English 301 Week 6

*Even if only 50% of employers read cover letters, that is still a 50% chance of persuading someone to hire you.

A College Board survey: “writing is a ticket to professional opportunity,

. The very act of making complex ideas accessible to others will often strengthen writers’ understanding of key concepts

 REMEMBER:

 Researchers assume that if a hypothesis proves accurate in the sample population, it will prove accurate in the larger target population as well. 

Another key question to ask when evaluating research findings is who is funding the study or benefiting from it. A research study funded by a pharmaceutical company that has a vested interest in the success of a prescription drug may be more prone to bias. While funding or sponsorship from an interested party does not automatically disqualify a study, the results should be carefully scrutinized and compared with other research findings.

> Rather than asking if consumers preferred the taste of New Coke to classic Coca-Cola, they should have asked if consumers wanted a new Coke

*Most primary research reports and published scientific research reports follow the IMRaD pattern (introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

INTRO

- State the problem or issue the research hopes to address. 

- Summarize current research in the area. 

- Point out a gap in the current research. 

- Explain how the current research will fill that need

METHODS

- Describe, in detail, the research instrument you used (survey, experiment, case study).

- If your research involved human subjects, explain how they were selected. 

- Explain how you gathered and analyzed the data

*RESULTS: The writer’s key task in this section is to identify key trends in the data and to present that data without commentary.

DISCUSSION

- Identify key findings and explain how they shed light on your research question. 

- Discuss how your findings did or did not align with your expectations or previous research. 

- Identify any flaws in the study and suggest areas for further research. 

- Explain how your research findings will contribute to the field or impact current practice.

>While most sentences benefit from a strong, active voice construction, some writing situations require writers to use the passive voice. The truth is both active voice and passive voice sentences are grammatically correct. When we choose between the two, we are making a stylistic choice. Just as we select the clothes we wear based on what the situation or environment demands

>,,,if the writer is sharing a story, unspooling it word-by-word and sentence by sentence, but it is less effective at communicating complex processes and relationships. In such cases, a well-conceived illustration or chart will allow readers to take in the data and its various relationships all at once, increasing their understanding. How do you select the best visual to communicate the data? The key test of any graphic is whether or not it improves readers’ understanding.

...the graphics should serve as a natural extension of the text.

*Imagine you are presenting a PowerPoint presentation to a large audience. Just as you would never project a table or graph on screen without explaining what it means or how it is connected to your point, never drop a graphic into a report without introducing it and explaining what it means

GOALS:

1. • Jason Fried, president and co-founder of 37signals, a company that creates web-based productivity tools, urges business owners to “hire great writers”:
     “If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer. It doesn’t matter if that person is a marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever; their writing skills will pay off. That’s because being a good writer is about more than writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in any candidate.”
2. Reflect on Fried’s claims. How has improving your writing skills better prepared you for the workplace?