PAPER DETAILS
- The topic of my Bachelor of Arts paper/thesis is “Subsidiary Variants of English Phonemes: Realization in Actual Speech”.
The contents of the thesis should concern pronunciation of English allophones by English speaking Russians.
The thesis MUST be written in correct English.
The Literature review (theoretical part) and the research results (research description part) should be related.
There should be no in-text references (quotations, paraphrases, and summaries) in the research results section (research description part). In other words, the research results section should contain only your ideas (findings) written in your own words.
If you are quoting a book or an article with pages, you must always indicate the page number you are quoting from. It is better to quote / refer to specialized sources, i.e. books, studies on phonetics / phonology / linguistics rather than general reference books such as encyclopaedias. If you quote or refer, you need to indicate the page number, unless you refer to the entire book.
If you are summarizing, in the summary’s first sentence you must indicate the author, the date of the author’s publication, and page number. The end of the summary is marked by (ibid.). For example (DO NOT USE THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT IN THE THESIS):
The work by Maye, Werker, and Gerken (2002,45) shows that babies just a few months old can have their perceptions of allophonic contrasts changed by being exposed to distributions (mono-modal or bimodal) of the allophones of the English phonemes [d] and [t], the latter as unaspirated and unvoiced, between which can be a continuum of eight tokens in identical steps. Those unique contrasts had been taken into consideration due to the fact they no longer constitue a phonemic comparison in English and are each perceived as members of the /d/ category when in primary phrase function. After exposure, the toddlers in the bimodal group presented better results than those in the mono-modal category. All the toddlers had developed the ability to split sounds into categories. These findings suggest that babies in these age cohorts are in reality sensitive to statistical distributions in the input. It means that one can surmise that they are using this mechanism in the first year of life, and can use the distribution-based approach to learn phonetic rules with no lexicon (ibid.).
Do not attempt to sneak in plagiarism because I have my ways of finding it.
Structural requirements:
1 The title page – 1 page.
1.2. The contents page – 1 page.
1.3. The abstract – 1 page (up to 200 words).
2. The introduction – 3 pages:
2.1. The problem statement.
2.2. The aim of the research.
2.3. The objectives of the research.
2.4. Hypothesis / research question(s)
2.4. Research methods and procedures.
2.5. The scope of the research.
2.6. Relevance of the research and significance of the results.
3. The literature review (theoretical part) – 17 pages.
4. The research results (research description part) – 23 pages.
5. The conclusions – 1 page.
6. The supporting materials:
7.1. The list of references.
7.2. The appendices (if necessary).
So the pages should be arranged into something like this:
1 (abstract) + 3 (introduction) + 17 (literature review) + 23 (research results) + 1 (conclusions) = 45 pages
Read thoroughly the booklet and additional requirements that I have attached and follow their guidelines on how to write a thesis, since I will consult them when reviewing the thesis.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
IF you are going to research and refer to some audio (and video) [OR ANY DATA SOURCE] extracts of Russians speaking in English in the ‘Research Results’ part, then you should select data sources (video or videos) that involve minimum of 5 speakers who share similar backgrounds (age, gender, education, etc. – anything that might be pertinent as to why they pronounce the way they do) to make your point. I would like to draw your attention that it is not sufficient to state something like “The speakers in the debate were politicians, public figures, and citizens of Russia. They are of the same ethnic origin, and approximately of the same age and social status.” You must provide precise information about their background and it should be instantly evident to the reader that the speakers are truly similar in some aspects. But this disclosure should not be longer than a paragraph. The sections of the video that you would analyse should be represented by an allophonic transcription. In addition, if you choose to research a video, you must select one, whose length is more than 20 minutes.
The pages of the thesis must be numbered continuously starting with the abstract to the final pages; page numbers are placed at the bottom of the page on the right.
The text must be written in paragraphs.
The objectives must relate to one variable, not several.
The scope of research presents the scope of your analysed categories / aspects (in this case phonemes and allophones) and the scope of data (what was the length of your data sources or how many instances of the analysed elements you have collected as your data sample).
Try to avoid using sentences that do not contain any informational value. (e.g.: This study can be used for some purposes.)
Before submitting the thesis to me, spell-check it or hire an editor to look for and correct the misspellings and typos in the text.
Do not use the bold font for terms.
A quotation should not appear in the text as a separate sentence. Quotations are usually used to support the text author’s ideas, therefore, they can appear as part of your sentence or as a separate paragraph. It is also recommended neither to start the chapter / sub-chapter nor to finish it with a quotation.
You should not mention titles of books or articles when you reference some research/book. The titles will appear in the list of references.
