研究生學(xué)術(shù)英語寫作教程Unit4DescribingMethodology

1、Unit 4 Describing Methodology Objectives Be clear about the significance of this section Try to understand the importance of passive voice in academic writing Learn to be skilled in using sequential markers in writing a process Be familiar with proof-reading skills Learn to design a questionnaireCon

2、tents Brief introduction to this section Reading & Discussion: What information elements are usually involved in writing a methodology section? Language Focus: Passive voice and sequential markers Writing Practice: Understanding the sentence patterns and sentence order in writing a process Writi

3、ng Project: How to design a questionnaire1. Reading ActivityIn natural sciences the method section is often called Materials and Methods. In social sciences it is common to introduce a section called Theory and Methods. Sometimes it is divided in two sections: Theoretical Framework and Methods. Rese

4、arch methodology is mainly concerned with the answers to the following questions:1) Why is a particular research study undertaken?2) How has one formulated a research problem?3) What types of data have been collected?4) What particular methods have been used?5) Why is a particular technique of analy

5、sis of data used?1.1 Pre-reading TaskThe following is the method section of a research article in the field of applied linguistics. Think about the following questions before reading the text and then have a discussion with your classmates:1) What is the function of the method section? 2) What infor

6、mation elements does a method section include?3) What verb tenses are mainly used in the text? What is the proportion of active voice verbs to passive voice verbs in this method section? 1.2 Reading Passage English for College Students in Taiwan:A Study of perceptions of English Needs in a Medical C

7、ontextThe experiment was initiated to investigate perceptions of English needs in a medical context among college students in Taiwan. The subjects were 341 medical students in the Department of Medicine, including 97 freshmen, 74 sophomores, 90 juniors, and 80 seniors, and 20 faculty members in the

8、medical program at Chung Shan Medical College in Taichung, Taiwan, China.Two questionnaires were developed for the survey, based on two earlier survey instruments by Taylor & Hussein (1985) and Guo (1989). The questionnaires were translated into Chinese, piloted, and modified according to the fe

9、edback from l0 respondents: six medical students and four faculty members from Chung Shan Medical College. The questionnaire given to the medical students consisted of five sections of 23 questions, the topics of which were the importance of English in college and professional careers, perceived lan

10、guage skill needs and problems, the activities needed in a freshman language course, and suggestions for development of course content and materials as well as demographic information. The faculty questionnaire consisted of four sections of l6 questions, which were parallel to those in the version g

11、iven to the students except no demographic information was gathered (see Appendix).One of the authors, a faculty member at Chung Shan Medical College, selected one required class for each group of students (freshmen sophomores, juniors and seniors). Copies of the student questionnaire for administra

12、tion to the students were then sent to cooperating instructors teaching these courses; copies of the faculty questionnaire were given to 20 teachers who were willing to complete the survey.The data were computer-analyzed using an SPSS program: in the questionnaire, percentages were determined for al

13、l questions except 8 and 13 for which means were computed. Chi-square, t-tests, and ANOVA analyses (方差分析) were conducted in order to determine the perceptions of English language needs of medical college students and their faculty and to compare the perceptions held by the various groups. ( Pang, 20

14、08)1.3 Reading Comprehension Fill in the following table with relevant details from the passage.Research objectiveResearch subjectsResearch locationMaterials ProcedureStatistical analysis Understand more about the method section of this research. What do you know about the questionnaires used in the

15、 survey? The questionnaire to students includes: ·····2. Language Focus2.1 Passive voiceThe passive voice is usually used in academic writing, because passive structures have less subjective coloring in most cases than active ones. When describing a process or a scientific e

16、xperiment, it is important to write in a neutral style, as an observer. To do this, you can use passive voice. There are three instances in which the passive voice is recommended: 1) when we do not know or do not care about who has performed the action; 2) when we focus on the receiver instead of th

17、e performer of the action; and 3) when we would like to remain in a neutral or objective position in writing. More examples from the methodology section are as follows:1) The study was conducted at the beginning of the semester and the final one was given at the end of the semester. ( procedure )2)

18、In summer, the greenhouse was cooled by pulling in air through water saturated pads on the south end of the building. ( specially designed material )3) The quartz reactors tested for this work are fabricated by the A&B Sales Company of Wheeling, Leeds, UK. ( instrument )4) In order to provide a

