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London International Teacher Training Institute
Course
Guidance for Writingyour Research Project
LEARNING AIMS
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
know how your project will be assessed.
understand how your project should be organised
use sources adequately
comply with all requirement for successful
completion of your project.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 2
Introduction
By the end of the LITTI 1 course, you are expected to write a 3,500-word Research Project
Report to be submitted both electronically and on paper by the due date decided by theInstitute. This is a requirement for completion of LITTI 1. Alternatively, the Project can be
submitted to Chichester College by those students interested in receiving the Advanced
Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Project Reports are assessed
locally using the same criteria and standards mandated by Chichester College, thus
ascertaining the quality and fairness of the evaluation process. However, only those teacher
learners who submit their work to Chichester College will receive the Advanced Certificate
in TESOL since this qualification can only be obtained through that institution.
As is the case with any piece of academic writing, but mostly because this course is auniversity-level programme, teacher learners are required to comply with the advice and
specifications provided in this booklet in order to achieve success in this component of the
course. Hence, we ask that you read this booklet carefully and refer to it throughout the
process of preparation of the final project report.
The project consists of a piece of academic writing in which teacher learners explore a topic
of interest in the methodology of language teaching and compare and contrast what
happens in regular ELT classrooms to relevant methodological theory. The impetus for the
selection of the topic must come from the teacher-learner’s direct observation of the issue
at stake during their teaching practice. Another important requirement at the time of
selecting the topic is that it should have been explored and studied during the course, in any
of the six subjects taken. Candidates are strongly advised against selecting a topic for which
they have no empirical basis (i.e. a topic they have not observed in a real-life classroom) or a
topic which has not been studied in the course.
Teacher learners are entitled to having a local tutor guide them through the design, writing
and editing of the final project report. The tutor will be assigned by the Institute and his/her
main task is to guide the candidate by providing advice, suggesting courses of action and
reminding candidates of important signpost during the process. However, it is NOT the
tutor’s task to do the work in lieu of the candidate. Hence, it will be the candidate’s sole
responsibility to:
comply with the deadlines set by the tutor.
make all the changes, additions and deletions to the report suggested by the tutor.
include all the information specified in this booklet and/or suggested by the tutor.
submit the final electronic and paper versions of the report to the Institute on the
date set.
abide by the stylistic guidelines required for this project.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 3
General Guidance for Writing your Project Report
Part N° of
words
Guiding questions Advice to candidates
Introduction 500 Why did you choose this topic?
What theories and principles in the
academic and professional literature
have you found relevant, useful or
challenging?
What ideas from observation and
experience have you drawn on?
What have you found out from your
research which is important or
relevant to the topic you havechosen?
• You should choose an area
where they already have
experience or which they
would like to explore because
they found it interesting
during the course.
• Refrain from choosing a
topic/area for which you have
no empirical data.
Theoretical
background
1,000 What does the professional literature
say about this topic/area?
What particular aspects of the
topic/area are you going to focus on
in the paper?
Why will you focus on these?
What aspects of the literature have
you found particularly
interesting/challenging/relevant?
What have you left out from you
literature review? Why?
How is this literature review relevant
to your topic/area?
You should consult at least 10
reputable sources.
Use updated sources
whenever possible. Books and
articles written or published
prior to 1990 should be
avoided.
DO NOT use Wikipedia.
Balance your primary and
secondary sources.
Keep track of all the sources
you cite and include them in
the bibliography.
Use proper citation styles.
Observational
accounts
500 Where have you drawn your
empirical data from? Who were the
teacher/s and student/s you
observed? What are theircharacteristics? What are the main
characteristics of the school?
What did you see them do (regarding
your topic/area)?
How did you keep track of what you
saw?
What did you notice which was
interesting, challenging, unusual?
Be specific about your
observations but always
safeguard anonymity. Do NOT
mention names of people orinstitutions.
Focus on those characteristics
of people and/or institutions
which are really relevant to
your topic/area.
You may illustrate this section
with photographs, graphs and
charts interspersed with the
text or you may include these
in the appendices.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 4
Part N° of
words
Guiding questions Advice to candidates
Comparison andcontrast of
theory and
observations
1,000
What did you find out bycomparing the observations and
the literature?
Which other means did you use to
gather information about your
topic/area (interviews, surveys,
etc)?
What was similar/different? Why?
Why do you think this was so?
How is this relevant/beneficial to
teachers or learners/interesting?
Make sure you do NOT make boldclaims or overgeneralizations.