In literature review you need to use argumentative mode of discourse (rather than the narrative mode, where you provide narration of the material you read) i.e. after reading the literature, you synthesize and generalize the material and present it from your own perspective. There should be synthesis and generalization provided. Moreover, use the verbs for reporting and avoid using such words as speaks, writes, etc.
Moreover, you should indicate the justification for the choice of data sources / participants of research (for example why you elected to examine Russian English) either in the Scope of Research in the Introduction or in Methodology section of the Research Results chapter.
The research problem [problem statement in the introduction] has to be based on some theoretical assumption, i.e. on some theories or results of other scholars’ studies. You need to give reference(s) to some scholars who state something that you are attempting to prove. A researcher (you) cannot rely only on his / her intuition about something he / she is planning to investigate.
IF you will analyse foreigners (people who are not native English speakers), you need to present the phonological system of their mother tongue in order to determine the interference of the mother tongue on their pronunciation of English allophones. This should be inserted at the end of the literature review (theoretical part).
The objectives and research question(-s) in the introduction should not be identical.
Regarding the scope of data.
The number of subjects should range between 10 and 20.
The number of these subjects should range between 10 and 20, when the research is based on surveys, questionnaires, etc.
If you choose to conduct surveys, questionnaires, etc. for the research results section (research description part), you will need to provide the recordings of these speakers uttering the sentences and passages. Each and every one. And these recordings must be numbered so that you could refer to a particular speaker by his/her number. I would also like to learn how did you get the speakers to agree to do these experiments? Where did you find these subjects?
You should provide the copies of the answers to questionnaires, surveys, and tests of the subjects.
Lastly, “The main aim of this research paper is to analyze how English speaking Russians speak the English language.” is too broad for a research aim. The ~45 pages would not be enough to cover all the reasons and factors on why Russians speak English the way they do.
When in the Paper Details I wrote “The contents of the thesis should concern pronunciation of English allophones by English speaking Russians.” I was giving the opportunity for the Writer to narrow down the topic of the thesis, for example to specific allophonic groups (voiceless bilabial stops).
BOOKLET
PREFACE
The thesis is a research paper based on an independent, original scientific study (theoretical and practical) which is a prerequisite for the degree.
First, the thesis must demonstrate the student’s ability:
to determine subject matter for the thesis;
to choose an appropriate methodology;
to conduct the research;
to draw independent conclusions and show their practical im- plications.
Second, the thesis must also demonstrate the student’s ability:
to think critically;
to appropriately organise the material of the research;
to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information;
to present the gist of the research;
to budget his / her time;
to report the research in correct and coherent academic Eng- lish.
This book is designed to help a student to achieve the above men- tioned goals. It covers:
general requirements for the thesis;
the model structure of the thesis;
the key concepts and necessary attributes of the thesis;
the regulations and recommendations for the thesis writing and defence;
the thesis defence procedure;
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the assessment criteria for the thesis.
This book is primarily intended to assist the BA and MA students majoring in English. However, it could also be of some help to all of those who are involved in research at the Bachelor or Master level.
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1.5 THE INTRODUCTION
The introduction of the thesis contains the problem statement, hypothesis / the research questions, the aim and the objectives of the research, methods and procedures of the research, the scope of the re- search, the relevance and significance of the research.
The problem statement is a very clear formulation of the research problem. The way the problem is formulated will affect the organisation of your thesis; therefore, you must give special attention to its accurate formulation.
In order to develop a clear problem statement, you must:
identify a research topic;
read enough of the literature in the field to be able to refine the topic as a research problem;
make a decision about the methodology.
Decide what type of problem statement is most appropriate: a hypothesis or research question(s) (either a hypothesis or research question(s) could be used in the thesis).
Consult your academic advisor throughout the process.
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Many problem statements include a hypothesis. The hypothesis is the researcher’s prediction or expectation of what the results will be. Hypotheses are derived from theory. As you review the literature on your chosen topic, you must look for the theory-derived hypotheses. The hy- pothesis is usually stated in positive form, e.g. Genre predetermines the use of discourse markers. The research question is framed as an open- ended question, e.g. In what ways does the genre of the text influence the
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use of discourse markers? In order to achieve greater specificity, you may support an open-ended question with more specific questions related to the main research question. For example, Are the discourse markers used in the research articles as frequently as in the fairy-tales? What discourse markers prevail in the research articles? What discourse markers prevail in the fairy-tales?
Developing a research question you are recommended to mind the following:
Before formulating a question, one needs to determine the general topic area one is interested in.
Having identified a general area, and a topic within that area, one begins the task of formulating a question.
Not all questions are researchable.
The questions need to be worth asking and capable of being an- swered.
In formulating a research question we need to strike a balance be- tween the value of the question and our ability to develop a research proposal we are capable of carrying out.
