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: Law and Letters

Sociology Run Amok's Template for an Academic Manuscript

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Previously, I posted Prof. Tina Fetner's template for a brief research statement.

Wicked Anomie (Sociology Run Amok) has posted a most useful template for an academic manuscript--it's more geared towards quantitative work, but a few modifications would make it just as good for a qualitative study:

"My Title And Abstract Include Keywords that Academic Search Engines will Pick Up Abstract

My study is about this. Here is why this problem is important. Here is what we know about this problem. These studies leave THIS IMPORTANT THING that needs to be found out. Here is what I will did find that out. I did the study this way. It produced these results.

Introduction (~2 pages)

Justification for Article (1 paragraph)

1. My study was motivated by this problem, question, or theory
2. Here is why this problem, question, or theory is important
3. Here is what we know about the problem, question, or theory
4. These studies leave THIS IMPORTANT THING that needs to be found out

Roadmap to Article (1 paragraph)

1. My study is about this
2. Here is what I did to find out the IMPORTANT THING that nobody's looked at yet
3. I did the study this way
4. It produced these results

Literature Review (~8 pages)

Option 1: Driven by a Theory

The theory (3 pages)
1. This is the theory I am interested in
2. This is the basis for the theory
3. Here are some people who've created/ contributed to the theory
4. This theory suggests these processes

The problem (3 pages)
1. This theory has been used to examine this problem
2. Here is how that connection is made
3. Here are some people who have made that connection already
4. This is what these people HAVEN'T sufficiently addressed

My unique contribution (3 pages)
1. Theory suggests this will happen.
2. Since this, this, and this have happened, I think there is evidence to support that
3. Here are my hypotheses

Literature Review (~8 pages)
Option 2: Competing Theories

The problem (3 pages)
1. This is the problem
2. Here are some people who have studied it
3. These are the ways in which their findings are contradictory

The first theory (2 pages)
1. This theory can be applied to the problem
2. It would explain the findings in these studies
3. However, it does not explain this

The second theory (2 pages)
1. This theory can be applied to the problem, too
2. It would explain the findings in these studies
3. However, it does not explain this

The synthesis (2 page)
1a. Combined, these theories explain more than they do alone
1b. These theories predict two completely different outcomes
2. Here's why
3. My research will examine both of these theories by doing this
4. Here are my hypotheses

Methods (~2 pages)

The Data/ Participants
1. I am using this dataset
2a. I collected it myself using this procedure
2b. It was collected by these people at this time
3. The people in the study have these characteristics (number, age, demographic, time, etc)

The Measures
1. My independent variables are measured using these items
2. I am justified in using these items for this reason
3. My dependent variables are measured using these items
4. I am justified in using these items for this reason
5. I am controlling for these things
6. I am justified in controlling for these things for this reason

Procedure
1. I am using this analysis/ these analyses
2. This is a good analysis/analyses to use for this reason
3. I used this stats package, made these changes, etc (for less common procedures)

Results (~8 pages)

My Study Has Integrity

1. I checked my measures for internal consistency

2. I checked for inter-coder reliability

3. I used this method of data reduction

4. I did everything necessary to make sure my data was good and right

Here are some Descriptives

1. This is what my population looks like

2. Here are how my measures look

3. This is what my population does on these measures

Hypothesis 1 (then 2, 3...k)

1. Remember, this was my hypothesis

2. This is what I did to test it

3. Here are the results

4. This is what that means

5. My hypothesis was right/wrong/partially supported

Discussion/Conclusion (~5 pages)

A brief review for those who skipped the Results section
1. Here's a brief paragraph explaining what I found
2. Here is how my findings inform the paper's central problem/question/theory

Limitations
1. Here's what limitations are SPECIFIC TO MY STUDY
2. These limitations might have affected the study in this way

Future Research
1. Perhaps someone in the future can address these limitations in their own study
2. My findings raised these questions

But remember,my study also answered these questions
1. And it is important for this reason.
2. The take-home point is this. "

Thank you, Wicked Anomie!!!

Full post as published by Law and Letters on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).