Perform a web search on any hot topic — let’s use “sustainability” — and the deluge of hits (in this case: 161,000,000 on 2/12/16) makes it clear that no one is going to write a paper titled “Sustainability”. There’s just too much out there for a single coherent text. The writer interested in this topic […]
“Review articles, including meta-analyses, are critical evaluations of material that has already been published. By organizing, integrating, and evaluating previously published material, the author of a review article considers the progress of current research toward clarifying a problem. — APA Style Guide, 2001, 7, What is a Review Paper? The APA guide goes on to say: […]
Research reports finish by telling the reader how the new knowledge contributes to what we already know. How is the field different given your results? What new understandings have emerged? Are there implications for future research or applications? Because qualitative research outcomes are communicated via conceptually rich prose, readers need the conclusion to synthesize all […]
Research prose has beginnings, middles and ends that collectively answer the questions “What happened?” and “Why should I care?” . The “middle” part of an article addresses the question, “what happened?” — in qualitative research, two types of information are supplied: a methods statement (how the data was collected) and the research outcomes (how the data can be understood). […]
Research prose has beginnings, middles and ends that collectively answer the questions “What happened?” and “Why should I care?” . The “middle” part of an article addresses the question, “what happened?” — in qualitative research, two types of information are supplied: a methods statement (how the data was collected) and the research outcomes (how the data can be understood). […]
Writing Introductions The introduction to a qualitative research report accomplishes two goals: informs the reader by providing information from the research literature necessary to understanding the project; persuades the reader that the research question is credible/valuable by providing motivation for the research. How are these goals accomplished? In qualitative research, let’s first define the “Introduction” as everything […]
Many qualitative researchers operate under different epistemological assumptions … For instance, many qualitative researchers believe that the best way to understand any phenomenon is to view it in its context… to become immersed in it…Be flexible in your inquiry of people in context… allow the questions to emerge and change as you become familiar with […]
The Discussion section is where interpretation gets done, limitations are pointed out, and speculation occurs. This is usually the section everyone has been waiting to write! However, before you get too far ahead, there is a manner for writing Discussions which is pretty specific. Imagine the Discussion as a dialogue or dance between your research and […]
The Results section is where outcomes are communicated to the reader — and this is a critical concept: the Results section reports data generated by a method, in other words, outcomes. Do not include interpretation or speculation in this section. This does not mean there is no creative communication in the Results section! Humans are a visually-oriented […]
The Materials and Methods section is very different from the Introduction. It’s like a recipe for how the research was conducted. The litmus test of a successful Methods section is “reproducibility“; that is, the reader could replicate the study based on the information provided. (In reality, this standard may be impossible due to factors such […]