Improving Vocabulary Blog.ORG

Embarking on a doctorate degree can be one of the most rewarding experiences of one’s life. Most people who complete a doctorate treat the work not as just other tasks, but a labor of love. While completing coursework is part of the academic rigor, the dissertation writing process is often considered one of the greatest challenges in one’s life. Writing a lengthy text that will require thousands of hour’s worth of research, writing, and investigation is challenging because one can never predict how the research will turn out. While doctorate students often master the art of research quickly, one of the facets that come as a challenge is a strong discipline of writing. A common gap is being able to analyze ideas and present them with a clear vocabulary and research problem.

In Ellis and Levy (2008), several disciplines capitalize on the use of the research problem as a means to base strong research. The vocabulary used by the scholar is as important as the research question used. As Ellis and Levy point out, “the importance of basing research on a well-articulated problem statement is well accepted across disciplines such as information systems, education, and engineering (Creswell, 2005; Hicks & Turner, 1999; Sekaran, 2003). Unfortunately, just what constitutes a research-worthy problem is not readily apparent, in particular for novice researchers. Although most scholars would agree that not everything that is problematic could serve as the starting point for meaningful research, it is not easy to identify just what does constitute such a problem.” Furthermore, in a study conducted by Casanave and Hubbard (1992), surveys indicate that there are pedagogical issues concerning global versus local writing problems, the role of vocabulary instruction, the need for discipline-specific writing instruction and the need for educating graduate students on appropriate standards in building a vocabulary at the graduate level is necessary. .

As an undergraduate student, assignments are much more behavioral in nature whereby a student is given a task and is expected to regurgitate the information by presenting a case in an elementary oriented analytical framework. The expectation for quality writing and content delivery is fairly broad. As one matures in their academic careers, rigor, discipline, and style are expected to prevail in more of a constructive means. Constructivism, the learning theory developer by Piaget (1967), is a psychological theory of knowledge that asserts humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences. As doctorate students, the student takes their passions and interest by creating a refined academic study over the course of several years through research building and experiential opportunities. Like the Casanave and Hubbard (1992) study states, strong writing and the use of vocabulary attribute to stronger performers in the respected academic disciplines.

With automation and new technologies often coming to the educational technology marketplace, one way to improve learner comprehension, writing style, and vernacular is through the use of vocabulary building tools such as Ultimate Vocabulary. Tools such as Ultimate Vocabulary help the doctoral research increase their writing strength as well as provide a powerful vocabulary that often has a direct correlation to success and status in completing the terminal degree. While not every writing will require a verbose range of vocabulary, learning stylistic ways to enhance a terminal research work often makes a doctoral dissertation more than a study, but a timeless reference.

References Cited

Casanave, C. & Hubbard, A. (1992). The writing assignments and writing problems of doctoral students: Facuklty perceptions, pedagogical issues, and needed research, English for Specific Purposes, 11(2), 33-49.

Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Hicks, C. R., & Turner, K. V. (1999). Fundamental concepts in the design of experiments. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, T. & Levy, Y. (2008). Framework of Problem-Based Research: A Guide for Novice Researchers on the Development of a Research-Worthy Problem. Informing Science Journal, 11(1), 17-33. Retrieved from

http://inform.nu/Articles/Vol11/ISJv11p017-033Ellis486.pdf

Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1967). The Child’s Conception of Space. See especially “Systems of Reference and Horizontal-Vertical Coordinates.” p. 375-418. New York: W. W. Norton &Co

Sekaran, U. (2003). Research methods for business (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.