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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Composing Research, Communicating Results: Writing the Communication Research Paper provides communication students with the knowledge and necessary tools to compose a variety of course-required papers that are scholarly, accessible, and well-written.
- The first work of its kind to take students from brainstorming to outlining to sentence and paragraph construction to paper presentation, drawing on student-written examples
- Easy-to-understand explanations of passive voice, point of view, commonly accepted citation styles, and more, with current and relatable student-written examples
- Covers common writing assignments in communication and related courses, including the literature review, application paper, and empirical research paper
- Four pedagogical features enhance comprehension and support learning: “Write Away” quick exercises, integratable “Building Blocks” assignments, “Engaging Ethics” tips, and “Student Spotlight” examples
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Seitenzahl: 386
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Preface
For Instructors
For Students
Acknowledgments
1 So You
Have
to Write a Research Paper …
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
What This Book Is Not …
What This Book Is …
Features of This Book
The Purpose of This Chapter
Writing Papers: Chore or Challenge?
Challenge: How do I find research on my topic?
Debunking Myths about Research Papers
The “Tao” of Writing
Types of Papers
Thinking Beyond the Paper – Writing for a Professional Career
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
2 Brainstorm and Research
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
The Purpose of This Chapter
Brainstorming Topics: What Are You Interested In?
Now That You’ve Got Your Topic: Thinking about Your Audience
Asking Questions: What Do You Want Know?
Finding Research: Who Knows about This Topic and What Do They Know?
Outlining
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
3 Making Arguments, Providing Support
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
The Purpose of This Chapter
Every Paper Is an Argument
The Toulmin Method
Common Citation Styles
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
4 Style and Format
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
The Purpose of This Chapter
Your Voice, Your Audience
Thesis Sentences
Does the Paper “Flow”? What Does That Even Mean?
The TESLA Method: Transmitting Ideas Smoothly and Effortlessly
Paragraphs
Transitions
Figures of Speech and Other Stylistic Choices
Grammar Reminders
Chapter Summary
References
5 Writing the Literature Review
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
Who Are You Writing For?
Why Do Your Readers Need to Know This?
Organizing the Literature Review
Citing Published Work: What Do I Say?
Chapter Summary
References
6 Application and Reaction Papers
Chapter Learning Outcomes
hapter Features
Purpose
Audience
hinking Critically
Thinking Argumentatively
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
7 Writing Empirical Research Papers
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
Introduction, Justification, and Rationale
Revisiting the Literature Review
Methods: Argument and Explanation
Reporting Analysis and Findings
Conclusions: What Do We Know Now That We Didn’t Before?
Structure of the Paper: Similarities and Differences
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
8 What Next? Presenting and Publishing Papers
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
Presenting Your Paper: Dos and Don’ts
Publishing
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 01
Table 1.1 The myths of writing debunked
Chapter 02
Table 2.1 Idea‐mapping guidelines
Table 2.2 Freewriting guidelines
Table 2.3 Journaling guidelines
Table 2.4 Additional brainstorming techniques
Table 2.5 Common databases for finding scholarly sources
Table 2.6 Guidelines for using Internet sources
Table 2.7 Rules for outlining
Chapter 03
Table 3.1 Overview of parts of an argument
Table 3.2 Types of claims
Table 3.3 How to incorporate testimony in a paper
Chapter 04
Table 4.1 Myths about using the first‐person voice in academic papers
Table 4.2 When and why you should use the first person in academic papers
Table 4.3 Myths about using the second‐person voice in academic papers
Table 4.4 When and why you should use the second person in academic papers
Table 4.5 Myths about using the third‐person voice in academic papers
Table 4.6 When and why you should use the third person in academic papers
Chapter 05
Table 5.1 Differences between academic and general readers
Table 5.2 Alternative lead‐in and follow‐up verbs
List of Illustrations
Chapter 01
Figure 1.1 The “TAO” of Writing: Topic, Audience, Occasion
Chapter 02
Figure 2.1 Idea‐mapping: example
Figure 2.2 Arrow spanning the topic and audience with questions
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 Puzzle with pieces labeled
Figure 3.2 APA reference annotation
Figure 3.3 MLA reference annotation
Figure 3.4 Chicago reference annotation
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 The paper‐writing process
Figure 4.2 Subject–verb agreement
Chapter 05
Figure 5.1 Diamond shape for literature reviews
Figure 5.2 Reverse triangle shape for literature reviews
Chapter 06
Figure 6.1 Microscope and critical thinking lens
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Composing Research, Communicating Results
