Unit 4 Final Task

An Introduction to Abstracts: Types and Linguistic Features

Abstracts are brief summaries of Research Articles (RA) which are placed at the beginning of a page between the cover page and the introduction section. They are intended to substitute the summary that could be usually found at the end of an article. In accordance with Pitkin (1987), abstracts are meant to provide the reader with a sense of direction of the piece of writing, that is, they allow readers to determine to what extent a research article is of their interest. The aim of the present paper is to analyze four different abstracts from the field of medicine articles.

An abstract does not always follow the same pattern in shape since it will depend on its type (APA, 2007), that is to say, “a report of an empirical study should contain a statement of the problem, subjects, method, findings and conclusions” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010) whereas reviews and theoretical articles will require other elements such as “topic, purpose, sources and conclusion” (Ditto.). However, writers tend to pursue standard patterns which include the Introduction – Method – Results – and – Discussions (IMRD) formula moreover types of abstracts may also depend on their internal structure i.e. whether they are informative, indicative, structured or unstructured (Swales & Feak, 1994, as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010). The four abstracts analyzed fulfill some of these requirements, for example, Wijeysundera, Beattie, Elliot, Austin, Hux & Laupacis’ (2010) paper seems to be informative because it depicts what researchers did besides it includes large data in the results. Moreover, it can be observed that it is structured in shape since it contains bolded headings which identify the main sections in the research article (Pintos & Crimi, 2010).

Regarding linguistic features in abstracts, Swales and Feak’s (1994) description establishes the use of full sentences and past tenses as expressed in Martinez, Assimes, Mines, Aniello & Suissa’s (2010) article “We used conditional logistic regression (…) compared with current use of fluoxetine, citalopram or dosulepin.”. Although writers have a tendency to avoid using negatives, one of the abstracts analyzed appears to employ negative words which may suggest that the results were not good enough such as “There was a decline of 2% (…) in the same 10 year period.” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). In accordance with Swales & Feak (1994, cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010) conclusions tend to be written in present and sentences that describe results tend to show tense variation, thus, Beckett’s et al (2008) paper makes use of those tenets “The results provide evidence (…) is beneficial.”

All in all, the four abstracts follow the requirements established in Swales & Feak (1994) and in the American Psychological Association (APA, 2007) manual, that is, information has been included in abstracts according to their types, thus, that information has not been longer than 200 words. Linguistic features have been used accurately which means that writers made use of full sentences, past and present tenses, and avoided the use of negatives. The only difference found was the organization of text in an article i.e. it displays the text using one column page however, the other articles show the text in a two columns page. Variation in organizing the data may take place because there have been analyzed papers from two different medical journals which may follow other conventions in academic writing.

References

Beckett, N. S., Peters, R., Fletcher, A. E., Staessen, J. A., Liu, L., Dumitrascu, D. Stoyanovsky, V., Antikainen, R. L., Nikitin, Y., Anderson, C., Belhani, A., Forette, F., Rajkumar, C., Thijs, L., Banya, W. & Bulpitt, C. J. (2008). Treatment of hypertension in patients 80 years of age or older. (N Engl J Med) 2008;358:1887-98

Jorgensen, K. J., Zahl, P.H., & Gotzsche, P.C. (2010). Breast cancer mortality in organised mammography screening in Denmark: Comparative study. BMJ, 340 (c1241), 1-6. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c1241

Martínez, C., Assimes, T.L., Mines, D., Dell’Aniello, S., & Suissa, S. (2010). Use of venlafaxine compared with other antidepressants and the risk of sudden cardiac death or near death: a nested case-control study. BMJ, 340 (c249), 1-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c249

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 4: Research Articles: Abstracts. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved May 22, 2010 from: http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4691

Pitkin. (1987). The Importance of the Abstract. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles/PMC1336964;jsessionid=101EA503D3C02154EC1AA427963FF6FF.jvm1

Wijeysundera, D. N., Beattie, W. S., Elliot, R. F., Austin, P. C., Hux, J. E. & Laupacis, A. (2010). Non – invasive cardiac stress testing before elective major non – cardiac surgery: population based cohort study. BMJ, 340 (b5526), doi:10.1136/bmj.b5526

Unit 3 Final Task

Analysis of Three Content Sections in Research Articles: Results, Discussions and Conclusions

In a research article, the results section describes impartially the main findings of a research; the discussions section is devoted to interpret those discoveries and, in the conclusions section, the writer tends to “tie the paper together” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010) in order to summarize the overall information.

