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Research Components

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Instructional Material Updated September 2018

Research Components
Parlindungan Pardede
[email protected]
English Education Department
Universitas Kristen Indonesia

Abstract
Research is essentially a process involving six steps. However, a research does not
merely involve a sequence of activities. During its implementation, a research also utilizes
certain instruments and materials and involves a number of, participants, methods and
techniques, in addition to the series of activities. All of them are called the research
components, with which one has to be familiar in order to get a comprehensive
understanding of research. This module discusses various components commonly included
in a research. The research components are studied in the context of a research report, not
in the situation when a research is being implemented, because to directly verify every
research component would be time and energy consuming. Therefore, the most realistic way
to study those components is by looking them in the research report. By getting a good
understanding of these components, readers will not only get a more comprehensive of
research but also get the skills on how to write a research report.

Keywords: research components, introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion,

conclusion.

INTRODUCTION
Discussions in both Module 1 and 2 reveal that research is fundamentally a process of
discovering new knowledge and/or using existing knowledge in a new and creative way so
as to generate new concepts, methodologies and understandings. Module 1 (Pardede,
2018a) focuses on the six steps involved in the research process. It describes research as a
series of linked activities moving from the identification of a problem, reviewing the literature,
specifying the purpose, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting the data, and ends with
reporting and evaluating research. However, as discussed in Module 2 (Pardede, 2018b),
conducting a research is more than engaging in those six steps because the investigator
should also design and carry out the study in either quantitative or qualitative approach.
Although the research process is generally similar in both research approaches, they have
some differences different in terms of methods of data collection, data processing, analysis
procedures, and styles for communicating the findings. The chosen research design will then
inform the procedures involved in the steps that follow, including sampling, data collection
instruments, data collecting procedures (protocols), data analysis, interpretation of results,
and style of reporting.
To a certain extent, the discourse emphasizing research as a process in the previous
modules may bear the impression that a research mainly involves a sequence of activities.
This can cause an incomplete understanding of a research. To avoid the impression, it is
necessary to note that during its implementation, in addition to the series of linked activities, a

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research utilizes certain instruments and materials and involves a number of, participants,
methods and techniques. All of them are called the research components. Familiarizing
oneself with research components is necessary for getting a comprehensive understanding
of research. This module aims to achieve that objective. It discusses various components
commonly included in a research, particularly the title, authors name, abstract, introduction,
literature review, method, results, discussion and conclusion.
Just like in the previous modules, to solidify and deepen your understanding of the
concepts discussed in this module, two real research articles are employed as
examples, i.e. Pardede (2011), Pardede (2015) and Nazara (2015). Thus, before you
proceed studying the following sections, it is necessary for you to first read the articles.
After learning this module, you are supposed to be able to analyze the research
components in two selected research articles.

RESEARCH REPORT COMPONENTS

As mentioned above, research components include the instruments, materials,
activities, participants, methods and techniques involved a research. Familiarity to those
components are required in order to get more comprehensive understanding of research.
However, to directly verify every component of a research being conducted would be time
and energy consuming. That’s why, the most realistic way to get to know those components
is by looking them in the final product or the research report. In addition to get a more
comprehensive understanding, studying this module will also provide you the skills to write
a research report.
Figure 1 describes the typical format of ELT research paper which describes the
elements usually included in the paper. It should be noted that the format above belongs to
quantitatively oriented research articles. This format is used as a starting point to get an
appropriate idea of what components a research report should have, because quantitative
research reports use a relatively standard format for reporting, while qualitative research
articles are more wide-ranging in terms of organization.

Title
The title is a very essential component of a research paper because it serves four things.
First, it predicts content. Second, it catches the reader's interest. Third, it reveals the nature
or genre of the manuscript. Fourth, it contains keywords that will make it easy to access by
a computer search (Hairston & Keene, 2003, p. 73). Bavdekar (2016) supports this by
accentuating that a research paper title condenses the manuscript’s content in a few words
and captures readers’ attention. A good research article title should be able to concisely
introduce the research work to the fullest scope. It is also the entryway to the contents for it
is the first (and usually, also the only) part of an article that readers see. Based on the
meaning they got from the title, readers will decide if the article is relevant to them or not.
The title should, therefore, be specific and indicate the problem the research project had
addressed using keywords that will be helpful in literature reviews in the future.
Based on their construction, titles are typically categorized into four types: nominal
titles, compound titles, full sentence titles and question titles. Most titles are “nominal
titles" capturing the main theme of the paper e.g. Using Short Stories to Develop EFL
Learners’ Writing Competence. Compound titles, also called hanging titles, are those made
using a colon, e.g., “The Use of Short Stories to Develop EFL Writing Competence: Students’
Perception” is a compound title consisting of two phrases on either side of the colon. Full
sentence titles are apt to be longer and accentuate the outcome of the study, For example:
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29
“Blended learning implementation in ELT is essentially not a matter of following a trend but
a necessity”. Question titles are generally aimed to catch the reader's attention, e.g., “Is
blended learning implementation in ELT merely a matter of following a trend or a necessity?

TITLE
Name of author(s)

ABSTRACT

BODY
Introduction
A. Background
B. Statement of topic area

Literature review
A. Summary and synthesis of the major schools of thought s on the topic and a review of the relevant current
main findings reported on the chosen topic.
B. Conceptual framework (links the research variables which has been specified based on the findings in the
literature so that the research questions and hypothesis could be explicitly stated in the next subsection
C. Specific research question(s) and hypothesis to be tested.

