guidance_forfinalprojectlitti_12014.pdf

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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.




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.




LITTI 1



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.




LITTI 1



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”).




LITTI 1



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




LITTI 1



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




LITTI 1



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




LITTI 1



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.




LITTI 1



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.




LITTI 1



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.

http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/peyton01.html







LITTI 1



• 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.




LITTI 1



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.

guidance_forfinalprojectlitti_12014.pdf

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