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Students in the social sciences (including psychology, sociology, political science, and communication) learn to evaluate and conduct qualitative research (in which the emphasis is on observing, describing, and interpreting behavior) as well as quantitative research (in which the emphasis is on statistical measurement).¹ Often the focus of inquiry is explaining or predicting human behavior or social forces, answering questions such as “What?,” “How?,” and “Why?”²

Oral presentations in social science courses frequently include the review-of-the-literature presentation, theoretical research presentation, and policy recommendation report (see this chapter). Other commonly assigned presentations are the poster presentation (see p. 258), scientific research presentation (see p. 261), methods/procedure presentation (see p. 262), field study presentation (see p. 263), evidence-based practice presentation (see p. 274), and case study presentation (see p. 275).