The outcomes of the present analysis have been discussed in the light of Swales’ criteria (1998, cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p.18) in which the results section is conceived to recapitulate data making use of text, tables, and figures. For example, the medicine article analyzed employs some of those requirements “The number of woman years and the number of deaths (…) are presented in table 1” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). It can be observed that the writer uses tables not only for presenting specific information but also for comparing that information. In accordance with the American Psychological Association (APA, 2007, cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010 p.23), all tables are numbered and have an individual title, thus, they are presented with each word capitalized such as “Table 7: Group Statistics for Definite and Indefinite Terms” (Dabaghi & Tavakoi, 2009) which may suggest that the writer tends to distribute the selected data maintaining the “Communicative principle of simplicity” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010). Swales (1998, cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p.18) establishes the consumption of past tenses to describe the main outcomes in the results section, thus, the medicine article makes use of this tenet in the following example “Before screening was introduced, breast cancer mortality rates increased by 2% a year.” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010).

In the discussions section, which can be sometimes embedded with the conclusions, writers tend to infer into the main findings of a research. In the case of the two articles selected for this purpose, only one presents the discussions and the conclusions together, that is, the education article. In contrast, the medicine article has devoted two different sections, one for the discussions and another for the conclusions, however it seems to share almost the same linguistic patterns with the previous article. According to Swales and Feak (2004, as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p. 36) a sense of probability can be expressed making use of modal auxiliaries, by illustration, the writer, whose article is regarded to education, seems to suggest possible solutions which weaken the strength of a statement like “There may be a number of reasons…” (Dabaghi & Tavakoli, 2009). The article shows evidence of present tenses employed to give explanations for the outcomes displayed in the results section in which present simple tenses and present passive voice are the most used along the discussions, for example, “A question arises as to why (…) are learned before regular past tense forms…” (Dabaghi et al, 2009).

Regarding the conclusions section, researchers (as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p.20) consider the evaluation of a problem and its possible solutions to be treated at this segment of any research article. Thus, writers have a tendency to describe what needs to be done next as well as the reasons for doing it in the current section. For instance, the medicine paper explored for this purpose presents a rather brief conclusions section, may be because the results were not as they were expected to. Besides the first sentence in the opening paragraph gives the reader the clue that the outcomes might not be as positive as they should be since it can be observed that the writer makes use of a negative adjective i.e. “We were unable to find an effect of the Danish screening programme on breast cancer mortality” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). Neither the medicine article nor the education article begins the conclusions paragraph with the word In conclusion which, according to some academic writing centers, is unsophisticated and unnecessary.

All things considered, the medicine paper and the education article have demonstrated to be descriptive in nature since both presented well organized data making use of text, tables, and figures to explain the main findings of a research. Although there were some differences regarded with the organization of sections, tenses were used accurately in each segment of the articles as proposed by the American Psychological Association guidelines (APA, 2007, as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010).

References

Dabahi, A. & Tavakoli, M (2009). A comparison of the effects of corrections on definite/indefinite articles and regular/irregular past tense forms: a case of Iranian EFL learners. Retrieved July, 15, 2010, from

http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/December_2009_ad.php

Douglas, D. & Harris, M. L. (2007). APA style essentials. Retrieved April 2, 2010 from

http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/detail.aspx?doc_id=796

Jorgensen, K. J., Zahl, P.H., & Gotzsche, P.C. (2010). Breast cancer mortality in organised mammography screening in Denmark: Comparative study. BMJ, 340 (c1241), 1- 6.doi: 10.1136/bmj.c1241

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 3: The Research Article: Results, Discussions and Conclusions. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved April 24, 2010
from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4692

Research Articles: A Further Analysis of Introduction, Literature Review and Methods Sections.

