Research aims at communicating newknowledge or proving/disproving existingideas. A good research paper must be wellorganized in a logical and systematic way.Many guides have been published regardinghow to write a paper or the different sectionsof a paper (Ballenger, 2009; Berry, 1986;Day, 1998; Hall, 2008; Kozak & Hartley,

2011; Slafer, 2009; Soler, 2011; Turabian,2007; Walker, 1993; Winkler & McCuen,2012). A recent study by Hartley (2012) in-dicates current techniques in how to write anacademic paper; it also compares the writingconventions of Spanish and English. Thewriting of research papers has also been theobject of study in many fields such aspsychology (Fernndez-Ros & Buela-Ca-sal, 2009; Len, 2005) and in the area of ap-plied linguistics (Brown, 1988; Larsen-Fre-eman & Long, 1991), even institutions rela-ted to European Communities have publis-hed studies providing guidelines for this

Writing a research paper for the HumanitiesRosa Alonso Alonso

Universidad de Vigo

This paper provides useful guidelines for young researchers to write a research paper for thefield of linguistics and language studies. It describes how information should be organized in thedifferent sections, what aspects each of the sections should contain and how they should be de-veloped. The following points are addressed: title, abstract, introduction, review of the literatu-re, statement of purpose and method. Finally, a description of the conclusion section is offered,focusing on the importance of the discoveries and the future implications of the research. It al-so includes an overview of how references should be cited considering the two most relevant ci-tation styles, MLA and APA. Reference is also made to the process of revising the paper beforesubmitting it for publication and to the impact and eigenfactor in the selection of a journal.Keywords: Research, writing, guidelines, style, methodology.

Escribir un artculo de investigacin en Humanidades. Este artculo ofrece pautas de utilidad pa-ra los jvenes investigadores en el proceso de escribir un artculo de investigacin en el campode la lingstica y los estudios de lenguas. El artculo describe cmo debe organizase la infor-macin en las diferentes secciones de un artculo, qu aspectos debe incluir cada seccin y c-mo deben desarrollarse. Nos centramos en los siguientes puntos: ttulo, resumen, introduccin,revisin de la bibliografa, establecimiento de los objetivos y mtodo. Finalmente, se incluye ladescripcin de la conclusin, centrndose en la importancia de los descubrimientos y las impli-caciones para investigaciones futuras. Tambin incluye una revisin de cmo debe citarse un tra-bajo, considerando las dos guas de estilo ms relevantes: MLA y APA. Tambin se hace refe-rencia al proceso de revisin del artculo antes de su publicacin y al factor de impacto y ei-genfactor en la seleccin de una revista. Palabras clave: Investigacin, escribir, pautas, estilo, metodologa.

Aula Abierta 2012, Vol. 40, nm. 2, pp. 119-126ICE. Universidad de Oviedo

ISSN: 0210-2773

Fecha de recepcin: 29-04-2012 Fecha de aceptacin: 21-05-2012Correspondencia: Mara Rosa Alonso Alonso. Universidad de Vigo. Facultad de Filologa y Traduccin. Departamento de Filologa Inglesa, Francesa y Alemana. Praza das Cantigas, s/n. C.P. 36310, Vigo (Espaa). Correo-e: ralonso@uvigo.es

type of publications (Hengl & Gould, 2006).As these authors acknowledge, research ar-ticles follow a rigid structure, divided intothree levels, macro (sections), meso (para-graphs) and micro (sentences). These levelsfit into the structure Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion.

The aim of this paper is to provide basicguidelines for young researchers in the ela-boration of a research paper in the humani-ties, more specifically in the area of appliedlinguistics. For this purpose, it includes thedifferent sections of a paper, ie. the theoreti-cal background and empirical study, and theguidelines on how to revise the paper befo-re it is submitted for publication. Finally, itfocuses on the selection of a journal and theexplanation of what the impact and eigen-factor consist of.

