This presentation has been used to guide workshops on research and academic writing conventions for upperclassman and first-year graduate students. However, it could be adapted for a first and second year student audience. The content is rich, emphasizing reflection, research/inquiry, as well as grammar. This material also demonstrates how to use new media as part of an overall research strategy. The presentation is designed to be presented interactively with writers across the disciplines, multilingual writers, and any writer unfamiliar with the academic writing process. The content is not linear, as many slides could be clipped and customized for integration into a first-year writing course, or even a session or workshop for graduate student writers of any classification.

1. Multimedia Academic Literacy:
Academic Writing
in the
Age of Emergence
Author: Alexandria Lockett, Ph.D.
www.alexandrialockett.com

2. • Who writes it?
• Who reads it?
• What are readers' expectations?
• What are the writers’ responsibilities?
• How does living in an information age
affect what is perceived as 'academic
What is Academic Writing?

3. • ResearchGate received $35 million from Bill Gates in 2013
• Elsevier bought Mendeley for almost $100 million
• “Research in 2014 is a Brutal Business.” (Nature Editorial)
• Corporate R&D at Rochester Institute for Technology
(Chronicle, 2009)
• Academic libraries spent a total of approximately $2.8
billion on information resources. Of that, expenditures for
electronic current serial subscriptions totaled about $1.4
billion (National Center for Education Statistics, Academic
Libraries: 2012 First Look)
• During fiscal year 2012, academic libraries spent
approximately $123.6 million for bibliographic utilities,
networks, and consortia (National Center for Education
Statistics, Academic Libraries: 2012 First Look)
The Business of Research

4. Purpose: Create new knowledge through
(re)discovery
Exigence: Innovate frameworks, theories, and
methods
Methods
 Investigate a specific problem that clarifies or
explains some broader issue
 Develop practical applications to solve
What is the Purpose of Research?

5. One of student's major anxieties about research is the
"ME FIRST" problem!
- You are NOT a journalist, your job is to help us
understand a story about the process of discovery,
not 'break' stories.
- You cannot OWN knowledge, you may acquire
awareness and go through a process of conveying
how you came to this awareness.
Another major problem is lack of curiosity. Google may
offer you
access to an avalanche of data, but it cannot convert
that into
The Problem with Frontier and Google
Logics

6. Introduction/Background
• What is your reason for writing?
• Who is talking about the problem? How do they talk about the problem?
• What will your paper add to the discussion?
Methods
• How did you research the problem? Why did you do it that way?
Findings
• What did you discover?
• How are your findings similar (and different from) to others’ researching the
problem?
Discussion
• What are the implications of your findings? Why is your investigation’s
discoveries significant?
Conclusion
• How do you anticipate other researchers utilizing your study? What is useful
about the overall study?
Map of an ‘Research Paper’

7. Introduction/Background
• What is your reason for writing?
• Who is talking about the problem? How do they talk about the problem?
• What will your paper add to the discussion? (THESIS)
Body
• How did you know your thesis is true? What specific reasons and evidence
demonstrate the validity of your main claim?
Possible Evidence:
- Discuss how others’ researched the issue (e.g. Secondary education plays a major
role in social stratification. According to Jean Anyon’s seminal article, “Social Class
and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” children are socialized into the habits of certain
types of careers.)
- Discuss others’ research methodologies and findings (e.g. Anyon identifies four types
of schools based on wages—blue collar schools, middle class schools, professional
affluent schools, and executive elite schools. Her taxonomy correlates with the
distribution of federal funding across school districts. Testing pass rates at
‘professional affluent schools,’ for instance, far exceed those of the ‘blue collar
schools.’)
- Connect patterns among different sources (e.g. The negative effects of incarceration
rates are acknowledged in several disciplines ranging from neuroscience,
anthropology, and political science).
- Discuss how researching the problem a certain way led to some conclusion(s)? (e.g.
When I compared Anyon’s claims to Jonathan Kozol’s arguments about the
resegregation of secondary schools, it became apparent that race and class intensifies
inequality.
Map of an Academic Paper

8. 1. Identify how a problem has been discussed
(e.g. key terms/concepts, references).
2. Determine what is limited about the
discussion
o Connect missing or overlooked links.
o Identify the limitations of an accepted framework or
methodology
o Deliberate about the impact or accuracy of some
phenomena
o Dispute the accuracy, relevance, or importance of findings
Step 1: What’s the Conversation?

