TOPIC: KINDS OF INFORMATION IN THE INTRODUCTION SECTIONS OF JOURNAL ARTICLES IN TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION

ABSTRACT The main objective of this research is to write a project paper related to my field of study. It is primarily try investigate whether the format of writing introduction section in the research articles follow the format suggested by Weissberg & Buker (2006). The samples used in this project paper were related to food microbiology. Three articles were collected for this project paper as recommended and approved by the lecturer. The result of this research showed that none of the three articles have all the five elements required in the introduction section. However RA1 and RA2 are the good example because they have four out of five elements required. The only missing elements in RA1 and RA2 is value or justification element and I assumed that was happened because the researchers may put their value or justification in other parts or sections of the research paper instead of putting it in the introduction section. This study was actually limited to three samples only and has to conduct in very short time. However, this project paper really helps me to gain knowledge for future research writing. Besides, a further research in the future should use more samples with enough time given in order to get more good and accurate result.

INTRODUCTION The main objective of this project paper is to learn the skills that are required for reading academic texts at university level, skills for writing research paper and oral presentation skills. In this research paper work, I used three journal articles related to my field of study. The title of the three articles are Assessment of microbial

contaminants present on vacuum loaders in shell egg processing facilities, Predicting the growth/no-growth boundary and ochratoxin by aspergillus in pistachio nuts and Modelling the survival of starter lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacterium bifidum in single and

simultaneous cultures. In order to write a good research articles, we should learn and know what elements are required in a journal articles. According to Weissberg & Buker (2006), there are five information elements in the introduction section. First element is a general statement about a field of research to provide the reader with a setting for the problem to be reported. Second element is more specific statements about the aspects of the problem already studied by other researchers. The next element is about the statement that indicates the need for more investigation. The forth elements state the very specific statement

giving the purpose of the writers study and the last element tells about

the optional statement that give a value or justification fro carrying out the study. According to Jon Shaw (1995), the introduction comes at the start of a piece of writing. It introduces the research by giving background, presenting the research problem and saying how and why this problem will be solved. Without this important information, the reader cannot easily understand the detailed information about the research that comes later in the thesis. Finally David A. McMurrey (1998) said that the introduction to the primary research report needs to do and get the readers ready to read the report. It may provide some background, but not more than a paragraph or two in one to two pages introduction. Some of the common elements of the introduction to primary research report, such as the background or the purpose, can be handled in the introduction. If they require a lot of discussion, however, they may need their own sections. Journal articles usually written in different way by different researchers, especially in the introduction section. Therefore, I think that there is a need for more research on the introduction section, because not many articles had been written about how to write a good introduction for research journal. Meanwhile, the aim of this study is to identify clearly the structure of sentences in grammatically structure, to comprehend research report and textbook extracts, to make out the linguistic features elements of academic text, to know and apply the uses of introduction part in a research report and to improve skills for writing research report.

In the meantime, there are benefits that we can get by doing this project paper. To me this project paper will help me to improve my reading academic texts skill and to develop my language and writing skills. This project paper also will help me in my future thesis writing. This research project also can increase my knowledge on my major study. Moreover, this project paper will help me to write the introduction section of a research report in my field better.

METHOD Three journal articles were collected as samples for this project paper. Through the project paper, research had been done on what type information elements presence in the introduction section of the articles chosen. The main objective of this project paper is to determine the kinds of information should be put in the introduction section of research articles chosen. This project paper also conducted to find the quality of the journal articles. The title of the first articles is Assessment of microbial contaminants present on vacuum loaders in shell egg processing facilities written by D.R. Jones and M.T. Musgrove from USDA Agricultural Research Service Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit 950 College Station Road Athens, GA 30605. The title of the second articles is Predicting the growth/no-growth boundary and ochratoxin by aspergillus in pistachio nuts written by Sonia Marin, Irzada Hodzic, Antonio J. Ramos and V.Sanchis from Food Technology Department, lleida University, xaRTA-UTPV, Rovira Roure 191, 25198

Lleida Spain. The third articles is entitled Modelling the survival of starter lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacterium bifidum in single and simultaneous cultures written by Clelia Altieri, Antonio Bevilacqua, Daniela DAmato, Matteo Alessandro del Nobile and Milena sinigaglia from Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agricultural science, Foggia University, Via Napoli 25, 71100 Foggia, Italy. There are some basic procedures to follow in order to carry out this project paper. It was important to find the appropriate research articles. The three research articles selected were published in the year 2007 and above. The research articles also must be related to my field of study. Only three research articles allowed and must be checked and approved by the lecturer. This project paper only focused on the introduction section of the articles. There are five elements need to identify from the introduction sections. The five elements are setting, aspect already studied, need for more research, purpose and value or justification. The keyword showing the five elements in the articles were marked and underlined. Afterwards, two tables were created to show the result of the research. Table 1 must show the kinds of information that can be found in each of the three research reports. Symbol of positive (+) and (-) were used to represent the result in the table form 1. The positive (+) symbol show that the component was found whereas the negative (-) symbol show that the component was missing. Meanwhile, Table 2 shows the examples of information

elements in the three introduction section from the chosen research articles.

