Practical Tips for Crafting an Effective Research Paper

So, you want to craft an effective research paper but you have no idea about how to start? Or your academic writing keep getting rejected and you are seeking ways to make it better? I got you. But you might want to grab a seat because this is a fairly long post.

What is an Academic/Research Writing?

An academic/scientific/research writing is a professional write up that focuses on changing the ideas of the reader. It tells the readers the question they have that the paper will answer; not what the paper will be about, or what the paper will argue about.

What Kind of Research writing is suitable to embark upon?

As a researcher, when considering an academic/research writing to embark upon, it has to be one that contributes VALUE; new research, important knowledge, original work won’t do it. Starting new research is like standing up among the elders and saying “hey, I want to start a new conversation,” when you could simply participate with them and move the existing conversation forward. There is a high chance that they won’t even listen to you.
After what you like to write about has been established and is valuable, next thing is that you consider the STRUCTURE of your sentence including your paper in its entirety. The structure of an article encompasses attributes like persuasiveness, organization, and clarity. Structure your write up so greatly that you won’t have to do much explanation. According to Larry Mc Enerney of the University of Chicago, it is an enormous mistake that Ph.D. writers try to explain first. Explaining happens inside the valuable and persuasive function. For instance, if you submit a paper and it gets rejected because the reader does not understand what you wrote. Do not try to simplify or explain it; instead, restructure your writing to communicate value and persuasion.

Research writing is different from essay writing for the following reasons:
1. you put your readers first in research writing
2. you are writing about something you have expert knowledge of.
3. you use writing to do your thinking (i.e. you think as you write and you eventually make discoveries as you write)

Reading scientific articles involves burning serious energy. This energy is expended by the reader to interpret the text. In the words of Larry McEnerney, concision is not the number of words on the page, it is how long it takes the reader to process what’s on the page. The readers consider structure before substance, i.e., they try to understand if the statement is a complete sentence before trying to understand what the sentence means. Moreover, structure helps both the writer and reader to see things.

It is noteworthy that your professors read your paper because they are paid to find out about you. Do you wonder why you do not really understand your professor/advisor when they correct your academic writing? Judy Swan of Princeton University explained that it is because advisors do not have the language for talking about their expertise, hence it is hard for them to pass their expertise to their advisees. Furthermore, Judy Swan explained that academic writing is not about the quality of the research you produce but more about the ability to get it out fast enough to the right places and the right readers.

Researchers

Researchers like you and I are smart people but have you ever wondered why smart people have a problem writing effectively? It is because we have not written anything close to real writing. Everything smart persons like you and I have been doing in over 16 years that we have spent in school is writing to express ourselves and following text-based rules e.g. be concise, keep your sentences short, do not start a sentence with “because” & “and”, don’t use jargon, do not use a passive verb, have a thesis sentence, etc. Judy Swan advised that whenever you are given text-based advice, always ask for which reader and what function should you apply those rules? Another major problem of writers is that your readers (e.g., editors) still don’t trust you even though you have spent over 16 years with readers (e.g. your advisors, teachers, etc.) that trust you. We will discuss the solution to this problem in the paragraphs that follow.

Starting your academic writing

The success of every academic writing is to end up being published in a top tier journal. After all, your function as a writer is to move a conversation forward and not for your writing to be preserved indefinitely. Below is a list of things you must consider before writing:

1. Know and understand your readers

You can achieve this objective by answering the following questions even before start your writing at all:
- Who will read this document?
- What will they need from it?
- How will they behave?

2. Identify the people of power in your community (e.g. editors, advisors, etc.) and give them what they want so that your paper can get accepted (for publication)

Learn about your readers else you are very unlikely to create values and be persuasive. Persuasion depends on what your readers doubt. If you don’t know your readers, how are you going to overcome what they doubt?
Moreover, every community has its own code. The word “code” in this context means words that communicate value in that community (e.g. your department, academic journal, advisor, etc.). You must know the code of the community you are working in to become a successful writer. These codes are particular to communities.

3. Write from the reader’s perspective

In your paper, talk about how your readers think. The job of your writing is to participate by changing other people’s thoughts.

