TODAY’S GOALS

• Share and begin to analyze your primary research results

• Consider the most effective and appropriate voice and style for discussing research in informative writing

• Review the four factors of style and practice stylistic revision

JOURNAL ENTRY 25

• Focus: Research Experiences & Results

• At this point in the development of your informative article, you should be completely (or very nearly) done with all of your primary research. Take a few minutes to reflect on that experience, considering the following issues: • Was conducting primary research easy or difficult to you? How does it

compare to your experiences with secondary research? • Did you encounter any unexpected difficulties while conducting the research?

(finding participants, drafting questions, interpreting observations, etc.)• Did your research results align with your expectations (and possibly your

thesis)? • If you were to perform this research again, what might you do differently? • Aside from gaining field research experience, what did you learn from

conducting your own research?

GROUP ACTIVITY – RESEARCH RESULTS

• In your unit 3 groups

• Share the results of your completed research and answer the questions below for each student

1. How do your results align with your original hypothesis? Do they seem to support or disprove it?

2. Based on these results and your original expectations, create a thesis or main idea from your research that you can use to guide your informative article.

3. What particular question/answer/observation seems to be the strongest in support of your thesis or hypothesis? Why?

TALKING ABOUT RESEARCH-OBJECTIVITY & ETHOS

• Different publication types and individual publications will have different strategies for discussing research

• Some writers will want to closely associate themselves with the research conducted, which can show their own personal involvement to establish ethos

• Other writers will need to distance their personal involvement in the research, highlighting the experiment or study itself

• Four main strategies: 1st person singular, 1st person plural, 3rd person, passivized

TALKING ABOUT RESEARCH

Newspaper/MagazineScholarly Article/Research

Report

• Uses combination of 1st and 3rd person for different purposes

• When discussing interviews, 1st person is usually the preferred

• Will often use first person plural to discuss the use of surveys and observations, drawing ethos from their institution

• Uses 3rd person and passivized sentences to emphasize objectivity

TALKING ABOUT RESEARCH

• 1st Person Singular• Links writer most closely with research• Useful for interviews and in less formal newspapers and magazines• Avoid with surveys or in scholarly articles and research reports• Ex: “I interviewed several townsfolk on the matter . . . .”

• 1st Person Plural• Closely links writer to research (but not as close as 1st person singular)• Similar patterns to 1st person singular• Increased ethos by associating the writer with his/her institution or company• Ex: “We at the Herald interviewed several politicians . . . .”

TALKING ABOUT RESEARCH

• 3rd Person• Creates distance from writer/researcher to show objectivity• Heavily used in the hard sciences, with surveys, or in scholarly articles and research

reports• Less common in newspapers, magazines, or less formal writing styles• Will often use “this study” or “this experiment” as a subject• Ex: “This experiment will attempt to prove . . . .”

• Passivized• Greatest distance from writer/research but not as commonly used as 3rd person• One of the most used styles for research reports• Uses English passivization structure with inverted subject and object• Ex: “An increase in violent behavior was observed . . . .” (as opposed to “I

observed an increase in violent behavior)

GROUP ACTIVITY – WRITING ABOUT RESEARCH

• In your unit 3 groups

• Answer the questions below for each student

1. Which strategy for talking about research is most commonly used by your group’s publication type? Why do you think that strategy would be used?

2. Based on your research method, publication type, and experiences reading that publication, which of the 4 strategies we discussed will be best suited for each student?

STYLE - REVIEW

• Consider style as a tool for explaining genre

• Style factors:• Sentence structure: long or short? Varied or monotonous? • Types of words: pedantic or colloquial? Abstract or concrete?• Voice or Persona: 1st or 3rd person? Expert or layperson?• Tone: Formal or informal? Humorous or serious?

• Review on pg. 68 if necessary

• Secondary Style factor: Research discussion• Different publications will have different styles for discussing research and

may vary in their use of 1st vs 3rd person, passivization, and linguistic distance from the performed methods

GROUP ACTIVITY: STYLISTIC REVISIONS

• In your new unit 3 groups

• Read through the passages “Four Powerful Strategies . . .” On pg. 69-71 and “Use a Voice Matched to Your . . .” starting on page 74 of the A&B textbook

• Do the activity “Revising Passages to Create a More Effective Style”

HOMEWORK

• Informative Article First Draft• Due Friday 7/10• 500+ words • Should include primary research results and 2+ secondary sources• Focus on visual rhetoric, document design, and introduction