Method
A. Participants
1. Who? How many?
2. Characteristics (male/female, proficiency level, native language, etc.)
3. Sampling Technique

B. Materials
1. What equipment? What Setting?
2. What data collecting instruments?

C. Procedures
1. How is the treatment to be administered?
2. How/when is the testing to be conducted?
3. What analysis techniques?

Results
Charts, tables, and/or figures accompanied by verbal descriptions

Discussion/Conclusion (often two separate sections)

Common features:
• Summary of conclusions
• Relation to other results
• Aberrant results
• Implications
• Grand summary (including summary, limitations and suggestions for future research)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

REFERENCES

Figure 1. Typical Research Paper Format

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 Soler’s (2007) analysis showed that the most popular title type used in both the social
sciences and (natural) sciences was the nominal title. Compound titles were used mostly in
the social sciences. The full sentence titles were employed only in the sciences. The question
type was rarely used and occurred mainly in Linguistics. Moattarian and Alibabaee (2015)
found nominal titles constituted more than three-fourths of the titles in the 420 analyzed
research articles. Its dominant use is due to its remarkable ability to make information
condensed in an economical way by means of various pre-and post-modifiers so that it is
more informative and explanatory than other structures. Consequently, research article
writer favors the nominal titles.
How many words the title of a research article should have? Most novice writers always
ask this question. Yet, there is no definite rules for this. Even journals hardly provide an
explicit limit in their instructions to authors. They instead favor phrases such as ‘clear and
concise’ or ‘brief and specific’. Soler (2007) found that titles in the three hard sciences she
investigated (biology, medicine, and biochemistry) contained more words (14.15–15.48
words per title) than titles in the soft sciences (ranging from an average of 7.98 words for
linguistics to 12.63 for psychology). While Moattarian and Alibabaee (2015) found the
average title length of articles in Applied Linguistics was 12.88 words, in Dentistry, 10.38
words; and Civil Engineering, 13.54 words.
Why do titles’ length vary? Yitzhaki (2002) found that articles with longer titles are more
likely to be longer in length. This probably due to the fact that longer articles are usually the
results of large projects and they are the major publication medium for the projects'
outcomes. Therefore they are longer in length.
To conclude, to write your research article title, do your best to make it meaningful and
specific by keeping in mind that a good title should: (1) indicate the article content; (2) catch
the reader's interest; (3) reflect the tone or slant of the piece of writing; and (4) contain
keywords that will make it easy to access by a computer search. The title should be neither
too short nor too long. A title consisting of 4 to 15 words will do. However, your title’s length
depends on the length of your article. Longer articles generally need longer titles. Finally,
since the nominal group is the most frequently used type in research articles, it’s safer to
write your title in that construction.

Name of author(s)
The purpose of including author’s names in a research article is to specify the individuals
responsible for the research presented in the article. In a research article context, authorship
indicates an “intellectual contribution” to the work, and that an author should be able to
explain and defend the work.
If a research article is written by more than one person, the most common way of
writing the authors name is by listing the names based on the amount of their contribution
to the work. In this way, the author with the largest contribution is put first and the remaining
authors are listed in descending order of effort. The second way is by putting the senior
author (the one responsible for overseeing the project) in the last, and the person that did
most of the day to day work on the project is listed first. The third way is to list the authors
alphabetically. However, this is no longer very common.
The authors’ e-mail address and institution are put under their names. The purpose is
to provide the readers with a way of contacting the authors and to indicate the institution(s)
at which the research was performed.

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Abstract
The abstract is the summary of the topic of the paper and the major findings of the
research. It is usually 100-200 words in length, although there is variation depending on the
policy of the journal in which the article is published. An abstract is usually one paragraph
long, and should concisely summarize why the reported research was conducted, how it was
conducted, what outcomes were obtained, and what conclusions were drawn. Thus, an
abstract provides maximum information with minimum words, covering (1) the gist of recent
finding of the topic; (2) the Objective; (3) Materials and Methods; (4) Results; and (5)
Conclusions. Different from an suggestive summary (such as a table of contents) which
describes the contents covered in the paper, the abstract provides actual data. It seems like
a minipaper which expresses particular messages on its own without referring to the paper
(Yang, 1999, p. 53). The Abstract is ended with “Keywords”, i.e. a list of 4 to 7 words or
phrases which capture the paper’s most important aspects. A good suggestion for
determining keywords is that while choosing keywords, imagine you are searching for your
article in some database.

Abstract

More and more recent studies have indicated the advantages of incorporating literary works in English as a
Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching. However, students’ interest and
perceptions of literature in this context have rarely been investigated. This study aims to investigate the interest
and perceptions of teachers training students majoring in English on the inclusion of short stories in language
skills classrooms. The study employed an explanatory mixed method design and used a questionnaire and
the focused semi-structured open-ended interview to collect the data. The participants were 45 sixth-semester
students of the English Education Program of FKIP-UKI. The findings revealed that most participants found
short stories interesting to use both as materials for self-enjoyment and of as components language skill
classes and believed that English teacher candidates should master the skills of employing short stories to
teach language skills. The statistical analysis revealed that the students’ interest and perceptions were
positively and significantly correlated, and both variables significantly affected each other. Therefore, including
short stories in language skills classrooms is advantageous. Curriculum designers, lecturers, and
policymakers are recommended to take students’ interest, perception, and perceived needs into consideration
in every curriculum and learning-material revision.
Keywords: short story, English teachers‟ training students, language skills classes

Figure 2. A Sample of Abstract

Along with the title, the abstract is one of the most important components of a research
article. After reading the title, readers normally scan the abstract to determine what the
authors found, and based on this information they decide whether they will read the rest of
the paper or not. The abstract is written using past tenses to describe the authors’ work and
present tenses for expressing general knowledge and other researchers’ work. Usually,
abbreviation is avoided in an abstract, except when it is very common in the field of the
research.
Figure 2 presents an abstract adapted from Pardede (2011). In this abstract, the two
initial sentences are devoted to past research. The third sentence informs the reader what
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32
this study is about and how it fills a gap in the literature. The fourth and the fifth concern
with methodology, and the sixth and the seventh tell about the results. The final two
sentences provide the conclusion and recommendation.

