[MUSIC] Whereas the purpose statement declares
what you will be doing or presenting in your article, the rationale explains
why you chose to do it or present it. Rationale is an explanation
of the logical reasons and principles employed unconsciously
arriving at a decision or estimate. Rationales usually document why
a particular choice was made. How the basis of its
selection was developed. Why and how the particular information or
assumptions were relied on. And why the conclusion is
deemed credible or realistic. In other words,
rationale is a brief explanation of why your research topic
is worthy of study and may make a significant contribution to
the body of already existing research. Very often, writers think about
rationales as the portion of the introduction where they will
explain why tho topic is important and why it merits examination and discussion. And this is usually the extent to which
researchers develop their rational. Yet, when the author provides more than
one rational in a piece of writing, then that piece becomes stronger. More than one, you might ask? Yes, what other reasons
should be provided, aside from the ones explaining
why the topic is important? What else is there to explain why? Describing the reasons why the author
chose a certain approach or methodology in addition to explaining
why the topic is worth the study, strengthens the manuscript. And if you really want to raise
the quality of your work, provide a rationale for the statistical
(or data analysis) strategies you have chosen to apply to the data. The rationale for the statistical
(or data analysis) strategies can be provided in the methods
section of your article. You do not have to include
it in the introduction. Nevertheless, you can practice
writing all your rationale segments as you write the introduction and
later move the rationale for the statistical analysis
to the methods section. Learning to develop the original
requires practice and patience. Describe the broad aims of the study. Why is the study done? Why at this time? Why this sample and in this context? The studies foundation and
when it was carried out. Relevant background literature
should be reviewed and synthesized. The study should be linked to theory or
other empirical studies. You may start with writing
down all the reasons for the choices you made,
the choice of topic, the or analysis. If appropriate, make notes to yourself to find adequate
citations to support your choices. Grounding your rationale
in authoritative citations will give your readers more
confidence in your decision. This will learn you chose qualitative
inquiry over a survey design, not because they suspect
you hate statistics, but because you concluded that a qualitative
approach is the best choice. The best way to know your subject matter. Make it a point to use the word
"because" several times in your text. "Because" functions as a marker for
the readers. When they say the word, they are ready for
a rationale, a reason, an explanation. High quality manuscripts
use this word repeatedly. When the first draft of your
rationale is ready, you may edit and reorganize your results or
add some other reasons. Then allow the readers you have
presented to mature over a few days. Do not forget to check your space and
word limits and keep the original word segments short. As in most cases, one or
two sentences will suffice. This is an example of rationale for a research paradigm a doctoral
student has chosen. Notice that the original is backed
by an authoritative source. Qualitative research methods
are unsurpassed for researching problems/phenomena for which the variables
are unknown and need to be explored. Minimally, a rationale should
include a bibliographic citation and the intended audience. The bibliographic citation
is very important. A rationale should begin with a complete
bibliographic citation, including author's name, complete book title, publisher,
publication date and edition. Then it should contain a brief
summary of the work and its educational significance or
scientific significance. The summary provides
an overview of the research for anyone who chooses to read it. And it can also reflect aspects of a work
that you considered most important, and aspects that relate
through its significance. It should also contain the purposes of
using the work and how it will be used. In addition to potential problems with
the work and how these can be handled. It should also contain alternative works
an individual might read or review. Rationale has to be well thought out. You should avoid specialized
technical jargon. It should be as specific and
thorough as possible.