19、broad sampling of college students, respondents were recruited from diverse fields of study. ( sampling )5) The final scores were computed into mean averages (X) and standard deviations (SD). ( statistical analysis) Go over the Reading Passage and mark verbs in the passive voice and then complete th

20、e following table: Information elements in MethodVerbs in passive voiceProcedureMaterialsInstrumentData analysis Rewrite the following text with passive voice. Some people consider a poison ivy infection to be humorous. But it is not funny at all. Contact with the plant causes a rash that has the in

21、tensity of a fresh mosquito bite and lasts for several days. Scientists have studied poison ivy infection for centuries, but they have found no preventive pill or inoculation. The poisonous substance in the plant is called urushiol. After urushiol has touched the skin, blisters and weeping sores wil

22、l soon cover the exposed area.2.2 Sequential markers A process paragraph explains how to do something or how something works. Process paragraphs are usually developed step-by-step in a chronological or logical sequence. The following sequencing expressions are more frequently used to link steps in a

23、 description of a process or to divide a process into steps: Firstly To begin with First of all etc. Secondly Next After that In addition etc. Finally Lastly The following sentences describe a process of making paper. Use sequential words and rewrite them into a cohesive paragraph. 1) The logs are p

24、laced in the shredder. 2) They are cut into small chips and mixed with water and acid.3) They are heated and crushed to a heavy pulp which is cleaned. 4) It is chemically bleached to whiten it.5) It is passed through rollers to flatten it. 6). Sheets of wet paper are produced. 7) The water is remove

25、d from the sheets which are pressed, dried and refined and the finished paper is produced.3. Writing PracticeA well organized, logically ordered and easily understandable chapter on methodology makes the thesis a really outstanding work. Normally, a method section includes:1) Overview of the experim

26、ent: one sentence briefly tells what was done (like a topic sentence);2) Population: state the people/subjects studied, or the things tested;3) Location : where the study took place;4) Restriction/Limiting conditions: precautions taken to make sure that the data are valid;5) Sampling Techniques : de

27、scribe how the subject are selected for the study;6) Materials : describe the materials used to conduct the study or experiment;7) Procedures : State the steps of the experiment in a chronological order;8) Statistical Treatment: describe how the statistics are examined. Of all the items on this list

28、, the only items that are always included in the method section are the materials and procedures.3.1 Read the following sentences. They are all taken from method sections from different research articles. In each case, determine which information element is represented.(1) A total of 369 participant

29、s of European origins (52.7% female) with a mean age of 27.2 years were recruited by research assistants in public places in the Montreal region.(2) The data used for the current analysis consists of 60 texts taken from 20 engineering journals.(3) Experimenters approached potential participants by i

30、ntroducing themselves as students from the University of Quebec in Montreal and then asked if they would accept to participate in a short study on facial expressions.(4) The study aims to examine the use of SEF as a tool for providing evidence of teaching effectiveness in tertiary education.(5) The

31、results of the two questionnaires were subjected to statistical tests of reliability and significance using SPSS.(6) Envelopes containing the survey materials were sent to the local business manager of each union. In the envelopes, there was a cover letter explaining the project, the questionnaire i

32、tself, and a pre-paid return envelope. The union business manager was contacted and asked to select workers from his union and to send the envelopes to the chosen workers.(7) The participants were 90 first-year students from the School of Foreign Languages at a major university in Nanjing. Their ave

33、rage age was 18 years old. They constituted a convenience sample.(8) The investigation was performed in a national laboratory affiliated to a research center for industrial automation in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.3.2 Completing sentencesThe following words and phrasal verbs are more commonly used in

34、 Method SectionSubjects / participantschoose, include, recruit,volunteered / paid to participate, Materialsbe composed of, be located, be installed,be equipped with, obtain, supply, Research designapply, employ, develop, resort to, use, Procedure carry out, follow, perform, propose, Complete the fol

35、lowing paragraph by translating Chinese into English. A group of MBA students from a major metropolitan state university were recruited as participants for the investigation. （1） （問卷調(diào)查實(shí)施）after the topic of the BSC had been discussed in the course. 136 students enrolled in a managerial accounting cou

