Defining Internal And External Evidence

1. Discuss the difference between external and internal evidence as it relates to your PICOT search strategy.
2. Address the strengths and weaknesses of searching in a databank versus a web-based search engine. You must use two databanks mentioned in the text. (Medline and PubMed)

Assignment Details

For this Assignment, you are going to write a paper explaining how you developed your argument through the four stages (theorizing, syntax, theory testing, and evaluation). Your paper must be 3 to 5 pages, not including the title and reference pages.

To view the Grading Rubric for this Assignment, please visit the Grading Rubrics section of the Course Resources.

Assignment Requirements

Before finalizing your work, you should:

• Minimum requirement of at least 5 sources of support
• be sure to read the Assignment description carefully (as displayed above);
• consult the Grading Rubric (under the Course Resources) to make sure you have included everything necessary; and

Extra Credit Commentary Instructions

You may submit up to 2 extra credit commentaries on any of the assigned (non-textbook) readings throughout the semester.  Each commentary is worth 2 points of extra credit added to your overall point total for the semester.  To earn these points, you must submit a 3-5 page double-spaced response to a selected assigned research article on Canvas.  Your commentary should have a clearly stated argument which you then support with logic and additional academic sources.  As long as you critically engage with a reading in an organized, coherent manner that is generally free of grammatical and spelling errors, you will earn both possible points.  Some example prompts for a commentary include (but are not limited to):Defining Internal and External Evidence

• Explain why the article made an important contribution to the field.
  • Briefly summarize the state of research prior to the article and how the article built off of that foundation and propelled the field forward in a meaningful way. Use class readings or outside sources to support your argument.

• Argue that the article’s findings are suspect and should be interpreted with caution.
  • Point out some limitations of the author’s methods or logic using class readings or outside sources to support your claims.

• Propose a follow-up study for the research presented.
  • No study is perfect. Describe a follow-up study the authors could do to improve upon the one they presented in the article.  Use class readings or outside sources to support your suggestion.