研究生学术英语写作教程Unit 4 Describing MethodologyWord文件下载.docx

研究生学术英语写作教程Unit 4 Describing MethodologyWord文件下载.docx

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─Briefintroductiontothissection

─Reading&

Discussion:

Whatinformationelementsareusuallyinvolvedinwritingamethodologysection?

─LanguageFocus:

Passivevoiceandsequentialmarkers

─WritingPractice:

Understandingthesentencepatternsandsentenceorderinwritingaprocess

─WritingProject:

Howtodesignaquestionnaire

1.ReadingActivity

InnaturalsciencesthemethodsectionisoftencalledMaterialsandMethods.InsocialsciencesitiscommontointroduceasectioncalledTheoryandMethods.Sometimesitisdividedintwosections:

TheoreticalFrameworkandMethods.

Researchmethodologyismainlyconcernedwiththeanswerstothefollowingquestions:

1）Whyisaparticularresearchstudyundertaken?

2）Howhasoneformulatedaresearchproblem?

3）Whattypesofdatahavebeencollected?

4）Whatparticularmethodshavebeenused?

5）Whyisaparticulartechniqueofanalysisofdataused?

1.1Pre-readingTask

Thefollowingisthemethodsectionofaresearcharticleinthefieldofappliedlinguistics.Thinkaboutthefollowingquestionsbeforereadingthetextandthenhaveadiscussionwithyourclassmates:

1）Whatisthefunctionofthemethodsection?

2）Whatinformationelementsdoesamethodsectioninclude?

3）Whatverbtensesaremainlyusedinthetext?

Whatistheproportionofactivevoiceverbstopassivevoiceverbsinthismethodsection?

1.2ReadingPassage

EnglishforCollegeStudentsinTaiwan:

AStudyofperceptionsofEnglishNeedsinaMedicalContext

TheexperimentwasinitiatedtoinvestigateperceptionsofEnglishneedsinamedicalcontextamongcollegestudentsinTaiwan.

Thesubjectswere341medicalstudentsintheDepartmentofMedicine,including97freshmen,74sophomores,90juniors,and80seniors,and20facultymembersinthemedicalprogramatChungShanMedicalCollegeinTaichung,Taiwan,China.

Twoquestionnairesweredevelopedforthesurvey,basedontwoearliersurveyinstrumentsbyTaylor&

Hussein（1985）andGuo（1989）.ThequestionnairesweretranslatedintoChinese,piloted,andmodifiedaccordingtothefeedbackfroml0respondents:

sixmedicalstudentsandfourfacultymembersfromChungShanMedicalCollege.Thequestionnairegiventothemedicalstudentsconsistedoffivesectionsof23questions,thetopicsofwhichweretheimportanceofEnglishincollegeandprofessionalcareers,perceivedlanguageskillneedsandproblems,theactivitiesneededinafreshmanlanguagecourse,andsuggestionsfordevelopmentofcoursecontentandmaterialsaswellasdemographicinformation.Thefacultyquestionnaireconsistedoffoursectionsofl6questions,whichwereparalleltothoseintheversiongiventothestudentsexceptnodemographicinformationwasgathered（seeAppendix）.

Oneoftheauthors,afacultymemberatChungShanMedicalCollege,selectedonerequiredclassforeachgroupofstudents（freshmensophomores,juniorsandseniors）.Copiesofthestudentquestionnaireforadministrationtothestudentswerethensenttocooperatinginstructorsteachingthesecourses;

copiesofthefacultyquestionnaireweregivento20teacherswhowerewillingtocompletethesurvey.

Thedatawerecomputer-analyzedusinganSPSSprogram:

inthequestionnaire,percentagesweredeterminedforallquestionsexcept8and13forwhichmeanswerecomputed.Chi-square,t-tests,andANOVAanalyses（方差分析）wereconductedinordertodeterminetheperceptionsofEnglishlanguageneedsofmedicalcollegestudentsandtheirfacultyandtocomparetheperceptionsheldbythevariousgroups.

（Pang,2008）

1.3ReadingComprehension

1.3.1Fillinthefollowingtablewithrelevantdetailsfromthepassage.

Researchobjective

Researchsubjects

Researchlocation

Materials

Procedure

Statisticalanalysis

1.3.2Understandmoreaboutthemethodsectionofthisresearch.Whatdoyouknowaboutthequestionnairesusedinthesurvey?

