Academic and research works are tenacious studies that include specifics. Therefore, you will come across various terms and phrases that you need to keep in mind while working around. Naturally, it can get overwhelming. However, once you understand the concept, the overall process becomes very easy to work with. This article will focus on dependent and independent variables and discuss what they are, how to determine dependent and independent variables and their uses in academic writing.
This brief guide discusses the dependent and independent variables of a research paper. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.
Academic and research works are tenacious studies that include specifics. Therefore, you will come across various terms and phrases that you need to keep in mind while working around. Naturally, it can get overwhelming. However, once you understand the concept, the overall process becomes very easy to work with. In this context, we will focus on dependent and independent variables. In this article, we will discuss what they are, how to determine dependent and independent variables and their uses in academic writing.
To understand dependent and independent variables well, you should understand the nature of research first. Research, especially scientific ones, mostly includes studying the consequences of one variable over another. Now, what exactly are these variables? These are simply factors that can have any given value.
In academic studies, these variables come together in the form of a cause-and-effect relationship, called dependent and independent variables. Dependent variables act as the effect in this relationship, and they vary heavily in the changes in the independent variable. The independent variable, on the other hand, is the cause, and its cause does not depend on other variables.
Together, these variables become the base of a study or research. In a basic concept, the independent variable of a study is the cause. Its value is independent of other variables in the study. However, the dependent variable of a study is the effect, which means, its value depends on changes in the independent variable.
In research, determining the different variables can be confusing, especially if it is your first time. However, with time and understanding, it will be easier to determine them immediately.
Think of it in this way— the variable that you need to tinker with is the independent variable. The variable that changes because of the tinkering of the other variable is the dependent variable. That is why, in experimental research, you need to make changes to the independent variable to see the impact on the dependent variable.
Here are some examples for dependent and independent variables:
|
Research Question |
Independent Variable(s) |
Dependent Variable(s) |
|
Are elementary students more successful in online or face-to-face education? |
The type of education · Online education · Face-to-face education |
Elementary students’ success rates |
|
What is the effect of burnout and job-related stress on district managers’ health-related quality of life? |
· Burnout · Job-related stress |
District managers’ health-related quality of life |
Speaking of experimental research, there is another variable— the control variable. Unlike dependent or independent variables, this third type of variable is purposely controlled. That is, they are limited or made constant. The main reason behind this is because otherwise, they may affect the experiment. For example, you want to find out the effect of different fertilizers on the plant. Here, your controlled variable would be the amount of light and water received by the plant. The dependent factor would be the effect on the plant, and the independent factor would be the fertilizers. If you do not control these factors, your dependent factor may vary, thus disrupting your experiment.
By now, it is fairly clear that variables are an important part of the research. In fact, without variables, research would cease to exist. Therefore, understanding the various types of variables is important.
Best Edit & Proof expert editors and proofreaders focus on offering manuscripts with proper tone, content, and style of academic writing, and also provide an upscale editing and proofreading service for you. If you consider our pieces of advice, you will witness a notable increase in the chance for your research manuscript to be accepted by the publishers. We work together as an academic writing style guide by bestowing subject-area editing and proofreading around several categorized writing styles. With the group of our expert editors, you will always find us all set to help you identify the tone and style that your manuscript needs to get a nod from the publishers.
You can also avail of our assistance if you are looking for editors who can format your manuscript, or just check on the particular styles for the formatting task as per the guidelines provided to you, e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian styles. Best Edit & Proof editors and proofreaders provide all sorts of academic writing help, including editing and proofreading services, using our user-friendly website, and a streamlined ordering process.
Visit our order page if you want our subject-area editors or language experts to work on your manuscript to improve its tone and style and give it a perfect academic tone and style through proper editing and proofreading. The process of submitting a paper is very easy and quick. Click here to find out how it works.
Our pricing is based on the type of service you avail of here, be it editing or proofreading. We charge on the basis of the word count of your manuscript that you submit for editing and proofreading and the turnaround time it takes to get it done. If you want to get an instant price quote for your project, copy and paste your document or enter your word count into our pricing calculator.
If you need support for editing and proofreading services, contact us. You can also e-mail us or use the 24/7 live chat module to get direct support. We have a 24/7 active live chat mode to offer you direct support along with qualified editors to refine and furbish your manuscript. Alternatively, you can text us through our WhatsApp business support line.
Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Medium.
For more posts, click here.
How to Determine Variability in a Dataset
14.10.2023
How to Determine Central Tendency
19.02.2023
How to Specify Study Variables in Research Papers?
14.01.2023
Population vs Sample | Sampling Methods for a Dissertation
14.01.2023
How to Ensure the Quality of Academic Writing in a Thesis and Dissertation?
04.12.2022
How to Avoid Anthropomorphism in Your Dissertation?
04.11.2022
How to Write a Research Methodology Section for a Dissertation and Thesis
07.08.2022
How to Write a Theoretical Framework for a Dissertation and Thesis?
05.08.2022
How to Write Literature Review for a Dissertation and Thesis
02.08.2022
How to Write a Dissertation and Thesis Introduction
31.07.2022
Writing academic essays is required for the successful completion of college, graduate school, and advanced research studies. Essay writing, as required in academia, requires much more preparation, effort, and skill than most students and academics actually do put in.
Continue Reading
Submitting a journal article can be a nerve-wracking experience. After all, this piece of work requires hours of research, analysis, and work poured into it. Therefore, you would wish for it to be acknowledged, selected, and published. This guide will give you some crucial answers, so go ahead and take a read. This way, you can ensure that your journal submission is devoid of any hassle.
Continue Reading
A good part of any research depends on the right questions asked. If you are asking wrong questions, your entire research may go off track. Therefore, understanding what questions you need to ask is essential for your research. If you are on the way to your research but don’t know how to start framing the right research questions, we have just the right information for you. This article discusses the process of formulating research questions.
Continue Reading
Being a proofreading and editing service provider, we often find researchers making common citation mistakes in their research papers. Well, making mistakes is normal, but repeating the same mistakes is not accepted. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, we here bring the list of common errors students and researchers make while citing sources.
Continue Reading
Academic writing is the type of writing style that requires a lot of attention to details, rules, and regulations. Mainly used for, as you might have guessed, academic purposes, it is one of the most common writing styles for professional works. However, as regulated and strict it is, it is also easier to make mistakes here. One such very common mistake that happens all the time for several researchers is sentence structuring. Sentence structuring has always been a little tricky, academic writing or not. That is why a great emphasis is made on them during the editing and proofreading phases. This article discusses the most common sentence structuring mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Continue Reading
Writing for academic purposes demands extreme finesse. It is not just the language that should be exemplary. Even the diction, the tone, and the context of the text should be on point. However, the path to achieving this finesse is a troublesome one. Many scholars, while treading this path, come across a myriad of academic writing problems that they find it too cumbersome to overcome. These problems can concern their language skills, research capabilities, or lack of awareness regarding their field of study. The purpose of this article is to address some of these recurring academic writing problems and suggest ways to deal with them.
Continue Reading
The dissertation writing process is a lengthy, extensive and multi-faceted undertaking spanning several months (or even years). It is an exacting exercise comprising several steps, each with its own requisites that scholars need to fulfill duly. Hence, regardless of how strategic and meticulous a scholar's dissertation writing approach is, there are bound to be certain inconsistencies - grammatical errors, incoherent phrasing, inappropriate synonyms, formatting errors, etc., - even in the final draft.
Continue Reading