Comparison of Two Research Articles

By Daniela Dib and Erika Barochiner

Research Articles: Analysis of the Results, Discussion, and Conclusions Sections

     Research articles are divided into different sections, each devoted to a specific purpose. Swales and Feak (1994) analyzed each of them and provided useful insights on how they should be structured. Broadly speaking, the introduction presents the research area to be studied, identifies a gap in the field and states the purpose of the paper. The methods section describes the procedures followed to conduct the study. In the results section, the authors present the outcomes of the data collection process. Then, in the discussion section, they interpret the results in the light of the literature review discussed in the introduction to the paper. It should be noted that the discussion section may be a part of the results section or not (Swales & Feak, 1994). The next section in the article is the conclusion, where the authors summarize the main points under discussion and make recommendations for future research. Although there exist several papers discussing the characteristics of these sections, there are no papers comparing and contrasting the results, discussion and conclusions sections of two specific articles, one in the field of medicine (Devereaux et al., 2014) and one in the field of education (Lys, 2013). Therefore, the purpose of this work is to analyze these three sections in the above mentioned articles and identify any similarities and differences between them.
     With respect to the results sections, the word results is centered on the page in the medicine paper (Devereaux et al., 2014), whereas, in the education paper (Lys, 2013), this word is on the left margin. In both articles, the information has been clearly organized into subsections which present the results obtained with relation to specific areas addressed in the study. Such information is further expanded and clarified through the use of tables and figures in both papers. However, while the formatting of tables appears to be consistent with APA (2010) style in the education paper, which is reflected by the appropriate use of capitalization, italics and spacing, among other features, the tables in the medicine paper seem to have been formatted according to a different style. In addition, although both papers make clear in-text references to tables and figures, Lys (2013) uses the expression in Table in “As I have reported in Table 2, the average [...]” (p. 102) without brackets and the see Figure in “The length of the recordings increased each week (see Figure 1)” (p. 101) between brackets, whereas Devereaux et al. (2014) place the reference to both tables and figures between brackets, using the abbreviation Fig. in “The effect of aspirin was consistent across subgroups (P≥0.16 for all interactions) (Fig. 2)” (p. 1498), in the latter case. Finally, drawing an analogy between the two sections, it may be observed that both use the past tense and are isolated from the discussion section.

     As far as the discussion section is concerned, both articles provide an interpretation of the results presented in the previous section in the light of previously conducted studies by establishing points in common as well as differences, which is consistent with the suggestions provided by Swales and Feak (1994). However, sources are acknowledged following different in-text citation styles. While Lys (2013) has used APA (2010) style, the medicine paper (Devereaux et al., 2014) uses superscript numbers to refer the reader directly to the reference list. In addition, the word Discussion is centered on the page in the medicine paper, and the section does not include sub-headings. On the other hand, in the education paper, this word is on the left margin, and the section includes a sub-heading. It is worth mentioning that the authors in both articles have used personalized utterances. There is a tendency to use modal verbs such as will and should to signal possibility and advice, respectively. The medicine article includes both modal verbs, whereas the education article only uses should.
     With regard to conclusions, only the education article (Lys, 2013) has a clearly identified conclusions section. In the medicine article (Devereaux et al., 2014), conclusions have been integrated to the discussion section instead and they have been compacted in a very short paragraph at the end of the section. Since no hedging has been used, the conclusion statements seem too strong. In the education paper, on the other hand, the conclusion is much longer. In this case, certainty has been weakened through the use of expressions, such as suggest in “The data suggest that [...]” (Lys, 2013, p. 107) and apparently in “Students apparently blamed the repetitive and predictable nature of many exchanges with their host family” (Lys, 2013, p. 107), as well as through the use of modal verbs. It should be noted that Lys makes reference to work conducted by other authors even in this section, which would indicate that she is still discussing results and making comparisons. However, conclusions should reflect the author’s ability to summarize the findings of the study by highlighting any relevant aspects and advising on further lines of research.

