WRITING A JOURNAL PAPER: THE STRUCTURE BEHIND IT

Transcription

1 Proceedings of the 2 nd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2009) INTI University College, Malaysia WRITING A JOURNAL PAPER: THE STRUCTURE BEHIND IT Ting Su Hie Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia (shting@cls.unimas.my) ABSTRACT This workshop aims to provide explicit guidance on the writing of a research article, from the organization of the abstract to the conclusion. The theoretical knowledge for the workshop is drawn from decades of research on the rhetorical structure and conventions of research articles in various disciplines, including a comparison of the research writing of native speaker and non-native speakers of English. The workshop begins with a presentation of the structure of a research article in terms of the moves and steps of different sections of the article (Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion). Following this, participants are taken through an analysis of the structure of some sample research articles in the science and arts to develop their awareness of the rhetorical structure of a research article. Finally, participants are given hands-on practice in analysing either their own or provided draft research articles in order to identify weak links in the article for improvement. This workshop is designed to help academics develop critical knowledge of writing conventions of research articles to help them compete for research space and justify their work in an international research discourse community. KEYWORDS Research writing, Research article, Rhetorical organisation, Genre analysis INTRODUCTION Research is the application of the scientific approach to the study of a problem (Ary et al., 1990, p. 22) to acquire reliable knowledge. The knowledge from the research is disseminated through avenues such as conferences, books and journal papers. Good conferences attended by authorities in the field are avenues to find out the frontier of knowledge and nowadays, increasingly, conferences have proceedings either in print or CD form which allow the paper to be put on record for public access. Books take a longer time to be published and the data are usually dated. Although useful for providing basic information in a particular field, books are not good sources to obtain the latest information in a particular research area. Publishing books or book chapters is a different ball game from journal papers as books are generally published for its commercial value. Since research books do not have a large market, publishers may not be that interested. Writers also consider the sales network of publishers to ensure that the books are well-marketed and the research findings are cited by others. Citation affirms the value of research findings. Reputable international journals use citation as the main factor in deciding quality of the paper. Journals are the avenue to publish research findings as they are created for this purpose. Journals welcome submissions of well-written papers reporting sound research, most without page charges. Some journals are open-access, meaning that no subscription is required whereas others charge institutional and individual subscription rates. 1

2 In academia, it is the intent of academics to have their papers accepted and published and, in the process, gain recognition as experts in their field. What gets papers accepted are up-todate knowledge of the field, and familiarity with writing conventions of research papers. In terms of knowledge of the field, the research may not be at the cutting edge but researchers need to be at the frontier of the knowledge to be able to carve out a niche for their study. Replicating research reported in papers and books on the pretext that the study has not been conducted in the local setting represents a me too syndrome with no originality and therefore offers little contribution to knowledge unless there is a justification on how the phenomenon might be different due to contextual factors. For example, testing aspirin among Asians is justified because the analgesic effect that works on Caucasians (e.g. bringing down fever and pain) may not work in the same way and may even have adverse effects on Asians. To be able to identify gaps in knowledge in a particular field, reading of up-to-date journal papers is crucial to develop awareness of the current state of knowledge. In terms of research writing conventions, it has to be recognised that language competency and the science cannot be separated because the intended meanings may not be clear or even decipherable to readers. Specialised knowledge is built (not simply transferred ) in written language and [...] this language is very different from that used in building the common-sense meanings of the home and community (Cullip & Carol, 2002). Some journal papers may contain findings of moderate quality but they are presented in a manner that can bring out the contribution to the field and they get published. The value of good quality data may not be recognised when shrouded by poor language. Compliance with research writing conventions is also important for success in getting published. According to Paltridge (2002), the difficulty level becomes doubly posed for nonnative English speaker writers for the medium of research and research reporting is in English. Studies have shown that these non-native English speaker writers lack the genre knowledge that is shared by the discourse communities they are writing to (Coffin et al., 2003; Paltridge, 2002; Yu, 1998). This has thus made a case for genre analysis in academic and research setting in which Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993) proposed the use of genre analysis approach in teaching research writing systematically to non-native writers. Sharing the same view, Santos (1996) asserted the potential pedagogical benefits of the genre analysis approach by providing them the proposed schematic patterns or frameworks in organising and presenting their study. Studies on the research writing of non-native English speakers have revealed some limitations in the language and research aspects of the journal papers. Hyland (2000) states that the ability to function in an English speaking academic world [...] means being able to use hedges appropriately (p. 95). According to Hyland,... there is also a certain amount of uniformity across disciplines, with the modal hedges would, may, could and might, and the epistemic lexical verbs suggest, indicate and seem most prevalent. The lemma possible is also common and occurs principally in its adjectival form, with about a quarter of all instances in the nominal form. (Hyland, 2000, p. 94) 2

