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Stepping stones in article writing

Kobus Maree

Before you start …

The aim of the article writing process is not just to get published. Rather, it is to acquire vital skills that you will use throughout your life, e.g. the ability to express yourself fluently in written form, to share your findings with others in a scholarly way, and to assess not only others' work objectively, but your own work too. Furthermore, not everyone will agree with what you say. You must be prepared to accept criticism, and you must be able to defend what you have done. Lastly: No one can write an article (put ideas on paper) without proper planning. Finding your topic

Of course, you have to find a topic to write about first. Then, identify the purpose of your writing. Your article needs a strong research question (or questions) to drive it. The title of your article should contain key words and it should progress from the general to the specific (e.g. Predicting (key verb: predict) success among first-year engineering students at the ABC University). Your title should make it easy for other researchers working on the same area to retrieve the article. After all, your title and abstract will to a large extent whether your article will be read (and cited!).

Now write your abstract

Even though this is purely a matter of choice, many authors believe that you should write your abstract before actually writing the article proper. Here's an example. (In this article) We attempt to merge career development and positive psychology theories. Our meta-theoretical framework is based on merging an asset-based approach and career construction-post-modern-narrative approaches. We ground our discussion in ongoing intervention research endeavours in South Africa, and we infer that persons can be counselled in terms of existing strengths in diverse contexts to develop optimally. The value of the research lies in engaging positive psychology issues in career development in a novel way. The 'new' approach serves to recommend original ways in which practitioners could ascertain and mobilise adolescents' personal and contextual assets.

And another one:

This research forms part of ongoing attempts to identify predictors of success at school and university level. A review of the literature on predictors of success reveals a trend away from overemphasising quantitative factors towards the inclusion of qualitative factors in predictive models. Emerging scepticism about the value of quantitative factors as main predictors stems from a lack of evidence supporting the hypothesis that a combination of quantitative factors suffice to predict success at school and university. Research on predictive factors confirms that scepticism by showing that narratives could be used to predict success. While much has been written about quantitative assessment, relatively little has been written about qualitative assessment. The aim of this article is to identify multiple factors that may predict learners' success at school and at university level. We investigate whether a combination of scores on aptitude and emotional intelligence tests, study orientation questionnaires, and narrative-based indicators predicts success at school and university. This should hopefully contribute to our understanding of what assessment instruments and strategies might best predict success and thereby help schools and universities address challenges posed by an evolving global world. 300 first-year students in the Engineering Faculty at the XXX University completed the XXX Questionnaires, the XXX Aptitude Tests and completed narrative questionnaires. Students who passed and who failed the first year scored significantly differently on XXX subtests, viz. Step-wise linear regression showed a combination of three fields, namely XXX (R2 = 25.8) towards predicting the first year aggregate score of first-year engineering students. However, analysis of narratives yielded interesting information about qualitative factors that also seem to predict success. We conclude that our results can contribute to an understanding of predictive factors, however, we do not claim to have proven anything. Our model is not a solution; however, we argue that our findings may provide clues to addressing the challenge of increasing pass rates of learners and students.

Literature review

It is essential to develop a theoretical framework in which to locate your research. Describe the gap (void, silence, space, vacuum) between what has and has not been written on your topic (your research questions will to a large extent be built on these identified gaps).

Working assumptions

State general assumptions you may hold, e.g. that all learners can pass Mathematics at Grade 12 level; or: it is possible to conduct qualitative research without becoming deeply involved in one's study.

Concept clarification

Indicate how you will interpret important concepts in the literature on the field of study.

You may wish to suggest that you consider building your article on the following template.

Introduction

In this article, we report on our analysis of/ investigation into …. We identified the following gap in the literature: …. We therefore try to answer the following questions: …

Literature overview (context)

Apply the principle of funnelling: Explain the context within which your research has taken place. Internationally there is a move towards … Nationally there has been a shift towards … Locally … My research therefore …

Research design

Explain how your research was designed and conducted. What were its unique, innovative features? Elaborate on the following aspects:

Sample
Ethical Aspects
Limitations of the Study
Questionnaires/ Inventories
Quality assurance
Delineate the steps you took (triangulation/ crystallisation) to facilitate quality assurance (reliability/ validity/ trustworthiness)
Research procedure(s)
Now carefully explain how you went about (systematically) to actually answer/ address your research questions (obtain data).
Analytic structure
Explain how you went about to analyse your data.

Results

Here, you simply present your results, without any discussion.

Discussion

Delineate and contextualize your most important findings. Indicate which of your findings are supported (or not) by previous research findings. Be modest: "This article is not a panacea … not in itself new … not the whole answer, but … part of the solution" (Murray, 2005).

Conclusion

It is crucially important to answer the following question: Does your article contain something really new, unique, and innovative; that it is not just important locally? Ask yourself: Will your readers learn anything that an informed guess would not have "uncovered"?

Lastly: Leave no room for guesswork. Write logically and make sure to link sentences and paragraphs; sections and subsections. Always keep the big picture in mind. Right at the end, return to your research question(s). Make sure that you have 'answered' your research question(s). In fact, use the exact words you used in the beginning.

Make 100% sure that your article

a. contains something new, unique, innovative (if you really want to get published!),
b. conforms to the basic rules of grammar and report writing,
c. is located in the most current research in your field, both nationally and internationally, and
d. adheres to the specific journal's editorial guidelines (incidentally, language editing is essential).

And remember: Write at least 10 drafts before you eventually submit your contribution. Ask a critical reader (not your best friend!) to read every draft and provide constructive criticism/ feedback. Set deadlines …

References

Jansen, J.D. (2004). Getting published. Unpublished workshop notes. Pretoria: University of Pretoria

Maree, J.G. & van der Westhuizen, C. (2007). Developing a research proposal. In Maree, J.G. (Ed.). (2007). First steps in research. Pretoria: van Schaik Publishers. (pp. 24-46)

Maree, J.G. & van der Westhuizen, C. (2009). Headstart in designing research proposals. Cape Town: Juta.

Murray, R. (2005). Writing for academic journals. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Vithal, R. & Jansen, J.D. (2002). Designing your first research proposal. Lansdowne: Juta