The Science Of Scientific Writing Set E Generic Sections Maps as Section Blueprints Exercise 1 Exercise 2 ImRaD Methods : Structure Methods: Coherence Exercise 3 Final Page .
OVERVIEW: The way to well-written science
PART I: Paragraphs and Sentences
SET A: Paragraphs: The Maps Behind Them
SET B: Paragraphs: Using Maps to Meet Readers' Expectations
SET C: Paragraph Coherence and Cohesion
SET D: Sentences
SET E: Scientific Sections (including Methods)
SET F: Scientific Sections: The Discussion
SET G : Scientific Sections: The Introduction
SET H : The Paper as a Whole
Exercise 3
Choose a research paper in your field of interest, and provide a URL or email the instructor a PDF. Create a map for its Methods section, keeping in mind the following:
1. Each paragraph should be allocated only ONE box in the map. In a more typical section, this would be the Landmark or Pointer Sentence but a paragraph in the Methods will not necessarily have a Framing Sentence, and will hardly ever have a Pointer Sentence. The role of the Framing Sentence may be played by a sub-heading, or it might be assumed that the reader can guess what it might be. Accordingly, you may have to add in your own guesses (make a note of this when you do).
2. The language and structure of the map should make it clear that it is a Report. Any non-report content you add in should be added in as Notes.
3. The map should ideally capture both the experimental logic (and any other secondary organising system, e.g. chronological order), and the organisation of key sentences and headings that shape the text for the reader.
When you have finished the map, write a Frame of Reference paragraph (or several) for the Methods section that:
1. "Looks forward", in that it tells us what will be covered in the Methods section .
2. "Looks backward", in that it provides a conceptual bridge between the simple account of the methodology in the Introduction and the detailed account that is provided in the main part of the Methods. It should provide a rationale for the complete set of procedures, such that we understand how the approach can help solve the problem/s posed in the Introduction.
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