3 These findings are based on a corpus of 56 research articles in eight disciplines and a detailed analysis of 26 biology research papers. When research papers are not heavily hedged, the writers end up sounding too direct and authoritative in tone, and making unjustifiably strong assertions. As a result, non-native speakers of English frequently give the same weight to accepted fact and interpretation. The skill of hedging using modality and modal verbs is also pointed out by journal editors as a language problem of non-native speakers in Flowerdew s (2001) study involving in-depth interviews with 11 editors of journals in applied linguistics, language teaching and related areas. Most editors in Flowerdew s study acknowledge that non-native speaker contributions in general tend to contain what they refer to as surface language errors, such as in article usage or subject-verb concord. In general, the editors felt that these are not as problematic as the question of parochialism. Flowerdew reports that the failure to show the relevance of the study for the international readership is felt to be probably the most serious impediment to non-native speaker contributors. In his paper, Flowerdew ties the inability to go beyond the local context to the problems non-native speakers have with carving out a niche in the introduction/literature review and, to a lesser extent, the discussion/conclusion. The inability to provide the wider application of the findings is seen by some editors as contributing to the absence of authorial voice in the paper, but attributed to cultural style by other editors (see Flowerdew & Miller, 1995; Ramanathan & Atkinson, 1999). The editors in Flowerdew s study are divided on the acceptability of nativised varieties of English; between accepting that different cultures may have different ways of presenting research and a sense of responsibility to the readership and the standards of the journal. These findings highlight some non-native speaker problems in research writing and construction of research that may prevent successful publication in scholarly journals. This workshop presents the accumulated knowledge from research on the structure and language features of various sections of the research article. The workshop begins with an explanation of: (1) essential parts of a journal paper, (2) structure of a good abstract, and (3) structure of a journal paper. Then hands-on activities are provided for participants to review various research articles and later draft a journal paper of their own. SECTIONS IN A JOURNAL PAPER Each section of a journal paper has its function to play. However, before writing a journal paper, some time should be sent selecting the appropriate journal so that the paper can be written with the requirements in mind. Familiarity with the targeted journal includes attention to the scope of the journal (e.g. theoretical versus application), preferred style for organisation of content and formatting requirements (e.g. headings, font-type, size, word length). The essential parts of a journal paper are shown in Table 1. 3

4 Table 1. Sections and contents of a journal paper submitted for review Section of paper Contents of section Comments Front Matter Page 1: Title of paper, Name of author(s), Affiliation, Corresponding author s contact details. Page 2: Title of paper, Abstract, Keywords. Page 3 onwards: Actual paper. Introduction Purpose of study/ Research question Method of study Results Discussion Conclusion Back Matter Targeted review of literature to show gap for study. Very precise statement on variables studied + context. May be further broken down into objectives of the study. Describes participants, instruments, procedures for data collection and analysis. Describes how data address objectives of study. Integrates data within study and with other relevant findings. Sums up findings and contribution of study, with a qualifying statement on limitations, leading to suggestion of an area for further research. (End)Notes if any. Acknowledgement if allowed by journal. References only those cited in paper. Appendices properly labelled. Biodata if requested. For blind review. Follow journal specifications. May put theoretical framework used for analysis of data as a separate section, if needed May not be a heading in the paper but important to pay close attention. How sound our data are depends on how we get them. Need to provide enough details for replicability. May not be a separate heading in the paper but contents should be in the paper Follow journal specifications. ELEMENTS IN AN ABSTRACT An abstract is the summary text written after the whole paper or study has been completed, and it is meant to give the reader an overview to the full text published in a journal (Chan & Foo, 2001). In the context of conference papers, an abstract is also written as a promisory preview (Swales, 1990). In their selection process, conference technical committees largely depend on the abstract to determine the quality of the paper and the relevance to the theme of the conference. Participants use abstracts to choose parallel sessions which interest them. Scholarly databases and journals usually provide free access to abstracts but may charge for full-text access. In this light, abstracts previews the journal paper and needs to be written with all these considerations in mind so that readers can obtain a good idea of the study from the abstract even if they do not have access to the full text. 4