The question should be derived from the literature. It should be theoretically motivated.
After the question is asked, one should think about the data one needs to collect to explore the questions.
To facilitate the process, we need to develop a research outline.
The following research outline could be filled in to guide the de- velopment of a research project:
General area:
The topic of the thesis:
Hypothesis / research question(s): Key concepts:
Justification:
Subjects / data sources: Procedure and methods:
Type of data: Outcome(s): Anticipated problems: Possible solutions: Resources required:
(Adapted from Nunan, 2010, 216)
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After you develop the hypothesis or research question(s), you need to define the aim and the objectives of the research.
The aim of the research is to solve the problem of the research, i.e. to prove or disprove the hypothesis or to answer the research questions. The aim of the research must reflect the topic of the research. The thesis usually contains one general aim and from two to four clearly defined objectives. The objectives of the research must be very specific and disclose certain aspect of the research. The objectives as well as the aim must be original and must not be copied from other researches. The aim and the objectives of the research must outline the logic of the research procedure and should comply with the principle of logical subordina- tion, i.e. an objective of the research cannot be more general than the aim of the research.
For example:
The research aim is to analyse the use of cohesive devices in the re- search article genre.
The objectives could be formulated as follows:
- To make a detailed inventory of the three classes of cohesive de- vices – reference, substitution and ellipsis – in texts of research ar- ticle genre.
- To present formal and functional characteristics of the analysed cohesive devices in the research article genre.
- To analyse the results of the relative frequency distribution of the investigated cohesive devices.
The aim and the objectives concern only the research part of the thesis, i.e. you should not set the objective to overview the literature: no
matter that overviewing the literature is a necessary prerequisite for any research, it is not an objective of your research.
After you have completed all the above mentioned procedures – stated the problem, formulated the hypothesis or research questions, pointed out the aim and the objectives of your research – you must de- fine the scope and the methods you are going to use in your research as well as the material from which you are going to draw the data.
How to obtain material for analysis?
If you are carrying out empirical1 research, you must ask yourself: What research question am I trying to answer?
What analysis will provide a useful response to the question? What data do I need to conduct the study?
Where can I draw the data from?
What instruments will I use for drawing the data? What methods of data analysis will I use?
The answers to these questions very much depend on the field of your research, i.e. whether your thesis is on linguistics, literature or ELT methodology. The methodology, tools and instruments of the data col- lecting and data analysis of different fields are different and cannot be fully covered in this book. It could only be noted that there are two major research perspectives – quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative perspective includes studies that use quantitative methods, seek facts or causes of the phenomenon without regard to the subjective states of the individuals, emphasize measurement and search for relationships. Such studies assume a stable reality, are objective, reliable, generalisable, verification-oriented and outcome-oriented. You can find the following terms in quantitative study: variable, validity or statistical significance.
The studies deriving from the qualitative perspective use quali- tative methods and focus on meaning and understanding, taking place
in naturally occurring situations (McMillan, 1996). Such studies assume a
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1 Empirical is defined as “based on scientific testing or practical experience, not on ideas from books” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1995, 446).
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dynamic reality, are subjective, valid, ungeneralisable, discovery-orient- ed and process-oriented. They usually make use of the following terms: field study, case study, context, situational, meaning or multiple realities (Glatthorn, 1998, 34).
As summarized by Heden (personal communication, 2013), the dif- ferences between qualitative and quantitative research perspectives are as follows:
- Qualitative = Small amount of subjects – Large amount of data from each subject.
Quantitative = Large amount of subjects – Small amount of data from each subject.
- Qualitative = Complete objectivity is impossible – Personal ex- perience and interaction is necessary.
Quantitative = Complete objectivity is essential. Researchers rarely form relationships with their subjects and are discour- aged from it.
- Qualitative = Flexible design – hypotheses emerge during the data collection.
Quantitative = Design firmly established and hypotheses no- tated before data collection starts.
- Qualitative = Data can be mountains of pages of script / nar- rative (words).
Quantitative = Data can be arranged into tables of numerical values (numbers).
- Qualitative = Holistic.
Quantitative = Sequential.
The research perspective predetermines the choice of research methods and tools. The research method is a specific technique used to collect the data with respect to the research problem.
Different research methods are used in different fields. They de- pend on theoretical foundations (i.e. on explanatory patterns of a specif- ic field) and develop within the boundaries of a particular discipline. For
instance, in educational research, ELT methodology included, five major methods are typically used: tests and measurements, interviews, observa- tions, surveys, and documents (documents are analysed to establish the record) (Glatthorn, 1998, 38). According to Titscher et al. (2000, 51), the methods of text analysis include content analysis, conversational analysis, functional pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, discourse historical meth- od, etc.
