Article Writing 101

A SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR QUALITATIVE WORK

This outline was originally designed for writing with ethnographic fieldnotes. However, it can be easily adapted for writing academic manuscripts based on other types of qualitative and quantitative data, as well.


Abstract (250 words or less)

  • State your research question

  • Explain how this research question speaks to a larger theoretical puzzle or gap in the literature

  • Describe the data that you use to answer your research question

  • State what you find

  • Describe what these findings suggest about the answer to your research question

  • Explain why these findings are important


Introduction (3 paragraphs)

  • Describe the puzzle or gap or unresolved problem in the literature that you will address with your data

    • What do we know?

    • What do we not know (or not know well enough)?

    • What does the existing research suggest might be the answer to that unanswered question?

  • Identify your research question and explain how you answer it

    • What question will you answer? (Or what hypothesis will you test?)

    • What data will you use to answer this question? (Or test this hypothesis?)

    • What do you find?

  • Explain the importance of your findings

    • What is the answer to your research question?

    • How does this answer broaden, clarify, or challenge existing knowledge/theories?

Justification (1,000 words or less)

  • Walk the reader through key background information/theories/terms that are necessary for understanding why your research question is important to answer

  • Use the existing literature to make a case for what you think you might find

  • If Applicable: Explain why your case is a useful case for examining these possibilities

*Note: The point of a literature review is not actually to review all of the relevant literature. The point is to make the case for why your study is important. 

Methods (4-6 short paragraphs)

  • Provide a brief overview of the study.

  • Describe your research site, why you chose it, and how you gained access

  • Describe your research participants (the people you observed)

  • Discuss your role in the field and how your identity shaped your observations

  • Describe the fieldwork you conducted and the data you collected

  • Describe how you analyzed the data you collected

  • Describe the limitations of your study
    (i.e., explain how your study is limited by your methodological choices)

Analysis

  • State your argument

  • Identify 2-3 supporting points – how your data support your argument

  • Identify 2-3 patterns in the data that provide evidence for each supporting point

  • For each pattern:

    • Describe an example from your data that typifies this pattern

    • Provide a brief fieldnote excerpt for that example

    • Briefly explain how this example represents the larger pattern

    • Briefly explain how this pattern provides evidence for the supporting point

  • Caveats and clarifications - identify any key exceptions to or variations to the overall patterns, and if possible, offer an explanation for these exceptions/variations

*Note: Everything that you include in your analysis should be relevant to your argument, and that argument should be the answer to your research question. A clear structure (with topic sentences and transitions) is very important for writing an analysis that meets this goal. 

Discussion/Conclusion (1,000 words or less)

  • Summarize your findings

    • Remind readers of the puzzle/gap in the literature that you are trying to solve

    • Remind readers of the specific research question that you have answered

    • Briefly review what you found

    • Briefly explain what these findings imply about the answer to your research question

  • Discuss the implications of your findings

    • Explain how your findings solve the puzzle or fill the gap in the literature

    • Explain how the resolution of this gap/puzzle helps to clarify, challenge, or expand existing knowledge or theory

    • Using existing literature, explain why your findings are or are not surprising

  • Identify possible explanations for your findings

    • Use existing research to discuss the most likely explanation for your findings

    • Consider alternative explanations for your findings and explain (using your data and/or other research) why these alternative explanations do or do not seem plausible

  • Conclude by reviewing why these findings (and the larger puzzle/gap they address) are important

Bibliography

Here's a PDF version