Question

An article contains a few sections. Please define each, discuss what purpose they serve, and provide examples of what each may contain. Make sure to include the components of an article’s literature review section and why we need them in studies

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate on the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The following are typical sections in a general format of a scholarly article:

1. Title – This is a very straightforward section. It is basically the name chosen for the article that will be reflective of the subject, the execution or the goal itself. For instance, “Causes for pay parity between genders in the professional sphere.” This is obviously a study about the reasons for unequal pay between men and women.

2. Abstract – This is where the entire article is concisely explained. This part talks about the subject, how the research was conducted, the method of calculating the result and the conclusions of the study. A reader should be able to understand all that the article is about by simply reading these 10-12 lines. In the abstract, the writer might also mention the names of the researchers.

3. Introduction – In this paragraph, the writer might talk about the history of the issue and the effects in present times. These are important points as they are generally also the reason for picking the subject. For instance, the researcher would talk about how gender roles throughout history caused the perception of men being the breadwinners and how this has led to the traditional though affecting how we value work done by men and women.

4. Literature Review – This is where the writer would talk about authors in the past who have conducted similar studies if any. Furthermore, the writer might talk about how the data from these past studies have helped the researchers amend the information to this study in order to sharpen the results.

5. Methods – This is where the work of the researchers is mentioned in detail. For instance, interviews, surveys, experiences of subjects, experiments or whatever research methodology the researcher might have used in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of the subject.

6. Results – In this section, the results of the research methodology are represented empirically through charts, graphs, correlation, line-plotting and such calculations. This brings about transparency and helps the reader understand the research mathematically and scientifically. Researchers in the future or readers might use it to determine validity, replication or real-world application. That is why this is an essential section as it can show whether the researcher has genuine results or not.

7. Discussion and/or Conclusions – This is where the researcher talks about whether the hypothesis was proved or disproved. They talk about the research questions they had before the study and whether or not they were answers and the answers itself. They might also discuss any extraneous findings or unique discoveries that they were not expecting to find. They might even discuss whether the subject will be pursued further in the future or not.

8. References and Bibliography – Throughout the article, if there have been other studies, data and references used, it will be mentioned here. The books and papers used will be cited in this final section. This is generally in the form of a list that follows APA, AP, Chicago style, MLA, OP or other popular styles of citation. The citations in the list will be numbered and the numbers will correspond to footnotes throughout the paper in order to help the reader find the references in the paper itself.