The following example of the text investigation provided by Titscher et al. (2000, 35) can serve as an illustration of the procedures that you can adopt for your study:
Research question: What great social and political changes in Ameri- can society are reflected in influential daily newspapers?
Approach: Content analysis.
From what material do I make selection? From newspapers: the New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
What do I select from this? The title pages for the years 1890 to 1989.
How much selection do I analyse? A random sample of each 10 sen- tences on 10 days of each year.
What are my units of analysis? Selected words and word classes (e.g.
‘ritual words’, ‘change words’)
How is the data analysis carried out?
After selecting your research method, you need to decide what your data sources will be, i.e. where you are going to draw your data from and to define the scope of your data sources, i.e. how many items you are going to select for your research or what would be the length of the texts from which you are going to select the items for investigation.
The scope of your data sources should be outlined in your Introduc- tion. For example:
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The texts used for analysis were restricted to research articles taken from psychology research journals. This ensured that the study dealt with the texts of the same genre, within the framework of Modern English. 100 articles writ- ten by different authors and published in different journals were subjected to analysis, which involved 500 pages (225,000 words) of the text. The research
articles on psychology were selected randomly, but from the point of view of their generic characteristics they can be attributed to the research article genre. The selection of psychology research journal as the focus of the pre- sent study was not to bias the results of the research as “all texts in a genre must have a uniform, invariant organization” (McCarthy and Carter (1994,
26)), which influences the choice of language means. Therefore, it is hoped that in spite of the restricted range of the linguistic data the conclusions con- cerning the nature of reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction will have relevance to the texts of research articles on psychology as well as to the texts of the research articles of other sciences.
In conducting research it is very important to clearly define and specify the scope of the research. The scope of the research is the range of aspects of the research problem your thesis covers. Due to the limited scope of your thesis, you cannot deal with all the aspects of your research problem; therefore, you must specify your choice of the aspects selected for analysis and must give justification for your choice. For ex- ample, in discourse analysis it is generally accepted that there are five classes of cohesive devices. If, due to the limited scope of your thesis, you decide to analyse three of them you must state that your thesis concen- trates on the three classes of cohesive devices, e.g. reference, substitu- tion and ellipsis. You must also give valid reasons for your choice of those particular classes of cohesive devices. For example:
Due to the restricted scope of the present study, there were two ways: either to present a general analysis of all classes of cohesive devices or to present a detailed analysis of the selected cohesive devices. The latter way seemed more acceptable; therefore, the study concentrated on the three classes of cohesive devices.
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Reference, substitution and ellipsis were chosen for the following rea- sons: the fact that ellipsis and substitution are supposedly not typical of writ- ten texts in general and research texts in particular contradicts the generally accepted view that research texts are economical and concise. This contra- diction urged us to choose substitution and ellipsis for the research. The two classes are closely interrelated with the third class of cohesive devices refer-
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ence since for a long time the referring elements have been regarded as sub- stitutes; therefore, reference was also subjected to analysis.
After you discussed the scope of your research, you must outline the relevance and significance of the research. You must simply pro- vide justification what for the research was carried out and where the results of the research could be applied.
The research problem has professional significance if it makes the following contributions (Glatthorn, 1998, 85):
tests a theory,
contributes toward the development of theory, extends existing knowledge,
changes prevailing beliefs,
suggests relationships between phenomena, extends a research methodology or instrument.
The relevance and significance of the research could be outlined as follows:
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The present study contributes to the development of the general theory of genre. Its findings can be used for comparative analysis with regard to the same genre of other types of language such as Russian. It could contribute to the development of the discourse-based grammar within the frame of discourse analysis and to the teaching of reading and writing texts of research articles as well as texts of academic English in general.
1.6 THE MAIN BODY
1.6.1 The literature review
The Literature Review (theoretical part of your thesis) presents the reader with the knowledge upon which your study is built. As pointed out by Nunan (2010, 216), “the function of the literature review is to pro- vide background information on the research question, and to identify what others have said and / or discovered about the question. <…> if carried out systematically, [it] will acquaint you with previous work in the field, and should also alert you to problems and potential pitfalls in the chosen area”. Nunan (op. cit., 216) recommends starting a literature review with the preparation of an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography contains a list of relevant studies relating to the topic of your thesis.
For example:
- Gee, J. P. (2014). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and
Method. London and New York: Routledge.
The author examines the field of discourse analysis and presents his unique integrated approach which incorporates both a theory of language- in-use and a method of research. Gee includes new material such as exam- ples of oral and written language, ranging from group discussions with chil- dren, adults, students and teachers to conversations, interviews, academic texts and policy documents. He also presents perspectives from a variety of approaches and disciplines, including applied linguistics, education, psychol- ogy, anthropology and communication.
- Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of
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Language. London and New York: Routledge.
The author brings together papers written over a 25 year period and examines the following topics: language in relation to ideology and power; discourse in processes of social and cultural change; dialectics of discourse, dialectical relations between discourse and other moments of social life; methodology of critical discourse analysis research; analysis of political dis-
course; discourse in globalisation and ‘transition’ as well as critical language awareness in education.
A list of annotated bibliography will help you to make sense of the material published in the field and facilitate the process of writing the literature review.
While collecting relevant literature do not forget to make appro- priate references, i.e. put down the bibliographical information of the source you are going to use in The Literature Review (see example above). After you finish the collecting stage, you have to reread all the usable sources that you have found. In the rereading process, put aside irrel- evant information, include only relevant theoretical literature and the empirical research.
A literature review differs from an annotated bibliography in that while writing a literature review you extract and synthesise the main points, issues and findings which arise from the critical review of the readings.
Before writing The Literature Review, you must develop an outline. The development of the outline includes two steps:
- Determine the major components of the chapter.
- Split major components into divisions and subdivisions.
While writing The Literature Review, you can use the following pat-
tern:
Provide an overview – the overview helps the reader to understand
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how the section is organised and what its main divisions are.
Generalise – you are obliged to make coherent sense of the litera- ture, not simply describing it. Begin the developmental paragraphs of the section with one or two sentences that generalise what the studies show.
Specify – provide specific evidence, cite and discuss each study re- lating to the generalisation you have made. A study of major importance must be described in considerable detail whereas less-important studies might simply be noted. The length of the description of each study must correspond to the importance of the study for your research.
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While writing your literature review, make sure that it is as current as possible. To make it as current as possible, you have to use all possi- ble sources. You must check current issues of journals, books, search the Internet for computerised databases, check conference programs and attend scholarly conferences.
Finally, in order to check whether The Literature Review is appropri- ately written or not, you can answer the following questions (Glatthorn,
1998, 143):
Is your review…
comprehensive, including all major works relating to your topic?
in-depth, providing the reader knowledge about the prior research?
current, including works published recently?
unbiased, without you skewing the prior research to suit your point of view?
clearly organised, so that the reader can easily follow the plan and flow of the chapter?
coherent, making sense of the studies, not simply describing them?
effectively written, with a scholarly style?
If your answers to the above questions are not positive, try to im- prove the chapter along the lines of the above guidelines.
1.6.1.1 REFERENCING AND QUOTING
In The Literature Review you will refer to a number of ideas that will serve you as a foundation for your study. There are certain rules of refer- encing and quoting which you must follow:
Direct quotation must be verbatim.
Do not cite sources you have not read.
Wherever possible, cite primary, not secondary, sources.
Do not distort the source; do not twist the evidence just to support your own ideas.
Do not overuse quotations.
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Use direct quotation only when it is important to preserve the ex- act words of the origin. In most cases, paraphrase. While paraphrasing, do not forget to refer to the original source of the idea.
Square brackets are used to mark anything that is added [like this],
three spaced dots (…) are used to indicate an omission.
When the quotation is short, just a phrase or sentence, quotation marks must be used; when the quotations are more than four lines, they must be indented as a separate paragraph with no quotation marks. The lines must be single-spaced.
Refer to the original text as early as possible.
While referring indicate the author’s surname (no initials), which is followed by the year of publication and the page number. The page number is separated from the year of publication either by a comma or a colon, e.g. as described by Gee (2014, 25) or as described by Gee (2014:25). Be consistent.
If you refer to more than one author, separate them by semi-colons, e.g. Gee, 2014, 27; Fairclough, 2010, 32; Nunan, 2010, 23.
If there are two authors, both are given in the reference, e.g. Flow- erdew and Forest (2014, 52).
If there are more than two authors, only the first is mentioned by name in the reference, which is followed by the abbreviation et al. (see Jones et al., 2012, 201). For the list of the most common abbreviations, see Appendix 5.
If you refer to some author or give quotation as part of your text, do not repeat the author’s name in the brackets, just indicate the year of publication and the page number, e.g. According to Brown (2014, 221), pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies meaning in the context.
If you paraphrase the idea, you must refer to the original source by indicating the author’s name, the year of publication and the page num- ber in the brackets, e.g. Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies meaning in the context (Brown, 2014, 221).
If you refer to the secondary source, indicate both the primary and the secondary sources, e.g. Jones (as cited in Smith, 2013, 25) agreed that
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the experiment failed. Provide the details of the secondary source in your list of references. Remember that secondary sources should be used sparingly, only when the original work is unavailable.
Vary the way you cite sources, to avoid excessive repetition, e.g.:
According to Gee (2014, 2), “in language, there are important connec- tions among saying (informing), doing (action), and being (identity)”.
