uchebnik_dlya_aspirantov

COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE

Act out the situations:

1.Two post-graduate students are participating in an international conference.

2.There they get acquainted and talk about the problems of their research, discuss the progress in their field of science and its influence on life today.

3.Two post-graduate students are sharing information about new approaches and developments in their research areas. They talk about the contributions made by other scientists and discuss publications available on their research problems.

4.Two young researchers are discussing their current research, expressing particular interest in the objectives of the research, and describing the methods they use.

5.You have a poster presentation at the conference. Another participant is interested in your topic. Tell him about the main stages of your research, present the results obtained, and give a short explanation of the main findings.

6.You are interested in your colleague’s research and his latest

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findings. Ask him/her about the difficulties he/she faced with in carrying out research (experiments, analyses), and about the progress he/she has made.

7.Your fellow-student has never participated in a conference. He is eager to know about your experiences. Tell him what the most difficult thing for you was and what you really enjoyed.

8.You are a chairperson opening a Students’ Annual Conference. To do it you are given five minutes.

9.You submitted a paper to the organizing committee of an international conference and it was accepted. Today you are given the floor to present your research data. The time limit is ten minutes. Give your presentation.

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MODULE 3. WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS

Writing a research paper takes a lot of time and effort. It demands a thorough knowledge not only of the subject you are writing about, but also of the strategies for generating, verifying, substantiating and proving ideas. It is necessary to follow the structure, style, format and layout of the paper. The following guidelines will help you by providing a step-by- step explanation of the research-writing process.

Unit 1. Gathering Data and Writing Summary Notes

When reading papers written by other authors, on the subject that is of interest to you, you must write summary notes.

A summary condenses into a brief note the key ideas of a source. It is a brief description of the material without a lot of concern for style or expression. Summary notes are very helpful when you deal with references to source materials, statistical data and all kinds of facts on your specific topic.

A precis is a polished summary that in a few words expresses the key ideas on an entire paragraph, section or chapter. Writing a precis proves to be very helpful when you review an article, a book, or produce an abstract. To produce a precis condense the original piece of writing, reducing a paragraph into a sentence, an article into a brief paragraph, a book into a page. Preserve the tone and the mood of the original, do not take the material out of context. Always locate the source of your material to review a piece of writing or to write a plot summary.

TASK: Do you ever write summary notes? If not, are you going to start? Write a precis of a paper using the instructions given above.

Unit 2. Organizing Ideas

Most papers in various scientific disciplines have a similar organization pattern – Introduction, Body and Conclusion (especially papers on theoretical issues). Research papers based on experiments would include Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion/Conclusion.

When you write a research paper observe the following instructions:

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Introduction: identify the subject of your research and narrow it to a specific topic, provide background information, state the problem and the hypothesis of research, provide theoretical basics of the study, formulate the thesis statement/ sentence.

Method: describe the subject/participants of your study, the apparatus and equipment used, the procedure followed.

Results: report on your findings, support them with statistical data, diagrams, graphs, tables and figures, etc., note whether your findings are consistent with the advanced hypothesis.

Discussion/Conclusion: evaluate and interpret the results obtained, make inferences from the results, discuss the implications of your findings. You can end your paper with some reflections about the topic discussed, some suggestions for further research.

TASK: When you start writing a paper, will you follow the instructions given above? Will you eliminate or add new elements? Have you consulted your thesis supervisor on this issue? If not, are you going to discuss it with him/ her?

Unit 3. Writing the Paper: Structure, Linguistics and Style

A research paper has physical and structural characteristics. The physical characteristics consist of the title, the introduction, the main body parts and the conclusion, which you write in indented paragraphs.

The Title

When you start reading a research paper, its title is perhaps the most important part, because the key words in the title help you make a decision whether the paper is of interest for you or not. Thus the title should not be very long and general, but rather specific, e.g. “The LUMINA element for the matrix displacement method”. To achieve this effect you can first name the general subject followed by a colon, and then:

–add the phrase that renames the subject, e.g. “Matrix displacement method: recent developments”;

–add the phrase that describes the type of study, e.g. “Matrix displacement method: experimental observations”;

–add a sentence in a question form, e.g. “Matrix displacement

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method: What comes next?”.

The title should always be relevant to the problem studied, and fit the paper. It should provide code words which identify the main points of research.

TASK: Look through the journals on the subject of your research and find the titles of the papers that fit the requirements discussed above. Write down several titles for your paper, discuss them with your fellow-students and choose the best one.

Introduction

When you write the introduction, you begin with a broad statement relating to the subject of research and narrow it down to specifics, namely the thesis statement/ sentence of the whole paper. It is usually a single declarative sentence, the assertion you make about the main points of your study. The thesis statement helps both the writer and the reader. For the writer, it provides a definite framework to follow in the rest of the paper. For the reader, it provides a guide for a clear understanding of what to expect from the rest of the paper. Express your thesis statement at the end of the introduction.

TASK: Think over and write a thesis sentence for your paper. Show it to your fellow students. Let them figure out what the subject and the reason for your research are.

Body

The body of the paper should provide evidence in support of the thesis sentence, each paragraph explaining one and only one aspect of the thesis. Begin each paragraph with a statement of the key idea in one sentence, which is called the topic sentence, and explain or support it with details and evidence. There are several ways of supporting the key idea and developing paragraphs – by describing, classifying, providing statistical data and scientific evidence, analyzing causes and effects, comparing and contrasting, etc. The strategies are determined by the point you want to make and the kind of information you have to work with.

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Conclusion

The conclusion can be a summary of the introduction and the development paragraphs of the body parts, which is usually done from specific to general – this study to larger implications. But more importantly it should express your judgment on the research performed and the results obtained, explain the findings and/or make suggestions for further investigation.

* * *

Structurally, a paper should have unity and coherence. Unity gives the writing single vision, and coherence connects the parts. Your paper has unity when it talks about one topic, step by step exploring it in depth. Your paper is coherent if all its parts fit together, talk about the same topic, are connected logically and flow smoothly from one to the other. To obtain this effect use cohesive devices.

Cohesive devices help readers follow a writer’s train of thought by connecting key words and phrases thought a paper. Among such devices are: pronoun references, same-word repetition, synonym repetition, sentence-structure repetition, collocations.

Transition words serve as a bridge, connecting one paragraph with another. Transitions help readers anticipate how the next paragraph or sentence will affect the meaning of what they have just read:

also, besides, furthermore, in addition – to add more thought;

first, next, finally, later, afterwards, in front, beyond, etc. – to arrange ideas in order, time or space;

but, still, yet, however, on the other hand, nevertheless – to connect two contrasting ideas;

for example, in other words – to add an illustration or explanation; in short, in brief, to sum up – to summarize several ideas.

* * *

Nowadays in scientific publications there is a strong tendency to use definite verb tenses in certain types of papers. When you write a paper in natural sciences, use past tense or present tense to cite an author’s work and/or show what has been accomplished: (e.g., “Landau created” or “the experiment of Lakes and Paul has proven…”). Use present tense when you discuss the results or when you mention established knowledge (e.g.,

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“water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade”). Write your paper with a thirdperson voice (e.g.“ It is well known”) that avoids “I believe” or “It is my opinion.”

TASK: Read sample 1 “Introduction” and mark sentences that describe the subject, background, problem and thesis statement.

Sample 1

Syntheses and Antimalarial Activities

of N-Substituted 11-Azaartemisinins

Daniel S. Torok and Herman Ziffer

National Institutes of Health, Building 5, Bl-31, Bethesda,

Maryland 20892-0510

Steven R. Meshnick and Xing-Qing Pan

Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School

of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2029

Arba Ager

University of Miami School of Medicine, Center for Tropical Parasitic Diseases,

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, 12500 S. W.

152nd Street, Miami,

Florida 33177

Introduction

Malaria continues to be the most prevalent and deadly parasitic disease in the world, infecting some 300 million people and causing ca. 3 million deaths each year. Clinical studies in Thailand,2a-c China,2d Somalia,2e and Sudan2f of artemisinin derivatives in combination with older antimalarial drugs have demonstrated substantial improvements over conventional treatments including more rapidly decreasing parasitemia and fever, as well as fewer deaths. Patients infected with drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum recovered completely. Although several studies have shown that artemisinin derivatives can be administered by means of transdermal patches and suppositories, in the above studies they were administered orally despite their poor bioavailability. Apparently alternative modes of administration in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia posed problems that could not be circumvented.

