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0-25% -- I take it you're not a science major?
" Try your luck with the above quiz on Science. Answer the questions as if you
were a member of the research community. If you want to learn more about that community, or about
other communities in the sciences and technical communications area, keep reading!"
STUDENT QUESTION: "When you're working on a research paper for the sciences, is there a focus on the work
that's been previously done in the subject, or is there a focus more on what you're doing and
the work that you're experimenting with? "
PROFESSOR SMITH: What you have to do is always place your work in context. So in an introduction to a
science paper you always try and let your reader know what the relevant research already done
and also how it relates to what your work is. So there's a focus on what has been done in
the past, the research context that makes your work relevant. You always want to make
the reader aware of how relevant your work is. So you have to present it in context and then
you go on from there. Then you always go back and say, well, and my work follows up from
this and thus becomes the 'exciting new stuff' on the cutting edge because of that. So you have to do
both." If you want to learn more about writing reports of all kinds, go directly to the interview with the other
Professor Ron Smith (in English & Technical Communications). .
In addition to the interviews, this site features a variety of essays offering advice on how
to write in the different disciplines. If you have ever wondered how to integrate quotations, prepare
for essay exams, or find topics that work, go directly to the research essays now.
"I think that educational psychologists in general are more quantitative in their approach [than practicing teachers].
Most elementary teachers, I think, are looking more reflectively. There’s a big
emphasis on the 'teacher as researcher.' What we are trying to
encourage teachers to do is to take command of their own classrooms and
look at the problems and pose research questions for themselves and do
the research in their classroom and make decisions for themselves. Our writing reflects this. "
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Feel free to send material on "Writing in the Humanities" for inclusion
or linking to this site. Enquiries should be sent to Dr. W.F. Garrett-Petts
via e-mail: petts@tru.ca or via snail mail: The Writing in the Disciplines Web Site
" One thing that our students often get wrong is in the results section. What they'll start
by doing is just show a figure or a table of results. What they don't appreciate, I think, is that
what you want to do is convince the reader that you're showing them is real--is valid. An experienced
writer often uses that section to emphasize all the important things one wants the reader to take away
from the paper. A lot of our student writers miss that opportunity. They just say 'plump, here's the
results,' and they're not trying to convince the reader of anything at that point, and yet they should be."
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