Multimedia Academic Literacy:

Academic Writing

in the

Age of Emergence

Author: Alexandria Lockett, Ph.D.

www.alexandrialockett.com

• Who writes it?

• Who reads it?

• What are readers' expectations?

• What are the writers’ responsibilities?

• How does living in an information age

affect what is perceived as 'academic

writing?'

What is Academic Writing?

• ResearchGate received $35 million from Bill Gates in 2013

• Elsevier bought Mendeley for almost $100 million

• “Research in 2014 is a Brutal Business.” (Nature Editorial)

• Corporate R&D at Rochester Institute for Technology (Chronicle, 2009)

• Academic libraries spent a total of approximately $2.8 billion on information resources. Of that, expenditures for electronic current serial subscriptions totaled about $1.4 billion (National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries: 2012 First Look)

• During fiscal year 2012, academic libraries spent approximately $123.6 million for bibliographic utilities, networks, and consortia (National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries: 2012 First Look)

The Business of Research

Purpose: Create new knowledge through

(re)discovery

Exigence: Innovate frameworks, theories, and

methods

Methods

Investigate a specific problem that clarifies or

explains some broader issue

Develop practical applications to solve

problem(s)

What is the Purpose of Research?

One of student's major anxieties about research is the

"ME FIRST" problem!

- You are NOT a journalist, your job is to help us

understand a story about the process of discovery,

not 'break' stories.

- You cannot OWN knowledge, you may acquire

awareness and go through a process of conveying

how you came to this awareness.

Another major problem is lack of curiosity. Google may

offer you

access to an avalanche of data, but it cannot convert

that into

knowledge for you.

The Problem with Frontier and Google

Logics

Introduction/Background

• What is your reason for writing?

• Who is talking about the problem? How do they talk about the problem?

• What will your paper add to the discussion?

Methods

• How did you research the problem? Why did you do it that way?

Findings

• What did you discover?

• How are your findings similar (and different from) to others’ researching the

problem?

Discussion

• What are the implications of your findings? Why is your investigation’s

discoveries significant?

Conclusion

• How do you anticipate other researchers utilizing your study? What is useful

about the overall study?

Map of an ‘Research Paper’

Introduction/Background• What is your reason for writing? • Who is talking about the problem? How do they talk about the problem? • What will your paper add to the discussion? (THESIS)

Body• How did you know your thesis is true? What specific reasons and evidence

demonstrate the validity of your main claim?

Possible Evidence: - Discuss how others’ researched the issue (e.g. Secondary education plays a major

role in social stratification. According to Jean Anyon’s seminal article, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” children are socialized into the habits of certain types of careers.)

- Discuss others’ research methodologies and findings (e.g. Anyon identifies four types of schools based on wages—blue collar schools, middle class schools, professional affluent schools, and executive elite schools. Her taxonomy correlates with the distribution of federal funding across school districts. Testing pass rates at ‘professional affluent schools,’ for instance, far exceed those of the ‘blue collar schools.’)

- Connect patterns among different sources (e.g. The negative effects of incarceration rates are acknowledged in several disciplines ranging from neuroscience, anthropology, and political science).

- Discuss how researching the problem a certain way led to some conclusion(s)? (e.g. When I compared Anyon’s claims to Jonathan Kozol’s arguments about the resegregation of secondary schools, it became apparent that race and class intensifies inequality.

Map of an Academic Paper

1. Identify how a problem has been discussed

(e.g. key terms/concepts, references).

2. Determine what is limited about the

discussion

o Connect missing or overlooked links.

o Identify the limitations of an accepted framework or

methodology

o Deliberate about the impact or accuracy of some

phenomena

o Dispute the accuracy, relevance, or importance of findings

Step 1: What’s the Conversation?

To demonstrate your credibility, you need

to communicate about how the topic has

been discussed to show that you can add

something valuable to the conversation.

Visit Google Scholar and Google Books

before you do a general Google web

search. After you do a general search,

visit Google News and Google Trends, as

well.

Introduction and Background

Consider the difference between an

information

question and a research question:

Do Americans perform better than Norwegians

on standardized tests?

Vs.

To what extent do standardized tests adequately

measure human intelligence?

Step #2: Asking Good Inquiry

Questions

● BEFORE you do your research, recall your

purpose.

● Take an hour or so and write down everything

you already know about your topic

● Set the writing aside for at least a day. Come

back to it, re-read it and ask:o How did I come to these conclusions about my

object of study?

o Who has already studied these matters? How did

I come into contact with them?

o What do I need to know more about?

