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S)SAGE
Writing for
Academic
Success

Gail Craswell
& Megan Poore

2nd Edition
 OXxTorG UNIVersny LIOraLy

© Gail Craswell and Megan Poore 2012

First published 2005

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or

private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may
be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any
means, only with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in
accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside
those terms should be sent to the publishers.

SAGE Publications Ltd

1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP

SAGE Publications Inc.

2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd

B 1/11 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road
New Delhi 110 044

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

33 Pekin Street #02-01
Far East Square
Singapore 048763

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011923532

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-85702-927-0
ISBN 978-0-85702-928-7 (pbk)

Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
Printed on paper from sustainable resources
 Contents

List of Figures pat

List of Tables Xlil

Introduction 1
Aims, limits and organization of the book 2
Terminology and other practices 3

1 Managing your Writing Environment 5

Effective self-management 6
Networking for support 6
Pre-planning: maximizing effort 8
Electronic tools for increasing productivity $2
Managing multiple communication tasks 14
Communicating with lecturers and supervisors 16
Resolving uncertainties a
Digital communication issues 18
Issues in cross-cultural writing and communication 20
Being critical 20
Developing independence 20
Accepting guidence 21
Entering tutorial ‘conversations’ 21
Using the English language val
Using the disciplinary language 22
Conducting interpersonal relations 22
Researching on the move 23
Advantages of using mobile technologies 23
Keeping safe online 25
Backing up your work 3 30
Further resources Sy
2 Fundamentals of Solid Preparation 33
Understanding the graduate writing culture 34
Mastering disciplinary writing practices 35
Treating information critically 38
Critically appraising source materials 38
Critically evaluating theory 40
Critical enquiry and the status of
existing knowledge 42
Working with different types of information 42
Following your hunches 43
Ensuring task-focused information 44
Assessing the academic merit of source materials 45
Avoiding the urge to rush into data-gathering 46
Discriminating information needs 47
Managing your reading load 49
Reading intensively and skimming 49
Strategies for information storage 50
Managing common writing concerns 51
Monitoring your approach 52
Confronting the ‘writing block’ 53
Handling critical feedback 54
Further resources 55

Essentials of Academic Writing 56

The mechanics of academic writing 56
Ensuring consistency of practice 57
Spelling, grammar and proofreading 57
Punctuation 58
Referencing and plagiarism 58
Choosing a referencing style 59
Avoiding plagiarism 60
Attending to readers’ needs 63
The reader as disciplinary practitioner 64
The reader as subject specialist 64
Signposting: signalling your intentions 65
Clarity: the first rule of style 65
Other style issues 66
Conciseness 68
Aspects of voice and tone 70
Further resources 72

Principles of Sound Structure 73

Visual mapping of material 74

vi
 Contents

Brainstorming and mind-mapping 74

Sequential outlining 75
Using sub-headings effectively WA
Developing texts 19
Effective paragraph development 80
Strategies for linking paragraphs 82
Manipulating sentence structure 84
The ‘discards’ file 85
Improving overall structure 86
Further resources 87

Research Essays 88
‘Essays’ and their synonyms 88
The short essay 89
The research essay as formal argument 90
Decoding the meaning of ‘argument’ 90
Basic criteria applied in assessing essays ot
Topics (or questions) 91
Setting up a topic 92
Analysing a given topic 92
Compiling an introduction 94
Establishing the context 95
Defining important terms, phrases or concepts 95
Laying out a position 95
Making a procedural statement 96
Building an argument ell
Building a ‘position’ as you read o7
Arguing from sources 98
Avoiding faulty reasoning She)
Strategies that strengthen argument 100
Developing an argument 102
Ensuring structural coherence 102
Maintaining relevance 103
Working up a conclusion 104
Cutting to meet word length 104
Reviewing the essay presentation 105
Further resources 106

Book or Article Reviews and Online Writing 107

Book or article reviews 107
The different types of reviews 107
Conducting an academic review 108
Structuring a review 110

vil
Online writing 110
Blogs Le
Wikis It:

Coursework Exams 113

Setting up a revision plan 114
Stage 1: focusing your plan 114
Stage 2: systematizing your plan 116
Stage 3: testing the efficacy of your plan 13
Exam room strategies 120
Interpreting exam paper instructions 120
Determining the order of your answers 120
Working out a time schedule 21
Writing the exam paper 121
Essay papers 122
Short answer papers 123
Multiple-choice papers 123

The Literature Review 125

Purpose and functions of a literature
review 125
Writing tasks engaged 126
Review mode and orientation 126
Exploiting hbrary and Internet resources 127
Your institution’s library 127
The Internet 129
Strategically managing the reading 129
Discovery mode 130
Refining mode 131
Appraisal mode 131
Critical appraisal of the literature 132
Processing information to facilitate writing 133
Processing information 134
Processing and structure 135
Shortcomings in reviews 136
Reader processing needs 136
Contrary findings in the literature 136
The all-important: ‘So what” 136
How your research fits in 137
Further resources 138

vill
9 Reports and Research Proposals
Reports
Possible audience considerations
Business reports
Focusing a business report
Experimental or technical reports
The interlocking relationship of the structural divisions
Focusing the different parts of the report
Formal reports
Two prominent structures
Distinctive features of the formal report
Field reports
Keeping precise records
Progress reports
The purpose of a progress report
Research proposals
The different purposes of proposals
Focusing and developing a proposal
Further resources

10 Thesis Writing
Managing the project
Orientation to thesis writing
Using online tools to manage the research project
Anticipatory thesis management strategies
Setting up a thesis writing schedule
Settling on typography and formatting
Expectations of theses
Standard expectations
Bringing examiners into view
Longer theses
Quality indicators in examiners’ reports
Shorter theses
Different topic orientations
Constraining factors
Structuring a thesis
Dividing up the text
Key structuring strategies
The thesis statement
Chapter structuring options
A science model
Vriting Tor acagemic success

A social science model 175

An illustrations-based model 175
A sequential model 176
An open-ended model 176
Gaining overall thesis control Lee
Visually mapping core chapters Lit
The table of contents 178
The detailed thesis outline 179
The thesis abstract 181
The thesis introduction 182
Timing the writing of an introduction 182
Focusing an introduction 182
The thesis conclusion 183
Processing the thesis findings 184
Organizing a thesis-writing group 186
Further resources 187

11 Presentations 188
The nature of oral presentations £39
Distinctive features of presenting 189
Tutorial and seminar presentations 190
Clarifying expectations 190
Forestalling criticism in progress review seminars 191
Conference presentations £91
Getting a paper accepted WOT
Poster presentations 193
Factors that might influence design 194
Design principles 194
Planning for success 196
Audience analysis 19%
Language appropriateness 198
Venue considerations 198
Building ‘time’ into a plan 1199
Formatting options i99
Using scripted notes ig?
Reading a paper as a presentation 200
Reworking a lengthy paper to present 201
Slideshow (PowerPoint) presentations 201
Fine-tuning and rehearsal 204
Encoding audience management 204
The value of prior rehearsal 207
On the day: issues of delivery 207
 Contents

The presenting venue 207

Dealing with the unexpected 208
Canvassing audience questions 208
Managing nervousness 209
Further resources 210

12 Publishing and Raising Your Profile oul

Pre-publishing or self-publishing online 212
Advantages of distributing work online 212
Some points to watch 213
Raising your profile: setting up an eportfolio 214
Basic eportfolio 215
Expanded eportfolio 215
Choosing a service to host your eportfolio 217
What to include in your eportfolio 218
Journal publication 219
ejournals 219
Open access journals 220
Including supervisors as co-authors 220
Targeting an appropriate journal 221
Profiling the targeted journal 221
Shaping a paper for publication 222
Being professional 222
Focusing the abstract 222
Reviewing scholarly practices 223
Engaging the reader 223
Approaching a book publisher 226
‘Strategic considerations 226
The peer review process 228
Questions addressed by referees 228
Dealing with the outcome of peer review 229
Forming a publication syndicate 230
Further resources 231

Appendix: Words and Phrases for Developing Discussions 232

References 235
Index 239

xi
 OxrorG Universivy

© Gail Craswell and Megan Poore 2012

First published 2005

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or

private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may
be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any
means, only with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in
accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside
those terms should be sent to the publishers.

SAGE Publications Ltd

1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP

SAGE Publications Inc.

2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd

B 1/11 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road
New Delhi 110 044

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

338 Pekin Street #02-01
Far East Square
Singapore 048763

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011923532

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-85702-927-0
ISBN 978-0-85702-928-7 (pbk)

Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
Printed on paper from sustainable resources
 Contents

List of Figures xl
List of Tables xl

Introduction 1
Aims, limits and organization of the book 2
Terminology and other practices 3

1 Managing your Writing Environment 5

Effective self-management 6
Networking for support 6
Pre-planning: maximizing effort 8
Electronic tools for increasing productivity 12
Managing multiple communication tasks 14
Communicating with lecturers and supervisors 16
Resolving uncertainties 17
Digital communication issues 18
Issues in cross-cultural writing and communication 20
Being critical 20
Developing independence 20
Accepting guidence Qi
Entering tutorial ‘conversations’ 21
Using the English language Zi
Using the disciplinary language 22
Conducting interpersonal relations 22,
Researching on the move 23
Advantages of using mobile technologies 23
Keeping safe online 25
Backing up your work 30
Further resources Sy
 ASSET

List of Figures
WW

tal The self-management matrix

Dek How theories work
2.2 Different types of frameworks
2.3 Scale of qualification
4.1 Simple brainstorming plan
4.2 Sample mind-mapping outline created with Bubbl.us
4.3 The structural relationship between point of view
and paragraph development
Ou Ensuring relevance 104
5.2 Cutting material to meet word length 105
ped Orienting and outlining a revision plan 115
12 Systematizing a revision plan 116
7.3 Testing the efficacy of a revision plan AbiES
7.4 Making use of the permitted study period 120
Sal Indexing different types of information 134
oul A model of a business report 141
922 Typical parts of an experimental or technical report 143
9.3 Structural outline of a formal report 147
9.4 Progressive refinement of a topic 151
LL Basic divisions of a thesis a.
10.2 Computer modelling of thesis chapters 177
10.3 Core questions for structuring an abstract 181
Ll The basic elements of an oral presentation 189
11.2 Key aspects of audience management 204
12.1 Creating a Research Space — the CARS model of
journal introductions 224
 KEW

List of Tables

10.1 Core questions for structuring at any level of the text 173
10.2 Information scale for the general and chapter introductions 183
1401 Implications for focusing a conference abstract 193
iat Strategies for engaging the reader 225
sound logic and evidential support in argument, and so forth. Material of this
type is covered in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Other aspects of context may also feature prominently in graduate com-
munication. For example, disciplinary influences on style and language are
much reduced where there is a broad audience for, say, a conference paper,
or with publications in journals targeting a more general audience. While
audience needs are a crucial consideration in all academic communication, at
times they exert primary influence on both the treatment of information and
the language, style and formatting of a paper or talk.

Aims, limitations and organization of the book

The overall aim of this book is to ease the path towards successful communi-
cation of your study and research. It is in this sense a practical, developmen-
tal guide. The usefulness of the book lies in your following through on
suggestions and testing their appropriateness in the context of monitoring
your own practices, attempting the exercises or following step-by-step pro-
cedures where relevant, applying strategies in practice, and opening up
conversations with lecturers, supervisors, conference convenors and editors
or publishers where uncertainties remain.
We make no claim to either comprehensive coverage of all types of gradu-
ate writing or detailed coverage of all the varied and complex communication
challenges graduates encounter, both of which would be impossible.
Nevertheless, much of the material covered in the first four chapters will
apply in most writing situations, and the different types of self-help strate-
gies presented throughout the book should prove useful if you encounter
types of writing not covered here.
The book’s underlying organization mirrors a developmental movement
from consideration of general issues in academic writing and communication
in the first four chapters, to coverage of issues specific to different types of
writing, presentations and publications in subsequent chapters. In effect, the
first four, foundation chapters engage a broad range of strategies that under-
pin all types of graduate writing and communication; hence the frequent
references back to them in the chapters that follow.
Effective management of your writing environment will reduce stress and
improve your confidence and efficiency. Chapter 1 explores multiple strate-
gies towards this end, including strategies for networking, managing yourself
and your writing in the context of life-commitments and goals, exploiting
electronic tools to increase productivity, handling communication challenges
(cross-cultural and digital), enabling positive communication with lecturers
and supervisors, and developing capacity with mobile technologies.
 introduction

No amount of effort during writing will result in well-written papers with-

out careful preparation in the research and reading phases: you need to
ensure your foundations are solid. This involves understanding the purposes
of the type of writing (genre) you now have to produce, mastering disciplinary
writing practices, defining task-specific goals before proceeding to reading
and data-gathering, treating information critically, managing the reading
load to cut down on unproductive reading, accessing quality sources, both
print and electronic, and improving information retrieval to reduce frustra-
tion when writing, all of which Chapter 2 explores.
Chapter 3 provides an opportunity to review the essentials of academic
writing with a view to improving or changing practice if needs be in a range
of contexts including the mechanics of academic writing, referencing and
plagiarism, and key aspects of academic style. As it is essential that readers
do not become confused or lost, that they can follow development of your
ideas and access your important insights, Chapter 4 explores principles of
sound structure at different levels of the text to aid structural coherence.
(Issues specific to structuring different types of writing are discussed at
appropriate points in context.)
Chapters 5 and 6 discuss in detail prominent types of written assessment
in many graduate courses: research essays, book or article reviews and online
writing (blogs and wikis). Chapter 7 turns to coursework exams to consider
effective revision and writing strategies for different types of exam papers.
Chapter 8 enters the challenging terrain of the literature review and Chapter
9 continues with a detailed probing of other graduate writing genres:
reports and research proposals.
Chapter 10 is devoted exclusively to thesis writing, both shorter and longer
theses. Chapter 11 moves to full consideration of the topic of presenting.
This chapter initially considers different types of presentations — tutorials,
seminars, conferences and posters; it then engages a range of issues inte-
gral to the planning, formatting, rehearsal and delivery of a presentation.
Chapter 12 takes up issues specific to publishing and raising your profile,
which is particularly important if you wish to continue with a research
career.

Terminology and other practices

We have tried to keep the terminology in the book as simple as possible. This
means you may find it does not necessarily fit the understanding current in
your institution (for example, under some systems, course = unit, or subject,
and programme = course). Here, the term ‘course’ refers to the degree in
which you are enrolled, and is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘degree’;
‘subject’ refers to a specific unit you are taking within, say, a taught course;
and programme is used to refer to such as a ‘doctoral programme’.
We make only three distinctions as regards graduate degree structures:
degrees by coursework or taught courses (no research component), degrees by
coursework and research, and degrees by research only. These distinctions do
not allow for the wonderful array of titles given to different graduate degrees
or the variable structures of degrees, but they are recognizable distinctions
easy to apply to your own situation.
All identifying signifiers have been removed from illustrative materials
taken from graduate student writing. To preserve students’ anonymity, ‘[ref-
erence]’ is substituted for actual details of source references, and [X,Y, Z and
so forth] for countries, authors, etc. named in the writing.
 Managing your Writing
Environment

A\l7
k developmental objectives
¢

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

Take a proactive approach to reducing the stress that accompanies academic writing.
Learn how to network for support.
ldentify strategies and online tools to increase productivity and manage more effi-
ciently yourself and your writing.
Ensure results-oriented communication with your lecturers and supervisors.
Understand key cross-cultural challenges of writing and communication, why these
exist and how to address them.
Develop capacity with mobile technologies and make informed decisions about using
commercially hosted web services.

It is common for graduates to experience ups and downs with academic writing
and communication. Feelings of confidence, excitement, self-doubt, disinter-
est, frustration, lack of motivation, isolation and so forth may alternate, such
mood swings being typical rather than unusual. This chapter covers a broad
range of management strategies designed to reduce stress and improve the
quality of your writing environment.
Effective self-management
Effective self-management for academic writing invites a variety of strategies.
We begin with the importance of establishing networks.

While networking requires effort, it can be worth the investment of your

valuable time, particularly if you are enrolled in a longer research degree.
These networking strategies should help alleviate stress while contributing
to a greater sense of integration in the academic community at large.

Generating peer support: local, national and international

Students in your course or research group can be an excellent support resource,
so be proactive in making yourself known to them. Make contact too with the
eraduate student organization within your institution, if there is one. Such
organizations usually provide a range of social and academic support, have use-
ful online resources, are often advocates for resolution of issues of concern to
eraduates, and may represent graduates’ interests on important institutional
committees. It is similar with national sites, such as The National Postgraduate
Committee (UK), the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations or the
National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (USA).
There are numbers of international graduate student and dissertation sup-
port sites on the Internet. Many enquiries about writing are posted on such
sites, as 1s copious information about ‘surviving’ graduate studies. Even joining
a chat group with other graduates sharing your interests can lend support —
discuss this possibility with peers and academics in your area. Well-established
and useful sites with an international reach include The Association for
Support of Graduate Students, Graduate Junction: the worldwide community
of graduate researchers and Vitae: Realising the potential of researchers.
If you do not know about it, check out Jorge Cham’s ‘Piled higher and
deeper: a graduate student comic strip collection’, which will afford light
relief and a welcome sense of solidarity in knowing that, whatever your prob-
lem, others have been there before you!

identifying institutional resources available for developmental assistance

Thoroughly explore your institution’s website to find out what supplementary
assistance is on offer for study, research and writing. Search across institutions
too as you may locate the precise materials you need on another institution’s
site. Academic skills, learning or writing centres of different institutions in
different countries often provide electronic resources specific to graduate writing
and communication that could be useful. Check with your lecturer/supervisor
that advice provided is sound in their view, if you are unsure.

6
 Managing your writing environment

Making use of visiting scholars and other disciplinary experts

Introduce yourself to visiting scholars and attend relevant conferences/seminars
they give while at your institution. Where research interests coincide, a visit-
ing scholar may be willing to give advice and even provide feedback on a
draft. You could also benefit from contact with other disciplinary experts.

ay case study example

box 1.1 Other disciplinary experts can be a valuable resource

A doctoral student realized when writing up that there was a gap in her reading (not
so unusual). She needed an overview of one aspect of a famous philosopher's work
about which she knew little, as she was not a Philosophy student. A quick database
search turned up literally hundreds of potential sources that left her, as she said,
‘totally depressed’. So she searched for an expert in nineteenth-century philosophy,
contacted him, explained her situation and asked him if he could refer her to an
appropriate source for what she needed. This he did. In her own words: ‘This saved
me heaps of time — there were just so many sources — really put me on the right track
with my reading.’

Cultivating understanding of close ones

Colleagues, friends and family can be excellent sources of support if you culti-
vate their understanding of your study commitments. Sometimes, however, it
can be difficult for those closest to you to accept what appears to them to be
inflexibility, or even selfishness on your part, when you are unavailable for a
social invitation or a request for help. As this type of dilemma is not unusual,
you may need to work at gaining more understanding from those close to you
(see > the ‘Balanced self-management exercise’ below, which includes rela-
tionship goals in time management). Tell them well in advance that there will
be times when you will not be available, and remind them of this when such
occasions arise. Perhaps, too, keep reminding them, and yourself, that what-
ever the duration of your studies, the period will come to an end.

By identifying peak writing periods in advance (see the next section), you will be able to
give partners, family and friends ample warning.

7
Working on your inner resources
It is not easy to find the right words to express complex ideas, to structure or
organize material on the scale of, say, a dissertation, a long report or essay,
or to develop subtle arguments and discussions. Writing is an intellectually
demanding task and one that rarely goes smoothly. As one student said: ‘Writing
is a matter of thinking writing, thinking writing, thinking writing — it is
never just writing.’
There will be difficult spots. At such times there can be a tendency to be
harshly self-critical, even to resurrect inner saboteurs (‘I’ve always been
hopeless at writing’), to use negative reinforcers that cement a sense of
failure. It is then necessary to work on your own resources with a view to
positively reinforcing your efforts, to recall past and present academic suc-
cesses, to be patient with yourself, to remember that the act of writing is
always about learning to write (it is little different with presenting), to
genuinely value your own efforts and to visualize that degree certificate in
your hand — it will happen.

Building your online networks

Having good relationships with your face-to-face research group or course-
work colleagues is important, but so too is drawing support from online com-
munities and contacts. Use Facebook and other social networking services
not only for sharing experiences and keeping in regular touch with friends
and family, but also for developing collegial and professional networks in
your discipline area. These networks need not be limited by space and time
and you could find some of the contacts you make extremely valuable later
on. You might also consider starting up a Facebook group with your local
‘study buddies’ or one based on your field of research.
If Facebook does not appeal, then other social networking services can
prove highly valuable. Ning.com is widely considered the standard for
group social networking but it charges for most of its services. However,
there are a number of free group services available, all with excellent func-
tionality, including discussion forums, chat and instant messaging (IM),
video and photosharing, blogs, event announcements, subgroups and more.
Just Google ‘free alternatives to Ning’ and you will find a number of such
services.

Maximizing effort entails effective self-management in all sectors of your life.

It is near impossible to maximize effort in terms of communication activities
in a course of study or research if other significant areas of your life are under
strain.
 Managing your writing environment

exercise: balanced self-management

Step 1

Review closely the ‘The self-management matrix’ in Figure 1.1. Thinking about the impli-
cations of these four quadrants for your own situation can be illuminating, particularly if
you are writing a thesis in a research-only degree where there are no course deadlines
to meet.

Urgent Not Urgent

Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2 ©

Shrink 1: Move Across

Immediate commitments Empowering activities

Deadline-driven projects Proactive, principle-centred
Crises Balance: relationships and results
¢
Pressing problems oriented (holistic)
Always putting out fires Prioritization, clarifying values,
Problem-minded assessing worth of activities
Fragmentation Specific goal setting — long,
Controlled by events intermediate and short term
-3>
3B
OTD
RFR
9-
HIGH STRESS — burnout Scheduling time to meet goals
Opportunity-minded
Synergy
Fun and relaxation
In control
LOW STRESS - flexibility

U Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4 ©
n
Proximate activities (need to Time wasters (in context of work)
watch these) Escape activities
m
p e Interruptions, some phone calls Social chat: face-to-face, email,
O e Some social and popular Facebook, Twitter, etc.
r activities TV, computer games, Internet, some
t e Some mail/email phone calls
a e Some meetings Endless housecleaning
n e Many proximate and pressing Trivia, lots of busywork
t matters

FIGURE 1.1 The self-management matrix (adapted from ‘The time management
matrix’ Covey, 2004: 151)
(Continued)
Effective self-management means avoiding the trap of Quadrant 1 (all too easy
for busy graduates), of being driven to the time-wasting distractions of Quadrant 4
because of Quadrant 1 pressures and stress, or of attributing undue importance
to the activities of Quadrant 3, which need to be monitored closely. It means
training yourself to reside comfortably in Quadrant 2 as much as possible, for as
Covey says:

The way you spend your time is a result of the way you see your time and the
way you really see your priorities. If your priorities grow out of a principle centre
and a personal mission, if they are deeply planted in your heart and in your
mind, you will see Quadrant Il as a natural exciting place to invest your time.
(2004: 158)

Work towards embedding your study or research priorities as a set of balanced life
activities. Generate expectations focused on preserving and enhancing relationships
and on achieving results. Develop a clear idea of the results you desire in your life, and
organize and execute priorities aimed at these results.

Step 2

Detail all regular commitments, and include prioritized weekly goals in terms of desired
results. Do this for each of the four sectors tabulated below, with the aim of achieving
balanced self-management:

Research/Study/Writing | Work/ Relationships Individual/Personal

Teaching Development
Partner? Physical
Children? Mental
Other family Emotional
members? Spiritual
Friends?
>

(Detail priorities and (It is important not to

specific goals for the exclude your private/
week in terms of desired personal needs)
results)

Step 3

Set up a weekly timetable. Build in flexibility - allow for (at least in your mind) the
unanticipated ‘urgent’ of Quadrant 1. A scheduled activity might need to be passed
over because of a higher value (for example, a sick child). Better still, is a yearly diary
or calendar in which you can detail goals, and activities to meet those goals, week-
by-week.

10
 Managing your writing environment

Step 4

Set up a timeline that gives you an overview of your whole course (whether a research or
coursework degree):

ci
Starting
date
RE OR End date

Mark along the timeline priority dates (for example, due dates for items of course-
work assessment, or dates for seminar/conference papers, progress review papers,
thesis outlines or chapters, and so on). As these become known, include in your
yearly calendar advance deadlines and dates for preparatory activities to meet those
deadlines.

Exploit your natural biorhythms

On a more immediate level, individual circumstances, course requirements, per-
sonal preferences and personal peak energy flows can influence when you write
and how you organize your writing time and other communication activities.
Some students concentrate better in shorter periods, taking frequent short
breaks. Others prefer longer writing periods with fewer but longer breaks. Some
work a 9 to 5 day, or stay up half the night and sleep late. Some see no choice
but to write at night after full-time employment and/or when the children have
gone to bed. Maximize effort by harnessing your natural biorhythms to best
effect, reserving peak energy periods for the harder intellectual tasks of writing.

Regularize your writing pattern

Whatever your circumstances, try to establish a regular writing pattern
that is viable for you, allows you to write when you are likely to be most
productive, given your various commitments, and that can be adjusted
when necessary. Graduates have reported that regularizing the writing pattern
helps in these ways:

e Reduces the anxiety often associated with the ‘I'll write when | can’ approach, an
approach that easily leads to writing being delayed.
e Encourages thinking through the setting up of a detailed writing schedule.
e Provides a stronger sense of working steadily towards completion of the writing task.
e Increases confidence in completing the task given your many and varied commitments.
e Allows you to forewarn family and friends of your unavailability at certain times, which in
turn reduces household stress.

ii
Writing for academic success

Boost your motivation

Motivation is another issue frequently raised by graduates. Motivation levels
will fluctuate. But your inner ‘motivator’ may at times need a full recharge.
Perhaps your interest in your project is depleted — you feel bored, or your
confidence has plunged and you seriously doubt your potential, or you are
frustrated because you cannot get the help you need, or a troubled relation-
ship is claiming all your attention, or you are oppressed by financial struggle
and so forth. Any one, or a combination of these factors, can make you feel
flat, not motivated at all.
At this point STOP! Try to recharge your motivation by employing the
‘action before motivation’ technique. The idea behind this method is that if
you ‘just do something, anything’, then the motivation to continue will natu-
rally follow. To help you get under way, begin with the ‘principle of five’: just
do five pages, or five paragraphs, or five minutes, or five of anything you set
yourself. If you can get through five of something, then you will probably find
either that your motivation has returned, or that, because you have made a
start, it is not worth stopping. If this does not work, then you might also try
to pin down what is causing you to feel so unmotivated. Address the particu-
lar problems sapping your motivation, perhaps by talking these over with a
professional counsellor, so as to take control of the situation.

Managing the hazards of computer work

Engaging in proactive strategies to manage physical stress is no less impor-
tant than for psychological stressors. More attention is now being given to the
health hazards accompanying long hours of sitting at a computer or desk. It
is best to vary your activities as much as you can. Intersperse computer work
with other tasks such as reading, monitoring experiments or tests, drafting
ideas for the next chapter, outlining an essay or report and so forth, anything
that you might be able to do away from the computer. Make your tasks multi-
various, particularly when producing lengthy texts like theses and long
reports. Also watch for web-based time-wasters — such as Facebook and
YouTube — that drive you to spend lengthy periods at the computer screen.
Obtain advice or material from the occupational health and safety service
in your institution on how best to avoid occupational overuse syndrome,
which can lead to debilitating repetitive strain injuries. Ask if staff can
review the set-up of your workstation and provide you with a range of simple
flexing and stretching exercises to perform frequently.

Electronic tools for increasing productivity

Once you understand the principles of effective self-management you can

begin to explore ways to support your planning activities through the use of

WZ
 Managing your writing environment

productivity tools available both on the web and digitally. These tools can be
downloaded and installed (for example, calendaring software such as iCal or
Outlook) on your computer or smart device or accessed online by logging into
an account (for example, Google Calendar).
Which tools you choose will depend on your needs and circumstances. For
instance, if you work across a variety of digital devices — a computer in the
office, a smartphone for when you are on the go, and a laptop at home — then
you should choose tools that will synchronize across those devices or that are
accessible anytime online. If you work primarily on one machine, for exam-
ple, your home personal computer (PC), then installing locally hosted soft-
ware might be your preferred option. Given the increasingly mobile nature of
modern workplaces, however, finding tools that will synchronize across
devices is probably the safest way to go.

Calendars and reminders

Calendar applications are available as software that you can install on your
computer (for example, iCal or Outlook) or as applications that you can access
anywhere online (for example, Google Calendar). Most digital calendaring
systems allow you to set different ‘views’ — daily, weekly, monthly, yearly,
and so on — and your activity can be made public or kept private.
If you work across several devices, then choose a calendar service that will
synchronize. Calendars will also allow you to set ‘reminders’ for matters such
as important meetings, events or due dates, but reminder applications are
also available independent of calendar services, and can be downloaded for
smartphones and tablet devices. Search your smartphone’s app store for
‘reminders’ and you will pull up a number of useful applications.

To-do or task lists

Many people prefer writing their to-do lists on paper, but more and more are
finding it convenient to keep such lists online or on their mobile devices. The
more established calendaring systems will often support to-do or task lists,
but smaller, more dedicated services such as Rememberthemilk.com or
Toodledo.com provide more flexibility in how you set up your lists and have
the added bonus of supporting apps that synchronize content across your
devices.

Note-taking
Again, many students prefer to take notes on paper, but the advantages of
taking notes electronically is that they become more accessible, can be
archived more effectively, and are more easily searchable. The disadvantage
is that you always need a digital device at hand for recording your notes!
Online services such as Evernote.com and Zoho.com’s Notebook allow you to

13
include images, audio, hyperlinks, pdfs and other rich media in your notes. If
you are fairly mobile, then a service that synchronizes across your devices is
preferable. Many dedicated note-taking apps are available for smartphones
and tablet devices — just do a search in your app store.