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The majority of artemisinin derivatives prepared to date have been either ester, ether, carbonate, or urethane derivatives of the hydroxyl group of dihydro-artemisinin, 1a.3 The greater stability of lactams to acidic conditions, such as those present in the stomach, should reduce the destruction of the drug that occurs there and might, therefore, lead to an increase in the drag’s bioavailability. Moreover, incorporating a lipophilic or hydrophilic substituent on the lactam nitrogen provides a means to control the drug’s solubility properties. Furthermore, preliminary data by Avery et al.4a on a totally synthetic azaartemisinin analog, N-benzyl- 11-aza-9- desmethylartemisinin, indicated that it was 50% more potent than artemisinin, 2. We report here a short synthetic route for the conversion of 2 into a series of novel N- substituted 11azaartemisinin derivatives as well as in vitro and in vivo test data for these compounds.

TASK: Read the following recommendation which will help you avoid certain mistakes while writing the introduction of your paper.

Avoid:

a purpose statement, such as “The purpose of this study is …”

repetition of the title, which should appear on the first page of the text anyway

complex or difficult questions that may puzzle the reader simple dictionary definitions

humor, unless the subject deals with humor.

TASK: Read the list of phrases and choose the most appropriate ones to write an introduction of your paper.

List of phrases used to write an introduction:

Historical background and the research problem

1.During the past decade there has been increasing research into … .

2.In some theoretical studies … .

3.… were able to provide a fully generalized, compact simultaneous solution to … .

4.In particular, they employed … for … .

5.… is an important and common problem.

6.It has become a canonical problem in the study of …, providing a valuable test for simulation methods or theoretical models.

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7.In the previous paper … we used a specific model for … .

8.The paper examines a method for … .

9.Earlier descriptions of the … assumed that … .

10.However, detailed experimental studies of … indicate that … .

11.The most rigorous treatments available are restricted to the … .

12.Accordingly, we suggest that … .

13.A number of different techniques have been used in … to study ….

14.The paper continues in Section 2 with a discussion of …, Section 3 overviews …, Section 4 then proposes … and this matter is discussed in Section 5. Finally in Section 6 we discuss … .

15.Several techniques have been used to investigate … .

Literature review

1.There is a wide body of literature which suggests that … .

2.…effects have received much attention.

3.There were the limited number of studies conducted on … .

4.The listings of the programme may be found in … .

5.Examples are given in … .

6.Extensive field studies were undertaken by the scientists at … .

The need for your investigation

1.There is still lack of knowledge … . Much further research is needed to understand … .

2.… has received little attention in recent years.

3.It is therefore important to establish the … .

4.Studies on the … process have been and still are of great interest because of the …

5.In spite of significant recent advancement in the fundamental understanding of … several important aspects of the … still remain controversial.

6.… investigations have been proved very valuable in … but they do not give a complete picture of …, since they eliminate … .

7.Most of the above investigations concentrated on the general effects of … and did not look carefully at the … .

8.There is still no complete knowledge of … .

9.There are still many gaps in our knowledge of the problems of … .

10.We still know very little about the origin of … .

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The purpose of research

1.The objective of this study is … .

2.… is the primary purpose of the paper.

3.The aim of this paper is to investigate the … .

TASKS:

1.Let your fellow-students read the introduction to the paper you have written. What do they like/dislike about it?

2.Discuss with your fellow-students what techniques of writing research papers are most typical for your field of science, and then read sample 2

“The Body of the Paper: Experimental Section”.

Sample 2

Experimental Section

Melting points were determined on a Reichert melting point apparatus and are uncorrected. 1H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded at 300 and 75 MHz, respectively, on a Varian Gemini 300 spectrometer, using CDC13 as solvent. CIMS analyses were performed on a Finnigan 4600 mass spectrometer. IR spectra were obtained from neat films on a Perkin Elmer Model BIORad FTS-45 spectrophotometer. Optical rotations were measured at 589 nm on a Perkin-Elmer 241 MC polarimeter. Thin layer chromatography was performed on EM silica gel 60 F254 plates. Radial dispersion chromatography (RDC) was performed on a chromatotron (Harrison Research, Palo Alto, CA) using 1 or 2 mm silica gel-coated plates. All reagents are commercially available and used as supplied with the exception of the amines which were distilled prior to use. Microanalyses were performed by Galbraith Laboratories (P.O. Box 51610, Knoxville, TN 37950-1610) and are within +0.4 % of the theoretical values. The compounds with satisfactory microanalyses are indicated in Table 3 by the letter A and those by high-resolution mass spectrometry by the letter B. In those cases where the molecular ion was too weak for high-resolution mass spectrometry, the molecular ion by CI-MS (NH3) was readily detected by low-resolution mass spectrometry and is indicated by the letter C. The identities and purities were established by mass spectroscopy and the absence of extraneous resonances in their 1H and 13C NMR spectra.

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