HAND-OUT IN RESEARCH I

Quarter II
TECHNICAL WRITING
Technical writing is a type of writing where the author is writing about a particular
subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation. It is an efficient and clear way of
explaining something and how it works.
Effective Writing is readable, that is, clear, accurate, and concise. When you are writing
a paper, try to get your ideas across in such a way that the reader will understand them
effortlessly, unambiguously, and rapidly.
Good technical writing results in relevant useful accurate information geared to
specifically targeted audiences to enable a set of actions on the part of the audience in
pursuit of a defined goal.

• 3R in Technical Writing: Write, Review, Rewrite

• 3CUE OF EFFECTIVE WRITING
Coherence: logic and organization
Cohesion: smoothness
Conciseness: economy
Unity: focus and completeness
Emphasis: stressing important ideas

A. COHERENCE
A paragraph is coherent if all sentences are arranged in a clear, logical order. You can
make a paragraph coherent by:
• Arrange ideas logically.
• Link sentences together.

1. Arranging ideas
There are 3 main ways in which you can arrange your ideas in a paragraph.

Type of order Example Used in

1. Time order From earliest to latest Process, Line Graph
Description
2. Spatial order From top to bottom, from Description Paragraph
near to far, from left to right
3. Sequential order Most general to most specific, Opinion paragraph
most familiar to least familiar,
least important to most
important
2. Linking sentences
There are a variety of ways to make your writing more cohesive, here are a few ideas:
1. Repeating keywords: use the same word or its synonym again.
2. Using pronouns (it, they, this, that, those, those, etc.) link back to nouns.
3. Using transition signals: coordinators, subordinators, and sentence connectors.

Make sure that each sentence starts with a reference back to the previous sentence.

Model paragraph
There are many people who claim that global warming is the most significant threat
facing us today. They argue that it is a danger not just to the current generation, but also to
the generations to come. Indeed, it is this threat to our future that is of most concern.
One effect of global warming is there will not be enough food to feed the world in the near
future.

SENTENCE CONNECTORS
Using sentence connectors is one of the ways to make a paragraph coherent. Sentence
connectors are words or phrases that indicate the relationship among sentences. Sentence
connectors often stand at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by a comma.

Function Sentence connectors

To introduce the first idea First of all, Firstly, First and foremost, To start with,
To introduce an additional idea Secondly, Moreover, In addition, Furthermore,
To introduce an opposite idea However, In contrast, On the other hand,
Nevertheless,
To introduce a similar idea Likewise, Similarly, In the same way,
To introduce an alternative Otherwise, Instead, Alternatively,
To introduce an example For instance,For example, As an illustration, To
illustrate,
To introduce a result Therefore, Thus, Consequently, As a result,
To introduce the last idea Lastly, Finally, Last but not least,
To introduce a conclusion In brief, Overall, To summarize In conclusion,

B. COHESION AND CLARITY

Connecting Ideas
Good writers connect the ideas in their paragraphs. A paragraph with a connected idea
is cohesive. It is clear and easy to read. Using and connecting words, phrases, and sentences.
And connects words and phrases that have the same verb. There is no need to repeat the
subject or verb after and.
Examples:
- Yara is studying English. Yara is studying art.
Yara is studying English and art.
- Yoshi likes reading. Yoshi likes watching television.
Yoshi likes reading and watching television.

Note: When it connects more than two items, commas are used to separate them.
Examples:
- I like Core English, Academic Writing, and Cultural Studies.

 Sometimes and connects phrases that have different verbs. There is no need to
repeat the subject after and.
Examples:
- Yara Haider is 19. Yara is studying art.
Yara Haider is 19 and plans to be a fashion designer.
- Yoshi works in the morning. Yoshi goes to school at night.
Yoshi works in the morning and goes to school at night

 And also connects two sentences with a similar idea; the sentences can be
positive or negative.
- My roommate is an art student. Her boyfriend plays in a rock band.
My roommate is an art student, and her boyfriend plays in a rock band.
- She doesn’t like rock music. Her boyfriend doesn’t like art.
She doesn’t like rock music and he doesn’t like art.

Using also to add information

 When two successive sentences introduce similar ideas, you can use the word also in
the second sentence.
 Also usually goes before the main verb in the sentence, but it goes after the verb be.
 Also is a very useful word, but it shouldn’t be used too often. Never use it in two
successive sentences and try to use it no more than twice in a paragraph.
Examples:
- Yara Haider likes Lebanon very much. She also likes the students in her school.
- Janet is in my English class. She is also in my music class.

Using But and So to connect sentences

But connects two sentences with contrasting or opposite idea.
Examples:
- She thinks her English class is excellent. She thinks the food in the cafeteria is terrible.
- She thinks her English class is excellent, but she thinks the food in the cafeteria is terrible.
So connects a reason and a result (effect).
Examples:
Reason - They both like jazz, - He works every
night,
Result (effect) so they go to jazz concerts together. so they don’t go out very
often.

C. UNITY AND COHERENCE

An effective paragraph should contain each of the following: A Topic Sentence
1. Unity
2. Coherence
3. Adequate Development

A topic sentence
A topic sentence indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going
to deal with. An easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the paragraph is
to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph.

Unity
All sentences in the paragraph should have a single focus (should support the topic sentence).

