Sections of a research paper

Sections of a researchpaper
María Guadalupe García

Abstract
Theabstractisactuallythefirstsection of a report, comingafterthetitle and beforetheintroduction. Theabstractprovidesthereaderwith a briefpreview of yourstudybasedoninformationfromtheothersections of thereport. Itisoftenthelastpart of thereporttobewritten.

Order of typicalelementsincluded in anabstract
Somebackgroundinformation.
The principal activity (orpurpose)of thestudy and itsscope.
Someinformationaboutthemethodologyused in thestudy.
Themostrelevantresults of thestudy.
A statement of conclusionorrecommendation.

Introduction
Itserves as anorientationforreaders of thereport,givingthemtheperspectivetheyneedtounderstandthedetailedinformationcoming in thelatersections.
It can bedividedinto 5 parts:
Stage I
Thewriterestablishes a context, orframe of reference, tohelpreadersunderstandhow

theresearchfitsinto a widerfield of study.Inthisstageyouestablish a settingforyourresearchtopic.
In stage II youestablish a settingforyourresearchtopic. Thisiswhy, sometimesitiscalledthereview of literature. Itisessentiallyanorganizedcollection of references, orcitationstootherworkswhich are listed in a separatesection at theend of yourreport.

Thereview of literatureservesthreeimportantfunctions.
First, itcontinuestheprocessstarted in Stage I of givingyourreadersbackgroundinformationneededtounderstandyourstudy.
Second, itassuresyourreadersthatyou are familiar withtheimportantresearchthat has beencarriedout in yourarea.

Third, itestablishesyourstudy as one link in a chain of researchthatisdeveloping and enlargingknowledege in yourfield.
Afteryouhavepresented contextual setting and discussedthepreviouswork of otherresearchers, you use the final part of theintroductiontofocustheattention of thereaderonthespecificresearchproblemyouwillbedealingwith in thebody of yourreport.

workis done in threeadditionalstages, whichwedesignate as III,IV, and V. Stage III indicatesanareathatisnottreated in thepreviousliterature, butthatisimportantfromthepoint of view of yourwork; Stage IV formallyannouncesthepurpose of yourresearch; and Stage V indicatepossiblebenefitsorapplications of yourwork.

Method
It describes thestepsyoufollowed in conductingyourstudy and thematerialsyouused at eachstep.
Themethodsectionisusefultoreaderswhowanttoknowhowthwmethodology of yourstudymayhaveinfluencedyourresults, orwho are interested in replicatingorextendingyourstudy.

Results
In thispart, youpresentthefindings of yourstudy and brieflycommentthem. Somewriterscallthissection “ results and discussion”, thusindicating more extensivecommentsonthefindings of thestudy. However, in thischapterwefollowedtheconvention of includingonlybriefcommentsfocusedonthestatisticalanalysis .

Discussion
Itisthelastmajorsection of thereport, followedbythelist of references. Sometimes ,thissectioniscalled “conclusions” instead of “discussion”.Thissectionmovesthereader back fromthesecificinformationreported in themethods and resultsto a more general view of howthefindingsshouldbeinterpreted.

Sections of a research paper

by guadalupe garcia on Jul 15, 2010

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