INTRODUCTION
A. Background
The exponential growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) during Background context
the past three decades has been revolutionizing education. Innovations in ICT covering the impact of
provide an expanding range of possible solutions for improving teaching and technological
learning inputs, processes, and outcomes (Pardede, 2012). ICT now offers plentiful development on learning
devices for developing and conveying audio-visual products, multimedia used to clarify the
presentations, visual materials and end-user software which could be easily applied problem and its
to create new learning and teaching practices. Those tools have offered an significance. See how
authentic learning environment making classes more motivating, pleasant and the context is supported
appealing to students and promotes learner interaction by engaging them in a wide with a summary of
variety of communicative tasks (Elliot, 2009). They also offer a variety of tools to previous research.
educators who are looking to extend learning beyond the classroom (Haygood,
Garner, & Johnson, 2012). As a result, more and more ICT tools have been
incorporated into the classrooms to create a varied learning environment to
enhance teaching and learning process and to address students’ individual
differences.
One of the most widely used online learning sites employed to complement More specific context to
English classes is Edmodo, a free and secure learning platform that is structured the study used to
as a social network. Edmodo looks similar to Facebook but is much more private identify the research
and safe for a learning environment because it allows only teachers to create and topic, i.e. “the use and
manage accounts, and only their students, who receive a group code and register effectiveness of Edmodo
in the group, can access and join the group (Majid, 2011). Edmodo provides as a complementary
teachers the opportunity to communicate with their students via private and public learning tool in EFL
messages, send alerts and announcements, award badges, post assignments, classes”. The topic
discussions, polls, and quizzes, assign grades, share resources, layout course identification is also
calendar and create small groups for projects. Via Edmodo, students can connect supported with a
easily to their teachers, send questions, upload files and links to their backpack (e- summary of previous
library), submit assignments, take quizzes, collaborate, share, discuss, and research.
participate in polls. Edmodo use depends heavily on the teachers and on the
features they utilize in their teaching process.
Various studies have been conducted on various aspects of Edmodo use Showing the
in education. Enriquez (2014) focused on the introduction and usage of research gap and why
Edmodo in education; Balasubramanian, Jaykumar & Fukey (2014) dealt the present study is
with student’s preference and determination in the use of Edmodo; Batsila, beneficial to conduct
Tsihouridis, Vavougios (2014) focused on teacher opinions; and Looi &
Using future tenses
Yusop (2011) investigated the benefits of using Edmodo to the teaching and
since this proposal is a
learning of reading. Yet, studies focusing on students’ perception of its plan
usage and effectiveness in EFL teacher education is very rare. This study
was carried out as an attempt to fill in the gap. It was aimed to investigate Statement of topic area
the pre-service EFL teachers’ readiness to use Edmodo as a complementary
learning tool in their English classroom. The results of this study wouldl
hopefully give language teachers or educators insight on learners’ attitudes
toward a technology-embedded instruction and valuable information to
advance new practices and methodologies containing social networking
tools for making a difference for learning in today’s pre-service EFL teacher
education.
Figure 3. A Sample of Introduction

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Introduction
The introduction sets the scene and provides the reader with background information (a brief
overview of the topic and the reasons for conducting the research). These background
information are necessary for readers to understand the rests of the paper.
The general format for an introduction is as follow: (1) Statement of topic area,
covering the problem background in a broad scope written in a single paragraph; (2) Specific
problem to be studied, reasons why it was important to study (e.g. by showing gap in
research), and how it applied to the larger field of research written in two to three paragraphs;
(3) Clear statement of objectives and research question(s) (or hypothesis for experimental
study), plus the explanation of concepts or definitions of operational terms used (if any) in
a single paragraph.
The length of an introduction depends on the journal’s policy, but it typically occupies
10-15% of the paper. It is generally around 400-600 words. Thus, it must avoid unnecessary
background information and repeating the same information. Exaggerating the importance
of the work and claiming novelty without a proper literature search should also be avoided.
However, it should be noted that in many (but not all) qualitative research articles, the
literature review is integrated into the introduction section. This makes the introduction
section of such articles becomes much longer.
Figure 3, adapted from Pardede (2015) illustrates an Introduction section of a research
article. It is taken from a mixed methods research manuscript studying the perceptions of
pre-service EFL teachers towards the use of Edmodo as a complementary learning tool.