Sections of a paper

Title, abstract and introductionSeveral authors (cf. Ackles, 1996) have

investigated the principles that guide thecreation of a title, in fact the title of a papershould provide the most relevant informa-tion about the piece of research in a fewwords. It must also attract the readers atten-tion, be short and simple and avoid redun-dant expressions. It is immediately followedby the abstract. Many authors have analyzedthe contents and style of the abstract and in-troduction of an article (Gopen & Swam,1990; Kirkman, 1992; Turk & Kirkman,1989). The abstract summarizes what wasdone in the study, what was found and whatthe main conclusions are. In order for thecontents to be well organized it must inclu-de a clear statement of the topic and purpo-se of the article, a brief description of theparticipants in the study, an explanation ofthe procedures followed and the data analy-sis used as well as a summary of the resultsand their implications for the field. No cita-tions, tables or figures should be introducedin the abstract. The introductory section in-troduces the topic of study; it is agreed thatthis section should relate this topic to cu-rrent knowledge and most importantly it

should indicate the gap there exists in thefield of study. The piece of research the au-thor writes is supposed to fill that gap in thecorresponding field of research, which cons-titutes the next step in the introduction: tointroduce the authors work. At the end ofthe introduction it is common to place theresearch questions and objectives, someti-mes these come in a separate section calledstatement of purpose. As mentioned abo-ve, this contains the purpose and objectivesof the study as well as, if necessary, specificresearch questions and hypotheses.

Review of the literatureThe next step comes under the headline

Review of the literature. The backgroundor rationale for the study is included here aswell as a demonstration of how previous re-search is related to the study, together withits limitations. Finally, the framework forthe study should be included.

The empirical studyWhen the theoretical sections of the pa-

per are finished, the empirical study is pre-sented. This section should answer a seriesof wh-questions: who participated in thestudy, when and where (subjects), what typeof materials were used (materials), what theparticipants were asked to do (procedures),how the analysis of the data was carried out(data analysis).

SubjectsAs regards the subjects, the following

contents should be present in the paper, thenumber of informants, who they were, theirage, sex, school they belong to, native lan-guage background, proficiency level, natio-nality, socioeconomic status and a short ex-planation of the criteria followed for the se-lection of the participants.

Materials and proceduresThe second step in the empirical study is

devoted to the materials used. The most fre-quently used materials in the field of appliedlinguistics tend to be questionnaires, proto-cols, interviews, tests, self-reports, diaries

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and classroom observation. Once the mate-rials have been described, the study shouldfocus on the procedures. This section stateshow the materials and equipment were used,what the subjects did or what was done tothem, how the materials were prepared, ad-ministered and scored, if there was any kindof piloting, what the environmental condi-tions were and how long the process took.

Data analysis and resultsWhen the author has explained the pre-

ceding sections, the data analysis is introdu-ced. This is devoted to the description ofhow the data were analysed in the study,what statistical procedures were used andwhich variables were considered. The dataanalysis is followed by the results section.Here, the grouped data and the results of thestatistical analyses carried out are included.Figures, tables and graphs are also placedhere, as well as a summary or description ofthe data. Information such as the subjectsaverage scores or ratings and how the scoresvaried among the different groups should al-so be included in this section.

DiscussionThe discussion section comes after the

data analysis. In the data analysis the resultsof the study are exposed in technical terms,nevertheless in the discussion the results areexplained in non-technical terms. Directanswers to the original questions or hypo-theses are included, in other words, the veri-fication of the hypotheses goes here. Theanswers to the questions or the hypothesesmust be explained, supported and defendedwith results. This explanation should consi-der the conflicting results, unexpected fin-dings and discrepancies with other research.It is relevant to include the implications ofthe study, a comparison with previous rese-arch, innovations and the contribution of thestudy to new developments.

Conclusion and referencesFinally, the conclusion contains the

summary of the main results, the questionsthat have been resolved and raised, the sug-

gestions for further research, a brief state-ment on the limitations of the project andany pedagogical implications the paper mayindicate.

The final section of a paper includes thereferences. Two main style guides are used:the Modern Language Association (MLA)and American Psychological Association(APA). In the MLA style guide, publicationsmust be cited in this order:

Books: author(s) or editor(s) complete title edition if indicated place of publication shortened name of the publisher date of publication medium of publicationNunan, David. Language Teaching Me-

thodology. London: Longman, 2000. Print

Articles in journals: author(s) title publication title volume number publication date inclusive page numbers medium of publicationBylund, Emmanuel. Ultimate attain-

ment of event segmentation and temporalstructuring patterns in speakers of L2 Swe-dish Vigo International Journal of AppliedLinguistics 8 (2011): 29-53. Print

The APA style guide includes references asfollows:Book:

author (s) initials year of publication title place of publication publisherNunan, D. (2000). Language Teaching

Methodology. London: Longman.

Articles in a journal: author(s)

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initials date of publication article title journal title volume number issue number (if applicable) page numbersBylund, E. (2011). Ultimate attainment

of event segmentation and temporal structu-ring patterns in speakers of L2 Swedish. Vi-go International Journal of Applied Linguis-tics, 8, 29-53.

