Educational research reports: Academic standards

Writing a Research Report (RR) seems to pose a challenge for writers since not only do they need to grasp the fundamental tenets of the theories they acknowledge but also they need to comply with the standards of academic writing. This would mean that writing RRs in the educational field implies understanding the dos and don’ts of the academia. According to Swales (1994), “Academic writing is a product of many considerations: audience, purpose, organization, style, flow, and presentation” (p. 7). Therefore, it seems important that when an author embarks on the process of writing an RR, they take into consideration the standards of academic writing.

Bearing in mind that the purpose of writing RR seems to be that researchers share with the academic community the results obtained, following a set of writing conventions appears to have other advantages as well. As stated in the American Psychological Association (APA) Manual (2004), “Without APA style conventions, the time and effort required to review and edit manuscripts would prohibit timely and cost-effective publication and would make clear communication harder to achieve” (p. xxi).

As regards style, knowing how to cite authors correctly seems to be fundamental for any academic paper in the educational field. As Angeli, Wagner, Lawrick, Moore, Anderson, Soderland, and Brizee (2010) suggest,

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper (APA Citation Basics, para. 1).

In order to present academic papers, researchers need to follow the standards of academic writing. Ideally, these writers should follow the standards set by a renowned academy. APA (2004) seems to offer a highly reputable guide for academic writers. Nevertheless, other styles are also accepted in different fields. For instance, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, the Harvard System and the Chicago System.

All things considered, consulting the APA manual or any other reliable stylistics manual may help researchers write their papers in an appropriate manner. In other words, “The Publication Manual presents explicit style requirements but acknowledges that alternatives are sometimes necessary; authors should balance the rules of the Publication Manual with good judgement” (APA, 2004, xx). Summarising, it seems that researchers need to understand and manage academic writing skills in order to produce accurate and  appropriate papers in the educational field.

References

American Psychological Association. (2004). Publication Manual (5^th ed.). Washington, DC

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994).  Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.