Category: Writing

“I can’t write a research paper”, this is one of the most commonly stated arguments of a novice researcher. In fact, I know so many experienced scientists who believe they can’t write a research article either. Different people will tell you different causes of not being able to write a research article, that can range from the lack of training on research writing to the lack of confidence. Some people just say it’s not for me, and this is a great excuse for them to not write.

In this blog, I will share an idea with you that will make research writing an unbelievably easy task for you. After reading this blog, you will realize that research writing is not an impossible task and anyone irrespective of age, gender, experience, cast, creed, and nationality can do it. You should read this blog carefully and share with your friends and colleagues, I promise after carefully reading and absorbing the message written in this blog into your subconscious mind, research writing will become extremely easy for you; you will consider it as a doable task.

Lets’ first analyze the most common reason of not writing a paper? Different people have different answer to this question, but I would like to be clear about it, that it is not the matter of training, or confidence, neither it is because of the lack of experience. I believe the reason is “the mindset”. Most researchers consider research article as work, or assignment, or homework that they must do whether they like it or not. I want you to switch your mindset and don’t consider your research article as a job or an assignment. Because your research article is not an assignment or work…… really. Then what is it?

RESEARCH ARTICLE IS A MOVIE

Everyone knows what are movies. You have watched different movies in your life time. Now how does a research article relate to a movie? What does a movie have? Lets have a look at what does a movie have?

• A Director
• A Producer
• A Positive character
• A Villain
• A Story

Your research paper is not too different. You are the director and the producer. Your hero of the movie is the main point you are discussing, around whom the story revolves. And the villain is the problem or challenge that the hero has, this problem needs a solution, otherwise the hero may die or the villain may destroy the world. Last of all, the hero and the villain cannot fight if there is no story, so what you will write, will be your story. Now, lets look at each section of a research article and compare it with a movie.

THE TITLE:

Every movie has a title, and the title is an attractive line that ensures the audience is attentive to the movie. Similarly, your movie which is your research paper; it needs to have an intriguing title. Therefore, come up with a title of your story. You know what you are writing, now you shouldn’t have difficulty coming up with a title. If you still have problem, then write the title in the end, when your movie (I mean article) is completed; writing in the end will give you more clarity.

ABSTRACT:

Every movie has a trailer that you watch on TV, YouTube, or Facebook. That trailer is the summary of the movie (usually without showing you the end). Similarly, your research paper abstract is your trailer of your movie. You need to give a quick glimpse of your movie to the readers so they are attracted to your movie.

INTRODUCTION:

The introduction is the opening of the movie; the first 20 minutes of the movie. If it is a Hollywood movie then its 15-20 minutes. However, if it is a movie other than Hollywood (God Forbid if it is a Bollywood Movie then the movie would be long and never ending, therefore, your beginning will be of 30-45 minutes. (I mentioned Bollywood as a funny gesture to bring smile on the faces of our Bollywood fan students reading this blog)

Jokes apart, now lets come to the serious business. In these 20 minutes you know who is the hero, what is theme of the movie, who is the villain and in which direction the movie is going.

Similarly, your research article should explain the reader what to expect, what is the main issue, who is the hero (means what is the topic of study?). What are you trying to discuss and study? What is the main problem? That problem is the villain, and your movie will revolve around how to solve the problem? How get rid of the stress and negativity created by the villain or the problems that he could cause? The virus, bacteria or any issue or problem that your research paper is discussing is the villain. Your solution and topic of interest in the hero or your patient is the hero who has to fight the illness or bacteria. If its a disease you are studying then the disease is the hero and the problem the society has because of the disease is the villain. So the hero is not always the positive character, the same in the real movies too, the hero is someone around whom the story revolves.

DISCUSSION SECTION:

The discussion section is the story of your movie. After the first 20 minutes of a Hollywood movie (and the first 5-10 centuries of a Bollywood movie) the story begins. Similarly, in your research article your story begins in the discussion after the beginning. Now its your opportunity to create the whole story here, write whatever you want now and create your story from the data that you have.

