As you know, ENC707 is designed to guide you through the process of officially presenting and publishing your scholarly research project. Last week, we reviewed how to ensure ethical writing and reporting as you complete the major tasks for ENC707. This presentation reviews the conventions of academic writing and reporting you will need as you proofread and polish your project over the next several weeks.
Whether you are writing a dissertation, formatting a journal article, or preparing presentation slides, a typical research report follows the general sequence of abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, findings/results, conclusion, and references. As a result of reading dozens of scholarly articles throughout this Ed.D. program, you should be quite familiar with this scholarly reporting format.
In addition to the scholarly reporting format, it is wise to consider your audience. When writing for academic purposes, written research reports can take the form of a dissertation, thesis, or—in your case—a scholarly research project; a scholarly journal article or book chapter; or a progress or final report required by a specific institution or granting body. Academic presentations generally take the form of a professional or scholarly presentation for students and other scholars; a formal presentation for key stakeholders, such as research participants and others at the research site; and sometimes, creative or expressive presentations.
Creative or expressive presentations are designed to engage an audience emotionally, usually for the purpose of deepening understanding about, empathy for, or commitment to the topic or issue under study. One common format for creative and expressive presentations is the participatory presentation, where the research findings are co-presented by the lead researcher and some or all of the research participants. Creative and expressive presentations can also take the form of multimedia presentations, such as musical compositions or photography displays; video recordings; or dramatic or artistic performances. While creative and expressive presentations are often more entertaining and engaging than formal, academic presentations, they also risk falling short of academic standards for rigor and credibility in research. So, for now, stick with a formal, academic presentation format when reporting your scholarly research project. Perhaps you can re-work it into a creative or expressive presentation sometime in the future.
Your scholarly research manuscript—like a dissertation or thesis—requires an expanded version of the typical research report. This expanded version includes front matter, such as a signature page, dedication and acknowledgement pages, and a detailed table of contents at the beginning and a comprehensive reference list and sometimes appendices at the end. The green checkmarks on slide 5 signify the sections of your scholarly research manuscript that you have drafted so far. Beginning in Week 5, you will complete the remaining sections using the Scholarly Research Manuscript Template that is provided in the Week 5 instructional materials.
During Week 5, PowerPoint Six will walk you through how to complete each section of the Scholarly Research Manuscript Template, including the front matter pages, writing an abstract, developing your table of contents, cutting and pasting chapters 1–5 into the template to create one document, compiling your references into one, long list, and listing and formatting any tables, figures, or appendices that will supplement your written report. Even if you plan to hire a professional editor, it will be your responsibility to thoroughly complete all sections of the manuscript, compile everything into one document, and revise the entire document for accuracy, clarity, and consistency before handing it off to a professional. If you want to take a look at the Scholarly Research Manuscript Template to get a sense of how your final manuscript will be formatted, you will find it in the Week 5 instructional materials.
Now that you have a sense of how your scholarly research manuscript will be formatted, let’s review the conventions of academic writing that you will need to consider as you proofread, revise, and polish your manuscript for publication. Academic writing can take many forms and styles, but for those of you enrolled in Bradley’s Ed.D. program, your APA Manual, 7th edition always has the final word on conventions of academic writing. With that said, chapter 8 of the Mertler (2020) text provides a nice overview of the most common conventions that should be observed when writing a research report, the first of which is your title. The title of your scholarly research project should clearly and concisely describe what your study is about. As you finalize your title in preparation for publication, make sure that your title plainly signals the issue under investigation, your research methodology, and possibly your research setting and participants. If you have a lot of information that you want to include in your title, consider using a title and a subtitle, separated with a colon, such as “Women Presidents in Higher Education: Shared Stories of Convoluted Career Paths”. Notice that this title clearly signals the issue under investigation (career paths), suggests that the study is qualitative (shared stories), and clearly identifies the research participants (women presidents) and the research setting (higher education). Academic writing also requires an abstract, or a comprehensive summary of the entire report. For your scholarly research manuscript, your abstract should summarize chapters 1–5, all within one paragraph of 300 words or fewer. Be sure to introduce your research problem, purpose, or question(s); describe the research setting and participants; explain your research methodologies and methods; summarize your study’s findings or results; and close with your conclusions, implications for practice, and/or recommendations for future research. You may want to draft your abstract by cutting and pasting key sentences from chapters 1–5 and then editing down until you reach 300 words. Once your scholarly research manuscript is published on the ERIC website, your abstract will assist other scholars in understanding the focus and scope of your study without having to skim the entire document.
As you proofread your entire scholarly research manuscript in the coming weeks, you will need to proofread for third-person or first-person perspective. Traditionally, research reports were written in third-person perspective, such as “the authors” or “the researcher,” as a means of maintaining objectivity and minimizing bias. Especially in qualitative studies, first-person perspective has become more acceptable as the research community has come to understand that we all bring our own life experiences, values, assumptions, and yes, biases to our research efforts, whether we like it or not. You will also need to proofread for passive and active voice. Again, traditionally, research reports have used passive voice, but we now understand that active voice is more reader-friendly. So, use active voice as often as possible.
Yet another consideration in academic writing is verb tense. Typically, scholarly research reports are written in past tense, since they are reported after the research is completed. However, in some cases, such as in a study’s introduction, present tense may be more appropriate since the researcher is describing a current situation, concern, or problem. When describing something that has occurred in the past and may still be happening in the present, use present perfect tense. In addition, as you proofread the discussion section of your manuscript, you will need to proofread any claims you make or conclusions you draw to ensure an appropriate level of assertion. In most cases, it is better to make a tentative statement, such as, “The findings suggest that the students in this study prefer writing papers to taking multiple choice tests” as opposed to the more definitive, “The findings show that all students prefer writing papers to taking multiple choice tests.” Because not all students participated in the study, limiting the claim to “the students in this study” makes it an accurate statement. Additionally, unlike the verb “show,” which communicates that the full truth has been revealed, the verb “suggest” communicates that this is the most accurate claim that can be made based on the data that were collected and analyzed for this particular study.
Clarity and consistency are particularly important aspects of academic writing. In terms of clarity, writers should aim for getting their point across in as few words as possible. In addition, paragraphs should be used to help the reader transition from concept to concept; and headings and subheadings should be used to signal each chapter’s overall organizational scheme. In terms of consistency, be cognizant of your word choice, abbreviations, acronyms, and formatting. Your goal as a writer is to use the same terminology, abbreviation, acronym, formatting etc. throughout each chapter of your scholarly research manuscript.
One big mistake that novice scholars make is thinking that they need to use big words and long sentences in order to sound scholarly. Actually, the opposite is true. Choose unpretentious words that are already part of your vocabulary and that readers are likely to understand. Write using short sentences when possible, and avoid redundancy and wordiness, overly detailed descriptions, and overuse of adjectives and adverbs. Simple language is reader-friendly. You will probably find that it is writer-friendly as well!
The language of academic writing should also be respectful. One important rule of thumb is to avoid using labels as nouns. For example, instead of referring to faculty as progressives, it is more respectful to use the term progressive-leaning faculty. Also, use person-first rather than condition-first language. For example, instead of referring to autistic students, it is more respectful to use the term students diagnosed as autistic.
Moreover, make every effort to reduce bias that may seep through your writing in content, tone, or both. For example, listen to the blame and underlying assumptions in the statement, parents failed to take responsibility for ensuring that their children had school supplies. It is more respectful to simply state the facts: Many children arrived for the first day of school without school supplies. As we wrap up our discussion about the conventions of academic writing, please remember that some conventions—like spelling, grammar, and punctuation—are guided by strict rules. They are either correct or incorrect. Other conventions, such as verb tense and word choice, are at the discretion of the author. Any time you are in doubt or need clear guidance, be sure to consult your APA Manual, 7th edition.
Before we finish our discussion about the conventions of academic writing, let’s take a minute to review the importance of articulating your positionality as a researcher in your study. Recall that, in action research, you as the researcher are likely to be directly involved in the research setting. You are also likely to know some or all of your research participants. This makes you an insider. Critics of action research might argue that, being an insider, your study’s results or findings could be tainted by bias. On the other hand, if you are an outsider to your research setting, critics may argue that there is a power imbalance because you are conducting research without truly knowing the experience of your research participants. Whether you are an insider or an outsider, or some variation in between, you should explicitly state and justify your position in chapter 3 of your scholarly research manuscript, and possibly in particular sections of other chapters as well. The advantage of reviewing your positionality near the end of your study is that when you originally drafted chapter 3 you were anticipating your positionality as a researcher but may not have been able to articulate the details. Now that you have directly experienced your interactions with your research participants and possibly other stakeholders, you may need to further clarify this section.
This week, complete the week’s reading assignments, finish revising chapter 4 of your scholarly research manuscript, and begin thinking about what will be needed for writing chapter 5. In addition, if you’re curious, take a sneak peek at the Scholarly Research Manuscript Template to begin preparing for pulling it all together!
This brings us to the end of PowerPoint 2. Please refer to the course syllabus to continue completing the Week 2 objectives and assignments.