最新研究生学术英语写作教程Unit-2-Initiating-Research

Unit 2 Initiating Research

Objectives

- Understand what a research is

- Become aware of two language features of academic writing

- Initiate your research

Contents

- Reading and discussion: What is a research?

- Language focus: personal pronoun and nominalization

- Writing practice: topic selection; focus formulating; a working title; outlining

- Research practice: start the research

1.Reading Activity

This unit aims to describe what a research is, bring you an awareness of two language features of academic writing, and finally help you initiate a research of your own.

1.1 Pre-reading Task

Before you learn the detailed steps to initiate a research, please discuss the following questions:

What is the purpose of initiating a research?

How do you select the topic?

What kind of topic can be studied?

Do you often encounter first personal pronoun in academic writing? And why or why not?

1.2 Reading Passage

What is a research?

A research is a systematic investigative process employed to increase or revise current knowledge by discovering new facts. It is divided into two general categories: (1) basic research is inquiry aimed at increasing scientific knowledge, and (2) applied research is effort aimed at using basic research for solving problems or developing new processes, products, or techniques. You may use "PPP" to describe the whole process of researching, which stands for Purpose (questions), Process (a systemic approach) and Product (answers) in the following figure.

Purpose Process Product

(Questions) (Systemic approach) (Answers)

You can initiate a research in the following steps.

Step1: Selecting a Topic

Select a topic that interests you.

Selecting a topic is possibly the most difficult part of doing research. Is it too big? Is it too narrow? Will you be able to find enough on it? Start by choosing a topic that you like or are curious about. You are going to be working on it for quite a while, so try and find one that is interesting and that you can reasonably cover in the time and space available.

Focus on a broad research topic.

If you have a topic in mind, you still have to fine-tune your selection and narrow the focus. For example, by selecting the subject "Medical Care," you will discover reports relating to dozens of more narrow subjects, such as "Managed Care," "Medical Malpractice," and "Medical Mistakes." You will have to limit your topic, so that the research questions can be significant, original and answerable.