Mid-term exam

ESP

Mid-term Exam

Consoli , Claudia

May 4^th 2013

Modes of Professional Development: An Analysis

Writing a  research paper implies not only a deep understanding  of the content to be presented, explored, or discussed  but  of the format required by the discourse community in which such paper will be presented. Bennett, Braund, Lubben and Mason (2011)have written a interesting paper to be analysed. Such is the objective of this piece of writing.

According to the American Psychological Association standards a research paper must contain: a title, author’s name, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussions, references, and appendices. (APA 2010 pp. 23-38).

The authors of this paper have met most of the specific standards but they have not included an abstract. The APA(2010) states that an abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article.

Swales and Feak (1994) describe the layout of the introduction in three moves. The first move should establish the territory by stating the relevance, and importance of the research. It could also introduce and review previous research in the area. It can be said that this paper complies with all of them.

The first move starts in the first paragraph of the article. This paragraph shows the importance of providing continuing professional development at the National Network of Science Learning Centres region and nationwide. It also reviews previous studies and their evaluation and action plan. The authors briefly specify that they collect data mainly through a system of feedback and evaluation from its participants (Bennett et al 2011).

The second move is short as expected and it establishes the niche for the research carried out. In this case it is the necessity to establish a research and analysis team to increase capacity for research and provide research intelligence across the network. (Bennett et al 2011).

The third move occupies the niche by outlining what has been done. The authors describe that two studies were commissioned and who was in charge of each study. Therefore they state the nature of their work and indicate the structure of work (Swales and Feak 1994). A brief literary review is included almost at the end of the introduction.

On balance, although the paper seems to comply with all the necessary standards some other considerations could have been taken into account. For example this seems to be a qualitative and quantitative analytical paper using case studies and primary sources to support its content. If the authors had included this information in the abstract the readers would have had a better and possibly quicker understanding of the paper.

The language used in each of the moves is also an item to be considered. The authors favoured the use of past tense and the present passive voice. The use of the present perfect to refer to their areas of inquires and clearer definitions to make the language less obscure could have help the reader into a better understanding of the writers’ ideas. All in all, the paper seems sound and worth reading.

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual (6th ed.). British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: Washington, DC.

Bennett, J., Braund, M., Lubben, F., & Mason, Y. (2011). Modes of Professional Development: An evaluation of the impact of different course modes operated across the National Network of Science Learning Centres. Report commissioned by the National Science Learning Centre, York: University of York, Department of Education.

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.