File storage
Because of problems with version control, it is not desirable to email docu-
ments to colleagues (or yourself!). At the same time, it is :mprudent to keep
all your important files on a flash drive. Having an online repository for your
files is a smart way to manage your many documents and files, whether you
are sharing them with others or simply accessing them yourself. Services
such as Box.net and Dropbox.com permit you to organize your files and fold-
ers online and synchronize them to your local computer or device (including
smartphone) for pick-up when you are offline. As with most such productivity
tools mentioned here, you can choose to share materials with others or to
keep them for your access only.

Online documents
Although most students are accustomed to using Microsoft Office products
(that is, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and so on), growing numbers of people are
finding it convenient to use non-proprietary and freely available online docu-
ment services such as Google Docs, Open Office and Zoho. These are online
software suites that include word processing, spreadsheets, presentations
(slideshows), forms, drawing, file storage, and more. They can be accessed
anywhere online, meaning that you do not need to store your files separately
or carry a flash drive around with you just so you can work on your thesis,
report or essay. For most purposes, the basic functionality of these tools is
comparable with that of Office products, but if you use more specialized tools,
such as macros or labels, then you should stay with Microsoft Office.

Google
If you are looking for a ‘one-stop-shop’ that covers all of the above online pro-
ductivity tools, then Google is probably your most efficient solution. A single
Google account will give you access to dedicated calendar, file hosting and
document services, and provide you with an array of ‘gadgets’ that you can
add to your account settings to boost functionality. There are also smart-
phone apps available for many, but not yet all, Google services.

Managing multiple communication tasks can be complicated, particularly if

you are a coursework student with several items of assessment for different

14
courses due around the same time. This type of situation can cause course-
work graduates much anxiety. As a research student, you may also have
converging deadlines, and feel the resulting pressure. To improve your man-
agement of multiple communication tasks, consider these procedural steps
well in advance.

exercise: multiple communication task planning

Step 1

Count the number of days that remain to the due date of your final item of assess-
ment. Now, decide how many days from your total number of days you wish to allot
to each item of assessment. Consider the value of each item of assessment in doing
this; an item worth 20 per cent does not warrant time equal to an item worth
80 per cent.

Step 2

Nominate an end-date for completion of all tasks for each item of assessment. Your
end-dates will not be the same as actual submission dates or exam dates, as indi-
cated below for three hypothetical items of assessment to take place in one week
in June:

(Report due 16 June): end-date for completion 19 May

(Research essay due 18 June): end-date for completion 3 June
(Exam on 20 June): end-date for all revision 19 June
You may prefer to complete an item before moving to the next, or to work simultaneously
on specific tasks associated with two or more items (for example, database searching for
an essay while drafting a report).

Step 3

Discriminate tasks needing to be done to meet your end-date for each item of assess-
ment. For example, for an essay (see > ‘Research essays’, Chapter 5), these tasks could
be as follows:
e Search for appropriate source material after brainstorming the topic (see > ‘Topics (or
questions)’ in Chapter 5).
e Read identified source material and take notes (see - ‘Ensuring task-focused
information’ in Chapter 2).
(Continued)

15
 • Produce on essoy outline (see ➔ 'Visuol mopping of moteriol' ond 'Sequentiol outlin-
ing' in Chopter 4).
• Draft the essoy (one, two or three drafts?).
• Proofreod, check occuracy of references, figurative illustrations ond their legends, ond
polish presentotion.

Now, set up timelines for the different items of ossessment. lnclude rough estimotes of
time to complete the specific tosks for each item of ossessment, os indicated below by
way of an essoy example:

Date? Dote? Date? Date?

(Today's date?I
Il[nd date?J
(Finding sources)
I I I
(Reading and (Essay (Draftingl (Proofreading)
note-takingl outline)
◄···························································································

(Work backwards from the end-date in allotting time to completion of specific

tasks)

Add your different timelines to your electronic calendar or pin them obove your regular
workstation so that you can monitor your progress in meeting deodlines.

Communicating with lecturers and supervisors

Good communication is the key to establishing positive working relationships
with your lecturers and supervisors. Never think that you may be thought
inadequate because of some question, however trivial, you want to ask: you
are always learning and your lecturer/supervisor is thcre to help you progress.
Also, never assume that your supervisor will recognize that you need help.
Supervisors are busy, preoccupied people too, and may think that all is going
well if you do not tel1 them otherwise.

key points

Ask questions - ony questions you wont to ask - ond keep asking them until you under-
stond, until th e matter is clarified or resolved.

16
 Managing your writing environment

Simple communication queries may be quickly answered in class or even

in casual conversation with your lecturer/supervisor at a chance meeting.
If, however, you have more substantive enquiries, or indeed are having
serious problems, you will need to take action to resolve these by arranging
a meeting.

exercise: resolution action planning

Step 1: clarify the nature of your uncertainties

Clarify the nature of your uncertainties before the meeting takes place by considering
questions of this type:
e What precisely do | need to clarify or sort out (detail these)?
e Under what conditions do my uncertainties about writing/communication arise? Try to
be specific.
e What outcomes do | hope for in a meeting with my lecturer/supervisor? Jot these
down.

Step 2: set up a discussion agenda

Setting up a discussion agenda is a useful strategy when initiating meetings.
When you have clarified precisely what you wish to discuss and reasons for doing
so, (1) make a concise dot-point list for discussion (your agenda), and (2) give them
a copy of your agenda before the meeting so that they have time to review your
points.

Step 3: at the meeting

When you meet with your lecturer/supervisor, you want the discussion to remain focused
on your concerns, not become sidetracked. These are strategies to help with this:
e lf your lecturer/supervisor begins to digress (students do report this), try to refo-
cus attention on your agenda, those points worked out during the clarification
process.
e Keep an eye on time so that you will be able to get through all the points on your
agenda.
e You want the meeting to be helpful to you, so do not hesitate to say so if you are still not
clear about the advice being given.

17
Effective digital communication is key to dealing with your lecturer or super-
visor. We cover some strategies for electronic communication below.

Email communication between students and lecturers/supervisors is popular,

convenient, easy, and may afford a welcome degree of anonymity not possible
in face-to-face conversation. It can be an appropriate and effective medium of
communication and is preferred in the workplace over forms of communica-
tion such as Facebook. Still, where there is a choice of communication media
(for example, face-to-face talk, office telephone or email), it is worth consider-
ing whether email is the best option given the purpose of your communication
and a possible need for privacy. Certainly, issues do arise in terms of the
appropriateness and effectiveness of email as a medium of communication
between graduates and their lecturers/supervisors.

Appropriateness Most lecturers/supervisors will respond to emails, but do

clarify with them the purposes for which email communication is to be used
before dashing one off. Determine whether there are any restrictions on what
types of emails they might welcome and when (for example, making an
appointment might be welcomed whereas expecting written comments — let
alone copious comments — on an attached draft might not).
Email communication may seem a less confrontational forum for discuss-
ing sensitive or difficult matters, but it may not be the most appropriate for
resolution of these matters. It can be difficult to encode in written communi-
cation nuances of feeling, to achieve a fuller understanding without those
non-verbal cues that can be so vital in resolution dialogue. Perhaps a tele-
phone conversation or face-to-face talk might be a better option.

q fs

It is most important to practise self-censoring.

Avoid sending an email that may antagonize or alienate the recipient if you
are feeling angry or upset. Sit on the email for a day or night until you have
calmed down, and, as a safeguard against accidentally hitting the ‘send’ but-
ton, do not write in the recipient’s address in the address line until you are
certain you want to proceed. Think further about the wording of your email
before hitting the send button, or maybe you should not send it at all.

18
 Privacy or confidentiality can never be assured with email, and deletion
does not mean final erasure. Emails can go to the wrong address, others may
have access to the recipient’s computer, the recipient can pass emails on with-
out a sender’s permission, or they can be retrieved from servers after deletion.
So think twice about using this medium if confidentiality is a high priority.

Evectiveness The quality of the relations between you and your lecturer/
supervisor will influence the effectiveness of your email communications.
Where there is trust and openness, these should work well. But where ten-
sions exist, particularly in a context of unequal power relations, email might
not be the best choice. At least think about it.
The desired timescale of the communication can also affect effectiveness.
Many students report frustration at delayed responses, or no response at all.
This might mean that the lecturer/supervisor is away, that the email is not
welcomed, that it has been accidentally overlooked in a hundred other unread
emails (a big problem) or that the pressure of overall responsibilities has
prevented the lecturer/supervisor from providing a timely response. A follow-
up email may help, but not necessarily; you may still need to telephone or
make a face-to-face appointment if possible.
Clarity of communication is also important. As with any written text, it is
important to think carefully about readers’ needs and overall text quality to
ensure a message will be clearly understood by the recipient. It is easy for
misunderstandings to arise with hastily put together emails, and so invite
an unhelpful or negative response. Be aware that the online medium itself
constrains development of the more task-sensitive dialogue developed in
face-to-face communication, which is so valuable in negotiating understand-
ing about textual production and settling on strategies for improvement. So
bear this in mind if the email feedback seems somewhat brusque or even
insensitive.
As a final point, where sensitive issues are being dealt with via email over
time, keep hard-copy records in case there is a future need to review this
‘conversation’ as, for example, in resolving differences of opinion about what
transpired in the course of events.

Facebook
Social networking services such as Facebook today provide many people with
their primary means of online personal communication. Although your lec-
turer or supervisor may have a Facebook profile, they may prefer to receive
‘work’ communications in the form of emails. Similarly, you may not wish
your lecturer or supervisor to have access to your private profile. Discuss
with them whether or not Facebook (or similar) is an appropriate means of
communication in your situation.

7)
Mobile phones and texting
Just as social networking is popular as a means for personal communication,
so too is communication via mobile phones, and similar questions apply as to
their appropriateness or otherwise as a means of contact between teacher
and student. Some lecturers or supervisors will prefer that you call their
mobile phone, others will not. There may be limits around texting or the
hours between which to call; of course, the same applies for you and your own
preferences. Again, discuss the matter early on, so that there are no misun-
derstandings about what constitutes a fitting method of contact.

Issues in cross-cultural writing and communication

Many of the writing and communication challenges experienced by interna-
tional students are similar to those experienced by other graduates; so do
review the previous sections. Nonetheless, it is unwise to assume that what
has previously worked for you will do so now, and equally unwise to attribute
all communication difficulties to a problem with English if English is a sec-
ond language, perhaps even a third.
Cross-cultural issues of the following type can arise because of embedded
expectations about teaching and learning and the conduct of relations
between students and academic staff.

It will be expected that you take a fully critical approach to all materials
being discussed in your writing and communication. If the need for analysis,
critical appraisal and argument in writing is proving difficult and challeng-
ing, the section on “Treating information critically’ in Chapter 2 will help;
also review > ‘Building an argument’ in Chapter 5.

If you come from a culture where the teacher/supervisor 1s viewed as the

authority from whom the student is to learn, you may expect your supervi-
sor to direct every stage of your studies or research. A major expectation in
Western universities is that students be self-directed, with guidance from a
lecturer/supervisor. This is a crucial reason to talk through a supervisory
relationship early, so that you are clear about what will be expected of you
and what you can expect from your supervisor. Expectations can vary
across supervisors.

20
If you are returning to study from a position of authority and respect in your
home country, perhaps as a senior public servant or academic, you may find
it difficult to accept student status. Your adjustment in this case will invite
strategies the opposite of those just mentioned. You might need to work at
not being too independent, at accepting an appropriate level of guidance from
your supervisor. Supervisory input is vitally important to ensure that the
thesis meets the standards appropriate for the level of the degree, of which
supervisors will certainly have the best understanding.

You may find the tutorial meeting a somewhat strange affair, with everyone
talking at once. Students may be perceived as disrespectful to the lecturer,
and the tutorial unhelpful in providing instruction. But this is a matter of
different cultural behaviour. Because of the emphasis on critical engagement,
lecturers mostly choose not to provide answers, preferring instead to stimu-
late students to think for themselves by asking questions of them, allowing
them to discuss issues as a group, to challenge each other’s viewpoints and
the lecturer’s own, and to argue and debate at will.
Some international students can find it difficult to join in, being too polite to
interrupt others. If you have this problem, ask for your lecturer’s help. Try at
every tutorial meeting to have at least one point from your reading you want
to introduce into the discussion, and ask your lecturer if he or she could invite
you to speak at an agreed-on signal. You will gradually become confident
enough to enter ‘noisy’ tutorial conversations.

Most graduates worry about giving tutorials, seminars or conference pres-

entations (see > ‘The nature of oral presentations’, Chapter 11), though
not all have the added burden of speaking in a language not native to
them, so that pronunciation becomes a concern. Or it may be that English
language/expression is preventing you from communicating clearly in
writing. Explore these avenues of assistance to determine what help is
available:

e Find out what writing assistance your lecturer/supervisor is prepared to provide.

e Investigate assistance provided by academic skills, learning or writing services within
your institution.

21
 e Ask an English-speaking friend, or some other appropriate person to run through your
paper with you to practise pronouncing words about which you are uncertain.
e Search for helpful web materials or online services that focus on English grammar/
expression/pronunciation (Purdue OWL is very good — Google it).
e Download pronunciation, grammar and dictionary apps to your smartphone or other
digital device. Pronunciation apps, and some dictionary apps, will provide audio exam-
ples of correct pronunciation. When choosing a pronunciation app, try to find one that
displays visual examples.
e identify whether there are courses for credit in English for Academic Purposes that you
may be able to take that fit with your schedule.

Most useful is to practise your English in context, meaning in situations

where you are actually in the process of producing the various texts required
in your degree, or preparing your presentations. While this type of develop-
mental assistance will help you to improve your control of English, it will not
necessarily extend to a full editing service — that is to say, fixing the gram-
mar. Other second-language issues appropriate to context are discussed
throughout this book.

SOE

Effectively using the disciplinary language (as distinct from English) may
also cause concern when writing and presenting, in which case visit the exer-
cise under > ‘Mastering disciplinary writing practices’ in Chapter 2.

In conducting interpersonal relations with lecturers and supervisors, you

may find marked differences. You may need to be more proactive in asking
questions, in negotiating the terms of, say, a relationship with your supervi-
sor, in adjusting to different forms of address (for example, using first
names), or in setting discussion agendas for meetings with your supervisor.
If you are asked to do the latter, between meetings with your supervisor keep
notes on the following:

e Interesting ideas about or interpretations of your readings and data.

e Ideas you have about your overall research plan.
e Suggestions for changes in focus or direction of your research.
e Any uncertainties about or difficulties with content or research procedures that need
discussing.
e Anything else you consider important to discuss.

22
Researching on the move
Mobile technologies are becoming increasingly central to everyday communi-
cation practices. Such technologies present students with new, more flexible
ways of accessing learning content, increased opportunities for contributing
to real-time debates in the field, and improved methods for data recording
and distributing research.

Mobile phones
You do not need to own the latest smartphone to have accessto a powerful
mobile learning and research tool. The most simple of mobile phones today is
equipped with robust data recording and playback functions, including a
camera and voice and video recording; still others have the ability to record
text notes. You can use these functions to record data in situ and to access it
later at a more convenient time. Some institutions will send you important
communiqueés via text message to your mobile, such as emergency alerts or
automated course information, so make sure you keep your contact details up
to date on the student administration system.

Smartphone applications
If you own a smartphone, such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone,
then you have access to a myriad of ‘apps’ that can extend your study or
research. Productivity apps can be accessed regardless of location to allow
you to schedule events or tasks, retrieve documents or files and take notes. If
you are an international student for whom English is a second language, then
having instant access to applications for grammar, spelling and punctuation
can be especially useful. Other apps that you might find useful include calcu-
lators, unit and currency converters, clocks and stopwatches, compasses,
protractors and rulers and sound level indicators — just about anything that
you might need in your particular discipline area.

Tablet devices
These touchscreen devices are finding a niche among students and academics
who want an ‘always on’ computing appliance that is both portable and versa-
tile. Tablet devices allow you to download and read ‘e-books’ and course texts,
access files, write notes either by hand or via keyboard, and make use of many
apps similar to those provided for smartphones. The advantage of a tablet
device over a laptop is that it is considerably smaller and lighter in weight,
making it perfect for on-the-go Internet access, data recording and travel.

29
However, its small size can also be a drawback: if you need a more powerful
device, then you should invest in a laptop computer.

For many students, a laptop is their main personal computing device. As

opposed to a tablet device, a laptop will do everything that a normal computer
will do and thus provides a sensible middle ground for mobile study and
research if you cannot afford a device for all occasions.

Voice recording
Graduate students do not typically exploit the benefits of voice recording
even though it is simple enough and you can probably do it with a device you
have either on your person or in your bag right now, that is, your mobile
phone or laptop. Voice recording can be used to make a note of ideas that
suddenly pop into your head while you are walking to the bus, or to document
conversations about course or research topics with fellow students. It can
even be used to record lectures or seminars — with permission, of course. You
can then listen to the recording in your own time and at your own pace, which
can be particularly effective if you are a second-language speaker.
Some students use voice recordings as part of their everyday research
activities, such as when they record interviews with study participants who
are in their own environments or workplaces. In such cases, you will require
a dedicated digital voice recorder, which typically has more storage space for
voice files than, say, a mobile phone. Such recorders are small and unobtru-
sive and essential for certain types of fieldwork and research, but they come
with varying degrees of quality: in general, you get what you pay for. Your
laptop may also have the ability to record, but it might be too cumbersome to
carry around and too intimidating to place in front of an interviewee.
Do remember that you will likely be in breach of privacy laws if you record
someone without their permission, and/or if you upload a digital recording to
a third party website — even if you keep the file ‘private’ (see 3 section
‘Keeping safe online’ later in this chapter).

Video recordings and photographs

Quick video recordings or photographs can be taken on just about any mobile
phone and can be effective if you need to chronicle more visual proceedings,
such as performances, certain laboratory experiments, or any other phenom-
ena that you encounter in your studies or research. The same principles
apply for video recordings and photographs as for voice recordings: if you
need a dedicated video set up, then be prepared to pay for quality, and do not
post anything online containing someone’s image unless you have their
express permission to do so.

24
 Managing your writing environment

Podcasts and digital audios

A limitless supply of podcasts and audios can be found online, and many of
these will be relevant to your study or discipline area. Take the time to
search 1Tunes, iTunes U or other podcast directories such as Podbean.com,
PodcastDirectory.com or PodcastAlley.com to find material to subscribe to or
to download onto your MP3 player. Being able to listen to such material at
your convenience can greatly enhance your comprehension of study topics
and may give you ideas that you can follow up on later.

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As you make your way through this text, you will see that we advise you to
use commercial online digital tools or services to support your writing and
planning. Finding the right digital tools can greatly help you in your studies
and research: they can increase your productivity, help you to visualize an
argument, organize your research materials and streamline the writing process.
However, it is important that you do not sign up for, or download from, sites
and services indiscriminately. Here are some points for consideration before
you sign up for anything online.

Exercise caution whenever you create an account with an Internet-based service.

Copyright and intellectual property, including university regulations

When you sign up for an Internet-based service, you should be especially
aware of the implications for copyright and intellectual property (IP), as you
may be inadvertently giving away rights to material that you do not techni-
cally own.

Copyright Copyright laws vary greatly from country to country and are very
complicated, but in general copyright automatically reserves to you all rights
in any creative work you produce, such as research essays, theses and slide-
shows. Reputable services will not ask for any control over your copyright,
and any work or data you post to the service will remain yours, assuming
that you are, indeed, the copyright holder to begin with.
As a student, you are likely to own copyright in any material you produce
during the course of your degree, but this is not always so, as might be the

Z5
case if you have, for example, an industry scholarship. You should be clear
about what you do and do not own in terms of copyright — it can be easy to
assume that once you have created a work it is yours, even though someone
else may actually own its copyright.

oS key points

You need to check your university's copyright and IP policies to clarify what rights you have —
and what rights your institution has — to your work.

Ir perty ((P) Services are also likely to ask for a sub-licence to your
IP (so that ee can display your work). Both staff and students typically
retain their intellectual property rights, but this varies from institution to
institution, and some institutions will require an exclusive licence to any IP
you produce under their auspices, regardless of whether you are staff or stu-
dent, as might an industry scholarship provider.

Mate oonus create accounts with websites and Internet services without read-
ing the Terms of Service (aka Terms and Conditions), even though we are
asked to agree to those terms before signing up. It can seem tedious to have
to read a lengthy screen of legal jargon, but there are a few things you should
look for and understand before clicking the ‘submit’ button. Do remember, of
course, that the Terms of Service can change at any time. Copyright issues
have been covered above, but here are some further issues under the Terms
of Service that you should be familiar with.

oo key points ©

Make sure you understand, and are comfortable with, the privacy policy of the service you
wish to sign up for.

You should be aware of how much personal information the service

stores and to whom this information is made available. Many services allow
you to keep some or all parts of your site ‘private’, but in effect this only
means ‘not publicly viewable’, which may be perfectly acceptable to you in
your situation. You need to ensure that you, yourself, comply with the privacy

26
legislation of your jurisdiction. In many countries, you are not allowed to give
away other people’s personal information without their permission, so if you
upload a database of contacts to a third party you could be breaking the law.

Data securit How will the service store and secure your data? Some services
ste third eure to access your data, but only for the purposes of maintain-
ing the service and only after those parties have signed confidentiality agree-
ments. Other services are less scrupulous and will allow anyone who pays
them (such as advertisers) to view your details. You should also see if the
Terms of Service outlines how the service secures your data against unau-
thorized access or attack.

Deleting information Some services will delete data that have remained idle
for a certain Sees of time. For example, if you have not accessed your
account for six months, the service might automatically shut down your
account or remove your material as a matter of course.

Providing information to a service You should only be required to provide a user-

name,Pel address and password to create an account with any given service
(some services do request a date of birth if there are minimum age restrictions
on users). Even though there may be signup fields that ask for your address,
ethnicity, hobbies, religious affiliation, or political beliefs, these should not be
required fields and you should be circumspect about providing such details.

Controlling email notifications Better services will allow you to control the
aohacitene or pean emails they send you. If there is no way in your
profile settings to turn off these messages, then you probably should not sign
up for the service. In many countries, such messages are counted as ‘spam’
and are ulegal if you cannot control receipt.

Pricing Many tools and services available on the web are supplied free of
charge, even though they are provided by a commercial company. These
companies often make their money through contextual advertising and by
offering ‘premium upgrades to their basic services. If you do not want to have
to pay for a service, then only select services that provide for free the baseline
functionality you need. But, even then, be aware that some services may
choose to start charging for their product at any time they like.

Considerations regarding the service itself

The Terms of Service will lay out many of the conditions under which you
agree to use a service, but that is not all you need to know about a company
when signing up. If you think that you will be using a service in the longer
term, then it useful to know a little bit about the business and its business

2/
model. Technology industry websites such as Mashable.com and Techcrunch.com
can be excellent sources of information in this regard, and they frequently
comment on the remaining points now discussed.

Business robustness and longevity In the modern web environment, a company

that is five years old is often regarded as well established and successful, but
it should also have a sound business model behind it. For example, how does
the company make its money? Who are its investors? What other sources of
capital does it draw on? How many people does it employ? You do not have to
become a business guru to understand these things, but you should have
some knowledge about the company that is hosting your data.

Reliability All online services will have periods of time when users cannot
access them, whether it is because the company needs to make upgrades to
their software or hardware, or because a technical glitch has entered the
system. Having said this, some services are more reliable than others. Visit
the service’s discussion forum (it should have a forum or similar) to see if
there are complaints about the service’s dependability. You can also gauge
from these forums how satisfied users are with the service overall.

Data lock-in Regardless of how reliable or otherwise a service is, you do not want
to sign up with a company that locks your data into it, and it alone. To this end,
you should choose a service that allows you to export your data in a common
format (for example, XML, OPML, RSS, depending on the type of data you are
working with) so that you can transfer that data to another place if you wish.

Practicalities
Finally, there are some practical considerations to take into account when
using a commercial online service. These are items that are largely within
your control and include the following:

Public versus private sites Many commercial services allow you control over
who can and cannot view your material. You need to decide upon the level of
visibility you want for your data. For instance, if you were seeking to raise
your profile amongst the research community (see 4 ‘Raising your profile:
setting up an eportfolio’ in Chapter 12), then obviously you would want your
work to be public. If, however, you are using an online service to host confi-
dential or sensitive research findings, then choosing a service that allows you
to keep your work ‘private’ is essential.

Backups If a company were to disappear overnight, would you lose all the
data or work you had stored there? This is a frightening scenario for any
graduate student, but it is one that can be mitigated quite easily by choosing

28
 NVianaging your writing environment

a service that (1) allows you to export your work so that you can keep a local
backup, and that (2) exports that backup in a common format (see the earlier
point about data lock-in). Even better is to find a service that synchronizes
your data to your local hard-drive automatically, in which case you will not
have to think about taking regular, manual backups (see > the next section,
‘Backing up your work’).

Help anc support Free web services are designed so that you do not need an
instruction manual in order to use them as the instructions are typically built
into the very design of the site. This is why there is usually no ‘helpdesk’ to
call when you have an account with an online service. However, there may be
times when you simply cannot figure out how to use a certain feature, or why
your file did not upload as you anticipated it should. In these situations, you
are expected to help yourself by searching the site’s FAQs (frequently asked
questions) or forum, or by ‘Googling’ the problem and finding an answer else-
where on the web.

Bandwidth, Internet access and student quotas The amount of bandwidth

needed to support your online activities will vary, depending on the type of
service you are using. If you are uploading large files (for example, video,
audio or image-intensive slideshows) to a site, then you need a fast Internet
connection — otherwise it could take hours. The same applies for download-
ing. You should also bear in mind whether or not you have Internet access
all the time. This may seem an obvious point, but if you are conducting field-
work in an area without Internet or wireless coverage, then you will not be
able to access your online data (yet another reason for finding services that
synchronize your data to your local device/s). And, finally, there is no point
in using a suite of online services and tools if there are quotas on your
Internet usage at your institution and you are likely to exceed those quotas
regularly.
In the end, it is up to you as to what you sign up for or even if you sign up.
The key point is to be aware of the issues and implications involved and to
account for them whenever you are online. Digital data are different from
physical data and having your work in digital environments exposes you to
both risks and rewards — you need to be able to manage both safely. It is use-
ful to keep in mind, here, what danah boyd [sic] (2011) identifies as being the
four main characteristics of what she calls ‘networked publics’:

e Replicability. What you put online can be copied, forwarded, repurposed and reused in
ways that you have no control over — but also in ways that might delight you!
e Searchability. Anything online can be sought and found, regardless of whether or not
you have your site set to ‘private’ — there are always people who can find their ways
around your privacy settings.

Zo
 e Persistence. What you post online will be there forever. Even if you think that you have
removed something from public view, a search engine is likely to have found and cached
(archived) your material.
e Invisible audiences. You cannot be sure who is watching. Indiscreet comments or poor
quality work may be read by unknown spectators — always be professional, just in
case.

A final consideration in managing the modern graduate writing environment

is that of backing up your work in electronic format. Much of your work,
whether essays, notes, photographs, databases, or the like, will be in digital
format and you must create backups so that you can continue to access your
material in the event of a computer crash or any similar incident that pre-
vents you from retrieving your originals. Backing up, however, is not the
same as simply ‘saving’ your work: backing up means taking a whole copy of
a digital asset and placing it in, ideally, two different digital places, whereas
saving your work means only that you have a single local copy of the latest
version of the file you are working on.

a |or key points »

Remember: backing up your work is your responsibility.

Backing up the less obvious

Most students habitually backup thesis chapters or coursework essays but
neglect to backup less obvious items such as photographs, databases, video
collections, diagrams, lists of websites, electronic notebooks and, even, soft-
ware packages. Anything that goes into the production of a piece of writing
or research should be backed up. You should also keep copies of important
emails and communications from your supervisor, lecturer or institution, as
you never know if they may be needed. ‘Tag’ everything using keywords so
that you can easily search for and find them later, or use a well-organized
folder system to arrange your digital materials.

yon! in » assicr

If you are required to complete an assignment online (such as via a wiki, blog
or discussion forum), then it is your responsibility to have a backup of the

30
submitted version of your work, just as you would if you were handing in a
paper assignment. If your lecturer has chosen wisely, then the service you are
using for your assignment will allow you to export your material in a standard
file format and keep a copy of it wherever you want (thumb drive, local hard
drive, and so on). If being able to export your material direct from the service
is not an option, then take an html copy of your work via your Internet browser.
Simply go to File > Save As and save your work locally that way, and then cre-
ate an external backup, just to be sure. You will be able to open and read a local
copy of the page you have saved by opening it in your browser software.

Backing up regularly
You should backup your work at least weekly as a matter of course. Set aside
a regular time for backing up your work, for example Fridays at 5 p.m.
However, you should backup more frequently if you have made significant or
important additions to your materials: this might mean you are taking a
backup once a day or even every few hours. Let common sense dictate when
you need to take a backup, but remember that it is better to have a backup
and to not need it than it is to not have a backup and to lose an entire month’s
work through poor backup practices.

Creating external backups

Having an extra copy of a file on the hard drive you are currently working from
is not a backup; it is just an extra copy of a file on your hard drive. A proper
backup exists on a different system or device altogether from the one on which
the file normally resides. The most obvious and common way of creating this
type of ‘external’ backup is to save your materials to a ‘thumb’ drive. These
small drives are perfect for keeping files and folders that do not take up much
disc space. However, if your work consists of larger files (for example, specialist
three-dimensional design records or high-resolution images or video), then
thumb drives are unlikely to hold everything you need. Invest in a large-capac-
ity (that is, 500 GB, 1 TB or larger) external hard drive so that if or when your
computer crashes you have a full backup of all your hard work.
Keeping your work online or, ‘in the cloud’ as it is also known, is a further
way of creating an external backup; as long as you have Internet access, you
have access to your work. It can also be prudent to burn your most precious
work to CD or DVD, as this means you have yet another way of accessing lost
work in a worst-case scenario. And do not forget that hard copies of your work
also count as external backups. Drafts of thesis chapters, for instance, can be
printed out and kept in a filing cabinet just in case your digital data are cor-
rupted. However you choose to keep your external backups — and we recom-
mend that you use a variety of formats — you should have at least two
external backups to have a proper redundancy in your backup procedures.