Writing the Communication Research Paper
Writing is an aspect often overlooked in the quest to provide students with the necessary skills to embark on a career in the increasingly important field of communication. For many students, putting one’s thoughts and understanding of a topic onto paper can be a daunting task. Composing Research, Communicating Results: Writing the Communication Research Paper provides communication students with the knowledge and necessary tools to compose a variety of course‐required papers that are scholarly, accessible, and well‐written. Chapter coverage includes common myths associated with writing a research paper, brainstorming and researching topics, making and supporting arguments, style and formatting issues, writing the literature review, application and personal reaction papers, empirical research papers, presenting and publishing your work, and more. Each stage of the process is broken down into easy‐to‐follow steps supported by writing exercises and numerous examples drawn from published and student‐written papers in the field. Composing Research, Communicating Results: Writing the Communication Research Paper fulfils an important and underserved niche in the classroom curricula, and is an essential resource for all students in communications‐related courses.
KURT LINDEMANN is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Communication at San Diego State University (SDSU). He also serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Media and Performance, an interdisciplinary center at SDSU focused on the critical inquiry of live art and screen culture. Dr. Lindemann has taught courses in English composition, communication theory and methods, and more, and has published numerous scholarly and magazine articles, fiction, and poetry.
Composing Research, Communicating Results
Writing the Communication Research Paper
Kurt Lindemann
This edition first published 2018© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
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The right of Kurt Lindemann to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication data applied for
Hardback ISBN: 9781118940907Paperback ISBN: 9781118940914
Cover image: Painting: “Winter Solstice” by Heather SweeneyPhotograph by Gregory Berg, Enso PhotographyCover design by Wiley
I dedicate this book to my writing and communication teachers, and to my writing and communication students, who have all taught me the value of critical thinking, self‐expression, and a genuine connection with others in the process of better understanding each other and the world around us.
Preface
In my years teaching composition and communication classes, I’ve come to realize that writing and communication have several things in common. The first is that, because we often do both on a daily basis – writing e‐mails, texting, talking to others – we generally assume we know how to do them. This isn’t always the case. Unfortunately, because we engage in written and oral communication so often, we tend to become mindless about them. We might develop bad habits, or we might think that just because we communicate one way with some people, that particular way of communicating is appropriate and effective for other people as well. The second thing I realized is that we tend to think good writers, like good public speakers, are simply born that way.
I developed this book to respond to these two myths. First, I hope to make readers of this book more mindful about their writing choices and understand that different audiences sometimes require different styles of writing. Second, I hope to provide readers with the knowledge and skills to make these mindful choices. I believe good writers, like good public speakers, are made that way with proper instruction and, of course, a lot of practice.
This book draws on my years of teaching college composition and working in college writing centers, and teaching communication classes in which writing assignments constitute a major part of the class. I present lessons I’ve learned as a teacher and writer, as well as sage advice from others who are smarter (and better writers) than me. I also offer samples of writing assignments from my own students to help illustrate the concepts in each chapter.
Chapter 1
introduces the book, discusses some of the major challenges of writing class papers, offers and then debunks some myths about writing, and presents a “Tao” of writing that encompasses topic, audience, and occasion. It also presents some guidelines for other types of writing you may do beyond class assignments.
Chapter 2
presents some tried‐and‐true brainstorming techniques, a more in‐depth consideration of audience, and a discussion of the types of questions that might be posed in class papers and how those questions can help formulate a plan for conducting library and database research.
Chapter 3
discusses the role of argument in writing class papers, provides an in‐depth consideration of the Toulmin Method of constructing arguments, and reviews some of the more common citation styles for class papers.
Chapter 4
revists the concept of audience in a consideration of first‐, second‐, and third‐person voice, as well as active and passive voice. It also discusses the “flow” of a paper and how to ensure smooth writing and eliminate “filler” from papers using my own TESLA Method of paragraph construction. The chapter concludes with a discussion of style and some common grammar mistakes.
Chapters 5
,
6
, and
7
provide overviews of some more common paper assignments in social science and communication classes: the literature review, application and reaction paper, and empirical research paper, respectively.
Chapter 8
offers a “dos and don’ts” list for presenting the finished paper in public speaking settings, including a discussion of submitting papers to local, regional, national, and international conferences and journals.
Each chapter has several features to help readers better understand and utilize the concepts discussed. The “Write Away” feature offers easy‐to‐follow exercises to immediately put into practice the tips, guidelines, and advice presented. “Building Blocks” are meant to break up the writing of the paper into short tasks that, if done thoughtfully, will help to produce a well‐written final paper. “Engaging Ethics” sections provide a consideration of some ethical dangers associated with a particular aspect of writing – from citing sources to submitting to conferences – and how to avoid them. The “Student Spotlight” boxes present writing samples from real students to illustrate certain ideas, concepts, methods, and techniques.
For Instructors
Communication skills are considered a necessity, but written communication skills are sometimes overlooked, especially in communication classes. Not all communication students will complete a senior paper or thesis, but writing in communication classes is an integral part of assessment. Most communication instructors assign papers, but many lack the time to revisit writing and composition practices in their courses.
This book, geared toward upper‐division undergraduate and Master’s‐level graduate students, draws on actual, student‐written examples from common paper assignments to provide students with the knowledge and tools to compose course papers in a scholarly, accessible, and well‐written manner. Covering all aspects of the writing process, including brainstorming, creating and supporting arguments, and common types of class papers (literature reviews, application and reaction, empirical research), this book is designed to work in conjunction with any communication or social science course, and can supplement any required communication textbook.
For Students
Writing is sometimes a mystery. You’re at a keyboard, in front of a screen, staring down at a blank piece of paper, and then, somehow, the words come to you. Or, they don’t, at least not right away. Maybe you think, “I do my best work under pressure. If I write the paper the night before it’s due, the words seem to flow more easily.” Or maybe you think, “What’s the difference? I won’t use any of these skills after I’m done with this class anyway.” This book desmystifies this process so you’re better prepared before you start writing, have a plan when you’re writing, and know what to do if the words don’t come.
And I’m not the only one helping you along on this journey. You also have advice and examples from other students who were once in the same position you are. Working together, we can make this journey you’re on less like a mystery and more like an adventure, or at least a journey with a destination and a map to help you get there.
Acknowledgments
Writing is often a solitary activity, but there are still people who help shape your paper, book, or article, and who have helped shaped you as an author. In this case, there are many people I must acknowledge for their help with this book, as well as for the impact they’ve had on me as a writer.
I’d like to thank all the folks previously and currently at Wiley‐Blackwell for their help with all stages of this book: Mark Graney, Julia Kirk, Haze Humbert, Elizabeth Swayze, Milos Vuletic, and Liz Wingett. Additionally, I have immense gratitude for Janet Moth for her keen editorial eye. Thanks also goes to Shyamala Venkateswaran for help with the production process. Finally, a big thanks to Maddie Koufogazos for marketing and help with the book cover concept.
The cover art itself is taken from a painting by the immensely talented Heather Sweeney, photgraphed by Gregory Berg at Enso Photography. While one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, I hope that borrowing their artistic endeavors for this book cover makes it easier for readers to judge this book a success!
I had the pleasure of learning from several creative and non‐fiction writing teachers in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University, as well as from many of the excellent professors in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, including Sarah Tracy and Linda Park‐Fuller. Additionally, I had the good fortune of having some great colleagues serve as reviewers for the initial manuscript of this book. Other colleagues in the Communication discpline, including those at San Diego State University, also provided invaluable support and encouragement. Thank you all.
Perhaps the biggest thank you goes to my students. Their desire and willingness to take risks in their writing, to work diligently on their writing, and to lend me their voices for the purpose of teaching others has truly made this book a one‐of‐a‐kind text I hope readers (students and teachers alike) will find valuable in their own writing endeavors.