2.LanguageFocus

2.1Passivevoice

Thepassivevoiceisusuallyusedinacademicwriting,becausepassivestructureshavelesssubjectivecoloringinmostcasesthanactiveones.Whendescribingaprocessorascientificexperiment,itisimportanttowriteinaneutralstyle,asanobserver.Todothis,youcanusepassivevoice.Therearethreeinstancesinwhichthepassivevoiceisrecommended:

1）whenwedonotknowordonotcareaboutwhohasperformedtheaction;

2）whenwefocusonthereceiverinsteadoftheperformeroftheaction;

and3）whenwewouldliketoremaininaneutralorobjectivepositioninwriting.Moreexamplesfromthemethodologysectionareasfollows:

1）Thestudywasconductedatthebeginningofthesemesterandthefinalonewasgivenattheendofthesemester.（procedure）

2）Insummer,thegreenhousewascooledbypullinginairthroughwatersaturatedpadsonthesouthendofthebuilding.（speciallydesignedmaterial）

3）ThequartzreactorstestedforthisworkarefabricatedbytheA&

BSalesCompanyofWheeling,Leeds,UK.（instrument）

4）Inordertoprovideabroadsamplingofcollegestudents,respondentswererecruitedfromdiversefieldsofstudy.（sampling）

5）Thefinalscoreswerecomputedintomeanaverages（X）andstandarddeviations（SD）.（statisticalanalysis）

2.1.1GoovertheReadingPassageandmarkverbsinthepassivevoiceandthencompletethefollowingtable:

InformationelementsinMethod

Verbsinpassivevoice

Materials

Instrument

Dataanalysis

2.1.2Rewritethefollowingtextwithpassivevoice.

Somepeopleconsiderapoisonivyinfectiontobehumorous.Butitisnotfunnyatall.Contactwiththeplantcausesarashthathastheintensityofafreshmosquitobiteandlastsforseveraldays.Scientistshavestudiedpoisonivyinfectionforcenturies,buttheyhavefoundnopreventivepillorinoculation.Thepoisonoussubstanceintheplantiscalledurushiol.Afterurushiolhastouchedtheskin,blistersandweepingsoreswillsooncovertheexposedarea.

2.2Sequentialmarkers

Aprocessparagraphexplainshowtodosomethingorhowsomethingworks.Processparagraphsareusuallydevelopedstep-by-stepinachronologicalorlogicalsequence.Thefollowingsequencingexpressionsaremorefrequentlyusedtolinkstepsinadescriptionofaprocessortodivideaprocessintosteps:

●Firstly…Tobeginwith…Firstofall…etc.

●Secondly…Next…Afterthat…Inaddition…etc.

●Finally…Lastly…

Thefollowingsentencesdescribeaprocessofmakingpaper.Usesequentialwordsandrewritethemintoacohesiveparagraph.

1）Thelogsareplacedintheshredder.

2）Theyarecutintosmallchipsandmixedwithwaterandacid.

3）Theyareheatedandcrushedtoaheavypulpwhichiscleaned.

4）Itischemicallybleachedtowhitenit.

5）Itispassedthroughrollerstoflattenit.

6）.Sheetsofwetpaperareproduced.

7）Thewaterisremovedfromthesheetswhicharepressed,driedandrefinedandthefinishedpaperisproduced.

3.WritingPractice

Awellorganized,logicallyorderedandeasilyunderstandablechapteronmethodologymakesthethesisareallyoutstandingwork.Normally,amethodsectionincludes:

1）Overviewoftheexperiment:

onesentencebrieflytellswhatwasdone（likeatopicsentence）;

2）Population:

statethepeople/subjectsstudied,orthethingstested;

3）Location:

wherethestudytookplace;

4）Restriction/Limitingconditions:

precautionstakentomakesurethatthedataarevalid;

5）SamplingTechniques:

describehowthesubjectareselectedforthestudy;

6）Materials:

describethematerialsusedtoconductthestudyorexperiment;

7）Procedures:

Statethestepsoftheexperimentinachronologicalorder;

8）StatisticalTreatment:

describehowthestatisticsareexamined.

Ofalltheitemsonthislist,theonlyitemsthatarealwaysincludedinthemethodsectionarethematerialsandprocedures.

3.1Readthefollowingsentences.Theyarealltakenfrommethodsectionsfromdifferentresearcharticles.Ineachcase,determinewhichinformationelementisrepresented.

（1）Atotalof369participantsofEuropeanorigins（52.7%female）withameanageof27.2yearswererecruitedbyresearchassistantsinpublicplacesintheMontrealregion.

（2）Thedatausedforthecurrentanalysisconsistsof60textstakenfrom20engineeringjournals.

（3）ExperimentersapproachedpotentialparticipantsbyintroducingthemselvesasstudentsfromtheUniversityofQuebecinMontrealandthenaskediftheywouldaccepttoparticipateinashortstudyonfacialexpressions.

（4）ThestudyaimstoexaminetheuseofSEFasatoolforprovidingevidenceofteachingeffectivenessintertiaryeducation.

（5）TheresultsofthetwoquestionnairesweresubjectedtostatisticaltestsofreliabilityandsignificanceusingSPSS.

（6）Envelopescontainingthesurveymaterialsweresenttothelocalbusinessmanagerofeachunion.Intheenvelopes,therewasacoverletterexplainingtheproject,thequestionnaireitself,andapre-paidreturnenvelope.Theunionbusinessmanagerwascontactedandaskedtoselectworkersfromhisunionandtosendtheenvelopestothechosenworkers.

（7）Theparticipantswere90first-yearstudentsfromtheSchoolofForeignLanguagesatamajoruniversityinNanjing.Theiraverageagewas18yearsold.Theyconstitutedaconveniencesample.

（8）Theinvestigationwasperformedinanationallaborato