HOW TO WRITE

RESEARCH
PAPERS
PROF. DR. MUHLİSE COŞGUN ÖGEYİK
Parts of the Research Paper

■ Title
■ Abstract
■ Introduction
■ Methods
■ Results
■ Discuission
■ Acknowledgments
■ References
Abstract types

Abstract: brief description, purpose, sampling, methods, data collection procedures,main findings, and
comment.
■ Critical Abstract
A critical abstract provides, in addition to describing main findings and information, a judgement or
comment about the study’s validity, reliability, or completeness.
■ Descriptive Abstract
A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgments
about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It includes key words found
in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research.
■ Informative Abstract
The majority of abstracts are informative. While it does not evaluate a work, it does more than describe
it. A good informative abstract acts as a substitute for the work itself. The author presents and explains
all the main arguments, the important results, and evidence in the paper.
The abstract SHOULD NOT contain:

■ Lengthy background information,

■ References to other literature [say something like, "current research shows that..." or
"studies have indicated..."],
■ Using ellipticals [i.e., ending with "..."] or incomplete sentences,
■ Abbreviations, jargon, or terms that may be confusing to the reader, and
■ Any sort of image, illustration, figure, or table, or references to them.
Style

■ Get to the point quickly

■ Always use the past tense because you are reporting on research that has been
completed.
■ Mostly passive sentence constructions
Introduction section

■ The introduction presents information to the reader from a general subject area to a
particular field of research.
■ It establishes the context of the research being conducted by summarizing existing
information
■ It presents background information about the topic,
■ It states the purpose of the work under question, or research problem,
■ It briefly explaines the methodological approach by highlighting the potential outcomes
the study,
■ It can describe the remaining structure of the paper.
The introduction section must answer the following
questions

■ What was I studying?

■ Why was this topic important to investigate?
■ How will your study contribute to the relevant literature?
■ What did we know about this topic before I did this study?
■ How will this study advance our knowledge?
A well-written introduction

■ makes a good first impression for the reader,

■ comprises the opening paragraph that provides the reader with the initial impressions
about the overall quality of your paper,
■ presents the quality of your writing style,
■ displays the validity of your findings and conclusions.
How to write an introduction:

– Emphasize the importance of the topic,

– Highlight general statements about the topic,
– Present a general idea on the current research regarding the subject,
– Present and stress a gap in existing research,
– Formulate a research hypothesis, question (s) or problem,
– State the purpose of the study,
– Outline the key features of the study,
– Present main results,
– Give a brief outline of the structure of the paper.
Literature review section

■ In the literature review section published scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a
particular topic or theory are presented.
■ While presenting these works, critical evaluation is designed.
■ Literature review section comprises an overview of sources you have explored in order to demonstrate to
how your research fits into the field of study.
■ A literature review which consists an overview of key sources combines both summary and synthesis in
an organized way.
■ The overview of the sources should be relevant to your research topic; irrelevant literature should be
excluded.
■ It should emphasize the intellectual progression of the field by focusing on major debates.
■ In the conclusion part of a literature review, the gaps existing the relevant literature need to be discussed.
The purpose of a literature review is
to:
■ evaluate each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the research
problem being studied,
■ focus on any gaps in previous research,
■ determine the probable conflicts amongst previous studies,
■ categorize areas of previous research,
■ discuss the importance of fulfilling a need for additional research,
■ stress the significance of your present research within the framework of existing
literature.
The structure of a literature review section

■ Narrowing the Topic: the narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of
sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources.
■ An overview of the subject,
■ Classifying the works under review into themes or categories,
■ Considering whether your sources are current,
■ Presenting current literature reviews,
■ Discussing the similarity or dissimilarity of each work,
■ Evaluating the contribution of each work to the research area.
Ways to Organize Literature Review

■ Chronological of Events
If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials
according to when they were published.
■ By Publication
Order your sources by publication chronology.
■ Thematic or conceptual categories
Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the
progression of time.
Once you have settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each
section
Writing Literature Review

Use evidence
The interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what is said is valid.

Be elective
Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review.
Use quotes carefully
Sometimes you may need to quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do
not use extensive quotes as a substitute your own interpretation of the literature.

Summarize and synthesizes

Summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review by rephrasing the study's significance and
relating it to their own work.

Keep your own voice

While the literature review presents others' ideas, maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and
wording.

