Using the article you read in the previous section answer the questions on the tipsheet:
Stage 1: Title + Abstract
Does the title and abstract indicate that it will help you understand your topic in detail?
This would depend on your research question so compare what the answer might be when seeking these answers:
- What are the barriers that first generation medical students face?
- What are the advantages of students who are first in the family to attend medical school?
Remember to read the abstract 2 - 3 times to help determine if the article is worth your time.
Stage 2: Introduction + Conclusion
What did the authors want to learn; what did they study? (thesis statement, research question, hypothesis)
The introduction tells you what the researchers intended the study to show and examine. In this case, researchers wanted to learn what barriers are faced by first in family medical students with a low socioeconomic status as well as what they miss out on socio-culturally.
This article doesn’t have a section labelled ‘Conclusion’ but the next sections in Stage 3 have helpful headings and subheadings to break down the research findings.
Stage 3: Results + Discussion
What did the authors learn about their topic? (use quotation marks for direct quotes)
Results section shares the outcome of their study: “Although these students brought particular assets with them, encoded in their habitus, quite different resources proved to count as valued capital within the field of medical education. The role of each form of capital, and how it mediated between FiF students’ habitus and the field of medical education, is discussed in turn.”
What are some specific examples you can use from the Results? (use quotation marks for direct quotes)
The results identified three forms of capital: social, economic, and cultural. An example of lack of social capital is: “Feeling like what Bourdieu calls a ‘fish out of water’ as her habitus confronted an unfamiliar field,14 this student had struggled to cope with the shift to university study and had had to repeat several sections of the degree programme.”
Discussion section shares implications of study that acknowledges what authors learned and what they may need to change in future research. This also helps other researchers pick up the study where these researchers left off:
“A specific issue requiring further investigation refers to the implications of the stress experienced by students in financial difficulty and its impact on their studies, including the pressure to negotiate new social identities.”
Remember that Stage 3 is the place to locate a “direct quote” that will serve as evidence for your thesis/research paper.
Proceed to:
3B. Review