comprehensive Examination Manual.
All responses will be reviewed holistically in alignment with grading criteria, regardless of length. However, satisfactory responses to comprehensive examination questions have typical characteristics: A high quality response to a comprehensive examination question generally incorporates no fewer than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, avoids referencing more than 3 textbooks and ranges between 12 and 17 pages in length, not including cover page, questions pages, and reference pages. Comprehensive examination responses should be limited to no more than 17 pages for each question, excluding cover page, question page, and reference pages, as readers are not required to read beyond 17 pages.
Both foundational and recent scholarly literature (published within the last 5 years) should be incorporated into each exam response as applicable. Doctoral dissertations are typically not considered peer-reviewed scholarly work and as such should not be included in the 20 recommended references for the comp exam responses. However, one or two dissertations that provide new information that may be of particular relevance to the learner’s topic may be used in addition to the other references.
Within the comp questions, learners may be asked to identify their proposed (or School-approved) dissertation research topic, the focus of which needs to be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization. While the focus of the learner’s proposed dissertation research topic may be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization for comprehensive examination purposes, it does not guarantee that the proposed dissertation research topic will be School-approved for dissertation purposes.
Include a separate reference list for each question’s response. Sample references for a book, a journal article with a DOI, and a journal article without a DOI may be found on the next page. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition regarding other types of references.
For your convenience, the appendix of this template includes an overview of the formatting and style rules of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition for clarification and/or more information.
References
Jones, D., & Anderson, M. (2010). Book title: Subtitle of book (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Publisher.
Miller, F., Crumfield, S., & Rewter, R. (2011). Article title: Subtitle of article. Journal of Amazing Information, 4, 54-78. doi: 10.1111/j.aminfo.20111094
Oronski, D. (2009). Article title: Subtitle of article. The Journal of Important Studies, 15(1), 154-173. Retrieved from http://www.journal homepageurl.com
QUESTION_3: Briefly summarize the purpose, research method, findings, and conclusions of studies that provide a scholarly foundation for your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation topic. Evaluate the methodological strengths and weaknesses of each study, and how the weaknesses potentially limit the validity of the findings and conclusions. Based on your evaluation, analyze how a study on your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation topic will further the scholarly research while maintaining ethical research requirements.
References
Blue, P. R., Hu, J., & Zhou, X. (2018). Higher status honesty is worth more: The effect of social status on honesty evaluation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 350. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00350
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00350/full
Dahl, A., & Turiel, E. (2019). Using naturalistic recordings to study children’s social perceptions and evaluations. Developmental Psychology, doi:10.1037/dev0000735
Wahrman, R. (2010). Status, deviance, and sanctions: a critical review. Small Group Res. 41, 91–105. doi: 10.1177/1046496409359505
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046496409359505
Please begin the answer for Question 3 here. Paragraphs must be double-spaced, with the first line indented one-half inch.
While there is no required page length for the comprehensive examination, it is essential that each component of the comprehensive examination question be substantively addressed in accordance with the Comprehensive Examination Evaluation Scoring Rubrics. Verify that you have satisfied the requirements shown in the Comprehensive Examination Rubric, which is found in Appendix C in the Comprehensive Examination Manual.
All responses will be reviewed holistically in alignment with grading criteria, regardless of length. However, satisfactory responses to comprehensive examination questions have typical characteristics: A high quality response to a comprehensive examination question generally incorporates no fewer than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, avoids referencing more than 3 textbooks and ranges between 12 and 17 pages in length, not including cover page, questions pages, and reference pages. Comprehensive examination responses should be limited to no more than 17 pages for each question, excluding cover page, question page, and reference pages, as readers are not required to read beyond 17 pages.
Both foundational and recent scholarly literature (published within the last 5 years) should be incorporated into each exam response as applicable. Doctoral dissertations are typically not considered peer-reviewed scholarly work and as such should not be included in the 20 recommended references for the comp exam responses. However, one or two dissertations that provide new information that may be of particular relevance to the learner’s topic may be used in addition to the other references.
Within the comp questions, learners may be asked to identify their proposed (or School-approved) dissertation research topic, the focus of which needs to be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization. While the focus of the learner’s proposed dissertation research topic may be an approved program of research topic within the learner’s specialization for comprehensive examination purposes, it does not guarantee that the proposed dissertation research topic will be School-approved for dissertation purposes.
Include a separate reference list for each question’s response. Sample references for a book, a journal article with a DOI, and a journal article without a DOI may be found on the next page. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition regarding other types of references.
For your convenience, the appendix of this template includes an overview of the formatting and style rules of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Please consult the APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition for clarification and/or more information.
References
Jones, D., & Anderson, M. (2010). Book title: Subtitle of book (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Publisher.
