Analysis of an Educational Research Article

Research Articles (RAs) are papers written to illustrate an outcome of scientific research with supporting data.  They are generally composed of several parts namely, Title, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussions, Recommendations, References, and Appendixes (Hernandez Sampieri, Fernandez Collado & Lucio, 1998).  When doing research writers should follow the requirements of the academic field concerning design, style and conventions.

In their research article (RA) Bennett, Braund, Lubben and Mason (2011) present the need to learn and understand the topic of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), more specifically the “factors influencing classroom impact of relatively short PD interventions, (…)” (Bennett et al., 2001, p.9). To justify its interest writers follow Swales and Feak’s (1994) Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R.S.) for writing introductions as they organize the information in three cycles or moves. They outline previous research in the area, indicate the gap and the purposes of the current study, as well as they state what the research is about.  

Concerning layout and requirements, the American Psychological Association (APA) (2008) style format sets the rules for writing research articles, Bennett et al. (2011) present some inconsistencies as the literature review is not clearly organized, and the gap is not correctly placed. Besides, the overuse of acronyms such as NNSLC or SLC, long sentences and unexplained terms is a repeated feature throughout the article. Extremely noteworthy is the case of the PCK acronym as its explanation is written on the next page of the article. These issues might confuse the reader, making the reading a tough and difficult task.

Moreover Bennett et al. (2011) do not strictly follow APA (2008) rules for formatting a paper. The writers do not use double spacing throughout the RA and titles are in bold typeface. The running head contains only the institutional affiliation and page numbers are incorrectly placed at the bottom of the page.  Concerning table formatting (APA 2007), it is brief and self-explanatory; it is correctly numbered but the title is neither italicized nor placed in heading caps. Moreover, its title is too broad, since the word “impact” does not explain the content of the table.

Although Bennett et al.’s (2011) research article provides useful information, they do not respect the rules proposed by the APA (2008) manual. An awareness of the rules and conventions of research papers can help future researchers to become better writers and develop themselves as members of a discourse community.

References

American Psychological Association (2008). Publication Manual (5^th ed.). Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-In-Publication Data.

Bennett, J., Braund, M., Lubben, F. & Mason, Y. (2011). Modes of Professional Development: An evaluation of the impact of different course modes operated across the National Network of Science Learning Centres.

Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández-Collado, C., & Lucio, B.P. (1998).Metodología de la Investigación (4th ed.). México: McGraw-Hill.

Swales, J.M. & C. Feak (1994). Academic Writing for Graduate Students: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.