METHOD OF RESEARCHQUALİTATİVE AND QUANTİTATİVE APPROACHES

ETI 321 READING AND WRITING SCIENTIFIC

TEXTS

Last week

We talked about possible research areas in translation studies.

You were supposed to find at least 3 research topics together with possible ways to conduct research.

This week

We will discuss your research topicsYou will learn how to refine your ideas.We will focus on your plans about how you

will go through it. We will review the stages of scientific

research.Then we will take the initial steps towards

the organization of your research.

Now, let’s refine your research...

You have already identified (at least 3) research topics. Now you will formulate your research topic in the following way:

Step 1. Name your general topic: I am working on .....

Step 2. Suggest a question: because I want to find out .....

Step 3. Motivate the question: in order to understand how.....

Refining your research

Step 1. what you are interested in. Step 2. what you don’t know about it. Step 3. the rationale for your research.

You can add the fourth step to your endevour. Step 4 formulizes your study in a way to affect and address the reader:

Step 4. What I want to do is to show you ....in order to prove...

The framework of research

Williams and Chesterman (2002) provide us with a framework, including the stages of research:

1. Choosing an area WE ARE HERE!!!2. Making a preliminary plan WE’LL TALK ABOUT IT3. Searching through the literature4. Reading and thinking5. Defining the research question WE’LL BE HERE NEXT

WEEK!!6. Revising the plan7. Collecting data8. Analyzing the data9. Processing the results10.Writing a draft11.Evaluating, eliciting feedback12.Thinking of implications13.Finalizing the text14.Presenting your research report

Making a plan: Your plan tells you how to get to the end of the research. We will revisit this subject soon

The structure of your plan is like this:1.Introduction: your topic, its background and

significance of the topic to science and/or society2.Aim and scope of the research: clear research

question(s), and how you restrict the scope of your project

3.Theoretical background: brief literature survey, main relevant sources, main concepts and definitions

4.Material: What kind of data, where from....?5.Method6.Timetable/deadlines

Plan of your research

As the list suggests, once you identify your topic, you are supposed to deal with the following in near future:

restricting the scope of your researchchecking out sources

formulation of your research questionsmaking literature review survey

Checking out sources

Most important source is probably your instructor/advisor. A face-to-face communication is the best. But e-mail communication is a common and useful means as long as you observe basic e-mail etiquette.

Now you are going to read an actual electronic correspondence between an MA student and a lecturer. Read the letter and make necessary changes in style and content.

E-mail etiquette: an examplefind 7 mistakes in the picture

Subject: Tez Merhaba, Facebooktan yazmıştım tezinizle alakalı. Evet, ..........’deyim. Bölüm kütüphanesinden

tezinizi bulamadım ki almam için bir künye oluşturup ...... Hoca'ya vermem gerekliymiş. Olmazsa ÖSYM'ye gidebilirim ama oradan da çalışmanın tamamını alabilmek için 2-3 kere gitmem gerektiğini duydum. O yüzden daha kolay bir şekilde edinememem durumunda son çare olarak ÖSYMyi düşündüm açıkçası. Tez danışmanım henüz belli değil. Büyük ihtimalle .................. olacak. Sizin tez durumunuzdan bahsetti biraz bana. Önce ....... hocayla çalışmaya başlamışsınız, sonra o hoca gitmiş sanırım ve ...... Hocayla devam etmişsiniz? İsimlerden tam emin değilim ama sizin de başınıza bir sürü iş açılmış tezinizi yazarken anladığım kadarıyla. Ben de son zamanlarda biraz sıkıntılıydım ancak bilgisayar oyunu dergilerini incelemekte karar kıldım ve bunu bazı hocalarla konuştum. Hepsi olumlu baktılar. İşte tek eksiğim yöntem ve sizin yönteminiz çok ilgimi çekti. Siz de daha önceki mesajlarınızda yöntemin dergilerden, gazetelerden gelen veri üzerine uygulanabileceğini söyleyince daha da sevindim. Aslında bu yüksek lisansta ilk senem ancak yüksek lisanstaki diğer arkadaşım tez konusunu çok önceden belirlemiş olduğu için ve kimi derslerde hocalar bizden artık tezimizin en azından taslak halini istediği için panik yaptım biraz. Yardımcı olabilirseniz çok sevinirim.

İyi günler,A..... S......

Checking out sources

After consulting your instructor/lecturer, etc you should check out other sources as well. These include:

books scientific journals like

Target BabelMeta TranslatorAcross languages and culturesÇevirmenin Notu

You can find some of these in our library.

Next week’s homework (1): building your bibliography

Having found your topic of research, now you are ready to check out the available sources.

1. Consult your library for available, relevant books –both published and/or electronic- on the subject you are planning to study. Instead of borrowing the whole book, try to get a copy of the chapter/article you are interested in since your friends will need it too.

2. Use electronic sources to find articles. Note that you should connect to the internet from the campus. Some online sources will not be available to you in case you are outside of the campus.

3. This link may be useful: http://www.accurapid.com/journal/4. Having found relevant articles/books, now you may begin

reading them efficiently and critically, taking notes, making classifications. At this point, it is import to keep bibliographic records, with which we will be dealing next.

Keeping bibliographic records

Taking notes about the things you have read is essential to save time and energy. Here we have to make the distinction between Bibliography and References. References are the works you cited in your study. References are listed at the end of the research in A to Z fashion. Whenever we cite other studies, we need to make references to the writers and their works.

Question: Why do we need to give references?However bibliography means a list of works

relevant to a particular field. You will build a bibliography during your research, but only references will be given in your research.

Keeping bibliographic records: the basic principles

Now it is hightime you made your records according to principles. Remember, there are two styles of reference: MLA and APA.

MLA is more extensively used in translation studies. So, make your references according to MLA system.

Your homework is building a bibliography of your research area. Make a list of relevant studies (books, book chapters, articles, encyclopediaes, etc). Apply the MLA rules while writing them down.

Formulating research questions

Williams and Chesterman (2002: 69) argue that “One of the secrets of research is learning how to ask good questions. Questions then lead to possible answers, and then to claims and hypotheses.”

At the beginning of the research we have a slice of reality. The questions are yet vague and too general. But as the research topic is more clearly defined, they become more focused. One reason for reading the relevant literature is to discover good questions.

Your study may include only one research question as well as multiple.

Next week’s homework (2)

Try to formulize your own research question(s).

Framework of research: revisited

Williams and Chesterman (2002) provide us with a framework, including the stages of research:

1. Choosing an area WE ARE HERE!!!2. Making a preliminary plan WE’LL TALK ABOUT IT3. Searching through the literature4. Reading and thinking5. Defining the research question WE’LL BE HERE NEXT

WEEK!!6. Revising the plan7. Collecting data AND TALK ABOUT STAGES 7&88. Analyzing the data9. Processing the results10.Writing a draft11.Evaluating, eliciting feedback12.Thinking of implications13.Finalizing the text14.Presenting your research report