研究方法与论文写作
2009-9
南京大学出版社
常耀信
196
326000
无
The idea behind all this talk is first of all to train the mind to work in a scholarly way, to think and act as does a mature scholar. However, the scholarly mode of thinking and perception is not the exclusive copyright of the scholar. Its best features are seen in almost all the high achievers of all fields of activity. The first of these features is its emphasis on knowledge, or the state of being well-informed and up-to-date. Another feature is its methodial manner of doing things, being well-organized and following a rationale. The third feature, probably' the most important, is its striving tor originality, its determination to settle for nothing short of the best, which is the excellence of the highest order.
常耀信，教授，博士生导师，任教于南开大学及美国关岛大学。毕业于南开大学英语专业，曾在英国剑桥大学进修英语和英国文学，获美国坦普尔大学文学博士学位，长期从事英美文学的教学与科研工作，也进行一些文学创作。著作有《美国文学简史》（英文）、《英国文学简史》（英文
Table of ContentsForewordPart One Research Chapter 1 Research （Ⅰ）: Defining Terms/Introduction of the MLA Format Chapter 2 Research （Ⅱ）: The Basics of Research/Looking for Information Chapter 3 Aids to Research: Research Cards/Reading Reports/The Bibliographical Essay Chapter 4 Research （Ⅲ）: Evaluating Information Chapter 5 Research （Ⅳ）: Documenting InformationPart Two Writing Chapter 6 Writing （Ⅰ）: The Choice of a Topic/The Thesis Statement and the Structuring of a Paper/Format: Chinese or English/How to Write an MA Thesis or a Doctoral Dissertation Chapter 7 Writing （Ⅱ）: The Basics of Writing/The Choice of Words/The Sentence/The Paragraph/The Topic Sentence/The Conclusion Chapter 8 Perception and Originality/Reading/Summing Up/A Few Words about Keeping Fit and Staying WellPart Three The MLA Style Chapter 9 The MLA Style （Ⅰ）: Some General Rules Chapter 10 The MLA Style （Ⅱ）: Parenthetical Citations Chapter 11 The MLA Style （Ⅲ）: The Works Cited/Format Exercises The APA StylePart Four Appendices Ⅰ. The MLA Style （MLA）: An Essay Documented in This Style Ⅱ. The APA Style（APA）: An Essay Documented in This Style Ⅲ. The Chicago Manuel of Style（CMS）: An Essay Documented in This Style Ⅳ. Answers to the MLA Format Exercises Ⅴ. A Research Paper as a Paradigm Ⅵ. A Bibliographical Essay as a Paradigm Ⅶ. How to Write an Abstract, a Proposal, a Resume, and an Application Letter Ⅷ. A Unique Essay: "American Individualism" Ⅸ. Scholarly Journals for Publication Ⅹ. Important Academic Conferences and Symposia Ⅺ. Editing （Correction） Symbols Ⅻ. The Chinese Writing FormatBibliographyIndex
A. Scanning （or Browsing or Thumbing through）： This is an important way of broadening our field of vision quickly， of getting to know how much significant writing has been done in a particular field of interest to us. When we scan a source， we do not read it very carefully. For instance， in evaluating information， we do not read a book from cover to cover. Instead， we look at the name of the author， the title of the book， its table of contents which include the chapter titles， its preface （or foreword or introduction， which is， by the way， always very important to read but many people very often have no patience with）， its bibliography or list of works cited， and its index. It generally takes about five or ten minutes to scan a book. If it fails to interest us， we drop it from our working bibliography and return it to the library. But if there is anything in the source that we think we might want to come back to at a later date， we will document it on our card， including the publication information and any part of the book that appeals to us. We may document it on an author card， or a title card， or our own subject card. In evaluating essays， we do not read a whole article from its first word to its last. Instead， we glance through the introduction to look for anything like its thesis. Then we glance at the first sentences of the paragraphs to see whether they are topic sentences. If they are， we do not have to read the paragraphs to know what they talk about. The topic sentence generally expresses an opinion. When it stands at the. beginning of" the paragraph， the rest of the paragraph is written to prove its validity. Scanning is very important， but it is not enough. It only begins our reading process. B. Fast-Reading ： When we have scanned a number of sources， we will have found some of them more important than others. We will want to read these， or some sections of these， more carefully. We will want to know very quickly what is being said and where， which is significant to us. Therefore we read intently but quickly. We do， in other words， what is known as "fast reading. " When we read fast， we do not linger on individual words or even individual verbal constructions. Our eyes travel very quickly over the printed lines， so quickly in fact that we can finish some 40 or 50 pages in an hour. Evidently， we are not reading to improve our English proficiency; we are reading to get information. Now this way of" reading is important because it can tell us very quickly what is worth our careful reading next and what is not. Researchers do more fast reading than do most people. Then the natural question to ask is， how do we do it？ Lets assume that we have prepared Ourselves well for research. Such preparations include a good vocabulary， fluent and correct spoken and written English， and all that we call the mechanics and basics of language learning. If we do not have a good vocabulary， for instance， we will be at a great disadvantage in fast reading. Immediately we will see many hurtles ahead of us that we have to mount in our reading. For fast-reading we need training. We can take special classes， but we can always train ourselves either alone or as a group. It is easy and fun to do. Open a book and place either the tip of our index finger or that of a pencil on a page. Run the tip under a line and keep our eyes running along with it. Thus line after line we run， as fast as possible， so long as we can remember what has been read through. First run slowly and then increase our speed little by little. We will have to concentrate on what we read. Always keep count of the time used. So it is very exhausting. Fast reading is. We cannot do it for long at one sitting. One or two hours at one sitting would be long enough. If we last-read longer， we may feel some headache. A group of two or three or four people doing the training together would be more fun and effective. In such group trainings， we may read the same material together， then retell the meaning of a paragraph or a page， and compare notes. There are a lot of rules in fast-reading， of course. But they are not important. Just disregard them. What matters is continual practice." Fast reading is a challenge to our reading skills and a great help to improve them. As we do it， we will find that skilled last readers are good at looking for meaningful signals in the text： 1. One of these is the topic sentences that many writers plant at the beginning of their paragraphs as we mentioned earlier on. Generally， when we have caught hold of such a sentence of the paragraph， there is little need to read the rest of it. 2. Other signals that skilled readers keep their eyes mostly on include such as the key words， i.e. the notional， substantive words like verbs， nouns， and important adjectives， and words or phrases that are italicized or in bold type. Skilled readers tend to skip over other words such as the prop words that do not help make sense much. As we become better at fast reading， we will probably find that we tend to be more careful about words in the middle of the line and skip over those at the beginning and the end of it. One criterion for fast reading is this， that， no matter how fast we read， we should always be able to understand and remember what we have been through. This is the bottom line. Otherwise fast reading would make no sense. Fast reading is very useful for us to glean information from our sources.
无
很好，是论文写作专用的，一并统筹下