Research Methods in Criminal Justice
The “Golden Rules” of Writing
Intro & Literature review
Parts of this lecture are based on Salfati, C. G.© presentation on writing for PSY748
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
The Writing…
The Title
Define your title, as this will help you focus the rest of the text.
Title should be as concise as possible
Should highlight FOCUS of paper
Title should be your guide!!
Golden rule is – if there is anything in the text that doesn’t directly deal with what your title asks, then it doesn’t belong in the text.
Vice versa, if there is something in the title that is not part of your key question, then it doesn’t belong there
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
Example
Say, your study is about impact of various emotional states on the ability to recall an event
Title choices:
Emotions and memory relationship
V.S.
Identifying the effects of negative and positive emotions on the accuracy and detail of event recall
Causal = experiment
Independent variable
Dependent variables
The Introduction
Introduce the main reasons for doing the study.
It should give the justification of why there is a need for the study.
Highlight what the key issues are related to doing the study.
Connect with the key literature to back it up.
A problem adequately stated is a problem on its way to being solved
- R. Buckminster Fuller
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
The Literature Review
Literature reviews provide a description, summary and critical evaluation of work related to what the researcher is investigating.
Functions of a literature review
1) provides understanding of what is known on the topic
2) helps researcher refine or focus the research question.
3) provides the researcher basis of comparison for their findings.
Literature reviews in Social Sciences require scholarly journal works.
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The Literature Review*
| Periodical/magazines articles: | Scholarly journal articles: |
| Popular focus aimed at the general public (general vocabulary is used) | Specialized focus aimed at specialist and researchers (technical language may be used) |
| Written by professional writers who do not have expertise on the subject | Written by experts in the field who have often gathered the data they are discussing |
| Provide ”discussion” of the topic/event with little documentation | Contain original research, conclusions based on that data, footnotes, references, and abstract. |
| Examples: People magazine, New York Times, Psychology Today | Examples: Criminology, Journal of Gambling Studies |
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Streby, Paul, February 21, 2016. Retrieved from libanswers.umflint.edu/faq/86816.
Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
The Literature Review
Structure and conciseness are key
Develop each one of the issues highlighted in introduction in detail
Argument first, then use evidence to back it up
What we know about each issue, and what we still need to find out.
This lays both the background to your study, and also the stepping stone to you developing your aims.
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
The Literature Review
1-2 sentences highlighting why this section (where similar research is presented) is important to the question (title)
Key references clearly tied in to the argument
AVOID book-report compilations
Conclude with a small paragraph summarizing what the section was about and what the main conclusion is – what we know, what we still need to find out (i.e. link to next section)
Repeat – each section should logically lead to the next, and help develop the argument (use the intro as a guide to structure)
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
The Literature Review
Once you have dealt with all the areas relevant to the study in each separate section, you then summarize all of your literature review at the end by drawing together the summaries from each section.
The last paragraph should highlight what it is that your study will be about, based on your findings in the literature – and this should lead directly to the HYPOTHESES (or) AIMS.
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)
NB – Keys to good writing
The first sentence in a paragraph should link to the last sentence in a paragraph
The first paragraph should be able to link directly to the last paragraph in your section.
Each paragraph should link directly to the next paragraph
All content should be directly related to the title. Use the title ACTIVELY in helping you structure your paragraphs and focus throughout
Be selective in what you include (background reading vs relevant evidence)
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Copyright C. G. Salfati (2013)