=]
There is no point in asiniar aa backups in the one physical location
if that location becomes unviable due to fire, flood or other catastrophic event.
Keep a backup of your work at home and in the office, or in another secure
location, or make sure that your online backup is up to date.

Using automatic backups

As an adjunct to backing up your work yourself manually, you should also
consider finding ways of creating backups automatically. Numerous online pro-
viders provide this service at a cost (search for ‘automatic data backup’ or ‘auto-
mated backup service’ or similar), so do some investigating before choosing this
option. Having said this, however, the advantage of using such a service is that
an external backup on the Internet is created at the same time as your work is
automatically backedup. If you have a Macintosh computer with “Time Machine’
facility, then make sure you have it activated with an external hard drive and
schedule it to take hourly backups. Time Machine automatically backs up not
only your documents and files but your entire system, including applications
and settings, allowing a crashed Mac to be completely rebooted from scratch
and re-set to the latest saved version on your computer (or even to an earlier
version, if you prefer). A final way of creating an automatic backup is to use an
online folder or notebook service such as Evernote.com, Dropbox.com or Box.net
that automatically synchronizes your local materials to an online environment,
as well as across multiple devices if you so choose.

Fowler, H.R. and Aaron, J.E. (2001) The Little, Brown Handbook. 9th edn. New York: Longman.
Anything but little, but rather a valuable reference book that works hard to live up to its claim:
‘answers all your questions about writing’.

Mainhard, T., van der Rijst, R., van Tartwijk, J. and Wubbels, T. (2009) ‘A model for the supervisor—
doctoral student relationship’, Higher Education, 58(3): 359-73. An article describing the prob-
lems that can arise in a supervisory relationship, and presenting both a model for interpersonal
supervisory behaviour and a questionnaire on supervisor—doctoral student interaction.

Swales, J. and Feak, C. (2004) Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and
Skills. 2nd edn. Ann Arbor, Ml: University of Michigan Press. An excellent resource for dedicated
students for whom English is not a first language who are willing to invest time in exploring the
intricacies of cross-cultural writing differences and learning how to overcome these to produce
solid academic papers.

a2
_ Fundamentals of Solid Preparation

k developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing, the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

e Understand the influence of genre (type of writing) and disciplinary practices on aca-
demic writing, and build on your current skills by studying practices suited to the types
of writing you now have to produce.
e Develop competence in treating information critically so that you do have the right
types of information for your writing tasks.
e Appreciate that having the best information means accessing quality academic
sources.
e Realize the importance of clearly defining research goals/aims, before reading or
data-gathering, to ensure task-focused information.
e Identify strategies to manage the reading load, cut down on unproductive reading,
and improve information retrieval.
e Manage concerns relating to the efficiency of your approach to writing, handling feed-
back from lecturers/supervisors, and dealing with ‘writing blocks’.

Effective academic writing is seeded in solid preparation. Understanding the

shaping influence of genre and disciplinary practices on all academic writing
is an essential step in that preparation. Most importantly, you will need to
embed sound information management practices that will issue in the best
and right information to successfully complete a specific writing task,
whether that task involves writing a report, a blog entry, a research essay, a
thesis, or any other type of writing.

Understanding the graduate writing culture

The graduate writing culture is indeed complex. You are likely to be producing
genres as different as, for example, a blog entry, a report, an essay, a substan-
tial thesis, a conference paper or a journal article. Because different academic
genres have distinctive purposes, they can have different underlying conven-
tions that affect the language, style, structure and treatment of information, all
of which are further influenced by preferred disciplinary practices.
Because of this complexity, you could find yourself confronting unantici-
pated challenges: doing types of writing with which you are unfamiliar; or
finding your understanding of a particular type of writing is now insufficient
(for example, you have experience of writing reports in the workplace or for
an undergraduate degree, but find you need to change/adapt your practices
to meet specific requirements of report writing in your present course); or
discovering that the types of questions raised in treating familiar concepts/
information are now different in your present course.

a : key points

Take time to orient yourself to specific requirements of course genres if you are transfer-
ring disciplines at a graduate level, returning to study or research after many years in the
workforce, or have not previously studied in Western universities. Enlist the help of your
lecturer/supervisor.

Or perhaps you are grappling with a new disciplinary language because

you are transferring disciplines or, even, cultures where you now have to
develop proficiency in using the disciplinary language in academic texts writ-
ten in English. Disciplinary language refers to distinctive language of the
type emphasized in these extracts from students in different disciplines:

Law:

In ACTV and Nationwide, a majority of the Justices drew the implication

of a freedom of speech from the overall structure or fabric of ... X argued

34
 that freedom of speech regarding political matters is required for the
proper working of government and as such ruled the relevant sections
of the Political Disclosures Act 1991 (ACTV) and the Industrial Relations
Act 1988 (Nationwide) as invalid [reference].

Systems Engineering:
Reports from the sonar sensor were combined until the belief converged to
be equal to or greater than 0.99.

You will see that it is not just the nature of the subject matter (the content)
that is different in each case, as expected. In the Law example, the phrases
emphasized are distinctly legal; we would not normally talk about drawing
the implication of ‘a freedom’, or ruling ‘relevant sections’. Equally distinctive
is the unusual use of the word ‘belief — meaning ‘probability distribution’ — in
the Systems Engineering example.

aXe &Z

By studying models of the types of writing you now have to do, you can gain
insight into composition processes: how a text is put together in terms of focus,
structure and disciplinary writing practices, including the disciplinary language.
The next exercise, which is designed to help you to gain control of genre
and disciplinary writing practices, is potentially very beneficial if you
invest time in it.

sy, case study example

box 2.1 Students report significant benefits from studying

disciplinary writing practices

A second-language student experiencing difficulty in using English verb tenses gath-

ered an impressive set of examples on their complex usage in thesis writing in her
discipline of Archaeology, which helped her to overcome the problem. Another
graduate reported that he felt he had ‘learnt’ the art of argument by studying, as he
said, ‘how they put their arguments together and what evidence means’. Yet another
student having difficulty writing strong discussion sections studied organizational
strategies of ‘discussions’ in published articles and said he felt ‘much more confident
about how to do it’.

35
 exercise: mastering disciplinary writing practices

You are already highly trained to read for content, what an author is saying. It is also pos-
sible to train yourself to focus systematically on how a text is put together, what it does rather
than what it says: the composition processes and language choices. When doing this exer-
cise, you can build up sets of notes relating to disciplinary practices, either online or in a
notebook, for easy future reference.

Step 1

Select a sample of the type of writing you now have to do (for example, an essay, report,
proposal or thesis) — ask your lecturer/supervisor to provide you with a good model (not
always possible) or to refer you to well-written theses. If working from a published article,
select one that you find enjoyable and easy to read regardless of the difficulty of the content,
as not all publications are equally well written.

Step 2

Set aside regular time for this exercise — perhaps an hour or two twice a week. Now select
which aspects you need to focus on from the categories below — focus on only one thing
at a time:

Treatment of information

e Think about the types of information the author includes in different sections of the
text.
e Consider how the author treats information: the questions raised, the issues thought
important, the theories, models, methodologies, procedures applied, and so forth
(important in contexts of disciplinary transfer).
e Explore how the author handles theory in discussions, utilizes models or applies meth-
odology, whatever is specifically relevant for you.
e Trace the development of an argument, and look closely at how the author provides
supporting evidence to secure that argument.
e Focus on how the author presents and discusses results or data. For example, what
differences in practice do you notice between presentation of findings and discussion
of these?
e Scrutinize referencing practices in a section or two: when and where referencing
occurs; style practices in terms of the use of direct quotes, paraphrased material,
additional footnotes, or listed references to studies or groups of studies.
e Investigate the amount of detail used in different contexts of the writing as, for example,
in detailing procedures and methods.

36
Linguistic features
Look closely at the typical terminology or phraseology being used by the author.
Consider the language/phraseology used to describe specific procedures or methods
or other processes.
Check whether first person ‘I’ is used in some parts of the text, or not at all.
Think about the verb tenses chosen to report on other scholars’ work, or verb tenses
preferred in different parts of a text, or the range and type of reporting verbs used.
Review language choices. Think about how obvious, predictable, unusual, striking,
effective the language is, and also the range of the vocabulary, which may become a
way of extending your own vocabulary.

Organizational features (see also + ‘Principles of sound structure’, Chapter 4)

Spend time on how authors divide up the overall text by way of parts, chapters and/
or subdivisions. Scrutinize the actual headings. Think about whether these provide a
sense of how the whole text fits together.
Consider how effective titles of sub-headings are in focusing the main theme of the text
beneath, how much text appears under sub-headings, whether these sub-headings
are numbered and/or titled, and whether there are explicit or implicit attempts to link
the different subdivisions.
Examine how an introduction, a conclusion, a literature review, a results, a discus-
sion, a theory or methodology section, or any other part of the writing is organized.
Look at what the author is actually doing, the step-by-step moves, and give some
thought to why this organization suits that author's purposes.
Scrutinize the structure of a paragraph, the implicit or explicit strategies used to ensure
the logical flow of ideas within the paragraph and linkages across paragraphs, the
actual words or phrases employed (see + ‘Developing texts’ in Chapter 4).
Look at the layout of illustrations, the positioning of legends, and how tables, figures,
graphs, charts, plots, and so on are integrated into the text for discussion.

Audience features

lsolate examples of ‘signalling’ in the document where the author is assisting you to
follow the line of discussion. How much of this signalling is there? Where does it take
place in the text? How subtle or obvious is it?
Look at how the author moves into different subsections of the writing. How much
context (if any) is provided to ensure readers are kept in the picture?
Identify strategies the author uses to position the reader to respond positively to dis-
cussions. Are there any points where you can see the author making an effort to get
readers onside or to offset potential criticisms?
ls there anything else that strikes you about the author's relationship to you as a reader
of this text?

Si
Treating information critically
In extracting factual information from source materials, your focus will be
on the details of what is being said: you will need to know the facts, a fact
being information that is accepted as true and is not contested in the litera-
ture as some so-called facts are. Questions in the order of what? when?
where? and who? tend to stimulate the recall of information for the purpose
of reproducing knowledge. This is a legitimate and important purpose in
writing, which may at times dominate the process and at other times may
complement critical appraisal, which is fundamental to all academic writing
and communication.

8 gh
PSO gi gag ee 2 Tatt <
bed B No S PRLS FS ed SS

Critical appraisal involves evaluating strengths and weaknesses of discussions/

arguments across a range of authors or sources, bearing in mind that the
generation of knowledge turns on the clash of ideas emanating from the com-
munity of world scholars.
It is indeed vital to realize that, however well intentioned they may be,
authors do have ‘prejudices, assumptions and beliefs’ (Wallace and Wray, 2006:
26) just as we all do. You will therefore need to exercise your critical intel-
ligence when reading: question the underlying assumptions, consider the
possibility of theoretical, methodological and other biases, assess the sound-
ness of the data or evidence presented, the rigour of authors’ analyses, the
logic of their arguments and so forth. In short, you will need to extend your
range of questions when dealing with source materials to engage questions
to do with the why? and the how? of the research: to hold your sources in
relation, to compare and contrast the positions of different authors, to draw
out the issues being debated and so on. If you are unpractised in critical
appraisal, refer to the next exercise (see also 3 ‘Critical appraisal of the
literature’ in Chapter 8).

exercise: critical appraisal

The scenario

Imagine you are required to read reports, articles and other studies about the topic
‘Greenhouse effects on the global environment’ in order to produce a report advocating

38
measures to reduce greenhouse emissions. On reading, you discover that there is
considerable disagreement among scholars about which measures should be intro-
duced, and why.

The challenge
How then do you begin to evaluate the experts? If your previous tertiary experience was
one in which critiquing was not common, this could prove challenging. But the challenge
will seem less if you recognize that where there is difference of opinion in scholarship the
different viewpoints themselves will provide material for your critique. It is often explicit or
implicit in one author's discussion what is problematic in another's.

The critique (question-raising)

In conducting the critique, you would be drawing on your knowledge of the subject, which
may include valuable general, specialist, experiential and/or cultural knowledge that you
have.
At the same time, you would be raising questions of this type in order to map central
issues in the arguments and debates surrounding the subject:

What is the full range of measures identified by the different authors? List these as you
read, and perhaps categorize them too in a way that seems useful. To what extent
do the authors agree or disagree about which measures should be implemented: is
there considerable agreement? A reasonable amount? Hardly any? Draw up a list of
measures commonly agreed on, another where there seems to be a reasonable
amount of agreement, and another where there seems to be strong disagreement,
presuming this sort of division applies.

In the process of clarifying what is being said, think about why authors take the positions
they do. The first question to ask yourself is: what are the issues here? What are the points
on which authors disagree and why? Identify and consider these carefully: list points and
reasons. One issue on which authors might disagree could be the division of costs across
state boundaries; another, whether or not there should be compulsory reduction targets
for all nations.
Continue your questioning like so:

What reasons do authors give for the measures they prefer? Is there any overlap
here? How do these measures line up in terms of advantages and disadvantages,
and for whom? From where do these authors draw their evidence? Are their
sources reliable? What types of evidence do they present in advocating different
measures? Do they use statistics, examples from scientific reports, or what, as
evidence? Are the statistics sound? Do the examples make sense to you: why? Why
not? Could a discussion be too narrow (or too broad) because important information

(Continued)

oY
 is left out? Perhaps you can recognize this from reading other authors. Can you see
any biased assumptions behind the evidence, perhaps because of the methodol-
ogy or theory framing their discussions, or cultural biases (for example, the East/
West divide)? In short, how convincing are the reasons they give for the measures
they advocate?

During reading, you will generate further questions as you refine your understanding of
the subject.

The outcome

By the end of the critique a transformation will have taken place in your knowledge base,
as you will have used a range of authors to deepen and clarify your thinking about the
subject. The intelligence and creativity with which you handle source materials, and the
subtlety of your insights, are matters of individual judgement that will influence the posi-
tion or point of view you take on any topic. You have to decide which authors or aspects
of their studies convince you and why they do, and which do not and why they do not. In
rearranging all that you have taken apart in the analysis of a subject or topic — any topic -
when you write your paper you will be making a new synthesis, with your own position
at the centre of that synthesis.

If theory does feature in your writing, you will need to critically engage with
it. Reading and critically evaluating theory, or philosophical works applied in
analysis, can be particularly challenging, as can the appraisal of models or
methodologies. It could be that your course includes much new theory so that
you do not feel you have a sound knowledge base from which to exercise your
critical judgement. Or you may be unpractised in critiquing theory, having
never before done this in an academic context.
The term ‘theory is often used loosely in the academic community. The
meaning followed here is: “The formulation of abstract knowledge or specula-
tive thought; systematic conception of something’ (New Shorter Oxford
English Dictionary). Theory then, is a clearly identifiable, abstract body of
knowledge that has been conceived systematically.
Theories are abstract systems in which certain aspects (the key ideas or
principles of a theory) are privileged by an author over other possibilities.
Theorists abstract from the chaotic, actual world of everyday events and
activities that which they consider most significant to explain that world, or
some aspect of it. Theories are useful for their explanatory value, and some-
times their predictive value. They can open up different possibilities in ways
of perceiving and understanding complex events and happenings important

40
 Fundamentals of solid preparation

in your context of academic enquiry, and so prove to be valuable tools of

analysis. But they do have their limitations.
Before conducting your critical appraisal, you will first need to have a
sound overview of the theory. All established disciplines have specialist
dictionaries or reference works, many of which are also available as e-books,
as applications for smartphones, or tablet devices such as the iPad. Making
use of these is a useful orientation strategy to gain a clear overview before
you read more deeply and comprehensively in the theoretical literature.
You will then need to critically evaluate how well the particular theory
does in fact explain what it sets out to explain — its strengths and weak-
nesses. Critiques by other scholars or schools of scholars, and those of your
lecturers/supervisors, can provide a sound starting point for your own critical
appraisal of a particular body of theory.
As you read, probe the assumptions about the nature of the world that
underpin the key ideas or principles of the body of theory you are studying.
Think about whether these assumptions are biased or not (see Figure 2.1).
Cultural bias, for example, would be evident if the assumptions underlying a
theory of human behaviour proved to be strongly Western-centric and not
inclusive of other cultures.

BVoES THEORY
KEY PRINCIPLES
(abstract system)

A el
ce oreee ae
Religious ! | | |

Ethnic bo Ee ete
Historical

ACTUAL
WORLD

FIGURE 2.1 How theories work

Furthermore, if you are asked to develop a theoretical framework, an ana-

lytical framework or a conceptual framework for your thesis or other writing,

4]
confusion can arise, as students have noted. Figure 2.2 distinguishes these
frameworks by how they might function in academic writing, though do con-
firm with your lecturer/supervisor that these understandings will apply.

Analytical framework Conceptual framework Theoretical framework

(explain and perhaps Detail and expound on Outline the general

justify the choice of an the parts of the analysis notions or themes
existing body of theory as well as the logical being engaged in the
being applied by you. relations among those research and expound
parts. on the logical relations
Or set up and expound among those. This too
on a framework you are Or propose a model for may involve dealing
constructing from a analysis of data, which with theory.
range of different may involve addressing
theories. theoretical issues.
L J
FIGURE 2.2 Different types of frameworks

Recognizing the status of existing knowledge on a subject can also be important

when exercising your critical judgement: the extent to which that knowledge is
strongly evidence-based or, at the other end of the scale, whether that knowledge
is necessarily speculative because of the scant evidence available to scholars.
Figure 2.3 is a vocabulary aid both to identifying the status of existing
knowledge about a subject and to finding language for your own discussions
that reflects that status. Do take a little time to study it.

Like other graduates, you may also have concerns about the best critical
approach to working with different types of source material, that is, primary
and secondary information, although the meanings of these types is not uni-
form in academia.
Here, primary information refers to:

Raw data generated by you through, for example, tests, experiments or

field research; data sets from pre-existing databases generated by others;
archival materials (for example, journals, diaries or letters written by, say,
historical figures, or original historical documents); policy documents
generated by, say, governments and other organizations; state and inter-
national legal legislation — also court judgements; literary, art or religious
works; and so forth.

42
 Fundamental: of soli

Probability
Guide Quantity Frequency Adverbs/adjectives Verbs
all/every/each always certain(ly) will
100% most definite(ly) is/are
undoubtedly must/have to
probably/probable should
a majority (of) usual(ly) likely ought to
many/much normal(ly)
a lot (of) general(ly)
enough regular(ly)
some often
a number (of) frequent(ly) perhaps may
several sometimes possibly/possible might
a minority (of) occasional(ly) maybe can
a few/a little rare(ly) unlikely could
few/little seldom
hardly ever
scarcely ever
no/none/not never will
any is/are + not
can
0% could

FIGURE 2.3. Scale of qualification Jordan, 1980: 60)

Secondary information is understood as:

Any texts that provide critical commentary of whatever sort on texts

categorized under primary information above, such as journal publica-
tions, books or chapters in scholarly books, blog posts, book reviews, and
so on.

Adopt a circular approach when working across primary and secondary

sources: read the primary source first, move to secondary sources, return to
the primary source and continue to move between the two types as you refine
your critical judgement.

Your greatest asset is your own critical intelligence. You will have hunches
as you read: something does not seem right, or the argument does not con-
vince you, or you sense that some approach or procedure is problematic, or
you think perhaps there is a better way, or the data appear dubious, or the
underlying assumptions just do not seem to add up, or you suspect the
theory being used has skewed the interpretation, or the questions being
asked do not seem to be the right ones, or something mentioned in passing

43
 Aleitine fry “addamic c1iccacs
VVrFHING Tor acagemic SUCCESS

strikes you as important but has not been recognized as such. These
hunches may be vague and imprecise: half-formed ideas, questions marked
by uncertainty, sceptical or doubtful responses or passing intuitions about
other possibilities.
It is easy to let these hunches, these instinctive responses, slip away as you
push on with the reading. But try not to do this. Stop and ask yourself why
you might be responding as you are. It may be that your hunch arose spon-
taneously from the fact that your general life or work experience suggested
something different from what was being reported, or that other disciplinary
knowledge you have was pushing you to respond sceptically. Make a record
of your hunches, either electronically or in a notebook. While it may take time
and further reading to clarify the reason for your response, having such
hunches come to fruition in a reasoned argument is the peak of treating infor-
mation critically.

WER REIr<O*O UME’ D#FOOG pe z ZE.WEI-WSSS

Hunches can be the seeds of the best critical insights, the subtlest ideas, the very ideas
you want to bring to your research and writing.

Ensuring task-focused information

It is possible to have masses of data and source material but still to lack the
information you need to successfully complete your writing task. There are
different reasons why this occurs, four major ones being:

1. Uncertainty about how to proceed with a particular type of writing, or parts of the writ-
ing, as perhaps with what to cover in a specialized report and how to structure it, or
what to include in an introduction as opposed to a discussion section of a paper, and
how each part might be focused and developed. Uncertainty about how to proceed
with a specific writing task inhibits prediction of information needs. This is a matter given
considerable attention in Chapters 5-12, which look closely at different types of writing
and presentations.
2. Uncertainty about how to pin down the best information when searching large
databases or conducting general Internet searches. This type of uncertainty often
leads to information overload as well as inadequate information for the task in
hand.

4d
 Fundamentals of solid preparation

3. Insufficient attention to assessing the academic merit of potential source material. This
can especially be a problem if you rely too heavily on material you find in the top several
hits of a Google search; such material is often not peer-reviewed.
4. Gathering information without first -defining your precise goals as these relate to the
writing task in hand.

Points 3 and 4 are now discussed, the latter from two angles: generating data
and reading the literature.

\ 4

To refine search techniques, find out what information literacy training programmes are
available in your institution.

To produce a quality paper you will need the best information possible, so
think carefully about the academic merit of all potential source materials,
both print and electronic. A definite danger in this regard is relying on gen-
eral Internet searching for source materials.

Evaluating sources on the Internet

Although there is copious information on the Internet, which can be accessed
quickly, much of it has not been through the traditional reviewing processes
in place for scholarly print sources. There are informative and valuable web
resources with solid, reliable publications (for example, government, industry
or organization sites, or reputable electronic journals). There is also a lot of
junk, which, however interesting to read, is worthless for your academic
research.

gy

Ensure that your online sources have equal academic merit with your print sources.

45
 Take care, just as you do with traditional print sources. Maintain a healthy
scepticism. The following are a few questions and points for you to keep in mind:

e |s the purpose of the site or resource clearly evident? Can you identify any particular
agenda (political, ideological, religious, and so on) behind the site’s formation? If yes, the
information presented might be biased rather than balanced, and therefore unsuitable
for academic research.
e Whois the author of the site or resource? Is it an individual, organization or institution that
has some credibility and authority? If so, how is this demonstrated? Does the site allow
for multiple contributions and what appears to be the status of the contributors; is there
any evidence of scholarly credentials?
e What does the site or resource contain? How comprehensive is it? Is there enough infor-
mation? Is there too much information? How will the information gathered complement
other sources you are using?
e How up to date is the site or resource? When was it created? When was the last time it
was updated and how often is it updated?
e Will the site or resource still be traceable, at least in some form, in the future — in a week?
A month? A year? Longer?
e What particular benefit does the site or resource offer? How does the content compare
with that of other sites you have accessed, or to related print-based materials? How
confident are you that the content is scholarly, accurate and reliable? Is there equivalent
or better information readily obtainable from more stable and verifiable sources?
e ls the site or resource presented so that the content is easily accessible, and the access
path clear? This is important because your assessors may wish to:follow up sources you
have used.

Just as you need quality academic source materials to ensure the best infor-
mation, you also need the right types of information to successfully complete
writing tasks.

The intricacies of data-gathering, collation, analysis and writing up are com-

plex across disciplines and beyond the scope of this book. The details you
record when collecting data and how you go about recording them will of
course depend on the nature of your research and discipline (for example,
details of: design of questionnaires, conduct of interviews, selection of inform-
ants, transcriptions, participant observation, and so forth; equipment or
materials used; experimental or test procedures; instrument calibration;
measurements; seasonal/weather/date/time information; or anything else).
Nevertheless, be aware that problems of relevance may arise if you rush into
data gathering of any type.

46
 -· key points

Clarify precisely which details you should be recording (and why), and be rigorously con-
sistent in your recording methods.

For example. using surveys and/or interviews attracts many researchers

across a range of disciplines as a primary method of data collection. But, as
suggested by Preece: 'Many students make the mistake of rushing out to do
premature and ill-prepared surveys before the research question ... and the
concepts involved have been properly defineď (1994: 97). Preece further
notes t hat ·su n e_vs do requ ire care/ul thought, ad vice, discussion with more
1

e.\perienced rescarchers and time for preparation, and ... the role of surveys
Lcithin the organization of the research needs to be clearly defineď (1994:
97; emphasis in original). Linguistic traps plague the design both of sur-
veys and interviews. particularly across cultures. In choosing the interview
option other matters arise, such as 'a clear vision of the issues to be dis-
cusseď. appropriateness of type, access to informants, funding, building in
time for transcription and data analysis, and much more (Denscombe,
1998: 121).
It is necessary to carefully discriminate information needs in the process of
designing data-gathering instruments, whatever these happen to be. In
deciding w hich detail s to record, return to your research goals, to the issues
you are engaging with in your research, and talk further with your supervi-
sor and others in your test or research group before final decision-making.
Insufficient or incorrectly recorded details are time-consuming to redress
later, and cause considerable stress when writing: keep a research diary, a
notebook or an online site for this. It can be easy to forget precisely what
transpired and sometimes difficult to know what details you will need until
you write your paper or thesis.
It coulcl also be instructive to compare your chosen methocl of recording data
with those of other practitioners. There may be better ways of organizing the
information, and it is useful to realize this at the outset. If you are keeping a
paper-copy laboratory book, for example, you might consider recording your
data electronically via online notes, wikis or shared folders.

As with data-gathering, your objective when reading is to ensure that the

information you gather into notes is best suited to the specific writing task in

47
hand . It is all too easy to rush into reading without discriminating clearly the
information you will need to complete a specific writing task, a task that will
have clearly defined research goals/aims, or specific topic or project objectives.
Think carefully about why you are reading a source and what you hope to
gain from reading it: not the details but the types of information. lnitially,
review your information needs in terms of whether you are (1) attempting a
broad understanding of the litera ture, as when trying to get on top of the eur-
rent status of the relevant literature for a big research project, or (2) searching
for more focused information to meet already defined research goals of a spe-
cific writing or presentation task in your course, as with an essay or report. ln
the latter case, the more time you put into brainstorming and thinking about
your topic or project (see ➔ 'Topics (or questions)' in Chapter 5), the more
likely it is that the information you gather will issue in a solid piece of work.
Ensuring task-focused information is no less important in the following
learning contexts.

Student laboratories, dinicals and pradicals

The common component of student laboratories, clinicals and practicals (as dis-
tinct from tutorials) is that you learn by doing in a context of practical training
suited to future employment. Such learning usually takes place in a structured
environment under the guidance of a demonstrator, instructor or lecturer, which
puts considerable pressure on your listening, note-taking and questioning skills.

n key points

lt is vito Ito clarify the precise objectives ond procedures for ossessment. lf the instructor deliv-
ers these verbolly at the beginning of o practical, toke careful notes.

Clarify the precise practitioner knowledge, skills and competencies you are
required to develop before the start of a practicaL and what communication
task s will be expect ed of you in assessment. For example:

• Will you hove oral ond/or demonstration ond/or written tests (for exomple, o loboratory
report, on essoy or on exom)?
• Will you, for exomple, be tested on your obility to describe occurately porticular opparotus
or equipment, or procedures for using these, including how to odjust, soy, the tension on
o piece of eq uipment?
• Will you be tested on your knowledge of requisite sofety procedures in using porticular
moteriols or eq ui pment?

48
 Fundamentals of solid preparation

e Will you be expected to detail the nature of responses taking place under certain stimuli
or to codify the underlying principles of such responses (not the same thing)?
e Will you be tested on the effectiveness of your communication skills, say, with patients,
including your understanding of cross-cultural communication needs?

Managing your reading load

You will also need to vary your reading strategies to improve efficiency, as
much time can be lost to unproductive reading in both coursework and
research degrees.

iREE 4 FT|EPYO png ee

NREQGING |

At times you will need to read intensively: read every word of a text from the
first to the last word. This is most likely in these contexts:

e There is a set text for a course, perhaps to be read gradually throughout a semester.
e You are trying to build up basic but in-depth knowledge about some area of research or
a new discipline.
e You are conducting archival research or need to read primary texts in detail (for example,
literary texts, legal or historical documents).
e You have to read difficult, dense texts (for example, legal, scientific or philosophical texts
or those that are highly theoretical). Such texts or parts of them may even need re-reading
to improve understanding.

Quick review of a source will not necessarily confirm its appropriateness

for your writing task information needs. This is when you should activate
skimming. Skimming is appropriate in situations of this type:

e When you are conducting a broad survey of the literature to determine what has been done
generally, perhaps with a view to identifying a suitable topic for research.
e When you are trying to extract only key points or general information from a text. In
this case, you would be trying to by-pass the multitude of detail typically embedded
in academic analyses and arguments — keyword skimming can be useful with online
texts.
e When you have set up your own topic of investigation, having thought through the precise
type of information you will need to meet the research goals/objectives of that topic.
e When you have been given a set assignment or project in which the research goals/
objectives and scope have been explicitly laid out.

The last two points are particularly relevant if you are a coursework student.

49
 Unproductive reading leads to the information gathered being insufficient to
the task, only marginally relevant or even irrelevant. Although it might seem
unnatural at first not to read every word, skimming can cut through unproduc-
tive reading, thus giving you time to search out more useful source materials.

Qa key points

The time constraints on completing writing and presentation tasks in taught courses
mean it is imperative not to lose time to unproductive reading.

First, consider these questions preparatory to skimming:

e |nsetting up my own topic or project, have | defined my goals/aims/objectives and scope

clearly enough to begin, or to refine, information-gathering?
e |n addressing a topic set by the lecturer, have | brainstormed the topic to ensure | can deal fully
with the central concerns of the topic — all of them? (See - ‘Topics (or questions)’ in Chapter 5).
e Am|clear about the type and extent of information | will need to write the different parts
of my text? For example, in the discussion section of a report you will need to situate your
findings in relation to those of other scholars, and so will need to have this information to
hand when writing.
e Will the information | am gathering allow me to answer the research questions or meet
the research goals of my paper, and meet expectations of the type of writing | am doing?
Check during the process of reading that you are on target with relevant information,
including critical information.

