Drafting the Full Research Paper

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Drafting the Full Research Paper

• McNair Summer Research Institute
• Jessica Lapp
• June 19, 2007

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Overview

• What is the goal of a research paper?
• Basic structure and style
• Watson Crick DNA paper
• Sample McNair student papers
• McNair guidelines review

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Why publish as an undergrad?

• Greater involvement in research
• Suggests better understanding of the material or
  topic
• Suggests greater understanding of the practice of
  research within your discipline
• Prepares you more effectively for graduate
  school, where individual research is the main
  occupation

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What is the goal of the research paper?

• Academic research is predicated on the value and
  necessity of
• Sharing findings
• Checking each others results
• Building the pool of knowledge within a
  discipline
• Academic careers are based on and dependent on
  contributions to the field
• The higher the institution in the Carnegie
  ratings, the greater the expectation for
  productivity
• Promotion and tenure depend on individual
  contributions (i.e. publications) to the field
• Builds reputation of scholar
• Builds reputation of institution

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Basic structure of an academic research paper

• An abstract which summarizes your project
• An introduction to explain the relevance of the
  project and to introduce your particular research
  question, which may be combined with
• A literature review to situate your research in
  the larger context of other ongoing studies
• A methods and materials section to describe how
  you went about doing the research (data
  collection, description of experiments, surveys,
  etc.)
• A results section that describes how you handled
  the data and often reports the straight data with
  no interpretation
• A discussion section that interprets the data and
  its impact within the field, as well as
  describing the projects limitations or problems
  experienced possibly a final short paragraph
  about future questions or directions for research
• List of references for works cited in proposal
  (includes journal articles, books, manuscripts,
  interviews, emails, etc.)

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Style and impact in Watson and Cricks landmark
DNA paper

• http//acube.org/volume_26/v26-1p23-25.pdf
• Why is Watson and Cricks paper (not just their
  findings) still being discussed?
• Model of economy and style in scientific writing
• Best qualities of strong academic writing
• Conciseness (fewest possible words)
• Limited level of detail (only what is necessary)
• Confidence
• Forcefulness of presentation
• Significance of findings
• Persuasiveness
• Interesting that this paper was a rush to
  publish, to get findings into print first, so
  normal structure was ignored and little detail
  was provided

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What do we learn from this?

• Academic writing is traditionally long, complex
  and boring to read
• Guidelines are not hard and fast rules
• Effective writing sometimes breaks rules for a
  particular rhetorical reason
• Guidelines are necessary when one is young and
  inexperienced
• Following the guidelines initially allows you
  entry into and recognition within the discipline
• Guidelines provide a recognized structure that
  organizes and compartmentalizes information for
  the benefit of the reader
• Typical academic structure enables readers to
  find information, know what to expect and when,
  and possibly respond either directly in writing
  or indirectly through further related research
• Original Watson and Crick paper
• http//www.exploratorium.edu/origins/coldspring/pr
  intit.html

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Academic Style from Swales and Feak text

• Audience
• Other scholars interested and educated
  laypersons
• Expectation that some jargon is acceptable and
  expected within the field
• Purpose and strategy
• Confirmation of previous findings? New findings?
  Significant or small but interesting?
• Organization
• Style
• Objective, serious, concise, clear
• Flow
• Help the reader by making connections use
  transitions, repetition, key terms, etc.
• Correctness
• No grammar, spelling, or usage errors

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Types of texts you may include (review Swales
and Feak text)

• General to Specific (GS)
• Often used for introduction
• Problem, Process and Solution (PPS)
• Process is often used in methodology section to
  describe the steps of data collection or the
  research process
• Problem-Process texts describe the process used
  to solve a problem
• Problem-Solution texts may be used overall as the
  model for a paper arguing for a particular
  interpretation of key findings

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Building your research paper from the introduction

• All research presents an argument, a reason for
  interpreting a certain set of facts or materials
  in a certain way
• You cant include all facts or anticipate all
  challenges to your argument so you select and
  build the best brief case you can

