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