A major objective of skimming is to determine what precisely the author is

discussing or talking about at different points in the text. This will help you
to decide whether to read the whole text intensively, or only parts of it
because only those parts will meet your present information needs.
Skimming can work because of the way academic texts are organized (see
> ‘Effective paragraph development’ in Chapter 4). To recap briefly, in aca-
demic writing academic paragraphs are built around main ideas that are
often placed in the first or last sentence of the paragraph, so making it easy
to identify the precise subject being discussed.

Strategies for information storage

You will also want to retrieve information efficiently so as to reduce the frustra-
tion of time wasted when writing. Options may include local computer folders

50
 Fundamentals of solid preparation

or index cards, but, where possible, you should use an online research or note
management tool such as Evernote.com, Mendeley.com or Zotero.org. Such
tools are easy to use, customizable and improve retrieval efficiency through
the use of tags (keywords) and advanced search functions; some will even
search photographs of handwritten notes. Evernote, Mendeley and Zotero all
have the capability to synchronize your notes across the various computers
and mobile devices that you might be using, so you can always access the lat-
est version of your data, and even work offline. They also allow you to take a
local backup of your data, and, in some instances, to annotate pdfs.
These further strategies can be used in tandem with an online research
management tool or independently of such usage:

e When you have a rough idea of how you might divide up, say, your thesis chapters (for
example, theory or methodology chapters), set up separate folders or notebooks for each
chapter. Many students find it useful to set these up quite early in the research. With these
folders or notebooks in place, you can add source materials plus ideas, thoughts, notes
and hunches — anything that might be at all relevant — as they occur to you along the way
(keep paper and pen beside your bed for those brilliant 3 a.m. insights!). If your chapter
organization subsequently changes, then you can re-sort the material into new locations,
discarding what you no longer want.
e Categorize information and notes in ways that make sense to you. For example, you
might have a folder or notebook that contains all your reading materials and annotations,
with each item given tags or keywords. Other sets of notes might be categorized as, say,
key concepts, themes, issues, theories or methodologies, or perhaps subject categories.
e Keep everything in Evernote.com. An all-purpose, electronic note-taking system, Evernote
allows you to save various file formats, including image formats; record voice memos;
email or Tweet notes directly to your collection; clip web pages; synchronize your notes
across digital devices; search handwriting in photonotes; import and synchronize from
other reference managers; and create manual backups. Storage upgrades are available.
e Use Mendeley.com to store research papers. Mendeley’s homepage describes the serv-
ice as being ‘Like iTunes™ for research papers’. With Mendeley, you can automatically
extract citations from pdfs; synchronize your work across digital devices; import and syn-
chronize from other reference managers; create pdf sticky notes and annotations; and
create manual backups. Storage upgrades are available.
e Create a library with Zotero.com. This is a simple Firefox extension that creates a library
for you to store, manage and share your materials. Zotero allows you to archive web
pages; install plugins for Word and OpenOffice; take notes next to the source; synchronize
across digital devices; and create manual backups. Storage upgrades are available.

Managing common writing concerns

Some common concerns that students frequently raise when producing their
texts are now discussed.

5]
One concern centres on the time and effort it takes to write, which often ties
in with the approach taken to writing.

It has been suggested that there are two distinct types of academic writers:
‘Serialists’ ... see writing as a sequential process in which the words are
corrected as they are written and who plan their writing in detail before
beginning to write. ‘Holists’ ... can only think as they write and compose a
succession of complete drafts. (Lowenthal and Wason, cited in Phillips and
Pugh, 1994: 65)

You may shift between these approaches depending on the difficulty of your text,
or parts of the text you are producing. Another notable approach is the layered
approach to writing, where authors start with a reasonably structured, but
basic first draft that is repeatedly expanded on — filled in, so to speak — as
research continues and understanding of the subject is progressively refined.
The important issue in all this is the efficiency of your approach in terms of
the time and effort it takes to produce your texts. Serialists may well see their
approach as efficient, though a few suffer from over-perfectionism, correcting
every little detail over and over again, so that progress is exceptionally slow.
Holists (sometimes called ‘get-em-all-outers’) often hold the preconception
that their approach is indeed inefficient. As a holist, you will prefer to go
straight to the computer and start writing. Little thought will be given to
structure, the idea being to work out what you want to focus on and to gener-
ate ideas about your topic. Rough writing of this type serves a useful function
for the holist and is not in itself necessarily problematic.
Following through on solid preparation, as discussed throughout this chap-
ter, may be the key to reducing the time invested in producing your texts,
rather than changing your approach. If your approach works for you, stay
with it, as there is no one ‘right’ way. If you are uncertain about the efficiency
of your approach, or feel that you struggle with writing, try this self-monitor-
ing exercise from which interesting patterns and insights can emerge.

exercise: self-monitoring when writing

Step 1

On the next occasion of writing, monitor the conditions under which you struggle (for
example, generating ideas about your topic; uncertainty about how to proceed with the

52
 Fundamentals of solid preparation

type of writing vou are doing; organizing your paragraphs or linking parts of your discus-
sion; marshalling evidence in an argument and ensuring logical development of your
ideas; or writing up a theory section or chapter). Take concise notes about these instances.
Note what is actually happening, why you think it is happening (if you can), and how long
it takes you to overcome the difficulty: A matter of hours? Days? Or what? Also monitor
how many days/weeks it takes you from the first phase of writing to completion of a draft,
along with how many drafts you write.

Step 2

Make an appointment with a lecturer, supervisor, or a language, learning or writing

adviser to discuss your notes, and gain advice on how to improve the situation.

Many students phrase their concern in terms of a ‘writing block’. This is a

fuzzy concept that generally translates as ‘I just can’t write’. But do take
heart. Writing blocks can usually be traced to quite identifiable factors, often
interrelated, of the following type:

e Confusion about specific task requirements, such as uncertainty about how to proceed
with a particular type of writing or part of it, or not having to hand the type of informa-
tion needed to complete the task (see + ‘Ensuring task-focused information’ earlier in
this chapter).
e Uncertainty about expectations of academic writing practices and how to take control of spe-
cific situations, like avoiding plagiarism (see + ‘Referencing and plagiarism’ in Chapter 3).
e Insufficient control of strategies for structuring and developing texts (see > ‘Principles of
sound structure’, Chapter 4).
e Lack of subject matter comprehension, perhaps because time pressures have thwarted
attempts to build up a thorough understanding of your material, in which case review
your time management strategies (see 4 ‘Effective self-management’ in Chapter 1).

Word processing too can feature in writing blocks. Word processing pro-
vides many advantages when writing, for example, shifting chunks of mate-
rial within and across documents. But doing this can contribute to incoherence
in the writing. Print out texts that you have altered by shifting material
around. It is easier to identify disruptions to the flow of a discussion, and
other substantive problems, by reading a printout than it is by moving down
a screen.
Nevertheless, deeply rooted psychological problems (for example, a fear of
writing or obsessive over-perfectionism) can cause severe blockages, which may
need to be worked through with a professional counsellor at your institution.

a3
 Ensure that you allow sufficient time to complete your writing tasks.
Sometimes the stress occasioned by having to rush the writing to meet dead-
lines itself becomes a block, so adopt these strategies:

e Write early and write often. To begin writing a first draft of a thesis or long report without
having produced writing along the way that will feed into it is not a good idea.
e Access the writing at a point at which it seems least difficult, if you are struggling to
start. Usually some parts are easier to write than others. Do not concern yourself ini-
tially with issues of focus and structure — just get ideas down.
e Try not to leave off writing at a point at which you feel blocked. This makes it harder to
return to the writing. Knowing where you are going in your writing provides incentive to
return to it.

ASB ELS Sor OSE TERRE

Another important concern relates to critical feedback from lecturers and

supervisors. Criticism is a valuable feedback mechanism. Understandably
though, students can be sensitive to criticism of their drafts and presenta-
tions. Where the criticism is perceived as unduly harsh, some become so
upset their confidence plunges and they are left feeling vulnerable. If this
should happen, it is important to remember that it is your writing that is
being criticized (or it should be), not you.
Consider these strategies:

e Seek immediate support from your institution’s counselling centre if you are very upset.
e Put aside your draft for a few days until you can assess the criticisms with more detachment.
e Think carefully about the usefulness of the criticisms in terms of your research focus and
objectives, your arguments, structure and so forth.
e Discuss the criticisms further with your lecturer/supervisor, if you feel this is warranted.
e Use your online networks for support.
e Seek assistance from an academic skills, learning or writing adviser when redrafting.

Sometimes though, it is not the criticism itself but the tone of the criticism
that upsets. You may perceive comments as overly aggressive or condescend-
ing. Take this up with your supervisor/lecturer if you feel able to. Let them
know that, while you value their critical feedback, you were upset by the way
this was given; have an example or two to show if they ask: ‘What do you mean?”
Many students also mention the unbalanced nature of critical feedback on
their writing, noting that lecturers and supervisors seem to view useful feed-
back as consisting solely in negative comments. They may well perceive such
comments as being the most useful, and they will be as long as you understand
how to apply advice to improve your work.

54
 Try to extract value from all criticism, however negative — make it work for you by not tak-
ing it too personally.

: ore _e= further resources ase

Denscombe, M. (2007) The Good Research Guide: For Small-scale Social Research Projects.
3rd edn. Buckingham: Open University Press. An easy to read but thorough introductory
exploration of the purposes, functions, advantages and disadvantages of a range of qualitative
data-gathering methods.

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO). An excellent research tool for students in the social
and behavioural sciences, which not only contains a comprehensive list of leading book and
reference materials on research methods, but also editorially selected material from Sage
journals. http://srmo.sagepub.com

Wallace, M. and Wray, A. (2006) Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates. London:
Sage Publications. A systematic, in-depth analysis of the dynamic relation between evaluative
reading, argument development and writing in different contexts, with careful scaffolding of
advice and tasks.

ee)
 Essentials of Academic Writing

7 be developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

e Understand whether or not you need to modify, adapt or develop new practices to
meet the communicative demands of your current situation.
e Renew your acquaintance with standard academic writing practices that contribute to
the overall quality of writing.
e Realize the usefulness of style manuals, when to reference sources and how to avoid
plagiarism.
e Appreciate the complex role of the reader and identify strategies for accommodating
the reader when you write.
e identify strategies to ensure clarity in writing, conciseness, and appropriate use of
voice and tone.

You will already possess a bank of general ideas about writing, along with
specific textual knowledge, skills and strategies built up from previous tertiary
study and/or work experience. While these are indeed valuable, this chapter
provides an opportunity for reflection on your current practices.

The mechanics of academic writing

Good practice involves close attention to academic standards of consistency and
accuracy in terms of writing practices, formatting, spelling and punctuation.
 + ic
ESSeNHais OT t acageMic
ry omic wiritine
Wriiing

The discussions that follow in this chapter draw attention to some standard
practices with which you may wish to reacquaint yourself.

Consistency is expected of all academic writing. Consistency refers to just

about everything: the way you write dates, numbers, percentages, foreign
words (non-English), refer to other scholars and set up bibliographies,
hyphenation and capitalization practices, typography and so forth. Decide
how you will write something and stay with that practice throughout your
text — take notes if need be. Work out which fonts (italics, bold, underline,
plain) and font sizes (9, 10, 12, 14, and so on) and combinations of these you
want to use for specific purposes, and follow these rigorously. It can be time-
consuming to alter formatting and typography later if you are not using an
electronic reference or style manager. Even then, inconsistencies might need
to be addressed manually as, for example, if italics, bold type and underlining
have been used inconsistently throughout a thesis for emphasis.

Qana © key points 3 nisieialaiaasaliidlaena -cdcasseaeiadiires

Finalize formatting and typography decisions before writing a first full draft.

The best method of ensuring consistency is to follow a discipline-appropriate

style manual or to review author practices in relevant refereed journals and
follow those. While certain practices may vary from article to article or jour-
nal to journal, you should find internal consistency in a published text. More
is said about this matter of consistency in ensuing sections.

There are many excellent grammar and spelling applications available for smartphones
and tablet devices.

Many graduates now report sole reliance on spellng- and grammar-checkers.

A computer spell-checker can help standardize your spelling, and it will pick up
many errors. But it will not pick up everything, including incorrect substitutions

Sf
(for example, ‘an’ when you mean ‘and’, or ‘form’ when you mean ‘from’).
Grammar-checkers also serve their purpose but they are more intuitive than
logical, so that suggestions given are sometimes dubious, and even wrong.
Applying grammar-checkers can aggravate rather than alleviate second-
language error if you do not have the confidence to assess the validity of sugges-
tions. Nor will they help you to identify more substantive textual problems,
such as flow problems due to shifting material around on the computer, missing
or incorrect references or illogical arguments, and so forth. In many instances
it is preferable to turn off spelling- and grammar-checkers altogether.
You should proofread your work, preferably in hard copy, as it is easier to
detect errors/textual problems in this way. Even better, organize exchange
proofreading with a fellow student if possible, as it is less taxing to proofread
another’s work than your own.

4 o— key points ©

Professionalism means proofreading your texts carefully before submitting them.

Punctuation is part of the meaning of a text.

You will need to know how to punctuate correctly, whether you incline to
minimal or heavy punctuation. Preferred disciplinary practices, the complexity
of sentence structure and personal preference can all influence the extent of
punctuation. If punctuation practices trouble you, then refer to one of the many
excellent punctuation guides available on the Internet, the best of which are
published on library and university websites. Alternatively, you might want to
download a punctuation and/or grammar app for your smartphone or tablet
device, or subscribe to a regular grammar podcast such as ‘Grammar Girl’.

Referencing and plagiarism

In producing your texts, you will also need to apply rigorous academic stand-
ards when acknowledging and referencing source material.

58
 Essentials of academic writing

As referencing practices are bound to disciplinary cultures, there are many

different style manuals. Some of the better known are Vancouver style,
which follows rules established by the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors; The Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (APA) (popular in the social sciences and some sciences); The
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (MLA) (popular in the arts
and humanities); The Chicago Manual of Style (used across research areas);
and the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (Law).
Style manuals provide information on how to reference, or cite, in the body of
a text, and how to write the ‘bibliography’, which usually includes all sources
consulted in producing a text. A ‘references list’ or a ‘list of works cited’ usually
includes only those sources to which you actually refer in the body of your text.
Such manuals also illustrate the differences in style for citing sources in your text
and putting these in a bibliography. They further illustrate how to cite a range
of different items, for example, an article, a book by several authors, a television
documentary, a play, a blog entry, an unauthored document, a podcast, a multi-
volume reference work, a Facebook comment, different types of Internet sites,
and many more. Regardless of what you are referencing, you will need to include
sufficient detail to allow readers to easily access that source if they so wish.

Online reference managers

If you are using an electronic or online reference manager (for example, Mendeley
or Zotero), selecting a referencing style is as simple as clicking a button, with
standardization being automatic; styles can also be switched at any point to
accommodate course/disciplinary or publisher preferences. But note that auto-
matic style generators are no substitute either for proper proofreading or for an
understanding of correct referencing and citation practices in the first place.

Offline strategies
If you are not using such software, consider these strategies:

e Ask your lecturer/supervisor to refer you to an acceptable style manual. Many can be
found online, but paper copies are also located in the reference sections of libraries;
there are even style apps available for smartphones and tablet devices.
e Follow the journal house style used by authors who have published in a quality, refereed
journal in your area.
e Listen to a podcast or view a presentation about referencing on iTunes U.

Be rigorously consistent in using the referencing style you do adopt. Such con-
sistency extends to types and placement of punctuation marks, the use of
capitalization, whether titles or works published independently are underlined or
italicized, whether an item published within another publication (for example,

aly)
journal articles or chapters in a multi-authored edited volume) is in inverted
commas or not, and so forth.
In preparing a bibliography, some basic considerations are:

e Arrange items in alphabetical order of authors’ names.

e |nsert an unauthored source alphabetically by way of the document's title.
e Make sure your bibliographic style is rigorously consistent in every respect.

Fa

Universities treat cases of plagiarism very seriously, and lecturers and

supervisors are skilled in detecting plagiarized work. You should therefore
take time to familiarize yourself with your institution’s various policies,
guidelines and codes of conduct relating to plagiarism and research integrity,
and read carefully any departmental handouts on the subject, as ignorance
is no excuse when it comes to plagiarism.

~ key points »

Honesty is crucial in study and research.

Deliberate plagiarism is viewed as outright cheating (for example, download-

ing or copying-and-pasting unsourced material — sometimes whole essays —
from the Internet, or copying another student’s work), and penalties can be
harsh, and even include dismissal from an institution.
The causes of plagiarism, however, can be complex. As examples, each of
the following is discussed in turn:

1. Insufficient understanding of conventional practices governing the use of source material

in academic writing.
2. Insufficient understanding of the task-specific uses to which source material will be put.
3. Failing to distinguish when you are drawing on source material and when you are
interpolating your own comments.
4. Poor time management.

> gover ning the use of source material

When youaatns you need to acknowledge the hard work (including mental
work) of those scholars on whose work you draw. Disciplinary practices can
vary, which is why it is vitally important to follow an appropriate style
manual. Still, in general, you will need to cite your sources, including sources
from the Internet, in situations such as the following:

60
 Essentials of academic writing

on key points
Y

If English is a second language, do take care. It is all too easy to introduce second-
language errors into direct quotations and can be time-consuming to check the correct
wording of the flawed quotations.

When you qu > directly from another author This means when you reproduce
the exact words of the author in your own text, and do make sure they are
exact. Signal direct quoting by using double (“....”) or single (....’) quote
marks around the extract. Or indent longer quotes (usually over four lines)
about five spaces from the margin.
If you insert anything into a direct quotation or change anything in that
quotation, it is usual to indicate this by placing square brackets [...] around
the word/s you have inserted or changed. If something unusual appears in
the original quotation (for example, a misspelling), place [sic] meaning ‘thus’
after the misspelt or otherwise seemingly incorrect word or expression. ‘Sic
communicates ‘this is how it appeared in the original source’.

When you paraphrase what another author has said This means when you put
what another has said into your own words. Make sure you do use your own
words. Paraphrase proves challenging for some students. If you are uncertain
about this, Google OWL Purdue, which has a good discussion of ‘Quoting,
paraphrasing, and summarizing’.

When you summarize, refer to or use another author's ideas, theories, methodolo-
gies, models, procedures, arc ee results, insights, inferpretation: Ss, information
or data All these require intellectual, and sometimes manual, effort on the
part of another and you need to acknowledge this.

When you use distinctive language or phrases from another seh including those
phrases that have been coined by an author to denofe a conc specific meaning.
When taking notes from reading, work out a system (use cai RE if that
works for you) that clearly distinguishes the following:

e Direct quotations from other sources, that is, where you are reproducing the exact word-
ing of an author (note page number/s).
e Material from other sources that you are paraphrasing: putting into your own words.
No page numbers will be needed if you are referring to a source in general, but these
will be needed when citing specific information from some part of a source in your
discussions.
e Your own observations, views or comments that you wish to document.

61
 “ft er am sy
Jt SOM ae BY

The second point above is now addressed by way of a case study example.

ay case study example

box 3.1 Plagiarism can arise from the misunderstanding

of task-specific objectives

Three graduates for whom English is a second language were advised to seek help because
they were not using their ‘own’ words when paraphrasing source material; in effect they
were plagiarizing. In discussing the problem with each of them in separate consultations, it
soon became clear that their real difficulty lay elsewhere. Their writing task involved critically
evaluating a published article. But the students had not understood that their lecturer did not
want them to report on, or simply repeat, what the author was saying, but rather to assess
the strengths and weaknesses of the paper. With this new understanding in place, the stu-
dents were encouraged to concentrate on formulating the key points they wanted to make
in developing their critical review, to think about why they were taking that position, how they
would develop their key points, and to use material from the paper to backup these points
(by way of summary comment, by incorporating key words or phrases as direct quotations,
and by using only page references). As all three students were able to verbalize their critical
insights, it was clear that they had already thought deeply about the article. The true cause
of their apparent plagiarism was a misunderstanding of writing task objectives.

Distinguishing source material and comment

Plagiarism may also be suspected if you do not make clear whether the ideas
being discussed belong to another or are your own comment. Take the text
below, where in the original version it is impossible to determine which ideas
belong to X (the source) and which to the writer:

Original text:

X’s critique of truth [reference] is based on his analysis of discursive proce-

dures. The relation between truth and power is one between truth and
discursive practice. Truth is not a stable and independent entity.

Amended text:

X’s critique of truth [reference] is based on his analysis of discursive proce-

dures. The relation between truth and power is [seen by him as] one
between truth and discursive practice. [This suggests] that truth is not a
stable and independent entity.

62
 Essentials
f ~ mile
of f academic
¢ Anam
writing
sArritt

It is clear from the inserted material shown in bold type in the amended text
that the ideas in the first two sentences belong to the source (X), on whom the
writer is drawing, and that the writer herself is interpolating her own com-
ment in the third sentence.
Nor is placing a reference at the end of a succession of paragraphs a sound
practice. If all the ideas in a paragraph are being taken from a single source
and you are not interpolating any comments of your own, then simply phrase
your lead sentences to indicate that this will be so, as in these hypothetical
examples:

1. The following discussion draws on an empirical study undertaken by X (2009).

2. Further support for this type of intervention is found in X‘s argument (2006), as now discussed.
3. The extent of military interference in the political process is attested to in an extensive
study undertaken by X, Y and Z (2000).

As lead sentences in paragraphs, sentences of this type would set up reader-

expectation that all that follows in that paragraph is taken from the nomi-
nated source.

Poor time management

Many students find themselves under pressures of time when it comes to
submitting work for graduate studies. In such situations, it can be easy to
cut-and-paste sections of work without due acknowledgement simply in order
to meet a deadline. It is always better to ask for an extension in such
instances — or even to hand in your work late — rather than risk plagiarizing.
It will surely help to revisit your time management, as discussed under +
‘Effective self-management’ in Chapter 1.

Attending to readers’ needs

When immersed in complex trains of thought while writing, it is easy to for-
get that you are always writing for someone. It is vitally important to under-
stand and take into account the needs of your readers on every occasion of
writing. No matter how impressive your ideas and insights, these will be lost
if your readers cannot understand what you are doing and why, or follow
where you are going.
Just who your readers will be depends on the type of communication task
in which you are engaged, which is why this subject is taken up in different
contexts throughout this book. Still, in many cases your readers will be your
lecturers/supervisors, who may also be your examiners, and, in the case of
some dissertations, your external examiners. This is the group now considered,
with initial emphasis on the all-important matter of disciplinary practices
from the angle of the reader.

63
 Always take full account of readers’ needs to ensure effective communication with them.

Academics will bring to the reading of your text the expectation that it
will evidence appropriateness, that is to say, what they ‘judge’ to be
appropriate (see Fairclough, 1992). Reader expectations of the style and
structure of, say, an engineering report, an engineering essay involving
sustained argument, or an engineering research proposal, will be differ-
ent. Academic readers will also expect appropriate treatment of subject
matter, which is important to recognize when transferring disciplines. For
example, an anthropologist, a sociologist, a political scientist or an art
historian will engage different questions and issues when treating the
same subject of ‘identity’.
As another example, if your writing task were a ‘briefing paper’ intended
to address, say, a particular group of farmers, then your lecturer would
expect you to take full account of the nature, make-up and interests of that
audience — the group of farmers. In reading your paper, your lecturer
would assess how effectively you had managed to address that particular
audience.
In making these observations about appropriateness, we do not intend to
imply that academic readers will not allow for and welcome creativity in your
writing. There is much room for you to manoeuvre creatively within the frame-
work of genre and disciplinary writing practices, just as the experts do. Still, as
Mikhail Bakhtin observes: ‘genres must be fully mastered to be used creatively’
(1986: 80).

Your lecturers and supervisors are subject specialists. It is not, however, a

good idea to fix on the fact that you are writing for experts in the content
when you write. Doing this can lead to insufficient textual explanation,
underdeveloped ideas, definitional and other problems because you assume
that your lecturers/supervisors, as experts, will know what you mean. They
may well do, but they want to know what you know.

64
 Essentiais of academic writing

Readers who critically appraise your texts will be authorities on the subject, but you are
the communicative authority who can help ensure a positive appraisement.

It is more important then, not to focus on what your reader knows, but to
direct your efforts to demonstrating that you have a thorough critical under-
standing of all materials being worked in your text, that you do know what
you are talking about. In this way, you are more likely to forestall criticism
from your readers, those subject specialists your lecturers and supervisors.

PENELSEFRRPIOVSY®

Regardless of their being subject specialists, your readers will expect you to
recognize that they are certainly not experts in the decisions you make (for
example, the meanings you give to terms, phrases, and so on, what you
choose to focus on, why you take the approach you do, how you organize and
develop discussions, and so on). You will need to signal your intentions,
which is sometimes called ‘signposting’.
You are the tour guide on this journey through your research, and like any
thoughtful guide, you need to work out a coherent tour of your (intellectual)
journey, and anticipate where, what and how much contextual information
might be needed to keep readers in the picture before moving on to the next
spot in your writing. Provide sufficient information, particularly as you lead
into new subdivisions, to ensure readers are kept in the picture, that they
understand what you will be doing and why. Mark the stages of your writing
by signalling or signposting your intentions: where you are going, why you
are doing what you are doing, what you want to show or demonstrate, rea-
sons for departures from main lines of discussion, and so forth.
The extent of signalling can vary because of preferred disciplinary or indi-
vidual practices. Still, however subtle signposting may be, it does need to be
there, so respect the intelligence of your readers by not clotting the text with
too many such signals.

Clarity: the first rule of style

Clarity of course encompasses much more than style (for example, the whole
of the next chapter on structure might be invoked), but it is also the first

65
rule of style. It is a rule that will serve you well in all your communication
activities.
In 1985, US economist Donald McCloskey wrote a substantial article enti-
tled ‘Economical writing’. His is a lively, rich probing of the bad ‘habits of
style’ of economists. It is an impassioned plea for stylistic reform and the
ways to reform. Essentially, McCloskey’s article is a eulogy to clarity that has
generic value. He belongs with a host of writers similarly concerned, includ-
ing George Orwell, more famous for his novel 1984 than his spirited essay of
1946 ‘Politics and the English language’, which continues to be resurrected
and can be accessed on the Internet.
One topic McCloskey alludes to is the ‘affliction’ of abstraction, a dis-
ease that obscures rather than clarifies meaning. It is possible for you to
deal with complex theory, ideas, abstract concepts and the hke in a way
that makes meaning easily accessible for your reader, and that should be
your goal.
Good writers do not rely on highly inflated abstract language to impress.
Good writers impress with the quality of their research, the complexity of their
thinking, the soundness of their reasoning, the subtlety of their insights, the
rigour and crispness of their prose, the sophistication with which they use the
disciplinary language and engage the theory. Good writers prefer language
that is ‘definite, specific, concrete’ (Strunk Jr and White, 2000: 21). They care
about readers and readability. They can be found everywhere, in all disci-
plines, across the entire academic community of writers. And you can be one
of them.

Good writers are as concerned not to be misunderstood as they are to be understood.

You will quickly recognize these writers when you come across them. Take
a close look at the stylistic features of their texts (see 3 ‘Mastering discipli-
nary writing practices’ in Chapter 2) and you will see why you have so
enjoyed the reading, regardless of the difficulty of the content.

Style is not merely decorative but part of the meaning of a text. Improving
aspects of style can increase the overall effectiveness of your communication.

66
 Essentials
Cee }
of £ academic
¢ namic
writing
\arritinn

An incisive, vigorous prose style contributes to the communicative rigour and

precision of academic writing, thus ensuring a more positive appraisal of
your work and increased reader enjoyment.
The strategies now suggested may require vocabulary extension if you wish
to apply them; but, then, extending vocabulary is important for effective com-
munication. Try for language that invigorates the prose, adds some zest. An
excellent starting point is scrutiny of verb choices, as the English verb is a
singular carrier of energy. Not only do active verbs enliven prose, so too do
more striking verbs and other diction.
Pause to consider the energizing effects of these replacement verbs, which
also aid conciseness:

1. These reforms /ed to more [accelerated] interest in conservation programmes.

2. We examined the factors that were responsible for [governed] the stability of the regu-
lating system.
3. A route selection process was put info operation [invoked] to determine which was
preferable.

Try also to avoid clichés, worn-out words and phrases that will depress
your writing, drain it of energy. One prominent example is the repeated use
in a text of the tired media phrase ‘has played a role in’ (and its variations).
The writing could be energized by selecting a variety of simple replacements,
for example: has influenced, affected, shaped, contributed to, or whatever
seems appropriate in context, as illustrated below by way of three examples
taken from a page and a half of writing:

1. The organization played a leading role [was instrumental] in stopping ...

2. The organization has played a disproportionately large role [been pivotal] in moving ...
3. The organization played an important role in [helped shape] ...

On this issue of variation, do take care though. It is helpful to vary lan-

guage for reader interest, but not just for the sake of variation itself so that
the reader becomes confused:

Elegant Variation uses many words to mean one thing, with the result that
in the end no one, not even the writer, really knows what the thing is. A paper
on economic development used in two pages all these: ‘industrialization,’
‘srowing structural differentiation,’ ‘economic and social development, ‘social
and economic development,’ ‘development, “economic growth,’ ‘growth’ and
‘revolutionized means of production.’ With some effort one can see in context
that they all meant about the same thing. (McCloskey, 1985: 210)

This is another illustration of the same problem from a student text:

67
 SEC CASS

As I do not speak Mandarin, I had to use interpreters with newly immigrated

Chinese. Translators, however, create a screen between researcher and
informants. The researcher has to rely on the accuracy of interviewers in
translating both questions and responses.

