MODULE 650

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Slide 2: Welcome to Module 4.

By this point in the course, you have read and evaluated a variety of scholarly articles. Through this process, you may have began to notice how authors of research convey their research in a particular written style or voice.

Additionally, you examined various approaches and traditions to inquiry and reflected on your identity as a scholar and research practitioner.

In this module you will expand what you have discovered thus far in the course and explore how the act of writing can:

help you further grow and express your conceptual thinking, and

how to strategically use writing mechanics and style to communicate research.

Slide 3: The act of writing serves many purposes, one of which is to foster personal growth and development.  For example, writing can inspire and spark inquiry.  Let’s review some ways you can use the act of writing to grow and practice self-expression.  

(click) As a doctoral student and researcher, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your experiences.  Reflective observations can enrich your personal and professional growth. Consider keeping a journal as a way to scribe your thoughts and reflections, and refer to them as points of inspiration.  Self awareness and curiosity are central to your development as a leader of inquiry.

(click) Many doctoral students experience fear about writing.  Writing is a skill and can be mastered when practiced.  The key is to just start! … Begin by writing ideas without the constraints of a linear structure or an unrealistic expectation that you have to craft an organized, polished - finished writing product.  Be aware of the fluidity in your thinking and articulate words that mirror your thoughts.  Put those words on paper or onto your computer screen.  Use the practice of writing to explore and express ideas first, then focus your energy on organizing words and ideas into a functional structure.  Be aware of how this practice can align with how you learn.  For example, if you are a visual learner, seeing your words will help you construct and scaffold ideas.  As an auditory learner, say your words out loud as you write them out to reinforce concepts.  For the kinesthetic learner, once you get your words out of your head and scribed, move them around and fit them into a more formal structure. 

(click) Be disciplined and commit to the habit of writing.  It is recommended you take time each day to write, preferably the same time each day and in a non distracting environment.  Try out different times and places to determine what works for you.  Begin by writing about any topic you wish, it doesn’t have to be profound, you can simply choose an object and write a description of that object.  The idea is to get thoughts and words to flow in written form.  Some research concludes it takes 21 days to form a habit.  Commit to 21 days and train your brain to think like a writer. Remember, great writing is a skill born of practice and the result of many revisions and edits.  

Slide 4: (click) Another, more practical purpose of writing is (click) to inform or (click) to influence. Writing to inform or influence needs to make an impact. For ideas to make an impact, they must be expressed precisely and concisely. This is a key aspect of academic writing.

(click) There are many other characteristics to academic writing.

Academic writing is structured and research writing is usually structured in 5 chapters or parts: An introduction, a literature review, a methodology section, a results section, and conclusion section. Structure allows for readability. For example, rarely will any one person read an entire research study (like a dissertation) from beginning to end. Therefore, academic writing must be constructed in a clear and organized way so readers can access different parts while inferring consistent meaning.

It is important to remember your audience, or who you are writing for. Be aware of the formality associated with academic writing and avoid colloquial words and expressions. Also remember some members of your audience will not be specifically informed of your topic. Be sure to clearly explain terms and concepts specific to your topic.

Be explicit about the relationships in a research article or academic essay. Use transitional words and phrases to guide the reader. Also avoid redundant words.

Responsibility is an important characteristic of academic writing. Use appropriate references and citations. Resources on APA edition 6 are available on the NLU library webpage.

(click) Overall, writing about research writing should provide evidence to support the research question. This evidence must logically connect to the main argument. However, depending on the purpose of a research design method approach, and the understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of an audience, research articles may exhibit different writing styles.

For example, writing about (click) quantitative method approaches may convey a detached tone, written from a third person objective or point of view, and mostly uses passive voice, whereas a (click) qualitative method approaches may convey a descriptive, narrative, or interpretive tone written from a first person objective or point of view and mostly uses active voice.

Slide 5: Here are some tips on writing sections of a research article. Become aware of these tips as you read and evaluate research articles, and use these tips as you practice writing about research.

(click) The abstract is a summary of the research article and is usually written last.

When writing an abstract use the active voice when possible in the past tense. Write your Abstract using concise, but complete, sentences, and get to the point quickly. Aim to keep the abstract to 100 words as a way to be concise.

(click) The function of the Introduction is to establish the context of the work being reported.

The Introduction must answer the questions, "What was I studying? Why was it an important question? What did we know about it before I did this study? How will this study advance our knowledge?"

When writing the introduction, use the active voice as much as possible.

(click) The main function of a Literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing literature. While the literature review presents others' ideas, the voice of the writer of the research article should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording.

(click) In the Methodology section you explain clearly how you carried out your study. This section should read as if you were verbally describing the procedure of the collecting the data. You may use the active voice to a certain extent, although this section requires more use of third person and passive voice. Remember to use the past tense throughout - the work being reported is done, and was performed in the past, not the future.

(click) The function of the Results section is to present key results, in an orderly and logical sequence using both text and illustrative means such as graphs and tables. When writing the text of the Results section be concise and objective. The passive voice will likely dominate here, but use the active voice as much as possible. Also, use the past tense.

(click) The function of the Conclusion section is to interpret your results in light of what was already known about the subject of the research and to discuss new a understanding of the problem after taking your results into consideration. The conclusion section answers the reader’s question -“So what?” and should confidently convey the relevance of the study. The Conclusions section connects to the Introduction section by way of the research questions posed and the literature cited, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the Introduction. Instead, it tells how the research adds to the body of knowledge and poses questions for further study. A combination of tenses can be used in this section to confirm past research and direct future research.

The required text and other readings in this module offer greater depth in the area of the writing habit and practical tips on academic writing.

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