UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SABAH

Title

: Identification of the Introduction Section of Five Chosen Articles to Obtain A Proper Guideline for Writing Up the Introduction Section of A Research Report.

Subject Code Section Lecturer Name Matrix no.

: English for Research Purpose : UB00502 :6 : Hj Abdul Rahman Siddik bin Ahmad : Watson Chung Xie Khim : BS10110539

Identification of the Introduction Section of Five Chosen Articles to Obtain A Proper Guideline for Writing Up the Introduction Section of A Research Report.

ABSTRACT A research report serves as the function to orientate or to inform other researchers on what was studied in a particular mutual interested experiment or research. However, writing a research report has always been a hard task for researchers as the proper guideline of the introduction section is not always been cleared to them. Five research articles were chosen to compare and to identify a proper guideline for writing up a research so that conflict on report writing could be solve. Although all of them have the first section i.e. introduction section, but it could be seen that some stages or ideas are just not emphasized in some research reports Thus, an experiment or research is carried out to determine the similarities and differences of the introduction section of five chosen research articles. The experiment proceeded with a quick and easy understanding of the research articles followed by identifying the different location of the stages in introduction section. Next, a result is written to compare and to identify the similarities and differences of the introduction sections. The experiment or research ended with a proper guideline where students will be more comfortable to make it as a reference in the future.

INTRODUCTION Writing a research report, be it literature researches or scientific researches, has always been a hard task especially for beginners who just new to research. However, one should find writing a research report becomes easier and clearer once the introduction section is written. Hence, an introduction section of a research report plays a very important role which serves as a function to prepare the readers what were going to come up in the research reports and also the perspective needs to understand the detailed information and ideas that were in the research. Therefore, a research is conducted in the library of University Malaysia Sabah at 2010 which serves the aim to distinguish a proper guideline on writing up the introduction section of a research report. Sam F. Trelease (1982) [1] in a book that he wrote, How To Write Scientific & Technical Papers, pointed out that introduction section only contain three elements which are i) nature of the problem, ii) purpose, scope and method of investigation, and iii) most significant outcome of the research. Instead of listing the reviewed literatures in the introduction section, literature reviews were listed in the section four, discussion of results, where comparison of results and interpretations with those of other workers is done. According to a general reference book Writing Up Research: Experimental Research report Writing For Students of English, which is used by most of the students in University Malaysia Sabah, Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker (1990) [2] stated that the introduction of a research report is divided into five stages which include i) general statement, ii) literature review, iii) reason for further investigation, iv) objective of research, and v) justification. It could be seen that purpose is isolated as one independent stage while method for

investigation existed as an independent section, which differed a lot as compared to the theories back then. Together at this time, the concept for introduction of a research report grew to a maximum when John Bowden (1994) [3] stated that there are all together seven steps to be followed in an introduction section. These seven steps included i) reason for writing the report, ii) terms of reference, iii) available resources, iv) limitations, v) literature review, vi) methods of working and vii) structures of report. The content for introduction grew to such complex where each point existed as independent stages whereby the introduction section was functioned as a short review of every details of the research report. However, Simon Mort (1995) [4] renovated the ideas and concepts for an introduction section that only three components exist including i) neutral objective, ii) terms of reference and iii) limitations. These ideas cut down the lengthy concepts before and the function of introduction section is reset as a short and brief preview of the research report again. R.E. Wyllys (2002) [5] in a website holds by University of Texas at Austin stated that the introduction section of a research report contains three elements including i) background, ii) outline of the problem and its context, and iii) previous related work. Differs from the previously stated guidelines, Wyllys pressed that the reason for further investigation, objective of research and justification are all independent and separated from the introduction section. The objective of research is categorized under an individual section, Purpose, while the reason for further investigation and justification are summarized in a section after conclusion of a report, Recommendation. The latest concept comes from a book that written by four different authors which includes Lakshmy Anantha Krishnan, Rowena Jong, Sujata S. Kathpalia and Tam Moh Kim [6]. The book that launched on 2006

