Of writing a research paper

Valuable theoretical and practical guidelines on academic writing suggested by Dr.Yakhontova (2003) have been thoroughly studied and applied. A detailed and very effective procedure for making steps in writing a research paper suggested by an American scholar Menasche L. (1997) has been used in developing an algorithm of writing a student’s research paper at the Department of Applied Linguistics.

Writing is a communicative skill and a complex cognitive process that requires a number of various skills. Dr.Yakhontova argues that it is possible to develop writing abilities by following certain strategies and practicing various patterns. Some of them are given below:

- “lifting” useful expressions from authentic English papers, combining them, adding some of your own and using them in your writing

- paying attention to the organization and language of English papers in the leading journals in your field

- learning how the key parts of the academic text are typically organized and structured

- being eager to rewrite and revise believing that the best way of mastering or improving writing (and not only in English) is to write as much as possible.

The style of English academic writing is formal, Its main characteristics are the absence of conversational features and the use of an appropriate vocabulary.

Formal academic style will normally avoid:

1. Contractions

The research won’t be continued until appropriate funding is secured - The research will not be continues until appropriate funding is secured

2. Addressing the reader directly:

You can see the data in Table 3. – The data can be seen in Table 3.

3. Phrasal verbs (although not always):

Researchers have found out that many mental illnesses are based on molecular defects –

Researchers have discovered that many mental diseases are based on molecular defects

4. Inappropriate negative forms: not …any – no

not… many – few

not …much – little

5. Short forms of the words or slang:

This booklet describes the requirements and content of the university graduation exams – This booklet describes the requirements and content of the university graduation examinations

6. Figures at the beginning of the sentence:

97 people visited the museum last week – Last week 97 people visited the museum.

The investigation didn’t yield any new results – The investigation yielded no new results

The ALGORITHM of writing a student’s final graduation paper (MA Thesis/Essay), the combination of a process and a product, can be presented as follows:

STEP 1. CHOOSING A SUBJECT

STEP 2 USING THE LIBRARY. Finding Relevant Books and Articles and Note-taking

STEP 3. NARROWING THE FOCUS

STEP 4. DEVELOPING THE LIST OF PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

STEP 5. DEVELOPING A PRELIMINARY PAPER STATEMENT

STEP 6. TAKING NOTES

STEP 7. DEVELOPING PRELIMINARY OUTLINE

STEP 8. KEEPING ON READING AND NOTE-TAKING

STEP 9. REVISING THE PAPER STATEMENT

STEP 10. REVISING PRELIMINARY OUTLINE

STEP 11. DRAFTING THE BODY OF THE PAPER

STEP 12. DRAFTING THE INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSI0N

STEP 13. COMPLETING THE PRELIMINARY DRAFT

STEP 14. FINAL DRAFT

STEP 15. POWER POINT FORMAT OF THE RESEARCH PAPER

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16