Understanding academic texts

Editor's Notes

• #3: An important feature of academic texts is that they are organized in a specific way; they have a clear structure. This structure makes it easier for your reader to navigate your text and in that way understand the material better, but it also makes it easier for you to organize your material. The structure should be clear on all levels of the academic text: the entire text, each section, every paragraph, and even sentences.
• #4: Most academic texts in the sciences adhere to the model called imrad, which is an acronym for introduction, methods and materials, results, and discussion. Imrad is often illustrated with the following image (see explanation below). The model should however be complemented with sections for aims and research questions, as these make up the very backbone of the academic text. They often appear towards the end of the introduction, but sometimes after a separate heading.
• #5: The aim determines the entire academic text and the content in all its parts. The aim captures what you intend to achieve with your study. One example could be that the aim was “to investigate how effective a software to compute for the semestral grade of G11 students”. It is crucial that the aim is the exact same in every part of the academic text. The title should highlight the same aspects as the explicit aim, and all the subsequent parts should have the same focus.
• #6: The aim is often rather general, and may have to be narrowed down with research questions. Research questions are, in other words, specific questions that will enable you to reach your aim. For the example above, the research questions could be “What is the program?” and “How can it compute for the semestral grade?”. Remember that there must be a clear link between your aim and your research questions, but they should not be identical. Only ask questions that will help you to fulfil your aim. 
• #7: The aim is often rather general, and may have to be narrowed down with research questions. Research questions are, in other words, specific questions that will enable you to reach your aim. For the example above, the research questions could be “What is the program?” and “How can it compute for the semestral grade?”. Remember that there must be a clear link between your aim and your research questions, but they should not be identical. Only ask questions that will help you to fulfil your aim. 
• #8: If you have several research questions, you should consider the order of these. Is there a logical order, so that some questions may only be understood after having read others? Are some questions more important than others? Place the research questions in an order that makes sense to you and then keep to the order in the rest of your thesis.
• #9: That is the reason that the parts that concern what we have done in our study – methods and results – are narrow in the imrad model above.
• #10: In order to make our narrow research interesting to others we must however place it in a larger context. For that reason the introduction of the text must start with something much more general than your research questions. It is often said that the introduction should be shaped like a funnel (as it is in the imrad model above) – that means that you should start in a broad and general manner and then gradually zoom in on your own specific and narrow topic. The text needs to start with something that your reader can relate to, and something that shows what field your research will contribute to, and how
• #11: The introduction should provide everything the reader needs to know in order to understand your aim, but also to understand why the aim is important. Convincing your reader that your aim is important often entails showing that there is something we do not know, but that we would benefit from knowing – perhaps in order to provide better care or develop a new drug or a new treatment method. It could also entail indicating that there is a problem with an existing method and that alternative methods are needed. When you have accounted for the context and pointed to the importance of new knowledge in the field, your reader will be well prepared when you present your aim and research questions towards the end of the introduction. (As mentioned above, the aim and research questions are sometimes placed under a separate heading, which may be placed right after the introduction.)
• #12: Please note that the introduction may also be called background. Sometimes the two terms are used for the exact same thing, but sometimes there is a difference. There may be a short introduction that raises interest and gives a very short introduction to the field, and which is followed by a more extensive background section. Sometimes your instructions specify what parts your thesis or assignment should include, and what should be included in each part – but if not, you could ask your teacher. If you are writing a thesis you can also examine previous theses from your field in order to get an idea how they normally look. (Just remember that theses may differ from each other significantly, so in order to get a good perception, it may be a good idea to look at several theses.)