While all three emphasized words actually meant the ‘interpreters’, a reader
will struggle to recognize this because of unhelpful variation.
It is also important to respect the meanings of words. Words such as
aspects, features, issues, elements, factors, parts, concepts and ideas are some-
times used interchangeably to have the same meaning when they have dis-
tinctive meanings. Jssue, meaning ‘the point or matter in contention’, is
repeatedly misused in writing. Issue is selected when not really discussing an
issue at all, but rather a subject or topic, a particular fact, an idea or notion.
You should clarify the meanings of even commonly used words of this type if
you are uncertain — use a good dictionary or a thesaurus. A dictionary of
synonyms and antonyms can also be a useful resource.
Avoid, too, practices certain to cause vagueness in writing. A typical example
is use of the old media favourite ‘dramatic’: ‘a dramatic increase’, ‘a dramatic turn-
around’, ‘a dramatic slump or fall or drop’, ‘dramatic changes’. A word such as
dramatic does not convey the type of rigour expected of graduate writing. Instead
of the vague ‘dramatic increase’ be more precise: ‘exports rose by 89%’, or ‘exports
doubled in 1998’, or ‘exports increased from around $US1.5m to $US2.3m’.

Conciseness aids clarity. But do not confuse conciseness with density.

Whereas conciseness is a positive attribute of writing, density is not. If your
text is dense, a reader will find it difficult to follow your line of discussion
because of cognitive leaps, insufficient detail, marginal signalling, under-
developed ideas, missing links and so forth.
Conciseness is the opposite of wordiness, that is, taking too many words to
say what you have to say, a practice that pads the writing, sometimes so
much so as to obscure main points. Excess wording is a major cause of over-
writing, and takes up valuable space that can be put to better use, such as
bringing in more points to support a position you are developing.

: Bicone key points

Google The Wasteline Test’ to see how your writing is travelling — it can be very illuminating.

68
 ais OF ACadeMIC WING

exercise: developing conciseness

Step 1

Select a wordy paragraph from your own writing, preferably a long one. Your objec-
tive is to reduce the number of words by about one-third while conveying the same
information.

Step 2

Scrutinize each sentence carefully. Be ruthless: remove unnecessary words and repeti-
tious material. Substitute one word for several, for example, ‘now’ for ‘at this point in time’,
or ‘yearly’ for ‘on a yearly basis’; cross out adjectives/adverbs (often superfluous); rework
sentences to convey information more concisely (see — ‘Manipulating sentence struc-
ture’ in Chapter 4). Exclude details that add nothing to your discussion; but do not exclude
important details needed to support ideas you are developing, which is unfortunately
often a first choice for students wanting to cut back on length. This is an example of
tightening at the sentence level, which illustrates just how wordy even sentences can be:

Original text ¢

Initially, they test the impact of growth in the working population and growth in the total
population on economic growth, and find that an increase in the former will improve
economic growth, but an increase in the latter will depress economic growth. (42
words)

Tightened text (two options)

a) Their initial test shows that economic growth is improved by growth in the working
population but depressed by growth in the total population. (23 words)
b) They find that while growth in the working population improves economic growth,
growth in the total population does not. (19 words)

Here is another example:

Original text

RRV is the etiological agent of epidemic polyarthritis, a disease which was first
described in 1928 [reference]. Epidemic polyarthritis has a wide geographic distribu-
tion in X [country named], occurring regularly as epidemics in eastern X and as spo-
radic outbreaks in other parts of X [references]. (45 words)
(Continued)

69
 Tightened text

RRV is the etiological agent of epidemic polyarthritis, first described in 1928 [reference].
This disease occurs regularly as epidemics in eastern X, and as sporadic outbreaks
elsewhere in X [references]. (30 words)
Perhaps this author wished to emphasize the point about ‘wide geographic distribu-
tion’, in which case the revision might not be acceptable as it merely implies this point.
That is another consideration to keep in mind when you are doing this exercise: what
ideas do you want to profile? (See > ‘Effective paragraph development’ in Chapter 4.)

Voice in writing is shaped by individual style, including tonal qualities of

your text or presentation and diction choices, as well as how you manipulate
academic and disciplinary writing practices. Two issues of voice are often
raised, and sometimes confused, by students:

impersonal versus personal mode

Some disciplines favour sole use of the first person ‘I’, considering
such usage a matter of principle that authors accept full responsibility in
their writing for their ideas and research. Other disciplines reject this usage
altogether, as deflecting attention away from a true focus on discussions and
arguments and towards the writer. Many authors from a wide range of dis-
ciplines, including the sciences, now use a mix of impersonal (for example, in
the body of the writing) and personal (for example, in introductory sections).

Active versus passive voice

As with personal or impersonal mode, lecturers/supervisors often express a
preference in terms of active and passive voice, which can mean changes to
your practice.
When the active voice is used, the agent/producer/instrument of the action
expressed in the verb is foregrounded. The reverse is true of the passive
construction. Take the following examples:

Active construction:

Management introduced new measures to address output problems.

(Foregrounding the agent of change, ‘management’.)

Passive constructions:

(a) New measures were introduced by management to address output

problems. (Foregrounding the ‘new measures’, while acknowledging the
agent of change, ‘management’.)

70
 Essentials of academic writing

(b) New measures were introduced to address output problems.

(Foregrounding ‘new measures’, while obscuring the agent of change,
‘management’.)

The active construction, which is more direct and energetic, need not involve
use of the personal mode, as seen in these examples:

Active constructions:

(a) Results confirm an increase in the incidence of this type of crime.

(Passive would be: An increase in the incidence of this type of crime is
confirmed by the results.)
(b) Interventionist policies of the British colonial government aggravated
tensions among ethnic minorities. (Passive would be: Tensions among
ethnic minorities were aggravated by the interventionist policies of
the British colonial government.)

It is not unusual to see a mix of active and passive voice in a single text,
because authors may wish to apportion emphasis in a sentence differently at
different times.

Strategic use of tone

Tone is a device that can be manipulated in writing to achieve desired
effects. Whether you recognize it or not, the tonal qualities of your writing
will convey emotional and/or mental attitudes that are influential in shap-
ing audience responses to your text.
Tone can be approached on three levels, as follows:

]. Your attitude towards yourself as the writer (aim to be confident).

2. Your attitude towards the subject matter you are discussing (aim to show interest in and
commitment to your ideas).
3. Your attitude towards your readers and/or listeners (aim to be respectful).

Confidence can be an issue for some students. Tentative language (for example,
perhaps, it appears, it seems, it could be) is appropriate to use when commenting
on possibilities, as when speculating. But too much of such language may
trigger the reader-response that you lack confidence, as illustrated:

More confident writer:

This study shows that ... or This study suggests that ... In section 2,
I assess the reasons for ...

Less confident writer:

This study might mean that ... or It seems that the author is saying ...
In section 2, I will try to assess the reasons for ...

7)
Neutral, impartial or judicious tones, with varying degrees of engagement,
tend to characterize formal academic writing.

ete exercise: voice and tone

It can be informative to interrogate the use of voice and tone by scholars you are reading
by considering these questions:

e Are the best writers using personal or impersonal voice, and in what situations of writ-
ing if there is a mix?
e Do they favour the active or passive voice, or is there a mix and in what situations of
writing?
e What is the writer's attitude towards herself/himself, towards the subject matter, and
towards readers? How do these encoded attitudes influence your response to the text?

===
"| ipa ew: further resources

Alley, M. (2000) The Craft of Editing: A Guide for Managers, Scientists, and Engineers.
New York: Springer. Provides an abundance of useful information and strategies for any
academic writer wishing to take full control of the editing process.

Gilmore, J., Strickland, D., Timmerman, B., Maher, M. and Feldon, D. (2010). ‘Weeds in the
flower garden: an exploration of plagiarism in graduate students’ research proposals and
its connection to enculturation, ESL, and contextual factors’, International Journal for
Educational Integrity, 6(1): 13-28.

Strunk, W. Jr and White, E.Bs (2000). The Elements of Style. 4th edn. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education. An all-time favourite in the academic community (in print since 1918), this compact
little book covers basic rules of grammar, misused words and phrases and aspects of style
and presentation, all with straightforward practical illustrations.

72
 Principles of Sound Structure

Al7
4h developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

Comprehend key principles of structure to avoid practices that lead to common

academic writing problems.
Identify strategies to gain control of coverage through brainstorming or mind
mapping, and sequentially outlining a text.
Realize how to use sub-headings as an effective structuring device: contributing to
argument development and overall coherence.
Develop paragraphs logically around main ideas that contribute to the development
of a unifying point of view or thesis (as in argument).
Access strategies for linking paragraphs to ensure the logical or coherent develop-
ment of ideas.
Learn how to manipulate sentence structures to give focus to important ideas and
avoid monotony in the writing.
Appreciate the necessity of discarding material that does not fit the context.
Improve the overall structure of your writing.

Structure is the coherent ordering of your thinking about a subject in such a

way as to make your ideas, discussions and arguments easily accessible
and convincing to readers and examiners. Insufficient attention to matters
discussed in this chapter accounts for many (but not all) problems evident in
graduate writing: fragmented text, disruptions to flow, repetition, labouring
the point, underdeveloped ideas, cognitive leaps, irrelevant material, and so
forth. The focus here on principles of sound structure is supplemented by dis-
cussions in subsequent chapters that address structural issues specific to dif-
ferent types of writing.

Visual mapping of material

Visual mapping of material is a useful way to begin to gain textual control. The
idea here is to mine the extensive knowledge you have on emerging from read-
ing or other information gathering, knowledge that often goes unrecognized by
students themselves.

A brainstorming plan can take any shape you wish. One student favoured the
image of an upside-down tree; another liked to work with free-floating and
intersecting boxes. You might need more than one of these plans: for a whole
thesis, for each chapter, or for each subdivision.
First write your topic — a working title of, say, a chapter or section, or your
research question — in the centre of a large piece of paper, then branch out
from there. The idea is to brainstorm coverage so as to work out what you need
to cover, to identify issues and to generate ideas that you want to develop. Jot
down quickly anything at all that springs to mind. It does not matter how
disorganized or messy your brainstorming plan is, just let your imagination
float free. Get as much information into your plan as possible, and ignore
structural issues at this point. You can use different coloured highlighter pens
for different purposes. To give you an idea if you have not used this method
before, Figure 4.1 shows a partially complete plan, but yours could be quite
different depending on your visual design inclinations.
To extend this illustration, if this were a brainstorming plan for a chapter,
then the different topics could be used to generate subdivision headings in
terms of what is being covered; the sub-topics could be a means of focusing more
precisely what needs to be covered in each subdivision; and the issues could be
a means of focusing more precisely the subdivision headings in terms of why
the topic is being covered (see 3 ‘Using sub-headings effectively’ later on in
this chapter). But do not be constrained by this illustration; your needs might
be different.

74
 Principles of sound structure

Different topics
needing coverage

Breaking down a main

Spee ee fo TO oe ae — topic into sub-topics that
Pam cs “ od ee need to be covered
c TOPIC :
ae ee Issues to be addressed
---- in relation to that particular
sub-topic

FIGURE 4.1 Simple brainstorming plan

Rather than brainstorming on paper, you may prefer to mind map with an
online mapping application such as Bubbl.us, Cacoo.com or Mindmeister.
com. If you would prefer a desktop (rather than web-based) application, then
Freemind or CmapTools have proven popular. There are other, proprietary
softwares available, but most come with a cost attached, as do those available
for smartphones and tablets. Still, these tools generally offer a very simple
‘click-drag-drop’ interface, enabling you to move text, ideas and images
around the ‘page’, and to create linkages between concepts. They also allow
you to use different colours to highlight various sections of your mind map-
ping plan, and to export your mind maps as images (for example, jpeg or png),
or to embed your mind map in your blog, wiki or other website using an
embed code.
To choose a tool or service that suits you, conduct a Google or Wikipedia
search for ‘mind mapping software comparison’ to find a number of useful
sites that will take you through the features, similarities and differences of
the various mind-mapping tools and services available.
A mind map of a 30,000-word thesis is illustrated in Figure 4.2.

Sequential outlining
Brainstorming plans and mind maps can be as simple or as complex as you
choose. They are particularly useful in gaining control of coverage, and they
can be further developed to show a host of textual relations. Sequential out-
lining is more useful for determining the logic of relations among parts of a
discussion, that is, the order in which topics and sub-topics are to be covered —
your overall textual design.

15
 “health “safety “economic
(crops, aircraft safety,
schools, botanic gardens, bat
cuisine, lyssivirus, NGO
participation, local values)

CH: Overview of current f

management practices
CH:
f Sociocultural

A RESEARCH QUESTION f
CH: General literature <— Wai are the i
aa (issues?) impediments for more ——> IMPEDIMENTS —> etal
effective management
of fruit-eating bats in Vanuatu? | |
CH: Ve |

COMMEND AT CH: Legal *revegetation *propagoils

CH: Description of *bat behaviour *food trees
| biology-pop. and current | “forestry options
colonizing habits “plantations
*education “holistic *villages *provincial
management “unification laws laws *federal acts
*balancing act (Ssocial/environ) *international
“(short/long term) agreements *land
ownership rights

FIGURE 4.2 Sample mind-mapping outline created with Bubbl.us. (Noté how the big topic of
‘impediments’ was broken down into three chapters.)

MNT

+4 e een
Yi;

It is not just a matter of sequencing what to cover, but sequencing stages in a discussion
or argument in a coherent and logical manner.

Bear in mind these simple, but important, principles when generating

sequential outlines:

@ Take account of word length where there is a designated word length.

e Consider the appropriateness of information for the different parts, chapters, subdivi-
sions, and so on.
e Determine the logical relations between parts, chapters, and so on in order to ensure
coherent sequencing. The idea is to experiment with different sequential arrangements
until you come up with one that seems to have a strong flow-on effect in terms of the point
of view you are developing.

76
 Principles of sound structure

e Ensure that, in the ordering of material, the reader will have sufficient information, at
each point, to follow the sequential arrangement you settle on. In particular, ensure that
key concepts, terms, theories, and so on are defined, or signal where they will be
defined, before using them throughout discussions in, say, your paper, report, or thesis
chapter.

In short, think carefully about whether the sequencing you are contemplat-
ing will allow readers to follow easily your overall line of discussion.
As a next step towards further refinement of this level of outline, consider
these points:

e Include working titles for chapters and/or subdivision headings.

e Designate material to be covered in the different chapters under the newly set up sub-
division headings. Be as precise as possible (you may already have done this on a
mind map).
e Jot down any main ideas/points you have in relation to material to be discussed in the
different subdivisions of the different chapters — ideas around which your discussions will
be built.
e Note any data/evidence you will be using to develop the main ideas you wish to bring
forward.

Subdivision headings, which are commonly used to divide up texts, are an

important structuring device. Used properly, sub-headings can help you
avoid full rewrites because of problems of textual incoherence and assist the
reader to follow your lines of discussion/argument.
Some authors prefer to use different fonts to differentiate sub-headings;
others favour numbering (for example, 1.1, 1.2, 1.8 and then further break-
down, for example 1.3 into 1.3.1, 1.3.2, and so on); and some use a combination
of the two. Also, the extent to which sub-headings are used tends to vary,
with some subject areas approving greater frequency and others insisting on
substantial discussion following a sub-heading. Regardless of such differ-
ences, sub-headings cannot perform the hard work of structuring — only you
can. (The sole exception here is where there is a formulaic use of sub-headings,
which you will surely know about.)

Barr ikeypoints So sori

Avoid using sub-headings as a substitute for careful structuring. This practice can lead to
textual incoherence.

77
 case study example

box 4.1 Textual incoherence due to excessive

use of sub-headings

A supervisor requested that a chapter be completely reworked because it was

'incoherenť. The chapter had 29 sub-headings in 34 pages of writing. The
separate bits of discussion were disconnected, and the overall composition of the
chapter was fragmented. As there appeared to be no underlying logic in the selec-
tion and arrangement of sub-headings, it was impossible to identify a coherent
line of discussion throughout the chapter, to detect a unifying point of view. ln other
words, the sub-headings were distracting rather than helpful to a reader. To
address this problem, it was necessary to go back to the planning stage: to rethink
the whole structure, to reduce greatly the number of sub-headings, to generate
new sub-headings that accurately reflected the true focus of the discussion
beneath and to review the logical flow of these newly created subdivisions to
ensure they would allow development of a coherent line of discussion. Then came
the rewrite.

Do ensure that your sub-headings are not merely decorative, but meaning-
ful, a s now illus trated.

!ilustrotkm Where the topíc of 'development schemes' is only one of many

topics being covered in, say, a research essay on 'environmental degradation',
it is not helpful to use this type of sub-heading:

Development schemes

Certain questions immediately arise:

• What is the writer's interest in development schemes os regards the topic of 'environmental
degradation'?
• Why is the writer discussing these schemes at all?
• What does the writer hope to demonstrate, show or establish in discussing these
schemes?

78
 Princioles ot sound structure

n key points

ln generating sub-headings, you need to consider what you want to cover, why you
wa nt to cover that subject matter and what you want to show, demonstrate, establish
or prove.

By indicating the connection between environmental degradation and

development schemes, a more precise and informative sub-heading oť this
type becomes possible:

Increased pesticide usage in de velopment schemes

A reader can now easily identiťy ťrom the lead-words that the writer's inter-
est lies in 'increased pesticide usage' in development schemes, can see how
this ťocus ties in with the theme oť environmental degradation and can
deduce that part of the argument will turn on this matter of increased pesti-
cide usage.
In undertaking a lengthy discussion oť the topíc 'development schemes',
say, in a chapter, a more general sub-heading would suffice, before breaking
this down further :

1 Development schemes
1.1 The va riety and nature of existing schemes
1.2 The effects of government policy on implementation
1.3 The issue of 'local' knowledge
1.4 "Improving overall effectiveness

The lead-words in these headings convey the true focus of each section of the
subdivision, and it is those lead-words that will guide a reader.

Developing texts
Once sub-headings are in place, the next step is the development of text.
This brings us to the academic paragraph, which is the basic unit of struc-
t ure in academic writing. (See also ➔ 'Words and phrases for developing
discussions' in the Appendix.) As a graduate, you are likely to have reason-
able control of the academic paragraph, perhaps even fine control of
it. Still, many writing problems can be traced to inadequate paragraph

79
Wnt1na tor acadernic success

control, perhaps because paragraph development is intuited rather than

based on clear understanding of the academic paragraph's function and
significance in ensuring coherence.

To arrive at effective paragraph development, it is necessary to fully

understand the basics of how the academic paragraph functions, as is now
discussed.

Capturing your main ideas

Typically, the academic paragraph is organized around a main idea that
takes the form of a general assertion or statement that is then subsequently
developed. These main ideas capture your evolving understanding of the
subject you are discussing.

h · key points ·

Ensure that you do have main ideas around which to organize your paragraphs by clearly
identifying these in your text.

Main ideas usually, but not necessarily, appear in the first sentence of a
paragraph called the topic sentence, which Popken (1987) showed was a
·standard feature in academic articles' (and not only articles), with some
variation in usage across disciplines. By skimming through these topic sen-
tences, readers are able to chart the progression of your thinking.

Usi~g riain ideas to pu--t, along your the"'is

Each main idea is used to advance your overall point of view, your position,
or your thesis. This tight interlocking relationship is illustrated in Figure 4.3.
Your research theses and essays, or any other type of academic writing, should
be organized around an identifiable point of view that you are developing. The
main ideas you bring forward in your paragraphs should support your point
of view - push it along, just as the details you include in developing your
paragraphs should support your main ideas.

· ()r-,inirag pamgraph length

Th ere is no set length for a paragraph. They are, however, often long
because of the amplifying detail needed to completely develop ideas within

80
 Principles of sound structure

Thesis, journal article,

report, essay, other type
of writing Paragraph

Bring in details to support

main ideas being
Bring in main ideas to
developed
support point of view
being developed

FIGURE 4.3 The structural relationship between point of view and paragraph development

the paragraph. Prominent ‘organizing’ ideas, as in this example, can take

many paragraphs to develop:

Significant changes had taken place in the geographical landscape during

this period.

Where a paragraph is used as a structural or organizational device, it may be

very short, and effectively so, as in this example, where the author proceeded
to discuss his results over several pages:

Previous research has relied on a recessive model that limits available

options [references]. The results of this study, however, suggest that there are
sound reasons to re-define the accepted boundaries.

Ensuring internal paragraph coherence

Sentences within a paragraph need to hang together, to cohere, so that they
evidence a logical flow. Consider what happens in this example, where coher-
ence breaks down:

Recall bias has been a problem in this investigation. Despite the inconclusive
results, the investigation has identified the need for a review of food prepara-
tion techniques at this venue. It was not possible to identify clearly the source
of contamination.

As you see, the expected paragraph focus in the first sentence is ‘recall bias’.
However, the next sentence ruptures this expectation by directing attention
to another topic, review of ‘food preparation techniques’. There is a further
rupture in the third sentence as the reader is directed to yet another topic,
the impossibility of identifying the ‘source of contamination’. The paragraph

8]
is not coherent in terms of the flow of ideas. There are too many ideas
presented too quickly, with each idea needing further development.
There also needs to be coherent linking of paragraphs across longer
stretches of writing.

Linking is often subtle and sophisticated in writing. Linking may even be

unnecessary as, for example, in a methods section, where logic inheres in
detailing the sequence of steps taken. Or you may be mapping the structure
in the process of writing (very common) by using organizing topic sentences
or short, sharp paragraphs that signal subsequent structure of the writing.
In situations where you will be discussing points at length, take care in
using the technique of First(ly), Second(ly), Third(ly) to introduce para-
eraphs, because a reader will have forgotten what you are talking about by
the time she/he gets to the fourth point on the third page of writing. Linking
phrases of this type would be better:

One strategy involved ... Another strategy ... A third strategy brought into
effect because of spiralling costs was ... [reminding the reader of what you
are discussing] Finally, senior management found it necessary to ...

Try to use a range of linking or transition strategies of the type now dis-
cussed, rather than rely on a standard few.

Repeating words/phrases
One of the simplest, most common and subtle transitions is the repeated
word, phrase or idea:

Last sentence of a paragraph:

The nature of the ceremonial rites performed at this initiation ceremony is
particularly important.

First sentence of the next paragraph:

These rites are organized around three basic activities, each with its own
religious significance.

Last sentence of a paragraph:

Here X postulates two general linguistic notions: the notion of polarities

and the notion of equivalence.

First sentence of the next paragraph:

The notion of polarities derives from X’s insight concerning ...

82
 Principles of sound structure

The question-and-answer transition

While this type of transition can be effective, use the rhetorical question with
caution, as cluinsy overuse tends to produce a forced stylistic effect:

Last sentence of a paragraph:

Why did the plan fail?

First sentence of next paragraph:

X, in his analysis, suggests three major reasons.

The summarizing transition

This technique can be illustrated by this example, where, say, a writer has
just completed a lengthy comparison of high school and university teaching
methods and now wants to move to a new, but related, topic of ‘personal
responsibility’ in learning. The first sentence of the next paragraph is:

Because of these differences in teaching methods, universities throw

more responsibility on the student.

The transition is marked by using a summary phrase — ‘differences in

teaching methods’ — to refer to the lengthy discussion just finished.
The summarizing transition may take even briefer form, with pronouns
like this, that, these, those or such being used to sum up a topic discussed in
the preceding paragraph/s. Such pronouns though, like all English pronouns
(it? can be a real problem), carry with them the danger of the unclear refer-
ent. It is not altogether clear in the following example whether ‘these’ refers
back to ‘policies’ or ‘fiscal arrangements’:

Last sentence of a paragraph:

The different institutions have produced incoherent policies in terms of the
tight fiscal arrangements proposed on introducing the scheme in 1992.

First sentence of the next paragraph:

These have been the subject of vigorous debate in the literature.

This problem is easily overcome by naming the referent: ‘these policies’ or

‘these fiscal arrangements’.

Qarr~~ key points

IfEnglish pronouns give you trouble, name the referent rather than let a pronoun stand alone.

83
 ina lo ee Se

Paragraphs can also be linked by words showing logical relationship: there-

fore, however, but, consequently, thus, even so, conversely, nevertheless, moreover,
in addition, and many more. Usually, though, logical connectives are used to
move from one sentence to the next within paragraphs, that is, as internal
paragraph transitions.
To illustrate, say a writer has just completed a paragraph summarizing an
author’s analysis of a documented riot and now wants to move the discussion
along. Here are three different logical connectives:

Last sentence of a paragraph:

Brown’s analysis provides useful insights into the existing power relations
between the army and the government at that time.

Possible first sentences of the next paragraph:

(a) However, the power relations embedded in the social structure may be
more important in explaining the causes of the riot.
(b) Even so, there is no real attempt to grapple with the issue of the govern-
ment’s role in the army’s attack on unarmed men, women and children.
(c) Consequently, Smith’s much quoted analysis of this same event needs
to be reconsidered in view of Brown’s findings.

Whatever its form, an inter-paragraph transition should be unobtrusive,

shifting readers easily from one topic to the next.

¢ ns he FTL
gre n ie we eegery gor i
od Be SoZ e &% ii

Understanding how to manipulate English sentence structures will allow you

to emphasize important ideas, give focus to your writing and avoid alienating
or boring readers.
These basic English sentence structures provide for very sophisticated
combinations of simple, compound and complex sentences:

Simple sentence (one main idea):

Trade figures have improved.
Compound sentence (two ideas of equal weight):

Trade figures have improved and so has the economy.

Complex sentence (two ideas of unequal weight):
Although trade figures have improved, the economy remains slow.
Or:

Although the economy remains slow, trade figures have improved.

84
 ) Arinine r+ shot aoctriictiiy.
Principles OT SOUNG Structure

Note the shift in emphasis in the turn-around here. In the first sentence the
main idea is the ‘slow economy’; in the second it is the ‘improved trade figures’.
Do vary your sentence structure. If writing consists of a series of simple short
sentences strung together it will be monotonous and lack focus. It will be dif-
ficult for a reader to discern what you consider more or less important about
what you are saying. An excess of long sentences can be equally troublesome.
Overloaded sentences that are not well constructed can also cause reader con-
fusion, making it difficult, even impossible, to understand the intended mean-
ing. So do take care, particularly if English is a second language.

Short, sharp, emphatic sentences (simple sentence structure) draw readers’ attention to
your important ideas or points and ensure they are not overlooked.

exercise: improving sentence structure

Review sentence structure in several paragraphs of your own writing and compare what you
do with the practice of a disciplinary writer you admire. Could you improve?

When developing texts, you need to ensure that all ideas you bring forward
are directly relevant to the topic under discussion. It is certain that at times
you will need to discard material because it just does not fit the context of
discussion. This can indeed be hard when it comes to being ruthless about
insights and ideas you have developed as beautifully constructed sentences,
paragraphs, even longer stretches of writing — pieces of writing to which you
remain doggedly attached even though you sense they do not fit. Every aca-
demic writer knows about this dilemma.
Resistant though you may be, force yourself to discard such material. But
never delete it. Cut it and transfer it to a special ‘discards’ file; give each piece
of writing a summary title designating its central import. It is likely that
discarded material of this type will slot perfectly into another context of writ-
ing at another time.

85
Improving overall structure
If you think you have structural problems in a draft you have written, the
procedural steps in this exercise should help you to improve it

exercise: the coherence test

Step 1

It is now time to become your own critical reader. Print out a stretch of your writing: either
a short text, or a subdivision or two of at least six to seven pages of a longer text. Skim
quickly through your text with a view to identifying the main ideas around which you are
building your paragraphs.
Summarize your main ideas concisely in the margin of your text. As you do this note
whether:

e Each main idea is being fully developed, or only partially developed so that you seem
to be picking up on it in different parts of your text.
e You are repeating yourself (mark ‘repeat’ on the page), or labouring the point, saying
the same thing over and over again in much the same way (note this too).
e You are presenting too many ideas too quickly so that some main ideas are not being
developed at all, or seem to be underdeveloped.

Step 2

Create a sequential list of your main ideas, as noted in the margin of your text. Print this
out and put it aside.

Step 3

Now consider the overall coherence of your piece of writing. Take a highlighter pen and
run quickly through your text, looking for evidence of linking - mark any sentences,
phrases or words that indicate linking within and across paragraphs.

Step 4

With your printout of main ideas and other findings, consider these questions:
e Do you think you already have the best order for your main ideas? Or would over-
all coherence be improved by rearranging them into a new order?

86
 e Do you think there is sufficient linking to ensure the logical flow of your ideas?
e Can you see how your main ideas contribute to the development of a unifying point of
view or a thesis, as in argument?

Now you can redraft or simply attend to the parts of the text that need improvement.

The University of Huddersfield has produced an excellent guide to visual mapping of mate-
rial. It is available for download in pdf format from http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/7843/. The full
reference is Burton, R., Barlow, N., and Barker, C. (2010) Using Visual Tools for Analysis and
Learning. University of Huddersfield.

Gillett, A. ( 2011) Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for Students in Higher
Education. http://www.uefap.com/ (accessed 8 November 2010). Provides useful exercises
and feedback on paragraph control and development, if you wish to pursue this matter
further. Check also Purdue OWL, one of the best, all-round online sites.

‘Improving your sentence structure’, Writing Services, The Learning Commons, University of
Guelph. http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/assistance/writing_services/components/documents/
sentence.pdf (accessed 12 October 2010). An expanded discussion of material above on
sentence structures that probes problematic sentences and provides alternative, good prac-
tice examples.

8/7
 Research Essays

4- developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

e Recognize the unsettled meanings attached to the term ‘essay’.

e Appreciate the meaning of academic argument in the context of research essay writ-
ing, and be able to distinguish ideas from opinions.
e identify strategies for dealing with topics, compiling an introduction, building an
argument, marshalling evidence, avoiding faulty reasoning and strengthening
argument, working up a conclusion, and ensuring unity and coherence in your
research essay.

This chapter provides a detailed focus on the research essay, which is a com-
mon form of assessment in taught classes, as well as notoriously challenging
to do well.