Step #3: Planning Research

Who's doing the research?

● Some disciplines don't do 1st person,

but others may. Check with advisors

and instructors.

● Planning your research will help

distinguish between your thoughts and

your sources

● What's the difference between personal

experience and personal opinion?o Experience is knowledge, belongs in the realm of facts

o How you interpret the relationships between your personal

experience and other phenomena belongs to the realm of

argumentation.

The "I" Problem. Seeing like Who?

You may have a personal experience, and

you feel you've gained knowledge from

it. However, when communicating that

experience to others you have to teach

us about that experience by showing us

how you came to your conclusions

about something. Pay very close

attention to the kinds of experiences

researching teaches you.

The "I" Problem Continued

• Save time

• Reduce or eliminate anxiety over being

"original" or plagiarizing

• Begin assessing how much you need to

prove

• Reflect on what kind of argument(s)

you are making

• Articulate your thought process more

clearly

• Integrate personal opinions that directly

relate to your research question

Additional Benefits of Planning

Research

Write down what you are researching and why it is important in no

more than

THREE sentences. Feel free to focus on the problem, its

significance, or its

methods. (5 Minutes)

How should someone search for your research? Which keywords

identify your

project? Write down as many as you can, in as many combinations

as you can.

(5 Minutes)

Share your writing with the person next to you, and briefly discuss

each other’s

projects. As you talk about your projects, expand the set of

keywords that ‘tag’ your

research interest. (10-15 Minutes)

Step #4: How do you Query?

• Boolean Logic: Broad/Narrow – "search a phrase": Search a phrase

– AND: Both terms must appear in the result

– OR: Expands searches

Google Logic: Domain Specificity

site:.edu=education

site:.gov=government

site:.mil=military

site:.org=organization

Additional Resource: Stay up on Google

Politics!

Quering Tips: The Algorithm

• Locate sources (can access with Woodruff remote access log-in)

• Link to sources being cited (useful for background and evidence)

• Observe titles of articles and note how your topic is discussed:– Which terms recur – Which authors recur – What story do these titles tell about both your

research topic and research questions – What are the conflicts/events? scenes?

characters? resolutions?

Using Google Scholar

The Corpora (BYU/Google Books)

Search for trends in key words featured in

books for the past 100 years or so.

Google News

Customizable Another great way to find

trends in current events. Search in

realtime. Customize by key words. Modify

dates.

Query for Trends

AUC E-Resources

• Academic Search Complete

• PubMed

• PsycINFO

• JSTOR

• ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Navigating Databases

• Citing Social Media:

http://www.teachthought.com/technology

/how-to-cite-social-media-scholarly-

writing/

How to Cite Social Media

Think of your opening as an appetizer. – Have you articulated the purpose/significance in a

way that will make your audience hungry for more

information? (tip: Don't start with definitions)

Be direct in your approach, clearly map out your

research plan. – Your research problem/question and methods

should be clear within the first page if not your first

paragraph.

Your introduction invites your audience into your

world of experience.

Introduction

1. What's the problem?

2. What's the scope and scale of that

problem?

3. Who has tried to (re)solve it?

4. What additional approaches are

needed to (re)solve it?

5. What are you proposing to do about it?

6. What are the projected benefits of

doing it that way? To whom?

Tip: Use these questions to develop a concise abstract!

Organizing the Introduction:

A Heuristic

Enables you to establish credibility and

trustworthiness to your audience

Proves that you are sensitive to how

researchers talk about a subject, which makes

people want to listen to you!

Demonstrate how you came to the conclusion

that you research problem/question is worth

investigating

Literature Review

• What's a brief definition of the subject and its

importance?

• Who seems to get cited most often? Which

critiques are prevalent?

• What trends exist (e.g. sub-topics)– Do I notice any key terms/concepts/methods

recurring?

– Do I notice that one work seems to be cited over

another?

– Do I notice certain conflicts? Do I notice that

these conflicts take on different types of

conversation?

Strategies for Lit Review

• When articles stand out to you, select them.

• Begin an annotated bibliography.– Here’s what this work is about: type of source,

main argument, evidence presented, etc.

(summary)

– Here’s why I think this work is important,

significant, useful, need to be critiqued, etc.

(interpretation)

– Here’s where and how I plan to use this work in

my actual paper (utility)

• [Note that any of these sentences may serve

as topic sentences for the lit review!]

