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Tips for Effective Academic Writing
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Tips for Effective Academic Writing http://essayacademia.com/ General Advice Begin Early I’m too busy now, and I’ll start later when I have more time . . . Select an Appropriate Topic…
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Content Preview
- Tips for Effective Academic Writing http://essayacademia.com/
- General Advice
- Begin Early
- I’m too busy now, and I’ll start later when I have more time . . .
- Select an Appropriate Topic
- Contribution to the field (a niche)
- Interest
- Resources available
- Gathering Resource Materials
- Sources:
- The references, footnotes of books & journal articles
- Library research: lib catalogues, electronic resources, lib stacks
- References of conference papers
- Personal communication with experts
- Remember to record the sources, using the assigned format.
- Reading and Writing
- Browse to get general understanding, take notes (key words).
- Always have something available for a quick read. Sift and save the best.
- Form a thesis statement.
- Create two files: the main text and references.
- Read the selected references in depth. Annotate your bibliography entries. Type the quotes, your comments regarding the topic.
- Overview of the Research Paper: IMRD
- Introduction (I): General to specific. Cite and comment.
- Methods & Materials (M): High in using passive voice.
- Results (R): Findings
- Discussion (D): Specific to general, high in citation, discussion, and qualifications.
- Tense?
- Which part should you start when you write?
- Results Sections (Past Tense)
- Judging the right strength of the claim (Hypotheses supported? To what extent? )
- Highlighting key findings from the data.
- Making generalized comparisons
- One emerging pattern
- Procedure/justification (optional)
- Location statement
- Statement of general finding (Hypotheses supported?)
- More specific statements to interpret the results
- Example/case/commentary (optional)
- Moves in Writing Introduction
- Move 1. Establishing a research territory
- A. By showing its importance, centrality, problematic or relevant in some way (optional)
- B. By reviewing items of previous research in the area (obligatory=ob)
- Move 2 Establishing a niche
- A. Indicating a gap in previous knowledge (ob)
- Move 3 Occupying the niche
- A. By outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research (ob)
- Move 1-A: Language Focus: Claiming Centrality
- Recently, there has been growing interest in …
- The possibility of . . . has generated wide interest in. . .
- The development of . . . is a classic problem in. . .
- The development of . . . has led to the hope that. . .
- The . . . has become a favorite topic for analysis. . .
- Knowledge of . . . has a great importance for . . .
- The study of . . . has become an important aspect of . . .
- Move 2: Establishing a Niche
- A mini-critique to indicate the gap of knowledge
- Language Focus:
- Little (Uncountable)
- However, little information/work/data/research . ..
- Few (Countable)
- However, few studies/investigations/ researchers/attempts. . .
- Avoid using a full negative like “no studies”
- Establishing a Niche—Negative Statements (Using Verbs)
- However, previous research in this field has_____________
- concentrated on
- disregarded
- failed to consider
- ignored/neglected to consider
- been limited to/been restricted to
- overestimated
- overlooked/suffered from/underestimated
- misinterpreted
- Establishing a Niche—Negative Statements (Using Adjectives)
- Nevertheless, these attempts to establish a link between dental fillings and disease are at present ___________
- controversial/incomplete/inconclusive
- misguided/questionable/unconvincing/
- Unsatisfactory
- *Establishing a Niche—Using Contrastive statements
- However, it remains unclear whether…
- It would thus be of interest to learn how…
- If these results could b confirmed, they would provide strong evidence for…
- Move 3 Occupying the Niche
- Two variations in occupying the niche:
- 1. Purposive (P): The author(s) indicate their main purpose or purposes
- E.g., The aim of this paper is to give…
- 2. Descriptive (D): The author(s) describe the main feature of their research
- E.g., This paper reports on the results obtained…
- Move 3 Occupying the Niche
- Try to identify the following statements:
- _____In this paper we give preliminary results for. . .
- _____This study was designed to evaluate…
- _____Our primary objective in this paper is to provide . . .
- _____ We now report the interaction between . . .
