Category: Writing

Every student at some point has to write a research article. Those who don’t have to write an article, they at least do desire to write an article because becoming a published author is becoming a kind of extremely important skill in acquiring better job positions. For medical doctors the residency Or the fellowship match is dependent upon the research article publication. While the non-medical professionals want it for promotions and more income. The rest of the students just need it for personal and professional growth and achievement.

Whatever, the reason is, one of the most common problems these students face while writing an article is the difficulty they face in finishing their research article. Today, in this blog I will discuss this issue and provide the solution to this problem. According to my experience, there are four major causes of not completing the research article. If the students learn to handle those issues then they will never have a problem in finishing an article. These four causes are directly proportional to the amount of difficulty the students face in completing their articles. The following are the problems along with the solution.

1- LACK OF PLAN

Most students just start working on their article without any research plan. They think that they should just start an article and as the time goes by, the paper will automatically take the shape of a research article. This could be true for the experienced writers, however, for a novice writer this is not the case. Without a proper plan they simply cannot write an article.

The students must plan their article before writing. Now, let me give you an example, when you cook a food item, you have a plan, you know the recipe. If you cook something often enough then you probably don’t need the recipe because the recipe is in your mind. However, if you are a new cook, then you need a proper recipe in front of your eyes all the time, otherwise, you will not cook the dish effectively and will compromise the flavor of the dish and probably no one will eat it. In easy words, you will destroy the food. Similarly, for a research article, you need to have your recipe (plan) in front of you in a written format. Therefore, whenever you write an article, make sure you write the plan down and show it to a senior or a fellow colleague or a friend and then keep that plan in front of you while working, and work according to your plan. The plan should include your topic, question, data collection, data extraction, and the plan of writing each section. How many lines, how many total words and how many headings will your full paper have. If you have such a concrete plan, you will find it extremely easy to complete your article.

2- NOT HAVING A DEADLINE

Not having a deadline is another major cause of procrastination and not completing the task. We all need a deadline for all of our tasks. Otherwise we will keep wasting time and will probably never finish our task. When you drive and go to a place, do you not set a deadline that around what time we will reach at the destination? Or you just start driving and say “who cares, one day we will reach the store.” Trust me if you don’t set a deadline of time, you will get distracted and never reach your destination. The same attitude you need for your research article.

3- HAVING NO SCHEDULE

Another lethal error students commit is not having a proper schedule of writing. What time of the day you have decided to work on your paper? Is it the morning time? Or the afternoon time? Or is it the night time? Whatever time of the day it is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that there must be some predetermined hours dedicated solely for writing. This will force you to work on your article. Remember, this must be done every single day. Make sure there is no gap for at least two months until your article is finished. Can’t you just give 2-3 hours per day to your writing and have it scheduled?

4- NO ACCOUNTABILITY

When you have all the above mentioned points taken care of, then you must hold yourself accountable by asking some sincere people in your life to hold you accountable. Announce your deadline and tell this to your family and friends that by this date I will complete by paper and by this time of the year I will be a published author. Trust me, we all need someone to hold us accountable. We all need coaches and helpers. There is no shame in holding ourselves accountable. Even the greatest sportsmen have coaches to hold themselves accountable.

CONCLUSION:

Avoid these four causes and learn to handle these issues and you will complete your article fast. If you feel you need professional help and want a coach, then join our CiBNP Research Training Program and we will hold you accountable and make you a published author.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Some students seem to be determined enough to start a research paper but they never complete the project. Why don’t they finish the paper? To be honest, the students themselves don’t know what causes this problem. Many a times, students have asked the same question to me. I have been training students on research writing for past some years and have probably trained thousands of students on research writing and publishing, and according to my experience, there are three main reasons the students don’t complete their articles. I call them the monsters that stop you from success. These are the same monsters that stop us from all other achievements in our lives. If we master these monsters, we won’t just finish our manuscripts on time, but we will also achieve all other goals of our lives.

These reasons are fear, lack of belief, and procrastination. In this blog I will discuss these problems and their solutions.
Let’s discuss the causes one by one.

1- FEAR

According to my observation, the most common reason of not completing a research article is the fear. The fear can be various kinds; fear of rejection, fear of unknown, fear of criticism etc etc. All of these fears can be found collectively in one student at the same time depending upon the student. Many students just think that this is the part of their personality and they will live with this fear for the rest of their life. They don’t know that this fear is actually not a reality. The moment you do the task that scares you, the fear disappears. Yes, I am telling you the secret of beating fear, in fact, it is an open secret, most of us already know it, but we all need revision time to time.
Now how do you handle fear? The moment you feel fear about writing and completing your research paper, “start working on it”.

Initially, it will be a difficult thing to do, but gradually, it will become easier and easier. You will become brave and habitual in doing it. Just like driving a car, initially everyone is scared, if not everyone then at least most of us are scared to drive on a fast highway when we sit in the car at the driver’s seat for the first time. However, gradually when we do something again, and again, and again, the fear disappears. Thats how we beat fear. Of course there are many other strategies, but I want to keep this blog short. I will discuss this in my live session or a future blog.