Finally, a research paper can include theappendices of the materials used in thestudy. This can contain sample copies of thequestionnaire, test or interview carried outby the researcher. It can also provide the re-ader with the full statistical analyses and thelist of codes used in the piece of research.

Revising the paper

The revision process starts with the title,the author should check if it is clear and re-flects the content and the main findings ofthe paper. The key terms mentioned in thestudy must be clear as well as the objectives.It is important to check that all the materialsused are explained and that the results of thestudy are linked to relevant existing kno-wledge. The objectives should be clearlyconnected with the results and the findingshould be clearly seen in tables, figures andclearly stated in the text.

Secondly, it must be checked that theconclusions reflect the questions or hypothe-ses stated at the beginning of the study. Thetext must be revised in order to see whether itis coherent. The author must make sure thatthe abstract can be understood standalone. Fi-nally, the author should verify that all the ab-breviations are explained and all the tablesand figures are relevant. The references mustbe carefully checked so as not to skip a bookor paper and confirm that they are up to date.For a full account of the revision process,Hengl & Gould (2006) is a useful manual.

Before submitting the paper, three finalpoints should be considered: the stated ideas

must be backed up by solid arguments, theimplications of the study must be clearly de-veloped and the style of the paper has to bechecked.

As regards style, punctuation must bechecked, issues such as the use of full stops,commas, semicolons, dash or bracketsshould be revised. For example dashes tendto be used to add a surprising element in thetext or to make an extra comment whilebrackets are preferred to include informa-tion which is not really relevant. Grammati-cal aspects like verbal agreement must beconsidered. This implies the correction oftypical mistakes. For instance, the expres-sion a number of is followed by a verb inthe plural as in A number of studies have be-en conducted. Nevertheless, the expressionthe number of is followed by a verb in thesingular as in The number of studies is cha-racteristic of the field. Authors should alsotake into account whether the article will bepublished in a British or in an American En-glish publication because there are spellingdifferences between both varieties, as in ho-nour (UK style)-honor (US style)

Two common errors in academic writingare due to the lack of hedges in a text or tothe use of dangling modifiers, as exempli-fied in the following paragraphs.

Hedging: This is a technique used inacademic writing which consists ofresorting to vague language in orderto be cautious in the statements wemake about our paper. Hedging mi-nimizes the effect that a researchermay produce on other researcherswho read the article. For examples,if we compare these two sentences:The data reveal... The data seem toreveal.., the former is direct, no hed-ges are used to be careful with thereactions the readers may have. Thelatter is more cautious thanks to theuse of the hedge seem. Hedgingconstitutes a key element in acade-mic writing, it can be included in thetext by using the following ele-ments: modal verbs, verbs of cogni-tion such as seem or appear, modal

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adverbs, for instance probably or li-kely, modal adjectives such as cer-tain or probable, modal nouns of thetype assumption, possibility, sugges-tion, disjuncts such as actually or infact, or impersonal active construc-tions of the type this indicates, reve-als, suggests, etc.

Dangling modifiers: In English aparticiple, which is a modifier, ne-eds a subject to refer to and the sub-ject is the nearest element in thenext clause. When this does not hap-pen, the participle is said to be unre-lated (cf. Alonso, 2009). Ing and -edparticiples need to be related to asubject in adverbial and relativeclauses. The same happens with in-finitives when there is no clear sub-ject. For example, in the sentenceConsidering the outcome of the ex-periment, the data were useful thereader understands that it was thedata that considered the outcome ofthe experiment. The right sentencein English would be Consideringthe outcome of the experiment, wefound the data useful. Danglingmodifiers can be avoided in the arti-cle by three means: the subject ofthe action must be the subject of themain clause, secondly the participlecan be turned into a finite clause andfinally, by changing the order of theclause, the unrelated participle isavoided.

Moreover, some common language mis-takes in writing a paper are summarized be-low, a full account of the most typical errorscan be found in Alonso (2011):

Among or between? Between isused with two or more objects, pla-ces, people, etc. Among is used witha mass or a group of more than two.

Beside or besides? Beside meansalongside or at the side of, howeverbesides means in addition to.

During or for? For is used to talkabout a period of time. During refersto when something happened.

If or whether? Both of them introdu-ce a question in reported speech butwhether is used after prepositionsand before infinitives.

In spite of or despite? In spite of isfollowed by a noun, its meaning issimilar to although. Despite has thesame meaning but it does not take apreposition.

