Writing the Research Paper

Multicultural Perspectives for Writing in English as a Second Language

Philip M. McCarthy, Khawlah Ahmed

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350164178
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Creative Writing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Covering both theoretical and practical approaches, Writing the Research Paper guides students studying in English as a second or additional language through the skills necessary for success in university-level writing and research. The book begins with theoretical considerations, such as research, argumentation and critical thinking. It then offers a broad range of practical assistance covering all aspects of the writing process, including topic selection, argument, counter-argument, paragraph structure and cohesion. The book is accompanied by a companion website, writingtheresearchpaper.com. The website hosts many features, including chapter summaries, exercises, quizzes, PowerPoints, additional learning material, and technology assistance. The website also hosts numerous authentic examples of student papers at each of the critical stages of the writing process.

1

Critical Thinking

Primer

1. The purpose of the “Primer” is to remind you of important previously discussed information. The selected information for each primer is particularly relevant for the chapter under discussion.

2. From this point forward, all chapters in the book will have a primer at the beginning and summary at the end.

3. You are about to begin writing a research paper. A research paper can be characterized as raising awareness, causing discussion, and proposing answers.

4. This book provides you with the guidance and skills necessary to write a full-length (about 10 pages), advanced level, audience-centered, argumentative research paper.

5. The success of your research paper will depend primarily on your own efforts to be your own most diligent critic.

At its heart, “critical thinking” is the act of asking yourself difficult questions—very difficult questions. Over your academic and professional career, you’ll often hear the term “critical thinking,” and you’ll hear it used in many ways, but in whatever context you hear it, critical thinking is always going to be about difficult questions and the sometimes disconcerting answers to those questions. Your job as a writer (and as a professional, even as a parent!) is to ask those difficult questions, and then to answer them—with uncomfortable honesty.

As I wrote the paragraph above, I had to use critical thinking to ask and answer my own set of difficult questions. Here are some examples:

Question 1: Is my coauthor going to be comfortable with my definition of “critical thinking”?

Answer 1: She’s probably going to say: “I like it, but have you gone too far?”

Question 2: Are the publishers going to accept my less than formal writing style? After all, why use such an informal style to discuss how to write formally?

Answer 2: I can see myself having to do a lot of rewriting for those very reasons. But right now, I’m saying what I think needs to be said. Let’s see what the coauthor and publisher think.

Question 3: I started this chapter with a definition, but wouldn’t Sentence 2 of the paragraph be a better sentence to begin the paragraph?

Answer 3: Under normal circumstances, I’d agree. But “critical thinking” is such an important concept that I want the reader to know exactly what the idea means from the very first sentence.

Question 4: I understand the final sentence, but doesn’t it run the risk of scaring some students?

Answer 4: Yes. It should scare them. But I also want it to be honest, and I think students appreciate honesty.

As I was writing the critical thinking questions above, I had to face another round of critical thinking. That is, I was critically thinking about my own critical thinking. For example, consider my answer to Question 1: My answer might be right or wrong as to what my coauthor thinks, but I then had to ask “Would my coauthor actually want me to be writing what I thought she might be thinking?” And, yes, I then had to critically think about the question in this paragraph that questions the question in the previous paragraph. In short, the process just goes on and on and on. The point is: We ask the difficult questions, and we answer them with uncomfortable honesty.

Note here that none of the questions that I’ve raised so far have been questions that I wanted to ask. And none of my answers have been easy. Truth be told, I wanted to finish writing this section today as I was really hoping to see a movie in the next hour or so. But all of these questions had to be asked and, guided by their answers, I have had to edit my work accordingly. It’s hard, and I can see now that I won’t be watching that movie today.

We Are Already Experts in Difficult Questions—(Kind Of)

The good news about critical thinking is that every one of us already knows a lot about it! That is, we already ask ourselves difficult questions and we already face our own uncomfortable answers. The bad news is that we all do this questioning and answering with other aspects of our lives—but not necessarily with our writing.

Let’s look at an example: It is not hard to imagine some people in the morning, getting ready to go out into the world, and endlessly asking themselves questions about their hair, their makeup, their choice of purse, their shoes, etc. And it’s not hard to imagine people endlessly asking the cutting-edge questions regarding last night’s refereeing or coaching decisions, or questions regarding the wisdom of any given recent American presidential decision. And for some reason, most of us are seemingly quite expert on raising these difficult questions when they concern our younger siblings. So, yes, we all know how to raise these questions, and we all know how to answer them with simple, honest truths. But asking ourselves these questions—about our own writing—is much harder.

