How To Write Action Research Paper

Decision making in any environment is a very sensitive matter and people who make the best decisions will tell you that for you to achieve that, it is imperative that you make an informed decision. An informed decision takes time but is both efficient and effective at the end. For you to make an informed decision you need to understand all the fact and learn what you are working with so as not to leave anything to chance. It also opens up a new arena of solutions that you can generate from different perspectives. All these are covered in an action paper. However, we shall be going deeper into it and understand how to formulate it, the right questions that you seek to answer in the paper and the approach to it all. So, what exactly is an action research paper? This is the collaboration of problem-solving in liaison to data on the given subject matter to understand the current situation and facilitate future decisions.

Identify Problem To Be Studied

As the old saying would have it, you will never know where you are going unless you know where you are coming from. This still maintains its relevance in this case which is why we need to understand our current situation before proceeding with anything else. Observation is the key and the basis to any researchers’ investigations or research. You need to formulate a question or a statement that will be the basis of your research. In so doing you will have defined the boundaries to your research and this will propel you in the right direction. The question or the s guiding statement is what we call the thesis and hypothesis.

This is often a neutral factor in any research. So why create a thesis or hypothesis

1. It lays the foundation for your research
2. It guides on the material to use and direct from where you should source your information for maximum relevance
3. It keeps you in check and gives a sense of direction towards asset goal
4. It sets you up for a strong conclusion as you are able to express all that you have been researching in the ending to either concur or conflict by your findings.

Collect Data on the Problem

Data collection phase is also called the research stage. Now that you are aware of what you are looking for, then you need to roll up your sleeves and get your ‘hands dirty’ on research. Research can either be qualitative, quantitative or a combination of both of them. The difference between qualitative and quantitative research is that while gives you fact, the other will give you figures. A combination of the both will come in handy as it will allow you to synthesize results from these two. Data collection can be done by interviewing, observation, questionnaires or even direct participation. However, in most cases direct participation and observation are mostly preferred as the accuracy of the data is assured. In an environment of constantly changing variables, it would only be fair that you use more than one source of data collection for purposes of comparison of results. this is referred to as the principle of triangulation.

Organize, Analyze & Interpret Data

Raw data is simply a collection of facts and figure that make no sense o the user unless they are graded, grouped and organized in a more meaningful way to generate results and that can be interpreted with ease. With this in mind, you now need to:

Organize the data

This is where you put all the data you collected before you and decide on the different criteria that you will be examining them on. Given that you know the kind of data you collected, you group it in terms of correlation and relevance. This will make it easy for you to analyze it

Analyze your data

Data analysis in the 21st century is one of the most common phenomena in the world as people depend on this for everyday business and living. Data analysis is the backbone to decision making. Depending on the data you have you will decide on the data analysis tools that you will employ in analyzing the already grouped data. Remember that analyzing data has to be done with the utmost precision and without ignoring any facts as that would change the whole criteria of the examination.

Interpretation of data

After all, is said and done, results are awaited at the end of the task and this will be easy to deliver if you have followed through with all the above. Interpretation of data opens up a vast scope of possibilities as it depends on the eyes that examine the findings. Similar findings could mean two very different things to two different parties.

However, it is important to remember that you will be delivering the findings depending on the persona you took while undertaking the research and analysis.

The human mind tends to work better with pictures and on top of that pictures are an easy way to capture the attention of your reader. In light of this, you can use charts, graphs, pictograms and even pie charts in the representation of data.

Develop Plan to Address the Problem

The journey is now shorter but not yet over. At this point now you are aware of all variables on the ground and depending on your research you are now able to tell the validity of your original thesis or hypothesis. In other words, you are able to see your ‘problem’ in an educated manner which will allow you to make an educated decision.

Developing a course of action is not necessarily easy nor complicated but is rather a guided process. WHAT do I mean?

At the start of it all, you had identified a problem that you needed to address and this leads you to do research on the same. Through your research, you were able to view the problem from a point of view that includes the variables and now you understand it better.

Through your findings, you are able to make a conscious decision that will address the problem and make things better. However, it is not closed to only finding a solution but also is also open to recommendations and suggestions that would make things better.

Finding a solution will require you to also put in mind the party(S) that you might need to involve to act as a means to the end. All these will need to be captured under the solution section.

The tonal intonation is always recommended to be formal as this will address your audience with the required magnitude and will be taken with the required urgency.

The kind of approach you take on this paper needs to be a wholesome one and this means that you need to address it right from the start by briefly stating the problem you are solving and later to the factors surrounding the problem and then give the array of possibilities and solutions to each and every dimension affected. This will ensure that you do not miss anything. This kind of approach has often been referred to as one of the best as it also acts as a perfect guide during implementation of the same.

Implement Plan

Implementation of an already well-laid plan is one of the easiest and straight forward things that you will do in your paper. This is similar to following a map to your destination. Now that you have everything figured out and have visualized the solution then the rest is a walk in the park. However, do not understate anything in this section as this could cost you a lot as a result of competence deficiency in terms of delivery. Implementation of the plan should be categorized by personnel needed, practices to be changed, structural change, time taken, value addition, legal scope (if any) and most important resources needed to achieve this. These are all the essential that would allow a different party to implement your plan in your absence.

Evaluate Results of the Actions Taken

Accountability is essential in any endeavor and this is no different. Given that an action paper can be used in a variety of fields than the scope of evaluation will be different as the scales of measurement for all these fields are different. For a learning institution, they might evaluate on the basis of merit and performance while in an organization they will look for the monetary addition or implication it leaves them with.

From evaluation. You will be able to tell the lifespan of your solution and it also gives you room to make adjustment as time goes by. However, if the new system does more harm than good then it will automatically have to be put under the scope again for reevaluation.

During the solution generation stage, you also have to mention the intended results that you anticipate at the end of the implementation. This will cushion the anticipated results and will ensure that you do not oversell on your solution. If the results are as anticipated then you can consider that as a win.

Identify New Problem

After all, is said is done, you can now move to another agenda. The new agenda can be an entirely different problem or simply a follow up on your previous problem and reevaluate its current state. Most people will however go for a new challenge altogether. The process starts with observing a different phenomenon and looking for loopholes that you intend to look into and generating a theory or question that will be the basis of your research.

• Repeat the process
• At this point, I do believe that your level of competence as far as the action research paper has shot to the roof. The formulation, research and implementation are quite easy to follow through as it allows a perfect chain of ideas and a continuous process. From here after you get the new challenge all you need to do is ;

Collect data on the identified problem using the most appropriate method,

Organize, analyze, and interpret the data in a meaningful way, develop a plan to address the problem, Implement the plan, evaluate the results of the actions taken, Identify a new problem and eventually after you have gotten top the climax, Repeat the process again on a new project.

Action papers have been around for a couple of years now and this is not a new concept in the field. It has been of major help to many institutions globally and has aided the progression of professions. All you need to know about action paper is at your disposal. However, in the event at you don’t feel as confident with them you can always get an expert writer to help you out as you ease your way to it and get value for money after all you should get the best out of everything.