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Chapter 3: Reading and Writing Research Reports |
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Chapter 3 is a lengthy chapter that introduces a number of important concepts and skills associated with arguing research in science. The basic argumentative form of the research report is IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). Embedded in our discussion of IMRAD and its various components are such issues as conventional ways to situate new research in the context of a field's prior knowledge*, levels of justification in arguing methods for expert audiences, language conventions used to make and qualify claims in science, and the integration of visual and verbal information. Abstracts also are discussed.
Writing and reading processes associated with the research report are described in the final sections of the chapter; these processes include drafting and revising, the division of labor in collaborative research teams, the reading habits of scientists, the peer-review process, and a discussion of evaluative criteria typically used by journal reviewers.
*We have, however, put the details of describing and documenting previous research in Chapter 4, a chapter devoted to reviewing prior literature.
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