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This post is a generalisation. Be warned. But the general stuff in this post does hold for most things you\u2019ll write for most journals. Just not all.<\/p>\n
The message in this post is simply this \u2013\u00a0journals generally do not publish only research results.<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, you heard me. But let me put it another way.\u00a0Research results alone do not a journal paper make.<\/strong>\u00a0Or here\u2019s another formulation.\u00a0Most academic journals expect you to do more than report your research results.<\/strong><\/p>\n Journals are interested in your results. For sure. But they also want you to spell out why and how your results matter. Why should readers be concerned with your research results? Why should they be bothered with reading this piece? Why give up half an hour of their lives to get to grips with what you\u2019ve written?<\/p>\n In other words you have to say what your results mean \u2013 in terms of scholarly understandings about the topic and\/or in terms of policy and\/or in terms of professional practice. And you need to say what should happen as a result \u2013 more research? different research? Bringing different knowledges and\/or practices together? Doing something differently? Thinking differently about something?<\/p>\n These more-than-the-results are generally known as the\u00a0So What and Now What<\/strong>.<\/p>\n However, you don\u2019t just think about So What and Now What at the end of your paper. You have to think about it all the way through \u2013 and even before you start writing. It\u2019s a very good idea to think about these two questions in order to structure the paper and construct your narrative.<\/p>\n You anticipate the So What and Now What at the start of your paper when you set the context for your study and this particular focus. You say why it is important that this research matters. And then at the end of the paper you go back and say why and how your research matters and what should happen because of it.<\/p>\n Thinking So What Now What at the start of your writing is helpful. Once you understand that dealing with most journals are looking for more than your results, then your task as a writer becomes clearer. You are not constructing a paper which simply reports. You are constructing an argument for why your take on the particular topic is important.<\/p>\n So the advice in this post is this.\u00a0Don\u2019t write your paper around your results. Write the paper around the So What and Now What.<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh I hear you ask- how can you do this? Well here\u2019s A way to approach structuring your paper around the So What and Now What, rather than the results.<\/p>\n When you begin to think about writing a paper it\u2019s helpful to focus on the puzzle or problem your paper can resolve, even if only partially. Then you:<\/p>\n Now my eight steps don\u2019t have a handy acronym \u2013 although I could give them one if I chose. The reason I haven\u2019t given them a catchy title is because I wanted to focus on the expanded meaning for each step.<\/p>\n And I wanted to focus on the narrative arc that I\u2019m setting up. So here\u2019s another iteration.<\/p>\n Yes, I know I\u2019ve just repeated myself in different words. That\u2019s because I may not have explained the steps well enough the first time around.<\/p>\n So I\u2019ve had another go moving from the second person \u2013 me telling you what happens \u2013 to the first person \u2013 here is what you can think to yourself as you\u2019re organising and writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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