pressed that there are only three components in an introduction section that are i) background, ii) objectives and iii) scopes. Different from Wyllys, the objectives are not isolated as an independent section but included in the introduction which also brings up the hypothesis of the research and thus further confirmation through the experiment or research conducted. In addition, stage (iii) scopes include the limitation, reason for further confirmation, brief method of working and justification of the research report. As we can see, the concepts of the introduction section are simple yet complex due to different stages that most of the students found confused and in return, hard to start a research report. Thus, this research is conducted to identify and to compare the different ideas of introduction section of five selected articles that resolve around industrial chemistry especially water management. The ideas that are investigated include i) are every stages mentioned by the former writers included in most of the modern research reports nowadays and ii) to solve out a simple, clear, yet proper guideline for writing a research report. The articles that were chosen are summarized in Table I-1. Research Title Article 1 Effect of Liquid Swine Manure rate, Incorporation, and Timing of Rainfall on Phosphorus Loss with Surface Runoff Brett L. Allen Antonio P. Mallarino Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010. 2008 Researcher(s) Affiliation Year

Determination of Dominant Biogeochemical Processes in a Contaminated AquiferWetland System Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Susan E. Bez-Cazull

Texas A&M University, 3115 TAMU College Station, Texas 77843.

2008

Jennifer T. McGuire

Isabelle M. Cozzarelli

USGS, 431 National Center, Reston, Virginia 20192.

Mary A. Voytek

USGS, 430 National Center, Reston,, Virginia 20192.

Reduction of Pathogen Indicator Organisms in dairy Wastewater Using an Ecological Treatment System

Jennifer A. Morgan

Environmental Science Graduate Program, the Ohio State University, 590 Woody Hayes Dr., Columbus, OH, 43210.

2008

Jay F. Martin Environmental Science Graduate Program, the Ohio State University, 590 Woody Hayes Dr., Columbus, OH, 43210. Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University 590, Woody Hayes Dr., Columbus. OH, 43210.

Armando E. Hoet

Department Veterinary Preventative Medicine, The Ohio State University, 1920 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH,

Thomas E. Wittum

Clifton M. Monahan

43210.

Smart Metering and Water End-Use Data: Conservation Benefits and Privacy Risks

Damien P. Giurco

Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 123 Broadway, New South Wales 2007, Australia.

2010

Stuart B. White

Rodney A. Stewart

Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Management, Griffith University, Gold Coast, PMB 50 Gold Coast Mail Centre, Queensland 9726, Australia.

Development of A Passive

Yingli Zhu

Micro/Nano

2009

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) Twin-Stack for Long-Term Operation

Tianliang Ma Technology and System of Liaoning Province, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province 116023, China.

Junsheng Liang

Micro/Nano Technology and System of Liaoning Province, dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province 116023, China. Precision and Non-traditional Matching Technology of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of

2009

Chong Liu Liding Wang

Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province 116023, China.

Table I-1 The research articles that were chosen are mostly from the internet website http://jeq.scijournals.org/ where different journals of different topics of

environmental issues regarding techniques from industrial chemistry are posted. For the others include www.sciencedirect.com and www.mdpi.com/journal/. Thus, the research has a negative potential possibility whereby the scope of research does not cover up the other types of journals that posted by different countries, different websites, or different libraries. Hence, a further research to determine the concept of introduction section for a research report is advisable to include journals from different background, different ethnics, different academic system or different evaluating system of research reports which should give a better and more scientific research report that gave an even better and clearer guideline. Nevertheless, the research that has been conducted does give a clearer guideline compared to before as the reference of the research covered up at least three websites and two different major systems i.e. Western Country academic system and Eastern Country academic system.

HYPOTHESIS: OUTLINE OF A GUIDELINE FOR WRITING UP A RESEARCH REPORT As mentioned in the introduction section, at least six different theories were stated and each theory carries its own idea in resolving the backbone of research report writing. However, the similarities of the six theories are clearly which summarized the outline of a guideline for writing up a research report. Therefore, a suggested outline is as Figure O-1.

