EDP 5285 GROUP PROCESSES THE MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF CATEGORICAL DATA MORE PAPER TIPS Susan Carol Losh Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems Florida State University |
OVERALL: SOME PAPER TIPS |
These paper tips are in addition to those
found on the Course Paper site.
LAYOUT |
It goes without saying that a paper
has a beginning, a middle and an end. But which pieces go where?
YOUR BEGINNING: |
In your first 2-3 pages, you will lay
out your research problem (see below). In your first paragraph you may
want to catch your reader's attention by telling them why they should know
about your research topic. Here are some examples:
THEN you want to professionally
define your topic (self efficacy? self-monitoring? parental practices?
math anxiety?) using the terms for it that professionals use.
In your beginning you want to be certain you have answered these three questions:
YOUR MIDDLE: |
If you are doing a literature review, here is where your conceptual review belongs. Use subheadings to organize it. Each subheading addresses a specific topic.
If you plan to design a study or collect
data, "your middle" includes: a briefer literature review, a detailed description
of your methods. Methods includes describing your participants, how
you obtained those participants (sampling), the exact procedures you will
follow.Questionnaires or scales or other assessments or measures used go
in an appendix and are briefly described under a "procedures: subheading.
YOUR END: |
In any case, your concluding pages will:
I spend a lot of time emphasizing your research problem. That's because if you know your topic and its importance, the rest of the paper can virtually write itself! This is the most critical part of your paper and generally it is the most difficult to write.
As a writer, I fight inertia at every step. ANYTHING rather than begin writing. I am an expert in the inertia battle!
When I write a paper, if it is empirical and I collected my own data, I begin writing the paper by describing the methods and the analytic results section. That's because these are very straightforward sections and writing these sections breaks the inertia and gets me moving. If I am doing a conceptual review, I usually begin with a topical outline with key words in each section. Then I try to write the research problem. I go ahead and write my conclusions, including importance, limitations and suggestions, then I go back and rewrite the research problem. By about the fourth revision, the research problem has shaped up and I can quickly go through and connect the pieces and write the entire paper.
WRITING IS HARD WORK. Honest. So don't worry if you feel discouraged. Keep at it and I can promise your paper will shape up. (And if it's easy for you, please share your tips with the rest of us!)
In a paragraph or two, preferably on page 1, by page 2 AT THE VERY LATEST.
What is the general topic of this paper?
Why is it important to know about this
topic?
What will YOUR paper contribute to this topic?
Try writing an outline first.
The topics in your outline can become
headings and subheadings in your paper.
Organize CONCEPTUALLY.
Put all the studies (for example) about
group cohesion in work groups together.
Discuss overall and generic findings rather
than summarizing each article one by one.
Try to avoid the "laundry list" of long
descriptions of each study in term.
SHORT EXAMPLE:
It has been found that cohesive work groups are more productive in terms of group goals (Andrews & Benedicktus, 1999; Moore, 2003), which may or may not coincide with productivity in the larger organization. Workers are more comfortable in cohesive groups (Freedman, 1996) and have a stronger sense of collective identity (Militello, 1996; Swearingen, 1998).
End each section with a 2-3 sentence summary of it and a sentence of transition to the next section.
3. REALLY DISCUSS what you have found or reviewed.
What are the limitations of your paper?
What could be included in a future paper
to extend it?
Do you have any policy suggestions, if
so, what are they?
This page was built with
Netscape Composer.
Susan Carol Losh
April 2 2017