EDF 6937-5
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:
 

  •      Your topic affects many people (e.g., we are all consumers; more distance learning courses are available every year; sizable numbers of students are bullied)
  •      Your topic addresses a change in circumstances, e.g., telecommuting; planning for new careers; Facebook or MySpace
  •      Your topic addresses a societal problem, e.g., violence in the schools; under representation of women in science
  •      Your topic can make life better for many people (e.g., service programs for "at-risk" students, extra-curricular activies in college, patient, patient's family and hospice care worker interactions)
  •      Your topic is important conceptually (at last! the key to group cohesion; a new slant on influence)

  • 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:

                                                       OTHER TIPS

    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!)



    1. What's your research problem?

    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?

    Or whatever it is that is important about your topic.

    What will YOUR paper contribute to this topic?

    2. Use headings and subheadings to organize.

    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.

    Good things to include in your concluding discussion:

    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