Ebook Writing research papers - A complete guide (15th edition): Part 2

Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 12 Writing the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion Chapter 12 Clear Targets our research project should adopt an academic style that presents a fair, balanced treatment of the subject. This chapter will help you establish a structure for your paper as you advance evidence from your research: • Establishing your subject with a clear introduction • Developing the body of the paper with your evidence • Creating a conclusion that restates and reaches beyond your study As you draft your paper, your voice should flow from one idea to the next smoothly and logically. 12a Writing the Introduction of the Research Paper Use the first few paragraphs of your paper to establish the nature of your study. In brief, the introduction should establish the problem, the body should present the evidence, and the conclusion should arrive at answers, judgments, proposals, and closure. Most impor-For additional discus- tant, let the introduction and body work toward a demonstrative conclusion. The introduction esis, see pages 42–45. should be long enough to establish the required elements described in the checklist on page 219. How you work these essential elements into the framework of your opening will depend on your style of writing.They need not appear in this order, nor should you cram all these items into a short opening paragraph. Feel free to write two or three paragraphs of introduction, letting it run over onto the next page, if necessary.When crafting your introduction, use more than one of the techniques described in the following approaches. Provide the Thesis Statement Generally, the controlling statement will appear early in the introduction to establish the agenda for the paper or appear late in the introduction to 218 Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com Writing the Introduction of the Research Paper 219 12a CHECKLIST Writing the Introduction Subject Background Problem Thesis Identify your specific topic, and then define, limit, and narrow it to one issue. Provide relevant historical data. Discuss a few key sources that touch on your specific issue. If writing about a major figure, give relevant biographical facts, but not an encyclopedia-type survey. (See “Provide Background Information,” page 221.) The point of a research paper is to explore or resolve a problem, so identify and explain the complications you see. The examples shown in the following sections demonstrate this technique. Within the first few paragraphs, use your thesis sentence to establish the direction of the study and to point your readers toward your eventual conclusions. set the stage for the analysis to come in the body. For example, this opening features the thesis first: Created by an act of Congress in 1933 and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Tennessee Valley Thesis Authority Act created stability on the waterways and in the lives of citizens in the mid-south. With its establishment of a series of dams, the TVA controlled the drainage of 42,000 square miles of and waterways. That same control harnessed the power of the rivers to create electricity for residents of the area. Provide the Enthymeme The enthymeme, as explained on page 44, uses a because clause to make a claim. It also determines the direction your paper will take. Notice the enthymeme that closes this opening paragraph: Here we are, a civilized world with reasonably educated people, yet we constantly fight with each other. These are Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 12a 220 Writing the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion not sibling squabbles either; people die in terrible ways. We wonder, then, if there was ever a time when men and women lived in harmony with one another and with nature and the environment. The Bible speaks of the Garden of Eden, and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau advanced the idea in the 1700s of the “noble savage,” and that “nothing could be more gentle” than an ancient colony of people (LaBlanc 15). Wrong! There has never been a “noble savage,” Enthymeme as such, because even prehistoric human beings fought frequent wars for numerous reasons. Provide a Hypothesis The hypothesis, as explained on pages 44–45, is a theory that needs testing in the lab, in the literature, and/or by field research to prove its validity. Writers may list it as an objective, as in this example: Diabetes is a disease that affects approximately 11 million people in the U.S. alone. Its complications lead to approximately 350,000 deaths per year and cost the nation $20,373 billion per year in medical care, in the direct cost of complications, and in the indirect costs of loss of productivity related to the disease (Guthrie and Guthrie 1). The condition can produce devastating side effects and a multitude of chronic health problems. Diabetes currently has no known cure, but it can be controlled. The objective of this study is to examine how well diabetes can Hypothesis be controlled by a combination of medication, monitoring, diet, and exercise. Relate to the Well Known The next passage will appeal to the popular interest and knowledge of the reader: Popular appeal Television flashes images into our living rooms, radios invade the confines of our automobiles, and local newspapers flash their headlines to us daily. However, one medium that has gained great popularity and influence within the past decade is the specialized magazine. Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com Writing the Introduction of the Research Paper 221 12a Provide Background Information Writers may trace the historical nature of a topic, give biographical data about a person, or provide a geographic description. A summary of a novel, long poem, or other work can refresh a reader’s memory about details of plot, character, and so forth. First published in 1915, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters gives readers candid glimpses into the life of a small town at the turn of the twentieth century. Speaking from beyond the grave, the narrator of each poem Background gives a portrait of happy, fulfilled people or draws pictures of lives filled with sadness and melancholy. This passage offers essential background matter, not information irrelevant to the thesis. For example, explaining that Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1909 would contribute little to the following opening: In 1941 Eudora Welty published her first book of short stories, A Curtain of Green. That group of stories Background was followed by The Wide Net (1943) and The Bride of the Innisfallen (1955). Each collection brought her critical acclaim, but taken together the three volumes established her as one of America’s premier short story writers. Review the Literature Cite a few books and articles relevant to the specific issue to intro-duce literature connected with the topic.This paragraph gives distinction to your introduction because it establishes the scholarship on the subject. It also distinguishes your point of view by explaining the logical connec-tions and differences between previous research and your work: Review of literature Throughout his novella Billy Budd, Herman Melville intentionally uses biblical references as a means of presenting different moral principles by which people may govern their lives. The story depicts the “loss of Paradise” (Arvin 294); it serves as a gospel story (Weaver 37–38); and it hints at a moral and solemn purpose (Watson 319). The story explores the biblical passions of one man’s confrontation with good and evil (Howard 327–28; Mumford 248). This paper will examine the biblical references. Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 12a 222 Writing the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion Review the History and Background of the Subject The opening passage normally reviews the history of the topic, often with quotations from the sources, as shown below in APA style: Autism, a neurological dysfunction of the brain which commences before the age of thirty months, was identified by Leo Kanner (1943). Kanner studied eleven cases, all of which showed a specific type of childhood psychosis that was different from other childhood disorders, although each was similar to childhood schizophrenia. Kanner described the characteristics of the infantile syndrome as: Background information 1. Extreme autistic aloneness 2. Language abnormalities 3. Obsessive desire for the maintenance of sameness 4. Good cognitive potential 5. Normal physical development 6. Highly intelligent, obsessive, and cold parents Medical studies have reduced these symptoms to four criteria: onset within thirty months of birth, poor social development, late language development, and a preference for regular, stereotyped activity (Rutter, 2013; Watson, 2012; Waller, Smith, & Lambert, 2013). In the United States, autism affects one out of 2,500 children, and is not usually diagnosed until the child is between two and five years of age (Lambert & Smith, 2013). Take Exception to Critical Views This opening procedure identifies the subject, establishes a basic view taken by the literature, and then differs with or takes exception to the critical position of other writers, as shown in the following example: Lorraine Hansberry’s popular and successful A Raisin in the Sun, which first appeared on Broadway in 1959, is a problem play of a Black family’s determination to escape a Chicago ghetto to a better life in the suburbs. There is agreement that this escape theme explains the drama’s conflict and its role in the Black movement (e.g., Oliver, ... - tailieumienphi.vn