Sentence diagramming and English comprehension skills in sixth graders

Correlational Study

Identify a Group

The group that will be used for this correlational study is the group of 6th graders from the school district of Winchester in VA. A control group will also be used from the same sample. The sample will include 200 6th graders. This is an appropriate sample size for a study (Chapter 7: Survey Research, n.d.).

Write a Purpose Statement

A purpose statement for a correlational study using the group and two variables identified above could read: This purpose of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship between the teaching of sentence diagramming to 6th graders in Winchester and the ability to comprehend, write and break down English sentences. The findings will either show that sentence diagramming does assist students in learning how to read and write in English, or it will show that there is no relationship between sentence diagramming and English writing and reading skills.

The measurement for this study will be nominal (Chapter 8: Correlational Research, n.d.): either there will be a correlation or there will not be a correlation based on the impact of the IV (Mills et al., 2012). The first group will be taught sentence diagramming and the second group will not be taught sentence diagramming. The measurement could also be interval/ratio and be taken by assessing the test scores of the group. In this case, a control group would not be necessary.