Always use tentative language (e.g.
instead of “Teachers do X” write “In
the context I observed , teachers
seem to do X.” or “It would appear
that teacher tend to favour X”)
Conclusion 500 What did you want to study? Why?
How did you study it?
What did you find out? What
appears to be the correlation
between what you observed and
what you found out?
How does this new understanding
of the topic help your professional
development? What else should you learn about
this topic in the future?
You are not going to set new rules or
provide instructions for your
topic/area.
Your main task in this section is to
summarize your research process
and make explicit how what you
studied will affect your teaching in
the future.
Also, mention what you need tolearn next about this topic.
Bibliography
and appendices
Not
counted
Have you included all the sources
you have quoted?
Are they alphabetically organized?
Are they cited using the necessary
stylistic conventions?
Is the information you include in
the appendices absolutely
relevant?
Is it properly identified, labeled,
and organized?
Is it attractively presented?
Make sure you include in your
bibliography ALL the sources you
have cited in alphabetical order.
These should be written using the
appropriate stylistic conventions.
Any information included in the
appendices MUST be relevant to the
text. Think carefully as to whether
you really need appendices.
Number, label and clearly identify
appendices. Also, cross-reference
them to the main sections of the text
and make sure the text specifies
where certain information can be
found (e.g. “See Appendix 2”).
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 5
Writing the Research Paper
Guidelines and Practical Advice
Term paper, research paper, extended essay, project report…these are just some of the names given
to lengthy written compositions required in many academic courses. Though the name may vary
from course to course, and institution to institution, in essence, all these papers have the same
overall purposes and formats.
According to Menasche (1997: 1)1 a project report “involves the writer in searching for published
information on a specific topic, studying and thinking about this information, and then writing about
the topic in a way that makes use of the information.”
Research papers may take three general formats:
1. Synthesis research paper: a writer may gather information on a topic from several
sources and present it in paraphrase (i.e. in his or her own words) in a coherent,
organized way. In this type of paper, the writer reports what others have said without
making any attempt to add personal comments.
2. Argumentative research paper : when the writer presents the ideas of others and also
makes judgments on them, adds personal comments and tries to support a different,
personal position on the main issue, the paper is an argumentative one. This is also thetype of paper that scholars publish in journals because it is this type that communicates
advances in knowledge, new ideas and new points of view.
3. Research Report paper: where the writer blends his/her ideas with those found in the
professional literature and contrasts them with examples stemming from their
classroom observations. The writer analyzes the phenomena observed in the light of the
core knowledge base, and provides an analysis, synthesis and evaluation from his/her
own perspective. The emphasis should be on interpretation, analysis and evaluation,
NOT description.
Formal aspects to bear in mind
In order to be awarded at least a Pass mark, the following formal aspects must be respected:
Type on one side of paper only
Use 1,5 line spacing
Use 12-point Times New Roman or Arial fonts
Appendices go after the bibliography
1 Menasche, G (2002) Writing Research Papers American Style. Michigan: University of Michigan Press
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 6
Don’t forget to run your assignment through the spell and grammar check before printing it
out.
Use the Word Count function in your text processing programme to count the words in each
section.
Number the pages
Leave a blank line in between paragraphs
Use block style for paragraphs
The Cover page:
All assignments must be preceded by a cover page. On that page you must adhere to the following
guidelines to identify your project.
International House Montevideo – London Institute
Date
Title (18 point, bold and underlined)
Candidate number: XX YYYYY
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 7
Citing References(based on the University of Bath and The Pennsylvania State University Graduate Students’ Handbook)
How should I make use of literature in my assignments?
In all assignments you must make reference to relevant professional sources, i.e. books, articles or
webpages you have consulted to inform your research. These will form the basis upon which you will
base your analysis of the topic in question. Some of the most common uses of these sources include:
• Supporting descriptive writing. For example, you may wish to say:
“During my time as observer of a primary 5 class I noted that the teacher asked
questions of the boys more frequently than of the girls. This tendency has alsobeen reported by Jon (1989).”
• Establishing definitions. For example, you may wish to discuss reliability by first establishing a
definition, e.g.:
“Reliability is the agreement between two efforts to measure the same trait
through maximally similar methods” (Campbell and F isk 1967 p 277).
• Supporting an argument . For example, you may wish to justify the use of questionnaires by
making a statement such as the following:
“I chose to collect data by questionnaire as collecting data by interview would be
too time consuming and thus cause me to reduce the sample size. This is
discussed in more detail by Smith (1987).”
Note:
Quotations in your assignment should be in a different type-face, e.g. italics. If they are shorter than
a paragraph, you use a run-on sentence style. However, they are longer than a sentence or two,then you must start a new paragraph which must be indented.
