Selecting a topic
Reading the literature
Outlining and thesis writing
1. Selecting a topic
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Topic selection involves identifying a
general subject, narrowing it and
formulating questions.
1.1 Identify a general subject
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Instructor or supervisor may specify a
broad area of study, assign a particular
topic, provide a list of possible topics…
Personal interest & experience: your
supervisor’s major or interest
Literature review: recently published
books or journals suggest undiscussed
questions for research.
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Avoid topics which may evoke strong
reactions; avoid topics which are overly
ambitious and overly challenging
Importance and interest; manage ability;
availability of resources
A small piece of an important topic or a
small piece of an area that intrigues you.
1.2 Narrow down the topic
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What is the right size of the topic that is
sufficient for a BA thesis?
E.g. vague linguistic – vagueness of words
– vagueness of notional words –
vagueness of quantifiers
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A broad topic can not give sufficient
direction to research, and may necessitate
superficial treatment of the subject.
The Influence of Greek Mythology on
poetry
English Ambiguity
The rise and fall of Chinese Dynasties
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A narrow topic will yield inadequate
information.
A too technical topic may demand
knowledge you cannot acquire in the time
allotted. Machine translation…
Analysis of example
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Acquisition of English vocabulary – too
broad
Who are the learners? Vocabulary in
speaking or writing? How you go about the
research? Interview, questionnaire?
Read the literature review and
discuss with researchers
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Researching a general topic and deciding the
research focus through literature review (the last
section of a paper in a journal)
If it is motivated by personal experience or
observation, …read to examine whether it is
worth investigating. Read the abstracts of
papers relevant to your topic. (not studied or
different from others in one or more aspects)
Discuss with your supervisor or your classmates
1.3 Formulating questions
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General question: as a blueprint that provides
the direction for your research but they are not
specific enough to be answered.
Specific question: derived from the general
questions, directly related to the details of
research procedures such as subject collection,
data-collection & data-analysis.
Expansion of a small set of
questions
Topic focus
General Q1
Specific Qs
General Q2
Specific Qs
General Q3
Specific Qs
It is better to answer few questions thoroughly than many
Qs superficially.
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Some fields of research involving
empirical or descriptive research, the topic
may be stated as a hypothesis.
E.g. Students composing on computers
write differently than they do when
composing by hand.
After…you may find this hypothesis is
wrong.
Example 1: revise specific Qs
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1.
2.
Research topic: L2 argumentative writing
Topic focus: a study of university students’
argumentative writing in English: rhetorical
knowledge and discourse pattern
General and specific questions:
What is the relationship b/w the students’
rhetorical knowledge and discourse pattern?
Does L2 proficiency moderate the relationship
b/w rhetorical knowledge and the discourse
pattern?
1)
2)
3)
Does the subjects’ perception of the rhetorical
organization of English argumentative
discourse vary from the expected English
norms?
Do these …essays …demonstrate any
deviations in rhetorical organization from…
Are there any correlations b/w the subjects’
rhetorical knowledge and the discourse pattern
of their English argumentative texts?
Example 2: revise specific
questions
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1.
2.
Research topic: L2 oral performance
Topic focus: influence of different tasks and
lengths of planning time on second language
oral performance
General and specific question:
What is the relationship b/w the familiarity
tasks and L2 oral performance?
What is the relationship b/w lengths of
planning time and L2 oral performance?
H1: The task with which students are most familiar
would be performed with the highest accuracy
while…
H2: The task which was most unfamiliar and
difficult for subjects would generate language
with the highest degree of complexity.
H3: The task which was most familiar to subjects
might be performed with the highest degree of
fluency…
1.4 Problems in formulating
questions
No research idea: never expect your
teacher to choose a topic for u
Personal experience, attending conferences
and talking with other researchers
2. Not worth investigating
1.
Exercise:
classify the questions to show the
logical relationship b/w general and
specific questions
A study of the risk-taking beliefs and behaviors of
English majors in China
1)
What do Chinese students think of risk-taking in
English learning?
2)
What is their average rate of risk-taking?
3)
Is there any difference b/w their beliefs and
behaviors?
4)
What do high, moderate and low risk-takers think
about risk-taking respectively?
5)
What are the respective behaviors if high, moderate
and low risk-takers in learning English?
6)
What are the differences in the beliefs and behaviors
of high, moderate and low risk-takers?
7)
Is there any correlation b/w risk-taking and L2
learning outcomes?
A study of error correction in university EFL
classrooms.
1) How do intensive reading teachers correct their
students’ errors?
2) Is there any difference b/w English-major teachers
and non-English-major teachers in error correction?
3) What are the students’ attitudes towards error
correction?
4) Is there any difference b/w English majors and
non-English majors in their attitudes and
preferences?
5) As far as error treatment is concerned, to what
extent can the teachers’ behavior match the
students’ expectations?
2. Reading the literature
2.1 Types of reference works:
1. index – indices or indexes: published
quarterly, monthly, annually or biannually; presented according to the
author’s name & subject; providing the
year, place or publication, name, where
and how it can be obtained and the form
in which it was published.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Bibliographies: list of related publications and other
materials
Collections of abstracts: summaries of journal
articles and other literature.
Dictionaries:
Encyclopedia: give introductory information about
subjects. The encyclopedia of language and
linguistics, international encyclopedia of linguistics
Yearbooks: present books about specific years in the
past
Unpublished papers: conference papers or
manuscripts circulated among colleagues for
discussion. Up-to-date
Journals: a collection of papers published regularly
as language, journal of linguistics, journal of
pragmatics, applied linguistics.
9.
10.
11.
Textbooks: a good introductory survey, explain
concepts more systematically than research
papers do.
Research monograph: single author’s theory
or viewpoint about a topic
An edited collection of papers: out of
conference, or by invitation from the editor, or
out of the need for collaborative research on
an interdisciplinary topic.
2.2 Publication forms: print or
electronic
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Online database:
CD-Rom:
2.3 Online catalog and internet
sources
Locate a work by author, title, or subject
H…41….language and literature
 Internet sources: email to the author, visit
virtual library, use search tools
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2.4 Compiling a working
bibliography
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A tentative list of references constructed
by the researcher for the preparation of
reviewing the literature.
Will evolve into the list of works cited at
the end of papers. Arranged alphabetically
and each entry should contain the same of
the author, (full name, last name first) title,
publication information, page numbers…
Two kinds of search:
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Manual search and computer search
Manual search: snow-balling method –
begin with the references in one paper
(closely related to the topic)
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Working bibliography – determine the
scope of reading – decide what is for
detailed reading – summarize the
information
Decide the scope of reading
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Background / long shot review: provides
your project with a general framework or
theoretical definitions of certain variables.
Foreground / close-up review: focuses on
the details of some specific studies on
which your design is based.
Medium-shot: gives a description of
empirical studies on the topic in general.
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Suggestion: read backwards, beginning
with the most recent one an moving back
to the old ones.
2.5 critical evaluation and notetaking
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Authorship and authority: consider the
authoritativeness of the work. Relevant
biographical information included in
publication (title or affiliation, other
accomplishments). You may search the
Internet for information about an author.
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Accuracy and verifiability: see that the
work’s sources are indicated so that its
information can be verified
Currency: the publication date suggests
how current the author’s scholarship is
We are supposed to synthesize the
information and record it on cards
Cards:
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Summary: the general idea of large amounts of
material. Need not be coherent, but in note-form, may
contain incomplete sentences
Paraphrase: if you require detailed notes on specific
sentences and passages but do not need the exact
wording
Quotation: if some …in its original wording makes an
effective addition to your paper
Critical comments: write down strengths and
weaknesses of the study, esp the flaws.
Personal comments: any ideas, conjectures, or
conclusions that occur to u during the research.
Comments concerning the potential use: to what
extent the paper can be related to your study.
Plagiarism: a form of cheating
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The false assumption of authorship, the
wrongful act of taking the product of another
person’s mind and presenting it as one’s own
To use another person’s ideas in your writing is
to plagiarize. – intellectual theft, moral and
ethical offense than a legal one. (copyright
infringement)
Penalties: failure in a course or expulsion from
school.
Give acknowledgement/ documentation
Document everything that you borrow, not
only direct quotation and paraphrases but
also information and ideas
E.g. original source:
 Some of Dickinson’s most powerful
poems express her firmly held conviction
that life cannot be fully comprehended
without an understanding of death.
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Emily Dickinson strongly believed that we cannot
understand life fully unless we also comprehend
death.
As Wendy Martin has suggested, Emily Dickinson
strongly believed that we cannot understand life fully
unless we also comprehend death (625).
Martin, Wendy. “Emily Dickinson.” Columbia
Literary History of the United States. Emory Elliott,
gen. Ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. 609-26.
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If you submit in writing course a paper
done for another course,… a kind of selfplagiarism
For a group project u carry out with other
students, state who did what or
acknowledge all concerned equally.
Most materials in the Internet are
protected by copyright law.
3. Outlining and thesis writing
3.1 working outline:
Tentative or working outline that guides the choice
of research materials. Will be continually revised:
some items dropped, added, modified…
A working outline will record all important aspects
of your subject and make you focus on relevant
topics. Continual revision will encourage you to
change your thinking and your approach as new
information modifies your understanding of the
subject.
3.2 thesis statement
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A single sentence that formulates both your topic
and your point of view. Your answer to the
central question or problem your have raised.
Restricted, unified, precise: one topic, one idea,
one interpretation
Not worded in figurative language; not be
vaguely worded; not be worded as a question
3.3 final outline
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Having a satisfactory thesis statement, you can
transform your working outline into a final one.
Review your notes to see whether they support
the points in the working outline. Read it over
critically and delete everything that is irrelevant
to the thesis statement or that might weaken
your argument.
Organizing principles: define, clarify, analyze,
compare or contrast, argue for a certain point of
view
Types of outline
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Be formal and consistently developed
Topic outline: entries are words, phrases,
or clauses useful for outlining simple
subjects
Sentence outline: entries are complete
sentences (declarative), as a beginning for
the paper and as a test of the logic of the
outline
Formats of outline
I
A
1
a
Number-letter
sequence
(1)
(a)
i)
(b) ii)
(2)
B
II
2
b
Formats of outline
1
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.1.1
1.1.1.1.1
1.1.1.1.2
1.1.1.2
1.1.2
1.2
2
Decimal outline
3.4 writing the thesis
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1st draft: write brief exploratory pieces to develop
your thinking
Revision:
Editing: every sentence, every paragraph, every
choice of diction and sentence structure, mechanical
errors. Use search-replace, spell checker, identify
any misspelling words
Format: title page, outline page, bibliography,
documentation
Proofreading: speed-reading techniques not
appropriate, read letter for letter.