It is now generally accepted/recognized that …

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in …

Many recent studies have focused on …

Recently, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on …

One of the most important/promising aspects/tasks of … is …

One of the characteristic/important features of … is …

Over the last decade, research on … has increasingly demonstrated that …

The development of … has led to …

The relationship between … has been investigated/explored by many researchers.

The close relationship between … has become well established, supported, in particular, by …

The … has been extensively studied in recent years.

(Yakhontova, 2002: 110)

Step 1b makes intensive use of different citation patterns since here we present review of the previous research in the field.

Useful phrases for justifying your research/study

Quite often Step 2a and Step 2b contain some critique.

Although considerable amount of research has been devoted to …, few attempts have been made to investigate …

Despite the importance/significance of …, little attention has been paid to …

However, few investigations have focused on ..

However, little research has been undertaken to study the problem of…

However, little is known about the …

None of these data/results/findings provide the evidence for…

No data/studies support the …

(Yakhontova, 2002: 111)

Step 2c provides motivation for the research by raising a question, problem or need. Here direct questions can be used or the following phrases:

Further investigations are needed to …

It remains unclear whether …

It would be thus of interest to study/learn/investigate …

Step 2d shows how a certain research or its results can be extended in some way.

This method proved to be efficient for solving a number of various problems. In this paper, we demonstrate its applications to …

Useful phrases for introducing your paper

In Step 3 the purpose or nature of the present research are outlined. Typical linguistic features of this step include reference to the paper itself, use of personal pronouns (I, we), and present tense, which helps to emphasize a novel character of the research.

In this paper, I discuss…

In this study, we present the preliminary results of …

In this paper, we report on …

The major task of this study is to provide …

The paper examines …

The resent study analyses …

The purpose of this paper is to give …

This paper focuses on …

This paper addresses the above questions from the perspective of …

This study expands the model of … to…

This study seeks to understand …

This study set out to identify …

Using the described approach, this study explores …

(Yakhontova, 2002: 112)

Useful phrases for highlighting the outcome

Finally, implications will be drawn from the results obtained.

Tentative explanations for … are offered.

The paper closes with several suggestions on …

The paper implies a number of practical recommendations to …

The paper will conclude by …

As a final point, a conclusion involving … will be offered.

(Yakhontova, 2002: 141)

Below there is an example of conference abstracts with identified steps. Read carefully the abstracts and pay attention to the structure, size and language.

CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN CANADA:

EVIDENCE ON RECENT GRADUATES

Ross Finnie

Queen's University and Statistics Canada

^{Outlining the research field (Step 1a)} According to the knowledge-based model of advanced economies, human resources are central to a country's economic performance, and science and technology workers are particularly important in this regard. As a result, governments have adopted policies targeted on increasing the numbers of graduates in these areas, and Canada is no exception in this regard. ^{Justifying a particular research/study (Step 2a or 2b)} These initiatives have, however, been undertaken in a context where there is relatively little solid evidence on careers in science and technology, even as a number of recent studies have reported that at least certain groups of science and technology graduates have been facing significant difficulties in the labour market in this country and elsewhere.

^{Introducing the paper (Step 3)} The contribution of this paper is to assess the attractiveness of careers in science and technology and the contribution that graduates in this area have been making to the accumulation of scientific and technological knowledge in Canada. This is done by presenting the results of an empirical analysis of recent science and technology graduates in terms of their employment patterns, job-education skill matches, earnings levels, and other indicators of success in finding meaningful and satisfying work and setting out on rewarding and productive careers related to their areas of study. The research is based on the National Graduates Surveys and covers graduates at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.