Writing Skeletons

As an inexperienced academic writer one of the most difficult aspects academic writing is designing an appropriate skeleton or scaffold. Professor Pat Thomson offers sound advice in her blog Patter. She and her partner Barbara Kamler borrow paragraphs from Swales and Feak's book, Academic writing for graduate students a series of skeleton (i), which she uses in her academic writing workshops. I reproduce them here:-
Re-bloged from Patter

SKELETON ONE
(1)  This chapter begins with a brief discussion of…………….(key theoretical approach you will take in your research) its history and major theorists.
(2)  Next, I look at how ……………. (state the problem you are researching) is constructed in education.
(3)  Then the chapter examines the literature about …………..( the problem you are addressing) that has been produced over the last …………. years.
(4)  The chapter concludes with a look at some notable scholars …………..( names)  from ………………..(name the theory again ) perspective.

 From Ladson Billings, G (1999) Preparing teachers for diverse student populations: a critical race theory perspective, in  A Iran-Nejad and P. D Pearson (Eds) Review of Research in Education. (pp. 211-247) WashingtonDC: American Educational Research Association.

SKELETON TWO
In this paper I discuss the main arguments that deal with the issue of…………
(2) it is my purpose to highlight the ……………… by pointing to…………….
(3) The paper is structured as follows. After giving an overview of the scope of the …………. I review the particular……………
(4) Next I provide a summary of …………….
(1)  Finally in the last two sections I consider several implications for ……. and argue that…………….
 Adapted from Lavie, J (2006) Academic discourse on school based teacher collaboration: revising the arguments. Educational Administration Quarterly 42 (5) 773-805.

SKELETON THREE
The thesis builds on and contributes to work in the field of __________________________
(2)      Although a number of studies (   ) have examined _______________, there has not been a strong focus on ____________________________________________________.
(3)  As such, this study provides additional insights about ______________________.
(4)  This research differs from previous studies in ………….   by identifying/documenting/ ………….
(5) In doing this it draws strongly on the work of ………… and …………. who……………
 Adapted from Dunsmire, P (1997) Naturalizing the future in factual discourse: a critical linguistic analysis of a project event. Written Communication 14 (2) 221-264.

SKELETON FOUR
The thesis differs from other studies of_____________________.
(2) It owes a factual and interpretative debt to ________________________and _____________________ and__________________.
(3) In other respects it has benefited from the _________________ presented by _____________ and from  ____________’s treatment of ________________ (    ).
(4) In these writings it is possible to find descriptions and analyses of____________ ________________________________which this thesis does not intend to match.
(5) What it rather does is to present a broader perspective on ______________ than is usually managed, with a more consistently maintained ________________, a greater attention to ____________________, a fuller sense of the range of _____________within a framework which conveys ________________________.
(6) If it is successful in these respects, then much is owed to______________________.

 Adapted from Jones K (2003) Education in Britain: 1944 to the present.Oxford: Polity Press.

(i) Swales, J and Feak, C 1994 Academic writing for graduate students. University of Michigan Press. Second edition now in print.

Source: http://patthomson.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/writing-skeletons/

Swales and Feak's book, Academic writing for graduate students a series of skeleton is available from Amazon.