Academic Writing is a skill in the writing world which consists of building abilities to follow standard conventions for the presentation of studies that take place in different fields. Works which belong to several fields of study are known as academic papers, thus, the Research Article (RA) is a kind of academic document which consists of many components (title, abstract, acknowledgements, introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussions, recommendations, references, and appendixes).

The purpose of the present piece of writing is to analyze the Introduction section and the Method section of both, medicine and education, research articles under the constraints set by Swales and Feak’s (1994) descriptions of introductions and methods in RA (cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010).

Swales and Feak (1994) outlined that the introduction section is structured in a general – specific manner which follows the Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R.S.). The model organizes introduction into three main moves: move 1, creating a research space; move 2, establishing the present area of study and move 3, describing the aims of the study. It is possible to demonstrate what it has been said about the moves by citing some extracts retrieved from Breast cancer mortality in organized mammography screening in Denmark: comparative study (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010) and Thirty-two trends affecting distance education: an informed foundation for strategic planning (Howell, Williams & Lindsay, 2009). For example, the medicine article analyzed accomplishes with some of the requirements of move 1, the use of Present Perfect Tense shows the writer’s purpose to specify that there has been a previous research but there are, however, some relevant aspects which need to be analyzed, that is to say, “(…) the country has had a period of 17 years where only about 20 % of the population has been offered screening (…)” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). Thus, the writer’s intention to review a previous research seems to be revealed by the use of past tenses as in the case of the following statement “The trials in these reviews were carried out decades ago (…) screening programs could yield a different effect from that in the trials” (Jorgensen et al, 2010).

In order to establish the current area of study (Move 2), the writer has to indicate a gap which is the “need to demonstrate that there is some kind of left – aside area in a field” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010) that requires to be improved. Thus, a negative opening such as the connector “however” is used, for example “However, there are three important concerns about this result.” (Jorgensen et al, 2010) which, at the same time, connects Moves 1 and 3.

Move 3 “makes reference to the present text” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010) which generally begins with expressions like “This / The present study…” (Ditto) “This article provides decision makers with 32 trends…” (Howell, Williams & Lindsay, 2009) however, the medicine article analyzed evidences the purpose of the study in a non – standard pattern, “We hypothesized that…” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). In accordance with Swales and Feak’s (1994) description of move 3, both articles can be regarded as purposive since several statements seem to state the purpose of the researches. It can be observed that the tenses used in this move in both articles are not fully employed as required in Swales and Feak’s (1994) explanation, however, the use of Present Perfect Tense gives the impression that it is the writer’s intention to anticipate negative results, for example, “A similar reduction should have occurred in Funen…” (Jorgensen et al, 2010).

The Methods section is written “following the principles of process paragraphs” (Pintos & Crimi, 2010) which entails further descriptions of what a researcher did, when a researcher carried out the study, how many people took part in it and so forth. The present section has been analyzed by several researchers as well as writing centers (Swales & Feak, 1994; OWL, 2008) in the academic field which agree that the word Method should be centered at the start of the section, however, only the medicine article fulfills this requirement since the education article starts the section with the word Methodology. Particularly important it is to set the difference between Method and Methodology in research articles (RA). The former stands for the tool used for collecting data whereas the latter means the theory on which a method is founded.

Swales and Feak (1994) stated that the structure of Methods section is divided into subsections: participants, describing the amount of people as well as the place in which the research was placed; materials, illustrating the instruments or special equipment and procedure, depicting the course of action developed in the study. All subsections should begin with the words Participants / Materials / Procedure typed at the left margin however the medicine article analyzed does not fulfill earlier requirements since there are not subheadings before paragraphs. Although subheadings are absent, it can be observed some specific information about each division, for example, the belated extract retrieved from a medical research article demonstrates the writer’s intention to describe how many participants took part in the research and whether it has been a voluntary decision or not, along with the location where the information has been obtained, “Organized mammography screening of women aged 50 – 69 years began on 1 April 1991 in Copenhagen municipality” (Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzsche, 2010). Feasibly, the tense used for this purpose is Passive voice (present and past) which suggests the composition of pieces of writing under the conventions of academic writing style such as “The mortality data (…) were divided into three age bands.” (Jorgensen et al, 2010).