Strategies for Reviewing Literature

Transitions: Paper is literally a path…a path through the

evolution of your thought. Like any trip, we need

markers to let us know where we have been and

where we are going. Stop signs, street lights, even

advertising markers for attractions.

Approximating reality happens in two interdependent

ways:

- Causal

- Evaluative

Grammar Tip: The Transition

Writing is ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!

Chronological or Causality: These demonstrate connections based on

time and consequence.

- First, Next, Third, Finally (All paragraphs point toward a central thing from which they emerge)

- Consequently, By consequence, As a result (something is interdependent on what came before

or what comes after)

Exemplification: These indicate that your paragraph is demonstrating or

proving something is true.

● Attribution: Citing an authority, Introducing evidence

o As X states, Y points out, X opines, Y notes, X argues

● Illustration: For example, For instance

● Comparison/Contrast: In contrast, However, Nevertheless, Similarly, Likewise, Since

● Reinforce: Moreover, Furthermore, Additionally, In addition

● Summarize: In sum, In conclusion, As a result

Grammar Tip: Transitions (Con't)

Once you've justified why you are doing

what you are doing, you can write a

methods section. This section lays out

precisely how you are investigating your

subject, why you've designed it that way,

and what you think you may find.

• Qualitative Approach

• Quantitative Approach

Both are valid, depends on your field and topic!

Methods

Another difficult section. Use plenty of

qualifiers to present the findings. Don't

want to draw massive conclusions from

small tests. Don't overreach, but don't

underestimate what could be interpreted

as interesting results. Don't fear being

"wrong." If your hypothesis doesn't

check out, good..it offers yet another

way of figuring out how to resolve the

problem!

Findings

Truth should be offered as a

contextualized measurement. The

following words assist you in this

expression:

Examples: Sometimes, May, Often,

Typically.

Can you think of more? I'll compile your

responses into a list.

Grammar Tip: The Qualifier

Being assertive and correct feels great,

but we can't always be sure we are

right! Being honest about what your

study can't prove helps you increase

your credibility to other researchers in

the field. Gravitas goes a long way in

building trust with others. When you do

the lit review, note how and where in the

article researchers admit to their

limitations. Play with different ways of

making concession.

Limitations

Similar to the introduction, I should feel as if

reading your research was totally worth it.

Make me hungry again!

Instead of simply repeating the introduction,

offer us some implications:

How can others benefit from your project?

In what ways do you see others utilizing

your findings or methods?

Conclusion/Implications

Categorical Argument

X is a Y

Definition/Evaluation Argument

X is a (effective) Y

Resemblance

X is like Y

Causality

X leads to Y

Proposal

X should do Y

Claim Structures

● Learn the language of your discipline. Even if it

seems difficult, you can't change it until you

understand it.

● Put on your anthro hat: How do researchers attempt

to perform their identity as members of X field?

Where do you find these performances in their

research?

● Don't hesitate to question the terminology if you have

ample evidence that concepts or terms are

inadequate

● Don't use big words to appear smart if you don't

know what they mean. Complex ideas rendered

simply make big impact

Word Choice

Who's doing what? (helps with the active

voice)

Try to always include a subject and a

verb. Even scientific writing needs to be

animated!

Sentence Structure

Example:

Many people were upset about The Bell

Curve, calling it offensive to populations

such as African-Americans.

---or---Many researchers argued The Bell Curve reified

segregationist attitudes towards African-Americans

because Herrnstein and Murray claimed a direct link

between race and intelligence.

Active and Passive: ANIMATING

Example:

This project is important because it will

benefit healthcare initiatives.

---OR---

This project establishes a connection between genetics

and risk-taking behavior. If this link is taken into

account by healthcare professionals, rehabilitation

efforts may become more effective.

Active and Passive: ANIMATING

Revision is actually re-writing the draft!

This involves modifying claims, moving

around paragraphs, adding transitions,

or eliminating chunks of writing

altogether. Revision may require you to

revise your REASONING, as well as

your writing! Several revisions may be

required.

Note: Editing happens after revisions are made.

Editing without Revising is Wack and

Unproductive!

Revision Vs. Editing

Editing involves modifications on the

sentence-structure level such as adding

commas, changing words, inverting

subjects/verbs, eliminating the use of "to

be," etc.

To recap: Editing involves correcting

grammatical errors. However, editing is

NOT simply minor changes. For

instance, modifying the passive voice to

active voice could help you clarify your

Revision Vs. Editing

Alexandria L. Lockett, Ph.D.

AlexandriaLockett@gmail.com

http://www.alexandrialockett.com

http://www.slideshare.net/anova8

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