Minor English Language and Culture
Reader: Research module
September 2021
Contents
1. Requirements and Standards for Research Reports 2
2. Selecting a topic 4
3. Interview 4
4. Plan of Action 5
5. What is a research question and how do you develop one 6
6. Report Requirements 7
7. Citation 9
8. Timeline for your Research Module 11
Deadline 12
1. Requirements and standards for research reports
In addition to learning the language in your skills modules and workshops, you are expected to complete one module of 84 study hours (sbu) individually by doing research on a topic related to your major. Even though this is a module that is to be carried out individually, you can count on sufficient and regular supervision by your teachers.
The purpose of the research assignment is twofold. Firstly, we want you to familiarize yourself with the process of carrying out an individual research so you are well prepared for writing your thesis and/or gain valuable experience in perfecting your writing skills. Secondly, we want you to expand your professional horizon by focusing on specific aspects of your future profession in the English-speaking world.
Your individual research module should be a rewarding experience! After all: you will pick your own subject that is based on your major, which hopefully you already have a passion for. When writing your research, you will have the opportunity to share this passion with your readers. Make sure that you provide your own statements, based on evidence you find in your sources. These statements should directly refer to the main question you ask yourself at the start of the entire research process. In a way, it’s a circular process.
While you are working on your research, you will be supported by your coach, who will be available to help you. Do not forget that it is you in the driver’s seat, you are in control of the process and only you will know what you need. Ask your coach for guidance and feedback as needed and stay in contact via email and/or coaching sessions. Coaches will hold regular progress checks throughout the semester as well.
Report Requirements
o The topic should be clearly related to your major and the minor English Language and Culture.
o The length of the report: FCE: 2500 words, CAE: 3000 words, CPE: 3500 words; you must use font (letter type) Times New Roman or Arial, size 12. Reports can deviate a maximum of 10% from the desired word count but not more (front page, abstract, table of contents, bibliography and appendices do not count).
o Please state the word count on the front page of your report.
o Line spacing 1,5.
o All your text should be in English.
o You must include a list of sources/literature list/bibliography.
o More than three sources should be used, audio-visual sources are optional
o 70% of your sources should be of English origin, this means you are still allowed to use Dutch sources but the majority of your sources should be English.
o Must be handed in as a Word-document
2. Selecting a topic
It is important you find a topic that is relevant and appeals to you, as you will be spending quite a bit of time on the research (84sbu). Topics could include:
• “In what ways could Electrical Engineering contribute to general improvement of eating conditions of Parkinson’s patients?”
• Why does single-sex education still exist in England given the fact that other advanced European countries such as The Netherlands have opted for mixed schooling?
• What are the benefits of a screening project for Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm in England and should this be introduced in to The Netherlands?
• What is the role of the healing environment for a patient during radio therapeutic treatments in England in comparison with the Netherlands?
• To what extent did the London 2012 Olympics succeed in their aimed legacy of increased sports participation in schools over the past three years?
• In which way do cultural differences between the UK and the Netherlands influence the advertising strategies in the Gillette men advertisement?
3. Interview
Carrying out an optional interview is one of the most important – and often most fun parts – of the research module. You can interview a professional in your field that can aid you in answering your research question. You should treat this interview as a source for your research. Because of this, it is essential to plan ahead and do some initial literature research before carrying out the interview; this way your interviewee can help you fill in the gaps you might possibly have in your research. It also shows the interviewee that you are serious about the assignment and value their time.
Most professionals are very busy people, because of that you want to schedule an interview as soon as possible. It is typically best to contact your potential interviewees as soon as possible. This gives you time to prepare for your interview, search for an interviewee and often guarantees that your interviewee’s calendar is not yet filled to the brim.
In the past students have had great success with their interviews, some interviewed famous journalists, professors at the University of London, a West End producer, a booker for Koko and much more! Some students even managed to get an internship or a job offering from their interview!
You should use the information you get from the interview in the same way you would use information you get from an article or book, which means including appropriate citation. Additionally, you should also include a transcript of the interview as an appendix to your research. The interview should include, at least, ten questions.
Finally, you should be able to provide evidence with regard to your interview. Evidence could include an audio recording, email threads, contact information, video-recording etc. This should be provided in your report (appendices).
4. Plan of Action
Your research should be conducted in a number of steps.
The first step is to do broad research to decide what area you would like to focus your research project on. Once you have decided on the area you are interested in, the second step is to do further research in this particular area, to come up with a central question you would like to inquire into. These steps, along with some further details, must be clearly documented in the plan of action below.
This research plan should then be discussed with your coach who will give you feedback on it.
The following plan should be discussed with your coach before starting your research.
Name:
Email:
Major:
Dates to keep in mind are as follows:
1 October: Plan of action due
17 December: Final product due
Complete the following and submit it to your coach for approval before you start your research.