Gee (2014, 2) concluded that language connects information, action and identity.
Language connects what we say, what we do and what we are (Gee,
2014, 2).
In the 2014 study by Gee, language is seen as connecting information, action and identity (Gee, 2014, 2).
If you refer to the original source in other scripts (e.g. kirillica), trans- literate the name of the author in the text but give reference in original, e.g. Valgina points out that text theory as a science discipline was formed in the second half of the 20th century (Валгина, 2003, 7).
While referring do not forget to indicate the page number. You can omit the page number only if you are referring to the book as a whole, not to a particular idea, classification, sentence, phrase, etc.
Referred items must be presented in a list of references. There must not be items in the list of references which were not referred to in the
text.
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If you find a useful quotation while reading materials you must copy it verbatim and indicate the author, the title, the year of publication and the page number. If later you decide to use it in your thesis, you will save your time and will not need to search for it again.
1.6.2 The research results
The Research Results chapter is a detailed description of your re- search. In this chapter you are supposed to present the results of your investigation, therefore, you must:
- Describe the procedure of the data collection and methods used for processing the data.
- Display the reduced data in a narrative form, tables, graphs or charts – the data must be processed, compared, grouped and systematised (Lileikienė et al., 2004, 20).
- Analyse and interpret your data.
The data analysis usually includes three procedures:
- Reducing the data – you take the raw data and group it in or- der to make sense of it.
- Displaying the reduced data – you can do that by choosing one of the following reporting methods: raw data, percent- ages, mean, median, or standardized scores. The usual meth- ods for displaying data are narrative text, matrix, tables, graphs, charts or other figures.
- Explaining how you analysed the data – in quantitative studies you report the statistical tests and procedures used; in qualita- tive studies, you explain how you interpreted the data.
Before presenting the results, go through the following steps: Review the results carefully. If you used statistical methods of data
analysis, check for accuracy of your results.
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Decide on the contents and format of the chapter: What will be included in the appendix section?
The appendices usually contain the following materials: question- naires and survey forms, instructions to participants, copies of instru- ments used; relevant samples of the analysed texts; material which is not directly relevant to the argumentation in your thesis but which needs to be referred to in the text. The appendices are numbered if there are
more than one of them and these numbers are used in the text when an appendix is referred to.
What will be included in tables?
Tables are used to present complex data in columns and rows and are useful because they present multiple data in a form easy to under- stand. You must bear in mind though that too many tables distract the reader and complicate the processing of the text. If it is likely to make the text too heavy, they must be moved to the appendix. When used in the text, tables must be positioned as closely as possible to their description in the text; they must not precede the description and must be num- bered consecutively, e.g. Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3. The number and caption are located above the table. Reference to the tables in the main body of the text is made either directly as part of a sentence, e.g. Table 1 shows that (…) or indirectly, in brackets (see Table 1).
For the sample table, see Appendix 6.
Glatthorn (1998, 164) offers some guidelines for making effective tables. First, you must answer the following questions:
Is the table essential?
Is the title brief but clear?
Does every column have a column heading? Are all abbreviations and symbols explained? Are notes presented in proper form and order?
You must also bear in mind the following: What figures will be needed?
A figure is any pictorial illustration such as a graph, a photograph or a line drawing. Figures are useful in showing nonlinear relationships. A figure must be easy to read and must complement, not duplicate, the text. If it is likely to make the text too heavy, it must be moved to the ap- pendix. When used in the text, a figure must be positioned as closely as possible to its description in the text, must not precede the description and must be numbered consecutively, e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure
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- The number and caption are located under the figure. Reference to
figures in the main body of the text is made either directly as part of a sentence Figure 1 shows that (…) or indirectly, in brackets (see Figure 1).
Before writing The Research Results chapter, make all the tables and figures that you will need. This will simplify the writing task.
For the sample figure, see Appendix 7.
Where will additional information be placed?
Additional information on the topic, which is important but not im- portant enough to interrupt the flow of the text, is presented in foot- notes or endnotes. Footnotes are placed at the foot of the page, printed in smaller type and single-spaced. Endnotes are placed at the end of the research paper before the references. Footnotes and endnotes must be numbered consecutively.
How will examples be presented?
Examples can be presented either in the running text or in another line, indented. Shorter examples – words, morphemes and phrases – are incorporated into larger text sequences. They are usually put in italics.
For example:
It has to be noted that the demonstrative this, functioning as head of the noun phrase, is an item of reference rather than an item of ellipsis.
Longer examples are presented in another line, indented, with a lead-sentence. The relevant words in the example may be put in bold type.
