Category: Writing
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How to think about academic writing in the social sciences
With so many parts to write in a research article, academic writing can seem overwhelming. How should we think about academic writing? In this post, to help with your thinking, I present a simple philosophy of academic writing in the social sciences. It acknowledges who we are and is rooted…
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Academic Writing for Psychology Students
This is for the course “Critical Academic Writing” taught, in English, at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Psychology. This course is designed to teach first-year MA students in psychology the skills necessary for academic writing in English in order to write a quantitative, high-quality MA thesis. A high-quality MA…
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How to write the results section of a research article in the social sciences
When you analyze data, your readers will want to know the results. But, you have lots of data and lots of analyses. How can we best write the results section of an empirical research article in the social sciences? Articles on writing empirical research articles in the social sciences Some…
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How to write the theory section of a research article in the social sciences
Every empirical research article in sociology and political science requires a theory section. When you conduct research with data, there are dozens of concepts and theories to choose from. However, only some can fit into the theory section. What to do? This post provides some commonsense tips on how to…
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Writing Habits and Writing Strategies
Staring at a white Word doc or looking up at a mountain of scrap notes — you may find yourself stuck. You are stuck because you need to write the draft of the article, but you find it hard to write. What to do? In this post, we discuss writing…
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Some Tips on Finding Research Grants
Tips for researchers to obtain grant funding In addition to the top tips for grant writing, I gathered some tips by Jonathan O’Donnell in a blog post for LSE. With shrinking funding options and more and more PhDs in the world, how to get grants? Some tips if you are… A Reviewer…
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How to Write the Introduction to a Research Article in the Social Sciences
What is an introduction? Empirical research articles in the social sciences require, among other parts, a title, an abstract, and an introduction. Introductions in social science articles are short — about 3 to 6 paragraphs, depending on the journal and approach. They are at the beginning of empirically-based research articles…
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10 Tips for Writing Research Grant Proposals
What are the best practices for writing research grant proposals? To fund their research projects, academics apply for research grants from governments and philanthropies. Research grant writing has become a fundamental activity of academic researchers in sociology, psychology, and political science. But grant writing is difficult, even for experienced social…
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Choosing Concepts: An Application of Gerring’s Typology to Max Weber’s Class, Status, and Party
In a previous article, we discussed John Gerring’s (1999) typology of how to choose a concept. In this article, we apply this to a famous set of concepts by sociologist Max Weber. Class, Status and Party Let’s apply what we have learned about concepts to a classic, German sociologist Max…
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What is a concept? How should we choose a concept?
When we write social science articles, we write about concepts. What is a concept? How do we choose the right one? Defining “Concept” A dictionary definition of concept is that it is “an abstract idea.” It is a thought. For a thought to move from your head to the page…
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Writing the Acknowledgements Section of a Research Article
Who should you acknowledge in a research article in the social sciences? Many things went right (and, perhaps wrong) in your writing of a research article in the social sciences. You should acknowledge the help that you received. But, who should you acknowledge? The ethical core of an acknowledgment section…
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Authorship and Substantial Contributions
This post discusses the issue of academic authorship. We ask, who is an author? An author is someone who makes a substantial contribution. Since that is not very satisfying, we must also ask, what is a substantial contribution? In previous posts, we discussed the structure of empirical articles in the…
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Writing the Conclusion Section of a Research Article in the Social Sciences
All good things must come to an end — even your empirical research article in the social sciences. In terms of structure and content, of all of the sections, the conclusion section of a research article in the social sciences has the fewest common expectations and the greatest variability. What…
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Data Write-up: The Who, What, When, Where, and Why
You are an investigator. You collect data to test your theory and prove your point. You and journalists are similar. In writing their articles, journalists are taught to answer five questions: who, what, when, where, and why. This post tells you how to write the data and methods section of…
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Outline of the Structure of Research Articles in the Social Sciences
Why is the structure important? You are building an article. The structure is key. A social scientist reading an empirical article in a social science journal expects that the article has a familiar organizational structure. The author’s job is to satisfy the audience. You can satisfy the audience by satisfying…
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