Research Articles: Analysis of Four Abstracts

By Juliana Belloqui, Daniela Dib and Erika Barochiner

Research Articles: Analysis of Four Abstracts

     An abstract is the first section of a research article; however, it must be written last since it summarizes the content of the paper. As stated by Hubbuch (1996), abstracts are “brief summaries of the major points made by an author in a book or article” (p. 126). The aim of including an abstract is to transmit information in a clear, concise, neat, and objective way. Research Article (RA) abstracts consist of a single paragraph of approximately four to ten sentences (Swales & Feak, 1994). There is a wide range of material describing the specific features of abstracts; but there are no papers comparing and contrasting the abstracts of the following four articles, two in the field of medicine (Devereaux et al., 2014 and Klauer et al., 2014) and two in the field of education (Lys, 2013 and AbuSeileek, 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this work is to analyze this section in the above mentioned articles and identify any similarities and differences between them.
     In relation to abstract type, classification and approach to writing, both similarities and differences can be observed in the four abstracts under study. First, the four of them are informative since they belong to research reports and provide readers with the main findings of the studies conducted by describing what the researchers did, that is, by looking to the past (Swales and Feak, 1994; Swales, 1990). However, there are differences in terms of structure. The two abstracts of the articles in the medicine field are structured because they are subdivided into paragraphs, each preceded by a bolded heading identifying a section of the article. On the other hand, the abstracts of the articles in the field of education are unstructured since they consist of only one unbroken paragraph with no headings (Swales and Feak, 1994; Swales, 1990). Moreover, while Lys (2013) has adopted a results-driven approach to writing her abstract, by mainly focusing on the findings of her research and the conclusions (Swales and Feak, 1994), the other three abstracts follow a RP summary approach, since they either provide a few sentences for each of the main sections of their article (AbuSeileek, 2014) in one unbroken paragraph or they provide clearly identified paragraphs for each section of the article (Klauer et al., 2014; Devereaux et al., 2014).
     With respect to linguistic features, there are several specifications that deserve to be mentioned (Swales, 1990; Swales and Feak, 1994). In the abstracts of the four articles, there are full sentences, and the past tense prevails. Some examples of the prevailing use of the past tense in this section are “On average, students spent twenty-four minutes a week in video conversations on Face-Time alone” (Lys, 2013, p.94), “The primary outcome was a composite of death or nonfatal myocardial infarction at 30 days” (Devereaux et al., 2014.p. 1494) and “This study investigated the effect of using computer-mediated corrective feedback on EFL learners' performance in writing (AbuSeileek, 2014, p.76). The use of impersonal passive in the four articles is scarce, and there is an absence of negatives, abbreviations and jargon. Another linguistic feature that pertains to the abstracts in the field of education, not present in the abstracts in the field of medicine, is the use of the first person singular and the use of the expression the study. Lys (2013) uses the first person singular as in the expressions “I investigate” or “I am interested” (p. 94). On the other hand, AbuSeileek (2014) does not use the first person, but this author has included the expression the study as in “This study investigated” or “The study yielded” (p. 76).
     As far as format is concerned, the abstracts of the articles in the field of medicine (Klauer et al., 2014; Devereaux et al., 2014) show important differences when compared to the articles in the field of education (Lys, 2013; AbuSeileek, 2014). In the first place, the former include the word Abstract, centered on the page and written with all capital letters, as heading for the section whereas in the latter no headings have been included. In addition, the authors of the medical articles have done without keywords while those in the field of education have included them below the text of the abstract. It should be noted, however, that American Psychological Association (APA) (2010) conventions have not been followed in this respect since the word Keywords should be centered and italicized and it should not be followed by a colon (OWL, 2010). Nor has APA style been respected in relation to other formatting rules in the education abstracts. Not only did the authors omit the word Abstract, as mentioned above, but they also failed to include the abstract on a separate page and to double space the text. Finally, the articles in the field of medicine do not follow APA conventions either since the abstracts do not appear on a separate page and are not double-spaced, and because only the first letter of the word Abstract should have been capitalized (OWL, 2010). Nevertheless, it must be observed that articles in the field of medicine generally use a formatting style other than APA.
     All in all, since the four analysed abstracts types are informative, they describe what the researchers did during the course of the research and state their findings. As far as structure is concerned, the abstracts of the articles from the field of medicine are structured whereas the ones from the educational field are unstructured. The approach to writing in both kinds of abstracts is different as well: While Lys (2013) places the emphasis on the results derived from the research, the other authors provide a brief summary of the steps followed during the research. On the other hand, the analysed abstracts share a number of similar linguistic features as regards the use of full sentences, the use of the past tense, the minimum use of impersonal passive, as well as the absence of negatives, abbreviations and jargon. None of the abstracts under analysis apply APA (2010) conventions. Regardless of the stated differences in format, structure and kind of approach, the four abstracts succeed in drawing the potential readers’ attention to continue reading the articles, which constitutes one of the main purposes for abstract writing.



                                            References

AbuSeileek, A. & Abu-al-Sha´r, A. (2014). Using peer computer-mediated corrective feedback to support EFL learners´ writing. Language Learning and Technology, 19(1), 76-95. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2014/abuseileekabualshar.pdf

American Psychological Association (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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

Hubbuch, S. M. (1996). Writing research papers across the curriculum. (4th ed.). Harcourt Brace: Fort Worth, TX.

Klauer, S., Guo, F., Simmons-Morton, B., Ouimet, M., Lee, S., & Dingus, T. (2014). Distracted driving and risk of road crashes among novice and experienced drivers. The New England Journal of Medicine. DOI 10.1056/NEJMsa1204142.

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

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). (2010). General Format. Retrieved February, 25th, 2010, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

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.
 

Writing a Methods Section

Methods

            This was a descriptive study aimed at analyzing what conceptions of teaching and learning university science professors have. For this purpose, a prospective ex-post-facto design was chosen and the variables conceptions of teaching and consistency index were analyzed using the theories discussed as part of the theoretical framework.

Participants

            The study included 100 science professors from the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, belonging to different science departments within the university. They were divided into four groups according to their seniority as university professors. The first group had between 1 and 7 years' experience; the second group, between 8 and 14; the third group, between 15 and 20; and the fourth group, more than 20 years’ experience. They were informed about the purpose of the study and they agreed to participate in it.

Materials

            A dilemma questionnaire (See Appendix A), which had previously been adapted and validated for data collection purposes, was administered to all participants. The questionnaire was specifically designed to provide information on the variables conceptions of teaching and consistency index, and included questions related to the nature of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as to methods of assessment. In order to protect the participants’ identity, the questionnaire was anonymous and only asked participants to indicate the number of years of experience they had in university teaching but not their names.

Procedure

            First, one hundred science professors from the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, were recruited from various science departments within the university. Participants were then divided into four groups of 25 professors each according to the number of years of experience they had in university teaching. After such classification was completed, a dilemma questionnaire, previously adapted and validated for data collection purposes, was administered to all participants in order to analyze the variables conceptions of teaching and consistency index. These variables were then analyzed for each group under the light of the theories presented as part of the theoretical framework.

References

Mateos-Sanz, M.M., García, M.B., Villanova, S.L. (2011). Conceptions of teaching and learning held by University Science Professors [Abstract]. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Superior, Vol 2, No. 3. Retrieved from

http://ries.universia.net/index.php/ries/article/viewArticle/81/villanova

           

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.