     After a thorough analysis of the above-mentioned sections, we conclude that although the articles under analysis belong to different fields, their results, discussion and conclusions sections comply with the requirements of academic papers in terms of structure and content, with the exception of the conclusions section in the education paper which provide further discussion instead of summarizing relevant study findings. Finally, the main differences between the papers lie in the length of the different sections, the citation and table formatting styles and the fact that the conclusions have been included in the discussion section in the medical paper, while in the education paper they appear in a separate section.  

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Devereaux, P.J., Mrkobrada, M., Sessler, D.I., Leslie, K., Alonso-Coello, P., Kurz, A.,… Yusuf, S. (2014). Aspirin in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. The New England Journal of  Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401105

Lys, F. (2013). The development of advanced learner oral proficiency using ipads. Language Learning and Technology Journal. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2013/lys.pdf

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Analysis of Research Articles

By Daniela Dib and Erika Barochiner

               Research Articles: Analysis of Introduction and Methods Sections

     According to Copley, Greenberg, Handley, and Oaks (1996), “a research paper is more than the sum of your sources, more than a collection of different pieces of information about a topic” (para. 1). An important section in research papers is the introduction, in which the writer clearly introduces the topic and provides the necessary context. Methods sections contain the procedures necessary to carry out the research. As stated by Wiersma (1995), “The methods or procedures section is really the heart of the research proposal. The activities should be described with as much detail as possible, and the continuity between them should be apparent” (p. 409). The purpose of our writing is to analyze and compare the introduction and methods sections of the following articles: “Aspirin in Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery” (Deveraux et al., 2014), and “The Development of Advanced Learner Oral Proficiency Using Ipads” (Lys, 2013).
    Swales and Feak (1994) provide certain guidelines for writing introductions to research papers in the educational field. These include going from the general to the specific and to succeed in making the reader become interested in the article, which can be achieved by following the Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R.S.). Such model consists of three basic steps, known as moves. The first move involves establishing a research territory, showing the importance of the research area to be studied and mentioning previous research work on the topic. The second move requires the authors to establish a niche, that is, indicate a gap in previous research. Finally, the third move consists in occupying that niche, by stating the purpose of the study which intends to fill that gap.     
    In this respect, the introduction to the education research paper by Lys (2013) seems to have successfully complied with the above mentioned requirements. The author goes through the first move by indicating that an important issue to discuss is how college students can attain advanced-level L2 proficiency in only four years of classroom instruction. After this, a niche is identified when she argues that “creating an environment that promotes scaffolded work that is within the ZPD (...) can be a major challenge for language instructions” (Lys, 2013, p.96). Finally, she goes into the third move by stating that to face that challenge she experimented with the use of iPads in an advanced conversation class (Lys, 2013). This introduction is about six pages long and is clearly identified with a heading in capital letters. It includes a literature review section which, in turn, is divided into four subsections, as well as a section focusing on the study and another one stating the research questions. The author has used APA style for in-text citations and has provided a comprehensive account of the theoretical framework for the study.
    On the other hand, the introduction to the research paper written by Deveraux et al. (2014) within the field of medicine is quite short and has not been identified with a heading. Despite its length, however, the authors have clearly gone through the three moves in writing introductions suggested by Swales and Feak (1994) and they can be easily identified in the section. The first two paragraphs of the introduction present the area of inquiry around which the study was conducted, that is, the current use of aspirin to prevent venous thromboembolism after noncardiac surgery. In the third paragraph a niche is identified by stating that there are uncertainties regarding the risks and benefits of the use of aspirin in these cases and underscoring the need for a large perioperative trial (Deveraux et al., 2014). Finally, in the fourth and last paragraph, the authors bridge that gap when they explain that they conducted a perioperative trial to evaluate the effects of aspirin on patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. As far as in-text citations are concerned, the authors seem to have used a style other than APA because citations only include superscript numbers but not authors or years. 
    With regard to the methods section in research papers, the word Methods is usually centered on the page to identify the beginning of the section, which is usually divided into at least three subsections, to wit: participants, materials and procedure (Swales, 1990, Swales and Feak, 1994). The purpose of the methods section, then, is to describe how the study was conducted, providing detailed information about the study population, a presentation of the procedures used to collect data, the materials that were used, such as questionnaires, interviews, and equipment, a detailed account of the steps that were taken, and an explanation of data analysis procedures.
    In the medicine research paper (Deveraux et al., 2014), the word Methods is centered on the page and it is divided into six subsections: study design, study oversight, patients, procedures, study outcomes, and statistical analysis. On the other hand, in the education research paper (Lys, 2013), instead of Methods, the word Methodology is used, which is on the left margin, not centered. It is a rather short section compared to the medicine research paper and it is subdivided into three subsections: participants, data collection, and measuring language performance. Drawing an analogy between the two research papers, it may be observed that both include the use of past forms, tentative language, and passive voice. References to figures and tables appear in both papers to provide supportive details of the researchers´work.   
    In conclusion, the introduction section in the research article by Deveraux et al. (2014) is quite short and concise but clearly establishes a territory in the research field, identifies a niche and occupies it. In turn, the research article by Lys (2013) is much longer and provides a comprehensive review of the literature, while also clearly going through the three moves. On the other hand, the methods section in the medicine research paper seems more detailed and thorough than the education research paper but both succeed in providing a clear account of how the study was conducted, by making reference to the participants, the materials and the procedures that were used. Finally, it may be observed that although the articles belong to different fields, they share text-type features, established structure patterns, language and grammatical aspects.

