As a consumer of research reports, the most important things for me in the introduction section of a high-quality research report are:
- A clear purpose statement is crucial to a study. As I was taught in my English classes, the thesis of my essays is central to my writing as a whole. Similarly, a clear purpose statement is the central to the study; whatever is written or done for this study must circulate and relate to this central purpose statement. Without clarity in the purpose statement, the article and study would be futile.
- Simple language that adheres to its audience. I greatly appreciate researchers that consider: What background information does the reader who may not understand a particular industry’s jargon need to know before reading my research, and what common language can I use to replace the jargon? Research can look like a different language without prior experience or understanding, and I am easily disengaged when I need to search up numerous definitions within a paragraph. Understandable and simple language is engaging.
- Credible literature that clearly supports the purpose and discussion of the article appropriately. Literature used should not distract readers from the purpose statement, and should instead help define and clarify terms or theories proposed by the study. The integration of the literature is also important for the study; I like clear explanations of how the literature adds to the discussion and summaries of the literature if beneficial to the understanding of the study as a whole.
Question:
What detracts you from reading a certain study? Do you have an example of a time where you could not will yourself to read past the introduction?
Thank you for your reflection Leona. I have to agree that it is very important for me to be able to see a clear purpose, language that is understandable, and also credible sources used to support ideas in a research report. You are correct in saying that research is like learning a new language on its own. Hopefully the Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015) text is helping you clarify the process of research as well as understanding the language that goes along with reading it.
Dr. Strong
I find that articles with misleading titles often put me off of getting past the abstract/intro. When searching through a database for a bunch of articles on a specific topic, it is frustrating to see key words used in a title that may not be related to the research of the article. I found this frustrating when searching for articles about computational thinking and coding. There are many definitions of coding, but some articles were not even related to the subject in even an vague way.