Effective Writing for Social Research Reporting

1. Chapter 24 Writing about Social Research

2. Key points • Publishing the results is an essential final step in doing social research • Reports can be written in a standard style and structure to persuade the reader that the findings are significant • Take decisions in the early stage of a research project: • what to write • where to publish • who will contribute to the writing

3. Views of scientific writing • Ideal view • objective, present results clearly and precisely • Sophisticated view • a form of rhetoric -- persuasion • Community view • modify the community’s beliefs • gain rewards

4. The sociological literature • History of the scientific paper • dates back to seventeenth century • Modern sociological literature • book • journal article • conference paper

5. Organising writing about research • Preparation • Getting started • begin with any section • have an imaginary reader • Revise and improve

6. The structure of a journal article • Title • Author • Abstract • Introduction • Theory • Data and methods • Results • Conclusions • References

7. An example from American Sociological Review • [Insert Figure 24.1 here]

8. Breaking the rules • Modify to suit the audience and purpose • Alternative structures • interweave theory and findings • tell a story • organise in terms of ‘themes’ • but always include an introduction and a conclusion

9. Summary • Social research is only completed when its results are published • The structure of the social scientific literature has evolved over centuries • The standard structure is effective in communicating and persuading • It is a good idea to follow this structure when you are writing theses, dissertations and reports