Literature Review
A literature review is a search, summary and evaluation of the available past and current
literature related to the research problem. The literature can include articles, abstracts,
reviews, monographs, dissertations, other research reports, textbooks and electronic media,
and since ELT is very dynamic due to the progressive accelerating number of publication,
the sources included in a literature review should be quite recent so that the research article
will not become out-of-date when it is published. In general, the reviewer should include
sources published in the last 10 years. The only exception here is in situations when authors
literally cannot access recent texts. In the field of ELT this could happen in translation and
error analysis areas.
As it has been stated in the previous section, many (but not all) qualitative research
articles integrate the literature review into the introduction section. This makes the
introduction section of such articles becomes much longer. However, when the introduction
and the literature review are separated, their space will be much longer. In relation to this,
more and more journals tend to require authors to integrate the introduction section with the
literature review (including in quantitative research articles), because of space limitation in
journals. Despite that tendency, the introduction section and the literature review are treated
independently in other research reports, i.e. undergraduate final project, thesis, and
dissertation.
The literature review needs to be handled seriously because it serves for some
important purposes. First, and this is the major purpose of reviewing the literature, it defines
what has already been done concerning your research topic. Such knowledge not only avoids
you from accidentally replicating another person’s investigation but also offers insight to put
your topic within a logical frame. In short, it tells you what has been done and what needs to
be done. It presents the rationale for your study hypothesis and helps you rationalize the
significance of your investigation.
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 Secondly, literature review also offers you the prospect to discern research strategies
and specific data collection approaches that have or have not been made in the studies of
topics related to yours. Such information will assist you to avoid other researchers’ mistakes
and profit from their experiences. It may propose methods and techniques you had
previously not considered. For example, suppose your research topic involved the
comparative effects of blended learning approach implementation versus the face-to-face
learning on the achievement of tenth graders’ writing skills. The review of literature probably
reveals five related studies that found no differences in achievement. Several of the studies,
however, might suggest that the new blended learning approach may be more effective for
certain kinds of students than for others. Thus, you might reformulate your topic to involve
the comparative effectiveness of blended learning approach versus face-to-face learning on
the achievement of a subgroup of tenth graders, i.e., those with low aptitude.
The third significance of literature review is that your understanding with previous
research helps you interpret your study results. The results can be interpreted by showing
that they agree or disagree with previous findings. If they controvert previous findings, you
can show the differences between your study and the others and offer a rationale for the
inconsistency. If your results are consistent with other findings, your report should include
recommendations for the next step; if they are inconsistent, you can recommend future
studies to resolve the conflict.
Finally, literature review also shows your readers that you have an in-depth grasp of
your subject; and that you understand where your own research fits into and adds to an
existing body of agreed knowledge. This can increase your article’s credibility.
Literature review have some types and your decision to use a specific type should be
based upon your research area, research problem and research methods. Grant and Booth
(2009) identified fourteen review type. However, the most popular types are the following:
narrative, historical, integrative, argumentative, methodological and systematic literature
review.
Narrative literature review is always called the traditional literature review. It
summarizes, criticizes and draws conclusions about a topic to identify gaps or
inconsistencies in a body of knowledge. In a research, this type of literature review could be
used if one has got a sufficiently focused research question. However, this review has two
weaknesses: it could be difficult to draw conclusions due to the large number of studies to
review, and the process is subject to bias for the writer may tend to consider only the studies
that support his own work
Historical literature review centers on probing research in a period of time. It often
starts with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then
tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. It aims to place research in a
historical context to reveal familiarity with the developments of relevant issue, concept,
theory, and phenomena concerning the research problem and to identify the likely directions
for future research (University of Southern California, 2018).
Integrative literature review is used to summarize and synthesize past empirical or
theoretical literature to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a specific
phenomenon or problem. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as
primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication (University of Southern California,
2018). Such a review is generally written when an author aims to produce a conceptual paper
to provide the state of the science, or contribute to theory development, or suggest direct
applicability to practice and policy. To produce such paper, the writer analyzes, synthesizes
and integrates secondary data (including related hypotheses or research problems) about a
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research topic to produce new frameworks and perspectives on the topic. Pardede’s (2007)
article, which discusses current principal concepts of critical reading skills in order to
suggest some tips for helping EFL students develop critical reading skills, is an example of
paper based on the integrative literature review.
Argumentative literature review, as the name implies, examines literature selectively in
order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical
problem already established in the literature (University of Southern California, 2018). It is
worth noting that the argumentative literature review has a main shortcoming, i.e. the
potential for bias. This type is usually assigned to students to develop academic writing
skills.
Methodological literature review focuses on examining methods of analysis in present
related research articles. Thus, it concerns with “how” research findings came about, not on
“what” (or the findings) the researchers discovered. This type of review provides a framework
of understanding of the substantive fields, research approaches, sampling, interviewing,
data collection, and data analysis techniques. This approach supports to emphasize the
ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you are conducting your study.
Systematic literature review is the best known type of review. It seeks to systematically
draw together all known knowledge on a topic area. Therefore, it requires more demanding
and well-defined approach compared to most other types of literature review. It is
comprehensive and details the timeframe within which the literature was selected.
Systematic literature review is differentiated into two categories: meta-analysis and meta-
synthesis. The former is conducted by taking findings from several studies on the same
subject and analyze them using standardized statistical procedures. Meta-analysis detect
patterns and relationships and draw conclusions based on them. Meta-analysis concerns
with deductive research approach. The latter, on the contrary, is based on non-statistical
techniques. Meta-synthesis integrates, evaluates and interprets findings of multiple
qualitative research studies. Meta-synthesis literature review is meta-synthesis employed
when following inductive research approach.
Among those review types, integrative or systematic type seems to be the best choice
to use in an EFL undergraduate thesis. You should note that whatever type you use, your
literature review should be structured like an independent essay by organizing it into three
main sections: introduction, body, and conclusion.
Figure 4, adapted from Nazara (2015), illustrates a literature review.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Critical Reading
Critical reading is essentially a reading process involving critical thinking. To perceive
the nature of critical reading, therefore, necessitates an understanding of the In this section,
meanings of reading and critical thinking. Current theories indicate, that in addition to the author evaluated
the notion that views reading as a process of extracting meaning from a text, reading and synthesized the
is also seen as a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the information related to
reader brings to the act of reading. In this perspective, reading is “a dialogue between the research variables
the reader and the text” (Grabe, 1988, p. 56) which necessitates the reader to analyze (critical reading and
and evaluate information and ideas. In other words, the reader reads critically. short story reading)
That idea is supported by Kurland (2000), who defined critical reading as a obtained from several
careful, active, reflective, analytic reading which involves reflecting on the validity of current studies and
what one has read in light of his prior knowledge and understanding of the world. It is link them to the topic
also in line with Huijie’s (2010) definition which describes critical reading as “a high- to be addressed.
level reading process which entails the ability to read with analysis and judgment” (p. This places the
40). In addition, Pardede (2011) define critical reading as “an active and purposeful research on the stage
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36
 process of comprehending, questioning, and evaluating printed material and in order of what is already
to react intelligently to the writer’s ideas”. Synthesizing these definitions, critical known about a topic
reading can be understood as an active process of constructing meaning from the and what others had
texts by involving interpretation, making inference, analysis, giving judgment, and done in the research
evaluation. area.

