Task 1

Consoli, Claudia

Carrizo, Liliana

ESP Unit 2  final task final draft

Academic Conventions in RA

Introductions and Methods

APRIL 2013

Academic Conventions in Research Articles: A Deep Analysis

Research articles were born with the idea of reporting results of an original research contributing in that way to the body of knowledge of a particular field. Scientific research should be systematic. (   )

 The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast an article from the educational field and one from the medicine field; concentrating on their introductions and methods sections to show that even though academic styles could be different the general format is consistent in both papers.

For researchers and writers in general the introduction to an article or paper should be utmost importance. Swales and Feak (1994) confirm that the writing of introductions is a time-consuming and vexing process. Introductions are not only the selling point of a research article but they also contain organizational patterns called moves.  Swales’s model includes three basic moves in research article introductions writing. The  first move is called establishing a territory (introduces the general topic) the second move is  called establishing the niche (identifies the more specific areas that require further investigation) and  the third move is called occupying the niche (introduces the current research study in the context established previously)

On the one hand, the article from the medical field concentrates on violence and the risk to medical practitioners and general public alike in crowed emergency rooms. The introduction to the paper holds expert, brief and concise language which establishes the importance of the research (this being the first move). Moving seamlessly into showing the need for this research and announces the principal findings (these constituting moves 2 and 3).

On the other hand, the educational paper, presents a short abstract  naming the basic purpose of the article but there is no proper introduction. Thus, creating an understanding difficulty for the readers. Following Swales’s Create A Research Space (CARS) model not only organises the text and helps the writer communicate his ideas with ease but also provides the reader with the necessary context to fully understand the paper.

As regards Methods the first article is more than complete. It specifies the place of study and its participants, the duration of such study and the study design, a statistical analysis, ethical issues, and finally the results. Moreover , such results are illustrated in charts and tables. The educational paper starts defining  learning disabilities ( the point of the study) and suggest possible ways of dealing with them in the classroom. However, there are no titles or subtitles determining the parts of the article nor participants, materials or procedures are not mentioned.

All in all, the papers selected present numerous differences between them. Stemming from the fact that each of them belongs to a different field and that they are both written with a dissimilar purpose in mind. The medical paper tries to show and analyze violence in the emergency room. It depicts its origins and reports their findings. The educational paper concentrates on defining learning disabilities and providing a list of suggestions for the classroom use.  Although the educational paper seems to be less scientific than the medical one, it could be claimed  that both papers reach their target audience clearly and convincingly.

References

Eroglu.S, Ozge O, Sağıroğlu E., Denizbasi, A., Akoglu, A. (2013) Analysis of Violence in a Crowded Emergency

Room. British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research 3(4): 1208-1221. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedomain.org/abstract.php?iid=205&id=12&aid=1182#.UWF0k6KkxX5

Root, C.(1994) A Guide to Learning Disabilities for the ESL Classroom Practitioner.Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.1 (1).Retrieved from: http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej01/a.4.html

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