Miller, F., Crumfield, S., & Rewter, R. (2011). Article title: Subtitle of article. Journal of Amazing Information, 4, 54-78. doi: 10.1111/j.aminfo.20111094
Oronski, D. (2009). Article title: Subtitle of article. The Journal of Important Studies, 15(1), 154-173. Retrieved from http://www.journalhomepageurl.com
Please remove all pages of this appendix prior to submitting your exam.
APPENDIX. APA FORMATTING AND STYLE
Information for Writers of the Comprehensive Exam
Formatting Requirements, APA 8.03
- Running header: Enter your learner ID number in the first page header and ALSO in the header for subsequent pages (one time only for subsequent pages).
- Page margins: Template is set with 1 in. margins on all sides.
- Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt.
- Paragraphs: Indent the first line of each paragraph one-half inch; the right margin is ragged, not justified. APA notes in its sixth edition corrections that two spaces between sentences is a recommendation, not a rule..
- Spacing: All text must be double-spaced.
Ethics
- Plagiarism (APA 1.10, 6.01). Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the ethics regarding crediting the author of a work the writer has paraphrased or quoted or whose ideas the writer has used.
- Bias. Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the general guidelines for reducing bias discussed on pp. 71-77.
Writing Clearly and Concisely, APA Chapter 3
Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the principles discussed in Chapter 3 regarding writing that is organized and persuasive.
- Aim for clear communication that is orderly, smooth, and precise. Use transitional words to help achieve continuity and avoid abruptness. Read APA 3.05-3.10.
- Vary sentence length for reading interest; keep paragraphs from getting too long (p. 68).
- Avoid colloquial expressions, jargon, and anthropomorphism (APA 3.09).
- Avoid using contractions in academic writing (e.g., write do not rather than don’t).
- Be aware that you can accidentally introduce ambiguity by using a pronoun for which the noun it refers to is either missing or not obvious (examples of pronouns: this, that, these, those; APA 3.09), and by overusing the passive voice (APA 3.18).
- Present parallel ideas by using parallel constructs in your writing (APA 3.23).
- Headings: APA 3.02-3.03.
- Read about organizing a manuscript with headings in APA 3.02.
- Structure your headings as shown in Table 3.1 in APA 3.03.
- APA (p. 63) indicates that there is no heading for the introduction.
- Seriation (i.e., items in a series). Most of the time, a series of words or phrases can be separated with punctuation alone. However, when there is a need to alert the reader to the order of ideas, each element in the series can be initiated by a letter or number (APA 3.04).
- See the APA Style discussion of types of lists for different needs, located at http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/03/lists-part-6-overview.html
- Initiate a series within a sentence or paragraph with lowercase letters, in parentheses: (a), (b), (c), and so on, not by numbers.
- Initiate a vertical list by numbers (use a period after each number, not parentheses) or by bullets. Indent vertical lists one-half inch, and create a hanging indent.
The Mechanics of Style, APA Chapter 4
Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the principles discussed in Chapter 4 regarding punctuation, capitalization, italicization, abbreviations, numbers, and equations.
- Add a comma after an introductory phrase, such as “In a theoretical article, Author (date) proposed a model for mapping out ….”
- Add commas between elements in a series of three or more items, including before and
and or (APA 4.03). See also 4.04 regarding the use of the semicolon. - Use italics, not quote marks, for a word or phrase used as a linguistic example (APA 4.21,
p. 105). Do not use italics for emphasis unless the meaning might otherwise be lost (p. 106). - Quotation marks (APA 4.07, 4.08). Please read both sections regarding the use of double and single quote marks.
- Hyphenation (APA 4.13). Refer to Tables 4.2 and 4.3 on pp. 99-100 regarding words that do and do not require a hyphen after the prefix. Do not use a hyphen in place of an em dash or en dash (p. 97).
- Add a space between the abbreviation p. (or pp.) and the page number.
- Use the abbreviation U.S. only as an adjective, and punctuate but do not add a space between the letters. Write out United States when used as a noun (APA 4.02).
- Use the abbreviation vs. only in parenthetical text (in legal citations, the abbreviation is v., not vs.). For all other uses, write out the word versus (APA 4.26).
- Do not capitalize the names of theories (APA 4.16).
- Numbers (APA 4.31-4.38). Express numbers 10 and above in numerals and numbers nine and below in words (however, note the exceptions in APA 4.31f, 4.32). To form the plural of numbers, add s, without an apostrophe, as in 1970s (APA 4.38).
- Read APA 4.45-4.46 regarding statistical symbols and abbreviations.
- Underlining: Do not use.
- Bold text: Use only in headings.