Short Stories
Short Stories, or the”narrative that can be read at one sitting of from one-half hour to
two hours, and that is limited to ‘a certain unique or single effect,’ to which every detail To make the
is subordinate” (Abrams, 1970, p. 158) seems to be the most suitable literary texts to literature review easy
use in EFL classes. Since it is short and aims at giving a ‘single effect’, there is usually to read, the author
one plot, a few characters; there is no detailed description of the setting. So, it is easy divided it into
for the students to tofollow the storyline of the work. subsections that are
According to Khuankaew (2010), integrating literary works into classes can relevant with the
develop critical thinking. This is due to the fact that the exposition in literary texts is research variables:
not directly expressed that to get the texts meaning, readers should make an critical reading, short
inference. Hall (2005)posited that the process of reading literary texts is a ‘bottom-up’ stories, and method for
process which activates readers’ prior knowledge and incorporates novel information teaching critical
with existing knowledge. Such process encourages thoughtful and critical thinking. reading using short
While reading a literary work, students are also involved in problem-solving tasks of story.
literary texts via resolving conflicts. They also need to apply their analytical skills to
relate different elements of a literary work, including the themes, setting, characters, The sources
plot, allegories, symbols, motifs, and points of view. included in this
In addition, integrating literary works into classes to develop critical thinking is literature review are
also supported by the fact that literary works can have more than one meaning. This quite recent. A few
makes literature tough resources for reflective analysis. Hall (2005) added that the sources were
process of reading literary texts is slower than others as readers are more attentive published below 2005,
and more reflective. Reading literary works promotes critical thinking because the however, they are
readers of literary texts are often trying to understand something beyond the text, and acceptable because
they tend to speculate on potential future developments (Langer, 2000). Fisher (1999) those “old” sources
hypothesized there are strong pedagogical reasons for developing thinking skills concern with topics
through the use of literature. Based on the results of studies comparing more able, rarely restudied, such
literate children with less able ones, he stated that successful learners have: (1) as definition of short
knowledge of literary forms, purposes, and genre, including meta-linguistic story (Abrams, 1970)
knowledge; (2) skills and strategies for processing literary knowledge, including the and definition of
ability to question, interrogate and discuss narrative texts; and 93) ability to apply and reading (Grabe, 1988).
transfer their learning and knowledge to other contexts.

Method for Teaching Critical Reading Skills Using Short Story.

As previously indicated, in addition to the reading materials, another key factor
causing the students’ low capacity of critical reading is the teaching method. Wallace
(1992) suggested that to effectively teach reading, including critical reading, in EFL
classrooms, the activities should be divided into three stages: pre-reading, during
reading, and post-reading stages. In the pre-reading stage, the students are
encouraged to form and write their own questions, predictions, and hypotheses
concerning the story they will read. This aim is to let the students to think about the
story rather than to answer the given questions that control the way of reading the
text. They could be asked to make their own statements for supporting or refusing
what the story is about before reading. This stage can also encourage the students
to predict, for instances, what will happen and how the story will end, make
hypotheses for predicting a text.
The during-reading stage aims to provide the students the opportunity to interact
with the text. During this stage, the teacher guides the students to take notes about
the events, ideas, feelings, values, cultures presented in the story; summarize
information; and record their reactions and opinions. Therefore, the activities in the
Parlindungan Pardede Research in ELT (Module 3)
37
 while-reading stage should aid the students to aware of, characters, incidents, time,
and cultural perspectives in the story. Teachers can help by placing the text in its
historical, biographical, and cultural context.
In the post-reading stage, teachers help students to think critically by providing
each of them chances to evaluate his/her adequacy of questions, predictions, and
hypotheses formed in the pre-reading stage and to reflect the interpretation formed in
the while-reading stage. In short, the post-reading activities focus on a wide range of
questions that allow for different interpretations (Pardede, 2010).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Various current researchers and educators have revealed that literary texts can be The research
an effective means of promoting students’ critical reading skills, and due to its variables, i.e. reading
shortness, short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in EFL classes. short story and critical
Reading short stories, students can develop their critical reading skills because these reading skills are
texts encourage them to think analytically, logically and reflectively. Analytical, logical identified.
and reflective thinking are needed to infer the indirect expressions commonly used in
short story, to solve the problems presented in the conflicts, to relate the different The connection of the
parts of a literary work, including the themes, setting, characters, plot, allegories, variables are clarified
symbols, motifs, and points of view for fully understanding the story, and to evaluate
authors biases. However, to get empirical data concerning the effectiveness of using Further contribution if
short stories to develop students’ critical reading skills, studies are needed to conduct. the study is conducted
is stated.
RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS
Referring to the discussions in previous sections, the question addressed in this study
was: “Does the use of short stories significantly affect students’ critical reading skills?”
Based on the research question, the hypotheses were formulated as follow:
Ho,: The use of short stories does not significantly affect students’ critical reading
skills.
Ho,: The use of short stories significantly affect students’ critical reading skills.

