How to write a paper in
Linguistics
Dr. Judith Yoel
Oranim, Writing Workshop
Dec. 17, 2012
To begin…
• Identify a topic worthy of research and of
interest to you.
• Situate your work within a certain area.
• Propose a specific research question.
• Become familiar with the literature in this
area.
Your objectives…
• Write a coherent paper discussing your topic
in an objective and reliable manner.
• Illustrate knowledge of basic linguistic
concepts and of the relevant literature.
• Present clear and well-organized research
findings.
Writing style
• Adhere to the standards and conventions of
academic English (e.g., spell out
abbreviations) and APA.
• Use present tense.
• Keep your language precise and concise.
• Use an analytical style.
Typographic conventions
Remember that you need:
• 1.5-2 spacing
• 12 point font, New Times Roman
• Page numbers (in header) and standard margins
• Division into sections and sub-sections
• Examples that are set aside from the text and
numbered consecutively and indented.
• References, both in the body of your paper and at
the end.
The Structure
A cover page
A Table of Contents
An abstract (for a longer paper)
An introduction
A review of the literature
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Appendix /Appendices
References
Table of Contents
Headings in sections and sub-sections are numbered as
1, 1.1, 1.2, etc., with 1.1 and 1.2 indented slightly.
1. Introduction
1.1 Sound patterns in English
1.2 Phonological awareness
Figures and tables are numbered consecutively, each
with a number and a title.
An Abstract
• This is a summary of your paper.
• Situate your paper within a scholarly context .
• State your hypothesis clearly.
• Ensure that the theoretical framework is clear.
• Present your methods, the data and your
analysis, as well as your conclusions.
The Introduction
• Present the field and your topic as it has been
narrowed down to a specific scope .
• Declare the significance of your work.
• Your topic must be contextualized within a
theory.
• Present a clear hypothesis.
• Foreshadow how your paper will continue.
Literature Review
• Carry out a critical review of the literature.
• The topic you have chosen should fit into the framework of
your literature review.
• Identify key issues, concepts, and themes, strengths,
weakness and gaps in the existing literature.
• Ensure that you include recent research and main
researchers in the field.
• Avoid the temptation to over-quote.
Literature review: An example
There are reports in the language acquisition literature
that infants show some limited comprehension of
words beginning at approximately nine months of age
(Huttenlocher, 1974; Benedict, 1979). Yet, other studies
suggest that comprehension skills are quite limited
even at 11 months, and that it is not until around 15
months that infants show signs of comprehending and
recognizing novel words (Oviatt, 1980, Thomas,
Campos, Shucard, Ramsay & Shucard, 1981).
http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/students/postgraduate/documents
/LELGuidance.pdf
Referencing in the body of your paper
• In-text citation is preferable over footnotes.
• Choose quotes selectively – quality over
quantity.
• Integrate citations smoothly into your text.
• Avoid secondary sources where possible.
Citation: Examples
a. “Salience [and cross-linguistic influence]
seem[] to interact in the acquisition of the
English definite article by Finnish speakers”
(Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008:185).
b. Following Lakoff and Johnson (1980) I will
argue that the concept of TIME is
conceptualized and structured metaphorically
in terms of orientation and movement in
space.
An Example
Examples are indented, numbered and often
followed by a gloss.
Abide by the conventions e.g., <e> -
orthographic representation, [e] – phonetic
transcription, /e/ - phonemic symbols, etc.
(3) Ha safta menasheket et ha-yalda
(the grandmother kisses ACC the girl)
(Friedman & Novogrodsky 2001:7).
Methods
Include:
• How your data were collected.
• Who the participants are.
• Your corpus or materials.
• The type of analysis you carried out (e.g.,
quantitative or qualitative) and your
procedure.
• How you analyzed or coded your data.
Results
• Present your findings; remain objective.
• This is a summary of what you have
discovered.
• Visual representations (e.g., tables, charts,
etc. ) are a common form of representation,
but these alone do not suffice. They must be
summarized and accompanied by text.
Tables, graphs, charts and figures
• These summarize results and allow the reader
to view the results. Choose a suitable format
and title for your results.
• Visual representations are not self-evident.
Accompany visuals with clear explanations.
• Label all aspects of visual representations
(e.g., the axes of graphs). Check APA
guidelines (e.g., All tables are centered).
Discussion
• This should follow logically.
• Discuss what your results mean. You may
mention:
- shortcomings of your work.
- the theoretical and practical implications of
your work.
- areas for future, potential research.
Conclusions
• This should relate back to your introduction.
Share your main findings and address whether
or not they support your hypothesis.
• Relate your findings to the research of others.
• This section should be clear, explicit and
conclusive and it should wind down naturally.
References
• All ideas, quotations, etc. taken from elsewhere must
be referenced, both in the body of your paper and at
the end of the paper. Taking someone else’s words
without referencing them is plagiarism.
• Cite only those references you have used.
• Make sure that you have complete information about
references (e.g., page numbers, place of publication,
etc.).
• Consult APA guidelines to check that your referencing
is formatted correctly (e.g., spacing, use of commas
and periods, etc.).
Appendix
• This section is where you include data that are
too comprehensive to be included within the
text. You may wish to include material from
your procedures (e.g., a questionnaire) and
data that does not appear, in full, in the body
of the paper.
• These items must also appear in your Table of
contents.
Writing Tips
* Define your topic carefully before you begin.
* Read, read and read some more. Make notes as you read.
* Set yourself deadlines.
* Draw up an outline. Get feedback before you continue.
* For seminar papers - write a rough draft. Get feedback.
* Record your references in full.
* Write! As you write, stop and print out
your work and read it aloud.
* Save your paper in multiple locations.
