Academic Research.ppt

Research means exploration, and
discovery. In research, you present
information you discovered by reading
other people’s writing, putting together
information from number of sources in
your own way.
Composition: in composition, you express
your own ideas, opinions, and feelings.
Research Vs. Composition

Paraphrase: Reading & understanding the original and
rewriting it in your own words; except the meaning, the
structure, words, and style of the original are changed.
Summary: 75 or 99 percent shorter, information is
paraphrased, includes main points not details, mention
of the sources at the beginning, the meaning is kept as
the original, summarizer's ideas are not added.
Preliminary Writing Skills for Research

Synthesizing : synthesis is a combination of
relevant information from two or more sources.
Quotation: not being able to paraphrase is not a good
reason for using quotes, the quote should not do your job.
Does it add weight of an authority?
Does it support the point?
Is it striking?
The sources need to be cited in all these
cases.
Preliminary Writing Skills for Research (Cont.)

 Citation is a reference to the source from which the
information is taken, in-text & end-text citation (APA,
MLA),
 Opinion is abstract; it is an idea about fact or about
another opinion. It is an interpretation, an inference, a
supposition, an estimation.
 Fact denotes something that actually exists, can be
verified. No citation is required.
Eg. Ahmad failed the test is a fact and
reasons
for his failure are opinions.
Facts, Opinions & citation

 Plagiarism is academic theft and stealing
and is considered a serious offense
- Plagiarism of language include plagiarism
of
words, structure and style
- Plagiarism of ideas
 Avoiding plagiarism: plagiarism is
avoided via paraphrasing, summarizing,
synthesizing, quoting and citation
Plagiarism

Evaluating the topic: practicality and interest
1. Practical
- should be researchable,
- capability/ability of researcher,
- time line/having have enough time,
- having enough sources,
2. Interest
- Researcher’s interest, audience interest,
Course instructors’ interest
 Narrowing the topic: splitting the topic into its
minor parts.
Choosing and Narrowing the Topic

1. Argumentative research paper: presenting
the ideas of others and making judgments,
adding personal comments, trying to support
a different and personal position on the main
issue. Frequently, a subordinate part of the
statement expresses a contrasting view point.
- Though smokers know that smoking is
dangerous for health, they do not stop
smoking.
- Coal is a better substitute for oil in the
future.
Scope of Research Paper

 Report research paper: gathering
information on a topic from several
sources and presenting it in paraphrase
in a coherent way. It is mainly written in
undergraduate level.
 Good nutrition, diet, and exercise are
important for good health,
 Researchers have proposed new ways
for the effective teaching of language
skills

Writing the Title of the paper
1. Form: the title should be in the form of
noun phrases:
- Teaching Writing , Predicting earthquakes
2. Accuracy of Word Choice: Choosing
accurate words for the title
3. Grammar: singular vs. plural, article, etc.

Argumentative thesis statement: What
should I want to prove?
- It is one sentence only,
- it makes a claim
Report thesis Statement: Which area of
information do I want to focus on &
describe?
- It is one sentence only,
- It doesn’t make a claim
Developing Thesis Statement

Selecting/choosing sources
Sources are the heart of doing research
1. Print Sources: books, scholarly articles,
newspaper articles, articles in magazines and etc.
2. Non Print Sources: internet, interview, lectures..
 Evaluating the sources: The source must be credible
in terms of the author, title, date of publication, location
of publication, publisher, etc.
 Reading sources and Taking notes: Begin reading in
detail. Focus on your research question/goal

Data collection is fundamental to doing
research
 At the undergraduate level, the data is
collected in the form of written materials
such as books, articles, etc.
 At the graduate level, from written
sources and also by observation and/or
experimentation
Data Collection

 Begin writing your first draft:
- First give the background and set the context for
the topic. Then start explaining, describing, give
reasons, state causes or effects, or analyzing
parts of the topic.
- Begin to add quotes, paraphrases, synthesis or
summaries into your writing and cite the sources
periodically. In-text citation will contain a name,
date, or page number
- Continue writing your first draft, and then revise
it:
Writing the First Darft

 Revising means:
- checking the content of your paper,
- making sure the thesis is developed,
- the content matches your thesis,
- there is enough material,
- it is in a logical order,
- nothing off topic is included,
- the writing flows smoothly.
 Editing means checking writing details:
paragraph breaks, sentence structure,
mechanics, spelling and citation formats
Revising and Editing

Editing techniques:
- Read the whole paper slowly and
concentrate
on separate sentence and individual
words,
- Read one line at a time while covering all
other lines with a sheet of paper,
- Read the paper aloud to yourself,
- Read the paper sentence by sentence
from last sentence and working backward
through the whole paper.
Editing

 Introduction: introduction of problem,
research goal and questions, statement
of problem,
 Body: Discussions, findings and results,
 Conclusion: Recommendations,
possibility for further research, limitations
of the study and etc.
Content and Organization

 A title page
 An acknowledgements
 An Abstract
 A table of contents /outline
 The body of the paper
 A reference list
 Appendices
Research Paper Format

 Courter, K. B. & Lyons-Liz, H. (1984).
Research Matters. Boston, USA: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers.
 Leki, I. (1998). Academic Writing:
Exploring Processes and Strategies (2nd
ed). New York: Cambridge University
Press.
 Menasche, L. (1997). Writing a Research
Paper (Rev.ed). Michigan: Michigan
University Press.
References

‫التوفیق‬ ‫هللا‬ ‫من‬ ‫و‬
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Academic Research.ppt

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