In the following example from the field of psychology, fill in the correct tense for each Stage II verb given in parentheses.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION: THE EFFECTS OF SEX, AGE, PASSAGE STRUCTURE AND SPEECH RATE

The learning of verbal information is a two-stage process. First of all student must understand the meaning of the sentence he has just heard and then, secondly, he must relate the information it contains to what he has learned earlier and which is now stored in memory. A number of authors (advancе) ____this active view of learning (Barlett, 1932; Ausubel, 1968; Haviland and Clark, 1976). Other writers (show) ____that this two-stаge process operates at the level of sentences. Barclay and Franks (1972) (show) ____that when two or more sentences contain information about the same subject, the learner abstracts the information from the sentences and tends to integrate it into a whole.

Riding (1975) (find) ____that after listening to a prose passage in which some related details were in adjacent sentences, while others were separated by other sentences, ten-year-old children recalled the closely positioned details better than the more distantly positioned ones. Kieras (1978) (study) ____reading time in adult subjects using short paragraphs as the learning material. He (note) ____ that reading time was less when a sentence was preceded by those containing related information that when one or more unrelated sentences intervened between directly related ones.

IV. Writing up your own research

Apply what you have learned in this unit to your own research topic. When you have finished writing Stage II, put it together with Stage I and make some changes.

UNIT 4

HOW TO ADVANCE TO PRESENT RESEARCH

After you have presented a contextual setting and discussed the previous work of other researchers, you use the final part of the introduction to focus the attention of the reader on the specific research problem you will be dealing with in the body of your report. This is done in three additional stages, which we designated as III, IV and V. This unit will help you:

· to indicate an area that is not treated in the previous literature, but that is important from the point of view of your own work

· to formulate the purpose of your research

· to indicate possible benefits or applications of your work

Besides, some cultural differences in organizing ideas and writing techniques are discussed.

4.1. Information Conventions

Stage III serves to signal the reader that the literature review is finished. It sums up the review by pointing out a gap – that is, an important research area not investigated by other authors. Usually Stage III is accomplished in only one or two sentences.

As noted by Weissberg & Buker (1990) there are 3 alternatives you can choose from in writing your Stage III statement:

1. You may indicate that the previous literature described in Stage II is inadequate because an important aspect of the research area has been ignored by other authors.

2. You may indicate that there is an unresolved conflict among the authors of previous studies concerning the research topic. This may be a theoretical or methodological disagreement.

3. You may indicate that an examination of the previous literature suggests an extension of the topic, or raises a new research question not previously considered by other works in your field.

In indicating some kind of gap left by earlier studies, Stage III prepares the reader for your own study.

Stage IV serves to state as concisely as possible the specific objective(s) of your research report. This stage, the statement of purpose, thus follows directly from Stage III because it answers the need expressed in Stage III for additional research in your area of study.

You may write the statement of purpose (Stage IV) from one of two alternative orientations:

1. The orientation of the statement of purpose may be towards the report itself – that is, it may refer to the paper (thesis, dissertation or report) that communications the information about the research.

2. Or the orientation of the statement of purpose may be towards the research activity, in other words the study itself, rather than the written report.

In Stage V – the statement of value – you justify your research on the basis of some possible value or benefits the work may have to other researchers in the field or to people working in practical situations.

Stage V is not included in every introduction. In reports written up as journal articles this stage is often omitted.

You may write Stage V from either of two alternative points of view:

1. The statement of value may be written from the point of view of the practical benefits which may result from applying the findings of your research.

2. Or you may write the statement of value to emphasize the theoretical importance of your study in advancing the state of knowledge in your specific area of research.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 837