All in all, the research articles have been analyzed following the guidance of educational papers which have been retrieved from The research article: introduction, literature review and methods sections (Pintos & Crimi, 2010). In accordance with the content writers, many aspects of research articles are shared by several researchers such as the use of verb tenses and organizational issues, however, it is possible to find different features which do not pursue standard conventions in academic writing.

References

Howell, S. L., Williams, P. B., & Lindsay, N. K. (2009) Thirty-two trends affecting distance education: an informed foundation for strategic planning. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://scholar.google.com.ar/scholar?q=distance+education+%2B+research+articles&hl=es&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

Jorgensen, K. J., Zahl, P.H., & Gotzsche, P.C. (2010). Breast cancer mortality in organized mammography screening in Denmark: Comparative study. British Medical Journal; 340:c124.

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: The Research Article: Introduction, Literature Review and Methods Section. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from: http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4691

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (2010). In text citations: the basics. Retrieved May 22, 2010 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Unit 3 Assignment 1

Academic writing: Analysis of discourse conventions

Academic writing embodies a set of conventions within discourse that aim to understand and to write pieces of written language precisely. According to Pintos and Crimi (2010, p.9), “academic writing is one of the big steps towards advanced literacy” which can be seen as a resource to increase the growth of ideas through sophisticated thinking. Silva (as cited in Pintos and Crimi 2010, p.11) outlines the importance of conceiving academic writing as a tool for “[socializing] the students into the academic context”. However, this type of writing in professional settings cannot be acquired but learnt; in other words, qualified writers should have followed a number of conventions that rule this principle in order to be experts in this field.

Pintos and Crimi (2010) state that discourse conventions include, among others, omissions and insertion of words and/or letters. Firstly, ellipses are used to show that a part of a text in a quotation has been excluded. A rule about ellipses embraces “[a] part of a text that has been edited out” (Ibid.), for example, Myles’ (2002) paper on Second Language Writing and Research quotes Swales’ (1990) words as “[writing] should not be viewed solely as an individually-oriented, inner-directed cognitive process, but as much as an acquired response to discourse conventions . . . within particular communities”. Secondly, insertions use square brackets to incorporate words or letters in the original quotation, for instance, “[A] thought we should not cripple our students’ interest in writing (…)” (Myles, 2002, para.5). Acknowledging sources, like In-text citations, are also part of the ruling concepts of academic writing. Pintos and Crimi (2010, p. 19) outline that “every single citation (. . .) should be mentioned in [a] reference list [thus] every single resource that has been included in the reference list should appear in the body of the paper”. In other words, in-text citations are used to give credit to somebody else’s words in order to avoid plagiarism; they include parenthetical citations such as “[the emphasis is placed on] students’ strategic knowledge and the ability of students to transform information . . . to meet rhetorically constrained purposes (Grabe & Kaplab, 1996, p. 116)” (Myles, Ibid.) Paraphrased citations entail transmitting a message or a thought without using the same words that an author might have applied before. This type of citations includes the author’s surname and the year of publication between brackets, for instance, “although L2 writing is strategically, rhetorically, and linguistically different in many ways from L1 writing (Silva, 1993)” (Myles, Ibid.).

Working with in-text citations implies searching for interesting and precise words in order to “help [writers] vary structures and vocabulary” (Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p.18) this group of words is known as reporting verbs. A reporting verb list include affirm, assume, describe, explain, state, and suggest among others but it is important to look for their meanings beforehand in order to avoid misunderstanding since they should imply some kind of evaluative thinking. For example “Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) have stressed the benefit of process approaches to writing instruction and the need for more knowledge-transforming tasks” (Myles 2002).

To conclude, academic writers are requested to follow a number of rules to communicate their thoughts and to generate knowledge in every single field of skilled activity. Thus, academic writing is thought to have an objective: Creation of new knowledge in different professional settings.

