66 Science Research Writing the example above, the writer has acknowledged that there was a problem and then minimised its eff ects (variation among samples was negligible). Th is is a standard way of dealing with the need to talk about problems. You can fi nd examples of the language needed to refer to problems and diffi culties in a conventional, professional way in the vocabulary list in Section 2.4. 2.3.3 Th e model Here are the sentence descriptions we have collected: In Sentence 1 the writer off ers a general overview of the subsection. In Sentence 2 the writer provides background information and justifi cation. In Sentence 3 the writer provides an overview of the procedure/ method itself. In Sentence 4 the writer provides details about what was done and used and shows that care was taken. In Sentence 5 the writer continues to describe what was done in detail, using language which communicates that care was taken. In Sentence 6 the writer describes what was done by referring to existing methods in the literature. In Sentence 7 the writer provides more detailed information about the method and shows it to have been a good choice. In Sentence 8 the writer provides more details of the method. In Sentence 9 the writer mentions a possible diffi culty in the methodology. We can streamline these so that our model has FOUR basic components. Unlike the Introduction model, in which all the items of each component are likely to be used, this is a 'menu' from which you select items appropriate to your research topic and the journal you are submitting to. If you constructed the equipment yourself you won't need to 'give the source of' the equipment used in component 1. If there were no problems, you won't need the fourth component at all.
Methodology — Writing Task 67 2.3.4 Testing the model Th e next step is to look at the way this model works in a real Materials/ Methods section (remember it may not be called Materials and Methods) and in the target articles you have selected. Here are some full-length Methodology sections from real research articles. Read them through, and mark the model components (1, 2, 3 or 4) wherever you think you see them. For example, if you think the fi rst sentence corresponds to number