Introduction to Research

Info about the course

Lectures 15 hours
Practical classes 15 hours
Independent work 60 hours
Exam (written form)
Research Term paper (20 pages)

Lectures

Research in linguistics
General structure of a research paper
Literature review
Research questions
Methodology in linguistic research
Writing the research paper. Stylistic
requirements
Ethics in linguistic research/ Documenting
sources
Formating the paper

Practical Classes
Learning to read critically. Note taking. Active
reading.
Academic writing style. Writing tips.
Avoiding plagiarism: quoting, summarising,
paraphrasing.
Signposting sentences.
Writing a literature review.
Analysing the data.
Writing the introduction.
Writing the conclusion.

References
1. Eco, U. How to write a thesis.
Cambridge, Massachussets, London,
England: The MIT Press, 2015.

RESEARCH: an Overview
1. Defining research
2. Characteristic features
3. Types of research papers
4. Research stages

Defining research
Research is an organized and systematic
way of finding answers to questions.

ORGANIZED
SYSTEMATIC
FINDING ANSWERS
QUESTIONS

Characteristic features

it has a fixed structure ((abstract) (key

words), introduction, 2-3 chapters,
conclusion, bibliography);
literature is used to support your ideas;
there are certain requirements of style
and form to be followed (margins, font,
font size, line spacing etc.)
coherence
cohesion

Types of research papers

Report
article
term paper
Licena paper
Masters thesis
PhD thesis

A thesis teaches one to

coordonate ideas, and the topic
is secondary.

The successful composition of a

term paper demonstates:
That you have acquired a certain amount of
expertise in a particular subfield of linguistics, so
that you know your way around basic concepts,
research interests and debates in the field;
That you can collect relevant academic literature
on a particular topic in this field;
That you can identify (for your particular topic
area) a problem or question worth researching;

The successful composition of a

term paper demonstates:
That you can read and understand
previous research on this question
conducted by professional linguists;
That you can write a coherent piece of text
in which you discuss a manageable
selection of this research from a particular
perspective (i.e. with a certain goal in mind
that you pursue systematically and
consistently thoughout the paper);

The successful composition of a

term paper demonstates:
That your writing follows certain formal
standards of academic discourse (lucid
and register-adequate English,
professional text formatting, conventional
ways of citation and referencing, sensible
structuring of the paper, and a readerfriendly way of making your goals,
analyses and results transparent).

Research stages
1. Choosing a topic;
2. Identifying academic sources;
3. Reading
- making card files;
formulating research questions;
writing a review of literature;
4. Doing research
collecting data for analysis;
processing the data;
analysing the data.
5. Writing the paper

Remember!
Becoming an experienced researcher and writer
in any field or discipline takes a great deal of
practice. There are few individuals for whom this
process comes naturally. Remember, even the
most seasoned academic veterans have had to
learn how to write a research paper at some
point in their career. Therefore, with diligence,
organization, practice, willingness to learn (and
to make mistakes!), and, perhaps most
important of all, patience, a student will find that
she can achieve great things through her
research and writing.