Rules of Writing Scientific Articles

1. There are no rules
2. The Rule of Western Academia
   The rule of Western Academia states that: Nothing would be accepted as knowledge and understanding until it has been challenged by someone competent (e.g. a professor). In other words, your professor (or editors) have the professional function of challenging what you say in your academic writing.
3. Avoid spelling mistakes
4. Pay maximum attention to the structure of your text
   Have you ever submitted a paper and received positive feedback from editor A and negative feedback from editor B? Among other issues, The real problem lies in the structure of your writing, not your data. Look at these two sentences for example:
   a) The dog chased the cat
   b) The cat is being chased by the dog
   Which of the two statements is correct?
   Confused? Don’t be. The truth is, none of the statements is incorrect however the correct statement depends on what the reader cares about. If the reader is a dog person, then sentence 1 is correct. however, if the reader is a cat person then sentence 2 is correct.
   The key is to always put what the reader cares about as the subject.
5. Emphasis
   Learn to emphasize the words or clauses you want the reader to pay maximum attention to. You can emphasize important words, phrase, or clause that you want your readers to pay attention to by:
   a) Positioning them as the main (or independent) clause
   b) Placing them at the end of a sentence
   c) Making the sentence lengthy (Length of a sentence intensifies the sentence)
   d) Making repetition (state it in the title, abstract, introduction, result, conclusion, etc)
   e) Use semantics (e.g. The most important…)
6. Make claims based on your data
7. No neutral sentence (you must choose a side else you will sound like a rookie)
8. Determine what your facts are and then speak for them

Sections of your Research Writing with Examples

1. Introduction

The Introduction part gives the reader a quick vision of why they should think they are wrong. A background statement, on the other hand, means building a problem (not writing stories about your research title). The problem needs to be identified as something your readers care about. When looking for problems, your readers are looking for words of instability e.g. “anomaly”, “inconsistent”, “but”, “although”, “however”, etc.
You need to show your readers that the instability imposes a serious cost on them or if the problem is solved, it will be a great benefit to them. For example:

Adopting and implementing new technology in construction can be associated with significant capital expenditures and reoccurring costs (Goodrum et al. 2011), which is a primary reason behind slow technology integration and adoption in construction (Goodrum et al. 2011). According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there is a critical need for a readiness index for assessing high-cost, high-risk, and high-impact construction innovation (NRC 2009). A readiness index would help decision-makers arrive at a congruent decision whether to fund or not fund, the adoption and implementation of new technology, thereby saving significant cost and time associated with technology integration. The aim of the present study was to develop a tool that could be used to assess the potential adoption of safety technology in the construction industry.
Utilizing data from previous efforts of the researchers (Nnaji et al. 2018; 2019; Osei-Kyei and Chan 2017) and adapting frameworks proposed by other researchers allowed for the development of a technology adoption decision-support tool for safety management in construction. The proposed tool is referred to as Construction Safety Technology Adoption Index (C-STAI). It should be mentioned that safety technology is defined in the present study as any technology (e.g., information technology, digitalization, and sensing devices) used to monitor and improve safety management and/or performance in construction throughout the project lifecycle. The findings of this study are expected to facilitate and improve safety technology adoption in construction and, as a result, providing a significant practical contribution to industry stakeholders.
Credit: Dr. Chukwuma Nnaji.

From the example above after some introductions which were not captured in this post, the author started a new paragraph with the question you have that the paper will answer. Furthermore, the author used the work of other researchers to build the problem statement before moving to the aim of the study. It is also noteworthy that the author made the problem statement lengthy to emphasize it thereby arresting the readers’ maximum attention.

2. Literature Review

Use literature review to enrich your problem. You should use a literature review to enhance the readers’ sense of instability, and if you are really good, you should hype the cost (i.e., the negative impact the problem is having on the readers). For example:

Safety technologies in construction are primarily used to improve worker safety during the operation phase of a project. However, these technologies could be used in different phases of a project throughout its lifecycle to maximize safety performance. Szymberski (1997) suggested that the ability to mitigate workplace construction hazards is substantially greater during the early stages of the project lifecycle (e.g., design and planning). Relatedly, Karakhan et al. (2019) summarized the different technological controls used for safety in construction and found that technologies used during the planning and design stage, such as virtual reality and building information modeling (BIM), are more effective in mitigating workplace hazards than other alternatives used after construction begins.
Credit: Dr. Chukwuma Nnaji.

From the example, the author stated the common belief about the phase of a project when safety technologies are utilized in the topic sentence. The author proceeded to create instability by using the word “However,” after which the author enhances the sense of the readers’ instability through the work of other authors. In that paragraph, the author left the readers no choice but to change their thoughts. In other words, the author convinced the readers that safety tech can actually be used in different phases (or throughout the life cycle) of a project.

3. Results

The result is another very important aspect of the research where you report the outcome of your research. Even though it is your result, it is not enough to just report it, you need to back it up. The same way you strengthen your problem statement with the work of other authors, that is the same way you will strengthen your result with the result of at least two authors in the domain of your research. If their results happen to be different from yours, then explain why it is different. For example, you could write that the result is different because of the different quality of materials, efficacy of equipment used to conduct the experiment, different geographic areas/weather conditions, etc.

I will stop here, I hope you have gained more insights about how to make your research writing better. Now go and effect it in your writing.

This post was inspired by what I learned from Larry McEnerney and Judy Swan.