Put the following in the correct order for writing the body of a research…
2024
Put the following in the correct order for writing the body of a research paper:
A. Procedures
B. Introduction
C. Conclusions
D. Results
E. Abstract
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer: A. E, B, A, D and C — Concept — a research paper is set down in the order in which the inquiry itself unfolds. Academic writing follows the IMRaD convention — Introduction,…
- A.
E, B, A, D and C
- B.
B, D, A, C and E
- C.
C, A, B, E and D
- D.
B, A, C, D and E
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept — a research paper is set down in the order in which the inquiry itself unfolds. Academic writing follows the IMRaD convention — Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion — with a self-contained abstract standing at the very front of the paper. The principle that fixes this order is dependency: a section can be read with understanding only after the section before it has been read. A method is chosen to attack a problem, so the problem must be stated before it; findings are produced by a method, so the method must be described before them; an interpretation is drawn from findings, so it can never precede the evidence it interprets. The abstract sits outside that chain as a miniature of the whole study, and by convention it opens the paper so that a reader can decide from one paragraph whether to read on.
The five standard sections and what each one contributes.
Section | What it contributes | Why it sits where it does |
|---|---|---|
Abstract | A stand-alone summary of the aim, method, findings and significance | Opens the paper so a reader grasps the whole study before reading it |
Introduction | The problem, its context and the research gap | Nothing in the argument can be understood until the problem is stated |
Procedures | The design, materials and method used | Follows the problem that the method was chosen to address |
Results | The data and findings the method produced | Follows the method that generated them |
Conclusions | Interpretation, significance and implications | Follows the evidence that it interprets |
Application to this item. Map the five labelled entries onto that dependency chain:
Abstract (E) — a condensed account of the whole study; it opens the paper.
Introduction (B) — states the problem, its background and the gap being addressed.
Procedures (A) — set out the design and method chosen to address that problem.
Results (D) — report what those procedures produced.
Conclusions (C) — interpret the results and state what they mean.
Reading those labels off in order gives E, B, A, D and C.
Cross-check — test the alternative arrangements against the same dependency rule.
Introduction, results, procedures, conclusions, abstract presents findings while the method that produced them is still unknown, and it leaves the summary at the end, where it can no longer orient the reader.
Conclusions, procedures, introduction, abstract, results announces the interpretation before the problem has been introduced and before any evidence has been shown.
Introduction, procedures, conclusions, results, abstract draws the interpretation before the data it rests on has been reported.
Only abstract, introduction, procedures, results, conclusions keeps every section behind the one it depends on.
A practical note: authors usually draft the abstract last, once the findings are settled, but as a section of the finished paper it stands first — and it is that reading order, not the drafting order, that this convention fixes.