Kurt Lindemann
1So You Have to Write a Research Paper …
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Chapter Features
What This Book Is Not …
What This Book Is …
Features of This Book
The Purpose of This Chapter
Writing Papers: Chore or Challenge?
Challenge: How do I find time to write?
Challenge: Is this supposed to be fact or opinion?
Challenge: How do I find research on my topic?
Challenge: Problems and potential of using published articles as models
Debunking Myths about Research Papers
The “Tao” of Writing
Topic
Audience
Occasion
Types of Papers
Reviews of literature
Analysis, application, and reaction papers
Empirical research papers
Thinking Beyond the Paper – Writing for a Professional Career
Handbooks and manuals
Policy manuals, vision statements, and mission statements
E‐mails
Reports and memos
Blogs and website copy
Chapter Summary
References
Further Reading
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Identify Myths about Writing Research Papers
Distinguish Types of Papers Commonly Written
Identify the Purposes of Different Research Papers
Apply Writing Skills to “Real‐World” Texts
Chapter Features
“Write Away”
Building Blocks
You are sitting in a cramped chair facing the front of the classroom. You look around the classroom and listen to the low chatter of students awaiting the start of class. Some faces and voices are familiar, others are not. You look forward to making new friends, talking to people with different experiences and ideas, and maybe learning something. You hope to get a good grade, too, of course. You check your phone for the time. Class is about start. The teacher enters the room: pleasant demeanor, conversational tone, funny. This might just be a fun class, you think. Then the teacher begins to explain the assignments for the upcoming term. The major one, the assignment upon which most of your grade rests: a research paper. Why?, you think. Why a research paper? You re‐evaluate the class and the teacher. Suddenly, all the positive things you initially thought about the class seem, well … not so positive.
The above scenario is likely a common one in many students’ experiences. The course research paper, sometimes called a “term paper,” is an object of much derision, disdain, and dread among students. And, certainly, writing a research paper is difficult. Writing a good research paper is even more difficult. I’m not writing this book to convince you otherwise. I do, however, think that, with some knowledge and skills, almost anyone can succeed in writing a good research paper. Some people think that good writers are born not made, that somehow – genetically blessed or with gifts granted by a divine being – some people just get writing. I do not believe this. Sure, some folks have an easier time writing papers; I’m not denying that. But I think that good writers can be made; otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this book. And you probably don’t think good writers are born, not made; otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this book. Of course, it’s entirely possible you’re reading this because your teacher required you to read it. If this is the case, then at least your teacher probably thinks the same as I do.
What This Book Is Not …
Here’s what this book is not. While we will explore some common grammar mistakes, this is not a text on proper grammar and sentence diagramming. While we will talk about integrating scholarly and popular literature into a research paper, this is not a how‐to on library research, nor is it a summary of relevant communication and social science research. While I will provide some easy‐to‐remember steps to completing commonly assigned papers, this is not a fill‐in‐the‐blank template for outlines and papers.
What This Book Is …
I admit that I had selfish reasons for writing this book. I am a Professor of Communication at a university. I teach research methods, performance studies, organizational communication, and a few other courses. I regularly assign research papers to my undergraduate and graduate students. And while I have a Ph.D. in communication, I also have a graduate degree in English language and literature, which required me to teach English composition classes and work in the department’s writing tutoring center. As a result, much to my current students’ dismay, I found myself frequently commenting on sentence structure, topic sentence usage, grammar mistakes, and other writing issues. I found myself writing the same comments time and again. I began to think, “It would be great if there were a book that collected all these comments and explained them for students.” Shortly after thinking this, I began writing this book.
That said, this book isn’t meant to replace the instruction from your own teacher. It is meant to help guide you through a sometimes daunting and intimidating process. This book is not meant to convince you to like writing papers. If you don’t already, chances are a textbook isn’t going to change your mind. What this book is intended to do is to make the writing process easier and to help ensure the entire writing process results in successful outcomes: well‐written arguments and analysis and … oh, yeah, possibly a good grade!
Features of This Book
As you read this book, you’ll find several features I think will be helpful in understanding the concepts and practices covered in each chapter. The first are “Write Away” boxes that offer writing exercises you can immediately put into practice to improve your writing. “Building Blocks” are meant to be short “mini assignments” which, once completed, you can integrate into your larger writing assignment. Research papers are fraught with ethical challenges, from plagiarizing to improperly citing sources. For this reason, the “Engaging Ethics” feature provides some things to consider to better avoid the ethical pitfalls that may arise in the course of your research and writing. Finally, since we often learn best from our peers, the “Student Spotlight” sections provide actual examples of student writing that illustrate the concepts and assignments covered in this book. Each feature should not only help you better understand the concepts we cover in this book, they should also help you write better.
The Purpose of This Chapter
So, we “begin at the beginning,” as the King instructs the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll 1920, 182). This chapter is a beginning: the first step, the first brick in a sidewalk path, the first word in a sentence, the first page of a book. No better place to start. And this is true for writing papers as well.
Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
Neil Gaiman (2014)
This chapter will first try to debunk some myths about writing. Mental blocks are the most difficult obstacles to writing well; you can always learn proper sentence structure and new words, but it’s much harder to learn to unthink solidified beliefs. As such, we’ll address some of these commonly held beliefs or myths. Then we’ll review some of the major types of papers commonly assigned, which I’ll also cover in detail in subsequent chapters. Finally, we’ll discuss how the skills you gain from these assignments can transfer to other types of writing you might do in the “real world.”
We’ll start with some commonly held beliefs or myths about writing papers for class. I’ll reframe as challenges what we might normally think of as chores. After that, we’ll move on to myths specific to composing research papers, ones that I’ve heard students (and some professors!) say over and over again.
Writing Papers: Chore or Challenge?
In this section, we’ll discuss challenges to writing well, writing efficiently, and to just plain writing. This last part is important because simply writing – writing anything – is sometimes the best way to start. The questions that begin each of the following sections are common ones asked by all types of writers, from students to professionals. While I attempt to respond to each question, I don’t always provide answers. Instead, I try to offer different ways to think about each question, framing them as challenges that can be overcome rather than chore‐filled drudgery.
Challenge: How do I find time to write?
Let’s face it, writing a paper – even poorly – can take a lot of time. It can easily become a time‐consuming task. This is, I argue, true and false. Certainly, writing can take a lot of time. No one will write your papers for you; you must put one word in front of the other. However, viewing the writing process as a series of small time chunks instead of 10 pages you have to write in one night can make the task seem more manageable. This isn’t a secret. Many writers have come to this conclusion, as the Neil Gaiman quote earlier in this chapter illustrates. Similarly, novelist Henry Miller (1964) said, “If you can’t create, you can work” (161).
Just write. Put one word in front of the other until you’ve created a sentence. It certainly sounds simple, doesn’t it? So, what’s the best way to go about it? Of course, that depends on your schedule, but regardless of your schedule, a few things are clear from the wisdom of the writers previously quoted. First:
Make a schedule for writing. Don’t wait for “inspiration.”
A common phrase I hear from students over and over goes something like this: “I do my best writing under pressure. The words just seem to flow better.” What these students end up doing is waiting until the last possible moment, often the night before the paper is due, to begin writing a paper they probably should have started weeks before. This process might get that student a passing grade. Compared to some other students, his or her paper might actually seem pretty good. But this attitude will only take someone so far. Eventually, especially in upper‐division classes or, after graduation, with a big project for work, he or she is in for a rude awakening. More time will be required for increasingly important projects.
Of course, there are many reasons why someone might wait until the last minute. She may not feel like she has the time to devote to the paper. It may be a matter of weighing the costs and rewards: he might be afraid that if he puts all that time into a paper and doesn’t get an A, it makes more sense to devote less time for a similar grade. Either way, though, waiting until the last minute causes undue stress and doesn’t give you the time needed to properly edit your writing. Yes, you read that correctly: “edit.” One saying of which I’m fond is, “How do I know what I want to say until I’ve seen what I said?” Translation: writing and editing a first draft is important. When you wait until the last minute, you may not leave yourself enough time to edit your paper.
Starting the writing process earlier, making a schedule, and blocking out time for writing can help you leave yourself time to edit. For example, I find I’m usually receptive to writing in the morning, so I will often sit down to write at around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. Pick a time that’s good for you. But I don’t mean to simply prolong the agony and stress by starting earlier. You need to give yourself a break so you don’t feel chained to your desk, chair, or laptop. So, along with a starting time for your writing, set an end time as well. I set an end time, around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. At that point, I finish up whatever sentence I’m writing, make some notes about what might come next, and I leave it. Of course, you’ll have to work around your own schedule, but carving out a half‐hour well in advance of the due date can be helpful in the long run.
But what happens during this time we’ve blocked out? How do we know what to write? Our writers above give us some points on that as well. To summarize:
Put one word in front of the other. If you don’t feel “inspired,” do it anyway.
Fantasy and fiction writer Neil Gaiman (2014) advises us: “Write. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.” Henry Miller admonishes, “When you can’t create you can work.” What do these two have in common? Simple. Sit down and write. You may not like what comes out at first. What you write may not end up in your final paper. But, as obvious as it sounds, in order to write a paper you have to write.
Write Away
Make a schedule to write. Include time set aside for brainstorming, Internet and online database research, and outlining. Then, divide up your time by committing yourself to write a certain number of pages during a specific time period. Start with one double‐spaced page in half an hour. That may seem like a lot, or it may seem like not enough. Regardless, stop yourself to see where you are after half an hour and adjust accordingly. Do this for two weeks.
If you block out one day of the week for research and outlining, and commit to writing for half an hour on three other days of the week, you could potentially have a total of six pages of a first draft of your paper in two weeks. Your assignment might be shorter than this, or perhaps it’s a little longer, so be sure to plan out several weeks before the due date. Once you’ve finished the draft of your paper, you should have a lot of time to revise and edit. Try it!
Remember that this section is about finding the time to write. Our discussion up to this point is useful because sometimes we imagine that writing is a marathon‐long process of inspiration. In reality, as unromantic as it sounds, it’s work. Or, rather, it can be thought of as work when you’re just not “feeling it.” When all else fails, treat it as a job: you clock in, put in your time working (whether it be a half‐hour or an hour), and then you clock out and leave the work “at work.” At the end of the process, you will have more quality pages than if you wait for inspiration to strike you the night before the paper is due. How? Because you will have left yourself time to revise your draft!
Challenge: Is this supposed to be fact or opinion?
So, you’ve made the time to write by creating a schedule and sticking to it. What do you write? While that question is best answered by your instructor, I will address a common question about content I get from students all the time: “Is my paper supposed to be fact or opinion?” We’ll discuss this conundrum further in Chapter 3: Making Arguments, Providing Support. But let’s briefly explore this question below.
First, let’s get this binary out of our minds. When it comes to research papers for your classes, fact and opinion are not two opposing things; they are one and the same. More specifically, your opinion should be supported with “facts” derived from research. That’s really what an argument is, after all: an author’s educated opinion about something skillfully supported with the use of “facts.”
Second, allow me to explain why I’m placing “facts” in quotation marks. Although we often use facts as support, the broader term evidence is a better word to describe what we use to bolster our arguments. As I’ve told my public speaking students again and again, the term “facts” conjures up statistics to many students. And as any public speaking textbook will tell you, statistics are not the only – or the best – way to support an argument. Even with this in mind, the use of “facts” in a paper can present a problem.
When student writers first encounter research papers, argumentative papers, or any written assignment in which they have to make a claim based on a synthesis of reading, they often use a massive number of direct quotations. If these quotations are cited correctly, there’s technically nothing wrong with this. But the more one quotes directly, the less likely these quotations will explicitly provide support for an argument. Why? Because, with many beginning student writers at least, direct quotations are less likely to be synthesized into an argument and woven into a paper seamlessly. The tendency of many student writers is to just drop these quotations in at places that seem logical, with little effort made to link the quotations to the broader argument. The authors from whom we quote cannot make the arguments for us; we have to do that in our own words.
The short answer to the question above, then, is that your paper should be both fact and opinion.
Challenge: How do I find research on my topic?
Okay. You’ve made the time to write. You also have a better idea of the differences between your opinion and the evidence you use to support your opinion. But you need to find the evidence you’re going to use as support, and you need to know how to find it. This brings us to another challenge facing many student writers: finding research on a topic. We’ll address this process more in Chapter 2: Brainstorm and Research. For now, let’s demystify this challenge a little bit.
Since you now understand a little better that your papers are your opinions supported with evidence, it should be easier to grasp the idea that no one author has published any article in the wide world of online and print sources that argues exactly what you are arguing. And if they have, then you should think about altering your claim – they said it first, they’ve got “dibs,” and you don’t want to argue exactly what someone else has already argued.
In supporting your opinion – something I will refer to as your argument or, more specifically, your claim from here on out – you need to make the sources work for you, not organize your paper based only on a narrow body of literature related to your study. For example, if you’re arguing that effective interpersonal communication is hindered by social media, you can search for research on social media, and you can search for research on interpersonal communication. However, you can also search for research on friendships, romantic relationships, and familial relationships.
Ultimately, keyword searches with creative, out‐of‐the‐box brainstorming will be key to overcoming the challenge of finding sources. With some of the techniques offered in Chapter 2, this will seem less daunting – and even fun!
Challenge: Problems and potential of using published articles as models
Even the most creative brainstorming isn’t enough to give you an idea of how to put your paper together. The most obvious place to look for examples of well‐written academic papers is the published research articles you’re gathering to use as evidence for your own paper. But be aware, there are advantages and disadvantages of using these pieces as models for your own paper.
Let’s address the advantages first. A lot of communication articles are written to adhere to particular publishing conventions. In later chapters, I’ll admonish you to avoid the passive voice (for example, “This research was conducted to investigate…” and “Significance was found…”), yet many articles are written in the passive voice. Why is this? In the case of these particular articles, the communication paradigm, or way of viewing the world (Kuhn 1962), in which the researchers are working views truth and reality as objective and external to researchers. The paradigm in which you might find many instances of the passive voice is sometimes called the Functionalist (Burrell and Morgan 1979), Sociopsychological (Craig 1999), or Discovery paradigm (Merrigan and Huston 2015). It might also simply be called a Social Scientific paradigm. In any case, the authors working in this paradigm value “good science” and don’t believe it matters who is conducting the study. As such, the first person “I” is usually removed from the reporting of the research. This particular viewpoint often leads to the use of the passive voice, something you should avoid in your own papers unless instructed otherwise.
Another problem with using published articles as models, of course, is that the articles you find when conducting research are often written by professors. This means: (a) they have more experience and knowledge about that phenomenon than do you; (b) they likely have more time than you do to write their essays, or (c) they probably get paid to write (many, not all, professors get release time to do research and publish). These last two factors make a big difference in being able to write good research articles. So, while you may want to use these articles as a model for your own paper, remember that the authors have access to resources you might not yet be able to access.
Building Blocks
Using published research as models for your own research paper can be a successful strategy, if done smartly and realistically. My poetry teacher, Clayton Eshleman, once said to our graduate class, “The best way to study a poem is to copy it.” He didn’t mean copy it word for word; he meant try and capture the flow of the piece, to understand how it works, and then try to reproduce that in your own poem. For example, he recommended using the same number of syllables and the same number of lines in the same number of stanzas. That way, he said, we could better study a poem that we emulated and learn about the writing process (and our writing) at the same time. I offer similar advice for using published research as a model.
Pick a published article or essay you like. You might also choose a student paper your teacher has presented as exemplary.
Determine how many paragraphs the authors use in their literature review. What are they trying to accomplish in that section? Try to do the same thing in yours. And so on. Let’s be clear: I’m not encouraging you to plagiarize any part of the published article you’re using as a model. We’ll talk more about plagiarism in
Chapter 3
.
Adapt this process as necessary to your own class assignments. If your paper is only a literature review, chances are your paper will be longer than the literature review in the published article (those authors had to make room for their findings and conclusions). But you get the idea.
In this first section, I’ve tried to reframe many of “chores” associated with writing a research paper – finding time to write, finding the main purpose, finding research, and findings models to emulate – as challenges to be overcome. However, it’s also important to reconsider some myths we might have about research papers (see Table 1.1).
Table 1.1 The myths of writing debunked
Myth
Debunked
“I don’t have time to write.”
If you make the time, you will have the time.
“Too much editing breaks up my flow.”
You’ll only know if the paper “flows” or makes sense if you read it after you’ve written it and edit when necessary.
“I don’t need to outline. It’s all in my head.”
You’ll only know what want to say
after
you see what you’ve said (or written).
“Writing papers is a useless skill.”
Written communication skills are consistently among the top skills employers desire in employees.
Debunking Myths about Research Papers
The first myth is easily dispelled, as it’s much of what we’ve already covered:
Myth #1: “I don’t have time to write.”
Simply, if you make the time, you will have the time. When many students think of “time” to write, they imagine themselves blocking out several hours at a time. This is often because they wait until the last minute. Using the strategies outlined in the previous section, you won’t have to wait until the last minute. Therefore, your blocks of writing time will be considerably shorter.
The second myth is related to the first:
Myth #2: “Too much editing breaks up my flow.”
Ah, yes. The elusive “flow” of a paper, something many students talk about but for which they can never seem to provide a precise definition. In Chapter 4: Style and Format, I attempt to give a shape and understanding to what this “flow” really is. For now, let’s not worry about it. Instead, let’s worry more about whether the paper itself makes sense. How do we know if it makes sense? We have to read it. When do we read it? The same time we read anything: after it’s been written. This means, of course, that you can’t read something while you’re writing it. Of course, you’re reading your paper as you write it. But it’s difficult to tell if the sentence you’re writing is coherent in the context of the paper when you haven’t even finished the paper. Organizational communication theorist Karl Weick (1995) put it best when he asked, “How do I know what I think before I see what I said?” (12). In short, you need to have written something first before you know if it’s truly what you wanted to write.
Luckily, you don’t have to write the entire paper to be able to tell if what you’ve written is really what you want to say. In addition to re‐reading each section of your paper after you’ve written it, you can also jot down a general idea of what you want to say. However, this ability to forecast your paper without writing it sentence for sentence in its entirety requires us to debunk another myth:
Myth #3: “I don’t need to outline. It’s all in my head.”
Outlining is a useful but little‐used tool for writing papers. Yes, it requires some extra preparation work. However, this “extra work” (I put this phrase in quotations because I don’t consider it extra but a common part of writing any paper) in advance of writing the paper will make for a stronger paper later on.
If you subscribe to this myth and really believe it, I’m sure you’ve already dismissed all the various metaphors about outlining you may have heard in your other writing classes: outlining is the like the foundation for a building; outlining is the spine of the paper; and so on. I prefer to return to a tale commonly attributed to Karl Weick, but one that first appeared in a poem by scientist (and part‐time poet) Miroslav Holub (Gellman and Basbøll 2013). This poem recounts a tale of Hungarian soldiers lost in the Alps. They faced certain death, until one soldier discovered a map and used it to lead the platoon to safety. Only after they were out of harm’s way did they realize that they had a map of the Pyrenees, not the Alps.
What does this story mean? Well, the map was useful even though it didn’t accurately represent their journey. When you make an outline, you create a map. Your journey may change, sure; you may end up writing a paper that’s different from the outline. But, similar to the soldiers in the poem, you need some kind of outline – a map of some sort – to begin your journey in the first place. This tale about the Hungarian soldiers is considered a great source for the theory and practice of leadership, in part because of what it represents. Leaders can apply the saying “The map is not the territory” to get their employees or followers started on what may seem like a difficult journey. The applicability of this idea helps to dispel the last myth we’re going to debunk.
Writing papers can seem like busy work, and many students intone the same mantra over and over in their resistance to such assignments:
Myth #4: “Writing papers is a useless skill.”
We now know from the story above that the practice of writing well‐thought‐out papers has skills transferable to the realms of leadership and management. Other transferable skills include: argumentation, synthesis of others’ ideas, time management, research skills, and… writing. Many employers point to writing and communication skills as some of the most important an employee should possess (Eatherington 2015; O’Farrell 2015). In other words, writing papers is not a “useless” skill. Although outlining, writing paragraphs here and there, and compiling bibliographies may seem like busy work, they all require skills that will prove useful later on.
The “Tao” of Writing
Whether the writing you’re doing is for a general audience online or in hard copy, or for more specific groups of people, remembering the “Tao” of professional writing will serve you well, especially as you begin to write beyond