Figure 4. A Sample of Literature Review

Methods
The methods section serves two functions: (1) to enable readers to come to an informed
opinion about the research; they need to know as much detail as possible about what was
done and (2) to permit readers to replicate the study if they desire to do so.
The Method section has three main subsections: Participants, Materials (Instruments),
and Design and Procedure. The Participants subsection includes (a) who and how many
participants were involved; (b) the participants’ characteristics (e.g., male/female, native
language, age range and average age, proficiency level, educational level, amount and type
of instruction); (c) the sampling technique for selecting them (c) essential demographics
information: percentage female (or male).
The Materials subsection serves to provide a description of the equipment, physical
settings, and data collecting instruments used in the study. Any equipment or physical
settings are essential factors of a study. How the materials were prepared should also be
described. If you conducted an experiment using reading texts, explain the texts’ features
and from what source you took them. If you used movies in your study, specify the movies
and the source you took them from so that your reader could access them if they would like
to use the movies for their study.

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38
 METHOD
A. Research Purpose
Various current researchers have revealed that short stories are an effective means for promoting students’
critical reading skills. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of literary texts on developing EFL
students’ critical reading skills. For the purpose of this study, the research question to address was formulated
as follow: “Does the use of short stories in reading class significantly affect the students’ critical reading skills?

B. Research Design
This study employed a quasi-experimental research design.

C. Participants
The participants in this study were 64 tenth-graders of a vocational school in Jakarta. The participants were
selected using the convenience sampling technique due to administrative restrictions. They were grouped
using non-random sampling technique, i.e. by treating X MIA-1 the experimental group and X MIA-2 the control
group. Each group consisted of 32 students.

D. Materials
The study was conducted in the even semester of the 2014/2015 academic year. Short stories were used to
teach reading to the experimental group, whereas the control group was taught by using non-literary texts.
Although the groups were taught using different texts, the method of teaching was the same, i.e. the method
of teaching adapted from the framework proposed by Wallace (1992) which is divided into three stages: pre-
reading stage, while-reading stage, and post-reading stage. The activities in the pre-reading stage included
previewing, questioning, anticipation guide, pictorial context, and pre-reading vocabulary. The while-reading
stage covered the activities of annotating and analyzing. The post-reading stage included summarizing and
reflecting activities.
Prior to the experiment, students in both groups were asked to do the pretest to measure whether the
students in both groups had the same level of critical reading skills. After seven sessions of teaching (each
session will last in 100 minutes), both groups took the posttest to measure the effects of the use of short stories
and non-literary texts to the participants’ critical reading development. Each test was designed to test four
main elements of critical reading skills, i.e., distinguishing facts from opinions, making inferences, drawing
conclusions, and recognizing an author’s purpose. Based on two passages, two types of questions were
provided: multiple choices questions, and open-ended questions. The multiple choices consisted of 20
questions (4 points for each correct answer), whereas the open-ended questions, designed to ask students
for sharing their opinions regarding the passages, consisted of 2 questions (10 points each). To determine
their reliability, both tests were tested with some students who were not the participants of the study. Using
the reliability coefficient Cronbach’s alpha, the reliability of the critical reading test was 0.78. Since the value
was higher than 0.7, the instruments were reliable enough to assess students’ critical reading skills.

E. Procedures
The study was conducted after having the permission from the headmaster of the school. To analyze the
obtained data, SPSS version 22.0 was employed to run frequency analysis, to cross tabulation of the data,
and to determine whether there were any differences between the critical reading skills of participants in the
experimental group and that of the control group.

Figure 5. A Sample of Method

The Materials subsection is also the place for describing the data collecting
instruments administered in the study. The questionnaires, tests, observation sheets,
interview guides, and other kinds of instrument should be described in details. For instance,
if you used a questionnaire in your study, you will want to describe: (a) The source of the
questionnaire (if it was originally created by someone else, you should cite the original
source and include it in your References section) and the reliability test administered to the
questionnaire; (b) what construct the questionnaire is designed to measure: “…designed to
Parlindungan Pardede Research in ELT (Module 3)
39
measure the degree to which people believe in government conspiracies.”; and (c) the
number of items in your questionnaire. If you are creating a new questionnaire, place the full
set of items in an Appendix and refer the reader to the Appendix. Provide also the information
concerning the test-retest reliability test administered to the questionnaire.
The Procedures subsection presents the information about the overview of the
research protocol, i.e. the sequence of manipulations and measurement procedures that
make up the experiment. The description should follow the exact sequence of how the
procedures were executed and the data collected. In other words, this subsection describes:
(a) what was actually done; (b) how exactly the task was carried out; (c) how the treatment
was administered; (d) how and when tests was done; and (d) what technique(s) were used
to analyze the data. If statistical analysis is used (for example, in ANOVA tests), the author
must report the threshold used to determine statistical significance.
Figure 5, adapted from Nazara (2015), illustrates a literature review of an experimental
study.

