- •Establishing the importance of the topic:
- •Establishing the importance of the topic (time frame given):
- •Highlighting a problem or controversy in the field of study:
- •Highlighting a knowledge gap in the field of study (for research):
- •Focus and aim:
- •Outline of structure:
- •Explaining Keywords
- •General descriptions of the relevant literature:
- •General reference to previous research/scholarly activity (usually more than one author)
- •Reference to current state of knowledge
- •Reference to single investigations in the past: researcher(s) as sentence subject
- •Reference to single investigations or publications in the past: time frame prominent
- •Reference to single investigations in the past: investigation prominent
- •Reference to single investigations in the past: research topic as subject
- •Reference to what other writers do in their text (author as subject)
- •Reference to other writers' ideas (author as subject)
- •Some ways of introducing quotations
- •Writing about the Past
- •Time phrases associated with the use of the simple past tense (specific times or periods of time in the past completed)
- •Reference to single investigations or publications in the past: simple past tense used
- •Time phrases associated with the use of the present perfect tense (for situations/actions which began in the past and continue up to the present, or for which the period of time is unspecified):
- •The present perfect tense may also be used to describe recent research or scholarly activity with focus on the area of enquiry - usually more than one study
- •Being Critical
- •Introducing questions, problems and limitations (theory)
- •Introducing questions, problems and limitations (method/practice)
- •Identifying a study's weakness:
- •Offering constructive suggestions:
- •Introducing other people's criticisms:
- •Reference to aim/method
- •Location and summary statements:
- •Highlighting significant data in a table/chart
- •Statements of result (positive)
- •Statements of result (negative)
- •Highlighting significant, interesting or surprising results
- •Reporting results from questionnaires and interviews
- •Transition statements
- •Background information (reference to literature or to research aim/question)
- •Statements of result (usually with reference to results section)
- •Unexpected outcome
- •Reference to previous research (support)
- •Reference to previous research (contradict)
- •Explanations for results:
- •Advising cautious interpretation
- •Suggesting general hypotheses
- •Noting implications
- •Commenting on findings
- •Suggestions for future work
- •Writing about the Past
- •Time phrases associated with the use of the simple past tense (specific times or periods of time in the past completed)
- •Reference to single investigations or publications in the past: simple past tense used
- •Time phrases associated with the use of the present perfect tense (for situations/actions which began in the past and continue up to the present, or for which the period of time is unspecified):
- •The present perfect tense may also be used to describe recent research or scholarly activity with focus on the area of enquiry - usually more than one study
Focus and aim:
This paper will focus on/examine/give an account of ...... This paper seeks to address the following questions: This essay critically examines/discusses/traces ...... The purpose of this paper is to review recent research into the ...... This paper will review the research conducted on ...... In this paper I argue that ..... This chapter reviews the literature concerning the usefulness of using ...... The aim of this paper is to determine/examine ...... The aim of this study was to evaluate and validate ......
Outline of structure:
The main questions/issues addressed in this paper are: a), b and c). This paper has been divided into four parts. The first part deals with ...... The essay has been organised in the following way. This paper first gives a brief overview of the recent history of X. This paper begins by ...... It will then go on to ...... The first section of this paper will examine ...... Finally, .......
Chapter 2 begins by laying out the theoretical dimensions of the research, and looks at how ...... Chapter 3 describes the design, synthesis, characterization and evaluation of ...... The last chapter assesses the ......
Explaining Keywords
While a variety of definitions of the term X have been suggested, this paper will use the definition first suggested by Smith (1968) who saw it as ....... Throughout this paper the term X will refer to/will be used to refer to ....... In this article the acronym/abbreviation XYZ will be used.
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General descriptions of the relevant literature:
A considerable amount of literature has been published on X. These studies ...... The first serious discussions and analyses of X emerged during the 1970s with ...... The generalisability of much published research on this issue is problematic. What we know about X is largely based upon empirical studies that investigate how ...... During the past 30 years much more information has become available on ...... In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of literature on ....... A large and growing body of literature has investigated ......
General reference to previous research/scholarly activity (usually more than one author)
Many historians have argued that ...... (eg. Jones, 1987; Johnson, 1990; Smith, 1994) Numerous studies have attempted to explain ..... (for example, Smith , 1996; Kelly, 1998; Johnson, 2002)
Recent evidence suggests that ....... (Smith, 1996; Jones 1999; Johnson, 2001) Recently, in vitro studies have shown that T.thermophylus EFTu can ...... (Patel et al., 1997; Jones et al., 1998). Surveys such as that conducted by Smith (1988) have shown that ......
Several attempts have been made to ....... (Smith, 1996; Jones 1999; Johnson, 2001) Several studies have revealed that it is not just X that acts on ...... (Smith, 1996; Jones ....... Several biographies of Harris have been published. Smith presents an ........ account, whilst Jones ..... Several studies investigating X have been carried out on ......
Previous studies have reported ...... (Smith, 1985; Jones, 1987; Johnson, 1992). Previous research findings into X have been inconsistent and contradictory (Smith, 1996; Jones 1999, ...... A number of studies have found that ...... (Smith , 2003; Jones, 2004).
The relationship between X and Y has been widely investigated (Smith, 1985; Jones, 1987, ....... The causes of X have been widely investigated (Jones, 1987; Johnson, 1990; Smith, 1994). The geology of X has been addressed in several smallscale investigations and ....... Xs have been identified as major contributing factors for the decline of many species (1). X has also been shown to reverse the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids in murine-induced arthritis (11).
It has been suggested that levels of X are independent of the size of the Y (Smith et al., 1995) It has conclusively been shown that X and Y increase Z (Smith et al., 1999; Jones, 2001 ...... It has been demonstrated that a high intake of X results in damage to ...... (Smith, 1998; ......