What We Need to Be Asking

So, what are the critical thinking questions you need to be asking about writing? Here are a few:

1 What is the purpose of this paragraph?

2 Is the purpose of this paragraph clear from the first sentence of this paragraph?

3 What is the function of this sentence? (and all sentences in the paragraph)

4 Does this sentence facilitate the purpose of this paragraph?

5 Why is this sentence in this position in the paragraph?

6 Does this sentence follow logically from the last sentence?

7 Does this sentence lead logically into the next sentence?

8 Are the words in this sentence appropriate for my purpose?

9 Are the words in this sentence appropriate for my readers?

10 Does the ending of this paragraph help my readers to better understand my purpose?

Now, let’s use these above-mentioned questions to address the first paragraph of this chapter. Here’s that first paragraph one more time:

At its heart, ‘critical thinking’ is the act of asking yourself difficult questions—very difficult questions. Over your academic and professional career, you’ll often hear the term ‘critical thinking,’ and you’ll hear it used in many ways, but in whatever context you hear it, critical thinking is always going to be about difficult questions and disconcerting answers to those questions. Your job as a writer (and as a professional, even as a parent!) is to ask those difficult questions, and then to answer them—with uncomfortable honesty.

Question 1: What is the purpose of this paragraph?

Answer 1: The purpose of this paragraph is to introduce readers to what is meant by critical thinking.

Question 2: Is the purpose of this paragraph clear from the first sentence?

Answer 2: Yes, I think it is. The first sentence actually defines “critical thinking.” The statement should make the paragraph’s purpose clear.

Question 3: What is the function of [for example] Sentence 2?

Answer 3: I defined the term “critical thinking” in Sentence 1; however, a quick Google search of this term will easily reveal how broadly it is applied. As such, I want readers to understand that there is no universal agreement as to its definition.

Question 4: Does this sentence [Sentence 2] facilitate the purpose of the paragraph?

Answer 4: Yes, as the paragraph is an introduction to critical thinking, Sentence 2 facilitates the paragraph’s purpose of explaining that critical thinking is a broadly used term.

Question 5: Why is this sentence [Sentence 2] in this position in the paragraph?

Answer 5: Critical thinking is not an easy concept. As such, I wanted to start the paragraph with a definition so that readers knew immediately the topic under discussion. However, as soon as that task was complete, I wanted readers to know that my definition was not the only definition.

Question 6: Does this sentence [Sentence 2] follow logically from the last sentence?

Answer 6: Truth be told, I’m not 100 percent happy about it. In some ways, I seem to be contradicting myself. That is, if I start by saying that critical thinking is this one thing, then why am I following that up by saying that critical thinking can actually be something else too?

Question 7: Does this sentence [Sentence 2] lead logically into the next sentence?

Answer 7: Yes, and I think the third sentence solves the potential problem of Sentence 2. In fact, I rather like how Sentence 3 makes the previous potential confusion of Sentence 2 into something of an answer to a riddle. Yes, I’m even a little smugly satisfied about Sentence 3. (Although, I’m not altogether sure how my coauthor will feel about it—we shall see.)

Question 8: Are the words in this sentence [Sentence 2] appropriate for my purpose?

Answer 8: Yes, sort of. Well, actually, after reading the sentence again, I moved the word often from the end of the clause to its current position. I’m also not 100 percent sure of the phrase Over your academic and professional career. I don’t really like the part “professional career,” because I wanted to keep the whole thing to college work. But critical thinking applies throughout life, so I actually wanted to include something like “and even when you’re a parent!” but that was going too far. No, wait. I do actually like the part about being a parent. So, I’ll change that. (And this is how the process works!)

Question 9: Are the words in this sentence [Sentence 2] appropriate for my readers?

Answer 9: I think so. My readers are college students, and college students know very well that they should be doing work in college that’s going to help them after college. That’s why I’m trying to slip in the fact that critical thinking is a life skill, not just a writing skill.

Question 10: Does the ending of this paragraph help my readers to better understand my purpose?

Answer 10: I want my readers to know that critical thinking is vital, but that it’s really hard! My readers are students. They already know that things are hard, and they’re probably sick of hearing instructors say that such-and-such is easy! Saying something is “easy,” doesn’t actually make it easy! And one of the reasons as to why critical thinking is so hard is that—frankly—it’s pretty boring (at least, at first). After all, writing the first draft of a paragraph is hard enough, and then having to ask a bunch of questions about it makes i...