Htqe.2022.48

https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2022.48 | 675-685 | PDF

Typical Errors in Pupils’ Scientific Research Papers in Anglofone Literature Studies

Antra Leine
University of Latvia

Abstract. While involved in scientific research activities, pupils get acquainted with the methods and structure of scientific research, thus acquiring skills necessary to handle and develop theoretical concepts, carry out empirical analysis, develop analytical and critical thinking and acquire new knowledge and skills. Expert-accessor analysis of the pupils’ papers presented between 2017–2022 in the national competition of research papers in foreign language and literature studies has allowed the detection of distinct categories of mistakes appearing in numerous papers that prevent even very talented pupils from achieving good results. Thus, the study aims to promote the understanding of both pupils and teachers supervising research papers of the most common mistakes that should be avoided while elaborating a research paper and stimulating the creation of more successful research papers in the future. The report provides a summary of data obtained by analysing 27 pupils’ research papers submitted in the Riga region and reviews of these works, identifying the most common types of errors and how they affect the results, as well as providing recommendations on how to eliminate such errors. The study concludes that the three most important groups of errors are related to an inappropriate selection of the research field, inability to formulate and prove the topicality and novelty of the research, and failure to balance, structure, and harmonize the research carried out in the theoretical and empirical parts of the paper. The obtained results indicate that it is necessary to educate further supervisors, pupils, researchers, and prospective teachers on how to avoid these mistakes to improve the quality of the research in the field of literary studies, so suggestions are provided at the end of the paper.

Keywords: Anglophone literature studies, errors, structure, pupils’ research papers.

Author Note
To access the pupils’ research papers and reviews for research purposes, permission should be required from VISC, visc@visc.gov.lv.

In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2022. Proceedings of Scientific Papers = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2022. Rakstu krājums
Riga, University of Latvia, 2022. 1135 p. Ed. L. Daniela
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2022
ISBN 978-9934-18-911-1