Best Academic Words for Your Research Gap Statement
Any PhD project has to explore the existing research on the topic critically, formulate specific research aims and questions, and perform other tasks requiring a high level of academic writing skills. This challenge is frequently daunting for students learning English as a second language due to the high complexity of existing norms in this sphere. If we summarise the tasks involved in the formulation of a research gap statement, we will probably encounter a wide variety of tasks including the need to:
- Define key terms;
- Explain causalities;
- Classify the existing body of literature;
- Categorise different sources;
- Critically discuss key limitations of past studies;
- Contrast the advantages of your project with the identified research gaps of the previous research in the field;
- Provide examples supporting your claims;
- Describe the most important recent trends and academic status quo elements in the studied sphere
While taking additional academic writing lessons may be an optimal long-term choice for a committed student, there frequently comes a time when you feel that your current skill levels are insufficient for producing a high-quality piece of work for your PhD thesis. Multiple ‘tricks of the trade’ exist, allowing experienced professionals to get out of this rut and find the right words for every piece they produce. In comes the analysis of the best academic words for formulating a research gap statement.
What Is a Phrasebank?
Any sphere of knowledge has established best practices and common conventions shared by most professionals in the field. Academic writing is not an exception to this rule since the activities described earlier can usually be addressed using a set of popular words and phrases. Learning them will instantly boost the quality of your research gap statement and will make it look highly professional. Moreover, multiple studies show that native speakers frequently use the same words and phrases in their academic writing, which further suggests that the knowledge of the best constructions in this sphere can be beneficial for any student learning English as a second language. Let us consider some popular word categories.
Verbs
Academic writing utilises a number of specific verbs used for criticising the limitations of past studies forming the identified research gaps,
- Disregard;
- Misinterpret;
- Fail to consider;
- Be limited to;
- Ignore;
- Suffer from;
- Neglect to take into account;
- Overlook;
- Underestimate,
They can be used to form such phrases as,
- The research to date has been primarily focused on A rather than B;
- The majority of previously published studies overlooked the effect of C on D;
- The existing studies of E have been limited to a small number of research areas;
You can prepare 4-5 constructions in advance and use them throughout your sections discussing your research gap statement to save time. Additionally, verbs can be utilised to introduce the critical stand of specific writers,
- Smith is considered the best-known critic of Theory X;
- A recently published article by Brown casts doubt on Smith’s assumption that;
- Jones questioned these hypotheses and challenged the idea that...;
- Smith’s explanation of... merits some discussion;
- A new insight on this topic can be found in a recent study by Kaplan;
Noun Constructions
The following noun constructions are widely applied in sections discussing the existing research gaps,
- Little attention/data/information;
- Insufficient research/data;
- No data/studies/agreement;
- None of the previous calculations/findings/studies;
Some popular phrases utilising noun constructions include,
- However, these results were primarily based on data from over ... years ago;
- There is no general agreement about;
- Insufficient research was conducted in this field;
- Even though extensive research has been carried out on A, there exists no single study exploring B;
These ideas are usually used to criticise existing research in a certain field and highlight the absence of data on your topic of interest or the lack of previous attention towards it. However, you need to be highly aware of your claims and avoid excessively bold statements. Keep in mind that some studies may emerge during the process of your PhD writing, which is why the use of ‘no...’ constructions may be less effective than stating the insufficiency of the existing research in your field of interest.
Adjectives
When you have to characterise a previous study and its research gaps and limitations, you can accompany its discussion with certain critical adjectives such as,
- Controversial;
- Inconclusive;
- Questionable;
- Misguided;
- Incomplete;
- Unsatisfactory;
- Unconvincing;
They can be integrated into several phrases supporting your discussion, for example,
- The findings of... can be viewed as controversial;
- Previously published studies in this field are inconclusive;
- The results obtained by ... regarding X can be viewed as incomplete;
- The research methodology of... may be considered questionable due to....;
The best way to integrate these phrases in your academic writing is to construct 7-10 constructions mixing nouns with adjectives to formulate ‘gap statement’ phrases allowing you to discuss the key weaknesses of existing studies in your field.
Being Cautious with Criticisms
When using the constructions above to formulate your research gap statement, you need to keep in mind that being overly critical is as problematic as being descriptive in your review of the literature. You need to stay constructive and try to quote specific scholars and established theorists when you refer to some methodological choices of your colleagues as inefficient or potentially problematic. Constructive criticism should be preferably based upon the following mindset:
- You treat all analysed publications equally and use them to gain knowledge of the studied field;
- You accept the inevitable methodological limitations of any project including your own thesis;
- Your constructive criticism highlights the ways some past studies could be improved;
- You support your statements with specific suggestions on how you can overcome the identified research gaps.
This balanced approach will allow you to maintain constructive criticism and formulate a strong research gap statement.