1. Give a list of the sources you used to conduct preliminary research.
2. Describe the research topic you want to focus on in as much detail as possible. Include a number of sources you used for this stage of your research.
3. What is the central question you would like to investigate?
4. List two or three sub-questions, which will help you in answering your main question.
5. What is your major and how does it link to this research topic?
6. You can interview a professional and use this interview as a source. This means you need to find someone who works in and/or is an expert in a field relevant to your research topic. Start thinking about who is knowledgeable about your topic and could provide experience that cannot be found in an article. Describe your ideal candidate in detail..
5. What is a research question and how do you develop one?
A research question guides and centres your research. It should be clear and focused, as well as use multiple sources to present your unique argument. Even if your coach has given you a specific assignment, the research question should ideally be something that you are interested in or care about. Be careful to avoid the “all-about” paper and questions that can be answered in a few factual statements.
Examples:
1. For instance, the following question is too broad and does not define the segments of the analysis: Why did the chicken cross the road? (The question does not address which chicken or which road.)
2. Similarly, the following question could be answered by a hypothetical Internet search: How many chickens crossed Trafalgar Square in London, on February 6, 2014? (This question could be answered in one sentence and does not leave room for analysis)
3. A more precise question might be the following: What are some of the environmental factors that occurred in London, between January and February 2014 that would cause chickens to cross Trafalgar Square? (This question can lead to the author taking a stand on which factors are important, and allows the writer to argue to what degree the results are positive or negative.)
How Do You Formulate A Good Research Question?
Choose a general topic of interest, and do some first research on this topic in current publications and journals to see what research has already been done. This will help decide what kinds of questions the topic generates. Once you have done some first research, start asking open ended “How?” “What?” and Why?” questions. Then evaluate possible responses to those questions.
Examples:
Say, for instance, you want to focus on social networking sites. After reading current research, you want to examine to what degree social networking sites are harmful. Here follow some examples and explanations:
Possible Question: Why are social networking sites harmful?
An evaluation of this question reveals that the question is unclear: it does not specify which social networking sites or state what harm is being caused. Moreover, this question takes as a given that this “harm” exists. A clearer question would be the following:
Revised Question: How are online users experiencing or addressing privacy issues on such social networking sites as Facebook and Twitter? This version not only specifies the sites (Facebook and Twitter), but also the type of harm (privacy issues) and who is harmed (online users).While a good research question allows the writer to take an position they can defend, it DOES NOT leave room for uncertainty.
Checklist of Potential Research Questions:
1) Is the research question something I/others care about? Is it arguable?
2) Is the research question a new spin on an old idea, or does it solve a problem?
3) Is it too broad or too narrow?
4) Is the research question researchable within the given time frame and location?
5) What information is needed?
Examples of good research questions:
• “In what ways could Electrical Engineering contribute to general improvement of eating conditions of Parkinson’s patients?”
• Why does single-sex education still exist in England given the fact that other advanced European countries such as The Netherlands have opted for mixed schooling?
• What are the benefits of a screening project for Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm in England and should this be introduced in to The Netherlands?
• What is the role of the healing environment for a patient during radio therapeutic treatments in England in comparison with the Netherlands?
• To what extent did the London 2012 Olympics succeed in their aimed legacy of increased sports participation in schools over the past three years?
• In which way do cultural differences between the UK and the Netherlands influence the advertising strategies in the Gillette men advertisement?
6. Report Format
Front page:
o Title: The (sub)title should reflect the contents
o Student’s initials and surname
o Student number
o Language and level of the minor
o Name of coach (teacher)
o Semester and periods the project (module) has taken place
o Name of major and institute of major
Abstract: (not part of the word count)
The abstract should reflect the key issues of the report briefly. The reader should be able to comprehend the abstract without reading the report. The length of the abstract is 250 words (does not count for the overall word count). Your abstract should include the context of your research, the purpose, the methods and the results.
Table of Contents:
The table of contents reflects the structure of the report, and states the chapters and paragraphs and corresponding page numbering. Appendices should also be mentioned here. Use Word to generate an automatic table of contents.
Introduction:
In the introduction state the following:
o The problem and aim of your assignment.
o The practical/social relevance of the assignment in relation to your major.
o The contents of the different chapters.
Literature Review:
The “literature” of a literature review refers to the sources about a certain topic and the “review” is an organised summary of these sources (not about whether you like or dislike them). So, a literature review discusses information from sources about a particular subject to give an up-to-date overview of what is current and important.
A literature review is generally organised in such a way that it emphasises the information you find important for your research. You need to indicate which material is most relevant and why. When talking about literature, there are primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are books, encyclopaedias, journal articles, interviews, auto-biographies, legal documents, statistical data, speeches etc. Secondary sources are different because they expand, discuss, comment upon, analyse or evaluate about primary sources. The original material can be found elsewhere. Think of newspaper articles that summarise books, internet articles that repeat arguments that can be found elsewhere.
