Dissertation Writing in Practice: Turning Ideas into Text

Index

Index abstracts 112 ff article 123, 124 content and organisation of 112–117, 124 lengthof 114,116,117–119,124 as signposts 112, 149 tense use in 119–123, 124 citations citing the works of others 20, 26, 37, 38, 40, 41 (see also literature review) integratedcitations 45,51,64,66 methods of citing 44–45, 50, 51, 64, 66 reasons for 37 ff, 63–64, 66 clauses main clauses 109, 110, 111, 168 subordinate clauses 109, 110, 111 cohesion definition 151–152, 168 end-focus 156 information structure of sentences 152–157, 159, 161, 167, 168, 169 of text 151 ff topic development 168 conclusions 95 ff article 98, 124 content and organisation of 95– 109 definition 69–70 language of 109–111 ‘4S’ model 97 contribution acknowledging others’ (see critiquing other researchers) writer’s/researcher’s own 97, 99, 100, 103, 104, 106, 116, 123 creating a research space 9, 60 critiquing other researchers 40, 41, 60 ff, 65, 66, 93 (see also hedging) adjectives & adverbs for 39, 50– 51, 65, 66 delimitations 14 discussion section 69, 70, 83, 102, 104, 124, 129, 130 dissertation structure of 8, 69, 95–96, 99, 127 types multiple study 127–129 single study 127–129 type 1 8, 13, 20, 30, 127– 129 type 2 8, 30, 127–129 type 3 (topic-based) 8, 21, 23, 30, 129 type 4 8, 21, 30, 130 202 INDEX editing 151, 166, 168, 169 experimental studies 31, 129 facts stating of 69, 71–76, 78, 83, 93, 152 vs. claims 77, 83–84, 93 findings conflicting 26, 46 discussion of 7, 78 interpreting 58, 77 reporting 26, 40–41, 47 hedging 60 claims 77, 86, 93 devices 78 ff in academic papers 93 reasons for 78 verbs 61 words 60, 65 humanities dissertations 8, 48, 84, 100, 129 hypotheses 30, 31–33, 34 information structure (see cohesion) introductions 96, 100, 123, 124, 129, 130, 141 main steps 8–14 language features 15–20 implications 102–103 limitations acknowledging 86 ff, 97, 111 of previous research 10, 28, 29, 34 literature review/survey 8, 13, 20 ff, 34– 36, 40, 54, 60 methods section 30, 69, 71, 72, 74, 93, 122 nouns abstract 146–147 modal 82 paragraphs length of 166 introductory 8, 24, 25 structure of 54, 56, 154–156, 168 pilot studies 48 plagiarism avoidance of 37–38, 63 prepositions 76, 109 pronouns 76, 165, 169 personal 19–20, 75 pronoun reference 152, 164, 168 proofreading 151, 169 purpose of study 14, 95, 102, 113, 115, 121, 122, 127 recommendations 104–105, 116, 121, 124 references 26, 169 research definition 7 experimental 69, 129 evaluation of 39–41, 66 (see also critiquing other researchers) gap 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36–41, 123 (see also creating a research space) non-experimental 69 qualitative 32 quantitative 31 questions 32, 34 results section 69, 71, 72, 75, 83, 84, 93 (see also findings) science dissertations 66, 129 sentence boundaries 159, 160, 169 connectors 160–162, 163, 168, 169 length 167 signposts/signposting 131 ff definition 127, 131, 148 explicit 139–140, 148 implicit 140 location of 141 within text 139, 148 203 INDEX social science dissertations 48, 124, 129 sources (see citations) subordination of information 109– 111 subtitles 134–136 summaries abstracts as 112, 114, 121 as signposts 112, 144–145 of sections 144 summarising information 28, 34, 35, 57, 103, 145 table of contents 105–106, 137– 139, 150 tentative language 79, 85, 93, 94, 123 (see also hedging) titles 131–133, 148 verb tense future 18 past simple 15, 17, 52, 53, 58, 65, 67, 73, 120, 121, 124 present perfect 15, 16, 17, 52, 56, 57, 58, 65 present simple 15, 16, 17, 18, 31, 52, 53, 65, 67, 73, 75, 120, 121, 124 tense choice 15 ff, 52 ff, 73–74, 119 ff, 123, 168 voice active 15, 146, 147, 168 passive 15, 19, 20, 74, 75, 76, 146, 147, 168 verbs (see also tense choice) hedging 61, 82 modal 82 nominalised 147 reporting 45–48, 51 vocabulary 15, 18–20, 51, 152, 157 ff, 168, 169 synonyms 160 word families 158 hedging words 60, 65 roots 159, 160, 169 ...