Task 3 (page 21)

Here is a sample paragraph for Task 3 on page 21. Note that this is slightly longer than you would be expected to write, because I did not use "Study 1" and "Study 2", but actually used the researchers' names and the year of publication. This increased the word count.

What you need to remember is to 1) give a brief one-sentence summary of the studies with proper citation, and 2) answer every point given to you (e.g. give one similarity, give one strength, etc.).

Both Ramida (1998) and and Farr et al. (2012) conducted studies to see how a dosage of aspirin would affect subjects’ blood pressure. In Ramida’s (1998) study, 328 patients with mild high blood pressure and a mean age of 44 years were given 100 mg of aspirin each morning. In Farr et al.’s (2012) study, 75 mg of aspirin was given daily to 2,719 patients, all older than 65 years, with high blood pressure. Both studies used a randomized control group, to allow comparison. The results of both studies showed a drop in subjects’ blood pressure, but only Ramida (1998) saw a statistically significant decrease in the experimental group. The strengths of Ramida’s (1998) study were the use of a randomized control group who received a placebo (to minimize the placebo effect), as well as double blinding, to reduce researcher bias. While Farr et al.’s (2012) research, did not use either a placebo or double blinding, it used a much larger sample, which allows for stronger statistical analyses. The findings from both studies would seem to have implications for the use of aspirin in treating high blood pressure, as both studies did see some decrease in blood pressure in the subjects receiving aspirin. However, since Farr et al.’s (2012) research did not uncover a significant drop, and a decrease was even seen in the control group subjects studied by Ramida (1998), further research on the effect of aspirin on blood pressure is needed. More specifically, it would seem that research should focus on patients with mild high blood pressure, as these were the subjects who saw a statistically significant reduction after receiving aspirin, as seen in Ramida’s (1998) study.

Remember, in the exam, one of the studies will be "yours", as in, you must pretend that you conducted a study with the details given to you and discuss it like it was your own.

You may use "In our study, we did not use double blinding, which may have led to some researcher bias", for example, if you were pretending to be Farr and colleagues.