Furthermore, you should interpret the information and link it to your own research.
A literature review demonstrates that you are able to:
• Select relevant and up-to-date sources.
• Critically analyse sources in your professional area.
• Connect your research to already published material about your topic.
So, your literature review should include:
• A short introduction about the problems and questions that are important in your area of research.
• An overview and analysis of the information found in your sources.
• The connection of that information to your own research.
Practical Framework:
Your research might focus only on the literature review, and if this is the case, leave this chapter out. However, if you have also used a practical research method (interviews, questionnaires, participant observation, etc.), you can describe this process in this chapter.
Your practical framework should include:
• An explanation of the practical research methods you used.
• An analysis of the data gathered during your practical research.
• The relevance of this data to your research
Results:
In this chapter you answer your research questions. Each question should be divided into a separate paragraph. Keep in mind that in this section you factually present the results without providing any comments, opinion and/or theories. It is simply an overview of the discovered result from your literature review and/or interview.
Conclusion:
The findings of your results are discussed in a logical order, followed by conclusions, recommendations and/or an evaluation of the research and/or the strengths and weaknesses of your research. For instance: was the target achieved; what could have been done differently? Also, in this section, you should theorise about the results and how you think they should be interpreted. Keep in mind that a good report links the results and the conclusion adequately. Finally, you should absolutely not present new material or discussions in this section.
Literature/list of sources:
The report contains an overview of the consulted literature and other sources according to APA regulations.
Appendices:
Information that is not essential to explain your findings, but that supports your analysis (especially repetitive or lengthy information), validates your conclusions or pursues a related point. The interview you did should be found here.
7. Citation
You should remember that your research is not just a collection of citations or other information you gathered from your sources, followed by a conclusion. A citation can be used as an introduction, clarification or example. So be aware that your writing remains the result of your ‘investigation’ and does not just become a summing up of facts you found in your sources.
A citation is the way you tell the reader of your research that some of the material you have used in your report (this also includes pictures, graphs or any other visual material you have not made yourself) came from someone else than you. For example, a direct quote to pull your reader in or an example to clarify a point you are making. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again, including:
• Information about the author.
• The title of the work.
• The name and location of the company that published your copy of the source.
• The date your copy was published.
• The page numbers of the material you are borrowing.
Why should I cite sources?
Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people’s work without plagiarizing. But there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:
• Citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your ideas and where they came from.
• Not all sources are good or right – your own ideas may often be more accurate or interesting than those of your sources. Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap for someone else’s bad ideas.
• Citing sources shows the amount of research you’ve done.
• Citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.
When do I need to cite?
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge the source. The following situations almost always require citation:
• Whenever you use quotes.
• Whenever you paraphrase or summarize a piece of text.
• Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed.
• Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another.
How do I cite?
Fontys Hogescholen uses APA regulations. See below for a couple of examples and for a full guide on APA regulations see the APA guidelines:
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx
Journal articles:
Surname of author, initial(s), (Publication date). Article title: Possible subtitle. Name of magazine or newspaper, possibly issue number, page number(s).
Example:
Klimoski, R., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45(2), 10-36.
Books:
Surname of author, initial(s) (Year of publication). Title: Possible subtitle. Place of establishment of publisher: publisher.
Example:
Beck, C. A. J., & Sales, B. D. (2001). Family mediation: Facts, myths, and future prospects. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Internet sources:
Surname of author, initial(s) (Year of publication or update). Title of the document or website. Consulted on day month year, website address.
Example:
Fredrickson, B.L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and wellbeing. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article 001a. Retrieved June 15, 2001 from http:// journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre003001a.html
References in text:
When referring to sources in the text is no distinction in printed or digital source. There is a distinction between (1) in own words citing a source or (2) literally citing a source. The references in the text are abbreviations, the full description of the source can be found in the bibliography.
(1) (Surname of author, year of publication or update).
Example:
It is often said that a large gap between educational practice and research of education. A recent study of the causes for this gap makes it clear that the quality of educational research much to be desired. (Broekkamp & Van Hout-Wolters, 2006).
(2) text between “” followed by (surname of author, year of publication or update, page number(s))
Example:
“Business intelligence (BI) systems are concerned with the analysis of an organisation’s data to address and direct strategic initiatives.” (Fill, 2005, pp. 41)
8. Timeline for your Research module
Your Research module is an individual assignment, which means that you and only you are responsible for keeping track of time. In other words, be aware of the deadlines your coach sets out for you as well as the deadlines that apply to the minor. Your coach will monitor your progress, but if you feel you need guidance, contact your coach immediately – don’t wait!
