Reading to Write: Research Articles Across the Disciplines

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Categories: All Course Materials, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences, Student Success Tags: evidence synthesis, library, online research course, research

Description

This course is designed to teach graduate students and highly motivated undergraduate students how to read and analyze research articles in their disciplines. It does this by first asking students to locate articles in journals they wish to publish in. Then it teaches a form of analysis where the article is broken into sections (i.e., Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) and into smaller segments (e.g., research questions) so that each piece can be examined for the type of information it provides, and the grammar and word choices that it uses to convey that information. Exercises ask students to work through the articles they have selected so that they learn the current practices of the journals they respect.

Learning objectives by module

Unit 1: Introduction to the Course and Important Concepts

Select discipline specific research articles for analysis.
Understand that research articles are changing genres and that a range of organizational patterns can be used to construct them.
Understand important terms related to the course including:
- “Move” Analysis- breaking a text in is component parts, examine them for content, and label them.
- Genre Analysis- looking at the context in which the text was created as well as the grammatical and lexical choices within the moves.

- Understand the importance of formulaic research expressions and grammatical choices related to verb tenses and voice within research articles.

Unit 2: Titles and Abstracts

Understand the criteria for effective research article titles.
Conduct move analysis on research article abstracts.

Unit 3: Introductions (and Literature Reviews)

Locate and recognize various introductory sections within research articles.
Conduct move analysis on introductory sections.
Examine the use of citation within introductory sections.
Examine grammatical and lexical choices made by article authors in introductory sections.
Recognize the formulaic expressions used in introductory sections.

Unit 4: Methods (and Materials)

Recognize methods sections within research articles.
Conduct move analysis on methods sections.
Examine the grammatical and lexical choices made by article authors in methods sections.
Recognize the formulaic expressions used in methods sections.

Unit 5: Results or Findings

Recognize results sections within research articles.
Conduct move analysis on results sections.
Examine the grammatical and lexical choices made by article authors in results sections.
Recognize the formulaic expressions used in results sections.

Unit 6: Discussions and/ or Conclusions

Locate and recognize discussion and conclusion sections within research articles.
Conduct move analysis on discussion and conclusion sections.
Examine the grammatical and lexical choices made by article authors in conclusion and discussion sections.
Recognize the formulaic expressions used within the discussion and conclusion sections.

Unit 7: Hybrid Sections (Methods-Results and Results-Discussion)

Recognize hybrid sections within research articles.
Conduct move analysis on hybrid sections.

Unit 8: Auxiliary Elements (Acknowledgements, Highlights, etc.)

Investigate the different auxiliary elements of research articles, their location within the article, and the information they contain.
Locate information about citation practices and other information for authors who wish to publish in a particular journal.

Unit 9: Final Recommendations: Moving Forward

Understand that all texts can be deconstructed using move and genre analysis.
Understand that other academic genres share some moves with research articles.