The movie director’s data is the written script, while your data is the literature review that you collected or the data you collected in the field, lab, or a hospital. Write the story of your data, try to make sense out of it like a story. Make it interesting that people like it and enjoy it.

CONCLUSION:

The conclusion is the last scene of your movie. You now know if the villain died or not. Did the hero win or not? Did Simba kill his uncle and claimed the kingdom? And what is the lesson learned from the movie? Like for example, from The Lion King we learned that greed is a curse, thats why Scar perished, another lesson we learned is that if you are good, good things will happen to you, just like Simba got the kingdom back.

Similarly, what is the last scene of your paper? What is the lesson learned? Bring it here. Write is down clearly and concisely.

REFERENCES:

This section is the cast and crew names you see at the end, that no one actually reads but they are always there.

ESSENCE:

Treat your research article like a movie and you will start to enjoy the process of writing. The introduction section is the beginning, the discussion section is the story, and the conclusion is the last scene. The method and results sections of your article are those interviews of the directors where they talk about their movie that how they made the movie; what was the budget; what were the difficulties and challenges they faced while making the movie. What are the main findings of the movie is “the results”, which is also discussed in the director’s interview.

Now the question is, do you always need Method and Results section? No you don’t need method and results section in your papers if they are traditional reviews; these sections are optional for traditional reviews.
Just like you don’t bring the directors and producers comments between the movie.

However, some movies come with the commentary of the director, with a background voice that no one likes- that is a true original article. Now don’t waste time reading this useless blog, and start working on your movie, I mean your research article.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Before you start to write, you must answer the following questions. These questions are the key factor in deciding the completion and ultimately the success of your research article. Every time when you write an article, I want you to answer the following questions on paper. Just thinking of the answers is not enough. I want you to write those answers down and paste it somewhere, where you can look at it every day until your paper is finished.

THE KEY QUESTIONS:

THE FIRST QUESTION

The very first question that you need to ask yourself is “What are you doing?” It means that you need to know your research topic, your main subject, your research question, and your research design. As the great author Stephen Covey mentions in this masterpiece “the seven habits of highly effective people” that you need to begin with the end in mind. You need to have the clarity of your goal. You need to have a clear understanding where you are heading. You cannot go anywhere if you don’t know where you are going. For this reason, I want you to develop this habit for the rest of your lives, not just for research writing but for everything you do in your life.

The question of what you are doing will give you the focus and direction that you need to achieve your target. You don’t want to be that kind of person who embarks on a journey but doesn’t know where he is going or in the middle of journey he realizes that probably he is going nowhere.

THE SECOND QUESTION

The second question you need to ask to yourself is “why are you doing it”? Your why is the main reason of your motivation and it gives you the drive. The bigger the Why the bigger the results. Most scientists have a very small “why”. They write research papers to get promotions, salary raise, more job opportunities, residency slots, fellowship etc. This kind of why is a very small why; your why should be way bigger than that. May be bigger than the life. The goal should be to serve people , serve others with your knowledge, serve the humanity in general. Your why should be that with this article I will help others, I will make a difference in other people’s lives. I am a good human being and I want to help people rather than being selfish and write papers for my personal success.

We need to understand that success runs after us if we decide to serve others. Success runs away from us when we try to chase success. Instead we should run after service of others. The success is the result of service that we provide to others. The help we offer and provide to those in need makes us successful as a result. Many students think that one day when I will be success, then I will live for others and serve others. They don’t understand that the universe is not designed this way. Success is not the cause of service; it is the result of service. Success comes after service; as a result of service.

THE THIRD QUESTION

The third question you need to ask yourself is for whom am I writing this manuscript. This is a very important question. Just like a speaker needs to decide who is audience would be, a writer needs to decide who his readers will be. Decide if you are writing for children, women, men, patients, doctors, professors, layman, or engineers, historians, etc. Once you are clear about your reader, you will see a remarkable shift in your writing. You will notice that your style of writing would probably change. When you write for layman you tend to use non-technical words, but when you write for an expert you use technical words. Thus, always decide your readers.