General Statement or Overview

Stage 1

Problem Already Studied or Literature Review The Need for More Investigation or Limitation Objective of The Research or Purpose Value of Research or Justification
Figure O-1 The suggested outline is similar to the idea pressed by Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker. Thus, the introduction section of the research articles is evaluated in the hierarchy format as like Figure O-1.

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

METHOD The five articles that were chosen are mainly resolving about the environmental crisis especially water management; although one of the journal is about energy conserving by producing methanol fuel cell. As mentioned in the introduction, the sources of the journals are from three different website i.e. http://jeq.scijournals.org/ , www.sciencedirect.com and www.mdpi.com/journal/. The five articles are reviewed and compared about the differences of the introduction section. To be fair yet scientific, the journals chosen are all science related journals to avoid misinformation of the approached methods on introduction section. In addition, two different major academic systems i.e. Western Country academic system, e.g. United States, and Eastern Country academic system, e.g. China, are chosen to avoid bias situation. It is believed that different academic system might give rise to different theory or concept for introduction section of a research report. First and foremost, the articles are read through once to identify the location of the different sections. According to Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker, the different sections of a proper research report include Introduction (I), Method (M), Result (R) and Discussion (D). Therefore, a quick reading is needed to provide the outline on which part to be concentrated on. Next, the part marked introduction is reread to identify the five stages of the suggested outline of guideline for writing a research report. Each article should have a similar introduction but different approach of presenting the introduction. Hence, the similarities and differences are summarized as according to a drafted Table 1, where the numbers in the Stage column represent the different types of stages to be identified while the numbers in

the Research Article row represent the five chosen articles. A positive identification is represented by a + sign while a negative identification is represented by a - sign. At the last row, a total number is given for each of the research articles to summarize how much stages are appeared in the particular research articles. Research Article Stage 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total 2 3 4 5

After summarizing the results in Table 1, a discussion is carried out to identify the elements that are presence or absence in five of the chosen articles. Lastly, a proper guideline on writing up a research report is concluded by comparing with the six theories mentioned in the introduction section of this research report. The material used in this research is a general reference textbook titled Writing Up Research: Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English and written by Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker at year 1990. This textbook is

chosen as mentioned in the hypothesis that most of the theories or concepts of introduction section of a research report has a similarity to the one that pressed by Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker. (Referring Figure O-1.) Hence, it is used as a reference that functioned as the proper guideline for conducting this research before an even better or clearer method on writing up the introduction section of a research report is identified. In addition, this book also provides basic or fundamental information on what should be stated or mentioned in a research report i.e. IMRD. RESULT Research Article (RA) Stage 1 Setting Literature Review Needs for More Research Purpose or Hypotheses Value or Justification Organization or Structure Research Procedure or Brief Method Previewing Findings Total Number of Information 4 Elements 5 4 5 6 + + + + 2 + + + + + 3 + + + + 4 + + + + + 5 + + + + + +

Table 1. Distribution of Information Elements (Stages) in the Five Introduction Sections Related to Scientific Research Report

Table 1 shows the similarities and differences of the introduction sections of the five chosen articles. Out of the five articles, RA 5, Development of A Passive

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) twin-stack for Long-Term Operation, shows the
most information in the introduction section which clearly fits the suggested outline as the Figure O-1. RA 5 also presented a well-organized introduction as compared to the others where the setting or background of the introduction is stated clearly at the start of the section, followed by literature review which focused on the references the authors referred to. Next, limitation, objective and a brief method of the experiment are all stated clearly, in sequence and finally ended with a preview of the finding of the experiment. On the other hand, the research article that has the least information in the introduction section is RA 1, Effect of Liquid Swine Manure rate, Incorporation, and