Week 36 Choose your topic/area of research
Week 37,38 Develop your research topic/question, carry out preliminary research and collect a number of possible sources
Week 39 Fill in your Plan of Action and upload this in Canvas before Friday
Week 40,41 Discuss your Plan of Action with your coach and adapt if necessary
Week 42 Outline the definitive main- and sub question(s) of your Research assignment and make sure to upload the final version.
Plan a possible interview. Start contacting interviewees.
Week 44-47 Based on your initial research, continue listing the sources you plan to use – make sure you use a variety of sources: books, magazines, scientific publications, websites, other digital sources, even clips, films and other recordings are possible. Investigate your sources in depth and take notes. Start summarizing relevant information from the sources you are going to use.
Week 44-47 Carry out practical research activities such as your interview.
Week 48, 49 Write your report according to the guidelines and approach your coach if you have any specific questions. Check the content of the report: did I answer the question(s)? Check the language of your report.
Week 50 Hand in your report via Canvas
Research Rubric
Course: Research Module Student name: Teacher: Group: Final Mark:
If missing one of the following elements, the report will not be marked.
Abstract, table of contents, introduction, literature review, results, conclusion, reference list.
When missing one of these elements, or parts of these elements, 1 point will be deducted per element from the final score.
• Title page
• Correct (line) spacing
• Correct font
• Page numbers Minus:
Poor
1 – 2 Fair
3 Good
4 Excellent
5 Score
Quality of sources
Organisation of the report • Relies exclusively on blogs, and/or newspaper.
• The report has a poor structure – writing shows little organisation and there is little or no linking of ideas within and between sections.
• Context and overview for each section may be provided.
• Relies mainly on blogs and/or newspaper. Some academic sources.
• The report has a reasonable structure – writing shows some organisation and there is some linking of ideas within and between sections.
• Context and overview for each section may be provided. • Uses a variety of academic sources and blogs, newspapers, interviews.
• The report has a good structure – writing is organised and ideas within and between sections are clearly linked.
• Context and overview for each section is provided, guiding the reader through the report.
• Uses a wide variety of academic sources and blogs, newspapers, interviews.
• The report has an excellent structure – writing is well organised and ideas within and between sections are clearly and fluently linked.
• Clear and concise context and overview for each section is provided guiding the reader through the report.
Relevance and depth of research • Aspects covered have little or no relevance to the research question. And/or
• Little supporting detail and evidence is provided. • Aspects covered are reasonably focused and relevant to the research question
• Sufficient supporting detail and evidence is provided. • Aspects covered are focused and relevant to the research question.
• Substantial supporting detail and evidence is provided. • Aspects covered are sharply focused and relevant to the research question.
• Substantial and in-depth supporting detail and evidence is provided.
Discussion and analysis of content (Abstract, Literature Review, Results, Conclusion) • May provide an overview of sources but little or no discussion
• Results are poorly presented and may be unclear or incomplete.
• Weak conclusion which is a summary of the literature review and/or presents new material
• Reasonable discussion with some demonstration of analysis of relevant sources.
• Results are a summary of all literature and/or Practical Framework
• Reasonable conclusion which discusses Lit. Review, (P.F.) & Results. May comment on strengths and weaknesses. • Good discussion demonstrating analysis of relevant sources.
• Results demonstrate an analysis of literature review and/or practical framework
• Good conclusion which discusses Lit. Review, (P.F.) & Results. Comments on strengths and weaknesses.
• Excellent discussion demonstrating critical analysis of relevant sources
• Results demonstrate critical analysis of literature review and/or practical framework
• Excellent conclusion which discusses Lit. Review, (P.F.) & Results. Comments on strengths and weaknesses. Also, theorises and widens the scope.
Language accuracy
• A poorly written paper.
• Intelligibility is (very) often impeded by errors in grammar, spelling, use of vocabulary and punctuation. • A fairly well-written paper.
• Intelligibility is sometimes impeded by errors in grammar, spelling, use of vocabulary and punctuation. • A well-written paper.
• Intelligibility is not impeded by occasional errors in grammar, spelling, use of vocabulary and punctuation. • A very well-written paper.
• Very few or no mistakes. Uses technical vocabulary and terminology.
Referencing • Citations add no value and/or
More often than not citations are not present
• Does not conform to APA guidelines • Citations not always present when required
• Sometimes conforms to APA guidelines • Citations present when required
• Mostly conforms to APA guidelines • Citations are used to support arguments/subject convincingly and properly integrated
• Conforms completely to APA guidelines
BONUS Fair
1 Good
2 Excellent
3
Interview • Interview is present, but the quality of the questions is low
• No incorporation of the questions in the actual research
• Reasonable/fair survey, questionnaire or Skype-interview • Interview is present and the questions contain some quality
• Some incorporation of the questions in the actual research
• Excellent survey, questionnaire or Skype-interview
• Interview is present and the quality of the questions is high
• The student thoroughly incorporates the questions in his research
Number of points divided by 2.5
General remarks: