2. Literature Search First
• What has been done and what can you
say that’s new?
• Be thorough in your search:---a high
sensitivity/low specificity search.
3. The Process of Paper Writing
• Create an outline first
• Plan on multiple drafts:
– Filename with dates
– One filename written over with new draft
• Tables/figures early: prompt more analysis
• Deadlines for you and coauthors
4. The Introduction
Knee Pain, Why?
Element of Introduction Function
Context Identification of the context
(background of the study)
Issue Discussion of problem areas in your
fields that have been known
Gap Statement of what questions/issues
remained to answer
Research Goals Explanation of how your research will
contribute in filling some gaps.
5. Example of Introduction
Elements Sentence
Context COVID-19-related concerns surfaced because this viral infection is
considered to be a state of increased risk of severe illness, as was reported
in previous outbreaks and in a study from Italy during the COVID-19
pandemic (Mateo, 2020). In a recent study of Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, women were strongly advised to self-isolate regardless of
quarantine periods (Nielsen, 2021).
Issue Several studies regarding PPD in the pandemic have already been published
(Mateo, 2020; Foulon, 2021), and the first meta-analysis15 suggests that
the pooled prevalence of PPD is 22%, representing a higher rate than before
the pandemic. Studies assessing PPD at 6 weeks postpartum revealed a
prevalence of PPD up to 34%.
Gap Concerning PPD, however, to the best of our knowledge there are no
studies assessing its prevalence during COVID-19 pandemic in Greece
Research Goals Given this gap in the literature, we aim to assess the prevalence of PPD and
anxiety symptoms in the Greek puerperal women and to evaluate the
association of COVID-19 related concerns with antenatal anxiety and PPD
symptoms.
6. Tenses used in Introduction
• Simple present tense is generally used to begin the
introduction in order to describe the general
background context, i.e what is known already.
Example: In this framework, pregnant women are
reported to have higher levels of anxiety.
• Present perfect tense is then used to report studies
about the topic that has been conducted before.
Example: Several studies regarding PPD in the pandemic
have already been published.
7. TASK 1
In pairs, find what other language phrases
that you can use to state gap(s) and research
goal(s).
8. Literature Review
There are two types of a literature review: theoretical framework and
empirical review.
The theoretical framework includes theory/theories that informs a
study/data analysis.
The empirical review comprises previous studies along with key
findings. As a rule of thumb, the empirical review summarizes a
research context, questions, purposes, methodology, and key findings
of the previous studies.
Notes: Some journals may ask you to include a brief literature
review, others may not.
9. Tenses used in Literature Review
• Use the past tense (e.g., researchers presented) or the present perfect (e.g.,
researchers have presented) for the literature review and the description of
the procedure if discussing past events.
• Use the past tense to describe the results (e.g., test
scores improved significantly).
• Use the present tense to discuss implications of the results and present
conclusions (e.g., the results of the study show…).
• When explaining what an author or researcher wrote or did, use the past
tense.
• Patterson (2012) presented, found, stated, discovered…
• However, there can be a shift to the present tense if the research findings still
hold true:
• King (2010) found that revising a document three times improves the
final grade.
• Smith (2016) discovered that the treatment is effective.
10. Research Method
Elements Function
Research Design The research design is identification of the
specific strategy of inquiry to be used.
Participants Describe the participant of your research (and
what sample used to determine the
participant)
Instruments Describe the instrument(s) used to collect the
data
Procedures Explain the procedure to collect the data
Data Analysis Explain how the data were analyzed (using
what?)
11. Example of Research Method
Elements Example
Research
Design
This is a multicenter two-phase observational prospective cohort study
Participants The second phase was conducted at 6–8 weeks postpartum by telephone and all
women were asked to complete the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
(EPDS). This is because PPD usually manifests at 6–8 weeks postpartum and in
order to avoid the confounding impact of maternity blues (30–80% during the first
15 days postpartum).
Instruments Sociodemographic and pregnancy variables were collected through a
questionnaire and medical records. COVID-19 related concerns were collected
using a 38-items structured questionnaire grouped in 5 domains (pregnancy,
family, adequacy of information, obstetrics/gynecology, and anesthetic concerns).
Procedures Each local investigator explained the aims of the study and a written informed
consent was signed. The set of Phase 1 questionnaires (Generalized Anxiety
DisorderGAD-7 and a self-reported questionnaire about COVID-19 related
concerns) was administered to all parturients.
Data Analysis All statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 26 for Mac. The primary outcome variable was the EPDS
score at 6–8 weeks postpartum. To assess the association of COVID-19 related
concerns with anxiety and depressive symptoms, Pearson’s correlations tests were
carried out, followed by partial correlations adjusted for age, demographic and
obstetric variables.