Timing of Rainfall on Phosphorus Loss with Surface Runoff, and RA 3, Reduction of Pathogen Indicator Organisms in dairy Wastewater Using an Ecological Treatment System. Both of these articles were extracted from http://jep.scijournal.org/. The
reason for the lesser information might due to the fact where the authors focused in presenting the main ideas and conflict of ideas of the topics that they discussed, resulting in less adhere to the standard format of an introduction section. One of the important features i.e. setting or background of the research conducted is not stated in both of these research reports. However, both of the articles represent the setting of the research in the literature review stage where readers could interpret the background of the research conducted is more focused in a particular field and region. Nevertheless, both of these articles still presented the literature review and objective of the experiment which represent two of the most important ideas of an

introduction value. As comparison to RA 1 and RA 3, RA 2, Determination of

Dominant Biogeochemical Processes in a Contaminated Aquifer-Wetland System Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis, and RA 4, Smart Metering and Water End-Use Data: Conservation Benefits and Privacy Risks, have five stages that were presented
in the introduction section. Similar to both RA 1 and RA 3, literature review and objective of the experiment are both stated in the introduction section of the research reports. Differ to the others, RA 2 contains preview of the finding of the research conducted, similar to RA 5. As a brief summary of the similarities and differences of the five chosen articles, it is shown that 3 stages of the suggested outline based on the theory by Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker are presented in the research reports. These stages include literature review, the needs for more research and purpose of the study. Literature review is important and always presented due to the reason whereby it is the approach for authors to cite and to show respect to the articles, journals or books that they referred to. A research that is limited to different constraints, for example in this research was the insufficient amount of journals referred to, needs a further research or experiment to revise and to find out the best solution to the questions that were being discussed. Next, purpose or objective of the experiments are always included in research reports as it is the most important statement that orientate the readers on what the research articles are about. Contrary to the suggested outline, the stage 1, setting or background, is not always presented where only three out of the five reports presented it. This could be due to the fact where the five articles chosen are only scientific related journals which do not give a convinced idea that setting or background of the reports is not

important. Another stage that is not that much presented is stage 5, value or justification of the research conducted. This statement is not always included in a research report as justification of the research conducted does not really give the perspective needed to understand the experiment conducted. However,

unexpectedly deviated from the suggested outline, the modern and latest journals focus on the brief review of the method used in the research conducted. This new stage is added into the introduction to show and to guide the readers for a minimal requirement of the understanding needed for the normally complex methods that were used in the experiment. In addition, a preview of the outcome of the experiment is present in the introduction section for the modern research report. A preview of the outcome gives readers the perception of whether the articles are suitable for their going to be conducted researches. An example is shown on Table 2. Information Element/Stage Setting Example Recent years have witnessed increasing energy demand for commercial electronics and micro devices. The use of conventional battery technology is

problematic due to battery self-discharge, number of recharge cycles and environmental impact. [1] Literature Review Guo and Cao [4] proposed a capillary pump which provided a much simpler, cost effective and reliable fuel delivery system for DMFCs. In this system, methanol and water were carried separately and mixed in situ during fuel cell operation. Needs for Further Research The connection methods that have been reported

include bipolar plate [8], banded [9] and flip-flop [10] configuration. However, bipolar plate structure can hardly be utilized in passive mode because liquid fuel and ambient air are difficult to deliver, and flip-flop interconnection is complicated because reactant chambers must alternate between liquid fuel and ambient air. Purpose This paper presents the design and fabrication of a planar banded DMFC twin-stack with a total active area of 32 cm2 which can be used in portable applications such as radios, sensor node and palmtop computers. Research Procedure The fuel was driven by CO2 from an accessible fuel reservoir, while the oxygen was supplied from the ambient air. Banded method was adopted to the interconnection of the stack, which eliminated auxiliary wire and contact resistive loss. Preview Finding Experimental results showed that the stack had low inherent resistance and continuously powered a sensor node for 39 h with the consumption of 80 ml of 4 M methanol solution.

