Topic Selection: Find a Gap Assignment

TOPIC SELECTION: FIND A GAP ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
In this course you will learn how to develop a research proposal based off of the current literature, building off previous research. This assignment is the first of two parts where you will detail three topics of interest and identify how you will build off of previous research. Your professor will give you feedback on each of the three topics to determine which might be the most “researchable” for the Research Proposal Paper.
INSTRUCTIONS
After viewing this week’s presentations and readings, you will research three different counseling-related topics and for each topic you identify one “researchable” idea of interest to you (one idea per topic). In order to do this, you will research your idea using the Jerry Falwell
Library search options. Please utilize the Topic Selection: Find a Gap Template to complete this assignment.

• You will complete the paper in three parts: identifying gaps, creating gap statements, and form a bibliography
• Please be sure to follow APA formatting in all parts of this assignment. Please note that in identifying a topic, your professor will give you feedback on narrowing your topic and ensuring ethical practices are adhered to. You will need to heed all feedback for the
  Topic Selection: Final Topic Selection Assignment.
  Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

TOPIC SELECTION: FIND A GAP TEMPLATE
Follow the steps below:

• Navigate to the Jerry Falwell Library homepage, and search your counseling-related topic of
  interest by simply typing in the topic in the search bar (example: mindfulness interventions
  used in childhood).
• After searching you will find several different resources available to you (e.g. ebooks, book,
  articles).
• Click on “see all article results” under the Articles tab.
• Filter to only read articles within the last 5 years (you can find this option on the left hand of
  the screen).

1. After reading through the articles, you will identify the gap statements found in the
   discussion or limitations section of the article.
   a. For example, one peer-reviewed article on your topic of interest may state,
   “However, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the small
   sample size and the lack of a control group… Future research should include a
   larger sample of adolescents from more diverse sociocultural groups” (Deplus et
   al., 2016, p. 787). This particular example is stating that future researchers should
   utilize this study’s design, but to expand the population studied.
2. Write down three gap statements found in your searches, identifying areas that have not
   yet been researched. Keep in mind a gap statement is a statement that identifies an area
   that the authors DID NOT cover in their study. Meaning, you will not be repeating the
   study that article conducted, but rather, you will build off of it, “filling in the gap” that
   the authors did not cover or what the authors suggest for future research.
   a. For example, a study’s authors may have looked at mindfulness as an intervention
   with adolescents, but the authors suggest replicating the study with a specific
   ethnicity in order to build off their findings. Building off the literature and “filling
   in the gaps” can create important implications for the counseling field.
3. Put together a bibliography in current APA format, giving a brief summary of the
   article’s content and how it relates to the topic selection. This should not be more than 1-2 sentences (a sample will be provided).

Topic Selection: Find a Gap Assignment