Selecting a topic Reading the literature

Outlining and thesis writing

1. Selecting a topic

Topic selectionTopic selection involves identifying a general subject, narrowing it and formulating questions.

1.1 Identify a general subject

Instructor or supervisor may specify a broad area of study, assign a particular topic, provide a list of possible topics…

Personal interest & experience: your supervisor’s major or interest

Literature review: recently published books or journals suggest undiscussed questions for research.

Avoid topics which may evoke strong reactions; avoid topics which are overly ambitious and overly challenging

Importance and interest; manage ability; availability of resources

A small piece of an important topic or a small piece of an area that intrigues you.

1.2 Narrow down the topic

What is the right size of the topic that is sufficient for a BA thesis?

E.g. vague linguistic – vagueness of words – vagueness of notional words – vagueness of quantifiers

A broad topic can not give sufficient direction to research, and may necessitate superficial treatment of the subject.

The Influence of Greek Mythology on poetry

English Ambiguity

The rise and fall of Chinese Dynasties

A narrow topic will yield inadequate information.

A too technical topic may demand knowledge you cannot acquire in the time allotted. Machine translation…

Analysis of example

Acquisition of English vocabulary – too broad

Who are the learners? Vocabulary in speaking or writing? How you go about the research? Interview, questionnaire?

Read the literature review and discuss with researchers

Researching a general topic and deciding the research focus through literature review (the last section of a paper in a journal)

If it is motivated by personal experience or observation, …read to examine whether it is worth investigating. Read the abstracts of papers relevant to your topic. (not studied or different from others in one or more aspects)

Discuss with your supervisor or your classmates

1.3 Formulating questions

General question: as a blueprint that provides the direction for your research but they are not specific enough to be answered.

Specific question: derived from the general questions, directly related to the details of research procedures such as subject collection, data-collection & data-analysis.

Expansion of a small set of questions

Topic focus

General Q1 General Q2 General Q3

Specific Qs Specific Qs Specific Qs

It is better to answer few questions thoroughly than many Qs superficially.

Some fields of research involving empirical or descriptive research, the topic may be stated as a hypothesis.

E.g. Students composing on computers write differently than they do when composing by hand.

After…you may find this hypothesis is wrong.

Example 1: revise specific Qs

Research topic: L2 argumentative writing Topic focus: a study of university students’

argumentative writing in English: rhetorical knowledge and discourse pattern

General and specific questions: 1. What is the relationship b/w the students’

rhetorical knowledge and discourse pattern?2. Does L2 proficiency moderate the relationship

b/w rhetorical knowledge and the discourse pattern?

1) Does the subjects’ perception of the rhetorical organization of English argumentative discourse vary from the expected English norms?

2) Do these …essays …demonstrate any deviations in rhetorical organization from…

3) Are there any correlations b/w the subjects’ rhetorical knowledge and the discourse pattern of their English argumentative texts?

Example 2: revise specific questions

Research topic: L2 oral performance Topic focus: influence of different tasks and

lengths of planning time on second language oral performance

General and specific question: 1. What is the relationship b/w the familiarity

tasks and L2 oral performance?2. What is the relationship b/w lengths of

planning time and L2 oral performance?

H1: The task with which students are most familiar would be performed with the highest accuracy while…

H2: The task which was most unfamiliar and difficult for subjects would generate language with the highest degree of complexity.

H3: The task which was most familiar to subjects might be performed with the highest degree of fluency…

1.4 Problems in formulating questions

1. No research idea: never expect your teacher to choose a topic for u

Personal experience, attending conferences and talking with other researchers

2. Not worth investigating

Exercise:

classify the questions to show the logical relationship b/w general and specific questions

A study of the risk-taking beliefs and behaviors of English majors in China

1) What do Chinese students think of risk-taking in English learning?

2) What is their average rate of risk-taking?3) Is there any difference b/w their beliefs and

behaviors?4) What do high, moderate and low risk-takers think

about risk-taking respectively?5) What are the respective behaviors if high, moderate

and low risk-takers in learning English?6) What are the differences in the beliefs and behaviors

of high, moderate and low risk-takers?7) Is there any correlation b/w risk-taking and L2

learning outcomes?

A study of error correction in university EFL classrooms.

1) How do intensive reading teachers correct their students’ errors?

2) Is there any difference b/w English-major teachers and non-English-major teachers in error correction?

3) What are the students’ attitudes towards error correction?

4) Is there any difference b/w English majors and non-English majors in their attitudes and preferences?

5) As far as error treatment is concerned, to what extent can the teachers’ behavior match the students’ expectations?

2. Reading the literature

2.1 Types of reference works:

1. index – indices or indexes: published quarterly, monthly, annually or bi-annually; presented according to the author’s name & subject; providing the year, place or publication, name, where and how it can be obtained and the form in which it was published.

2. Bibliographies: list of related publications and other materials

3. Collections of abstracts: summaries of journal articles and other literature.

4. Dictionaries: 5. Encyclopedia: give introductory information about

subjects. The encyclopedia of language and linguistics, international encyclopedia of linguistics

6. Yearbooks: present books about specific years in the past

7. Unpublished papers: conference papers or manuscripts circulated among colleagues for discussion. Up-to-date

8. Journals: a collection of papers published regularly as language, journal of linguistics, journal of pragmatics, applied linguistics.