                                                       References

American Psychological Association (2011). Genre and the Research Paper. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/02/

Copley C., Greenberg, L., Handley, E., & Oaks, S. (1996). Developing a research question. Retrieved from http://www.esc.edu/esconline/across_esc/writerscomplex.nsf/0/f87fd7182f0ff21 c852569c2005a47b7

Devereaux, P.J., et al. (2014). Aspirin in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. The New England Journal of  Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401105

Lys, F. (2013). The development of advanced learner oral proficiency using ipads. Language Learning and Technology Journal. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2013/lys.pdf

Swales, J.M. (1990).  Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. (Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994).  Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Wiersma, W. (1995). Research methods in education: An introduction (Sixth Edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

In-Text Citations in Academic Writing

Analyzing In-Text Citations in an Academic Piece of Writing

            This paper reviews the use of in-text citations in an article written by Iida (2010) in terms of whether the rules prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) have been followed or not.

            In their article, the author has included several in-text citations mainly of books and journals. He has introduced other authors' ideas and works through parenthetical citations. It must be said that in all cases, the comma between the author and the year of publication of their work is missing. In addition, the "p" or "pp" to indicate page number has been omitted as well. One two authors are mentioned in an in-text citation, the ampersand must be used instead of the word “and” (Purdue OWL, 2013).

            The author has also used several direct quotations, which where all correctly included between double inverted commas with the period after the parenthetical citations and not before. No block quotations have been included.   

            In relation to signal phrases, the author has used only few, mostly resorting to parenthetical citations. The phrase “according to” has been overused, which seems to show poor academic style. Other phrases include “Vygotsky’s (…) theory describes”, “Bishop (…) describes” and “Hanauer (…) states”.    

            As a result of the previous analysis, it may be concluded that the author did not follow APA rules for in-text citations thoroughly.

           

           References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC.

Iida, A. (2010). Developing Voice by Composing Haiku: A Social-Expressivist Approach for Teaching Haiku Writing in EFL Contexts. English Teaching Forum, Nbr. 1. DOI: EJ914886
Purdue OWL (2013). In-Text Citations: Author/Authors. Retrieved October 2013, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

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Academic Summary

Academic Summary: Using Haiku to Develop Voice in EFL Settings

            In the article entitled "Developing Voice by Composing Haiku: A Social-Expressivist Approach for Teaching Haiku Writing in EFL Contexts" (Iida, 2010), the author argues that haiku, a type of Japanese poem, is a powerful tool that can be used within the social-expressivist approach to help L2 students develop voice and become aware of the interaction between readers and writers in EFL writing classrooms. 

           A requirement for L2 students at the terciary level is being able to make their voices heard. However, they do not do so in isolation but by interacting with others who become their audience. In this respect, adopting the social-expressivist approach in writing tasks within EFL settings aids students in making their voices heard and to develop a sense of audience because such approach applies communicative methods which generate "a process of negotiation to make meaning" (Iida, 2010, p. 29).

          Within this context, "composing and producing haiku is a communicative act that allows L2 writers to become sensitive to the writer-reader relationship" (Iida, 2010, p. 30). In fact, reader-centeredness is a key feature of haiku, which means that free interpretations by readers are encouraged. Therefore, its introduction in the writing classroom is found to be very helpful to develop students’ communication skills.

          The author recommends that reading haiku be practised before engaging students in composition so that they can analyse its structure and then work on their interpretations of the poem. Once they have discussed several haiku in class, they are prepared to compose haiku and this is done by following certain steps which include reviewing the concept of haiku, collecting material to write it, composing the haiku, asking a peer to read it and provide feedback, and finally publishing it.

          To conclude, composing and reading haiku in EFL writing classrooms is a powerful communicative tool within the social-expressivist approach, which allows students to express themselves and interact with others in a meaningful way, which results in successful language learning. 

          

References

Iida, A. (2010).  Developing Voice by Composing Haiku: A Social-Expressivist Approach for Teaching Haiku Writing in EFL Contexts. English Teaching Forum, Nbr. 1. DOI: EJ914886

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Wikipedia and Academic Writing

An Interesting Tool to Develop Academic Writing Skills

            In her article, Tardy (2010) reviews the challenges facing students who are beginning to develop their academic writing skills and discusses the advantages of using wikis, particularly Wikipedia, to help them in such process. The author further describes the stages that students should follow to write an article aimed at being published in this popular wiki.  

            Students in higher education usually struggle when they have to work on writing tasks because they are not familiar with the rules and styles of academic discourse. Some of the activities involved in writing academically include doing research, paraphrasing and summarizing, citing sources correctly, developing a sense of audience, and complying with formal genre conventions.

            Wikipedia, a famous web-based space for writing collaboratively, might be a valuable tool that teachers could introduce in their classrooms to help students gain confidence in meeting the above mentioned challenges (Tardy, 2010). To further this objective, the author proposes giving the students an assignment consisting in writing an article which will be published in Wikipedia and will therefore be accessible to the public at large.

            In order to complete such task, the students should follow a number of steps: First, they should examine Wikipedia to understand how the site works and the general guidelines it establishes for contributing articles; then, they should gather information about the topic they would like to write about and make an outline of the information they want to include, paraphrasing phrases in order to avoid plagiarism; the fourth step is writing a draft and this is followed by revising, formatting sources and polishing, publishing being the final step.

            Tardy (2010) concludes that small research projects like this offer students the opportunity to start developing academic writing skills while promoting motivation, since, according to her experience, students seem to be excited about the fact thar their own work might be read by millions of people.

References

Tardy, C. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic         Writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp. 12-19, 27.

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APA Style in Academic Writing

Analyzing APA Style in an Academic Piece of Writing

            This paper reviews the style used in an article written by Dalvit et al. (2005) and provides a detailed account of the use of in-text citations and signal phrases, as well as the structure of the reference list, in terms of whether the rules prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) have been followed or not.

            In their article, the authors have included some in-text citations of books, dictionaries, online journals, publications by universities and software. Most of these are parenthetical citations and signal phrases have been scarcely used. In addition, the phrase “according to” has been repeated in the article instead of using a different phrase. This would seem to show poor academic style. Other signal phrases include research has shown that and preliminary investigation shows that.

            Even though the excessive use of direct or block quotations is not encouraged in academic writing, a few citations of these types might help support a point effectively. However, the authors in this article have not included any direct or block quotations at all. They have only resorted to paraphrasing to make reference to works or ideas of other authors. It must be said, on the other hand, that all in-text citations appear to have been correctly included and all of them were cited in the references.

            In relation to the reference list, there are several issues to mention considering the guidelines provided by Purdue OWL (2013a) on APA style. To begin with, this list should have been included on a separate sheet of paper and, instead of being left-aligned, the word "References" should have been centered on the page. Furthermore, it is followed by a colon, which is not appropriate either if APA style is to be followed. Instead, the word “References” should not be underlined, italicized or highlighted in any other way.

            Other important points to mention are that the entries in the list have been numbered and that they are not double-spaced. Additionally, in all cases, the names of the titles have been title-cased when they should have been sentence-cased. In relation to this, the Purdue OWL (2013b) guidelines state that “only the first word of a title will be capitalized” (In-Text Citation Capitalization section, para. 2). As well as this, in those entries citing journals, it is the name of the journal that should be italicized and not the title of the article (Purdue OWL, 2013a). Italics should be used for titles of books or journals.

            The sources are properly listed in alphabetical order but the authors should not have indented the first line of each entry. Instead, it is the second and following lines of an entry which should be indented five spaces, while the first line should be aligned to the left (University of Minnesota, n.d.).

            Some other deviations from APA style include the use of the word “and” instead of the ampersand in the sixth entry, the missing final dot in the entries corresponding to books, that is, entries 1, 3, 4, and 6, and the missing year indicating when the document was accessed, as well as the indication "retrieved from”, in entries where a website is cited. Finally, there is a mistake in the year of publication of the eighth entry, which reads “2004” while the year of the cited source in the body of the article is 2005.

            As a result of the previous analysis, it may be concluded that the authors followed APA style to some extent. While they have used in-text citations according to APA rules, other conventions have been disregarded, particularly those related to the reference list.

           

 References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC.

Dalvit, L., Murray, S., Terzoli, A., Zhao, X., Rhodes University, Mini, B., & University of Fort Hare. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US-China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol. 2 (9).

Purdue OWL (2013a). Reference List: Basic Rules. Retrieved October 2013, from    https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

Purdue OWL (2013b). In-Text Citations: The Basics. Retrieved October 2013, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

University of Minnesota Center for Writing. (n.d.). Quicktips: APA documentation style: Reference list. University of Minnesota: Student Writing Support. Retrieved October 2013, from http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/apa_References.pdf

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What Is a Discourse Community?

Discussing the Concept of Discourse Community

            Several definitions have been proposed for the term "discourse community”. This paper discusses the six criteria suggested by Swales (1990) in order to determine the scope of the concept.

            Swales (1990) argues that in order for a group of people to be considered a discourse community, they must share common goals. An example of this could be a group of teachers who want to improve their teaching practices and grow professional. As Chadding (1995) states, people join together to achieve objectives, solve problems or create products (as cited in Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004).

            Another key characteristic of a discourse community is information exchange.  It is essential that members interact with each other in order for them to learn (Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004). It seems that group work is a fundamental factor required for professional development. As McLaughlin and Tabert (1993) put it a “discourse community cannot exist in the absence of a collaborative culture and an environment that supports risk-taking and reflection” (as cited in Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004, Summary and Implications, para. 2).

            Discourse community members use one or more genres which are specific to their community (Swales, 1990). In fact, they agree to abide by certain language styles and structures, which become a social convention (Bizzell, 1992; as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2004). This results in members acquiring community competence, that is to say, the knowledge of the language you need to communicate appropriately in a given discourse community (Kutz, 1997; as cited in Kelly-Kleese).

            In addition, Swales (1990) asserts that discourse community members interact by means of certain participatory mechanisms in communicating and providing feedback to each other. For instance, when describing the community college discourse, Kelly-Kleese (2004, Teaching as Scholarship, para. 7) states it flows in different ways, which may include “oral dialogue or text in arenas such as e-mail, electronic mailing lists, and discussion forums on the Web”.      

            A discourse community makes use of highly specialized terminology (Swales, 1990).  This includes words that outsiders would not usually understand since according to Giroux (1983) “language is a social event that is defined, shaped and constrained by the culture of the setting in which it is used” (as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001, Abstracts, para. 4). Therefore, concepts acquire specific meanings given by a specific group at a certain time (Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles & Lopez Torres, 2003).

            Discourse communities are characterized by having a high general level of expertise. Clark (1994, as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2004) states that although it is assumed that all members in a discourse have equal opportunities to have their voices heard and to shape reality through language, some members exert more influence than others so that “individuals and groups with greater skill in using the language system will exercise power in naming and thus controlling how others will view social reality” (Bowers, 1987, p.28, as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001).

            To sum up, a discourse community implies common purposes and relationships, and similar attitudes and values, as well as sharing knowledge following certain conventions, and a discourse structure and style related to how to communicate such knowledge and achieve the proposed goals (Kutz, 1997, as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001).

References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s choice: An open memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers need teachers to grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405

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