Style in the Social Sciences

(from Traditions and Adaptations: Writing in the Disciplines,Dean Ward, pp.151-160)

Nouns

Vague, general nouns are used as it is difficult toidentify the agents or causes

Example: The majority of men in the workplace discriminate...
Example: Various social forces cause

Often, the passive voice is used to avoid identifying the agent
Use more technical words to express everyday concepts (jargon)

Example: artifactual variance
Example: Overtime response instability

Pronouns

Generally prefer "I" and "we"

Gives a sense of community with other social scientists (use of "we")
I creates a sense of the person talking to his or her collages
creates a strong voice
"We" is preferred to "I" since it gives a greater sense of community.

Third person is used when the writer wants to sound "scientific"
The Social Sciences do not have a shared body of knowledge so it is necessaryto identify themselves with their work more directly than someone in theNatural Sciences would. At the same time, social scientists want to sound"scientific."

Verbs

Tense

What did author did in the past - past tense

Example: We conducted

Claims are made in the present tense

Example: In this study, we demonstrate

Published work of individuals is either in the past perfect or past tense

Example: Hayes has shown ...
Example: Hayes showed ...

Voice

Passives are used to call more attention to the subject rather than theauthor
Passives are used to indicate that the agent is not known (SeeNouns)

Example: Women are discriminated against. (by whom?)

Passives are used to present objective impersonal facts.

Modifiers

Use to admit uncertainty (this occurs more frequently in the Social Sciencesthan it does in the Natural Sciences. In the Natural Sciences, these wouldnot be as accepted.)

Example: The results of our study may possibly provide bases forother work on ...
Example: The structure observed may be like ...
Example: The study attempted to measure ...
Example: But, as we contend, people typically ...

Create a tone of confidence

Example: The structure is ...
Example: We argue that ...
Example: We propose ...

Diction

Social Scientists use more jargon

Example: The data on which this study is based were gathered in the courseof a study of the genesis of identification with an occupation instudents doing graduate work in physiology, philosophy and mechanical engineering.(Translation: We studied graduate students in physiology, philosophy andmechanical engineering to see how they began to identify with their jobs.)

The more established you become, the less you need to rely on jargon.
When you are starting out, you need to use more jargon to show that youknow the "in" language.

Tone

Use "I-was-there-persona" - "I" to report on what you observed.

Some observations. There is a tension in social science writing. On onehand, there is a need to establish authority in the writing. On the otherhand, there is a need to sound like one of the community of social scientists.This is due, in part, to the lack of shared accepted knowledge (at leastaccording to Ward). In the Natural Sciences, there are facts that all peopleagree on and can make reference to. Therefore, there is little need toconvince the reader of the background information. However, in the SocialSciences, there is a need to establish even your starting points. The bestway to get an understanding of the style is to look at material writtenby Social Scientists.