• #13: n the methods section you should show your reader exactly how you have conducted your research, that is, what you have done to be able to fulfill your aim and answer your research questions. Firstly, your reader should understand how you got the results you did, and secondly, they should be able to duplicate your research. But what do we mean by “exactly” how you conducted your research? You do not need to tell your readers that you went to the library or that you talked to Barbro the librarian. Neither do you need to tell your readers about all the ideas that you had but did not use. The most important thing is to focus on what you actually did in your study, as well as account for the choices you made, when necessary. It is helpful if you begin your methods section by writing something overarching about your method, mentioning your study design. If you tell your readers right away that your work is a literature review or that your method is to interview nurses using a semi-structured interview, it is easier for the readers to understand than if you go straight to the details about your search process or the study group, without telling your readers what you intend to do with them.
• #14: The discussion part is the part in which you interpret your results, and it is also the part that takes longest to write. The reason is that you do not merely write about something that you have already done – you actually write and analyze at the same time. All parts of your discussion should focus on the analysis of your results – there should not be too much repetition from your background, your methods and materials, or your results (sometimes you may need to remind your readers about things that you have accounted for in these parts, but there cannot be too much focus on them). Please read the section about the principles of paragraphing and topic sentences and make sure that each paragraph – except the very first one – contains some analysis of your topic. A common outline of the discussion is the following: The first paragraph reminds your reader about the aim, preferably hinting at how you will contribute to the field. You may for example write “This is the first study to examine the correlation between …” Then you briefly account for the most important parts of your results, perhaps linking them to your hypothesis if you have one. You may say that the first paragraph makes for a shortcut into the discussion: it should enable your readers to understand the discussion without reading all the sections of your thesis.  The rest of the discussion should analyze and discuss your results. It may be helpful to keep the following questions in mind: What do your results mean? How do they relate to previous research? What are the reasons for potential differences between your study and previous research? What do potential similarities indicate? How may your method have affected your results? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the study? How do they affect your results? How are your results important to future development? What are the clinical implications, for example? What kind of research is needed in the field in the future, and why? It is also common to divide the discussion into two parts, a results discussion and a methods discussion. If you do that, you first focus on the results of your study, and then scrutinize your methods.
• #15: Conclusion In your conclusion you should fulfill your aim and account for what you have found in your study. When you write your conclusion you have a golden opportunity to check and make sure that all the parts of your thesis are connected and that the same parts are central in each part of the text – in other words, that you actually do what you promise to do. Please remember that the conclusion should not merely be a brief repetition of your results – in that case your discussion would seem fairly pointless. Focus instead on what your results may imply after careful consideration (consideration that you have outlined in your discussion).  However, accounting for what you have found in your study does not mean that you can or even should say anything for sure – clear conclusions cannot often be drawn from a small study, if ever. Focus instead on what your results may imply – and it rarely hurts to note that more research is needed.
• #16: The academic text has an expected structure even in each paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with something more general and then gradually become more specific. Each paragraph should also be about one thing, and each paragraph should add something new and contribute with something that no other paragraph contributes with. To be able to achieve a clear structure in each paragraph you can use topic sentences. 
• #23: People speak to be listened to. Writers also write to be listened to. Just like speaking, writing is a form of communication and people always communicate for a reason, or purpose. Being aware of the writer’s purpose for communicating a message helps you understand why the writer has chosen to mention some facts or details and not others, or perhaps why the writer has chosen to use certain words and not others. It, therefore, helps you recognize bias in a piece of writing which gives you the chance to decide whether you agree with or trust what the author says. As an undergraduate you need to become good at this particular skill.
• #24: We cannot see into an author’s head, but there are usually clues available to us that can assist us in working out what the author’s purpose is. Essentially, a text is written to achieve at least one of these three general purposes:
• #25: E, I, E, I, P, P
• #27: Examples 4, 5 and 6 involve more than one purpose.
• #32: Factual, dramatic Irritated, critical Frank, reassuring Concerned, cautious Sentimental
• #33: Now let’s look at some further tone words. Learning how to identify and express the writer’s tone will help you better understand the writer’s purpose in writing. Look at the tone words below on the left. Their meanings or synonyms (words with the same meaning) are on the right. However, three of the meanings are in the wrong place. Can you reorder them and place them into the correct place? You may need to use a dictionary for this activity.