BTH740 Research Essay 20113

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How To Write a Research Essay

Five Stages of Research

• Survey and Critique
• Thesis Statement
• Research
• Writing
• Presentation

Survey and Critique

This is the abductive stage of forming hypotheses. There is no single logical form to apply here - there are numerous possibilities - we guess at what might be the case

• Open-ended searches by team members
• Discussion amongst team members to identify conditions that might be sufficient and economical for an observation

Thesis Statement

Requirements For the Final Essay

set by the instructor - what you need to know before starting to prepare the thesis statement

• number of sources
  • primary >= 2
  • secondary >= 4
  • tertiary - summarize
• length 1600-2400 words
• late penalties 20%
• timeline:
  • thesis statement - due November 1
  • preliminary research - due November 8
  • recording details - due November 15
  • writing - due November 29
  • publication - due December 6

Narrowing the Focus

select the topic

• sources
  • encyclopedias
  • textbooks
  • dictionaries
  • videos
• process
  • jot down ideas
  • discuss ideas
  • circle one that are of interest
  • select one from a short-list
  • select another as the alternative

Searching for Sources

create working bibliography

• questions to answer
  • are there sufficient sources
  • is each one relevant to the focus
  • are the sources diverse
  • are the sources quality sources
  • are there twice as many sources as required
• process
  • read
    • abstracts
    • conclusions
    • reviews
  • balance
    • books
    • articles
    • electronic
    • audio-visual
    • old
    • new
  • list publication details accurately

Defining the Purpose

• single sentence plus keywords
• discuss the thesis
  • discuss with two peers
  • refine the focus
  • define the scope
• pose the research question
  • sufficient sources
  • narrow enough topic
  • avoid
    • bibliographical
    • narrative
    • descriptive
    • unfounded assumptions
  • how successful not why successful
• formulate one precise sentence
• task is to answer the question <- sole purpose
• make short list of sub-tasks
• identify keywords

Submission

• thesis statement
• keywords
• bibliography

Presentation/Publication

• source: Parberry, Ian (2000) How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science: A Speaker's Guide for Students, Dept. Comp. Sc., Univ North Texas. Denton, Texas.

What to Say How to Say it

• communicate key ideas
  • emphasize key ideas
  • skip standard, obvious, or complicated
• don't get bogged down in details
  • you have been thinking deeply for months
  • audience has not - is the paper worth reading?
  • details are out of place - leave them in the paper
• structure your talk
  • break into distinct parts
• use a top-down approach
  • introduction
    • informal description - impressions are important
    • define the problem
    • motivate the audience
      • explain why it is so important
    • introduce terminology
    • discuss earlier work
    • emphasize contributions of your paper
      • this may be the only points audience will remember
    • provide a road-map to the talk
  • body
    • abstract the major results or contributions
    • explain the significance of the results
    • sketch a proof of the crucial results
      • gloss over the technical details
  • technicalities
    • present a key result
      • give the flavour of the rest of the technical details in a short period of time
    • present it carefully
      • fill in small gaps
      • mention points that may not be in the paper itself
  • conclusion
    • hindsight is clear than foresight
      • make observation that would have been confusing earlier
      • regain the attention of non-experts in the audience
    • state open problems
      • identify problems that arise from your paper
      • mention weaknesses of your paper
      • indicate that your talk is over

Delivery - Getting through to your Audience

• use repetition
  • "tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them
• remind, don't assume
  • if your paper assumes a standard result, state it as a reminder
• don't over-run
  • conference presentations last 15 to 30 minutes with 5 minutes for questions
  • if short on time, cut the technicalities section
• maintain eye contact
  • spread your attention, don't concentrate on one person
• control your voice
  • avoid fashion, hype, information-free utterances
• control your motion
  • avoid hyperactivity
  • use natural gestures
• take care of your appearance
  • avoid ostentatiousness
• minimize language difficulties
• try not to get anxious
  • prepare adequately beforehand
  • do not pay undue attention to the reaction of the most important person in the audience - their reactions may be the result of something that is totally unrelated to your presentation
  • to calm panic, pause, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths
  • it is the quality of your research that matters

Visual and Aural Aids

• make legible slides
• don't put too much on a slide - remember short-term memory
• don't use too many slide- reserve 2 minutes per slide
• use colour effectively - avoid rainbows - yellow is almost invisible
• pictures and tables
  • pictures are worth a thousand words

Question Time

• expect three types of questions
  • genuine request for knowledge
  • selfish - draws attention to the questioner - indirectly compliment them
  • malicious - expect to have your ego bruised - be prepared, be polite, and avoid lengthy exchanges - offer a one-to-one discussion afterwards

Resources

• General
  • Seneca College Library Research Help
• Writing Labs
  • U of O - Hypergrammar
  • Owl at Purdue University
• Stylesheets
  • MLA Style
  • Nuts and Bolts MLA Style
  • Nuts and Bolts Science Style
  • Science Editors
• Classification
  • ACM Classification System