9. Textbooks: a good introductory survey, explain concepts more systematically than research papers do.

10. Research monograph: single author’s theory or viewpoint about a topic

11. An edited collection of papers: out of conference, or by invitation from the editor, or out of the need for collaborative research on an interdisciplinary topic.

2.2 Publication forms: print or electronic

Online database: CD-Rom:

2.3 Online catalog and internet sources

Locate a work by author, title, or subject

H…41….language and literature Internet sources: email to the author, visit

virtual library, use search tools

2.4 Compiling a working bibliography

A tentative list of references constructed by the researcher for the preparation of reviewing the literature.

Will evolve into the list of works cited at the end of papers. Arranged alphabetically and each entry should contain the same of the author, (full name, last name first) title, publication information, page numbers…

Two kinds of search:

Manual search and computer search Manual search: snow-balling method –

begin with the references in one paper (closely related to the topic)

Working bibliography – determine the scope of reading – decide what is for detailed reading – summarize the information

Decide the scope of reading

Background / long shot review: provides your project with a general framework or theoretical definitions of certain variables.

Foreground / close-up review: focuses on the details of some specific studies on which your design is based.

Medium-shot: gives a description of empirical studies on the topic in general.

Suggestion: read backwards, beginning with the most recent one an moving back to the old ones.

2.5 critical evaluation and note-taking

Authorship and authority: consider the authoritativeness of the work. Relevant biographical information included in publication (title or affiliation, other accomplishments). You may search the Internet for information about an author.

Accuracy and verifiability: see that the work’s sources are indicated so that its information can be verified

Currency: the publication date suggests how current the author’s scholarship is

We are supposed to synthesize the We are supposed to synthesize the information and record it on cardsinformation and record it on cards

Cards:Cards: Summary: the general idea of large amounts of

material. Need not be coherent, but in note-form, may contain incomplete sentences

Paraphrase: if you require detailed notes on specific sentences and passages but do not need the exact wording

Quotation: if some …in its original wording makes an effective addition to your paper

Critical comments: write down strengths and weaknesses of the study, esp the flaws.

Personal comments: any ideas, conjectures, or conclusions that occur to u during the research. Comments concerning the potential use: to what extent the paper can be related to your study.

Plagiarism: a form of cheating

The false assumption of authorship, the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind and presenting it as one’s own

To use another person’s ideas in your writing is to plagiarize. – intellectual theft, moral and ethical offense than a legal one. (copyright infringement)

Penalties: failure in a course or expulsion from school.

Give acknowledgement/ documentation

Document everything that you borrow, not only direct quotation and paraphrases but also information and ideas

E.g. original source: Some of Dickinson’s most powerful poems

express her firmly held conviction that life cannot be fully comprehended without an understanding of death.

Emily Dickinson strongly believed that we cannot understand life fully unless we also comprehend death.

As Wendy Martin has suggested, Emily Dickinson strongly believed that we cannot understand life fully unless we also comprehend death (625).

Martin, Wendy. “Emily Dickinson.” Columbia Literary History of the United States. Emory Elliott, gen. Ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. 609-26.

If you submit in writing course a paper done for another course,… a kind of self-plagiarism

For a group project u carry out with other students, state who did what or acknowledge all concerned equally.

Most materials in the Internet are protected by copyright law.

3. Outlining and thesis writing

3.1 3.1 working outlineworking outline:Tentative or working outline that guides the choice

of research materials. Will be continually revised: some items dropped, added, modified…

A working outline will record all important aspects of your subject and make you focus on relevant topics. Continual revision will encourage you to change your thinking and your approach as new information modifies your understanding of the subject.

3.2 thesis statement

A single sentence that formulates both your topic and your point of view. Your answer to the central question or problem your have raised.

Restricted, unified, precise: one topic, one idea, one interpretation

Not worded in figurative language; not be vaguely worded; not be worded as a question

3.3 final outline

Having a satisfactory thesis statement, you can transform your working outline into a final one. Review your notes to see whether they support the points in the working outline. Read it over critically and delete everything that is irrelevant to the thesis statement or that might weaken your argument.

Organizing principles: define, clarify, analyze, compare or contrast, argue for a certain point of view

Types of outline

Be formal and consistently developed Topic outline: entries are words, phrases,

or clauses useful for outlining simple subjects

Sentence outline: entries are complete sentences (declarative), as a beginning for the paper and as a test of the logic of the outline

Formats of outlineI

II

A1

a

(1)

(a)i)

ii)(b)(2)

b2

B

Number-letter sequence

Formats of outline1

1.11.1.1

1.1.1.1

1.1.1.1.1

1.1.1.1.2

1.1.1.2

1.1.21.2

2

Decimal outline

3.4 writing the thesis

1st draft: write brief exploratory pieces to develop your thinking

Revision: Editing: every sentence, every paragraph, every

choice of diction and sentence structure, mechanical errors. Use search-replace, spell checker, identify any misspelling words

Format: title page, outline page, bibliography, documentation

Proofreading: speed-reading techniques not appropriate, read letter for letter.