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 to identify 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 necessary to identify themselves with their work more directly than someone in the Natural 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 the author
Passives are used to indicate that the agent is not known (See Nouns)

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 Sciences than it does in the Natural Sciences. In the Natural Sciences, these would not be as accepted.)

Example: The results of our study may possibly provide bases for other 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 course of a study of the genesis of identification with an occupation in students doing graduate work in physiology, philosophy and mechanical engineering. (Translation: We studied graduate students in physiology, philosophy and mechanical 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 you know 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 one hand, there is a need to establish authority in the writing. On the other hand, 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 least according to Ward). In the Natural Sciences, there are facts that all people agree on and can make reference to. Therefore, there is little need to convince the reader of the background information. However, in the Social Sciences, there is a need to establish even your starting points. The best way to get an understanding of the style is to look at material written by Social Scientists.