9. To demonstrate your credibility, you need
to communicate about how the topic has
been discussed to show that you can add
something valuable to the conversation.
Visit Google Scholar and Google Books
before you do a general Google web
search. After you do a general search,
visit Google News and Google Trends, as
well.
Introduction and Background

10. Consider the difference between an
information
question and a research question:
Do Americans perform better than Norwegians
on standardized tests?
Vs.
To what extent do standardized tests adequately
measure human intelligence?
Step #2: Asking Good Inquiry
Questions

11. ● BEFORE you do your research, recall your
purpose.
● Take an hour or so and write down everything
you already know about your topic
● Set the writing aside for at least a day. Come
back to it, re-read it and ask:
o How did I come to these conclusions about my
object of study?
o Who has already studied these matters? How did
I come into contact with them?
o What do I need to know more about?
Step #3: Planning Research

12. Who's doing the research?
● Some disciplines don't do 1st person,
but others may. Check with advisors
and instructors.
● Planning your research will help
distinguish between your thoughts and
your sources
● What's the difference between personal
experience and personal opinion?
o Experience is knowledge, belongs in the realm of facts
o How you interpret the relationships between your personal
experience and other phenomena belongs to the realm of
The "I" Problem. Seeing like Who?

13. You may have a personal experience, and
you feel you've gained knowledge from
it. However, when communicating that
experience to others you have to teach
us about that experience by showing us
how you came to your conclusions
about something. Pay very close
attention to the kinds of experiences
researching teaches you.
The "I" Problem Continued

14. • Save time
• Reduce or eliminate anxiety over being
"original" or plagiarizing
• Begin assessing how much you need to
prove
• Reflect on what kind of argument(s)
you are making
• Articulate your thought process more
clearly
• Integrate personal opinions that directly
Additional Benefits of Planning
Research

15. Write down what you are researching and why it is important in no
more than
THREE sentences. Feel free to focus on the problem, its
significance, or its
methods. (5 Minutes)
How should someone search for your research? Which keywords
identify your
project? Write down as many as you can, in as many combinations
as you can.
(5 Minutes)
Share your writing with the person next to you, and briefly discuss
each other’s
projects. As you talk about your projects, expand the set of
keywords that ‘tag’ your
research interest. (10-15 Minutes)
Step #4: How do you Query?

16. • Boolean Logic: Broad/Narrow
– "search a phrase": Search a phrase
– AND: Both terms must appear in the result
– OR: Expands searches
Google Logic: Domain Specificity
site:.edu=education
site:.gov=government
site:.mil=military
site:.org=organization
Additional Resource: Stay up on Google
Politics!
Quering Tips: The Algorithm

17. • Locate sources (can access with Woodruff
remote access log-in)
• Link to sources being cited (useful for
background and evidence)
• Observe titles of articles and note how your
topic is discussed:
– Which terms recur
– Which authors recur
– What story do these titles tell about both your
research topic and research questions
– What are the conflicts/events? scenes?
characters? resolutions?
Using Google Scholar

18. The Corpora (BYU/Google Books)
Search for trends in key words featured in
books for the past 100 years or so.
Google News
Customizable Another great way to find
trends in current events. Search in
realtime. Customize by key words. Modify
dates.
Query for Trends

19. AUC E-Resources
• Academic Search Complete
• PubMed
• PsycINFO
• JSTOR
• ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Navigating Databases

20. • Citing Social Media:
http://www.teachthought.com/technology
/how-to-cite-social-media-scholarly-
writing/
How to Cite Social Media

21. Think of your opening as an appetizer.
– Have you articulated the purpose/significance in a
way that will make your audience hungry for more
information? (tip: Don't start with definitions)
Be direct in your approach, clearly map out your
research plan.
– Your research problem/question and methods
should be clear within the first page if not your first
paragraph.
Your introduction invites your audience into your
world of experience.
Introduction

22. 1. What's the problem?
2. What's the scope and scale of that
problem?
3. Who has tried to (re)solve it?
4. What additional approaches are
needed to (re)solve it?
5. What are you proposing to do about it?
6. What are the projected benefits of
doing it that way? To whom?
Tip: Use these questions to develop a concise abstract!
Organizing the Introduction:
A Heuristic

23. Enables you to establish credibility and
trustworthiness to your audience
Proves that you are sensitive to how
researchers talk about a subject, which makes
people want to listen to you!
Demonstrate how you came to the conclusion
that you research problem/question is worth
investigating
Literature Review

24. • What's a brief definition of the subject and its
importance?
• Who seems to get cited most often? Which
critiques are prevalent?
• What trends exist (e.g. sub-topics)
– Do I notice any key terms/concepts/methods
recurring?
– Do I notice that one work seems to be cited over
another?
– Do I notice certain conflicts? Do I notice that
these conflicts take on different types of
conversation?
Strategies for Lit Review

25. • When articles stand out to you, select them.
• Begin an annotated bibliography.
– Here’s what this work is about: type of source,
main argument, evidence presented, etc.
(summary)
– Here’s why I think this work is important,
significant, useful, need to be critiqued, etc.
(interpretation)
– Here’s where and how I plan to use this work in
my actual paper (utility)
• [Note that any of these sentences may serve
Strategies for Reviewing Literature

