What do basic academic writing skills include?
Basic academic writing skills include, writing introduction/background/review of literature, having knowledge about theory, different research approaches and research methods, designing and developing/measurements/participants, analysing the data, presenting and interpreting results/findings writing discussion, conclusions, implications, and suggestions for further studies.
What is the main organizing principle guiding the analysis of your research?
Finding an original and new research problem.
What is an abstract?
A short summary of your completed research. If written well, it makes the reader want to learn more about your research.
When writing a structured abstract, what are the sub-headings to be considered?
1. Problem statement
2. Purpose
3. Method
4. Results/Findings
5. Conclusion/Implications
What are the steps in writing an effective abstract?
1. Identify the major objectives and conclusions.
2. Identify phrases with keywords in the methods section.
3. Identify the major results from the discussion or results section.
4. Assemble the above information into a single paragraph.
5. State your hypothesis or method used in the first sentence.
6. Omit background information, literature review, and detailed description of methods.
7. Remove extra words and phrases.
8. Revise the paragraph so that the abstract conveys only the essential information.
9. Check to see if it meets the guidelines of the targeted journal.
10. Give the abstract to a colleague (preferably one who is not familiar with your work) and ask him/her whether it makes sense.
When selecting keywords, what are the steps to follow?
You should choose keywords that best describe the content of your thesis or manuscript and follow the below steps.
1. Focus on the main topic of your research.
2. Avoid keywords that are only one word.
3. Avoid overlapping keywords in your title and those in your keyword list.
4. Follow the journal guidelines when selecting keywords.
5. Perform keyword research before submitting your article.
What does the introduction aim?
To provide an overview of the research topic and explain what it is about.
What should introduction section cover?
Research background, research problem/problem statement, and research objective(s)/research question(s).
What are the five basic pieces of information which is included in an opening paragraph?
1) A statement of the general topic.
2) A general statement about what the literature has found.
3) A statement about what the literature is missing or where there is an unanswered question. 4) The aim of the study.
5) A general statement of the study approach.
What should a paragraph contain?
To be as effective as possible, a paragraph should contain each of the following in order: argument/claim, evidence/proof, and summary.
What is topic sentence?
It is the main idea of each paragraph. It contains the focus of the paragraph and tells readers what the paragraph is going to be about.
How many sentences do most paragraphs include?
Most paragraphs include at least three sentences, though rarely more than ten. A good general rule is two to three paragraphs a page.
What is paraphrasing?
To state something written or spoken in different words, esp. in a shorter and simpler form to make the meaning clearer. In other words, it is restating something written by someone else in your own words.
Which tenses does APA style require the use of?
APA style requires the use of the past tense or present perfect tense when using signal phrases to describe earlier research (Example: “Smith (1992) found…” or “Smith (1992) has found.
What is synthesizing an article?
It is a crucial skill in social science research. Synthetize means that in your literature review you examine a number of studies on a shared topic and note aspects that are of interest for your own work. It also may mean that you draw and state a conclusion about the similarities and differences in the studies you review (Frye, 2016).
What are the important steps when synthetizing?
1. It is possible to synthesize multiple articles in one paragraph,
2. You note the shared issue across the articles that you want to call attention to,
3. Note any important differences that are relevant to your study,
4. And describe each article briefly in ways relevant to your study.
What are literature reviews designed to provide?
An overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.
When writing a literature review what are the main issues to focus?
a) main objective,
b) identifying main argument and evidence needed,
c) identifying the basic trends and patterns in the literature.
How many transition words are there which are used when writing paragraphs?
In general, there are three types of transition words used when writing paragraphs:
1. Transitions between sections:
2. Transitions between paragraphs
3. Transitions within paragraphs:
What does the methodology section describe?
The methodology section describes actions to be taken to investigate a research problem and the rationale for the application of specific procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process, and analyze information applied to understanding the problem, thereby, allowing the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall validity and reliability