For example:
Consider the following examples:
(1) The clinical conditions of the pigeons was improved by this treat- ment, the mortality reduced and the outbreak controlled (PSJ, 21).
(2) The mean annual number of cases of gangrenous dermatitis was
15.9. This disease is thought to be a result of immunosuppression caused by gumboro. The use of the killed gumbaro vaccines has the potential virtually to eliminate this disease. (PSJ, 160).
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Examples taken from literary sources (e.g. books, dictionaries, cor- pora, research journals, newspapers, etc.), have to be provided with a reference to the sources in an abbreviated form – either the surname of
the author or the title followed by the page number, e.g. EH, 25 (which stands for Ernest Hemingway, page 25) or PSJ, 160 (which stands for Poul- try Science Journal, page 160). A list of literary sources / analysed texts has to be provided as an appendix. The numbers in parentheses are of- ten used as references to the examples:
Sentence (1) implies that (…) But (2) can be interpreted as (…)
What will be reported as the narrative text?
You are recommended to give the description of the results of your research and interpretation of the data as the narrative text. While inter- preting the data, avoid duplication of the information: do not repeat the information expressed in numerical value in the narrative text if it was already presented in tables and figures. If you need to use numerals in the narrative text, do not use numbers – present them as words, i.e., for example, use twenty three items instead of 23 items.
While writing the thesis, remember to maintain the coherence of the text:
Each chapter must relate to the whole.
Each chapter should make sense by itself and be organized in such a way that the reader can easily follow the line of argument.
The parts of the chapter should clearly relate to each other, convey- ing a sense of order and form.
Be sure to frame each chapter with a definite introduction that opens the chapter and suggests what is to come and a clear conclusion that draws the chapter to a close.
If the organization is clear only to you, then you have failed in com- municating with the reader.
Provide the reader with an outline of the chapter, so that the read- ing process is made easier.
Indicate in The Introduction how the thesis is organized.
Open each chapter by linking it with the previous chapter and by indicating what will come.
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Use headings and subheadings at the major divisions of the chap-
ter.
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As each division begins, use a transition paragraph or a transition sentence to show the connection between that division and what has gone before. A transition paragraph is a short paragraph that links major sections of the thesis. The first sentence looks back to the previous sec- tion or division. The second looks ahead. A transition sentence has the same structure in a condensed form: the first part of the sentence, usu- ally a subordinate clause, refers back. The second part, usually the main clause, refers forward.
1.7 THE CONCLUSIONS
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The chapter Conclusions reports the general findings of your re- search. In this chapter you must demonstrate that the aim of your thesis has been achieved and objectives were accomplished. You also have to prove or disprove the hypothesis or answer the research questions of your study with the help of your findings. In Conclusions you are rec- ommended to avoid introduction of new questions and problems that
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were not analysed in your Research Results chapter. Avoid quotations and referencing.
The Conclusions chapter is very important since it demonstrates your own critical intelligence with respect to your findings. Your Conclu- sions chapter can:
relate your findings to previous research;
examine theoretical implications – confirm existing theory or present disconfirming evidence;
explain the unanticipated findings – if the results seem unan- ticipated or surprising, do not apologize for yourself or blame others, simply note the problem;
give implications for practice – make effective recommenda- tions avoiding dogmatic assertions;
give recommendations for further research – note only the re- search that your own study suggests.
1.8.2 REFERENCES AND RULES OF REFERENCING
The References section is very important for your thesis: it requires accuracy and checking before presentation. There are several terms to identify literary sources used in the research paper but the most popular are “references” and “bibliography”. One must distinguish the difference and use an appropriate one. References usually are works referred to directly in the text. Bibliography is a broader term covering the works referred to in the text as well as those consulted but not mentioned in the text. A bibliography is more usual for a book than for a thesis; there- fore, you will use the heading References. While compiling the list of refer- ences, make sure that:
You have included all the works – and only those works – referred to in the text.
The works not referred to in the text cannot be included in the list of references.
While reading your thesis before submitting it, as you find a refer- ence, check it against the reference list – whether the names are spelled correctly; in case of multiple authorship, whether the names are listed in the same order; whether all elements of reference are correct – the title of the book, the year of publication, the place of publication and the publishing house. Mark each reference that corresponds with the list of references. Marking will enable you to identify references that appear in the text but not in the reference list – and items that appear in the refer- ence list but do not appear in the text. This will help you to compile an accurate list of references.
There are several standards for recording reference entries. One of the most widely-spread is APA (American Psychological Association) sys- tem of referencing, which you are advised to use in your thesis.
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The list of references is given at the end of the thesis, arranged in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames. The list of references should be double spaced with hanging indents used for the second and sub- sequent lines of each entry. A hanging indent is where the left line starts
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at the left margin and subsequent lines are indented (approx. 1.3 cm). You can use your word processor to automatically format the double- spacing and hanging indents.