12. Tenses used in research methods
Most research methods sections are written in the past simple using
the passive form. The past simple is required because the actions you
describe took place in the past (i.e. before you started to write your
paper).
• Example: To investigate the research questions and hypotheses,
authors administered an online survey.
In the research methods section passive voice is appropriate to use.
The passive is considered as good style here because the focus is on
what was done rather than who did it.
• Example: Participants for the study were recruited via Facebook, the
platform where the majority of Expo related conversations took place
on the web.
13. The Results Section
In principle, findings consist of two main elements i.e.
1. Data presentation is the way the writer presents the
data using graph, chart, table, etc (for quantitative) or
description, interview excerpt, observation result, and
responses of open-ended questionnaire (for
qualitative)
2. Reading data, on the other hand, is the description of
data presentation.
15. continue… Reading data
Figure 1 shows the mean scores for the items related to
COVID-19 concerns. Concerns about pregnancy and
pandemic and transmission to fetus/newborn were
moderate. They also seemed quite worried about the
health of older children (5.4±3.2). Moreover, antenatal
care seemed mildly affected due to the pandemic;
however, a proportion of 36% (n=119) reported a
decrease in willingness to attend antenatal education
courses and a similar proportion of 34% (n=112) reported
fewer antenatal visits to an obstetrician/gynecologist than
planned.
16. Tenses used in results section
• Past tense for results obtained
Examples:
1. Overall, more than 70% of the insects collected
were non-phytophagous.
2. Results indicated that prolonged exposure to
ultra-violet radiation had a positive correlation
with the development of melanomas.
• Present tense to refer to figures, tables and graphs As
in the previous sections, use the present tense when
you refer to figures, tables and graphs.
17. The Discussion Section
• State the Major Findings/ Results
It is important to summarize the major findings or results in the first paragraph of
discussion. This is aimed at connecting your explanation of the major findings to the
research questions stated in the introduction section.
• Relate the Findings to Similar Studies
This is essential because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps to
support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your
study differs from other research about the topic.
• Limitation of the study
It can be related to the weakness in terms of method of the study, the number of
participants, the ways of getting the sample of the study, and the method of participant
recruitment.
• Recommendation for future research
This essential for other researchers to give research ideas for them. This is because
the recommendation for future research contains things that could be addressed in the
next research such as different research questions, research settings, participants, data
collection techniques, and data analysis techniques.
18. Element Example
State the major
findings
The findings reveal that the prevalence of PPD at 6 weeks
postpartum was 13.2%.
Relate the
findings with
previous studies
These results regarding the prevalence of PPD prior to the
pandemic have revealed similar rates with the previous
studies. Gonidakis, et al. (2021) found that the prevalence
of PPD one month after delivery was 12.5% using the cut-
off point of 12. Similarly, Koutra et al. (2021), using the
same cut-off with our study (≥13), found that the prevalence
of PPD was 13.6% at 8 weeks postpartum.
Limitation There are several limitations that need to be addressed. One
lies in its cross-sectional nature. Yet it involves 5 centers
throughout Greece. Moreover, it assesses depressive
symptoms at 6 weeks postpartum in order to avoid the
‘baby blues’ period.
Recommendation Future longitudinal research is needed to better identify
high risk parturients and to provide the best maternal and
child care both prenatal and postnatal.
19. Useful Expressions for Writing Discussion Section
• If your findings/results are similar to those from previous studies, you
can use :
- These findings support a research/ study that/ by __________
- Previous studies on__________ report similar results to this study.
- These results match those observed in earlier studies.
• If your findings/results are in contrast to those from previous
research, you can use:
- The overall results are in contrast to those from previous research
conducted with/ by ________
- However, the findings of the current study do not support the
previous research.
- However, this result has not previously been described.
20. Conclusion
• Summary of research results functions to highlight the key findings in your analysis
or result section. In this study, the summary of research result is the result of
hypothesis testing which will be connected to the research questions.
• Implications of the study suggest how the findings may be important for policy,
practice, theory, and subsequent research.
21. Example
Element Example
Summary of
research results
PPD rates according to our results did not increase during
the first phase of the pandemic in Greece. It is known that
many people do not develop psychopathology soon after a
traumatic event and this may be the case in our sample.
Implications of
the study
Maternity care providers should employ an informative
well-structured antenatal program in respect to the
parturients’ concerns related to this pandemic. If restrictive
measures are implemented, telephone contacts, video calls
with the specialists or online antenatal courses could be
applied. In such antenatal programs, enhancement of social
support of pregnant women (e.g. involvement of husband
and other close relatives) should be included.
22. A brief synopsis of writing an
abstract
• It is a minipaper:
– Introduction (with research objective(a))
– Methods
– Results
– Conclusion and implications
• Like a paper, requires many drafts, most
oriented to presenting argument concisely