2- BELIEF

The second most common reason many students cannot complete their manuscript is because they simply don’t believe that they can do it. They doubt themselves, and firmly believe that they cannot do it. Remember, if you believe you can do something then you can do it, otherwise you will never be able to do it. Now the question is, how do you start to believe in something that you don’t believe in? Can you develop certain belief from scratch? The answer is “yes”, yes you can do it. You can start to believe in anything you want…trust me it is possible. I myself never initially believed in my life that one day I will be successful in my life. Today, here I am, I have achieved all of the major dreams of my life. Now the question is, how did I do it? I started to talk to myself in a positive manner. I used to chant out loud that “Yes…. I can do it”. “Yes…. I literally can do it”. “If anyone can achieve these goals, it is me.” These were my daily affirmations, I used to say these line every single day multiple times. In a few weeks, my mind started to tell me that probably yes I can do it. I started to notice the changes in my thoughts and behavior. Then I started to say these lines more often, then in a few months, I literally started to believe that yes I can achieve anything in my life.

This was one formula, but another formula that worked for me really well was making a list of daily tasks, and every time I completed certain task, I crossed that task in my journal. Doing this exercise made me believe that yes I can finish any task in my life. I still do these two exercises almost every day. Some day in another blog, I will discuss more strategies to strengthen your belief system. For today, just rely on these two strategies, trust me, these strategies work.

3- PROCRASTINATION

Most students who don’t complete their research articles, fail to complete their manuscripts because they procrastinate. Why do they procrastinate? Because they just don’t schedule. What does that mean? It means that people who do complete their tasks, they have a fixed schedule everyday about certain things. For example, if you want to write a book or a manuscript, then there should be a daily schedule to write something during certain hours. Like for me, I write something every day in the evening from 5-7:00 pm. If not that, then I write it after 10:00 pm. This is my daily routine, thats why I write these blogs for you guys and successfully finish them. I don’t finish each blog each day, in fact I just divide it into chunks of one paragraph a day.

Similarly, people who complete their tasks, they just make sure they write something every day. If they are tired, they just stop at one paragraph a day. If they are energetic, they write for longer hours and complete their task in one day. The point I am making here is, that if you have a schedule of writing something every day, then its up to you to complete that task as soon as possible, or take some more days by dividing the task in small chunks. Either way, you will successfully finish your task. That how we finish things. I believe am a great finisher, because I do something every day, and sometimes I finish the task in a day while sometimes I take more days by dividing the task into multiple days. This strategy helps me finish my tasks every single time. I don’t leave anything undone. By the way, I don’t prolong it for too long. I set up a deadline. This is another secret that kills the procrastination. Setting up a deadline is really powerful. If you do something every day at a fix time and set a deadline, you can beat your procrastination.

CONCLUSION:

The common reasons students don’t finish their manuscripts are fear, lack of belief, and procrastination. These are big monsters to handle for many, but if you follow the strategies mentioned in this blog, you can easily beat these monsters.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Before we discuss how to write then introduction section of a research article, we need to understand what the introduction section is. Just like every speech, every chapter, every article, every blog has a beginning to open the conversation, research articles also have an opening and that opening is called the Introduction or Background.

An article without an introduction section is like an ship without a compass. The compass shows the direction the ship will take to reach its destination. Similarly, the introduction section of the research article is a compass for your article, that shows the reader of the direction the article will take. However, you simply cannot start your introduction section with the direction it will take. You will have to use some logical sequence and structure to write your introduction. What should be your sequence?

THE STRUCTURE OF THE INTRODUCTION SECTION:

Your introduction section should have the following three points;

1- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

By what you are doing we mean the basic background information and your subject or theme. Your readers should know what to expect and what this article is all about. Is this article about a disease? Or is it about a drug? Or is it about a social issue? The basic background part should bring some basic information about your topic and the subject. You should actually focus on what is already known to the general audience. For example, if you are writing a paper about the factors lead to John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the best approach would be to start with a little background about John F. Kennedy. This will bring the readers’ attention and will give them an idea what to expect.

2- WHY ARE YOU DOING IT?

After this part is done, you should focus on the big why. The why actually shows the importance of your topic. Why is your topic important? Is there any problem associated with your topic or research question? This is the ideal place to explain your research question as well. You need to actually show the readers how big of a “why” is it. First you need to convince yourself the importance of your paper. If you cannot convince yourself why the topic is importance then how can you convince the readers and the journal?

Can you think of some consequences associated with your research question? This is the part of the introduction section, where you may bring this information.

3- HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT?

The last thing you need to mention is your plan. What is your plan and strategy in this particular research article to address the research question and how do you plan to answer it? What kind of study design is that? This is the best time to tell the readers about your study design. This particular part usually is written in the past tense, but that is not a hard and fast rule. Look at the full introduction and analyze what approach will look better and attractive to the readers.

Some authors describe their search strategy here, while some just describe a little information on data collection. Remember, there is no universal approach, you need to use common sense and decide what approach suits better for your article.

CONCLUSION:

The above mentioned three points are the key features of any introduction section of any kind of research article. Of course there is more about introduction writing, I cannot write everything because of the time constraints and I don’t want burn you out as well. However, if you just follow these three points of what, why, and how, you research article introduction will become a very good and strong research article.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid