研究方法與論文寫作PartIIIThesisWriting-Methodology.ppt

Welcome to the Course,Research Methods and Thesis Writing,Liu Liyan March 2011,Contents,Thesis Writing,An Overview of Thesis Writing,How many aspects does the body fall into? -Five parts (or five chapters) (1) Introduction (2) Literature review (3) Methodology (4) Results (5) Conclusion,Body Part,A general remark about Methodology: The Methodology chapter presents a detailed description of the way your proposed study is conducted. The description should be explicit, transparent and sufficiently detailed (清晰，明了，詳實(shí)）. By reading this chapter, the reader can easily visualize your research process and replicate your study if he/she whishes to. (讀者可以詳細(xì)了解整個研究過程，也可以根據(jù)所描述的程序，重復(fù)此項(xiàng)研究) It is easy to write this part, compared to a literature review, however, it is difficult to meet the requirements of explicitness, transparency and sufficiency in detail.,Describing Methodology 撰寫研究方法,Describing Methodology,Major components (主要內(nèi)容） 1. Introduction 2. General and specific research questions / hypotheses 研究問題或研究假設(shè) 3. Information about subjects 研究對象 4. Instruments 研究工具 5. Data-collection 數(shù)據(jù)收集程序 6. Data-analysis 數(shù)據(jù)分析程序 7. Limitations 研究的局限性,How to describe the methodology chapter in different designs? As we know, a study may employ the design of a survey study, or an experimental study, or a case study, or a combination. Regardless of the research design, the headings or components are the same for the description of each design but with different content (但是描述每個研究設(shè)計的標(biāo)題基本相同). What if a study employs two different types of design? In such a case, a common practice is to describe the two designs separately. That is, you may have two sections or two chapters: one section/chapter on the survey study and the other on a case study.,Describing Methodology,Lets discuss the writing of each component, while taking into account the differences in describing different types of design. 1. Introduction paragraph The chapter begins with an introductory paragraph in which the specification of research design is followed by an overall description of the organization of this section/chapter. (研究方法的引言簡要介紹研究設(shè)計和這一章的總體框架） What is the length of this introduction paragraph on research design? -Only one or two short sentences. For example:,Describing Methodology,Writing Introduction to your research design 撰寫研究方法中的引言,“為了弄清學(xué)習(xí)策略與專業(yè)英語四級考試成績之間的關(guān)系， 本研究對來自5所大學(xué)的300名英語專業(yè)的學(xué)生進(jìn)行了問卷調(diào)查?！?(P.275) 也可以這樣寫： “本研究使用問卷調(diào)查的方式來探索使用語言學(xué)習(xí)策略與外語成績之間的關(guān)系?！?The general organization is a sort of an advance organizer (先行組織/前導(dǎo)組織）that prepare readers for what is to follow. You may describe the organization in terms of the first-level headings without the need to provide detailed content within each subheading. 寫總體框架的目的是讓讀者了解這一章的大致情況，其描述只限于第一層次的標(biāo)題(一級標(biāo)題），不必提供詳細(xì)內(nèi)容（不必介紹到二級標(biāo)題）。,Research questions and hypothesis,2. General/Specific research questions/hypothesis 總的/具體的研究問題或假設(shè) In this section, all the general questions are presented together with the specific questions. If you have formed hypotheses instead of questions, then, you should list all the hypotheses. What is the purpose of writing this section? This section serves two purposes. The first is to give the reader clear information about what questions the study is intended to address (目的一是讓讀者了解要研究的問題；,Research questions and hypothesis,What is the purpose of writing this section? The second is to provide a framework for the Result Chapter (第二是為后面“研究結(jié)果和討論”這一章提供框架). Note 1: All the questions appearing in this section need to be answered in the Results Chapter. Problems with graduate students: They often forget to refer to what has been written in this section when they write the Results Chapter. As a result, the Results Chapter does not cover all the questions ，or the order of questions presented is not the same as that in this section (報告研究結(jié)果與研究問題的順序也不一致）.,Research questions and hypothesis,Note 2: Tense and Wording in this section Different from the other sections in this Chapter (Method chapter), all the questions /hypotheses are stated in the present tense rather than in the past tense; The wording in question (研究問題中的措辭）should be clear and precise, and each question should address one issue. Why are the questions / hypotheses in this section, quite often, not the same as were developed at the beginning of your research? The reasons are various. First, data may be analyzed and reanalyzed many times before the you are satisfied.,e.g. your hypothesis may be that “there is no relationship b.t. risk-taking and L2 achievement”. The result could not rejected the null hypothesis (你的研究結(jié)果證明不能排除零假設(shè)). Then you choose age as a moderator variable (調(diào)節(jié)變量）to make a further analysis. Accordingly, you add one more question in this section, i.e. “Is the relationship b.t. risk-taking and L2 achievement affected by age? What is the alternative way to the problem? In another case, you may delete one or two research questions developed earlier simply because you realized there would