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.