‘Essays’ and their synonyms

It is helpful to be aware of the unsettled meanings surrounding the term ‘essay’.
Sometimes a literature review — reviewing the literature and developing
an argument in the process of the review — is referred to as a research essay.
Or, alternatively, a ‘literature review’ can take the form of a research essay — the
development of a line of argument strongly supported by reference to the
literature.
A position paper usually takes the form of a research essay in that a posi-
tion is adopted and developed by way of argument. However, with a position
paper the argument often turns on what should be done, so that the argu-
rent itself becomes an instrument of change in some context or other (for
example, government policy, legal or education reform). But this type of
‘should’ argument also frequently occurs in what is termed a research essay.
It may be that there is no difference between a position paper and a research
essay in graduate study, but do clarify this if needs be.
The exploratory essay is similar to a problem-solving exercise in that the
approach tends to conform more to the type of approach laid out under >
‘Business reports’ in Chapter 9 than to development of a formal argument.
Some shorter essays, though, explore a topic as an analytical exercise in
which no firm conclusion need be reached. Or you may be asked to produce a
synoptic essay, which usually involves providing a comprehensive overview
of a subject or topic, drawing attention to key problems, concerns or issues,
and, perhaps, assessing these before presenting a conclusion.
Essays can also be structured along various lines, such as the following,
which may or may not be acceptable (you would need to ask):

Introduction.
Discussion of the ‘pros’ — points in favour of a question.
Discussion of the ‘cons’ — points that can be marshalled against a question.
=RON
A summary of the writer's own conclusions with supporting evidence (the most demand-
ing part to write).

Given the variable understandings of the term ‘essay’ you may need to clarify
expectations with your lecturer. Strategies for dealing with a short essay are
now discussed before proceeding to full discussion of the research essay as
formal argument.

The short essay

Short essays, of say from 600 to 1,500 words, can be difficult, particularly if you
are expected to read widely in the literature. This puts great pressure on you in
terms of selection — what to include for discussion and what to leave out. First,
confirm: (1) whether you are expected to deal with the topic precisely as set; or
(2) whether it is permissible to narrow the topic in some way as, for example, if
you were to address topic concerns in the context of a particular country, event
or situation, or even focus in greater depth on some aspect of the topic.

89
 In the case of (1), it is likely that a broad topic has been designed to test
your understanding of what might be significant to discuss and in how much
detail (perhaps, for example, certain key issues), with what you select to dis-
cuss being a consideration during assessment. Having identified what you
want to cover in the essay, then think about the following:

e Main ideas you want to bring forward to develop your discussion.

e The best order in which to arrange these ideas.
e Building paragraphs around these main ideas (see > ‘Effective paragraph develop-
ment’ in Chapter 4).

Perhaps you will do the above after writing a first, rough draft.
If (2) applies, you will need to confirm with your lecturer that your revised
topic will be acceptable.
Short essays do evidence argument, as do theses, reports, other types of aca-
demic writing, and what is often called the ‘research essay’, as now discussed.

The research essay as formal argument

The research essay is characteristically an argument, a term that has a spe-
cial meaning in the academic context.

Argument is a type of academic writing, and, while argument will be the dom-
inant discourse when you write your research essay, this does not mean that
you will not be engaged in other discourse activities. Describing, explaining and
informing will all have a place in the process of developing your argument.

Qana | key points

The amount of description or explaining you do, the amount of detail you include,
should be controlled by what is needed to ensure your argument is strong.

An argument can be thought of as an appeal to reason in which you

develop a position, sometimes called a point of view or thesis, on a topic or
question. Taking a position involves the exploration of issues, though there
can be confusion as to what is meant by this term ‘issue’:

90
 Researcn essays
) ~ yank SOOPER TO

An issue is a topic that sparks controversy within a community of speakers,

readers, and writers. More specifically, an issue is a topic that creates a
tension in the community, a discontent or dissatisfaction with the status
quo. (Kaufer et al., 1989: 3, original emphasis)

Formal argument, then, is concerned with seminal issues, or sets of related

issues, to do with the what, why and how of your research.
Your objective will be to convince your reader, even one unsympathetic to
your position, that the position you develop in your essay is indeed reason-
able. For your argument to be reasonable it needs to be a strong argument.
A strong argument depends on the quality of your ideas, which, in turn,
depends on the quality of the evidence you include to support those ideas,
and the quality of your reasoning. Note that it is not necessarily a matter of
whether the argument is true or false, right or wrong (the exception is the
use of formal proofs), but whether it is strong or weak. All these observations
are expanded on in the following discussions.

Distinguishing ideas from opinions

Lecturers do want to know what you think, but they do not want your opin-
ions. We all have opinions about a multitude of things, and, in expressing
them in everyday conversation, we do not need to substantiate these opin-
ions. Unlike an opinion, an idea does need to be backed up by solid evidence,
and that is the essential difference between the two.

When assessing essays, lecturers will apply at least these basic criteria, and
possibly others (Clanchy and Ballard, 1997: 4—8). It is expected that your essay:

e Will be clearly focused on the set topic and will deal fully with its central concerns.
e Will be the result of wide and critical reading.
e Will present a reasoned argument.
e Will be competently presented.

Each of these criteria is now explored in turn.

Topics (or questions)

You may be setting up your own topic or question, have been given a specific
topic or question to work on, or have selected one from a list provided by your
lecturer.

91
If you have been given explicit instructions on how to focus and develop a
topic or question of your choice, follow these. Otherwise, consider these ques-
tions, because you need to be realistic in setting up a topic, presumably in an
area that genuinely interests you:

e What is the word length of your essay?

e How much time do you have available for the essay?
e What is the scope of the literature in the topic area that interests you (too little or foo much
literature may leave you struggling in different ways)?

The real danger is in setting up a topic that is over-ambitious. A topic that

is too broad will mean sacrificing in-depth analysis to mere coverage, allow-
ing little opportunity for interesting and subtle insights to emerge.

™ Qo key points

Consider whether your topic will allow you to engage in in-depth analysis for a longer essay.

A useful starting point is to reflect on the nature of topics as set up by your

lecturers. Such topics are usually designed to throw you into controversy, to
force you to engage the issues with a view to taking a position and developing
it into an argument. You are likely to be addressing a range of issues in your
essay, although a single major issue is also a possibility. Take care to consider
whether the issues or controversies that interest you relate back to course objec-
tives by revisiting your ‘Course Guide’ (if you have been given one). Browse
through lecture and tutorial notes to determine the types of issues being raised
by lecturers. Consider also, for example, whether your topic is expected to
engage theory, if theory is an important focus of your particular course.
As a last piece of advice: write out your topic in some detail so that you can
have it approved by your lecturer before you begin your research. The more
refined it is the more able your lecturer will be to assess its viability in terms
of length and time available for research and writing.

Recall the above criterion for assessment: that your essay ‘will be clearly focused
on the set topic and will deal fully with its central concerns’. Interpretation of

Oe
 arcn essay:

the topic is the first point at which the writing of an essay can go wrong, as it
is all too easy to rush into the reading (see also 3 ‘Ensuring task-focused
information’ in Chapter 2). If you do not gather the best information to fully
address your topic, then it will be impossible to write a great essay.

exercise: analysing topics

As already mentioned, most essay topics are designed to force you to engage the issues
as you read, and to evaluate different points of view presented in the literature (see >
‘Treating information critically’ in Chapter 2). So bear this in mind as you apply the follow-
ing Subject/Angle/Process (SAP) method to analysis of your topic. A sample topic is used
to illustrate how to go about analysing your own:

Sample topic

lf the arms control enterprise is a child of the Cold War, what use is it now? Should
it give way to more radical disarmament efforts or is the arms control disarmament
enterprise now irrelevant? Your discussion should take account of theoretical
debates of current interest.

Step 1: the subject

Ask yourself: what am | being asked to investigate?
With the sample topic it is simple: ‘arms control’. But identifying the true subject of a
topic is not always easy, as topics can be complex and have several parts to them. If
you are uncertain about precisely what you should be investigating, get together with
fellow students and brainstorm the topic and/or consult your lecturer — do not proceed
to research if you are uncertain.
Step 2: the angle
Now ask yourself: why am | being asked to investigate this subject matter?
At this point you want to ensure that you will deal fully with the central concerns of the
topic, all of them. If you were a student in this discipline, you would be able to produce a
more refined set of questions than that now offered, though this set adequately illustrates
the all-important brainstorming process:

What is meant by arms control? Does it need to be defined or not? (Definitely yes, if
there is no settled agreement on its meaning in your discipline.) Is arms control a child
of the Cold War — yes or no? Now move to the central concerns of the topic:
(Continued)

93
 What does the ‘disarmament enterprise’ consist in? (Do you know precisely what is
meant by this phrase?) To what extent does arms control remain relevant — a lot,
reasonably so, only minimally or what? In what precise ways does it remain relevant,
or not? Are there security measures other than arms control that need to be taken
into account post Cold War? What are these?
Evaluate the literature and ask yourself: what is my position on all this? (Take care to
identify the issues, the points debated by scholars, and to gather evidence to support
the position you will be taking in building your argument.)

Information providing answers to questions of this type would need to be gathered to

deal effectively with the sample topic. By skimming (see ‘Managing your reading load’
in Chapter 2), you should be able to avoid wasting time on reading material not directly
relevant to your topic.

on = key points

Brainstorm your topic to generate a set of questions that can be used fo control your read-
ing and ensure you acquire the best and right information.

Step 3: the process

Ask yourself: how should | conduct my investigation?

The sample topic contains a clear directive on process: ‘Your discussion should take
account of theoretical debates of current interest’, meaning whatever else you do, you
must apply the theory in your research essay. Apart from specific process directions of this
type, other commonly used directional words and phrases are: ‘Discuss’, ‘Explore this com-
ment’, ‘Analyse ...’, ‘Examine carefully’, ‘Evaluate this claim’, ‘To what extent ...’, ‘Critically
review ...’, ‘Compare and contrast ...’, or ‘Do you agree®’. Directions of this type always
imply the need for argument. Engage the issues, and develop your own position using
solid evidence as support when building your argument.

Compiling an introduction
As the introduction serves only to orient your reader to your discussion, keep
it short and to the point, something in the order of a page or so for a 3,000-
word essay. Short it may be, but the introduction does have an important
function in the research essay, as with all academic genres.

94
Provide relevant information to establish the context of your discussion. Note
how this extract from the introduction to an essay on the sample topic in the
previous section is indeed relevant to that topic. It does not stray from the
central concerns of the topic, which is a danger when providing contextual
information:
The Cold War and nuclear age were born at about the same time. Seen strictly
in this context, the Cold War merely added the nuclear dimension to the arms
control enterprise. However, the concern about the devastating nature of nuclear
weapons resulted in the greatest media emphasis being placed on nuclear arms
control efforts, particularly on the arms race between the two nuclear hegemons,
the US and the USSR [reference]. Nevertheless, in the same Cold War period,
much effort was put into conventional arms control such as Mutual Balance
Force Reduction (MBFR) [reference], and areas of chemical and biological weap-
ons as well as confidence building measures (CBMs).

Asn owrmmrten’ Sagree RAPA CAe AY Fe Rerrtbe

Defining important terms, phrases or concepts

Communication with readers can go seriously awry because of failure to

define. If there is no settled agreement on the meaning of a word, term,
phrase or concept appearing in your essay topic, acknowledge this, find the
common factor, and give a working definition for your essay. Referring to a
specialist dictionary or reference work in your discipline is a useful start-
ing point. You can then build a working definition from other scholars’
attempts at definition (see 4 the example later on in this chapter under
‘Strategies that strengthen argument’).

f eagir oo i ome Aarmociserrre

LOYING
ry OUT G 5posinen

Provide a summary statement of the argument (your position on topic) that

you intend to develop in the body of your essay.
Rather than lay out a position, you may be expected to state the main con-
clusions reached in your essay. Or rather than state a position (although it is
a good idea to do so), or detail your main conclusions, you will provide a state-
ment of purposes, as this writer did after establishing context by way of a
brief review of a major debate in the literature:
The main purpose of this essay is to provide a critical evaluation of the dif-
ferent positions as outlined above.

It could be that you find yourself making several of these moves in your
introduction.

95
Orient your reader to the structure of your essay, the way in which you intend
to organize your discussion in general. Phrases signalling procedure may be of
this type:
Initially, I examine ... This is followed by a review of ... A discussion of
the theoretical underpinnings of X is then presented. The fourth section
provides a comparative analysis of ... Finally, I draw out recommendations
LOW ke

In many cases though, the procedure is indicated in a more subtle way in

the process of laying out the parts of the argument, as in the hypothetical
example given in Box 5.1:

box 5.1 An introduction should fulfil its eae function

while being tightly focused on the topic

Topic

‘Economic rationalist policies are responsible for the declining economy.’ Discuss.

Factors identified as important from the reading parts of the position

e —Policy-making areas: car manufacturing, technology, primary exports — foodstuffs

e Industrial action (national transport and miners’ strikes).
e Natural disaster: widespread flooding.
e Factors in the international political economy.

Steps in compiling the introduction

Step 1: provision of background information relevant to the topic (three paragraphs of

summary comments (with references) on the economy’s decline over the period of
interest)

Step 2: definition from the literature of what ‘economic rationalist’ means

Step 3: laying out the position and procedure in a single move as follows (the four-part
ordering of the position as expressed below reflected the overall structure of the
essay):

(Ist part) Economic rationalist policies of the present government have had a slow-growth
effect on three major export industries: car manufacturing, technology and primary
exports. Such policies do not, however, account fully for the evident economic decline.

96
 Research essays

(2nd part) Industrial strife during the past two years has been particularly disruptive
to growth in some sectors. (3rd part) The economy has also had to contend with
extensive flooding in parts of the country. (4th part) As well, there have been specific
developments in the world political economy, which need to be addressed in discuss-
ing reasons for the economic decline.

This level of generality is usual when laying out an argument and signal-
ling procedure. At this stage you are just orienting your reader to the discus-
sion to follow in the body of your essay.

Building an argument
Building the foundation and scaffolding of an argument does not occur during
the writing of your essay, but rather during the process of gathering the infor-
mation required to fulfil topic aims (see > “Topics (or questions) earlier in
this chapter and ‘Ensuring task-focused information’ in Chapter 2). It is dur-
ing the reading process that you should be identifying: (1) where you stand on
the topic — your position (the foundation), (2) what ideas you will bring for-
ward to develop that position into an argument (the scaffolding), and (8) what
evidence you will use to support your ideas, ensure that your argument is a
strong one. The details of what you want to say will emerge when you write,
but no amount of effort will ensure a strong argument if you have not already
put in place a solid foundation and scaffolding before you begin to write.

A ‘position’ can be defined as follows:

The position is the point of view arrived at on completion of critically assess-

ing the relevant literature. The position you take on your topic of research
captures your thesis (as in argument).

As you build your position through the process of reading, think about these
questions:

e Does the position you are leaning towards address all parts of the topic?
e Are you likely to adopt a unified position, or is the argument such that you will have a
more complex position with several parts to it?

oy
Although your topic may appear to be straightforward, topics in graduate
study are rarely so. Consequently, the position taken will often be complex,
with several parts (see > the example in Box 5.1 above).
Your primary evidence supporting your position will come from sources in
the literature which, again, you need to document during reading, as direct
quotes, paraphrase, or general references, and perhaps too from raw data
that you have generated.

Arguing from sources means using references, such as direct quotations or

paraphrases, book, chapter or page references to marshal support for your posi-
tion. (See 5 ‘Referencing and plagiarism’ in Chapter 3). (See also Kaufer et al.,
1989; Davis and McKay, 1996: Ch. 5 ‘Cause and effect’ and Ch. 6 ‘Argument’.)
Your essay should reflect familiarity with and understanding of the ideas of
other scholars; it should be the result of wide and critical reading (see >
‘Treating information critically in Chapter 2). This does not mean merely
describing what others have thought and said. Rather, use source material to
advance your position, or, if you prefer, build your argument. During reading,
take careful notes on ideas you incline towards in terms of the argument you
will develop in your essay, and evidence from other scholars that you can use to
develop those ideas.
You could, of course, be challenging other scholars in the process of build-
ing your argument, that is, neutralizing opposing arguments, as this
student did:

X [reference] offers sound reasons for the continuing centralisation of serv-

ices in terms of the economic benefits to government. However, he does not
take account of the high costs of maintaining centralisation when determin-
ing these benefits.

In developing a position favouring the cost-benefit effects of ‘decentralising’

government services, the student recognized that X’s argument could be used
to challenge her own, so she had to neutralize it by showing there was a flaw
in that argument: it was too narrow.
Unless you are working with primary source materials (for example, literary
texts, archival documents such as letters, diaries, or legal documents), where
it might be appropriate, you should avoid overlong direct quotations. The idea
is to process the source materials you are reading, so a paraphrase of two or
three key points in a long discussion may be sufficient for your purposes.
Effective paraphrase demonstrates thorough critical understanding of source
materials.

98
 Research essays

Solid evidence is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for strong argu-
ment. There also needs to be sound reasoning. Take care with fallacies of
the following type, which signal incorrect or faulty reasoning. (For a more
comprehensive overview of logical fallacies in argument, see Downes,
1995-2000.)

Circular reasoning or arguing in a circle: For example: ‘Penal reform is necessary because
of prison corruption, which shows the need for prison reform.’

Reasoning that does not follow: This means that the conclusion does not follow from the
premises of the argument you have set up.

Black and white thinking: The tendency here is to go from one extreme to another. For
example: ‘If teachers cannot fix the problems in schools they should stay out of the debate
altogether.’ That fact that teachers cannot ‘fix’ the problem does not mean that they could not
contribute to the debate.

Assuming that what is true of the part is true of the whole (or vice versa): For example:
making the assumption that drugs are a big problem among 13-16-year-old school students
when this age group has been surveyed in only a small sampling of schools.

Begging the question: This occurs when you ask a question that wrongly assumes
something to be true. For example: ‘Why are men more aggressive than women?’ This ‘begs
the question’ of whether men are in fact more aggressive. You must prove that men are more
aggressive than women, not assume that this is so.

Assuming the conclusion: For example: ‘This action is wrong because it is immoral.’ You
must prove that the action is wrong because it is opposed to moral principles, not assume
that this is so.

Appealing to an unsuitable authority: This will occur if you draw on an authority who may
be a recognized expert in one field, but is not an authority in the subject matter you are
discussing.

Attributing causality: It is important to distinguish cause-effect relationships from statistical

correlations or coincidences. The data may show a strong correlation between two events, X
and Y, but this does not then mean that X (or X alone) caused Y.

Drawing inferences/conclusions: Before drawing an inference/conclusion ensure that there

is actual ‘evidence’ to support it. For example, detailing problems in higher education would
be an insufficient basis for concluding that policy reform is needed. Such a conclusion could
only be drawn from a careful (and convincing) demonstration of the actual link between those
problems and current government policy.

oo
Arguments can be severely weakened by a lack of detail. For your argument to
be reasonable, you will need to include sufficient detail to secure it, and you can
do this by way of a range of discourse or writing strategies that you will already
be using (see also > ‘Effective paragraph development’ in Chapter 4).

exercise: strengthening argument

Look closely at the nature of the detail in the following paragraphs and the effects
achieved by the different writing strategies used to advance the arguments. Consider too
the quality of the reasoning in these paragraphs. Note as well how these writers integrate
academic source materials in the process of arguing.
Definition is used in this introductory paragraph to establish clear communication with
readers as to how a problematic term will be understood during argument development.
The writer provides a working definition of ‘public law’ by comparing it with constitutional
law, while drawing support from scholarly sources in the process:

Constitutional law is concerned with the ways in which public power is institutionally
organised and applied, with the relations between the institutions which exercise
public power, and with the relations between these institutions, and other social
interests [reference]. Public law is a more ambiguous term that refers to the princi-
ples governing disputes between the State and its subjects as determined by the
courts [reference]. It has been argued [reference] that public law has come to
include administrative law, criminal law and even environmental law depending on
how the State is conceptualised as a legal actor. For the purposes of this essay, if
government action can be defined as the regulation of individual liberty, public law
can be defined as the regulation of the government's ability to regulate individual
liberty (our emphasis]. [Further explanatory information was included in a footnote]

Comparison is favoured below to demonstrate the difficulties of determining the ori-

gins of rugs from their representation in paintings. Note the use of comparative illustra-
tion at the end, where the writer picks up on details mentioned in the first sentence to
strengthen her position:

In trying to identify the origin of a rug, we can use as guiding principles the ele-
ments of design, the decorative style and patterning, colours and their combina-
tions, as well as known geographical connections [references]. It may also be
possible to physically examine the rug itself — the thickness of the warp and the
weft, the types of dyes used, the techniques of application, and so forth. With a rug
in a painting, however, these tools of analysis are either unavailable or less reliable.

100
 The medium of painting is an illusion of reality, even if it pretends to be a depiction
of the fine details of reality. The rug plays a part in that illusion, and is likely to be
shaped by the artist to fit the desired overall composition. A rug in a painting may
have its pattern altered by the angle of perspective, or a fold in the material may
distort the appearance of the pattern; the colours may have been changed for
artistic effect, as might the ornamental design and other features four emphasis].

Causal analysis characterizes the development of the next paragraph. Note how the
writer develops his general assertion in the first sentence by analysing the causes of
technological development in Japan, and strengthens his analysis by drawing on other
scholars as support:
Technological development is not a natural process. Social forces lie behind the develop-
ment of any given technology. In Japan’s case, ‘economic and technological develop-
ment have been enshrined as Japanese social goals since the Meiji restoration of 1868’
[reference]. It has even been suggested that the ‘military class, the samurai, [were] by their
own life experience ... able to recognise the benefits and “rationality” of Western technol-
ogy [reference]. Be that as it may, the more immediate forces leading to the development
of microelectronics and IT in Japan derived from the changes and crises facing Japanese
capitalism from the late 1960s onwards [explanatory footnote added]. These included a
recognisable slow down in economic growth, and demographic changes causing
labour shortages, followed by more recent concerns with an aging population.

Restatement means saying the same thing in a different way, but it is not merely rep-
etition. Restatement is a useful strategy to clarify difficult ideas and/or reinforce their
importance. Restatement is sometimes signalled by such phrases as ‘Thatis ... ’, ‘By this
| mean ... ’, ‘In other words ... ‘, and often by nothing at all. In the following example,
ideas in the restatement, the material ernphasized, are much the same as those
expressed in sentence 2. The restatement both clarifies the writer's initial statement on
orthodox historians, and strengthens it by drawing support from the literature. Comparison
is again a favoured method of developing the paragraph as the writer distinguishes the
approach of orthodox historians and that of the more radical X:
X‘s approach to history is considered radical by orthodox historians. Conventional
historiographers presuppose that history is a record of ‘facts’ that, with careful
investigation, can be objectively verified. As Y argues, ‘orthodox historians adhere
to a “discovery” view of the past, holding that the past is there, a field of real
entities and forces waiting for the historians to find’ [reference]. They also view
history as a linear sequence of events that is characterized by continuity. X, how-
ever, takes an ‘archaeological’ approach. He is concerned with the discontinuity of
events, with ‘analogies and differences, hierarchies, complementarities, coinci-
dences, and shifts’ [reference], with uncovering the discontinuities themselves in the
interstices of time [our emphasis].
(Continued)

101
 Specification means saying precisely what is meant by a more abstract phrase; in this
case, ‘the great reform measures’. Failure to specify can weaken your argument because
there is no way for a reader to tell if you know what you are talking about, as would occur
if specification were omitted below:
The great reform measures - the reorganisation of parliament, the revision of
the penal code and the poor laws, the restrictions placed on child labour, and
other industrial reforms — were important factors in establishing English society on
a more democratic basis tour emphasis].

Qualification is needed in this next example, which highlights

the problem of using
generalizations in argument, something we all need to watch:
The racist attitudes of opponents of increased immigration are cause for concern!

It is a poor argument because of oversimplification. The writer implies that all opponents
of increased immigration have ‘racist attitudes’, which would be impossible to establish,
though this may be true of some opponents. Even then, such ‘attitudes’ cannot be
assumed. There would need to be detailed evidence as support, perhaps extracted from
the language and rhetoric used by some opponents in their publications or in excerpts
from public speeches.

Developing an argument

Your essay will need to evidence a coherent line of argument throughout. For
this, a coherent structure is essential and the ideas you bring forward must
be directly relevant to the topic.

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Structural coherence refers to the logic of the organization of the parts of

your discussion, the interconnectedness of ideas, how it hangs together,
coheres, as discussed in > ‘Principles of sound structure’, Chapter 4. Refer
also to ‘Words and phrases for developing discussions’ in the Appendix.

Qa — key points .

When structuring a research essay remember: you are not carving up information to
cover but sequencing information in an argument.

102
 Research essays

Note the following points also. When using subdivisions to section your
essay, work on the premise that you are not merely working out what to
cover, but building an argument. So:

e Why have you arranged your subdivisions in the order in which you have? Is it the best
arrangement?
e What are you trying to show/demonstrate/establish in each subdivision in relation to
your overall argument? How will each subdivision serve to advance your argument —
what will each contribute to the development of your position/thesis?

In every instance of structuring — whether the whole essay or the

subdivisions — consider this set of key questions:

e What am | focusing on here? What am | covering?

e Why am| focusing on this? What are my reasons for covering this subject?
e How do | want to develop this discussion? What do | want to discuss and in what order
do | want to discuss these topics?
e What/so what? What are the main ideas | want to bring forward in developing my argu-
ment and what are the implications of my discussions? Build your paragraphs around
these main ideas. Make sure your reader is not left to comment on your text: ‘So what’,
meaning that the point of your discussion is lost on that reader.

If there is a need to digress from your main line of argument, signal this as
a deliberate digression and give a reason for it, as illustrated:

Before continuing this examination of financial issues to do with setting

up the test project, it is helpful to provide a brief overview of a series of
political events that caused a departure from the original plan at this
time.

Relevance refers to the overall focus of your essay. Sometimes lecturers make
comments in the margin of an essay such as ‘I can’t follow the point of all
this’, ‘This seems to be a digression from the main thrust of the argument’ or
‘How does this relate to topic?” Comments of this type signal that the reader
cannot work out the relevance of your ideas to the position supposedly being
developed. In the process of ensuring your position is clearly focused on the
set topic and deals fully with its central concerns, ensure that all ideas relate
back to your position, as represented in Figure 5.1.

103
 Idea eee Idea

Aus Elwes
Idea—» YOUR POSITION <— ldea

va
Idea I
SSIdea
Idea

FIGURE 5.1 Ensuring relevance

Working up a conclusion
When pressured to submit an essay, it is easy to rush the ending so that there
does not appear to be a proper conclusion. Do bring the essay to some resolu-
tion, perhaps referring the reader back to the topic for a sense of unity.
Remember, you are drawing together the findings of your essay, so you
should not introduce new material that has not been previously discussed in

ing conclusions reached in various parts of the essay. The conclusion is

another stage of thinking — a reflection on what has been uncovered during
the course of your argument or, it might be said, what you have learnt from
conducting the research. In effect, try to process your findings for the reader
and put these findings into a new set of relationships.
Ask yourself questions of this type:

e What do | find most interesting, important or significant about my findings in terms of the
topic and the position | have developed? And what seems to be of lesser interest or
importance?
e Are there any interesting implications of my overall findings? (When answering this last
question, you will probably be speculating, so use more tentative language such as:
‘perhaps’, ‘it seems’, ‘it could be’ and so forth, but do ensure your speculations are
grounded in findings reached in the body of your essay.)

In these ways you let the reader know what you think about your findings,
and perhaps leave her/him with something interesting to think about (see
also + “The thesis conclusion’ in Chapter 10).

Cutting to meet word length

If the essay needs to be cut to meet word length stipulations, do not cut the
very detail that strengthens the argument — look elsewhere, in places such as
these (see > Figure 5.2):

104
 of
Line
argument

FIGURE 5.2 Cutting material to meet word length

e Introductions are often wordy, over-written and can stand considerable condensing.
e Lengthy arguments or discussions can fall victim to what is sometimes called ‘the exposi-
tory bulge’, meaning that there is an unnecessary proliferation of explanatory information,
with too much peripheral detail. Detail is important, but you need only as much detail as
is necessary to secure your argument.
e lt is offen possible to cut material from the more descriptive or explanatory parts of
an essay (for example, historical background), which need to be there but can be
condensed. ,

Reviewing the essay presentation

The fourth and final criterion mentioned above is that your essay ‘will be
competently presented’. Consider these matters:

e Include a separate cover sheet (you may be given one by your lecturer) that includes
information of this type: Name (yours); Topic (exact wording); Course details (for example,
AL836); Lecturer (name); Length (as given); Due date of submission.
e Use double spacing or space and a half, and double this between paragraphs or
indent them — much easier to read. Leave decent margins so that your lecturer can
write comments.
e Do a word count to ensure your essay meets the designated length where this is
stipulated, as there may be penalties (for example, marks deducted) for going over
the limit.
e Carefully check the accuracy of direct quotations (these must be exactly as you find them
in your source), and also all referencing details, as well as tables, figures, and so on.
Ensure your writing practices are consistent. Carefully edit and proofread your essay.

All these matters are discussed in > ‘Essentials of academic writing’, Chapter 3.

105
 pani further resources

Kane, T.S. (1988) The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Essentially
for afficionados of fine prose that takes you from blank page to the finished product via the
various styles of great writers, and also provides an insightful chapter on essay writing.

‘What is an academic essay?’ Sussex Centre for Language Studies. A concise account of
what an essay is all about, with some comparison to reports and embedded links to more
detailed information, all of which could be useful for the first-time writer of essays because
of discipline transfer.

Weston, A. (2009) A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th edn. Indianapoli, |A: Hackett. Based on a
set of timeless rules, all clearly explained with illustrations, this is the best ‘how to’ reference
on constructing strong, cogent arguments and evaluating those of others, but does not cover
arguing from formal proofs.

106
 6
Book or Article Reviews and U.N

Online Writin
esaennsiuypi

csme developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: +

e Gain insight into the nature of different types of book or article reviews, and develop
capacity to focus and structure a review.
e Manage effectively writing for blogs and wikis.

This chapter continues with the focus on other common writing activities in
graduate study: reviewing books and articles in different contexts and pro-
ducing blogs and wikis.

Book or article reviews

While the focus here is on book reviewing, it should not be difficult for you
to adapt suggestions to review of a journal article or some other type of
writing.

Consider these different scenarios:

 1. You have been invited to review a book relevant to your research field for a magazine or
journal.
2. As a course requirement, you are expected to produce a book review that emulates
professional practice, say, as if for publication in a newspaper, where focus and style
of the review could be affected by how upmarket that newspaper is — you would need
to check.
3. As part of course assessment, you have been asked fo critically review some book or
article.