26. Transitions: Paper is literally a path…a path through the
evolution of your thought. Like any trip, we need
markers to let us know where we have been and
where we are going. Stop signs, street lights, even
advertising markers for attractions.
Approximating reality happens in two interdependent
ways:
- Causal
- Evaluative
Grammar Tip: The Transition

27. Writing is ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!
Chronological or Causality: These demonstrate connections based on
time and consequence.
- First, Next, Third, Finally (All paragraphs point toward a central thing from which they emerge)
- Consequently, By consequence, As a result (something is interdependent on what came before
or what comes after)
Exemplification: These indicate that your paragraph is demonstrating or
proving something is true.
● Attribution: Citing an authority, Introducing evidence
o As X states, Y points out, X opines, Y notes, X argues
● Illustration: For example, For instance
● Comparison/Contrast: In contrast, However, Nevertheless, Similarly, Likewise, Since
● Reinforce: Moreover, Furthermore, Additionally, In addition
● Summarize: In sum, In conclusion, As a result
Grammar Tip: Transitions (Con't)

28. Once you've justified why you are doing
what you are doing, you can write a
methods section. This section lays out
precisely how you are investigating your
subject, why you've designed it that way,
and what you think you may find.
• Qualitative Approach
• Quantitative Approach
Both are valid, depends on your field and topic!
Methods

29. Another difficult section. Use plenty of
qualifiers to present the findings. Don't
want to draw massive conclusions from
small tests. Don't overreach, but don't
underestimate what could be interpreted
as interesting results. Don't fear being
"wrong." If your hypothesis doesn't
check out, good..it offers yet another
way of figuring out how to resolve the
problem!
Findings

30. Truth should be offered as a
contextualized measurement. The
following words assist you in this
expression:
Examples: Sometimes, May, Often,
Typically.
Can you think of more? I'll compile your
responses into a list.
Grammar Tip: The Qualifier

31. Being assertive and correct feels great,
but we can't always be sure we are
right! Being honest about what your
study can't prove helps you increase
your credibility to other researchers in
the field. Gravitas goes a long way in
building trust with others. When you do
the lit review, note how and where in the
article researchers admit to their
limitations. Play with different ways of
Limitations

32. Similar to the introduction, I should feel as if
reading your research was totally worth it.
Make me hungry again!
Instead of simply repeating the introduction,
offer us some implications:
How can others benefit from your project?
In what ways do you see others utilizing
your findings or methods?
Conclusion/Implications

33. Categorical Argument
X is a Y
Definition/Evaluation Argument
X is a (effective) Y
Resemblance
X is like Y
Causality
X leads to Y
Proposal
X should do Y
Claim Structures

34. ● Learn the language of your discipline. Even if it
seems difficult, you can't change it until you
understand it.
● Put on your anthro hat: How do researchers attempt
to perform their identity as members of X field?
Where do you find these performances in their
research?
● Don't hesitate to question the terminology if you have
ample evidence that concepts or terms are
inadequate
● Don't use big words to appear smart if you don't
know what they mean. Complex ideas rendered
simply make big impact
Word Choice

35. Who's doing what? (helps with the active
voice)
Try to always include a subject and a
verb. Even scientific writing needs to be
animated!
Sentence Structure

36. Example:
Many people were upset about The Bell
Curve, calling it offensive to populations
such as African-Americans.
---or---
Many researchers argued The Bell Curve reified
segregationist attitudes towards African-Americans
because Herrnstein and Murray claimed a direct link
between race and intelligence.
Active and Passive: ANIMATING

37. Example:
This project is important because it will
benefit healthcare initiatives.
---OR---
This project establishes a connection between genetics
and risk-taking behavior. If this link is taken into
account by healthcare professionals, rehabilitation
efforts may become more effective.
Active and Passive: ANIMATING

38. Revision is actually re-writing the draft!
This involves modifying claims, moving
around paragraphs, adding transitions,
or eliminating chunks of writing
altogether. Revision may require you to
revise your REASONING, as well as
your writing! Several revisions may be
required.
Note: Editing happens after revisions are made.
Editing without Revising is Wack and
Revision Vs. Editing

39. Editing involves modifications on the
sentence-structure level such as adding
commas, changing words, inverting
subjects/verbs, eliminating the use of "to
be," etc.
To recap: Editing involves correcting
grammatical errors. However, editing is
NOT simply minor changes. For
instance, modifying the passive voice to
Revision Vs. Editing

40. Alexandria L. Lockett, Ph.D.
AlexandriaLockett@gmail.com
http://www.alexandrialockett.com
http://www.slideshare.net/anova8
Resources