Research Methodology (RM6001):

Academic Writing

Íde O’Sullivan and Lawrence ClearyRegional Writing Centre, UL

www.ul.ie/rwc

Dissertation writing How will you organise your approach to

this seemingly sublime, looming task?

Ways of ordering Writing Process—Planning, Drafting,

(Discussing / Consulting), Revising, Editing and Proofreading.

Rhetorical Situation—part of the planning stage and includes an assessment of the occasion for writing, writer, topic, audience and purpose.

Writing Strategies—cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social.

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The writing process Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing and Proofreading

Prewriting Planning

Evaluating the rhetorical situation, or context, into which you write

Choosing and focusing your topic Establishing an organising principle

Gathering information Entering the discourse on your topic Taking notes as a strategy to avoid charges of

plagiarism Evaluating sources

Planning: Assessing the rhetorical situation Occasion Audience Topic Purpose Writer

Occasion What has prompted you to write? What do I need to know?

What are my obligations? What are the procedures? When is it due? How much time do I have? What’s involved?

My guidelines tell me about procedures that I must follow. When do I submit a proposal? Do I need to submit project reports? When? When do I submit my finished document? Do I need to

defend my discoveries orally? What kind of project will I choose? How do I write about it?

Occasion When we consider the occasion for writing,

we think about What has prompted me to write? How much writing do I have to do? How much time do I have to do it? How much time should I allot for planning and

organising, and for drafting and revising? What tone should I adopt? Formal? Informal?

Authoritative? Conciliatory? Assertive?

Audience Your audience affects how you write.

Terms that need not be explained for one audience, may need to be explained to other audiences.

General audiences may not have your subject knowledge, but they are usually thought of as intelligent, thoughtful readers willing to be informed or persuaded.

Your classmates make good audiences. Write for them. Let them read your dissertation and give you feedback on the ease with which they were able to read and understand it.

Topic Your topic is something that will have your

supervisor’s approval. Some things to think about:

How much do you already know about this topic?

How much am I going to have to know in order to do this project and report on it? To say something meaningful?

How much research am I going to have to do? How much time do I have to do it?

Topic Strategies for choosing topics and

narrowing or broadening the coverage you will give it. Taking suggestions from your supervisor Brainstorming (individually or in groups) Listing Clustering or mind-mapping Free-writing or discussing Asking wh-questions—who, what, when, where,

how and why?

Topic Topics do not stand in isolation. They exist

in a context. What is the relationship of your topic to your

course of study? What are people saying about your topic in the

literature you have read? What are the issues of concern?

Purpose What is your purpose for writing?

To express your feelings? To inform? To persuade?

As you draft, revise and edit, make sure that every contribution to your report works to realise that purpose.

Purpose If informing is the purpose of your report,

then the point of order is a triangulation of your audience, your topic and your purpose. Audience analysis Relevance Rhetorical appeals

Writer What do I already know about this topic? How quickly do I learn? Read? Write? How much writing have I already done? Have I developed an academic or

authoritative voice? Have I addressed this audience before? What are my weaknesses? What are my

strengths?

Drafting Try to visualise your report. Work toward that

vision. Begin to structure it—establish your section

headings; give them titles. These do not have to be permanent.

Examine the logical order of ideas reflected in those titles.

Do not get hung up on details; elements of the draft are subject to change in the revision stage.

Start to write the sections that you are ready to write.

Drafting Continue to reassess your rhetorical

situation. Does what you have written so far

contribute to the achievement of your purpose?

Experiment with organisation and methods of development.

Don’t get bogged-down in details; focus on the big issues: organisation and logical flow.

Drafting How should it look? Do you have a vision? What should the dissertation look like?

Do you know what goes in each chapter? What chapters can you already title? Do you have a general idea of what they will

contain?

Revision Is your dissertation logically organised?

A good way to check the logical flow of your ideas is to outline your report AFTER you’ve completed your draft.

How did you introduce your topic? By giving it definition? Describing its development? Explaining what it is?

Does each section contribute to your reader’s understanding of your topic? Does your report service your purpose, aims, and objectives?

Revising Outline each section. How does each

paragraph contribute to our understanding of the topic of that section?

Take a close look at paragraphs: Does each paragraph have a central idea? Does it have unity? Is it coherent and well developed?

Is there a correspondence between the title of your report, your section headings and sub-headings and the central ideas in your paragraphs?

Revising Do the methods used to illuminate your topic lead

to logical discovery? No truths are self-evident. Claims have to be defended with evidence.

Processes have to be described and explained; Design features and research methods have to be

justified; The justification for generalisations and conclusions

need to be made explicit; The criteria used to qualify our results also needs to

be explicitly put forward and evaluated for objectivity; Underlying assumptions need to be evaluated for

their objectivity.

Editing and proofreading Once the report is cogent, it must be made to be

coherent. Work methodically, checking one feature at a

time. Do not exclude formatting issues. Editing and proofreading is more than just

grammar and punctuation; it is also about voice, rhythm, tone, style and clarity.