Table 2. Example of Information Elements in the Five Introduction Section/s Related to Scientific Research Report

DICUSSION According to the results found in this research, it is shown that the outline presented by Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker at year 1990 is not wholly followed by the modern research reports at recent years. Instead of dividing the stages of introduction section to five different stages, the latest outline includes brief method of the experiment and preview of the finding of the experiment, which in return gives rise to six steps i.e. setting, literature review, the needs for further research, purpose, brief method of the experiment and preview of the finding of the experiment. There is only one stage that is always absent in the research report which is justification. This might due to the fact that most of the authors nowadays assume readers to understand and to interpret the justification or value of the experiment through the preview of the finding stated mostly at the end of the research reports. Next, it might seem that the recent outline of the introduction section corresponds with the outline presented by John Bowden at 1994 where seven stages are included. However, out of the seven stages, only four of the stages are similar to the stages stated by John Bowden which includes reason for conducting the experiment, limitation or the needs for further research, literature review and method of working. However, latest theory which comes from four authors, Lakshmy Anantha Krishnan, Rowena Jong, Sujata S. Kathpalia and Tam Moh Kim, pressed that instead of defining each of the ideas into different and separated ideas, the introduction section of a modern research report includes background, objectives and scopes. As the modern research reports do not follow much on the standard format of a proper guideline of introduction section. Thus, the literature review,

justification, brief of method, preview of finding, or even structure, which is most of the time less presented, are all summarized within a single stage, scopes. However, as much as the research reflected the current adaption of the modern introduction section in a research report, there are some factors that give rise to improper or unscientific conclusion or interpretation according to the journals chosen. Firstly, the journals chosen are all scientific related journals. This posted great misleading information as it is clearly proved that the most of the scientific research reports do not follow the exact format of an introduction guideline i.e. RA 1 and RA 3, where authors always directly start from literature review to bring out the issues the scientists researched on. Therefore, it would be wise and more scientific if the journals chosen to be compared with are both scientific and linguistic in the ratio of 50 : 50, which in terms of probability should give rise to a more proper guideline. Secondly, the journals chosen should be in a large amount. Only five articles were chosen to be reviewed and compared with in this research which the results might be inaccurate especially the sources of the journals are mostly from the same website i.e. http://jep.scijournal.org/. It is advised that different websites might hold different kind of journals which will show contradiction with some of the theories pressed by the scholars. Other than that, the journals chosen should comprised different researches that were conducted in different countries of the world as different academic system of different countries might give rise to different theories for introduction section. Thus, inclusive of various types of journals and various sources in a huge amount should help in getting more scientific results. As a summary, Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker presented a guideline for introduction section that still remained as a reference for writing up a proper

research report. However, it is also proved that the modern research report writing technique does not emphasize too much on the other information other than objective of study, reason for study and scope of study. Nevertheless, a simple, clear yet proper standard guideline of writing a research report is finalized and summarized as below.

Setting or Background - reason for conducting an experiment or research Objective or Purpose - the main focus of the experiment or research conducted - the hypothesis of the experiment

Scopes of the Research - Literature Review : citation and reference of the experiment or research conducted - Limitation or Needs for Further Research : suggesting a proper and better planned research to conquer the limitations or hindrances the previous researchers experienced. - Brief Method or Short Review of Method : orientating the readers the complexity of the upcoming ideas or methods that were used in the experiment or research - Preview Finding or Short Preview of the Solution Founded : A preview of the solution or conclusion to the hypothesis or objectives of the experiment or research.

Optional: Value or Justification - a justification by the author on the experiment or research conducted.

REFERENCE 1. Sam F. Trelease, 1982, How To Write Scientific & Technical Papers, page 34. 2. Robert Weissberg, Suzanne Buker, 1990, Writing Up Research: Experimental Research Report Writing For Students of English, page 20 40. 3. John Bowden, 1994, How To Write A Report, page 22 23. 4. Simon Mort, 1995, Professional Report Writing, page 30. 5. R.E. Wyllys, 2002, Evaluating Reports of Research : Introduction To Research In Library And Information Science http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~wyllys/IRLISMaterials/evaluatingres.html 6. Lakshmy Anantha Krishnan, Rowena Jong, Sujata S. Kathpalia and Tam Moh Kim, 2006, Engineering Your Report 2nd Edition, page 32 43.