Good academic writing has a clear focus. there is a question the author is trying to address which has to be made clear right at the beginning. Then they say here is how we addressed that problem. Then you mention potential problems and what you could do to address them.
Summary of Episode 2: Writing an Introduction
The purpose of the introduction is to give background information to help readers make sense of the text.
There are 3 approaches:
- Place the study within a meaningful area of research
- Strategy 1: Identify the problem
- Strategy 2: Describe the established knowledge about the topci
- Strategy 3: Refer to existing research
- Identify a smaller part of the area that needs more research
- Point to problems with existing studies
- Show that it’s important to conitnue an existing line of research
- Describe a knowledge gap
- State the purpose of the study
- Phrases that introduce a knowledge gap: “but no studies have investigated…”, “it is still not know whether…”, “currently there are no data on” or more in the Manchester Academic Phrasebank
Summary of Episode 3: Writing a Methods Section
The purpose of the methods section is to describe how the research was done. It helps readers judge how convincing they find the results and helps researchers who want to reproduce the study.
It is common to address 3 questions using past tense and passive voice. Phrases like “using” and “based on” are used to say how things were done. Make your definitions in the methods.
- What kind of data were used: study design and case definition
- How were they collected: data collection and processing
- How were they analyzed: data analysis
Summary of Episode 4: Writing a Results Section
The results section presents the answers to the questions proposed both verbally and through tables, figures, and graphics. Results are expressed in the past tense. The results section addresses the expectations of the hypotheses set out in the introduction.
- “no significant interaction tersm were identified among the fixed effects.”
- “When clustering by trainer was accounted for…”
- Hedging is common. Generally, older horses were at more risk…
- Refer to tables in the text
- Highligh the important parts
Summary of Episode 5: Writing a Discussion Section
Explain the significance of the results
- Refer to the research questions of the introduction
- This paper has presented an investigation into…
- Highlight the principle findings
- So far it has been seen that…
- Explain how your findings relate to existing research
- These findings reflect those of X and Y
- This finding is in contrast of X and Y
- Explain what is novel
- A newly developed model was presented
- These unexpected results may indicate…
- Say what future reserach should be conducted
- Suggest practical uses for the findings