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Module 2 What is inside a research paper?

Module 2 What is inside a research paper?. Matakuliah : G1112, Scientific Writing I Tahun : 2006 Versi : v 1.0 rev 1. The anatomy. Finding a Topic Gathering data Conducting research Organizing ideas and setting goals Writing. Finding a topic. Step one

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Module 2 What is inside a research paper?

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  1. Module 2What is inside a research paper? Matakuliah : G1112, Scientific Writing I Tahun : 2006 Versi : v 1.0 rev 1

  2. The anatomy • Finding a Topic • Gathering data • Conducting research • Organizing ideas and setting goals • Writing

  3. Finding a topic Step one Have faith in your own smarts and course work . Nobody's expecting you to be an expert or get your paper published in a journal, so just start jotting down ideas about things related to your topic. You may even want to keep a journal to keep everything in one place. So. . . Step one is to relax.

  4. Finding a topic Step two Find your motivation: 1. Think of yourself“Is this something you believe in? that sounds fun? that you sincerely want to learn more about? that intrigues you? Even when you're given a set topic in advance, you can always frame it to suit your needs and style--so get something out of it.” 2. Think of the audience“will other people familiar with this subject care to read what you're writing? Do you have something to say or are you babbling and wasting space? Use common sense and intuition”

  5. Finding a topic Research papers were never intended to be useless torture, so let them work for you as well as for your readers.

  6. Tips to find a topic • Invention techniques • Freewriting • Brainstorming • Clustering/Webbing/Mapping • Cubing • Heuristics http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/invent.html

  7. Getting Started Before writing: • Start thinking early. Is there a particular subject area within your discipline that you're interested in? Have you recently heard something in class or read something in the textbook that piqued your curiosity? Did a tutorial discussion really seem fascinating? Is there something worth exploring that will help you with a future course or even an upcoming exam for the present course? After all, who says you can't use a research paper as an in-depth study tool? • Make use of your readings. Material you covered in lecture. Facts or subheadings from the textbook. Your own notes or doodled questions in the margins of your page. Insights brought up in tutorial discussions. Or browse through an index of topics such as The Library of Congress Subject Headings or the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, or through more subject-specific catalogs easily found in most libraries. • Don't write anything down just yet. The idea is to get words, associated topics, and abstract concepts floating around your brain before you even start to touch a pen or keyboard. You want to get the mental juices, if not flowing, at least uncapped.

  8. Getting Started Start Writing (some real refining of your topic.) You have to consider: • The amount of resources • The popularity of the subject area or topic itself. What you have to do: 1. Narrowing 2. Broadening

  9. Getting Started Narrowing (example) one of the sample keywords we mentioned on the preliminary research page was "Postcolonialism.” • " How could that be narrowed?” • What about changing it to an adjective and then asking one of our 5 Ws? Now we have: Postcolonial what? Maybe postcolonial ATTITUDES is something you're interested in. • A natural question to follow what could now be who, or in this example, where are those attitudes originating from? So from just straight "Postcolonialism" you now have a specific topic like "Postcolonial attitudes in India" or "Postcolonial attitudes in Canadian fiction." • Of course, that would be way too specific to type into a computer database, but at least you have more than one word to find resources for.

  10. Broadening • Example: I'm thinking of doing a paper on "fashion." This topic could develop in many different ways. • Hint: Ask Yourself Questions About Your Topic: • What do you know about it? What don't you know? • What aspects of your topic interest you: historical, sociological, psychological, etc.? • What time period do you want to cover? • On what geographic region do you want to focus? • What kind of information do you need? • a brief summary or a lengthy explanation? • periodical articles, books, essays, encyclopedia articles? • statistics?

  11. Broadening Sample Topic Narrowing Chart:

  12. Creating an Introduction Preliminary research • Go to the computer catalog terminal (which may or may not be just an Internet search screen off the library's WWW home page) and enter in some keywords that have to do with your subject. • With that information in hand, now physically go to the appropriate stacks and do some scanning to get a better sense of how your topic is being treated by other scholars. Flip through the pages. Look at headers, bolded and italicized words, captions, figures (or pictures if you should be so lucky!), tables, table of contents, and indices.

  13. Quotation Which should you use? Ask each of your teachers which style they want you to use. If they have no preference, you can use any or follow these guidelines: • APA: psychology, education, and other social sciences. • MLA: literature, arts, and humanities. • AMA: medicine, health, and biological sciences. • Turabian: designed for college students to use with all subjects. • Chicago: used with all subjects in the "real world" by books, magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications. http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm

  14. Other Issues A Checklist for evaluating print sources of information To determine if a print source is appropriate for your research, look at the following criteria: • Does the author have expertise to write on this topic? • Is the information in this source up-to-date? • Does the publisher affect the information in the source? • What do reviewers say about the source? • Is the source appropriate for your research? http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workbook/evaluate.htm#citing

  15. Other Issues A Checklist for evaluating online information To determine if online source is appropriate for your research, look at the following criteria: • Is it credible? • Is it accurate? • Is it timely? • Is it objective? • Does the site provide details that support the data? http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workbook/evaluate.htm#citing

  16. Conclusion “To get started, don't worry about your subject--start writing. Let the process get messy and complicated. Allow yourself freedom to make mistakes. http://www.powa.org/discover/index.html

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