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Building a paper from your proposal

• Your proposal serves as a potential outline for
  your paper
• The first sections (intro, literature review,
  methodology) will be revised but may remain
  significantly similar in your final paper
• The final sections (results, discussion) will be
  significantly expanded to incorporate your actual
  data, as well as explanation and interpretation
  of the data

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The Introduction/Background/ Lit Review
Section(s)

• The introduction should explain the relevance of
  the project and introduce your hypothesis or
  thesis
• The introduction/background section should be
  organized as follows
• Identification of topic (general)
• Overview of current research trends, conflicts,
  new ideas (narrowing focus)
• Your hypothesis or thesis
• In some fields, this section is combined with the
  literature review in other fields the literature
  review is a more in-depth presentation of
  materials

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Methodology (for S and SS projects)

• An instruction manual for another researcher to
  do your project
• Design of experiment or project
• Description of materials/subjects and techniques
  to be used
• Description of any instruments to be used and why
  you chose them (or how you will test them for
  reliability if youre developing them)
• Why is detail in methodology important?

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Results(for S and SS projects)

• This section describes in detail the actual data
  you collected, usually objectively with no
  evaluation/interpretation provided
• Charts and tables often provided
• Be sure to identify table/figure with a number or
  letter, provide a brief subtitle or description
  with the table, and explain the relevance of the
  table in your text
• Often technical language is used here
• Consult with your mentor for the level of
  technical detail to provide and for the level of
  explanation/restatement for a more general
  audience (e.g. me, Lynn)

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Discussion

• This section presents your interpretation and
  analysis of the data you collected and an
  examination of its implications
• Interpretation of findings
• Recognition of limitations to project
• Potential next steps for further data-gathering

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Abstract

• Write this last, after you have a nearly
  finalized draft
• Use one or two sentences to summarize each
  section of the paper
• Consult with mentor and review other papers in
  the field to see if
• Findings should be highlighted
• Order of information

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Samples

• Abstract
• Daniels paper
• Chisnell paper
• Introduction
• How the author presents the problem that has been
  studied, a general context, and the hypotheses or
  thesis for the project
• Daniels short intro with hypotheses lit review
  to support specific terminology and issues
• Murphy longer intro with background info on
  communication and technology issues hypotheses
  introduced before Methods section
• Chisnell moderate length intro with description
  of project literature review provides historical
  survey of English grammar development and grammar
  texts

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Samples

• Methods
• Level of descriptive detail in each is dependent
  on discipline
• Results
• Murphy objective presentation of data gathered
  and statistical analysis with no conclusions
  provided, additional questions pursued and
  additional data described
• Daniels objective presentation of data gathered
  with analysis explained but no conclusions or
  interpretation provided
• Chisnell analysis section provides a
  combination of results and conclusions,
  intermixed (acceptable within the humanities)
• note final paragraph, which recognizes the
  limitations of the study while emphasizing its
  contribution to the field

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Samples

• Discussion
• Murphy organization of section (and overall
  ranking of equipment) by the variables of the
  project
• She also includes a short section on limitations
  before providing a conclusion which highlights
  the contribution of the research to the field
• Daniels very short discussion, merely
  identifying how this project supports a growing
  body of research contradicting a commonly held
  belief in the field

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Conclusion?

• Work with your mentor
• Review papers within the field to consider the
  relative space given to each section of a
  published research project
• Follow the expectations within your discipline
  and for your particular type of project
• Try to use language in a similar way to others in
  your field as you learn the lingo
• Avoid overly confident claims unless warranted
  (i.e. recommended by your mentor)
• Daniels understatement is effective in
  identifying her conclusions with a contradiction
  to the accepted knowledge within the field

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Finally . . . Formatting

• Locate the McNair guidelines
• Read the McNair guidelines
• Follow the McNair guidelines
• Like the RTGDQ Respond to the gosh darn
  question in the Asher book

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Formatting

• See guidelines posted on McNair website
• http//www.mcnair.cmich.edu/Cohort2007summer.asp

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Questions?