In the case of scenarios 1 and 2, you will need to adopt a style of writing
suited to the specific context and audience. You can teach yourself to do any
type of writing if you have models to follow. Before drafting, study previously
published reviews to orient yourself to the basics of structure, style and treat-
ment of information expected of your review for that particular newspaper or
journal — make use of the exercise under > ‘Mastering disciplinary writing
practices’ in Chapter 2.
Scenario 3 is now addressed in more detail. In writing an academic
review, it is almost certain that you will be expected to engage critically with
the book or article (see 4 “Treating information critically’ in Chapter 2).
Your review should not therefore be a summary of the content or argument
of the book (unless your lecturer specifically requests this). Instead, it should
state concisely what the book sets out to do and assess how well the author
achieves that goal. Be prepared to give sound reasons for your point of view.
These points are elaborated on next.

Steps laid out in the following exercise should allow you to take a more stra-
tegic approach to the conduct of your review.

exercise: steps in the review process

Step 1

Look at the title, the table of contents, and read the preface and introduction to gain
understanding of the central focus and the coverage of the book.

108
 Read closely the introduction and/or first chapter. This is to determine the author's
purposes or objectives, to identity questions being engaged, hypotheses being exam-
ined or issues discussed, and also whether ony limitations have been placed on the
scope of the study. Even acknowledged limitations may give cause for critical com-
ment, say, in terms of treatment of material (for example, the author has excluded
information essential to a balanced treatment of the subject matter). At this point,
identity whether there is ony theoretical or methodological framework being used, or
even important assumptions of this type, as these will affect the author's approach and
interpretations.
Skim quickly through the whole book first, running your eye over chapter and sub-
division headings, opening sentences of paragraphs, and glancing at ony tables, or other
illustrations, as well as indexes and bibliographies. Try to gain a general sense of the
argument being developed, as well as the issues being engaged.
Read closely the final chapter, which should cover the author's conclusions and sum-
marize the main reasons for them.

Step 2
Now decide on the aspects of the book you consider important to discuss. These aspects
will probably cover the strengths and weaknesses of the book as you see them, in terms
of the content and perhaps the style and presentation as well; after all, clarity and con-
ciseness in writing can contribute to a more accessible argument or discussion.
Pinpoint the strengths as you 'see them. Weaknesses may centre on matters of this
type: flaws in the general thrust of the argument - weak evidence or flawed reasoning;
biases in the methodology, theory or modelling; the uneven treatment of important
issues; the current relevance of the ideas put forward or even the whole thrust of the argu-
ment (for example, it may be somewhat dated); problems with underlying assumptions
obout the nature of things; discussions that are too broad or too narrow, and so on.

Step 3
The next step is to read more closely the sections of the book that are relevant to the
strengths and weaknesses of the book as you see it. Note the main points you want to
make, and identify key quotations or paraphrased material from the book that you can
use to support your claims; even just page references will do.
lf you are required to review this book in the context of other studies, then this is the
time to read these, after you have a reasonably sound knowledge of the book you are
reviewing, not before. To situate the review in the context of other studies, ask yourself
questíons of thís type:

• How does the study fit ínto the broader literature?

• How does the author's posítíon compare with those of other studíes I have read?

(Continued/

109
 • ln what ways is the argument similar or different?
• What might be the reasons for these differences and similarities?
• What contribution does the book make to scholarship in the research field?
• How useful or not is it? ln what precise ways is it useful or not and why?

It is up to you how you structure your review, but you could follow this
step-by-step approach if you wis h :

l. Begin with on initial identification of the book (author, title, date of publication and other
details that seem important). lndicate the major aspects of the book you will be discuss-
ing in your review - your focus in terms of its strengths and weaknesses.
2. This could be followed by a brief summary of the range, contents and argument(s) of the
book, perhaps just two or three paragraphs in a shorter review of, say, 1,500-2,000
words.
3. The core of your review, the body of the discussion, will be a critical analysis of the
aspects you have selected to focus on. Make sure you substantiate what you say
by drawing on the book itself as evidence and other scholarly sources if this is
appropriate.
4. ln the conclusion, provide a summary evaluation of the overall contribution mode by the
book to the subject area, to your understanding of the topic and to scholarship.

Online writing
Lecturers are more frequently setting online writing assignments, and,
in particular, assignments that involve contributing to blogs and wikis.
Although these formats may be unfamiliar to you in the scholarly context,
they nevertheless represent legitimate forms of academic writing that
you should master when necessary. For many students , judging the cor-
rect style and tone for such online writing can be difficult; it can be easy
to fall into the trap of believing that writing online is either a case of
'anything goes' or that you can simply replicate what you have success-
fully done in your research essays and that it will be acceptable. In fact,
neither is the cas e .
As with other forms of academic writing, writing for wikis and blogs is a
specialized skill that comes with its own conventions - and it needs to be
practised. Although we present some general advice below, you should ask
your lecturers to describe exactly what they are looking for and expecting of
you before you start writing for these types of online assignment.

110
 Book o, article reviews and oniine writing

In writing for blogs, you may be asked to write either blog posts or blog
comments - or, indPed, both. If you are writing a blog post, then you will be
responsible for generating a (usually) short piece of writing that may
include commentary, critique or reflection on key course topics, or that pro-
vides links to other materials. Your post should have a catchy title that
interests the casual 'web surfer' enough to read on, yet clearly describes the
subject of the post. It is also generally acknowledged that in a blog post you
will write shorter paragraphs and that bullet points will help both to break
up your text and to get your point across. If your lecturer has set a blogging
assignment then they are probably expecting you to inject a bit of life into
your writing, so be sure to put some of yourself into it and to express your
(reasoned-out) opinion. Including hyperlinks, tags, images and other rich
media are also ways of demonstrating engagement with the topíc under
discussion.
In general, the language should be clear and simple, and not as formal as
that used for a research essay. Having said this, however, some lecturers may
be expecting you to write a mini-essay for a blog post and they are simply using
a blog platform to access or share your work; either way, you should clarify
expectations around language with your lecturer before you begin. The other
problem that can occur is to use language that is too informal. Incorrect gram-
mar. spelling and punctuation may be tolerated on a Facebook wall comment
or in a text message, but is certainly not acceptable in blog posts.
Blog comments should be approached a little differently. In writing a
comment on a post, you will not be prompting a conversation but rather
responding to or taking part in one already started by someone else. Your
comments should be short, focused, insightful and strictly limited to the
issues at hand. People will not appreciate your comment if it is too long, off-
topic, or ridiculous. Your comment should be friendly, civil and encouraging:
the blog owner (who may very well be your lecturer) has every right to
remove comments that are rude, offensive or insulting.

Contributing to a wiki is an altogether different proposition from writing for

a blog. Whereas a blog is all about the author and individua} responses to
thoughts and opinions, wikis are about groups of people collaborating to cre-
ate an online resource for others to access. Lecturers will tend to set wiki
assignments when they want you to produce group work online. For some
students this can be challenging enough, without adding an unfamiliar

lll
onli1w technology into the mix. However, wikis are simple to edit and, after
some practice, you should have no trouble in making basic changes to a wiki.
In contribnting to a wiki, it is important to remember that wikis are about
collaboration and that you will be expected to edit others' work. Your lecturer
is looking for (and can track) your individua! contributions to the cooperative
exercise. To this end, it is important that you add meaningful content to the
wiki and that you do not simply attend to others' poor punctuation. Your
group's wiki should be clearly structured and written; it may be worth getting
your group together before you start your wiki to discuss the most logical
layout of the content.
As regards language, wikis are predominantly written in standard English,
although the tone is not as formal as that for research essays. It is important
that you avoid jargon and that explanations are presented plainly and with
relevant supporting media such as images, videos, audios or links. When you
make a change to a page, the wiki system may ask you to give a reason for
your edit. If you have only amended a punctuation mark, then you can ignore
this step. If, however, you have made substantial changes to others' work, it
is courteous to let them know why you have altered the material. It can be
particularly difficult for some students to accept that it is allowable to modify
the work of others, but if you have established a good group dynamic to begin
with then group members will understand that it is the project that comes
first, not the individual.

112
 URNS

Coursework Exams

A. developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: «

e Understand implications of different approaches to exams.

e Identify strategies for effective revision and the writing of different types of coursework
exams.

There are different approaches to exams. Most common are closed-book

exams into which, as implied, you are not able to take any reference materi-
als at all. This approach contrasts with open-book exams, which do allow
you to take in certain materials. Your lecturers will tell you which materials
are allowed — perhaps notes, books or journal articles for reference. These
materials, however, will only prove useful to you if they are well organized,
practised with and thoroughly understood before you go in. Preparation is
needed. In the exam there is no time to read these materials, only to find
relevant information you know is there because you are already familiar with
the content.
With take-home exams you will be given an exam paper to complete ina
specified time (perhaps a weekend or a week). Take-home exams usually
consist of essay questions. As you will have full access to sources (books, arti-
cles, and so on) in answering these questions, the opportunity to rework your
answers and less restriction on the time you take to write them, lecturers will
expect a higher standard than for a regular exam.
Pre-seen exams are different. Here you will have the opportunity to pre-
view your exam paper beforehand and prepare your answers in the revision
period. You might be told that you will have to write on all the questions on
the paper; or maybe only some of them will be selected for the examination,
though you will not be told which ones. In this case, you will complete your
paper under the usual, formal examination conditions. Again, because you
have been advantaged in previewing the paper, a higher standard will be
expected.
Apart from there being different approaches to examination, exam papers
can take different forms, three prominent types being:

1. Essay exams, which usually allow a choice of topics to write on.

2. Short answer exams, involving answers of a paragraph or half a page, and sometimes
allowing choice.
3. Multiple-choice exams in which you normally have to answer (tick, circle or nominate
an answer for) all questions.

Discussions to follow take account of the different communicative needs of

these different types of exam. To communicate effectively in exam papers,
you will need to prepare the ground — to revise effectively.

Setting up a revision plan

The following discussion walks you through three stages of the revision
process.

Grounding revision in course objectives

Exams test your knowledge of a particular course within your degree pro-
gramme, and your ability to apply this knowledge under exam conditions. But
it is easy to forget, when caught up in details throughout a semester or whole
year course, why the course was offered and what lecturers envisioned you
might gain from taking it — information that will surely be important in the
design of the exam paper. So you first need to identify sources to clarify your
understanding of the rationale underlying the course — its scope, aims and

114
 Outlines/handouts

Course textbooks

PLAN and —_ Orient revision

FOCUS [==> toexamtypeand Ga=> Essential readings
outline plan
Lecture notes

Past exam papers

FIGURE 7.1 Ortenfing and outlining a revision plan

objectives, and the probable scope of your exam. So this is where revision
should begin.
This information can be gathered from the sources indicated in Figure 7.1,
and any other similar sources appropriate in your case.
From outlines or handouts that detail what will be covered and when, you
should be able to see why the course was offered — its aims and objectives,
and so what your lecturers hope you will learn from it, which will be tested
in the examination. Look at the beginning of your ‘Course Guide’ if you were
given one.
By scanning relevant textbooks, essential readings from seminars or read-
ing ‘brick’ materials, as well as lecture notes that cover the whole sweep of
your course, you should be able to clarify your understanding of basic con-
tent: the main topics covered, how those topics are broken down for discus-
sion (for example, in lectures), key aspects of topic focus, issues of importance
and so forth. Doing this should provide a clear overview of the scope of knowl-
edge being covered in the course.

Reviewing past exam papers

Review past exam papers if these are available (also relevant for take-home
exams). But before you do this, make sure that your exam paper will be of the
same type as the paper of previous years. You want to avoid putting effort
into past papers only to find the lecturer has changed the exam paper from
the previous essay format to a short-answer paper.
In reviewing past exam papers, you are orienting yourself to what might
be expected of you, with questions of this type being helpful to engage:

e What do the exam paper instructions say?

e Are you expected to answer all questions or to select from a range of questions? Are alll
questions compulsory in one section but subject to choice in others? Are some questions
given different percentage weightings, which is not unusual in short answer papers? If
yes, when writing the paper you should give less time to those questions worth less.

15
 Organize your
materials

Decide on priorities
Systematize your . for detailed revision
Sees eeATE Fae plan and summarize [>
materials
Condense materials

Set up a timetable

FIGURE 7.2 Systematizing a revision plan

e What sort of time schedule would you need to work out if you were to manage your time
efficiently in the exam?
e Do you get a sense of the scope of knowledge being tested?
e What types of questions are being set and what sort of knowledge do the examiners
seem to be testing? Go back to the aims and objectives of your course as a point of
comparison.

You should be able to outline your revision plan from notes that you have
taken during this first stage.

With the plan outline from Stage 1, you are now in a position to systematize
your plan for intensive revision by using strategies noted in Figure 7.2.
The details of your revision plan will need to be adapted to the specific
types of exams you will be taking.

Usually in this type of exam it is possible to specialize in revision, focusing

on, say, nine or ten (but not three or four!) out of the 18 or so related topics
covered throughout a semester. You will know you can do this if, in your
review of past exam papers, you notice that the expectation is for you to
select, say, three essay questions from a list of 12.

The essay-type exam will not only test your knowledge of the course generally but also
your capacity to reason about a topic in the process of producing an argument.

116
 Coursework exams

Having identified the set of topics you wish to revise, set priorities, allow-
ing more time for topics you find most difficult, and establish a timetable so
that you can monitor your progress in revision.
When condensing materials do not summarize in detail each journal arti-
cle, essential reading, textbook, or any other source material. Rather, hold
your sources in relation for the purposes of comparison and contrast. For
example, with a theory topic, the revision process might involve taking notes
towards understanding the principles of the theory, developments that have
taken place in the theory over time, key figures who featured in these devel-
opments, criticisms brought against the theory and why, how advocates of
the theory have answered these criticisms and supported their views, the
theory’s explanatory and/or predictive value, its limitations and strengths
and why.

Use flow charts, diagrams and other visual aids to condense and plot comparative find-
ings from sources. ,

Use your sources to extract the type of essential information that will serve
you well regardless of the specific orientation of any particular exam topic or
question that is set.
It is also important to understand the relevant issues or sets of issues, if
you are to produce an argument, by tackling these questions:

e What are the points on which scholars agree or disagree?

e Are you clear about the reasons for their agreement or disagreement?

Be fully analytical in your approach to revision. Decide in the revision

process what you think about a subject or topic and why, and what evi-
dence you can use to support your views. There is no time to sort out your
position in the exam room — whether you agree or disagree with other
scholars’ arguments.
With the above approach you should be able to achieve a balance between
the depth and breadth of your topic coverage, which is necessary in all exam
situations. You want to take to your exam a thoroughly critical, but broad
understanding of the course subject matter.

7
Some of the above advice also applies for short answer papers, though you
may not be given a choice of topics to answer or be expected to produce a sus-
tained argument. Still, you will need to establish priorities, set up a timetable
for revision monitoring and develop a critical understanding of your material.
You would have determined the nature of the questions from your review of
past exam papers in Stage 1, the types of knowledge being tested, or the sorts
of information needed to be able to answer the questions well.

on = key points

Papers of the short answer type often focus on problem-solving, concept or issue defini-
tion, modelling, design principles, knowledge application, and so on.

With problem-solving questions, for example, you will need to practise solv-
ing problems in the revision process; it is not enough to know your material
thoroughly. First, identify a range of key problems in the revision material
on which you need to focus. Then ask yourself as you revise:

e Why is this a problem? (Ensures understanding of the distinctive nature of each

problem.)
e Which strategies (for example, formulae or techniques) would enable the best resolutions?
e |s there more than one viable strategy or approach?
e Why do you prefer these strategies/approaches and not others? Be prepared to justify
your choices — give reasons for them.

Condense material along the appropriate lines (for example, as sets of prob-
lems) in flow charts, graphs, tables or diagrams — whatever appeals.

Multiple-choice exam papers are often designed to test how well you are
building up basic knowledge of a disciplinary area. It is probably in the area
of fine distinctions that the revision will prove most taxing. In the exam, a
correct answer may depend on understanding subtle distinctions in the lan-
guage, so if English is not your first language you will need to practise as
much as possible, and perhaps check your answers with a native-speaking
friend from your course.

118
 eo key points

Multiple-choice questions test detailed knowledge and understanding, with

questions that require recognition of fine distinctions in terms of definitions,
understanding of basic concepts, models, stages or the sequence of stages in
processes, cause and effect relations, comparisons and contrasts, explanations,
and so on.

When revising, actively look for slight differences, for fine shades of
meaning, for paradoxes and uncertainties. As with all exams, however,
you are being tested on your general knowledge, so avoid sacrificing
breadth of understanding to a detailed but narrow understanding of just
a few topics. Prioritize revision tasks along a well-thought-out revision
timetable.
The end of Stage 2 should leave you with a condensed set of notes that may
include visual materials such as maps or outlines that chart important sets
of relations or developments.

It is now time to test the efficacy of your revision plan by way of the strategies
suggested in Figure 7.3.
Particularly important in the context of the above set of strategies is the
notion of attempting a practice run with an old exam paper if this is possible.
At this stage, much of your revision should be complete, so it is then useful
to put this knowledge to the test. This is certain to highlight any strengths
or weaknesses in your preparedness for the exam. Do you know enough to be

Attempt past exam papers

s Test whether your

REVISE Make up your own exam
> revision strategies laaay>
ACTIVELY questions
have worked

Form/join a study group

FIGURE 7.3 Testing the efficacy of a revision plan

119
able to answer the types of questions set? And do you think you could com-
plete the paper in the given time?
Your lecturers may be prepared to look over a practice paper to give you
feedback on how you are progressing, but if yours is a multiple-choice exam
paper that is being recycled from year to year so that you have no access
to past papers, then you may have to rely heavily on the strategy of self-
questioning. Joining with a few friends in a study group can be useful to
question each other, though this might be difficult if you have various
other commitments in terms of family and employment, or you are studying
off campus.

Exam room strategies

In most exams there is a ‘permitted study period’, where you will be allowed
approximately 10 to 15 minutes or so to review the paper before the official
start of the exam. This is where the next set of strategies, given in Figure 7.4,
needs to be activated.

AFAR QYFEHSE gar irreters po

Pe Se GES ERS OBESE Re GBS SSE ESSE WERE

Read the exam paper instructions carefully, and follow them rigidly. If you
are to select questions, again read carefully the instructions for selection —
you do not want to misinterpret these instructions. Work out what each ques-
tion is testing by highhghting key words (take a highlighter pen with you to
the exam) — read all questions very carefully. Now make your selection; do
not delay with this.

Decide on the order in which you will answer questions. It may be best simply to
begin at the beginning when you have to answer all questions on the paper. But

Check instructions, format

of paper, and so on
Skim through the paper and
MAKE FULL USE a select questions (if appropriate)
OFTHE PERMITTED [ize Z>
STUDY PERIOD Decide on your ordering
of answers
Work out your time management
Begin on your answers

FIGURE 7.4 Making use of the permitted study period

120
when there is choice, you may feel more confident about some questions than
others, and so choose to answer those you know best to see if you can get ahead
of time, allowing extra for those questions about which you are less confident.
Indicate on your paper which question you are answering by noting this
above your answer (for example, Question 2 or Topic B3 — use the exact word-
ing from the paper). Doing this is most important if you change the given
order when writing your paper. Protect yourself against reader confusion.

Time needs to be rigorously monitored in the examination room, so wear a

watch. Work out your time schedule during this preparatory period: calculate
how much time you will give to each question on the basis of how many
questions you need to answer and perhaps, too, their percentage weight-
ing. For example: 20 short answer questions in a 38-hour paper where each
question carries the same weighting means giving about 9 minutes to each
question, but where there is a percentage weighting you might decide to
give, say, 12 minutes to some questions and only 2 or 3 minutes to others.
Or, if you have to write 4 essays over 3 hours, then you would have about
50 minutes for each essay. If your entire paper were multiple-choice with,
say, 120 questions over 2 hours then you would have about a minute for
each question.
Consider these strategies:

e Exclude 10 minutes of the allotted exam time in planning your time schedule. This
gives you a little spare time at the end of the paper to at least jot down in note form
any ideas for answers left incomplete on the way through the paper.
e In answering multiple-choice questions, mark on your exam question paper the halfway
mark, preferably with a bright slash so it stands out. This will alert you to how your time
is going.

Starting on answers in the ‘permitted study period’

If you have any time left, you can begin working on your answers. You could
jot down some notes, or, in the case of essay-type questions, perhaps begin to
outline your first answer in the margins of the question paper (not the book-
let for writing your answers).

Writing the exam paper

Regardless of your type of exam, make sure you attempt all questions
you are required to answer. Also, monitor time regularly throughout the

12]
examination — stay with the time schedule set up in the ‘permitted study
period’. If you are starting to get behind, then move on quickly and see if
you can make up time elsewhere in the paper. If you finish early, then read
over your answers for a final edit.

i key points

In your answers, use actual words/phrases from the topics. Doing this will keep you
attuned to topic requirements.

With essay-type questions, it is best to do some planning before writing.

Repetition, labouring of points, narrow coverage of topic in too much
detail (just a few points being discussed in great detail while other
important points are ignored) are all tendencies aggravated by a lack of
planning.

ous key points

What matters is the quality of your argument, not quantity — how much you write.

If, for example, you had to write three essays in a 3-hour exam, you would
have 1 hour for each. Take 10 minutes of the hour for each question to pro-
duce a rough essay outline of the type shown in Box 7.1.

box 7.1 Outlining an exam essay can help you to stay

on track with your argument

Introduction: two or three sentences indicating what your argument will be about
(your position on the set question), and how you will order your discussion ‘First |

122
 discuss ... | then ... Finally, | ...’. Perhaps also, provide any necessary definitions of
words, terms, etc. The introduction should be concise and to the point — it is your argument
that matters.

Body of the essay: jot down main ideas or points around which to build your paragraphs —
think about the order in which you want to present them: main idea 1... main idea 2 ...
main idea 3 ... and so on. Some of these ideas might take several paragraphs to
develop. Think about what evidence you will use to backup the ideas you want to
develop.

Conclusion: summarize the main points made in the course of your argument in three or
four sentences — perhaps going back to your set topic or question in the process to round
off the discussion — bring in actual words/phrases from the topic.

Remember, you do not need to be writing for every second of the exam. You
will not be graded on the number of pages you produce but on the quality of
your answers.

With a short answer paper, also allow some time for thinking through your
answers before writing — again, you do not need to be writing every second.
With short answers there is considerable pressure to be concise; usually you
will only have about a paragraph to perhaps half a page or so to write your
answer (or maybe you will be asked to draw a model). Distinguish your points
clearly (for example, first, second, third), and build paragraphs around main
ideas you want to develop (see > ‘Effective paragraph development’ in
Chapter 4).

wt

If yours is a multiple-choice exam, read each question and all the

suggested answers carefully. Note whether or not you are likely to be
penalized for a wrong answer — as mentioned in the exam paper instruc-
tions. Avoid the temptation to pick the first answer that looks correct with-
out reading the others. Some questions may have several correct answers
(that is, ‘all of the above’), no correct answer (that is, ‘none of the above’),
or a partly correct answer, one of which is more complete or more precise
than the others.

IZ
 Look for key words that might affect the meaning of questions — highlight
words like conditionals (‘if, ‘when’), or modals (might’, ‘could’), or qualifiers
(never’, always’, ‘sometimes’). If you cannot answer a question, then move on
to the next — at the end of the paper you can go back over the questions that
remain unanswered, knowing how much time you still have left. As you move
through the exam paper, mark clearly (for example, with a brightly coloured
dot) those left unanswered so as not to waste time searching for them in the
end-stage.

124
 The Literature Review

4 me developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: ,

e Appreciate the purpose and functions of a literature review.

e ldentify strategies for locating material for review, managing the reading, critically
appraising the literature, processing information to facilitate writing, and avoiding
typical shortcomings.

To reduce the challenges typically associated with lterature review produc-

tion, the writing needs to gestate in the search, reading, critical appraisal and
information-processing stages. As with all academic writing, however, you
first need to be clear about the purpose and functions of this type of writing.

Purpose and functions of a literature review

Dena Taylor’s description captures well the essential purpose of the litera-
ture review:

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by

accredited scholars and researchers. ... In writing the lhterature review,
 your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have
been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses
are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a
guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are
discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of
the material available, or a set of summaries. (undated)

In short, an ‘effective review creates a firm foundation for advancing knowledge’

(Webster and Watson, 2002: xiii).

oun key points

The literature review provides a rationale for your research in terms of what has gone
before, a justification of its value and significance.

In order to fulfil the purposes of a hterature review, you will engage writing
tasks of the following types (depending on the nature of your research):

e Demonstrating through engagement with the literature that you have a thorough critical
understanding of the literature. That is, you will be critically appraising strengths and
weaknesses of the literature relevant to your own research.
e Pointing out gaps in the literature, identifying problems remaining to be solved or issues
needing to be addressed and so forth.
e Drawing together the main themes and arguments of a particular body or bodies of
literature.
e Developing arguments in the process of reviewing the literature.
e Showing how your research fits in with what has already been done so as to justify its
value and communicate the nature of your contribution (sometimes occurs in a separate
section).

With a formal literature review, review mode means moving from review of
the literature to points being made in building your arguments, like so:

(From: review of literature) — (To: points abstracted from the review to

develop your discussion)

126
In short, keep your eye firmly on the literature when writing your review.
All literature reviews have a strong research orientation in that they engage
the relevant research and show how the individual student’s research fits in.
Your review could have a dual orientation, however: research and practical or
professional. While developing arguments is standard practice in the process of
reviewing the literature, producing a sustained argument throughout is more
common in those reviews with a strong professional orientation. Definition and
determination of interventions with the ‘most beneficial impact’ would obvi-
ously require sustained argument, as was indeed the case for this student:

This paper reviews some of the epidemiological literature on the high prevalence
of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) among Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander People, and on the aetiology of diabetes in these commu-
nities. After examining the differing accounts of aetiology these are related to the
interventions they suggest. The aim of the paper is to define the kinds of
intervention that will have the most beneficial impact. Answers to these
questions are sought in accounts of both cause and of action (our emphasis).

Model yourself on this writer, who managed to avoid the trap of developing a
thesis (as in argument) supported from the literature (more like a formal
argument as discussed under > ‘Research essays’, Chapter 5), unless your
lecturer requests this. Rather, let your point of view emerge from review of
the literature itself — keep the literature in the foreground.
With an appreciation of what a formal literature review is, a next step
might be to locate appropriate material.

Exploiting library and Internet resources

There are two main sources for academic literature: your institution’s
library and the Internet.You may tend to rely on the Internet as your pri-
mary source for scholarly materials because you are uncertain about how to
use library databases. The problem with this strategy is that you can easily
spend more time evaluating items for scholarly validity than you did in find-
ing them. Even using Google Scholar cannot guarantee that the sources you
track down are suitably academic in nature. Your institution’s library, on
the other hand, holds material that is almost certain to be scholarly and/or
peer reviewed.

Today’s libraries hold more than just paper monographs and journals.
Increasingly, digital assets are becoming a core component of any lbrary’s

27
collection and many of the latest journals and even some reports are only
published electronically. Because of the wide variety of formats that aca-
demic material is published in, it is essential that you know your way around
your institution’s library collection, catalogue, and, in particular, the special-
ist databases that help you search for materials.
Most libraries offer tours of their collection that can be finished in an hour
or so, and it 1s in your best interests to sign up for, or attach yourself to, just
such a tour. Alternatively, there may be a virtual tour offered that you can
take in your own time. At the beginning of your degree or course, it would
also be wise to attend any library workshops on how to make the most of the
catalogue or on how to find research materials in your discipline or subject
area. Subject and/or graduate specialists usually facilitate these workshops,
and there is nothing better than having access to an expert.

Quan key points

Gaining a solid understanding of your library catalogue early on can save you hours of
frustration when it comes to locating the relevant literature.

Many students do not use the library to its full potential. Some focus solely
on the physical assets they can pull off the shelves when, to reiterate, many
scholarly materials these days are only published in electronic format: not to
explore them could mean that you are missing out on the latest developments
and ideas in your area. Other students do not visit the physical collection at
all, preferring instead only to search for digital holdings that they can read
or print out via their own computer. Although you might find the latest materi-
als on your topic, this approach could impact on your ability to track the
provenance of an idea, which, in turn, prevents you from demonstrating full
engagement with the literature.
You should aim to be a fully rounded researcher when it comes to using
your institution’s library.

(Deamon key points

Be aware that searching on the Internet is not the same as searching your library's elec-
tronic catalogue.

128
Regardless of the limitations previously mentioned, the Internet can be
a useful tool to help you locate thought-provoking articles or unusual
perspectives or ideas that could help you expand your critique of the
literature.
Google Scholar is, perhaps, the most obvious and frequently used
source for searching for academic literature on the Internet. When you
use Google Scholar, an underlying algorithm makes a ‘best guess’ as to
whether or not a source is scholarly. It is then up to you to evaluate the
source for academic authority. A Google Scholar search will, neverthe-
less, ikely unearth a number of useful or interesting citations that you
can follow up.
Do not limit yourself to Google Scholar, however. A large amount of
scholarly material is now being published and aggregated in other digital
formats, all of which are searchable via tags or search boxes. Many schol-
ars, for example, keep blogs that can be searched for both links to useful
material and for different angles on the literature (you can find blogs
using Google’s blog search). Twitter can also be a worthwhile source for
current literature, not least because many Twitter users assiduously
share links to reports and journal articles. Academics are also sharing
their slideshows and PowerPoint presentations on services such as
Slideshare.net, a quick search of which might provide a number of poten-
tially useful citations. Searching people’s online bookmarks can also be
profitable: find a user on Delicious.com or Diigo.com who has similar
interests to your own, and browse their bookmarks. The chances are that
they have a number of ‘favourite’ sites that are also relevant to your own
research.
Do remember though, that although these sources might provide stimulat-
ing or provocative material, none of them can be guaranteed to be peer-
reviewed. You should not rely only on Internet searching for finding
scholarly material, no matter how difficult using the university lbrary
might at first seem.
If you are enrolled in a lengthy research degree, you will need to do search
‘updates’ until submission of your thesis so as to ensure that you have not
missed any relevant later publications.