Coherence
Coherence makes the paragraph easily understandable to a reader. You can help create
coherence in your paragraphs by connecting one sentence to another using:
1. Parallel constructions
2. Pronouns
3. Synonyms
4. Repetition of keywords
5. Transitional words
6. Systematic sentence organization (see adequate development): from general to specific,
from specific to general, order of importance, chronological order, space order, steps, cause–
effect, comparison and contrasts.

Adequate development
The topic (which is introduced by the topic sentence) should be discussed fully and
adequately. Some methods can be used to make sure your paragraph is well-developed:
• Examples and illustrations
• Data (facts, statistics, evidence, details, and others)
• Definition terms in the paragraph
• Comparison and contrast
• Causes and reasons
• Effects and consequences
• Descriptions or details
• Chronology of an event (time segments)
• Steps
• Logical divisions

D. Conciseness/ Brevity
- Get to the point.
-It is knowing when to stop when the job is done.
-Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
- Average Sentence Length to facilitate Comprehension
 Very easy
 Easy
 Fairly easy
 Standard
 Fairly difficult
 Difficult
 Very difficult

E. Emphasis
1. Choice of words for achieving emphasis
2. Emphasis by repetition of keywords in a series
3. When a pattern is established through repetition and then broken, the varied part will be
emphasized.
4. The first and last sentences are inherently more emphatic than the middle segment.

F. Accuracy
1. Get your facts straight.
2. What you say or write must be based on factual information and you’ve stated it fairly and
without bias.
3. The right decisions and plans are based on correct information.
4. Double-check your data sources; talk to experts; do thorough research.
5. Avoid sweeping statements that can be easily challenged.
6. Use specific, concrete language.

G. Consistency
• the mark of a professional and well-organized work
• inconsistencies only confuse your readers (unnecessary capitalizations, mixed sets or
units of measure, and indiscriminate use of abbreviations and punctuations)
• consistency is a must in the use of technical terms or descriptions and in the use of
verbs and style

SELECTING, CITING, and SYNTHESIZING LITERATURE

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Is needed so that you can determine if
1. You are building on existing studies
2. You are replicating previous studies
3. You are offering a new area of inquiry
Literature Review
• Is defined as an examination of relevant books, scholarly articles, and any other
sources pertinent to an area of research
• A consolidation of key ideas and evaluation of the literature available in view of the
research problem
• Provides an overview of the sources you have explored while researching a particular
topic and demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of
study

Review of Related Literature intends to realize the following:

(a) Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research
problem being studied
(b) Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration
(c) Identify new ways to interpret prior research
(d) Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature
(e) Resolve conflicts among seemingly contradictory previous studies
(f) Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort
(g) Point the way to fulfilling a need for additional research

FORMS OF REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Integrative Review Are simply “summaries of past research”,

largely found in dissertation proposals and
dissertations

Theoretical Review “wherein the researcher focuses on the extant

 theory that relates to the problem being studied’;
demonstrated best in journal articles

Methodological Review “provides not only a summary of the studies but

also an actual critique of the strengths and
weaknesses of the methods sections; found in
dissertations and a review of related literature
sections in journal articles

TASKS THAT REQUIRE YOUR ATTENTION

 How to go about reviewing related literature
 Focus on the varied types of materials or literature that you can consider in your
literature review. This requires familiarity with the broader body of knowledge.
 How to limit the scope of the literature review
 Emphasize the kind and amount of information that can be taken from the
materials available and that should be included in your literature review.
Only relevant literature must be included. It is important to know what
data to extract from existing studies.

How to Go About Writing a Review of Related Literature

1. Decide on what reference style to use.
 Choose a reference style
a. Chicago Manual Style by the University of Chicago Press
b. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Style)
c. Modern Language Association (MLA)

2. Establish your priority.

- a plan for sorting out and classifying materials based on the kind and quality of information
that they provide and for deciding in what order would these materials be reviewed

 Begin with journal articles in respected national journals, especially those reports of
research studies. Start with the most recent studies about the topic then work
backward in time.
 Review books related to the topic.
 Begin with research monographs that are summaries of scholarly literature.
 Then consider entire books that are on a single topic or that contain chapters written by
different authors.
 Follow the search by reading research conference papers on your topic.

3. Limit the scope of your literature

-salient and relevant information
1. literature related to the independent variable (topic 1)
2. literature related to the dependent variable (topic 2)
3. literature related to literature that relate the independent and dependent variables (topic
3)
4. summary

Some tips on how to delimit the scope of your RRL

A. Introduce the (literature review) section by telling the reader about the sections to be
found in the literature review. This passage is a statement about the organization of the
section.
B. Review the scholarly literature about the independent variable or variables.
 With several independent variables, consider subsections or focus on the single most
important variable.
 Remember to address only the literature about the independent variable.
  Keep the literature about the independent and dependent variables separate.
C. Review the topic which incorporates the scholarly literature about the dependent variable
or variables
 With multiple dependent variables, write a subsection about each variable or focus on
a single, important dependent variable.
D. Review the topic which includes literature that relates the independent variable to the
dependent variable.
E. Provide a summary of the review, highlighting the most important studies and capturing
major themes in the review.

4. Organize a visual research map of the literature that highlights key works and
findings relevant to your study.