How can I indicate different types of sources used?
If at all possible you should try to use original sources. This may be official documentation, books
and articles on educational theories and practice or data from your own experience. For example,
this information came directly from official literature:
‘The Equal Opportunities Commission (1981:82-86) have shown that invariably
the apparently better examination results of girls in all-girls compared with girls
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 8
in mixed schools is actually an attribute of their superior intake and not due to
their organisation. They clearly believe that academically all-girls schools have
no advantages and thus support mixed schools on social grounds.’
Sometimes it is not possible to obtain original source materials and you have to rely on quotations of
sources found in literature. For example:
‘Three solutions may thus be applicable. The first of these is to make science girl-
orientated. This has been discussed by Bottomley and Ormerod, and Ebbutt and
is quoted in Smail (1987:81). They suggest that girls like Biology when it is
nurturative - caring for plants and animals - rather than analytical.’
The findings here were from work by Bottomley, Ormerod, and by Ebbutt, but these findings have
been read by the assignment writer in an article by Smail. You would thus include Smail in your
references and not Bottomley and Ormerod or Ebbutt.
Special Points to Note
• Acknowledge where secondary sources are cited and the original not looked at by yourself.
• Do not rely on all secondary information taken from just one book.
• Do not rely upon too much secondary information.
• Quotes must be put in quotation marks and acknowledged.
• Failure to acknowledge quotes is plagiarism.
• Plagiarism is a serious offence and may result in your failing the course and becoming
disqualified from pursuing further studies. A sample of 30% of your written assignment will be
electronically checked for plagiarism using plagiarism-detection software.
How do I deal with referencing within the main text of the assignment?
Within the main text of your assignment references should appear thus:
General references: Ormerod (1975)
NB: References which refer generally to ideas in a book or article do not require a
page number.
Specific quotation or points: Ember & Ember (1973:5)
NB:References which are specific, and particularly where these include
quotations, do require a page number or numbers.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 9
For example:
“Ormerod (1975) showed that, in certain respects, single-sex schools show less
sex stereotyping than mixed schools with regard to subject choice.”
Another definition is that by Ember & Ember (1973:5) who say “To an
anthropologist the term culture generally refers to customary ways of thinking
or behaving of a particular population or society.”
Where should the references be listed?
The previous work which has informed your writing must be properly acknowledged and listed at the
end of your assignment. This is called a Bibliography. You must have, at least, 10 reputable sources in
your bibliography and you must include in it everyone who is referred to in the text (a good idea is to
print your paper once you have written it, and, as you read it, tick the names of the authors cited in
the bibliography. This way you will be able to detect which sources you are not including in the
bibliography). Remember that each work must be listed in alphabetical order and leaving a line in
between each author cited. Include only those authors you cite in the main body of the text. You
must strictly adhere to the following citation style:
Books:
author’s surname, initial, year, title of book (different type-face or underlined),
where published, publisher.
Chapters in Books:
(i) author’s surname, initial, year, title of article, ‘In’, title of book different type face or underlined
“Ed. by”, editor’s name where published, publisher,
or
(ii) author’s surname, initial, year, title of article, “In-’, editor’s surname and initial “(Ed)”, title of
book in italics, where published, publisher.
Articles in Journals:
author’s surname, initial, year, title of article, journal (different type-face or underlined), number of
journal, pages of the article
Webpages:
Author’s name (if available), year, title of webpage, place uploaded, publisher, access date with the
word ‘Retrieved’ preceding it, URL
For example:
Book :
Byrne R (1978) The Secondary School London, Heinemann Educational.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 10
Chapter :
Smail B (1987) Organising the curriculum to fit girls’ interests in Kelly, A (Ed) Science for Girls. Milton
Keynes: Open University
Article:
Butcher H J and Pont H B (1968) Opinions about Careers among Scottish Secondary School Children
of High Ability, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 38, 28-42.
Webpage:
Peyton, J. K. (1993). Dialogue journals: Interactive writing to develop language and literacy.
Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. Retrieved May 4, 2003,
from http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/peyton01.html
What are some of the most common errors students make
in writing ?
• Making unsupported statements: do not say such things as
‘Evidence from schools indicates...’.
You need to substantiate where this evidence comes from. You might well say
‘Anecdotal evidence from the three schools in which I have taught over the past
10 years indicates...”
This makes clear its source.
• Incorrect and incomplete referencing.
• Lack of analysis and synthesis, i.e. only descriptive writing.
• Not drawing on relevant literature or making appropriate use of your own
experience.