5 Abstracts are divided into two types: the conventional one-paragraph abstract, and the structured abstract which puts information on aim of study, method and results into different paragraphs. Structured abstracts tend to be more common in the medical field (Hartley, 1998). The various combinations of the elements of an abstract are shown in Table 2. Research on conventions of abstract has shown that there is greater tendency for Australian and British writers to situate their research by nation (Kamler & Thomson, 2004) before stating the aim of the study. Besides the background, the implications of the findings are also optional in an abstract. Table 2. Combination of Elements of an Abstract Combination 1 Combination 2 Combination 3 Language features Background Present tense Purpose Purpose + Method Purpose Past/ Present perfect tense Method Method Past tense Results Results Results Past tense Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Present tense/ Modal verbs (From Weissberg & Buker, 1990) STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE OF ESSENTIAL SECTIONS OF JOURNAL PAPERS Introduction Unlike theses in the arts, journal papers usually do not require separate sections for Introduction and Literature Review. The introduction functions as a purposeful literature review to show readers the current state of knowledge on the research problem: what have been researched, what remains unclear or unresolved and need further investigation. The introduction leads to the purpose of the study and outlines major contributions of the study (see Table 3). Alternatively, some writers begin with a practical problem and present their study as a solution to the problem. Papers written from such a localised angle need to be contextualised within a relevant theoretical framework for the paper to be of interest to the wider readership. 5

6 M1 M1s1 M1s2 Table 3. Structure of an Introduction Section Establishing Research Territory (Citations obligatory) Claiming centrality and/or The growing interest Making topic Of particular interest generalisations has become a much-researched topic Reviewing items of Knowledge of has a great importance previous research for used/studied extensively M1s3 M2 Establishing a niche (Citations optional) M2s1A Indicating a gap Despite numerous studies on However, little info/few studies None of these studies... neglected to consider... remains unclear whether M2s1B Adding to what is known The literature shows that it is a useful M2s2 M3 M3s1 Presenting positive justification (optional) Presenting Present Research (Citations optional) Announcing present research purposively/descriptively One reason to take on such approach is that it can provide evidence on [some phenomenon] The aim of the present paper is to give This paper reports on the results obtained The aim of the present paper The main purpose of the experiment This study determines/ assesses/ evaluates/ compares/ investigates/ establishes... This paper reports/ presents/ describes... M3s2 Presenting research Specifically we test two hypotheses: questions/hypotheses (optional) M3s3 Definitional clarification A description of the subject or issue is given as background knowledge and just purely described. M3s4 Summarising methods The experiments involve a set of instruments Data from four different journals were M3s5 Announcing principle outcomes This paper presents the results of M3s6 Stating the value of present paper This study brings some new understanding to Some implications regarding In future, this data may M3s7 Outlining structure of paper The plan of the paper is as follows. Section I describes We begin this paper with a brief intro we then describe the The techniques are then described This paper is organised in the following manner first then afterward (Structure from revised Creating A Research Space (CARS) Model in Swales, 2004) 6

7 Method Papers reporting studies using established procedures do not go at length into the data collection and analysis procedures but otherwise, this section is crucial for readers to assess the validity and reliability of the data, on which the findings are based. Hence, transparency in describing procedures involving subjective decisions is required. From their genre analysis of 50 medical research articles, Li and Ge (2009) found that a much larger space is devoted to description of data analysis procedure in the period compared to the period. See Table 4 for the recommended structure of the method section of journal papers reporting empirical studies. Table 4. Structure of Method Section M1 Describing data collection procedures M1s1 Describing sample Four primary schools in a large Location of sample district... The schools varied in geo Size of sample/population location within the district, size (300 to Characteristics of 500 students), and mean family income sample/population (... to...). Because the purpose of the Sampling techniques/ criteria study was to examine..., the schools were selected... Fifty teachers in the four schools participated in the study. All the teachers were..., their average age was... M1s2 Recounting steps in data collection We contacted... Letters were put... M1s3 Justifying data collection procedures 399 parents participated in the study. Highlighting advantages of using sample The number represented approximately 30% of children served by the district... Showing representativity of sample M2 Delineating procedures for measuring variables M2s1 M2s2 M2s3 Presenting an overview of the design Explaining methods of measuring variables Specifying items in questionnaire/databases Defining variables Describing methods of measuring variables Justifying methods of measuring variables Citing previous research methods Highlighting acceptability of the methods The Parent Questionnaire asked participants to give... (type of info)... Likert-scale... sample items... We developed the 12-item Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale based on... Similar estimation procedures have been used successfully in other studies (e.g....) 7

8 M3 Elucidating data analysis procedures M3s1 Relating data analysis procedures Items were scored on a scale ranging from... to... Negatively worded items were subsequently rescored so that... total scale scores ranged from... M3s2 Justifying data analysis procedures The scale s grounding in related literature, and its earlier successful use after substantial pretesting for clarity and content, support the validity of the scale. An alpha reliability of... M3s3 Previewing results Correlations between parent efficacy and three indicators of parent involvement were statistically significant... (Structure from Lim, 2006; Examples from Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992) Results The results section of a research article offers empirical evidence to address the research question underpinning the study. It is not a comprehensive reporting of all results from the data analysis, rather it is a selective description of results to lead readers to the main findings of the study. There is some inter-disciplinary variation, for example, the results sections of sociology papers employ the report genre whereas the organic chemistry papers employ the explanation cognitive genre (Bruce, 2009). Table 5 shows the obligatory and optional elements in the results section of research articles. Table 5. Structure of Results Section M1 Preparatory information The results of this experiment will be presented in both quantitative and qualitative form. We will first examine tables for the four... plus a table which indicates... M2 Reporting results The results indicate that if a subject has... then it is likely that... will also be high in... M3 Commenting on results M3s1 Interpreting results The results suggest, first, that some significant changes take place between.., and, second, that... M3s2 Comparing results with literature These findings support he previous survey results of... and the ethnographic data of... M3s3 Accounting for results Such differences may also be promoted by the educational systems of both cultures, and by... this can be a reason why... M3s4 Evaluating results Of course, the results are rather speculative and based on a small sample... 8

9 M4 Summarising results (Optional) To sum up, it becomes clear that keeping a heritage language alive across generations is not a simple matter of mothers taking a position on language use and holding it... Our aim has been to explore, within the limits of the data available, a... In summary, the research presented in this paper offers a... M5 Evaluating the study M5s1 Indicating limitations M5s2 Indicating significance Uncommon in Results section M6 Deductions from the research/ Recommending further research (Structure and Examples from Yang & Allison, 2003) Conclusion Table 6 shows the essential elements of a well-thought out conclusion. If the paper ends with a Discussion instead of a Conclusion, these elements should also be present so that the contribution of the study to the knowledge gap is highlighted, along with a qualification on the generalisable limits of the findings. Table 6. Structure of Conclusion Section M1 Summarise the study In summary, the research presented in this paper offers a contrastive text... investigated/ show... M2 Evaluating the study M2s1 Indicating significance What is new in our study is the links we try to find with Hedging using modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, maybe, might, ought, shall, should, will, would M2s2 Indicating limitations The present study has raised a number of interesting differences, but a larger corpus is needed to establish how far they can be generalized... limited to/ ignored... M2s3 Evaluating methodology Although results obtained from the H functions are not satisfactory, good results are obtained from the use of J functions 9