Last, latest or the last? The lastusually refers to the last in a series.We can also use the last to refer to aperiod that continues up to the pre-sent. Last is used to talk about some-thing immediately preceding thepresent, as in last day or last year.Latest means something new.

After the paper has been revised the au-thor must find the right journal where itcould be published. The first decision to bemade is whether the author wants to have itpublished online or in print and what type ofjournal it is going to be sent to, whether itwill be a relevant journal which follows aprocess of double-blind review or a less de-manding publication. In order to choose theappropriate journal, the author should be fa-miliar with the impact factor, ie., the measu-re which indicates the average number of ci-tations of the articles published in relevantjournals. It usually shows the significance ofthe journal in the corresponding area of re-search. The Journal Citation Reports calcu-late the impact factor of the journals inclu-ded in Thomson Reuters every year by ente-ring articles in their database. The averagenumber of annual citations determine theirrelative impact factor. In recent years the so-called eigenfactor has become significant.It is included in the Eigenfactor Project, anacademic project developed at the depart-ment of Biology at the University of Was-hington. This project tries to develop newmethods to assess the influence of periodi-cals and to map the structure of academicpublications. Two indexes can be distinguis-hed in determining the eigenfactor, the in-dex of influence of the journal, known as ei-genfactor score (EF) and the article influen-ce score (AF). The eigenfactor webpage

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(www.eigenfactor.org) provides informationabout the percentile where each journal isplaced in the classification of each area ofknowledge. This new bibliometric index ismore accurate than the impact factor. As Vi-llar (2011, p. 85) summarises, it considers afive-year citation window (instead of thetwo years period included in the impact fac-tor), citations are considered by the relevan-ce of the citing journal. Besides, it includesthe citation patterns of the different researchfields, it generates an endogenous classifica-tion into 87 different and exclusive fields,the same database as the impact factor isused (some 7,000 journals listed in the JCR)and it is free and easily available in the web.

Authors can consult the different inde-xes in order to know the relevance of a defi-nite journal in a scientific field, the most re-levant in the area of linguistics are the ISIWeb of Knowledge, the European Referen-ce Index for the Humanities (henceforthERIH), Language Abstracts and Languageand Linguistics Behavior Abstracts. The ISIdatabase is divided into three main types ofjournals: Arts and Humanities Citation In-dex, Science Citation Index and SocialSciences Citation Index. Journals must passa rigorous evaluation process to be includedin ISI. There are journals which are not in-dexed in ISI, but which have a certain rele-vance in their field. In this case, they gene-rally appear in electronic journals publishedin well know websites, such as Elsevier,Blackwell, Cambridge or Oxford UniversityPress. In order to exemplify a classificationof journals in a database, the ERIH typologyis explained.

NATional (NAT): This category com-prises European publications with a highlyrelevant consideration in the respective rese-arch domains. It refers to publications whichare aimed at the national academic commu-nity.

INTernational (INT): This includesEuropean and non-European publicationswhich are internationally recognised andwhich are cited worldwide on a regularbasis.

ERIH classifies international journalsinto two sub-categories based on their in-fluence and scope:

INT1 Sub-Category: This refers to in-ternational publications with high relevancein different countries and which are regu-larly cited all over the world.

INT2 Sub-Category: This includes in-ternational publications with significant vi-sibility and which are relevant in differentcountries.

W Category Journals: This category isformed by journals whose first issue was pu-blished three years or less before the ERIHhas revised it for its lists.

When the selection of the journal hasbeen done, the author must tailor the style tothe demands of the particular journal wherethe article will be published.

Conclusion

The different sections of a paper havebeen explained, from the organization of thecontents in the abstract to the informationthat the conclusion should include. Articlesmust be clear and logic, written in gramma-tically correct sentences and the contents ha-ve to be clearly organized in the differentsections. When information is misplaced,even if the contents are consistent, the paperis rejected. Arguments should be built up insolid sections and subsections with definiteresearch objectives, questions and/or hypo-theses, the main discoveries must be care-fully explained and answers to the mainquestions have to be provided. Special rele-vance has been given to how referencesmust be cited as it is tends to be a confusingissue for those researchers who are startingtheir academic career. Finally, some guideli-nes for revision before the article submis-sion have been provided. The description ofimpact factor and eigenfactor as well as theclassification of journals according to ERIHindex have been included so as to exemplifyhow the quality of a journal is typified in ahighly recognized indexing list.

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