• Not developing ideas and themes logically
• Having an inadequate introduction and/or conclusion.
•
Not keeping to the number of words allocated for the assignment. A tolerance ofaround plus or minus 10% is usually allowed.
So, what are the features of a good assignment?
• It concentrates upon the issues indicated in the assignment title and does not contain a great
deal of irrelevant material.
• It deals with all the key points and a range of arguments or viewpoints. Never start an argument
“to fill space” and leave it dangling. Make sure that your topic is narrow enough to allow you to truly
focus on the aspects you want to stress.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 11
• It shows evidence of a range of readings. In general, an assignment of 3,500 words should
reference a minimum of 10 different sources.
• It is written in the student’s own words and has a sense of his/her own voice. Again, remember
that whenever you cite previous work, this must always be properly cited.
• It contains examples of the writer’s own experience. This experience may come from your
involvement in classrooms as an observer, a teacher or a student.
• It presents alternative views of an argument, i.e. it offers a balanced discussion of the issue
equally stressing strengths and weaknesses/limitations.
• It contains evidence of analysis and synthesis.
A few points about PUNCTUATION
-
Leave a space after every full stop.
- Be careful with the overuse of the semicolon.
- Do not hyphenate (split) words at the end of a line.
- When you put a full stop you have only two options, you either continue with the same
paragraph, leaving only ONE space after the full stop or you start a new paragraph.
- PARAGRAPHS: when you start a new paragraph you must leave two spaces.
- Make sure the text is left aligned and not justified. (With left aligned text, the left margin forms
a straight line and the right margin is ragged. With justified text both the left and right margins
form a straight line).
When WRITING your paper…
- Do not use contractions. Assignments belong in the formal writing category.
- Be consistent when using a pronoun (eg the teacher - he/she or the teachers - they).
- Avoid excessive use of the terms such as “I, me, and my,” as well as the phrase ‘Personally
speaking,’ or ‘To me…’
- Try to avoid ‘we’ unless you are a group.
- Use passive voice whenever possible.
- Be consistent with verb tenses, it is either present or past.
- The first sentence of a paragraph must be independent (able to stand on its own).
- Be consistent with the model you are going to choose: British or American English.
- At the beginning of the assignment establish clearly what the acronyms that you are going to use
mean: e.g. “CLT, which stands for Communicative Language Teaching…”
- Be careful with the overuse of etc .
- Try to use sophisticated language. Avoid using slang or simple terms such as ‘CLT is a very good
thing.’
- Editing is an important part of your work. Before handing in you should check spelling and
language.
- If you are doubtful about the spelling of a word, do not guess. Do not invent words without
checking if they exist in the dictionary.
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London International Teacher Training Institute
LITTI 1
lanning and Writing your Research roject
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, MA 12
In relation to CONTENT…
- Try to avoid repetition of ideas, concepts, language.
- Do not make strong claims. Try to be as tentative as possible.
- Do not include irrelevant information.- Make sure you answer what is expected from you, go straight to the point.
- Do not make lists of the main points you want to include. Ideas have to be connected.
Your assignment will be marked by looking at the following criteria. You must score an acceptable
level or pass in each of these criteria
Marking criteria for Projects1. Standard of English
Comments in this area stressed the need for thorough proofreading of the papers.The examiner focused on: frequency of mistakes, type of mistake (spelling, grammar,
etc.) and overall lexical complexity. Papers which got a “FAIL” mark were marked
down because of the nature of mistakes. Likewise for some papers which could have
gotten a higher mark. Use of word processing software tools (spell check and
grammar check) is encouraged.
2. Choice of Topic
The examiner looked at how appropriate topics were. Comments ranked from “appropriate”
to “unusual,” “interesting,” and “practical.”
3.
Research basisExaminer seems to look for how strong the research basis is, particularly in how it
incorporates a variety of sources.
4. Rationale
In terms of rationale, examiners seem to look at how the candidate manages to relate the
theory read to the examples stemming from practice. The theorypractice connection
needs to be made explicit. They look for “sound” rationale (whatever that may mean).
5. References
Examiners seem to look for variety (both depth and breadth) thus shying away from
one or two-source papers. Projects which were awarded a “FAIL” lacked balance,
depth, practical ideas or simply, a wide enough array of books. Examiner/s have
provided suggestions for newer bibliography to be incorporated in the resubmission
of the projects.
6. Content
Content has to do with how much the project lends itself to classroom application. It is here
that the classroom link should be made really explicit.
7. Overall comment
Merely a summary statement of what has been made explicit through other
categories. Also, specific advice on how the candidate can improve the paper in light
of a resubmission.