Please choose a topic and present it after 2 weeks in classroom. After 3 weeks hand in a first DRAFT, including title page, table of content, list(s) of figures/abbreviations/tables, introduction, reference list, and affidavit.

 

Materials and Information in English on Library Research

We offer information and material in English in addition to our regular workshops. Please feel free to use them. Chek out our regular offer on workshops and library trainings. 

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, please feel free to contact us: informationsvermittlung@htw-dresden.de

Offered Material:

 

It is difficult to make generalizations about how academic research articles and reports should be organized. The norms vary greatly from one field to another. However, the organization is traditionally represented by the image of an hourglass. You know the shape: wide at top, narrowing towards the middle to allow only a few grains of sand to fall through at a time, and finally widening out again to hold the built up layers of sand.

Basic Structure of a Paper

The hourglass conceptualizes the traditional sections of a paper: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion sections, often referred to by the acronym AIMRAD.

  1. The Introduction should convince readers of the relevance of the study. It identifies a problem in the real world and narrows down the scope of the research into a specific research question that the study attempts to answer.
  2. The Methods traditionally outlines how this research was conducted. With the scope of the research restricted to a manageable focus, the study can be represented by the neck of the hourglass.
  3. The Results describes the outcome of the research and, together with the Methods, comprises the main body of the research.
  4. The Discussion broadens the focus again, relates the study back to the outside world and presents the impact and wider implications of the research.

An optional component that also makes up the body of the paper is the Conclusion. However, the existence of the Conclusion is very journal-specific. Independent of the hourglass, the Abstract provides a summary of the article or report and the Title serves as the heading of the paper.

 

Title page

The Title page gives information about:

The title of the paper should indicate exactly what the paper is about. The reader should know not only the general topic but also the aspect of the topic contained in the paper. Compare the following titles:

 

Abstract

The Abstract provides a brief overview of the substance of the paper, usually no more than half a page. It is not an introduction to but a summary of the topic. The summary should outline all the key features of your paper, including the topic, what you did, how you did it and the main outcomes of your work. A busy researcher who might not have time to read the full paper should be able to get the gist of the whole paper by reading the summary.

The summary should do the following:

The summary should not do the following:

Summary Structure

Topic → Key features → Conclusions

 

Introduction

The Introduction provides the background information needed for the rest of your paper to be understood. It is usually three-quarters to one  page in length. The purpose of the Introduction is to set the context for your paper, provide sufficient background information for the reader to be able to follow the information presented and inform the reader about how that information will be presented.

The Introduction should include the following:

Introduction Structure

Contextual background → Aims → Contextual background → Technical background (assumptions) → Purpose of paper

 

Body of the Paper (Methods, Results, & Discussion)

This is main part of the paper where you present your work. The Introduction and Conclusions act as only a frame for the body; therefore, all the details of your work must be included here in the appropriate section. You will need to put some thought into the order of the sections; the information you present should flow logically so that the reader can follow the development of your project. It is also essential that you choose concise but informative headings and subheadings so that the reader knows exactly what type of information to expect in each section.

The body of the paper should do the following:

Headings in the body of the paper

Provide informative headings

Section headings should tell the reader exactly what type of information is contained in the section. They should be specific and content-focused rather than just labels. Devising informative headings as opposed to label headings right from the planning stage will help you to clarify exactly what you want to achieve in each section and subsection. Compare these pairs of headings:

Make all headings consistent and parallel in structure

This means that headings should follow a similar grammatical form. In the following example, each heading is structured differently:

Examples of inconsistent headings:

Usually, it is not difficult to convert such headings to a common form. In this example, all have been changed to noun phrases. This is the most commonly used format for section headings in an informational paper.

Examples of consistent headings:

 

Conclusions

The Conclusion provides an effective ending to your paper. The contents should relate directly to the aims of the project as stated in the Introduction and sum up the essential features of your work.

This section should do the following:

The conclusions should relate to the aims of the work:

Conclusion Structure

Relate to aims → Key features → Outcome

 

 

Citations:

In scientific writing, we don't cite references by using footnotes. Instead, citations including author's last name and year are inserted directly into the text, like this (Kusnick, 1997). If there is more than one author, the citation might look like this (Kusnick and Waterstraat, 1996) or like this (Kusnick and others, 1995). If you use a reference more than once, you just insert the citation again (Kusnick, 1997). If you reference several authors in the same sentence, you can list them alphabetically within the same citation (Kusnick, 1997; Waterstraat, 1996). If an author has more than one citation in a single year, label them a, b,c, etc. after the year (Kusnick, 1997a). If you use someone else's stuff for a whole paragraph, cite them once in the first sentence and again at the end of the paragraph. If you include a direct quote, put it in quotes and include the page number in the citation (Kusnick, 1997a, p. 37). Be sure to insert a citation anytime you reference factual material or someone else's opinion. It is better to have too many citations than too few (which can be plagiarism).

Formatting References

At the end of your paper you will have a reference list which includes all items cited in the paper. The reference list is alphabetical, and should be either in APA bibliographic style, or in a style used by a scholarly scientific journal (e.g., Geological Society of America style). The style you choose is less important than being consistent. A typical scientific style might look like this:

Journal article:

Kusnick, Judith E, 1993, Review of Revitalizing Undergraduate Science: Why Some Things Work and Most Don't by Sheila Tobias, Thought and Action, v. 9, no. 1, p. 145-146.

Book chapter:

Kusnick, Judith E, 1995, K-12 Workshop Series, in Folson, Angelica (ed.), How Universities Can Help Teachers Introduce Girls to Engineering: A How-To Manual, Davis, CA: University of California at Davis School of Engineering.

Book:

Page, Linda, Judi Kusnick, Kenneth L. Verosub, J. Richard Pomeroy and Victor A. Perkes, 1993, Earth Science: A Module for Preparing Teachers in Concepts and Teaching Methods for Secondary School Sciences, Report of the SCIP Project, 443p.

Oral paper from meeting:

Kusnick, Judith, 1997, Discourse structures and strategies in constructivist science education, paper given at 1997 annual meeting of American Educational Research Association, Chicago.

Report published by agency:

Kusnick, Judith E., 1994, Constructivism in Science Education: Intellectual Origins, Theories of Learning, and Pedagogy, Report published by the California Science Implementation Network.

Interview

Schmo, Joe, 1997, personal communication.

Citing Web Sites

Citations for Web sites should look just the same as citations for conventional resources. In your reference list, include this information for Web sites: author, publication date, page title, site title, URL, date accessed, paragraph number (if any). A reference list entry for a Web site might look like this:

Miles, A. 1996, "Academic Bibliographies and the World Wide Web." Department of Communication Studies HyperText Working Web. http://cs.art.rmit.edu.au/projects/media/hypertext/citation/web_citation.html, August 1996.

 

Affidavit

“No part of this work has been submitted in support of another module, degree, or any other qualification at the HTW Dresden or any other university or institute of learning. We confirm that the work presented has been performed and interpreted solely by us except where explicitly identified to the contrary. Any use made of the works of other authors, in any form (e.g. ideas, figures, text, tables etc.), have been properly cited and/or acknowledged.”