Displaying Results, APA Chapter 5
Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the rules discussed in Chapter 5 regarding when to include, how to number and title, and how to format a table or figure.
- Include only necessary tables and figures, as discussed in APA 5.03 and 5.20.
- Follow APA rules for table and figure numbers (5.05), titles and captions (5.12, 5.23), and formatting tables (5.08, 5.13, 5.14, 5.16, 5.17) and figures (5.22, 5.25).
- You must provide a full citation for a table or figure from another source (APA 2.12).
- Discuss each table and figure in your text (APA 5.10).
Crediting Sources, APA Chapter 6
Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the rules discussed in Chapter 6 regarding how to accurately credit sources of the works the writer has personally read.
Text Citations
- It is important to read primary sources whenever possible. A secondary source (that is, what one author says about another author’s work) is a good way to find works you want to read, discuss, and cite, but secondary sources should be cited infrequently. Please read APA 6.17.
- Cite sources to support your assertions. A good rule of thumb is the “Says who?” rule. Whenever the reader can ask, “Says who?” cite the source.
- Cite as early in the paragraph as possible when introducing a new idea.
- When paraphrasing, include the author’s name and publication date, as shown in the text at the end of p. 15 in APA. Include the page number when presenting a statistic or complex text (APA 6.04).
- Multiple-author works: Read APA 6.12 to learn the differences in citing a work written by two authors, three to five authors, and six and more authors, and to learn when to use & and et al.
- No named author: Follow the examples in APA 6.15.
- Personal communications: Cite these as shown in APA 6.20, but do not include them in the reference list.
- Do not include authors’ first names when you discuss their works.
- When different first authors share a surname, include their initials in the citation, as discussed in APA 6.14.
- See Table 6.1 in APA, p. 177, for an overview of citation rules.
Direct Quotes
- Use direct quotes only when the original author says it best; otherwise, paraphrase. Too many direct quotes without your voice can suggest a lack of critical processing of others’ ideas and therefore may compromise your authority as author.
- Display a quotation that is 40 words or longer in a freestanding block, without quote marks, formatted as indicated in APA 6.03.
- Locator information is required for all direct quotes; usually, this will be a page number. For a work that has no page numbers, please refer to APA 6.05.
Reference List, APA 6.22-6.32; Reference Examples, APA Chapter 7
Writers are expected to show a working familiarity with the rules in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 regarding the construction of an accurate and complete reference list.
- If you are not familiar with APA referencing, follow these steps.
- First, read through 6.27-6.29 regarding the basic rules for all types of references regarding author, date, and title.
- Next, read APA 6.30-6.32 regarding electronic references, since you likely will find most works on the Internet.
- Finally, read pp. 193-198 to learn how to locate reference examples in Chapter 7. Notice that the sections of Chapter 7 are arranged by types of works, not by where the works are located.
- Follow the rules of Chapters 6 and 7 regarding punctuation, spacing, capitalization, italicization, order of information, and completeness for every work in your reference list.
- Abstracts: If you read only the abstract of a work, the reference must indicate this. Follow examples 16, 17, and 43 in APA Chapter 7.
- When there is more than one reference for the same author in the same year, follow the citation rule in APA 6.25 (last bullet on p. 182).
- References from electronic sources: For the comprehensive exam, you may continue to use the method for formatting references from electronic sources that you have been using in your coursework. Otherwise, follow APA, as follows:
- DOI: APA 6.30 states that if a DOI (digital object identifier) for a work has been assigned, include it the end of an electronic reference; if one has not been assigned, most of the time the correct procedure is to provide the journal’s home page URL. Do not use URLs displayed in database listings or the URL displayed in the address bar when viewing the article on screen. APA Style’s DOI and URL Flowchart is a decision tree that can help you decide which method to use. It is located at http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/09/a-doi-and-url-flowchart.html (Following APA style for electronic references is required in Capella’s doctoral dissertations.)
- The DOI and URL Flowchart includes information on when to cite a database. Please also be aware of the following common misunderstandings regarding databases.
- EBSCOhost: EBSCO is not a database; it is a service that aggregates databases.
- ProQuest: For dissertations retrieved from ProQuest Theses and Dissertations database, you must include the AAT or UMI number, in parentheses, as shown in example 40 in APA Chapter 7. For journal articles retrieved from ProQuest, you must provide the name of the specific database, such as ProQuest Education Journals database.
- ERIC: For works retrieved from ERIC’s full-text collection, include the ED or EJ number, in parentheses, as shown in example 62 in APA Chapter 7.
- Order each entry in the reference list as discussed in APA 6.25.
- Format each entry in the reference list with a hanging indent (Format > Paragraph, Indents and Spacing, Special, Hanging, 0.50”). See APA 2.11.