Effective Writing at the Graduate Level: Research Paper Organization

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Effective Writing at the Graduate Level Research
Paper Organization

• Student Development Services
• Writing Support Centre
• UCC 210
• www.sds.uwo.ca/writing

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Layers of Effective Writing
Layer 1 Appearance Grammar, Formatting,
Etc. Layer 2 Writing Style Sentence Flow Layer
3 Organization Connecting the Ideas Layer 4
Content The Ideas
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Layer 3 Organization

• Present your ideas in a logical (not
  chronological) order
• Essential at the macro (paper) and micro
  (paragraph) levels

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Research Paper Structure

• TAIMRD or IMRD
• (Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results,
  Discussion)
• Follow discipline-specific conventions

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Introduction

• Ease the reader into your study
• Written as though you dont know the results

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Introduction

• Introduce your field of study
• Narrow focus using specific and important
  references
• Statement of purpose (hypothesis, predictions
  etc.)

General
Specific
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Include

• Basic terminology of your field (e.g. chemical
  names, definitions, species names)
• Key papers that led to your study
• Brief mention of your study in your statement of
  purpose

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Dont Include

• Exhaustive literature search
• Details of your study

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Methods

• A complete account of all the steps in your study
• Presented in logical order
• Includes collecting and analyzing data
• Easy to write

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Include

• All materials, quantities, brands of major
  equipment and study locations
• Citations of novel techniques
• Figures of complicated setups
• Equations and statistics

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Dont Include

• Finicky details
• Results

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Results

• A summary of your findings
• Presents details in the same order as the methods
• Can be technical

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Include

• Summary of your findings (i.e. averages, trends)
• Tables and Figures
• References to tables and figures

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Dont Include

• Raw data
• The same information twice
• Too many figures
• Interpretation of your results

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Discussion

• Now that you know the results, interpret them
• Sometimes combined with results into one section

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Discussion

• Address your hypothesis with reference to your
  results
• Explain and put findings in context (references)
• Comment on your findings significance and
  potential for future study

Specific
General
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Include

• Most papers from the introduction
• References to tables and figures
• Summary / Conclusion

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Dont Include

• Detailed account of your results
• Any new ideas not set up in the introduction

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Headings

• Use headings to offset major sections
• E.g. Introduction, Methods, Results, References
• Use subheadings to offset distinct topics within
  sections
• E.g. Methods Study site, Procedure, Statistics