RESULT The five information elements of the introduction sections were stated in the table 1 below to determine the quality of the articles. The table was completed based on the existence of the information elements in the introduction sections of each of the chosen articles. Table 1: Distribution of information elements in the three introduction section related to Food Microbiology
Information Element/Stage Research Article 1 (RA1) Setting Aspects/s Already Studied Need/s for More Research Purpose + + + + Research Article 2 (RA2) + + + + Research Article 3 (RA3) + + + -

Value/justification Total Number of information Elements

Note: The symbols/signs + and - indicate the presence and absence of an information element respectively.

Table 1 shows the distribution of information elements found in the introductions sections of the three research articles related to food microbiology. The data shows that both RA1 and RA2 have the most number of elements. Meanwhile RA3 has the least number of information elements. The result shows that RA1 and RA2 have all other four elements except element value or justification. Meanwhile, the elements of purpose and value/justification were missing in RA3. RA1 and RA2 can be considered as a research article of high quality because both of the articles have the most elements of information in the introduction section. The only missing element in RA1 and RA2 are value/justification. Meanwhile, RA2 cannot be considered as a quality research article because there are only three elements of information in the introduction section. The missing elements are purpose and value/justification. Based on the result, I found that researchers in the field of food Microbiology do not follow the format suggested by Weissberg & Buker (2006). The authors of the articles may have their own reason not to

follow the format. For example, the researchers may focus directly to what to examine rather than to justify or state their study purpose.

Table 2 below is used to show examples from each stage of the introduction section in the articles. Table 2: Examples of elements in the Three Introductions Sections Related to Food Microbiology

Information Element/Stage Setting

Example Salmonella enteritidis (SE) continue to be a concern for state and federal regulators, eggs producers and

processors. (RA1:346) Aspects/s Already Studied Previous study (Wang et al., 2003) demonstrated that bifidobacteria could exert a detrimental effect on the growth of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus in soy milk.(RA3:729) Need/s for More Research There are no reports describing the effects of moisture content and

temperature specifically on the growth

and OTA production of black aspergilli in pistachios (RA2:684) Purpose The aim of this study was to develop suitable validated models to predict the growth and OTA production boundaries by an A. carbonarius isolate as a function of moisture content and storage temperature of pistachios. (RA2:684) Value/justification Not found in any of the research articles

For setting element, the best words to describe it, is the word continue to be a concern for state and federal regulators, eggs producers and processors . This sentences show the setting of the research article for RA1. The author used the sentences to describe the setting element in the particular research article. To describe aspects already studied, the words Previous study is the words used to show that the aspect already studied by previous researchers. The words were found in the RA3. Needs for more research element was best

described by the words There are no reports describing . It was very clear that the author of the article indicate that no research had been done yet for that particular subject. The sentence of The aim of this study was clearly showed the purpose of the research article. This sentence found in the RA2. The sentence indicates objective of the particular research article. The last element is value or justification. I found that none of the articles show

the element of value or justification. This may happened because the researcher put their value or justification element in other parts of the research paper.

DISCUSSION The purpose of the of this project paper is to find out whether the authors in education research follow the format in writing research article as suggested by Weissberg & Buker (1990). The theory is, a high quality research paper must have all five elements in their introduction section. However, the result of my research found that the researcher in the field of food microbiology did not follow the format. The absence of any of the five elements in the introduction section showed that researcher was not followed the format. Value or justification was the element that absence in all of the three articles. This was happened because the researchers may put their value or justification in other parts or sections of the research paper instead of putting it in the introduction section. In fact, I must admit the result of this research was not up to the standard required in this field of research because there were many limitations on this project paper. There were only three research article

used and the time given to finish this project paper was too short. Furthermore, many of the students, including me found it difficult to understand the research articles because we were limited in English language proficiency. The words used in the articles are very technical and complicated. Nevertheless, I feel that this project paper really gave me a lot more knowledge and tips for future thesis writing. It also helped me to understand the different style of writing research paper especially the introduction section in particular. As a recommendation, I think that it is better if a future research use larger samples rather than only three samples in order to get accurate result.