Writing Research Papers

1
Writing Research Papers

• Berg, Chapter 12

2
Identify Target Audience

• Pick your audience
• Academics
• Practitioners
• Policy Makers

3
Know what your audience wants

• Amount of statistical analysis
• Frequencies/Percentages, Tables, Tests
• Type of graphs
• How many and how complicated
• Bulleted conclusions
• For each section or just for the conclusion

4
Supplemental Material

• Detailed appendices
• Executive summary at front
• Photos, art work
• White space

5
Organizational Structure Headings

• Level A Centered, All Caps, Bold, Arial
• Level B Centered, Bold, Arial
• Level C Left Justified, Bold, Arial, Period
• Level D Underlined at start of paragraph
• APA has a very different set of headings for a
  strictly academic audience.

6
Level A Headings Title Page

• Separate page
• Includes author(s) information (names,
  affiliations, date)
• How to contact the author(s) (email addresses).
• Running Title that will appear on top/bottom of
  each subsequent page

7
Level A Headings Abstract or Summary

• Abstract should include
• hypotheses
• Sample/data description
• general methods
• Key findings
• Executive Summary
• Similar but
• Focus on bulleted findings
• Include when audience are practictioners or
  policy makers

8
Level A Headings Introduction

• State research question
• Show that answering this question is important to
  the target audience
• Key concepts should be defined
• Describe focus of research

9
Level A Headings Literature Review

• Knowing your target audience is critical here.
• General to specificreview research that is
  generally relevant and then research that is most
  relevant
• At the end of this you have your hypothesis or
  restate your research question
• Reader should know why this study is important to
  them
• Practitioners and policy people what this section
  to be short

10
Level A Headings Literature ReviewSources

• Scholarly articles and monographs
• Textbooks can be used to show there is an issue,
  but provide weak proof. Need primary sources
• Major newspapers and news magazines should be
  used very selectivelyshow there is an issue, but
  not to prove anything
• Papers on internet citestry to cite and date the
  source and sponsoring group
• Personal communications (names, affiliations and
  dates)

11
Level A Headings Methodology

• Knowing your target audience is critical here.
• For practitioners and policy makers put most of
  this in a technical appendix
• Appendix should include any instruments
• Reader needs to know general method (focus
  groups, interviews, survey), sample selection and
  possible biases.
• Describe any statistical analysis you will present

12
Level A Headings Methodology

• Need enough information that reader can replicate
  the study if s(he) decides to
• This is why an appendix should include all
  instruments and detailed descriptions of
  protocols
• The more academic, the more goes in the text
• Clarify that readers can contact the researchers
  for more information related to the methodology
• Where there are multiple methods, need to
  carefully describe each of them
• Think of threats to internal and external
  validity and show how your method or multiple
  methods minimize these problems

13
Level A Headings Findings or Results

• Knowing your target audience is critical here.
• Academic audience wants a great deal
• Practitioners/Policy readers want a listing and
  brief description of key findings
• If you had several research questions or
  hypotheses, results should be organized with a
  subheading for each question/hypothesis

14
Level A Headings Discussion or Conclusions

• Know your audience. This may be all they read
  other than an executive summary or abstract
• Summarize key findings and relate to literature
  you reviewed
• Implications for practice or policy. What should
  readers do based on your study
• Acknowledge weaknesses in the present study
• Suggest directions for future research

15
Appendix

• This includes everything you left out of the main
  text.
• Reports to policy makers are sometimes 5-10 pages
  with 50 pages of appendices
• Additional detail on samples
• All questionnaires, interview schedules used in
  the study.

16
References

• You can consult the APA Manual or any other
  manual on style to find out how to do this.
• Checking the references in a textbook or article
  is often helpful. Berg gives some guidance on
  pages 310-311
• Some organizations such as APA have a rigid style
  and no tolerance for any deviation
• What really matters is including sufficient
  detail that the readers can locate the source
  themselves
• In the text, you usually do not use direct quotes
  but always give credit (Jones Lu, 2005 Berg,
  2004)

17
Tables

• Academic Manuscripts put tables after the
  references.
• Where they should be read in the text, there is a
  line after the paragraph in which they are
  mentioned that says
• --Table x about here
• Reports to practitioners and policy makers often
  integrate tables in the text
• If you have a table either in text or at the end,
  you must discuss it in the text. Do not assume
  that the table speaks for itself.

18
Figures

• Academic Manuscripts put figures after the
  tables.
• Where they should be read in the text, there is a
  line after the paragraph in which they are
  mentioned that says
• --Figure x about here
• Reports to practitioners and policy makers often
  integrate Figures in the text
• If you have a Figure either in text or at the
  end, you must discuss it in the text. Do not
  assume that the table speaks for itself

19
Supplemental Materials

• Photos are very helpful in reports to
  practitioners or policy makers
• Each photo should have its own heading
• Unlike tables and figures, you do not need to
  discuss the photo in the text.
• Formatting with ample white space is important to
  reports to practitioners and policy makers.
• Academic reports should be double spaced
  throughout. Reports to practitioners/policy
  makers can use more complex layout including
  single spacing if there is enough white space on
  each page

20
Writing Syle

• Know your audience. Policy makers would fall
  asleep within 5 minutes reading an academic
  article. Academics would say a report to policy
  makers was superficial
• With a team you need one dictator who puts the
  entire report in a single voice. Consistency in
  style across sections is important.