CONCLUSION:

Before you start to write ask yourself, “what are you doing”, “why are you doing it”, and the last question is “for whom are you doing it”, and Ask these three questions and you will see a remarkable improvement in the quality of your writing.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

There are many rules of writing a research article that you all probably have seen me talking about in my live sessions. However, if there is one rule of writing a research article that should be the most important one, what would that be? If there is one principle to write a research article, then what could that be? In my opinion the most important rule of writing and completing a research article is FOCUS.

In order to understand the word focus, we need to see the dictionary definition of the word focus. According to the Macmillan Dictionary, the word focus means “to concentrate on something and pay particular attention to it”. I define focus just for training purposes as “FO- Forget, C- Completely, U- Unnecessary, S- Stress”, because everything on your mind is stress. You need to clear your mind, and just pay your attention to one task. In this blog, I will discuss, how to focus.

A FAMOUS STORY ON FOCUS:

According to an Indian legend, a mentor once called his four students to aim at a wooden bird sitting on a branch of a tree one by one. Each of the students attempted their luck one by one. The first one when getting ready to aim at the bird, was asked by the mentor, “What do you see?” The student replied, “I can see the sky, I can see the tree, I can see the branch, I can see the other birds.” The mentor invited the other students one by one; the first three students had a similar answer. The mentor told all of them to drop down their bows and arrows. He then asked the last student to aim at the bird’s eye, before he could aim, the mentor asked him, what did he see? The student replied,” I can only see the bird’s eye”. Saying this he directly hit the bird’s eye.

What is the moral of the study? The moral of this fascinating story is, that when you have a defined goal, and you can see other things besides your goal, then you cannot be successful. You need to have a sharp laser like focus on your goal. No other thought or idea should come to your mind. If you have any other thought coming to your mind besides your goal, then you are not a successful person.

THE RULE OF FOCUS:

If you want to write your research article, I want you to have a sharp laser like focus just like that fourth student from the famous Indian legend. You should not think of anything else until you complete your paper. You should not have any thoughts about any movie, or sports, or a TV show. You should not even think of your family or friends. You should just have one thought and that is your research paper. All other questions and answers related to your research paper such as, how to complete the paper; how to finish the paper fast; how to improve the quality of my paper; what to include in my paper, will automatically start to come to your mind. Your goal should be not to think about anything else. Just stay away from TV, social media, and WhatsApp friend’s group. I am not asking you to stay away from them permanently, I am just asking you to keep this discipline of abstinence until you complete your research article. You are a human being after all, you will need social life as well. I am not stopping you from that, what I am saying is that, you should stay away from everything else until you are fully done with your paper.

When you do that, you will notice that you have completed your article faster than you ever imagine. Your article will be of extremely high quality because of this extreme level of focus. Follow this advice, and you will enjoy the success you are looking for.

HOW TO DEVELOP THIS FOCUS?

The extreme level of focus I am talking about is not impossible to achieve. It is difficult for all of us, because of too much of distraction of social media, text messages, and internet. We have become habitual of living an unfocused life. But if we rewire our brain, we can develop this kind of focus. People who have developed such a focus are human beings like us.

There are certain exercises you can do, like meditation, praying, fasting (to practice abstinence), and just practice focusing. Initially it will be tough, but gradually it will become easier and easier. If you still cannot learn to focus, then spend time with focused people and learn from them. You can also enroll in martial arts training; they will teach you how to focus. The meditation and other exercises they teach you in martial arts, increases your focus drastically. Practice to read with focus, practice to write with focus, and practice spending time alone, are those methods by which you can develop the high levels of focus.

Once you learn this focus technique, you will enjoy the fruits of this priceless skill for the rest of your life. But remember, it is not going to be easy, and it is not going to be overnight. It could take you months to years to improve your focus. You will need to keep this practice going, and must practice it every day, and implement it in your life daily, because it is very easy to lose that strong focus that you developed over the years.

CONCLUSION:

Of all the properties of successful people, focus is not just one of the most important properties, but I believe it is the main property of success people. The laser sharp focus is responsible for all the achievements you have so far in your life. Similarly, the lack of focus is the main reason of most failures and disasters life. It is tough to develop supreme levels of focus, but it is still possible. All of us can do it, we just need the will and the desire to develop this invaluable skill.