Transcript Graduate Centre of Business, Lecture Series in Research

Graduate Centre of Business, Lecture Series
in Research Methodology - Spring 2009:
Great Beginnings and
Endings in Academic
Writing
Lawrence Cleary, Dr. íde O’Sullivan, Patricia Herron
Research Officers,
Regional Writing Centre, UL, C1065/66, Main
Building
Consilium
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Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Dance to the song they’re playin’ on the radio
Let’s sway through the crowd to an empty space
Pints of porter
Sway to the moonlight, the serious moonlight
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Put on your red shoes
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There is all kinds of things that you
have to do before you start writing.
The most difficult part is getting
started.
The most important thing is to start
dancing now.
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Prewriting
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Planning
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Gathering information
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Evaluating the rhetorical situation, or
context, into which you write
Choosing and focusing your topic
Establishing an organizing principle
Entering the Discourse on your Topic
Taking notes as a Strategy to Avoid
Charges of Plagiarism
Evaluating sources
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Assessing your writing situation
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Your writing process
The rhetorical situation or context
Your own writing strategies
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Let’s Dance: Freewrite
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Prompt: A topic in business that I would like
to research is…
Keep writing non-stop for 5 minutes.
Write in sentences.
Do not edit or censor your writing.
Discuss what you have written in pairs.
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The music they’re playing on the
radio
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Entering the discourse communities
Reporting on what they are saying, on
where they agree and where they
disagree, and on how this pertains to
you and your topic.
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Drafting
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Get your thoughts down on paper
– Don’t worry about order or grammar
– At some point, stop to assess what was
written
– Look for patterns or indications of
direction, a path into a discourse
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Sway through the crowd to an
empty space
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Identifying poorly supported
conclusions
Contested conclusions
Gaps in the research
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Points of Order
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Research papers are organized around
the problem, not the topic per se.
The problem, in a sense, is the topic.
Problems, however, exist in contexts, as
do solutions.
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Dissertation Structure
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Preliminaries
Main Body
– Introduction, Lit. Review, Methodology,
Presentation of Data, Analysis of Data,
Conclusions and Recommendations
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End Matter
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Drafting your Dissertation
or Thesis
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Try to visualize your dissertation or thesis. Work toward
that vision.
Begin to structure it—establish your section headings; give
them titles. These do not have to be permanent.
Examine the logical order of ideas reflected in those titles.
Do not get hung up on details; elements of the draft are
subject to change in the revision stage.
Start to write the sections that you are ready to write. Don’t
try to write the Introduction merely because it comes first.
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Writing Prompt
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What question will I try to answer / problem will I try
to solve / hypothesis will I try to affirm / claim will I
try to defend?
What do I need to know in order to answer that
question? Defend the claim? Test the hypothesis?
Layers: What other questions do I need to answer?
Claims to defend? Hunches to test?
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Arguments & Logic
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A good argument will have, at the very least:
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a thesis that declares the writer's position on the
problem at hand;
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an acknowledgment of the opposition that nods to, or
quibbles with other points of view;
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a set of clearly defined premises that illustrate the
argument's line of reasoning;
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evidence that validates the argument's premises;
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a conclusion that convinces the reader that the
argument has been soundly and persuasively made.
(Dartmouth Writing Program 2005)
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Literature Review & Logic
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The Lit. Review that you wrote for your proposal will
not necessarily be the same review that you submit
as part of your dissertation.
Think in terms of your argument and the support
that you provided for claims:
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Include a review of all the literature that you read to learn
about your topic and the particular aspect of your topic
that you focus on.
Include a review of the literature on the methodologies that
you used.
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Pints of Porter
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The literature that you read informs both the
immediate context of the problem and the
larger context of which it is a part.
The methodology you choose determines
the data you get, as does your analytical
methodology determine what you get from
that data.
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Writing the Literature Review
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What is it?
What is its purpose?
– To guide and inform your process
– To inform your audience about the
credibility and value of your conclusions
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Issues of Credibility
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Definition from Merriam-Webster: “an
interpretation and synthesis of
published research” (Merriam qtd in
Murray 2006: 108).
Choices speak to your understanding
of the puddle.
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Organization
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How will I organize my literature review?
Can I classify or categorize the stuff I’ve
read so far?
Can I say how each piece of literature has
helped to inform my over-riding questions
and/or sub-questions?
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Writing Prompt
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What do I know about my research topic?
What I am looking for in the literature is...
What are the schools of thought in the
literature?
The ‘great debates’ in my area are...
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Questions Your Lit Review
Should Answer (Murray 2006: 115)
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Why is this subject important?
Who else thinks it’s important?
Who has worked on this subject before?
Who has done something similar to what I
am doing?
What can be adapted to my own study?
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Questions Your Lit Review Should Answer
(Murray 2006: 115) (Con’t)
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What are the gaps in the research?
Who is going to use my material?
What use will my project be?
What will my contribution be?
What specific question will I answer?
[What specific questions will my research not be
able to address?]
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Writing Prompt
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If we can frame the main question in a hierarchy,
below which are framed the sub-questions, and
we can put these frames in a larger frame called
the Literature Review, what frames are you ready
to fill in?
If you do not organize your literature around your
question and sub-questions, how else will you
categorize the literature in order to organize your
discussion?
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Organizing the
Methodology Section(s)
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How will you organize your text in each
section?
How would you logically organize the
information in this section?
Will you organize the methods around the
questions? Or around the methodological
type?
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Writing Prompt
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If you were to think about your main
question and your sub-questions, what
methods will you employ to answer each
question?
If you haven’t figured out what questions
you are asking, do some backward
engineering.
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The Methodology Section
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“A thesis focuses on a central question and
is unified by that focus” (Murray 2006: 123).
In the methodology section, we have two
kinds of data:
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The methods used to gather data
The methods used to analyze the data
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The Methodology Section
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Ultimately, your methodology
section(s) should
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Define and explain your method, your theoretical
approach, naming your instrument (e.g. Case
study, interview, etc.)
Show links between your method and others
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The Methodology Section
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Ultimately, your methodology
section(s) should
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Justify your choice of methods
Report what you plan to do
Show how you will select and analyse the data
and how you will document it
Say what you expect to find
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Some Questions Your Methodolgy Section
Should Answer
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Why will the data be admissible?
Why is your choice of measuring instrument
appropriate to your context / to the data you are
aiming to retreive?
By what criteria will you measure the validity of
your measuring instruments?
How do we know that your method will yield reliable
data?
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Valid, reliable information
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“Sometimes there is universal agreement that a particular
instrument provides a valid instrument for measuring a
particular characteristic. We could all agree that a ruler
measures length, a thermometer measures temperature, and
a barometer measures air pressure. But whenever we do not
have such universal agreement, we must provide evidence
that an instrument we are using has validity for our purpose”
(Leedy and Ormrod, 2005: 92).
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Pints of Porter: Sometimes the Tail
Wags the Dog
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Research methods affect:
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data the researcher records about the phenomenon
the sorts of phenomena that can be studied
the sorts of understanding of the phenomenon that the
researcher is likely to arrive at
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the sorts of knowledge claims they will be able to sustain
(Guba & Lincoln 1994 in Nandhakumar 2003)
Sometimes form follows content: Sway to the moonlight
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Content and Form
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‘Understanding organisational behaviour has never
been more important for managers’ (Robbins,
2003:14).
Explain why this is the case, outlining in your
answer the challenges and oppor- tunities faced by
managers, and the value of understanding
organisational behaviour to a practicing manager.
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‘Writing in Layers’
(Murray 2006: 125-27)
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Outline the structure: write your chapter or section
headings.
Write a sentence or two on the contents of each
chapter/section.
List out sub-headings for each section.
Write an introductory paragraph for each section.
At the top of each section, write the word count
requirement, draft number and date.
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Conclusion
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As you write, your organization may change.
Many things determine order:
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Arguments have a logical order, as do comparisons,
cause/effect relationships, temporal or spatial
descriptions, etc.
However, dissertations are thesis driven. Your question,
and what you need to know, strongly influences the
organization of your final product.
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Don’t Forget
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Logical Choices and Unity of Purpose
Methodologies & Logic
Methodologies & Credibility
Unity and Coherence
Writing Strategies
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Logical Choices and Unity of Purpose
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Every choice serves to defend a claim, answer a
question, or confirm a hypothesis
– Word, phrase, sentence-structure
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Does the choice satisfy audience expectations?
Does it speak to your authorial credibility?
Does it further your argument, analysis?
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Methodologies & Logic
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When you know what you need to know in order to
answer a question, then it is logical to choose
methods of inquiry that will supply the reliable
verifiable data that you need in order to answer the
question.
Don’t forget to qualify your data—what does it tell
you and what is it unable to tell you?
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Methodologies & Credibility
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All data has to be analyzed. You need a
methodology for analyses as well.
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Quantitative data: can it be generalized?
Qualitative data: what criteria will be used to establish its
value?
Do not overstate your results. An honest, quality
analysis will speak volumes about your credibility,
regardless of the quality of the data.
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Unity and Coherence
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If information included in your dissertation does not
contribute to an understanding of the value of your
conclusions and recommendations, then it only
serves to befuddle the logic of your piece.
A unified text is a more coherent text.
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Writing Strategies
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Map your paper
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What sections or subsections are completed (keeping in
mind you still have to revise),
Pick one or two of the holes in your paper that you
would feel comfortable filling,
Assess the reasons for any anxiety you have over the
unfinished parts that cause you anxiety
• Do you need to read more?
• Do you need to rethink your paper?
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Writing Strategies
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Outline your paper
– Devise headings and subheadings for
uncompleted sections
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This helps you see the logical progression (or lack of it)
of your ideas
It identifies the main ideas
It helps detect omissions
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Writing Strategies
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Write about why you are having difficulty making
advances in your paper
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It gets the fingers tapping and the cerebral juices flowing
An awareness of fears and anxieties helps you to develop
strategies to overcome those emotional roadblocks
You may discover that the reason that you are having
difficulty is that there is some chink in the logic of your
argument that you must either fill or that requires a major
rethinking of the line of reasoning.
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Writing Strategies
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Don’t allow yourself to freeze up. When you are
feeling overwhelmed…
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Satisfy yourself with small advances until you feel more
confident and unstuck
Seek help. Talk to friends. Talk about how you feel, but
talk about your ideas as well.
Eat lots of ice cream and candy
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Sources
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Bowie, D. 1983 “Let’s Dance” [online], available at: http://www.elyrics.net/read/d/davidbowie-lyrics/let_s-dance-lyrics.html [accessed 08 Feb. 2009].
Leedy, P.D. and Ormrod, J.E. 2005 Practical Research: Planning and Design, 8th ed.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson
Murray, R. 2006 How to Write a Thesis, 2nd ed. Maidenhead, England: Open University
Press.
Nandhakumar, J. 2003 Interpreting Information Systems: A reflexive account of
grounded theory analysis [ppt. online], available:
http://project.hkkk.fi/gebsi/files/nav_activities/material/Nandhakumar_slides.pdf
[accessed 15 Aug 2008].
UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Rhetorical Functions, Comparing and Contrasting Exercise 2
[online], available: http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/function/compcon2.htm
[accessed Aug 16 2008].
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