Introduction and Methods

Intro:
Some people are labeled as leaders from a very young age. This often based on how the kid acts, and the fact that others look up to them. But what makes other kids look up to these so called leaders. Is it because they are the best athletes or the smartest kids? Andrew Potter of Envision, one of the nations top college and career readiness organizations, says their are 5 qualities that make up great student leaders. "The best student leaders are Authentic, Open minded, Know how to delegate tasks, learn from mistakes, and seek knowledge." These qualities sound great on paper, but is this how we really choose a leader? This study aims to identify how we as students choose our leaders and to identify any patterns in the qualities of the students chosen.

Methods:
I chose to create a survey for freshman students from a variety of different groups at the University of Iowa to complete a survey about how they view leadership in their groups and how they identify leaders. 18 students completed the survey. Of the 18 students 10 were males and 8 were females. All of the students were involved in different activities such as athletics, fraternities/sororities, various religious groups on campus, and academic groups. I selected three students at random and interviewed them more depth on their responses. The questions were a variety of short answer and multiple choice with several questions asking for more depth on previous answers.

Survey

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Questions

1.  Do you view yourself as a Leader or a Follower?

2.  What three characteristics do you look for most in a leader and why?

3. Can leadership change over time?

4. Who do you consider is the most important leader in your life?

5. What makes this person a great leader?

6. How well do they fit into your three characteristics?

Topic Proposal

The main topic I want to discuss is leadership. I am currently in a leadership class and I want to apply what I am learning to the current student body. The main question I want to pose is What qualities make the best student leaders? I feel like this will give me a very unique array of answers. I plan to survey a least 30 students about their views on leadership. I will also select 3 of these students at random and interview them about their answers to gain more insight on why they answered how they did. Some other questions I plan to ask are if They view themselves as a leader or a follower and what three qualities they feel make the best leaders. I hope to grow more in touch with campus through my research and help others gain a better understanding about leadership.

IMRaD vs traditional research paper

Both forms of writing have very similar format and are both effective analytical tools. There are also several key differences between the two. These difference help make each be more effective for different ideas. IMRaD papers are a lot more statistics based and take more of and experimental approach. Traditional argumentative research papers use more research and analysis of other writing.

Another key difference is the fact that IMRaD papers use a hypothesis rather than a thesis. A hypothesis is what is being experimented through research and can be proven or disproven in a paper. The fact that the hypothesis can be disprove is what helps to set it apart from a traditional thesis. A thesis is always believed to be true and is usually a quick sentence about the main overarching topic of an essay.