10 M3 M3s1 Deductions from the research Recommending further Further research might be profitably conducted within research a single discipline to determine the degree of variability according to subdiscipline,... recommend/ replicated... The findings of this study may have some implications for the teaching of M3s2 Drawing pedagogical implications (Structure from Yang & Allison, 2003; Language features from Bunton, 2005; Swales, 1990; Swales & Feak, 2004) CONCLUSION Given that the research is sound, following the writing conventions of a journal paper ensures that the research is properly reported but the journal needs to be carefully selected so that the manuscript is given due consideration. Checking out the scope of the journal is crucial as this is one of the first reasons for reviewers to reject a manuscript. After the manuscript is submitted for review, the wait for the reviewers comments begin. It is positive news if the manuscript is conditionally accepted with amendments. Care should be spent in the revision to address all comments raised by the reviewers and a detailed accounting of this is shown in the revision letter. However, if the manuscript is rejected and reviewers comments are provided, the writers should improve the manuscript and send it to another appropriate journal within the shortest possible time to begin another cycle of review which may take as short as four months to as long as a year. With online journals, the duration from manuscript submission to publication may be cut down to half a year but it can take up to two years to see a paper in print. The rigorous process of manuscript review and revision is necessary to ensure that research knowledge generated is reliable and valid for the advancement of knowledge. REFERENCES Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., & Razavieh, A. (1990). Introduction to research in education (4 th ed.). Forthworth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analyzing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman. Bruce, I. (2009). Results section in sociology and organic chemistry articles: A genre analysis. English for Specific Purposes, 28, Bunton, D. (2005). The structure of PhD conclusion chapters. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4, Chan, S. K., & Foo, S. (2001, May 13-16). Bridging the interdisciplinary gap in abstract writing for scholarly communication. Proceedings of Genres and discourse in education, work and cultural life: Encounters of academic disciplines on theories and practices (GENRE 2001), Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway. 10

11 Coffin, C., Curry, M. J., Goodman, S., Hewings, A., Lillis, T. M., & Swann, J. (2003). Teaching academic writing: A toolkit for higher education. London: Routledge. Cullip, P. F., & Carol, D. (2002). Tailoring an EAP course to disciplinary needs: The UNIMAS effort [Electronic version]. The English Teacher, XXVIII Retrieved July 15, 2009, from Flowerdew, J. (2001). Attitudes of journal editors to non-native speaker contributions. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1), Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (1995). On the notion of culture in second language lectures. TESOL Quarterly, 29, Hartley, J. (1998). An evaluation of structured abstracts in journals published by the British Psychological Society. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 68(3), Hoover, K. V., Bassler, O. C., & Brissie, J. S. (1992). Explorations in parent-school relations. The Journal of Educational Research, 85, Hyland, K. It might be suggested that... : Academic hedging and student writing. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 16, Kamler, B., & Thomson, P. (2004). Driven to abstraction: Doctoral supervision and writing pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(2), Li, L. J., & Ge, G. C. (2009). Genre analysis: Structural and linguistic evolution of the English-medium medical research article ( ). English for Specific Purposes, 28, Lim, J. M. H. (2006). Method sections of Management research articles: A pedagogically motivated qualitative study. English for Specific Purposes, 25, Paltridge, B. (2002). Thesis and dissertation writing: An examination of published advice and actual practice. English for Specific Purposes, 21, Ramanathan, V., & Atkinson, D. (1999). Individualism, academic writing, and ESL writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8, Santos, M. B. D. (1996). The textual organization of research paper abstracts in applied linguistics. Text, 16(4), Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series. Cambridge University Press. Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres: Explorations and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2 nd ed.). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 11

12 Weissberg, R., & Buker, S. (1990). Writing up research: Experimental research report writing for students of English. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Yang, R., & Allison, D. (2003). Research articles in applied linguistics: Moving from results to conclusions. English for Specific Purposes, 22, Yu, R. D. (1998). Non-native graduate students thesis/dissertation writing in Science: Selfreports by students and their advisors from two U.S. institutions. English for Specific Purposes, 17(4),