Research Papers: A Detailed Study of Articles from Different Fields

Pintos and Crimi (2011) have described research papers as consisting of some basic components such as title, abstract, acknowledgements, introductions, literature reviews, methods results, discussions, recommendations, references and appendixes. The present article provides a comparative analysis of an educational article and a paper in the medicine field on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in order to clarify the similarities and differences regarding their introductions, literature reviews and methods sections.

Zentall (n.d.) in his article on the educational implications of ADHD refers to the current state in the academic world by providing statistic data as well as what has been investigated so far about the disorder:

Studies examining the academic achievement of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) indicate that they are more likely than children without disabilities to receive lower grades in academic subjects and lower scores on standard measures of reading and math (Barkley, Fischer,Edelbrock, and Smallish, 1990; Wener, 1990, p.188 as cited in Zentall, n.d.)

By contrast, (“Free research paper example on ADHD,” n.d.) introduces the topic of the paper with an extended definition explaining its etymology, in addition to its causes and subtypes. The unknown author also fails to mention the left-aside issue in the introduction and goes directly to the third step by stating the purpose of the research and announcing the nature and structure of the article.

            Furthermore, Zentall (n.d.) presents a little amount of information about previous investigations while (“Free research paper example on ADHD,” n.d.) provides the literary review in the body of the paper claiming that there is considerable controversy surrounding the issue and that his paper is based on that debate: “This essay deals with some of the debates in an attempt to simplify the issues” (para.1).

Moreover, considering the methods section none of the studies follow the principles of process paragraphs. They are not organized in sections, nor do they consist of logically connected steps and procedures. According to American Psychological Association (APA, 2007), “Methods sections are mainly written following the principles of process paragraphs”. Thus, the reader can not easily visualize the structure and finds it difficult to understand the details of the research.

All in all, research papers share special requirements regarding the format of the introduction, literature reviews and methods sections. Depending on the source of the materials analyzed, the steps necessary to write a successful research paper in the academic world have to be recognized in order to value the importance of the investigation and to provide the reader with an overview of the main characteristics of different kind of academic documents.

References

American Psychological Association (2007). Concise rules of APA style. Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

Free research paper example on ADHD (n.d.). Retrieved April 2011 from,http://anyfreepapers.com/free-research-papers/adhd-research-paper.html

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: The research article: Introduction, literature review and methods section. Universidad CAECE, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved October 2010, from http://www.caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7392

Zentall, S. (n.d.) Research on the educational implications of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Retrieved April 2011, from

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000235556