2. Discussion questions
1. What is an academic paper?
2. What is the general structure of
a research paper?
3. What should we do to preview a
research paper?
4. What should be focused while
reading a research paper?
5. Frequently asked questions
1. What research questions or hypotheses are being
addressed in the article? Are the questions relevant?
(Stating the research questions or hypotheses as yes or no
questions will help you identify the focus of a paper as well
as evaluate the evidence and conclusions. In our
experience, a question such as Does herbal tea cause tooth
decay can be more useful in guiding your thinking than can
a simple statement establishing the topic, as with This paper
is about herbal tea and tooth decay.)
6. Frequently asked questions
2. What kind of evidence was collected to explore the
research questions?
3. Are there any evidences that should be collected but did
not?
4. Are the evidences clearly explained?
5. What conclusion does the author draw from the
research?
6. Does the research make an original contribution to the
field?
7. IMRaD Structure
1. Introduction
What question was studied?
2. Methods
How was the question studied?
3. Results
What was found?
4. Discussion
What do the results mean?
8. Introduction
What question was studied?
- Research questions
- Purpose of the research
E.g. What is the effect of online-based
reading on reading comprehension
comparing to paper-based reading?
9. Methods
How was the question studied?
- Participants (dependent
&independent variable)
- Data collection
- Data analysis
E.g. 5 students from the Department of
Foreign Langauges was selected
randomly to join the experiment. The
result will be used to find the relation
between paper-based test and online-
based test.
11. Discussion
What does the result mean?
- Explain why the result appear like that
- Link to other research paper which
have similar or different result in order
to explain the reasons.
13. Exercises
Read the following research paper
and answer the questions below:
1. What is the title of the paper?
2. What are the purpose(s) or research
question(s)?
3. Who are the participants?
4. What tools are used to collect and
analyze data?
5. What are the results?
6. Are there any suggestions?