36、rse ( 2 ) （完成了此次問卷 . _( 3 )_（表2給出了這些參與者的背景信息）. As is shown, the majority of participants are male. _( 4 )_（參與者的平均年齡約29歲）, _( 5 )_（平均工作經(jīng)歷約6年） , and the mean number of accounting classes was approximately four. (Liu, 2008)1) _2) _3) _4) _5) _3.3 Reordering sentencesThe following is the method section

37、of a research article from the field of engineering with sentences in a scrambled order. Please rearrange them in a more conventional order. Write the sequential number in the box on the right side of the table below. aThe data was rank-ordered from the lowest X value of 1.2 to the highest of 3.8- s

38、ee Table 2 below.bThe SD scores show to what extent the teachers agreed among themselves when judging the gravity of each error.cThe survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire, in which the errors appeared in a random order.dThe assessors were instructed to view each error in its context and d

39、etermine to what extent it deviated from normal English.eThe questionnaire included the context in which each error had occurred and a marking scale ranging from 0 for "no error” to 5 for “the most severe error".fAfter scoring, the assessors were given the option to write down the principl

40、es that guided them in their scoring.gThe scores were computed into mean averages (X) and standard deviations (SD).hUnless otherwise indicated, the numerical data in the text refer to the mean average scores.iThe higher the SD score, the more diverse the assessors' opinions regarding the gravity

41、 of the item.3.4 Rewriting sentencesThe following sentences are taken from method sections of different published articles. Rewrite each sentence to make it more acceptable.(1) Table 5 shows the number of students per level and their L1 language backgrounds which are represented._(2) Two questionnai

42、res which were administered respectively to the personnel officers and business employees show a similar result in terms of their perception of the use of English in their firm._ _(3) The scores of the two raters were averaged and all the data were entered for statistical analysis. _ _(4) The model

43、which was used in the experiment was a modified version of the 2006 Test package, which was originally developed by the Morrison Research Institute. _ _(5) Gray (1998) studied the effectiveness of the new schedule. He used scores on the Stanford Achievement Test as the measure. _ _(6) Having explain

44、ed the directions, the students began to write. _ _(7) The schedule was in effect only 1 year, with students achieving better results. _(8) The teacher put the assignment on the board, and then she checked the roll and found that three students were absent. _ _(9) School administrators who are inter

45、ested in making changes that are not too expensive or too complex for the most part have been overly receptive to simplistic solutions. _ _ _(10) One of the obstacles that deter the installation of solar energy systems that are designed to achieve the savings that are important to all people is the

46、reluctance of those same individuals to make large capital investments. _ _ _3.5 Turning notes into a passageYou are required to write the method section of a research paper about the experiment to investigate into students preferences and attitudes towards sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened

47、 beverages. Pay particular attention to the choice of tense and voice.Aim of researchTo determine students preferences and attitudes toward sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened beverages.Research subjectsTen people, five male and five female students, from a Science English class 1, chosen at

48、randomMaterials Thirty straws, two cups, one blindfold, and two containers of Kool-Aid, a popular drink in the United States, one container with four cups of orange Kool-Aid sweetened with one half cup of sugar, the other container with four cups of orange Kool-aid sweetened with 9 packets of Nutras

49、weet brand artificial sweetener. ProcedureTen volunteer students, five males, into two lines, one for males and the other for females. Alternately, men and women test, a blindfold over the eyes of the tester, he/she could not see, the two cups filled with beverage, one with artificially-sweetened Ko

50、ol-Aid and the other with sugar-sweetened Kool-Aid. Then three questions asked from a survey and the answers tabulated. Next, use a straw, a sip from each cup.Data treatmentThe final two questions on the survey and the answers tabulated; finally, the remaining drink thrown away, and the next tester

51、came forward, repeated the process. 4. Writing Project4.1 Gathering information for a method section. You are required to write the method section of a research paper in the field of English language class attendance with the information elements given below. Gather information for your research. Ai

52、m of researchTo investigate into the status quo of your group of students attendance in English classroom and reasons for absence. Research subjectsSampling techniquesMaterials classroom ProceduresData treatment4.2 Designing a questionnaire The design of a questionnaire will depend on whether the researcher wishes to collect exploratory information (i.e. qualitative i