Articles Analysis: Introductions, linguistics characteristics

According to Sampieri, Collado & Lucio (1998), a scientific research is defined as a type of research which is systematic, controlled, empiric and critical. It is systematic and controlled because it is based on a system. It is considered empiric, because it is based on observable issues and critical because it works on a basis of permanent objective reflection (cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010a, p9). As a consequence, to write a research paper is not an easy task.
The research writer should master academic writing requirements but also should know how information should be searched, organised and acknowledged to get a well balanced paper which fulfils the field’s requests.

Pintos and Crimi, (2010b) state that Research Papers (RP) and Research Articles (RA) are composed of several parts such as title, abstract, acknowledgments, introductions, literature review, methods, results, discussions, recommendations, references and appendixes and, that each of these parts should be written according to established standards. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast three important sections within a medical RP
(Jorgensen, Zahl and Gotzsche, 2010) and a RP in the field of education (Coleman,1994). The analysis will be based on: Introductions, method sections and reference lists and it will be analyzed move 3 in the first, linguistic characteristics of the second and use of American Psychological Association (APA) style in the last.

Swales and Feak (1994, as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010b, p. 27) assert that the process of writing introductions is a time-consuming, hard and vexatious task and that, as its purpose is to attract the prospective reader’s attention, they are structured in a general-specific manner, following the Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R.S.). In Pintos and Crimi’s (2010b) words the C.A.R.S. Model provides organizational patterns that help the writers to present their introductions. The pattern contains three “moves” or cycles which allow main ideas to go from the general to the particular and are characterized by a number of semantic and syntactic features. From the mentioned “moves”, the last one, or move 3, is in charge of occupying the niche or stating the purpose of the study.

Jorgensen et al. (2010) solved this move using present tenses and, as required, he previously managed to show the readers that something had not been considered in move 2: “As there have been advances in treatment since trials were completed ...” move 3: “ It is therefore important
to evaluate continuously the effect of public mammography screeningprogrammes to ensure
that they live up to expectations” and (Colleman, 1994, p.11) did the same through “shift the emphasis from learning facts to learning how to learn” (Champion, 1993, as cited in Coleman, Ibid., p.11) “We now have to create assignments to promote critical thinking” (Champion, Ibid., as cited in Coleman, Ibid., p.11).

Method Sections contain detailed information about the methodological approach; they explain how the research has been conducted. Thus, they include subsections such as participants, materials and procedure. The most commonly used tense is past passive, although present passive can also appear and the objective of this section is to allow researchers to replicate the scientific test (Swales, 1990, Swales and Feak, 1994, cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010b, p34). Neither (Jorgensen et al. 2010) nor Colleman, (1994) used subheadings such as participants, materials or procedure to divide the method section.The first RP has the word “method” written as a heading bolded and in capital letters,typed at the left margin instead of being centred
and the educational RP has no heading at all probably, due to the use of different ruling conventions.

Although there are other systems, American Psychological Association (A.P.A) is the most commonly used one to cite sources within the social sciences. While the educational RP seems to follow accurately it, the medical RP is almost certainly following other style’s conventions. References are not written on a separate shit of paper, they have no title, they are not written double-space and they are not written following the alphabetical order.Hence, it is highly probable that this RP had been written following Vancouver’s or British Medical Journal (BMJ) requirements because those systems are commonly used in researches belonging to the medicine field.















References
Coleman, M. W. (1994). Using a Collaborative Learning Project to Teach Information
Literacy Skills to Twelfth Grade Regular English Students. Retrieved August 27, 2008,
from ERIC database (ED371389).
Jorgensen, K. J., Zahl, P.H., & Gotzsche, P.C. (2010). Breast cancer mortality in
organised mammography screening in Denmark: Comparative study. BMJ, 340
(c1241), 1-6. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c1241
Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010a). Unit 1: Defining Concepts in Research
Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4690
Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010b). Unit 2: The Research Article: Introduction, Literature
Review and Methods Section. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Retrieved April 3, 2010, from
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4691
Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010c). Unit 3: The Research Article: Results, Discussions and
Conclusions. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved May 2, 2010,
from
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=4692