Results
The Results section is the most essential part of a research. All other sections play
secondary roles, i.e., to prepare the reader for the Results, or to provide supplementary
information to enhance the findings (Yang, 1999, p. 63). In full length research articles (the
more common type of article) the Results and Discussion are separated in two different
sections. In short research articles (sometimes called “short” or “brief” communications),
both are joined into one section. In the former type, which separate the Results and
Discussion sections, only obtained data in the study is included in the Results section.
Analysis and interpretations should be reserved for the Discussion section. The idea behind
this format is to “let the data speak for themselves.” However, some authors like to include
some introductory or transition material to help the flow of this section. In the discussion
that follow, the Results and Discussions sections are treated separately.
The Results section represents the primary findings derived from the methods applied
to gather and analyze information. It presents these findings in a logical sequence without
interpretation from the author, setting up the reader for later interpretation and evaluation in
the Discussion section. The data presented should have been processed in the form of text,
illustrations, and tables. Thus, raw data should not be included. All the three forms (text,
illustrations, and tables) may be used, but the same data should not be repeated in more
than one form. The results of statistical analyses should also be presented in this section,
but the analysis details should be excluded because the readers are assumed to have known
what a null hypothesis is, a rejection rule, t-test, chi-square test, etc. It is also important to
present the data in the order of the research questions. Since this section represents the
core findings only, Results is usually the shortest section of a manuscript.
The text describing data may be any length. Yet, a short statement such as, “The
distribution of the respondents’ interest in short stories are shown in Table 1,” is adequate.
For clarity, long passages of text are often organized by topic into subsections, with a
subheading for each topic. The subheadings assist the reader to identify paragraphs
interesting to them.
Pardede (2012) offers some points as guidelines to consider in writing the Results
section:
1. Include all the collected data during the research is not necessary. A research report is
not a diary. Present and highlight only important and relevant data that will answer the
question or solve the problem raised in the Introduction section.
Parlindungan Pardede Research in ELT (Module 3)
40
2. Exclude information suitably belonging to other sections, such as Materials and
Methods, or Discussions (if Results and Discussions are separated).
3. Avoid reiterating the legends for figures or the tables’ titles in the text.
4. In the text, describe only the illustrations and tables whose significance is not clear to
the reader. Important features that are readily apparent from the illustrations and tables
should be pointed out in the text. So, do not reiterate the data presented in the
illustrations and tables.
5. Be sure that the text, illustrations, and tables are consistent with one another. Ensure
that all numerical values in every table agree with the figures or data presented in it.
6. Analyze your data by statistical methods, if appropriate.
7. Be honest. Do not omit data which neither support your hypothesis and conclusion nor
answer the research question.
8. A sentence should not begin with a numeral or symbol. A numeral or symbol beginning
a sentence should be spelled out, or rewrite the sentence.
9. Use the past tense in the Results section, but use the present tense when referring to
figures and tables. For instances,

Seventy per cent respondents said that they got appropriate opportunity for improving
speaking in speaking classes, whereas the other 30% denied in this connection.

Table 2 reveals the students’ perception collected during the second cycle of the action
research.
But,
The data in Table 2 were collected during the second cycle of the action research.

10. Do not begin numbers in a sentence with a decimal point. Decimal fractions less than 1
should be written with the numeral 0 before the decimal point. For instance, instead of
writing, “The result of statistical analysis was (r) = .619 ,” you should write, “The result of
statistical analysis was (r) = 0.619.”

Discussion (and Conclusion) Section

The discussion and conclusion are often two separate sections and are primarily interpretive
and explanatory in nature. In the Discussion section the core findings reported in the Results
section are summarized and interpreted in light of the research questions. The findings
significance is also evaluated by comparing it to other relevant findings in the study or to
relevant findings of previous studies, and their implications are examined. Among the whole
sections of an article, this is probably the most challenging to write and will exhibit how well
the author apprehends the results.
As a general guide, the following list describes the information to provide and their
order of presentation in the Discussion section.
1. Summary of conclusions: what the authors conclude from their data, for example,
relationships between variables, trends, etc.
2. Relation to other results: the relation of these findings to previous work, e.g. “supports the
findings of Pardede (2012)” or “is contrast to …”
3. Anomalous results: any abnormalities or exceptions inherent in the data or in relation to
with respect to the scientific literature, and if possible, explanations for these aberrations.
(Note: item #3 and #4 may be intermixed.)
4. Implications: theoretical or practical implications of the work, i.e., “the big picture”

Parlindungan Pardede Research in ELT (Module 3)

41
5. Grand summary: a stimulating summary of the results, conclusions and suggestions for
further research.

Conclusion Section
Some journals employs a format that contains a section labeled “Conclusion” or “Summary.”
For other journals, the Conclusion is the untitled last paragraph of the Discussion. If the
Conclusion section is detached from the Discussion section, it should present (1) a concise
summary of implications of the findings, (2) general implications of the study, and (3)
suggestions for further research. Lebrun (2007, p. 201) emphasizes that a Conclusion
section is the place where the author restates the contribution of the research, with a
particular emphasis on what it allows others to do; and proposes new research directions to
prevent duplication of effort or to encourage collaboration.

Acknowledgments
This section is used to recognize and thank those individuals and organizations whose
contributions to the work presented should be acknowledged but do not qualify for
authorship. The list in this section is limited only to those with significant intellectual
assistance and technical help (including with writing and editing). In general, the
acknowledgement is presented in the following order:

1. Individuals other than authors who made a significant contribution to the research by
donating important reagents or materials, collecting data, providing extensive advice on
drafts of the manuscript, etc. Typically, the nature of the contribution is noted; for
example,
I would like to thank Robin Moore for his module from which the reading passages used in this
study were taken. I also thank Parlindungan Pardede for reading this manuscript draft and giving
me suggestions.
2. If the work has been presented at a conference, then this is often noted. For example,
Portions of this work were presented at the 17th Annual Jakarta English Teachers Conference
held by the English Education Program of UKI Jakarta in October 22, 2016.
3. Organizations that funded the research. The general format for this information is:
This work was supported by Higher Education Grant HEG4267.

Note that it is essential to get permission from any individual whose help is acknowledged.
Also, many scientific societies and journals indicate that it is essential to disclose any
financial support that has been provided for the work.

