25 Writing in Research
In this section, you might have expected to find a single formula to do research writing. BUT: remember back to the sections on Genre? How many ways are there to create different genres with the information you have found? Too many.
The best advice you can take from this section is this: CHECK WITH YOUR PROFESSOR. They are the ones grading the assignment you are creating; they know what they are looking for.
Beyond that: This section will provide you with resources and links to read about different resources that can help you figure out what to do with your research once you’ve compiled your sources.
Synthesis notes
Synthesis Notes: Working with Sources to Create a First Draft
This method will show you how to use synthesizing methods to pull information out of your sources to create a draft of your research writing.
Synthesis notes are a strategy for taking and using reading notes that bring together—synthesize—what we read with our thoughts about our topic in a way that lets us integrate our notes seamlessly into the process of writing a first draft. Six steps will take us from reading sources to a first draft.
Document Formats
IMRaD is an acronym that stands for (I)ntroduction, (M)ethods, (R)esults (a)nd (D)isussion. This is the format you can expect to find when you are writing a scientific research report that describes an experiment or study. George Mason University provides information on creating this document.
Argumentative Essay
It’s easy to think that an argumentative essay and the persuasive essay are the same thing. But the Owl at Purdue shows us there is a difference. While it is acceptable to use pathos (emotional, heartfelt appeal), an argumentative essay needs to avoid pathos and stick with facts, statistics and quotations from the experts. This is typically what your professors mean when they want you to write an essay about your research.
A persuasive essay is one in which your goal is to get the audience to agree with your assessment of the topic. Purdue Global explains some of the different elements that goes into persuasive writing as well as provides a sample outline to help you get an idea of how to format the document.
Literature Review
You have read about joining the conversation a few times in this textbook already and one way to do that is through a literature review. University of Arizona shows us that a literature review simply asks you to critically assess the literature (sources) you have found so far and summarize them that way you (and your audience) can understand the scope of the field of your research.
Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical analysis is one of the trickier skills that a First-Year student is asked to learn. Through high school, you have done research on a topic and possibly tried to convince people to agree with you on your findings. A Rhetorical Analysis is when you, as the writer, look at a text (a speech, an advertisement, a published essay) and prove to the reader HOW the author of that text is trying to persuade them to believe like they do. Click here for more information on rhetorical analysis.
Conclusion
We have said throughout this book that there isn’t just one way to write. That means even though we have provided you with links to help you figure out different styles of research writing, there are so many other options available (case study, interpretative writing, white papers, podcasts, videos, speeches, dissertations, theses… you get the point).
When you are asked to create a piece of writing from your research, your first course of action is going to be to check with your professor about what they want. You can also go to your local writing center (TLS) as they have a plethora of resources. The help to create these documents is there; you just have to seek it out.
CC LICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED
IMRaD?: Yes, I’M RaD! CC BY-NC-SA
Persuasive Essay: https://purdueglobalwriting.center/writing-a-persuasive-essay/
https://lib.arizona.edu/research/write-cite/lit-review https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing by Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
