Mid-Term Test 2011 (Edited)

On Writing Research Report: The Understanding Behind it

            When analysing the importance of writing in the educational field, there are a number of genres which are worth focusing on.  When research activity is undertaken in the field of education, the writing of Research Reports (RR) gains particular relevance.  Not only does writing an RR reveal academic knowledge but also understanding of the acceptable and unacceptable procedures and parameters in the academic world.  It is considered that writing RR in the educational field implies understanding the dos and don’ts of the academia.

            Following Sampieri, Collado and Lucio (1998), academic research would be adequately achieved as far as there is appropriate knowledge of the object being investigated, new knowledge to be built, a necessary theoretical framework, an a method to develop the investigation.  Once all these elements are integrated, it would be necessary for the researcher to be able to establish clear objective for the research, to revise literature on the topic, collect data, analyse it and draw final conclusions.  Although this enumeration of steps in the process of doing research would seem to be complete, it is not.

            Of no use would be a full research in the educational field, if it is not written to be published. When it comes to educational research, one of the prototypical genres to write about processes and results is RR; Oliver (1996) argues that RR reveals ¨ interests, knowledge and value judgments of the writer. Besides, Swales (1990) states that a genre as a formulaic text has a scope beyond structure, style and audience’s expectations. He further explains that each genre has a communicative purpose and that ¨communicative purpose has been nominated as the privileged property of a genre¨. (p. 52). 

            The communicative purpose of RR in the educational field could be considered to be the description of the stages in the development of the research and the analysis of its results. Even though these evident purposes could not be denied, going beyond the evident would be of outmost importance. Especially noteworthy is the information underlying a RR, for example, knowledge, values, ideology and interests of the writer, but above all, the understanding that the writer reveals of the dos and don’ts of the academia.

           

  

References

Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández Collado, C., & Baptista Lucio, P. (1998). Metodología de la investigación. (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill: México.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings: The concept of genre. London,UK: Cambridge Applied Linguistics.