The purpose of this paper is to
provide a comparative analysis of the introduction and methods sections of two
research papers belonging to two completely different areas, namely the fields
of education and medicine. The text on education follows the organization
pattern which research papers should contain to present their introduction.
The three moves of the Create a Research Model (C.A.R.S.) stated by Swales and Feak (1994), creating a research page, establishing a niche and occupying it, are neatly organized and clearly depicted. On the other hand, the text on medicine does not follow those requirements so clearly.
The three moves of the Create a Research Model (C.A.R.S.) stated by Swales and Feak (1994), creating a research page, establishing a niche and occupying it, are neatly organized and clearly depicted. On the other hand, the text on medicine does not follow those requirements so clearly.
In Sun and Chang`s (2012)
educational paper, both authors make reference to all the previous research
that has been carried out in the field using the present perfect tense and the
present simple tense to describe the characteristics of blogs. The key term
blog is is defined by means of a purpose statement or generalisation which
introduces the main idea of the text from a general point of view. The authors also establish a contrastive
definition, which makes the rader realize that the word blog differs from the
terms listservs, discussion boards and wikis. As it was mentioned before, the
three moves of the the C.A.R.S are clearly expressed in the text referring to
blogs. The first move, whose aim is to create a research paper, clearly refers
back to previous studies which have been made in this field of using blogs to
facilitate the development of a second language writing community. The authors
make reference to different past studies, as Sun`s (2009) study on examining
speaking practice on blogs and Noytim`s (2010) study showing that meaning
served as the prominent focus rather than form in the blogging environment. Through
these examples, it is clearly seen
that the literature review is
embedded in move one of the introduction
making reference to previous research in this area. Making use of a
negative opening and raising a question, Sun and Chang (2012) state the gap they found in the literature
review:
Though, past literature
has shed the light on the ways blogs can be used to encorage language learning
and learners´participation in writing practices, little, if any, empirical
research has been done to examine how interactions in blogs help EFL graduate
students develop academic knowledge and writer identities. That is, if blogs
are powerful tools in language learning, how do EFL students´ blog interactions
demonstrate and facilitate how they process the knowledge they receive and make
sense ogf who they are as emerging
academic writers? (p. 44)
This last question
will be the motivator for the authors to run the research and write about the
present study.
In contrast, not even a simple
definition is mentioned in the introduction of Roth et al. ´s (2010) article
which directly provide an outline of past research “in the implementation of
vaccines to avoid mortality in low income in low income countries”. (p. 1). The
text on vaccines show the beginning of the second move by raising the doubt
about BCG vaccines having non-specific benefitial effects on overall
mortality.In this way, the authors provide different examples which suggest
that much of the previous research has been accomplished on assumption rather
than on randomized studies, shedding a light of doubt on the effectiveness of
the revaccination of BCG to avoid infant mortality. In this way they create the
need to run their research because this lack of information leads to more
investigation on that field.
In relation to the methods section,
it can also be stated that Roth et al.´s medicine article does not follow the
patterns most researchers and writers coincide with, such as its division in three
subsections: participants, materials and procedure. However, they do make use
of process paragraphs, including passive voice clauses in order to describe a
process. In contrast, Sun and Chang´s article does organize the methods section
into participants and procedures, and these two subsections are described in
detail. The materials subsection is missing, probably because not much
information could have been included due to the nature of this research. It is
also possible to find examples of passive voice in this article as well.
After contrasting
these two articles, it can be concluded that Roth et. al´s article seems to
follow the requirements for this kind of writing, presenting the
information in a clear and neat way in both its introduction and methods
section, whereas Sun and Chang´s article does not. The
information in this article turns out to be confusing for the reader
because its organization is not very clear and it is loaded with too many
details and description which, as Reid (1994) stated, should be avoided by good
academic writers.
References
Noytim, U. (2010). Weblogs enhancing EFL students' English language
learning. Procedia Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2(1),127-1,132.
Reid, J. (1994). The process of paragraph writing. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall
Roth, A., E., Stabell Benn, C., Ravn, H., Rodrigues A., Lisse, I.,
M., Yazdanbakhsh, M., Whittle, H., & Aaby, P. (2010). Effect of revaccination with BCG in early childhood on
mortality: randomised trial in Guinea-Bissau. British Medical Journal,
340, pp. c671-c671. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c671
Sun, Y. C., & Chang, Y. (2012). Blogging to learn: Becoming EFL
academic writers through collaborative dialogues. Language and Learning & Technology, 16(1), 43-61.
Sun, Y. C. (2009). Voice blog: An exploratory study of language
learning. Language Learning & Technology, 13(2), 88-103. Retrieved from
http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num2/sun.pdf.
Swales, J., M., & Feak, C., B., (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbour. MI:The University opf
Michigan Press.