- Tense and Purpose Statements
- Use present tense when referring to the type of text—paper, article, thesis, report, research
- The aim of this paper is to . . .
- Use present or past tense when referring to investigation—experiment, investigation, study, survey, etc. To be safe, use present tense.
- This type of investigation was/is carried out in order to . . .
- zLoc Location of the Purpose Statement
- In longer research papers, the thesis (purpose) statement is usually at the end of an introduction:
- The purpose of this paper is to . . .
- This paper describes and analyzes. . .
- My aim in this paper is to . . .
- In this paper, we report on . . .
- Move 3 Occupying the Niche, in addition to purpose statement, also
- By listing research Qs or Hypotheses
- By announcing principle findings
- By stating the value of the present research (use qualifications: 1. ___ may be due to…, 2. ____ can be attributed to…3. ____ would seem to stem from ____)
- By indicating the structure of the research paper (The plan of this paper is…Section II describes…In Section III, a …is constructed…. ___ is tested in Section IV. Finally, Section V…)
- Discussion Sections
- Length of Discussion: In life sciences, it is believed that a long Discussion implied weak methods and results, while social scientists and humanities may well believe the opposite
- Results deal with facts--descriptive; Discussions deal with points--interpretive.
- Discussion Sections
- Should be more than summaries of the results.
- Should be more theoretical or
- More abstract
- More general
- More integrated with the field
- More connected to the real world
- More concerned with implications or applications
- Language for Discussion
- Examples:
- In this paper we have investigated. . .
- The main purpose of this paper has been to. . .
- The survey reported on in this study has produced a wealth of data
- Discussion Moves
- Move 1. Points to consolidate your research space (obligatory)
- Highlight intelligently the strengths (more) …
- Move 2. Points to indicate the limitations of your study (optional)
- highlighting intelligently its weaknesses (less)
- Move 3. Points to recommend action or to identify useful areas of further research (optional)
- Move 1 in Writing Results: Consolidate Your Research Space
- 1a. Report your accomplishments by highlighting major findings
- 1b. Relate and evaluate your data in the light of previous research.
- 1c. Interpret your data by making suggestions as to why the results are the way they are.
- 1d. Anticipate and deal with potential criticism
- Language Focus: Generalization in Discussion Sections
- Specific: As we can see in Table 1, 84% of the students. . .
- High level of generality: The results indicate that the students performed above the 12th grade level.
- Phrases of generality: Overall, . . . In general, . . . On the whole. . .
- With . . . exception(s),
- The overall results indicate. . .
- Expressions of Limitation
- It should be noted that this study has been primarily concerned with. . .
- This analysis has concentrated on . . .
- This findings of this study are restricted to . . .
- This study has addressed only the question of. . .
- The limitations of this study are clear. . .
- We would like to point out that we have not. . .
- Conclusions Limitations
- State that certain conclusions should not be drawn (Swales & Feak, 2004, p. 276)
- However, the findings do not imply . . .
- The results of this study cannot be taken as evidence for . . .
- The lack of . . . Means that we cannot be certain . . .
- Reconfirming the Value of Your Study
- Notwithstanding its limitations, this study does suggest . . .
- Despite its preliminary character, the research reported here would seem to indicate . . . .
- However exploratory, this study may offer some insight into . . .
- Abstract
- Two major approaches:
- Result-driven: findings
- RP summary
- Structured Abstract:
- Background
- Aim
- Method
- Results
- Conclusion
- What Have We Learned?
- Start _________. Don’t wait until the last minute.
- Find an __________ topic. (Niche)
- A RP should include 4 sections: IMRD
- Start writing with the ______ section.
- Medical papers usually use ______ tense.
- Explain the contributions of your paper (longer). State its limitations (shorter).
- Make claims cautiously.
- _____your paper before you submit for publication.
- Last Step: Editing
- Put your writing away for a period of time and read it with fresh eyes.
- Ask colleagues to read and give feedback.
- Have the paper go through a final English reviewer by a professional editor.
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