References
In most journals in the second and foreign language research field, everything cited in the
paper body appears in the reference list, and all sources listed in the reference list are cited
in the paper. All the references are listed in the References section. There is a wide range of
styles used for citing references, and different journals have different styles for references.
So, authors are suggested to check the target journal’s Instructions to Authors for
information about the content and formatting of references

Parlindungan Pardede Research in ELT (Module 3)

42
Appendices
A research article is basically supposed to be complete without the appendices. However, it
is also appropriate to include appendices when (1) the incorporation of material in the body
of the work would make it poorly structured; (2) the material would make the article too long
and detailed; and (3) although the material is essential but its integration in the body would
clutter or break up the narrative flow of the article, or it would be distracting to the reader.
The materials generally put in Appendices are raw data laid out in a clear format so the reader
can re-check your results; maps, photographs, diagrams, and other images which will the
reader to understand the content of the paper. The crucial point to remember while writing
an appendix is that the information is non-essential; if it were removed, the paper would still
be understandable.

CONCLUSION
Based on the discussion in the previous sections, it is obvious that research is a complex
process which does not only involve a sequence of activities but also utilizes certain
instruments and materials and involves a number of, participants, methods and techniques.
All of them are called the research components, with which one has to be familiar in order to
get a comprehensive understanding of research.
Viewed from the context of a research report, the components of a research include
the instruments, materials, activities, participants, methods and techniques involved a
research. In a research report these components are arranged successively in the body
sections consisting of introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion, and
conclusion. In addition to those body sections, a research report is also completed with
supplementary elements, i.e. title, name of the authors, acknowledgments, references, and
appendices. Although these five elements are supplementary, they are also important
because of their important roles in the research report.
The advantages of studying these research components are two folds. First, a good
understanding of these components enables the readers to get a more comprehensive
understanding of research. Second, it also promotes the mastery of the skills to write a
research report.

Research Components in YouTube.

This YouTube video presents research components in about six minutes.
Entitled Anatomy of a Research Article, you can watch or download it from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4U0aUPTQsY

Quiz 3 To item 1-10 in this quiz, choose the most suitable option for each of
the item (5 points for each correct item). To item 11-12, match each item in
the left column to the corresponding item in the right column (5 points for
each correct item). If you got 80% correct in this quiz, you can go to the next
section, but if you get less than 80% you need to restudy the topic in this
section.

To take Quiz 2 click: https://www.edmodo.com/home#/quiz/grade/quiz_run_id/15676720

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 Follow-up Activity 3
This activity is meant to solidify and depend your understanding of
the topic you have just studied. It also aims to facilitate you to apply
the new knowledge you have just taken. So, try your best to finish
this activity.

To access Follow-up Activity 3, click this link: https://www.edmodo.com/post/678773890

REFERENCES
Bavdekar, S.B. (2016) Formulating the Right Title for a Research Article. Journal of The
Association of Physicians of India, Vol. 64
Hairston, M. & Keene, M. (2003). Successful writing. 5th Ed. New York: Norton.
Lebrun, Jean-Luc. (2007). Scientific writing: A reader and writer’s guide. Singapore: World
Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Moattarian, A. & Alibabaee, A. (2015). Syntactic Structures in Research Article Titles from
Three Different Disciplines: Applied Linguistics, Civil Engineering, and Dentistry. The
Journal of Teaching Language Skills 7 (1), pp. 28-50.
Nazara, S. (2015). The Effect of Using Short Stories on Secondary School Students’ Critical
Reading. A paper presented at UKI English Education Department Collegiate
Forum held on Friday, June 12, 2015. Retrieved April 2015 from
https://eeduki.com/2015/04/15/https-eeduki-com-the-effect-of-using-short-stories-
on-secondary-school-students-critical-reading/
Pardede, P. (2018a). Conceptualizing ELT Research: Research as a Journey. Available online
at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329092492_Conceptualizing_ELT_
Research_ Research_as_a_Journey
Pardede, P. (2018b). Conceptualizing ELT Research: Research Process in Quantitative and
Qualitative Study. Available online at: https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/329584112_Conceptualizing_ELT_Research_Research_Process_in_Quant
itative_and_Qualitative_Study
Pardede, P. (2015). Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Perception of Edmodo Use as a
Complementary Learning Tool. A paper presented at UKI English Education
Department Collegiate Forum held on Friday, June 12, 2015. Retrieved August 2015
fromhttps://eeduki.com/2015/06/20/pre-service-efl-teachers-perception-of-edmodo-
use-as-a-complementary-learning-tool/
Pardede, P. (2012). Scientific Articles Structure. Academia.edu.
https://www.academia.edu/25017324/Scientific_Articles_Structure
Pardede, P. (2011). Short Stories Use in Language Skills Classes: Students’ Interest and
Perception. In Zacharias, N.T. & Manara, C. (Eds.) Bringing Literature and Linguistics
into EFL Classrooms: Insights from Research and Classroom Practice. Newcastle upon
Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 101-108.

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 Pardede, P. (2007). Developing critical reading in the EFL classroom. Retrieved September
2015 from: http://parlindunganpardede.wordpress.com/articles/language-
teaching/developingcritical-reading-in-the-efl-classroom/
Soler, V. (2007). Writing titles in science: An exploratory study’. English for Specific Purposes
26, 90–102
University of Southern California. (2018). Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper:
5. The Literature Review. Retrieved June 2018 from:
http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/literaturereview
Yang, J. T. (1999). An outline of scientific writing: for researchers with English as a foreign
language. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Yitzhaki, M. (2002). Relation of the title length of a journal article to the length of the article.
Scientometrics, 54(3), 435-447.

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