If there are several authors, the book is listed under the surname of the first author / editor.
If there is more than one publication by the same author, the earlier comes first. If the author wrote two books in one year, they are listed as follows: 2014 a, 2014 b.
If there are sources in different scripts, sources in Latin script are given first.
While compiling the list of references, follow the given examples:
Books and book chapters
Single author
Crystal, D. (2014). Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press.
Two authors
Flowerdew, J., & Forest, R. W. (2014). Signalling nouns in academic English. A corpus-based discourse approach. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press.
Three to five authors
Barber, C., Beal, J. C., & Shaw, P. A. (2009). The English language. A his- torical introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Six or more authors2
Gilbert, D. G., McClernon, J. F., Rabinovich, N. E., Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., Asgaard, G., … Botros, N. (2004). Morphology and syntax. New York: Ben- jamins.
No author
Concise Oxford English dictionary. (2011). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Edited book
One editor
James, G. (Ed.). (1984). The ESP classroom – methodology, materials, expectations. Exeter Linguistic Studies 7. University of Exeter.
Two editors
Bohnemeyer, J., & Pederson, E. (Eds.). (2014). Event representation in language and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapter or article in an edited book
Benson, C. (2014). Adopting a multilingual habitus: What north and south can learn from each other about the essential role of non-domi- nant languages in education. In Gorter, D., Zenotz, V., & Cenoz, J. (Eds.), Minority languages and multilingual education. Bridging the local and the global (pp. 11-28). Educational linguistic series. Springer.
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2 All authors should be given when there are 6 or 7 authors. If a book has 8 or more authors, place three ellipsis points between the sixth and final author names to indicate that some names have been omitted e.g. Jones, P., … Adams, N (2014). When citing more than two authors in text give the name of the first author and abbreviate the others to et al. (“and others”) in the first and subse- quent citations. Jones et al. (2014) found (…)
E-book
Storey, K. B. (2004). Functional metabolism: Regulation and adapta- tion. Retrieved from http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=sum mary&v=1&bookid=129390
Journal article (print version)
Cohen, C. (2014). Probabilistic reduction and probabilistic enhance- ment. Morphology, 24, 25-34.
Journal article (full-text from electronic database)
Jackson, D., Firtko, A., & Edenborough, M. (2007). Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adver- sity: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60(1), 1-9. doi:10.1111
/j.1365-2648.2007.04412.x3
Article (from the Internet, not available in print version)
Mayr, R., & Montanari, S. (2014, October 22). Cross-linguistic interac- tion in trilingual phonological development: the role of the input in the acquisition of the voicing contrast. Journal of Child Language. Retrieved from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=o nline&aid=9390067&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0305000914000592.
Newspaper article (from electronic database)
Wentworth, W. C. (1984, January 24). Why we need a permanent base on the moon. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 11. Retrieved from http://archives.smh.com.au/index.php
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3 When referencing electronic resources it is necessary to provide details about the location of the item. Wherever possible the DOI (digital object identifier) should be provided in the reference. Electronic sources should be referenced in the same format as that for a “fixed-media source”, such as a book, with the DOI included at the end. If a DOI is available no further publication or location elements are required. If no DOI is available, provide the direct URL if the item is freely accessible, or the home page URL if access is restricted.
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Conference paper in the conference proceedings
Duff, P. (1990). Developments in the case study approach to SLA research. In T. Hayes and K. Yoshioka (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st Confer- ence on Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. Tokyo: International University of Japan.
Thesis
Skliar, O.S. (2007). Gender representations and gender bias in ELT text- books published in the Middle East: A case study of ELT textbooks published in Turkey and Iran. MA thesis. Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
Abstract of Thesis
Skliar, O.S. (2007). Gender representations and gender bias in ELT text- books published in the Middle East: A case study of ELT textbooks published in Turkey and Iran. Abstract of MA thesis. Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
Unpublished work
Hawkins, B. W. (1984). The Semantics of English spatial prepositions. Unpublished PhD dissertation. San Diego: University of California.
Web page / document on the Internet
Este, J., Warren, C., Connor, L., Brown, M., Pollard, R., & O’Connor, T. (2008). Life in the clickstream: The future of journalism. Media Entertain- ment and Arts Alliance. Retrieved from http://www.alliance.org.au/doc- uments/foj_report_final.pdf
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Document on the Internet, no author, no date
Developing an argument. (n.d.4). Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://web.princeton.edu/sites/writing/Writing_Center/WCWriting Re- sources.htm
Video (from the Internet)
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Norton, R. (2006, November 4). How to train a cat to operate a light switch [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Vja83KLQXZs