References

Mile, J. (2002). Second Language Writing and Research: The writing process and error analysis in student texts. TESEL-EJ, 6, 2, 2002. Queen’s University. Retrieved November 13 from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESl-EJ/ej22/a1.html

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2010). Academic writing. CAECE University. Retrieved November 12 from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7392

Unit 2 Assignment 1

Critical incidents: Analyzing practices in the classroom

The analysis of critical incidents in the education field has been defined by Kennedy and Wyrick (1990 as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p.7) as a “method of reflective practice”. Critical incident technique is meant to give strategic guidance to analyze different sorts of problems that may arise in the classroom.

In accordance with Flanagan (1954), some steps in Critical Incident Technique (CIT) were distinguished in order to determine, plan, collect, analyze, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data in classrooms. Flanagan (Ibid.) outlines that it is essential the determination of aims so as to guide the study, secondly, he states effective planning to identify the procedures which will be used to collect important facts. A third step is concerned with collection of data to, then, be analyzed. The study finishes when information is interpreted and reported.

The importance of writing about critical incidents in the education field lies on the benefit that students and teachers can depict from sharing experiences, looking for solutions to problems and drawing possible courses of action along the teaching and learning process.

References

Fernández, González, J., Elortegui Escartin, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista Universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17-001. Zaragoza. España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved September 2010, from

http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y (2010) Unit 2: Personal Narratives in Teaching. Buenos Aires. Universidad Caece. Retrieved September 2010, from

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Unit 1 Assignment 1

Supporting Swales’ theory of discourse community

Discourse community tends to be defined as a group of members who interact and interchange shared-knowledge information according to their cultural and historical backgrounds. One of the most significant current discussions in discourse issues is the existence of basic criteria (Swales, 1990) that describe six characteristics in discourse community which have been criticized in the discourse field due to its wide assumptions. Swales’ features have been subjected to some requirements which involve specific interests to provide information and feedback, intercommunication, genre, specialized terminology, and expertise.

The concept has been observed by Bizzel (1992, as cited in Crimi & Pintos, 2010, p. 13) whose studies demonstrate that “discourse community helps in describing how a group makes use of discourse to organize different activities” rather than sharing common knowledge information. Swales (Ibíd.), however, outlines that a group should achieve common goals to share specific interests within discourse community. In other words, it entails both “knowing about the specific language practices (…)” as well as taking part in those practices (Hoffman-Kipp et al., 2003) which means that a group may not endure if their members are not intercommunicated. Debate continues about the notion of Discourse Community with Senge (1994 as cited in Howley & Howley, 2005) who conditions the procedures in which learning may depend on the tendency to reflect on data about organizational performance.
Highly specialized terminology (Swales, Ibid.) in varied study fields are also involved in community discourse since it implies transaction of shared knowledge among members of a group. Thus, a community college (Kutz, 1997) can be conceived as a discourse community because its members develop a common discourse, for example, it involves shared knowledge and shared understandings about how to communicate. Community – specific genres and high general level of expertise (Swales, Ibid.) lead to phenomenological discourse (Hoffman-Kipp et al., 2003) which its main feature is focusing on the individual and her or his experiences. Groups that belong to a certain discourse community are identified as such according to their genre, which defines its unity and level of understanding required by the community in many aspects of life.
While a variety of definitions of the term Discourse Community have been implied, this paper attempted to support the definition suggested by Swales (1990) who saw it as an interchange of cultural and historical knowledge. Researchers contributed to the construction of a definitive concept following a number of constraints on communality of interests; they agreed that members, at some extent, share public goals.



References
Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. & Lopez – Torres, L. (2003) Beyond Reflection: Teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved 08 August, 2010 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653
Howley, A. & Howley, C. (2005). High quality teaching: Providing for rural teachers’ professional development. Retrieved August, 2010 from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4126/is_200501/ai_n13591361
Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 1:Building up a community of teachers and prospective researchers. Retrieved August 2010, from
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856