Session 5 - Form: Organisation
Organisation
The most important pattern of organisation in scientific writing is, at its most basic level, the
problem-solution pattern as discussed earlier. It is repeated below:
1. Situation
What is important about the topic, so that it would be relevant to the reader?
2. Problem
What is wrong with the current situation?
What is needed or lacking?
3. Solution
What solutions past and current have been tried?
4. Evaluation
Is this a good solution?
However, there is more variety to this basic pattern as you move into writing more
academic type and style documents, such as research papers. A certain organisation
of text is expected according to the audience, purpose and form of your paper.
Constructing a Research Paper
Much of the research in science can be classified into one of two paradigms. Traditional
scientific research aims to create hypotheses about our natural world that are testable based
on experimentation and the collecting of data. This approach, often referred to as an
"empirical” research approach is common to the natural and social sciences, such as
biology, medicine, psychiatry, and sociology. In these fields, the standard pattern for
organizing research articles (RAs) is the Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion (IMRD)
pattern (See Fig. 3 below). Most research fields outside engineering use a typical
organisational pattern for reporting their work, the IMRD format or some variant of it.
Introduction (I)
General
Specific
Methods and
materials (M)
Results (R)
Discussion (D)
Specific
General
LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students 2017/AS
Page 1
Fig. 1 Overall shape of a research paper (RP)
Engineering research, however, differs greatly from traditional scientific research in that while
the sciences deal with the study of existing objects and phenomena, Engineering is based on
how to do things, how to create new objects. In astrophysics, for example, experimentation
is actually impossible: "One cannot experiment on a star or a galaxy in the way in which one
can experiment on a chemical compound or a bean plant" (Tarone et al. 1998, 115). As a
result, astrophysicists tend to publish logical argumentation papers that have a generalspecific structure. This form of argument moves typically from known principles, to
observations, and then to equations designed to account for the observed phenomena. This
kind of paper can be common in theoretical physics, in mathematics, and in those fields
(economics, biostatistics, engineering) that use computer modelling.
When you read an RP, you may think that it is a fairly straightforward account of an
investigation. Indeed RPs are often designed to create this impression so that they can
appear more convincing to their readers. However, such impressions are largely misleading.
RP authors typically operate in a highly competitive environment. They need to establish that
their research questions are sufficiently interesting for publication. They need to demonstrate
that they are familiar with the relevant literature so that the research questions can be shown
to have not already been answered. And they need to compete against other RPs for
acceptance and recognition. As a result, RP authors are very much concerned with
positioning—with showing that their studies are relevant and significant and have some
new contribution to make.
Figure 3 gives a useful indication of the out-in-out or general-specific-general movement of the
typical RP. In addition, as the RP in English has developed over the last hundred years or so, the
four different sections have become identified with four different purposes.
Introduction (I)
The main purpose of the Introduction is to provide the
rationale for the paper, moving from general discussion of the
topic to the particular question or hypothesis being
investigated. A secondary purpose is to attract interest in the
topic—and hence readers.
Methods (M)
The Methods section describes, in various degrees of detail,
methodology, materials (or subjects), and procedures. This is
the narrowest part of the RP.
Results (R)
In the Results section, the findings are described,
accompanied by variable amounts of commentary.
Discussion (D)
The Discussion section offers an increasingly generalized
account of what has been learned in the study. This is usually
done through a series of "points," at least some of which refer
back to statements made in the Introduction.
As a result of these different purposes, the four sections have taken on different linguistic
characteristics. Some of these are summarized in Table 2 (R.R. Jordan 1997). The first line of
the table shows, for instance, that the present tense is common in Introductions and
Discussions but uncommon in Methods and Results.
Table 2 Frequencies of Selected Features in RP Sections
Present tense
Past tense
Passive voice
Citations
Qualifications
Commentary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
high
mid
low
high
mid
high
low
high
high
low
low
low
low
high
variable
variable
mid
variable
high
mid
variable
high
high
high
LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students 2017/AS
Page 2
As you can see from the table, there are similarities between the Introduction and Discussion,
on the one hand, and between Methods and Results, on the other. In effect, we see a pattern
of more "concrete" inner sections and more "conceptual" outer sections.
Task 1
Based on Table 2 and on your own knowledge, can you guess from which of the sections these come?
Mark each one I, M, R, or D. There are two from each section. Work with a partner if possible.
____ 1. Using this design strategy, future generations of antenna templates will be more likely to
withstand failure of one or more switches with minimal effect on overall performance .
____ 2. Finite-element analysis (FEA) was used to predict the static deflection of the piezoelectric
unimorph structure.
____ 3. Dielectric losses are computed by using complex values of permittivity for the substrate
materials while conductor losses are determined by a perturbation method.
____ 4. With the widespread proliferation of telecommunication technology, the need for small,
internal, multiband antennas has increased greatly [1]–[6].
____ 5. Simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm achieves near optimal performance with
the advantage of having complexity which is both a constant as a function of SNR and lower
than that of the popular SD algorithm, especially at low SNR levels.
____ 6. The measured output power, Pout, and efficiency, n, of the oscillator as a function of Ids and Vgs at 30º
C is shown in Fig. 5.
____ 7. While the literature relating to WLAN fairness at the MAC layer is extensive, this issue of
transport layer TCP fairness has received far less attention.
____ 8. It is noted that when the temperature rises to 200º C, the Q factor decreases approximately
60% and 50% for the inductor and capacitor, respectively.
As we have already seen, academic writing covers a broad spectrum of different “types” or
genres. One defining characteristic of any genre is that they have predictable structures and
conventions - both in terms of their organization and also in terms of their word choice and
grammatical features.
Information is presented to readers in a structured format. Even short pieces of writing have
regular, predictable patterns of organization. You can take advantage of these patterns, so that
readers can still follow, even if you make errors.
The CaRS model for introductions (specifically of
research articles)
In those fields that don’t use the IMRD pattern, there is another pattern that has proved to be
popular as well as helpful. This pattern or these ‘moves’ are specifically seen in introductions
to research articles, but they are also extremely helpful when applied to writing essay
introductions, especially for long essays. The CaRS model was developed by John Swales
and Christine Feak (1994, 2004) and has proven to be an excellent way of enabling nonexperts an easier entry into other disciplines as it also follows a certain type of pattern: moves,
and then steps within each move.
For the purposes of this course, a simplified version of the CaRS (Creating a Research
Space) model is introduced overleaf.
LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students 2017/AS
Page 3
Please follow this simplified model above to write the introduction to your paper during this
course. More details on the original model as well as exercises can be found from Swales and
Feaks’ book, Academic Writing for Graduate Students, (3rd edition - 2012).
Your own review article’s introduction will follow this same general pattern:
Homework
Finding examples of good opening sentences and the CaRS model in
introductions
Look first at the introduction sections of the review articles you found for the Exploratory task;
however, if the articles you found lack an introduction section (or a good one), then please
look for 1-2 journal articles which might have decent introductions sections.
1. If you think they have very good introductions and opening sentences (that introduce the
background of the problem very well):
- Copy and paste the whole introduction chapter into a Word or other simple document form
(so you can highlight/ colour it)
- Highlight or underline the opening lines
- Note down in the same document why you think they are good
2. Can you see any sign of the CaRS model/moves in it?
- Highlight the different moves in different colours that you can see in the introduction
paragraphs according to the CaRS model
LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students 2017/AS
Page 4
Bring these with you to class on paper or in electronic form for the next session
LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students 2017/AS
Page 5