A Contrastive Analysis of Two Research Papers

A Contrastive Analysis of Two Research Papers

 Title, abstract, acknowledgements, introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussions, recommendations, references, and appendixes are the main parts of Research Papers and Research Articles. A research article is written by researchers to make specific findings known to the scientific community. In this paper, Introductions and Methods sections of two research papers from the medicine field and the education field are analyzed and described.

As far as the introductions are concerned, both articles follow the Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R. S.), which has been created under the principle that writers use organizational patters to present their introduction. Consequently, they are structured in a general-specific manner.  Both are similarly structured though Sun and Chang’s (2012) article is more extended. Both articles seem to follow the three moves in research paper introductions which are establishing the research territory, establishing the niche and occupying the niche (Swales and Feak, 1994). As regards the first move, in Sun and Chang’s (2012) study, vast literature has been consulted; more than ten authors have been cited in this section. In Roth et al. (2010) paper, the authors reviewed several previous researchers’ results and findings. However, the citation of authors is not as abundant as in Sun and Chang’s (2012) research article. As far as the second move is concerned, the authors of both articles indicate a gap in previous studies which motivates them to conduct further research. With reference to Sun and Chang’s (2012) paper, the gap is indicated when the authors state that the blogs were only seen as a medium for the development of language skills. In Roth et al. (2010) study, the authors found a gap between their beliefs and previous literature review since no other researcher had examined the impact of mortality of revaccination with intradermal BCG vaccination. As to the third move, both authors outline the purposes for their studies. Sun and Chang's (2012) aim is to “…explore what kinds of writing-related topics the students blog about [.] ”(p. 43). In Roth et al. (2010) article, the authors expected to determine if BCG revaccination reduces mortality in children at 19 months of age (Roth et al., 2010) and indicate the structure of their papers. As for their content, Sun and Chang’s (2012) paper can be labeled as a purposive study since it specifies the main purposes of the study and in Roth et al. (2010) article as a descriptive study as it describes the study, according to the move 3, occupying the niche.  As for the use of tenses, it has been carefully treated throughout the sections since present perfect was used to show the importance of the study, past simple was used to refer to what the researchers did and present tenses were used to what has been found.

Reflecting upon the methods section, both articles have subdivisions.  Sun and Chang’s (2012) field study is divided into three sections: participants, procedures and data analysis. In the participants’ section, the number of participants, the level of proficiency, the frequency of classes and the duration are described. No descriptions of materials used in the study have been stated and the actual questionnaire is included in the previous section called “Research questions”. There is a brief comment of the questions at the end of the data analysis section. The tenses used are mainly past simple active and passive. Regarding Roth et al. (2010) article, the sections are divided into sixteen short sections. Every detail is thoroughly described and treated. The participants are presented as Study Population and relevant demographic information is included. It is important to highlight that in this study, the participants are chosen and divided into groups by means of a randomized trial. The materials used are described in the Study Design section as well as Follow-up and Informed Consent. Moreover, both authors include many graphic organizers in the form of tables and graphs to show the statistics. In Sun and Chang’s (2012) article, these are included in the data analysis section and in the Roth et al. (2010) research paper, they are added in the statistical analyses section. The tenses which are widely used are present perfect and past simple passive and active.

The main characteristics of two research articles have been analyzed and conclusions have been drawn. The introduction and methods sections have similar features as regards content included but the length of the sections is dissimilar. Although there are a number of superficial differences, when analyzing their structure deeply, it is evident that the specific academic requirements for research papers are present in both articles.

References

Roth, A.E, Benn, C.S., Ravn, H., Rodrigues, A., Lisse, I.M., Yazdanbakhsh, M, et al. (2010). Effect of revaccination with BCG in early childhood on mortality: randomised trial in Guinea-Bissau. British Medical Journal, 340, 1-11. Doi: 10.1136/bmj.c671

Sun, Y. & Chang, Y. (2012). Blogging to learn: becoming EFL academic writers through collaborative dialogues. Language Learning & Technology, 16, 43-61. Retrieved April 2012 from

http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2012/sunchang.pdf

Swales, J.M. & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbour, MI: The University of Michigan Press.