Editing and proofreading Check for ambiguity Check for comma splices, run-ons, stringy

sentences and fragments. Check for how sentences introduce new

information: is it in the beginning of the sentence or at the end?

Check that you use sentence types that are appropriate for your discipline.

Editing and proofreading Check word order and usage. Are you

using an indefinite article when a definite article is more precise.

Check for agreement: Subject / verb; pronoun or noun substitute / antecedent or concatenation.

Check for bias (gender, race, religious, creed, persuasion, etc).

Editing and proofreading Check for obstacles to clarity:

Poorly chosen words Vague references Clichés and trite language Jargon Inappropriate connotations

Editing and proofreading Check for clarity:

Effective subordination and emphasis Sentence variety Parallel structures Choppy writing Explicit logical links

Editing and proofreading Check formatting issues (appropriacy and

consistency): Margins Font (size and style) Section heading numbers Paragraph style (block, semi-block, indented)

Editing and proofreading Check for plagiarism

Check the form of your in-text citations and of your full references in your References page.

Check the content of your citations. Is everything that should be there there?

Check that paraphrases are not too close to the original.

Check that all figures, tables and graphs are captioned and cited (below figures and graphs; above tables)

Check that any borrowed ideas, words or methods of organising information are referenced and clearly marked.

Logical choices and unity of purpose Every choice serves to defend a claim,

answer a question, or confirm a hypothesis Word, phrase, sentence-structure

Does the choice satisfy audience expectations Does it speak to your authorial credibility Does it further your argument, analysis,

Arguments & logic A good argument will have, at the very least:

a thesis that declares the writer's position on the problem at hand;

an acknowledgment of the opposition that nods to, or quibbles with other points of view;

a set of clearly defined premises that illustrate the argument's line of reasoning;

evidence that validates the argument's premises; a conclusion that convinces the reader that the

argument has been soundly and persuasively made. (Dartmouth Writing Program 2005)

Literature Review & logic Think in terms of your argument and the

support that you provided for claims: Include a review of all the literature that

you read to learn about your topic and the particular aspect of your topic that you focus on.

Include a review of the literature on the methodologies that you used.

Methodologies & logic When you know what you need to know in

order to answer a question, then it is logical to choose methods of inquiry that will supply the reliable verifiable data that you need in order to answer the question.

Don’t forget to qualify your data—what does it tell you and what is it unable to tell you?

Methodologies & credibility All data has to be analysed. You need a

methodology for analyses as well. Quantitative data: can it be generalised? Qualitative data: what criteria will be

used to establish its value? Do not overstate your results. An honest,

quality analysis will speak volumes about your credibility, regardless of the quality of the data.

Unity and coherence If information included in your dissertation

does not contribute to an understanding of the value of your conclusions and recommendations, then it only serves to befuddle the logic of your piece.

A unified text is a more coherent text.

Writing strategies Map your paper

What sections or subsections are completed (keeping in mind you still have to revise),

Pick one or two of the holes in your paper that you would feel comfortable filling,

Assess the reasons for any anxiety you have over the unfinished parts that cause you anxiety

Do you need to read more?Do you need to rethink your paper?

Writing strategies Outline your paper

Devise headings and subheadings for uncompleted sections

This helps you see the logical progression (or lack of it) of your ideas

It identifies the main ideas It helps detect omissions

Writing strategies Write about why you are having difficulty

making advances in your paper… It gets the fingers tapping and the cerebral

juices flowing An awareness of fears and anxieties helps you

to develop strategies to overcome those emotional roadblocks

You may discover that the reason that you are having difficulty is that there is some chink in the logic of your argument that you must either fill or that requires a major rethinking of the line of reasoning.

Writing strategies Don’t allow yourself to freeze up. When

you are feeling overwhelmed… Satisfy yourself with small advances until

you feel more confident and unstuck Seek help. Talk to friends. Talk about how

you feel, but talk about your ideas as well. Eat lots of ice cream and candy

Works Cited Dartmouth Writing Program (2006) “Logic and Argument” [Online],

available: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/ student/toc.shtml [accessed 08 Jan. 2008].

Discourse Community Analysis (n.d.) “Discourse Community Analysis Assignment Sheet”, Center for Writing Excellence, West Virginia University [online], available: http://www.as.wva.edu/~lbrady/202discourse.html [accessed 20 Aug. 2008].

Ebest, S., R., Brusaw, T., Oliu, W., and Alred, G. (1997) Writing From A to Z, Mt. View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Glucksman Library (2007) “Cite It Right: Guide to Harvard Referencing Style”, 2nd edition; University of Limerick’s Referencing Series [Online], http://www.ul.ie/~library/ pdf/citeitright.pdf [accessed 08 Jan. 2008].

University of Hertfordshire (2008) “Describing & Analysing Language: Handouts”, University of Hertfordshire, School of Combined Studies, BA (Hons) in English Language for Commercial Communication [online], available: http://www.uefap.com/courses/baecc/dal/handouts.htm [accessed 08 Jan. 2008].