- •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:
- •Focus and aim:
- •Outline of structure:
- •Explaining Keywords
- •1A. Writing Introductions: Dissertations
- •Establishing the importance of the topic:
- •Establishing the importance of the topic (time frame given):
- •Synopsis of Literature
- •Highlighting a problem or controversy in the field of study:
- •Highlighting a knowledge gap in the field of study:
- •Purpose
- •Research Questions or hypotheses
- •Synopsis of the method
- •Indication of limitations
- •Reasons for Personal Interest
- •Outline of structure:
- •Explaining Keywords
- •2. Referring to 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 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
- •3. 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:
- •4. Describing Methods
- •Describing different methods
- •Giving reasons why a particular method was adopted
- •Indicating a specific method
- •Indicating sample size and characteristics
- •Indicating reasons for sample characteristics
- •Describing the process: infinitive of purpose
- •Describing the process: other phrases expressing purpose
- •Describing the process: typical verbs (note use of passive form)
- •Describing the process: sequence words/phrases
- •Describing the process: adverbs of manner
- •Describing the process: giving detailed information
- •Indicating problems or limitations
- •5. Reporting Results
- •Reference to 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
- •6. Discussions
- •Background information
- •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 and implications
- •Commenting on findings
- •Suggestions for future work
- •7. Writing Conclusions
- •Summarising the content
- •Restatement of aims (research)
- •Summarising the findings (research)
- •Suggesting implications
- •Significance of the findings (research)
- •Limitations of the current study (research)
- •Recommendations for further work (research)
- •Implications/recommendations for practice or policy
- •8. General Functions
- •8.1 Writing Definitions
- •Simple two-part definitions
- •General meanings / application of meanings:
- •Indicating difficulties in defining a term:
- •Specifying terms that are used in an essay/thesis:
- •Referring to people's definitions (author prominent):
- •Referring to people's definitions (author non-prominent):
- •8.2 Giving Examples
- •Examples as the main information in a sentence:
- •Examples as additional information in a sentence
- •8.3 Classifying and Listing
- •General Classifications
- •Specific Classifications:
- •Introducing Lists:
- •Refering to other people's lists
- •8.4 Describing Causes and Effects
- •Verbs expressing causality
- •Nouns expressing causality
- •Introductory Sentences: Differences
- •Introductory Sentences: Similarities
- •Comparison within one sentence
- •Comparison within one sentence (comparative forms)
- •Comparison across two sentences
- •8.6 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
- •Describing percentages
- •Describing averages
- •Describing ranges
Unexpected outcome
Surprisingly, X was found to ....... One unanticipated finding was that ..... It is somewhat surprising that no X was noted in this condition ...... What is surprising is that ...... Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant difference between ....... However, the observed difference in between X and Y in this study was not significant. However, the ANOVA (one way) showed that these results were not statistically significant.
Reference to previous research (support)
This study produced results which corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous work in this field. These findings of the current study are consistent with those of Smith and Jones (2001) who found ...... This finding supports previous research into this brain area which links X and Y. This study confirms that X is associated with ...... This finding is in agreement with Smith's (1999) findings which showed ....... It is encouraging to compare this figure with that found by Jones (1993) who found that ..... There are similarities between the attitudes expressed by X in this study and those described by (Smith, 1987, 1995) and Jones (1986) These findings further support the idea of ..... Increased activation in the PCC in this study corroborates these earlier findings. These results are consistent with those of other studies and suggest that ...... The present findings seem to be consistent with other research which found ......
Reference to previous research (contradict)
However, the findings of the current study do not support the previous research. This study has been unable to demonstrate that ...... However, this result has not previously been described. In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of X was detected. Although, these results differ from some published studies (Smith, 1992; Jones, 1996), they are consistent with those of ......
Explanations for results:
There are several possible explanations for this result. These differences can be explained in part by the proximity of X and Y. A possible explanation for this might be that ..... Another possible explanation for this is that ...... This result may be explained by the fact that ...../ by a number of different factors. It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be related to ...... It seems possible that these results are due to ...... The reason for this is not clear but it may have something to do with ...... It may be that these students benefitted from ...... This inconsistency/discrepancy may be due to ...... This rather contradictory result may be due to ...... These factors may explain the relatively good correlation between X and Y.
There are, however, other possible explanations. The possible interference of X can not be ruled out. The observed increased in X could be attributed to ..... The observed correlation between X and Y might be explained in this way. .....
Advising cautious interpretation
These data must be interpreted with caution because ......
These results therefore need to be interpreted with caution. However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to ......