Be careful when paraphrasing

When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words.
Common mistakes while reviewing research
literature.

■ Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
■ You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in
the literature review;
■ Reporting secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research
studies;
■ Accepting another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid;
■ Not defining the research procedures used for the literature review;
■ Only including research supporting assumptions; not including opposing findings found
in the literature.
The methods section

The method section research paper provides the information about research approaches
How data were collected or generated
How data were analyzed
The writing should be precise and clear.
Past tense should be used.
The method section should include the following points:

■ how data were obtained,

■ an unreliable method yields unreliable results,
■ clear reasons should be given for choosing the research method(s) or procedure(s),
■ the research method must be suitable for the objectives of the study,
■ the research method should discuss the problems mentioned,
■ sufficient information should be provided to allow others to replicate the study.
The methodology section should:

■ Introduce the overall methodological approach for investigating your research problem;
qualitative or quantitative or a combination of both (mixed method).
■ Your methods should have a clear connection with your research problem.
■ Describe the data collection tools:, surveys, interviews, questionnaires, observation, etc.
■ Present how to analyze your results: statistical analysis, specific theoretical perspectives
to analyze a text, observed behaviors, content analysis, etc.
■ Provide clear and concise explanation.
■ Provide information for subject selection and sampling procedure.
Two common ways of presenting the results.

■ Present the results through a short explanation of the findings.

■ Present a discussion section.
The content of results section should include:

■ An introductory context for presenting the results by restating the research problem,
■ A summary of your key findings in a coherent way,
■ Inclusion figures, charts,, maps, tables, etc. to illustrate the findings,
■ In the text, a systematic description of relevant results,
■ Use the past tense when referring to results.
■ The focus only on findings that are important and related to addressing the research
problem.
When writing the results section, avoid doing the
following:

■ Discussing or interpreting your results (discussion section),

■ Reporting background information or attempting to explain your findings (introduction
section)
■ Ignoring negative results (do not ignore the results fail to support the hypothesis)
■ Including raw data or intermediate calculations.
■ Be as honest and concise as possible in reporting your findings (appeared to be greater
or lesser than... or …demonstrates promising trends that...)
■ Presenting the same data or repeating the same information more than once.
■ Confusing information in figures or tables.
Discussion section
The purpose of the discussion
■ is to interpret and describe the significance of your findings in light of what was already
known about the research problem being investigated,
■ is to explain any new understanding or fresh insights about the problem after you've
taken the findings into consideration.
■ is to connect to the literature you reviewed in the introduction section,
■ is not to rearrange the introduction by repeating the information,
■ is to forward from what you have declared at the end of the introduction section (the
gaps existing the relevant literature need to be discussed; stress the significance of your
present research within the framework of existing literature).
Discussion section

This section is demonstrates your ability as a researcher

■ to think critically about an issue, to develop creative solutions to problems regarding the
findings,
■ to formulate a deeper, more profound understanding of the research problem under
discussion,
■ to explore the underlying meaning of your research and its implications
■ to present the importance of your study and how it can fill existing gaps in the field.
■ to engage in creativity through evidence-based interpretation of findings.
The parts of the discussion section

■ Explanation of results
■ References to previous research
■ Deduction by proposing recommendations
The sequential points for organizing
discussion section:
■ Organize the discussion from the general to the specific by linking your findings to the literature.
■ Use the same key terms,
■ Use the same mode of narration,
■ Begin by briefly re-stating the research problem,
■ Then, first state the answer, then the relevant results,
■ Then interrelate your findings with the cited works of others,
■ Present the novel and unexpected findings
■ Comment on weaknesses of your study,
■ Give a concise summary of the implications of the findings,
■ Give recommendations for further research.
To summarize the parts of discussion
section;

Reiterate the research problem/state the major findings

Explain the meaning of the findings and why they are important
Relate the findings to similar studies
consider alternative explanations of the findings
Acknowledge the study’s limitations
Make suggestions for further research
Conclusion section should

■ intend to help the reader understand why your research should matter to them after they have finished
reading the paper.
■ not merely give a summary of your statements
■ include one- or- two well-developed paragraph
■ be concise
■ not have unnecessary details
■ be relatively brief
■ move from specific [your research problem] back to general and display how your research contributes
to new understanding or fills an important gap in the literature (In the introduction section, you have to
move from general to your research problem)
■ include the challenges encountered during your study
Citation

■ Taylor & Francis Standard Reference Style: APA