Strategically managing the reading

The extent of coverage will of course depend on the level of your degree, and
the nature of your research. For a longer thesis, you will need to provide

29
a comprehensive review of all relevant literature, perhaps even an encyclo-
paedic one if that is required. For a shorter thesis or report, you will at
least need to (1) focus on key writers in the field (you may not be able to
survey all writers in the field, so limit your coverage to those authors who
have contributed significantly to developing the research field); and (2) cover
the most recent, relevant publications available. But do consult with your
supervisor about expectations of coverage.
You may be working with a scant literature, the challenge being to criti-
cally evaluate that literature to show precisely what has been done, what has
not been done, what gaps you will be filling and why it is useful or important
to do so. Or, in having a clearly defined project in hand, you may be working
with a localized, contained literature, where the challenge will be to situate
that body of research in a broader knowledge base.
Or you may be in the situation where, having just started your research
degree, you have not yet identified a research topic to work on. In this case,
you will be reading for different purposes: (1) early stage skimming (see >
‘Reading intensively and skimming’ in Chapter 2 to discover what is going
on in the literature or bodies of literature around your subject, and perhaps
to identify a suitable topic for research (directions for future research in the
conclusions of recently passed theses are also worth checking); (2) more
focused reading to refine your project; and (8) intensive reading while
appraising sources directly relevant to your project. Each of these reading
modes, which you might find yourself circling more than once, is now dis-
cussed a little further. .

It is not a good idea to take detailed notes while in discovery mode, as you are
just trying to gain a solid overview of what is going on in the literature to find
out where you can slot in. So, most likely you are skimming across a great
deal of material.
Still, in this stage you will be developing an appreciation of how the bodies
of knowledge around your subject have evolved over time. So, begin generat-
ing useful categories. You can group studies around anything potentially
relevant to your research: procedures, theories, models, methodologies, topics
or themes of interest (perhaps in different settings), or whatever complements
your (potential) research interests. Doing this will help you to partition infor-
mation in a meaningful way and keep track of sources you may wish to
return to later for closer scrutiny. You could try brainstorming or mind-
mapping categories (see > ‘Visual mapping of material’ in Chapter 4) to
break these down into further blocks of reading.

130
If you are in a research area where you are conducting on-going tests or
experiments, perhaps over 1—2 years, so as to pin down your research, then
the set of refining questions provided in Box 8.1, which can be used to
progressively refine your topic or project when reading in terms of focus,
purpose and method, may be less useful.
Otherwise, keep writing down your answers to these questions during
reading. Your answers will surely change as you progress further in the lit-
erature, thus deepening and refining understanding of your subject.

box 8.1 Refining questions

Value and contribution: Why is it important to be undertaking this research at the level of
your research degree? What is the nature of the contribution you expect to make to
research/practice?

What? (Research focus): What precisely is your topic of investigation? Or what precisely is the
focus of your research project? What exactly will you be doing? What work will you carry out?
Why? (Research purpose): Why are you covering this topic or doing this work? What is
the big question driving your research enquiry? Or what precisely is your primary objec-
tive? If you have hypotheses, how do these relate to your primary research question or
objective? What are the subsidiary questions or objectives underpinning your research?
Jot these down too as they occur to you.

How? (Research approach): How are you going to conduct the research: Methodology?
Modelling? Theoretical framework? Fieldwork? Data-collection instruments?
Experimental or test procedures? Archival research? Other? What is the justification
for taking that approach? How will this approach help you to achieve your research
goals?

The more you refine your topic or project, the easier it is to identify material
directly relevant to the subject under investigation. You will now be engaging
with your material in a fully critical fashion (see 4 ‘Critical appraisal of the
literature’ below).
Skimming does occur in the third stage, as it is not always easy to tell from
an abstract or an introduction whether a source, or parts thereof, is relevant,
or to what extent it is relevant. You do not want to waste time reading, for

ea
example, a 30-page article when only a few pages are directly relevant.
Finding a good balance between skimming and reading intensively is aided
by reading strategically.
Do think carefully about the types of information you want from more
focused, intensive reading before setting out. You will not know the details
of what will be found until you do the reading, but this should not curtail
thinking through what you hope to gain from reading intensively any par-
ticular source.

Critical appraisal of the literature

Full critical engagement with the literature is a requisite of all literature
reviews. Avoid either describing the literature when you write or becoming a
detached observer, presenting a wonderfully complex vision of a world (the
literature), which, exciting though it may be, floats free from your own
research. If you are unpractised in critical appraisal, refer to the ‘Critical
appraisal checklist’ in Box 8.2, which details practices that govern a critical
approach to the literature when reading and taking notes (see also 3
‘Treating information critically’ in Chapter 2).

box 8.2 Critical appraisal checklist

Develop an overview of the status of knowledge around your subject: What is known?
What is not known? What do we think we know? What do we think we do not know? What
seems to be contradictory, contested, problematic, uncertain or incomplete in the litera-
ture? Critical information of this type may need to be finely discriminated when writing
your literature review.

Keep a balanced perspective: Identify what is useful in the studies under review: the
strengths that you can build on, as well as any problems or gaps you encounter. Critical
appraisal always involves due acknowledgement of other scholars’ contributions, as well
as criticisms of their work.

Remain open minded: Even when you think you know the answers, remain open to other
possibilities as you explore the literature. Doing this will ensure that you do not miss
important information that suggests you need to qualify, reshape or even abandon a
position you hold. In short, it is not a good idea to approach the literature with the sole
objective of finding information that will support a predetermined position or thesis, which
unfortunately does happen.

32
 Maintain a healthy scepticism: Probe for biases, problems, etc. How robust is the
design of the research? Think carefully about theory, methodology, modelling, as all will
influence authors’ interpretations. Any problems with the approach: design principles,
test or experimental procedures, data collection processes and instruments used, etc.?
Examine terms and concepts; use specialist dictionaries/reference works if needs be.
Definitional clarity is vitally important in all academic communication. Are there any
problems in this regard?

Identify and evaluate key debates and issues: Raise questions as you read, lots of
them: What do the important debates centre on? What are the key issues? Who are the
key figures in the debates? To what extent do authors agree/disagree and why? How
strong are their arguments? How good is their evidence? How sound are their interpreta-
tions of data presented? What do you think and why? Take notes on where you stand and
why, any ideas you are developing and evidence to support them, which is so important
when it comes to writing the review.

Map authors’ viewpoints: Draw mind maps, graphs, whatever suits you to plot
similarities and differences in authors’ findings. It is not enough to show what these
differences amount to in your literature review. You may need to explain what
accounts for such differences, or provide possible reasons for these. One place to
begin looking for explanatory reasons is in the design of the research. How robust is
the design? ‘

Position your research in relation to the literature: Are there problems inviting resolu-
tion? Issues that need revisiting? Changing circumstances that demand attention? New
perspectives that could alter our understanding? Advances that need to be made?
Research gaps that beg to be filled? Or what? How does your research fit in? Identify
where you stand and why, and take notes to this effect.

Processing information to facilitate writing

It is a mistake not to give due consideration to whether or not the meth-
ods you use to process and store information will facilitate the writing
of your literature review. You should not leave thinking about how you
are going to develop and structure your review until you come to the
writing. A number of suggestions for processing are now offered, but do
discuss this matter with your supervisor, other academics, and students
further progressed in their degrees, as they may offer more appealing
suggestions.

0
Useful as it is for identifying needed information, key word searching of
imported databases is no more a processing strategy involving critical
appraisal than is highlighting text when you read.

summarising key points at the front of a paper you are reading is a sound
processing strategy. Strategies of this type may suffice if the literature is
contained, perhaps only 30 papers or so, but will need to be supplemented by
more global strategies where the literature 1s extensive.
at

allow you to group related sources while documenting summary critical

responses to source material, and often appeal to students writing more unstruc-
tured theses in the arts and social sciences. Students have used electronic tools
such as Evernote, Mendeley, Zotero, Word, Excel, and EndNote to build these,
while others prefer boxes of index cards. You may want to build one or a number
of indexes around key concerns of your research, as for example, themes, ideas,
concepts, methods, etc. (see > the hypothetical illustration in Figure 8.1).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX THEME CARD INDEX: EUTHANASIA |

Brown, P.Z. (2006) ‘Living to die: debating moral Brown, P.Z. — philosophical approach to the
right’. Philosophy Today, 12:4, pp. 234-65. morality of Euth. practices — very good.
Include your own evaluative comments (perhaps Chin, K. — see bibl. for direct quotes (interesting
in relation to ideas of other authors), plus any case studies).
direct quotations or paraphrases of interest. Parker, T.Q. — dilemmas facing medical
Also note whether or not you have photocopied practitioners — ‘medical’ issues well covered.
the whole or parts of this article. Paque, J. — unusual angle on supporters of Euth. —
(yes — see paraphrase on bibl. reference).
Smith, S.T. — weak challenge to Parker.

FIGURE 8.1 Indexing different types of information

These reports are like mini-literature reviews of only a few pages that are built
around, say, four or five papers (often with competing views) on some specific
aspect of your subject. These reports have distinct advantages: they help build
confidence and reduce anxiety through practice; provide early feedback on where
improvement might be needed; are an antidote to vagueness, as writing forces
you to think through material; can contribute to agenda setting for meetings
with supervisors about where your research is going, ideas and challenges;
and, most importantly, will feed into the writing of your literature review.

134
 Even though some reports may be abandoned as your research changes direc-
tion, the act of writing can speed up the project refinement process by filtering
out what you do not want to get into while focusing your evolving interests.

The matrix method

This is a popular method in a number of research areas, particularly where
evidence-based research is the norm. Useful as matrixes are, they sometimes
read like an index or quantitative summary of papers in the literature with
little or no actual processing unless this is deliberately built in, which is easy
enough to do. Google ‘the matrix method literature review to find an example
(see also 3 ‘Further resources’).

Software
If you are technologically inclined and enjoy using computer software, read
the interesting article by Silvana di Gregorio (2000), which notes different
software packages, and discusses the analytical advantages of using NVivo
for the literature review. NVivo allows for deep-level analysis of qualitative
data. If your work is more quantitative in nature, then there will likely be
specific software designed with your disciplinary purposes in mind. Check
with your lecturer, supervisor or lab colleagues to see which software is used
in your department, which may help you analyse data for your literature
review. Online software, such as Evernote, Zotero and Mendely can also be
used for this purpose, but only if you use tags particularly well.

During reading, processing and storing of information, bear in mind that the
nature, design and objectives of your research will have a shaping influence on how
you structure your review. The following discussion of different options illustrates
the interconnection between students’ approaches to structuring, their specific
research interests and how they processed their information for easy retrieval.

The chronological approach

Reviewing the various studies, or groups of studies, in order of their appear-
ance in time could be appropriate, say, for example, if it proved necessary for
your research to chart, in some detail, technological or theoretical advances
made over a period of time.
mmee jieesiae ar ey es
MCohetae
a 2DtS, ISSUES OF cepates

It may be appropriate to organize your review around key themes, concepts,

or indeed key issues or debates, as this student did:
The purpose of this detailed review of the major debates surrounding market
reform is to isolate a specific set of issues relating to policy development and
implementation, the key focus of this dissertation.

Igo
 Linguistics:
The division by X and Y into numerous subcategories is inadequate to the
overall function of modality. Such a division would in turn produce more
subcategories such as anger, hesitation, sorrow, and so on. Hence, the classt-
fication of modality must be established by the characteristics of the function
of modality related to the proposition in the sentence. The classification of
modality is one of the subjects of this study.

Botany and zoology:

This thesis reports experiments aimed at extending this observation to crop
and pasture species (see section 1.5).

a ae ~~» further resources

Fink, A. (2009) Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 3rd edn.
London: Sage Publications. A great, practical resource that takes you through searching
online databases, evaluation systems and techniques to assess research design validity,
doing the write up and much more.

Garrard, J. (2007) Health Sciences Literature Made Easy: The Matrix Method. 2nd edn.
Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett. An excellent resource for those grappling with control of a fairly
extensive literature in evidence-based research in the sciences.

138
 Reports and Research Proposals

sfm developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

e Understand the complexities of report writing and appreciate the demands of the
audience in some report writing.
e ldentify strategies suited to focusing and developing the different types of reports
discussed in this chapter.
e Appreciate the different purposes of proposals, and identify strategies for focusing and
developing a proposal.

Students in taught courses are often expected to produce reports for assessment,
and like those in research degrees may also have to produce a research proposal
if proceeding to a thesis. These two types of writing are the focus of this chapter.

Reports

Reports are remarkably varied. The style, structure and treatment of informa-
tion in a report can be strongly influenced by disciplinary practices, and by
context and audience (particularly in the case of reports emulating workplace
practice), all of which you will need to take into account when writing. There
are the more traditional reports, such as field, experimental or laboratory
reports; academic progress reports; the more consultative type, such as
 Linguistics:
The division by X and Y into numerous subcategories is inadequate to the
overall function of modality. Such a division would in turn produce more
subcategories such as anger, hesitation, sorrow, and so on. Hence, the classi-
fication of modality must be established by the characteristics of the function
of modality related to the proposition in the sentence. The classification of
modality is one of the subjects of this study.
Botany and zoology:
This thesis reports experiments aimed at extending this observation to crop
and pasture species (see section 1.5).

a ies - = further resources

Fink, A. (2009) Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 3rd edn.
London: Sage Publications. A great, practical resource that takes you through searching
online databases, evaluation systems and techniques to assess research design validity,
doing the write up and much more.

Garrard, J. (2007) Health Sciences Literature Made Easy: The Matrix Method. 2nd edn.
Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett. An excellent resource for those grappling with control of a fairly
extensive literature in evidence-based research in the sciences.

138
 Reports and Research Proposals

zr developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: ‘

e Understand the complexities of report writing and appreciate the demands of the
audience in some report writing.
e ldentify strategies suited to focusing and developing the different types of reports
discussed in this chapter.
e Appreciate the different purposes of proposals, and identify strategies for focusing and
developing a proposal.

Students in taught courses are often expected to produce reports for assessment,
and like those in research degrees may also have to produce a research proposal
if proceeding to a thesis. These two types of writing are the focus of this chapter.

Reports

Reports are remarkably varied. The style, structure and treatment of informa-
tion in a report can be strongly influenced by disciplinary practices, and by
context and audience (particularly in the case of reports emulating workplace
practice), all of which you will need to take into account when writing. There
are the more traditional reports, such as field, experimental or laboratory
reports; academic progress reports; the more consultative type, such as
option viability reports or cost-effectiveness reports; and other reports that
emulate workplace practice as, for example, in business, the professions or
industry (for example, project management reports).
If you are required to write a report, take care to read any written instructions
carefully, if you are given them; or ask your lecturer/supervisor if it is possible to
review a model of what is expected, or to clarify what is generally expected in
terms of the appropriate style and structure, and the expected length.

A8 the nature of the audience can influence the style oť a report, questions of
this type often need to be addressed at the outset of writing:

box 9. l Brainstorming audience considerations

• Who is my audience? Lecturers/supervisors? A single organization or industry body?

A particular group - for example, farmers or environmentalists? A dual external/aca-
demic audience - for example, government ministers and academics? Or members
of, say, two different professions - for example, doctors and engineers, or lawyers and
business representatives?
• Who is meant to read the report? One person? Different people at different levels
of on organization? Varied people from different organizations? Others?
• lf the report is to be written os for oral presentation, who is my intended audience?
(See ➔ 'Planning for Success' in Chapter 11.l

Given your answers to the above, what factors do you need to take into account when
writing? Think along these lines:

Organizational and other limitations for implementation? Countering anticipated

opposition? The assurance of cost-effectiveness? Time or timing considerations?
Palicy alignment - for example, that the policy proposals are viable in terms of the eur-
rent governmenťs stated aims? Constraints to action by the intended audience? That the
report will address the varied interests of readers from different levels of on organization,
or readers from different professional backgrounds? That the report embodies aware-
ness of cross-cultural communication issues? How logically persuasive will I need to be
to convince my audience and what evidence can I use to aid persuasion? Anything else?

Features of prominent types of reports in different contexts are now dis-

cussed. These contexts illustrate a range of possible features that may
appear in different combinations in a written report. An experimental or
technical report, for example, may embody features of a formal report. You
will need to adapt the advice here to the specific needs of your project.

140
 Reports and research prooosals

Business reports
Your busiiwss ťeport will likely involve analysis of a situation - historical,
current or projected - so as to engage problem solving. As such, it will have
a strong practical or workplace orientation.

In orienting business graduates to what was expected in their reports, a lec-

turer advised them to avoid 'academic argument' (that is, argument of the
type discussed under ➔ 'Research essays', Chapter 5) in favour of 'short,
crisp reports'. which focused the analysis of a 'situation' in sequential terms
(see ➔ Figure 9.1). Such advice invokes a medical discourse model in view of
its obvious relation to the process of diagnosis, prognosis and cure. Superficially,
the model looks simple, amounting to not much more than a summary intro-
duction and a <lot-point approach to detailing the information covered. But it
is far more challenging on a deeper level of analysis as now discussed.

Díagnosis
Identifying what the problems actually are may be a moot point debated in
the literature, a debate in which you would need to critically engage. Also, the
symptomatic effects may be contested in the literature, or they may not be
fixed but variable over time or context, and so again be difficult to pin down.
As for causes, these may require analysis on both surface and deep levels. For
example, on the surface the problem may appear to be due to incompetent
management, but in probing deeper you find the real cause is the flawed
structural organization of a company, which, in turn, demands you grapple
with difficult organizational issues, perhaps of a theoretical nature.

Prognosis
After identifying the problems, you would then need to assess the probability
of these being overcome - this is the prognosis part. This could in vol ve in-depth

Problem }
Diagnosis
'SITUATION' Symptoms
TOBE

}
ANALYSED Causes
Prognosis
and cure
Gure

FIGURE 9.1 A model of a business report

141
analysis of a range of al terna ti ves. including close examination of the positives
and negatives of each and evidential support for conclusions reached.

Cure implies the need for recommendations to overcome the problems, per-
haps in the form of an executive summary (see ➔ 'Formal reports' later on in
this chapter), or as a set of proposals. Again you could find that there are
various choices needing analysis, perhaps in terms of short- and long-term
benefits with further discussion of any projected disadvantages. This could
also involve you in analysis of different theoretical perspectives, and perhaps
prediction of a speculative nature. It would then be necessary to ensure your
speculations arose out of your earlier discussions if they were to have any
basis in fact. Throughout this process, you may need to include evaluation of
the likelihood of specific proposals having the desired effect - this will be fur-
ther prognosis.

Experimental or technical reports

Even if you are practised in writing experimental or technical reports, the follow-
ing discussion could prove a useful refresher, if you are returning to study/
research after an absence. This type of report conforms to the structural model,
or some variation of it (and there are many): Introduction; Materials and Methods;
Results; Discussion. Under disciplinary influences, results and discussion are
sometimes combined in one section; sometimes there is a separate conclusion, or
the discussion section acts as the conclusion - confirm what applies in your case.

The model in Figure 9.2 illustrates the tight, interlocking relationship of the
structural divisions or parts of this type of report. All parts need to be held in
relation at all times, and when writing the results and discussion sections you
need to ensure that these line up with your stated research goals/questions, as
laid out in your introduction, or elsewhere.

lssues
Issues now briefly discussed can be particularly vexing if you are unfamiliar
with this type of report writing because of discipline transfer.

Covi::.r 0 ae and trnatment ot inforr1ation ir diffr.>rent parts of the repor Discussions

sometimes read like a repetition of results or like an introduction. Whercas
the literature is foregrounded in the introduction as a means of providing

142
 lntroduction

7
• Context (review of relevant literature)
• lmportance/value of investigation
• Structure

WHY? HOW?
Research Materials WHAT? SOWHAT?
goals/ and Results Discussion
questions methods

lmplications/issues (move from your own findings ------.. to others' research)

FIGURE 9.2 Typ1cal parts of an experímental or technical report

·contexť or background to the investigation, in the discussion it is the

significance/implications of your results/findings that are focused on, with
subsequent references to the, literature to show agreement/disagreement
with others' findings and reasons for these .

Alignmer+ of ' -. tPd research aims and presentation and díscussion of results
Sometimes the results presented do not fully align with the stated research
objectives or aims. There is a disjunction between reasons given for undertak-
ing the research and the report of what was found. Every part of the report
must relate back to the objectives or aims as set out in the introduction, or
perhaps in a separate section.

-~ Sometimes the order-

ing of discussions in different parts of a report is such that it is difficult to
detect a coherent line of discussion (see ➔ 'Developing texts' in Chapter 4).

-r r 1 : · Sometimes there is insuffi-

1

cient detail to follow what exactly transpired in the conduct of an investiga-

tion, with even key details missing. While disciplinary/course practices can
influence the level of detail to be included in different parts of a report, there
can be unfamiliarity with fairly standard expectations in this regard. Discuss
this with your lecturer/supervisor if needs be.
Each of the divisions or parts of this type of report is now discussed in more
detail, with particular regard to focus .

143
Tit'"' (~opaťote pJr-ej
Your title should be specific rather than vague. These examples taken from
a handout for a Psychology course make this point: a vague title has been
reworded to show precisely what was measured (infants' emotional responses)
and what was manipulated (perceived sex):

Vague title:
Observer bias regarding infant behaviour

Focused title:
The effects of perceived sex on observers' ratings of infants' emotional
responses

;,\L1sí•·o( f or _;u1n l 'l<J I')1g-s (1 1 · .1 svn!!y ius 1J ' /

parographs - provides on indusive summary)
An abstract or summary may or may not be necessary. If it is, make sure it
is self-contained and that it does at least the following:

• indicates clearly specific objectives, the hypothesis(es) being tested or problems investi-
gated and why - the value of the investigation;
• provides brief information on how the experiments or tests (or anything else) were
done;
• discusses more fully key findings and their implications in terms of the objectives
or hypothesis(es) tested, perhaps in terms of future research and/or theoretical
considerations.

of your invAstigotion)
As the structure of the introduction can vary across disciplines, do clarify
expectations. Usually the introduction includes information of this type:

• An initial statement of the topíc of investigation and experimental objectives or test pur-
poses, indicating why the investigation was undertaken, and why it was important.
Sometimes there is also a scope statement, detailing limitations of the experiment/project.
• Definition of ony complex terms or concepts used in the report.
• A succinct review of previous research findings (reference these) for the purpose of detailing
what has been done and identifying ony gaps, weaknesses or areas of extension leading
to the tormulation of research questions or objectives. Focus only on information specific to
development of your questions; do not be tempted towards broad general discussion.
• A clear statement of the hypothesis(es) in the final paragraph.

144
From the writing of your introduction, it should be clear what previous
research has been done, how your investigation arises out of this research (cer-
tifying its value) and what precisely you are investigating or testing, and why.

Separate theory section?

Sometimes in more technical reports (for example, in Engineering) a separate
theory section follows the introduction. This section usually draws out theoretical
issues relevant to the research presented in the report or outlines the theoretical
model/s or framework/s being applied in your test/experimental analyses.

Materials and methods (explains how you conducted

your investigation or tests)
This section is likely to include information of this type:

e Descriptive details of, for example, subjects tested, including the total number, pre-test or selec-
tion criteria applied, placement or assignment of subjects, and so on; or of the physical environ-
ment used, or of the materials, apparatuses, equipment and stimuli used in experiments.
e Explanation of the functional relationship between various devices or instruments used.
Focus on only those details relating to your research objectives or the hypothesis(es) you
have set out to test.
e A sequential description of the procedure. Consider a chronological, step-by-step
description of what you actually did when running the experiment or conducting the test;
organize your description around sub-headings if appropriate. It could also be neces-
sary to include some explanatory information on why you made the choices you did, as
this student did: ‘In order to assess the amount of paint applied to the wood surfaces all
specimens were weighed prior to paint application’.

How much detail you include in this section will depend on whether it is
expected that your experiment or test could be replicated from your descrip-
tion. Ask your lecturer whether this applies if you are unsure.

Results (tells what your findings were)

First consider the best way to group your results for discussion. Create appro-
priate sub-headings (see > ‘Using sub-headings effectively’ in Chapter 4).
Review whether the results you present do tie-in with the hypotheses, objec-
tives or research questions laid out in your introduction.
Next, think through how to order your results for discussion. One way is to
direct attention to what is more or less significant about the results in terms
of your objectives and/or hypothesis(es) as laid out in the introduction. Or
organize discussion of your results around a set of illustrations (bar charts,
tables, figures, diagrams, graphs, and so on). If you do use figurative illustrations,
provide adequate explanatory description of them in this section, and draw
out what is significant about these in your discussion section (unless you are

145
combining results and discussion). Appendices can be included if your
results are extensive, so that readers can refer to these for more detailed
information as they wish.

‘ iS ; OU Ce «¢ nsof your firndings$s)

This section renresents a cannes ace in the thinking, in which you process
your results to determine what they really mean. Begin by reviewing yet again
your stated aims/objectives/questions/hypotheses as laid out in the introduc-
tion. Some compositional moves you could make in this section are as follows:

e Explain what you found in terms of expected or unexpected outcomes, or perhaps con-
flicting results.
e Determine the importance/significance of your results by situating these in the context
of other scholars’ findings. In the discussion section always work from your findings to
others’ findings.
e Deduce the degree of generality of particular results, whether or not these might apply
beyond the particular experiments or tests carried out by you.
e Discuss biases (for example, in the methodology) that may have skewed your results.
Determine the status of the hypothesis(es) in light of the results obtained compared to
those of other studies.
e Formulate new or modified hypotheses from claims regarding the general applicability of
particular results or because results show a need for these.
e Relate your findings to the theory from which your predictions were derived.
e Make recommendations for future research, perhaps by identifying gaps, difficulties and
ways of clarifying or extending the present research.

In the process of discussing your findings you can draw attention to your final
conclusions, although you may wish to present these in a separate concluding
section.

Formal reports

A formal research report is often long and comprehensive. As the structure

can be influenced by disciplinary preferences, be advised by your lecturer/
supervisor as to specific requirements.

a) XU .

If you are a science student, your formal report could embody the structural
divisions detailed under ‘Experimental or technical reports’ above. The for-
mal report can also be similar to a mini-thesis in its general structure, in that
it often conforms to the structural division of parts shown in Figure 9.3.

146
As most of these features are covered in various other sections of the book
(see > in particular ‘Principles of sound structure’, Chapter 4 and ‘Dividing
up the text’ in Chapter 10); only those features marked with an asterisk in
Figure 9.3 are discussed further.

Cover of the report*

Abstract
Acknowledgements
Lists of tables, figures, plates, etc.
Tahie of contents ——__—» Preliminary matter

List of acronyms or abbreviations (if

necessary)
Executive summary and/or
Recommendations*
Preface and/or Introduction
The main body of the report (divided
into parts and/or chapters — one of
which might be a literature review — —_______* Body of the report
subdivisions and perhaps sections:
within these)
Conclusion
Appendix(ces) (if necessary)
Bibliography (sometimes SS End matter
annotated)

FIGURE 9.3. Structural outline of a formal report

Cover of the report (separate page)

If your report is meant to replicate a commission from an outside organization,
then the cover page is likely to include this type of sequential information:

e The title.
e For whom the report was prepared.
e The department in which it was prepared.
e The date it was produced.

Otherwise, you may simply have a title page.

Executive summary and/or Recommendations

While positioning of the ‘Executive summary’ or ‘Recommendations’ in the report
can vary, these sections usually appear just prior to the main body of the report.

147
 An ‘Executive summary’ typically contains discussion of the major find-
ings, the conclusions and (possibly) recommendations. This summary is often
no more than one to three pages, although it can be longer. Or you may be
required to include only ‘Recommendations’, which are then succinctly stated
in a few lines, often with sequential numbering as follows (a single recom-
mendation may also be divided into sub-recommendations using (a), (b), etc.
to focus specific actions required of the recommendation):

Recommendation 1 ...
Recommendation 2 ...
Recommendation 3 ... (continue with this format)

Recommendations made must arise out of your findings and conclusions, as

discussed fully in the body of your report; so substantiation is not needed at
this point. Recommendations are usually suggestions for future action to
overcome problems investigated in the report.

Field reports
The requirements for field reports are remarkably varied so it is imperative
that you get instructions from your lecturer/supervisor on what 1s required in
compiling yours. In general though, it is necessary to think through what
details you should be recording and ask yourself: why these details and not oth-
ers? (See also 3 ‘Avoiding the urge to rush into data-gathering’ in Chapter 2.)

In collecting samples, it might be necessary to keep records of dates, times

of day, season, weather, locations and relevant physical characteristics,
selection processes, sample dimensions and other characteristics, tech-
niques of sampling and storage, and so forth. Or, in conducting interviews,
there might be a need to record the time of the interview, the characteristics
of those interviewed (for example, gender, status, etc.), the communicative
content of non-verbal gestures, details of the interview setting, or perhaps
indicators of relations among respondents where group interviews are
taking place.
Carefully record your observations on what occurred, difficulties encoun-
tered, unusual occurrences, insights gleaned, emerging themes, hunches
and possibilities, etc. Such records will be invaluable when you come to
write the report.

148
 ~™ key points

Be meticulous in your record keeping.

Progress reports

The purpose of this type of report, as its name suggests, is to report on how
your research is progressing. Sometimes a (work in) progress report is rather
hke an updated research proposal, as discussed in the next section, which
could be useful for you to review as well.

A progress report provides the opportunity to engage fully with the research
you have already undertaken in order to demonstrate what changes your
thinking has undergone and why; explain more fully your choices and the
direction your research is taking; and obtain the type of feedback that will
allow you to continue to progtess.
Your report may include a full literature review (see > discussion above)
with the length being governed by the level and stage of your degree, and per-
haps disciplinary requirements. You may also need to include a timetable for
completion.
In preparing to write, ask yourself:

e What have | done in my research so far?

e What difficulties have | encountered along the way?
e What solutions did | employ?
e How has my research changed in terms of my original research proposal as
regards changes of focus, objectives or questions being asked, methodology, issues
| want to look at, theoretical questions, experimental or test design and procedures,
and so forth?
e Why have these changes occurred and what have been the consequences for my
research?
e Dolsee any continuing difficulties on which | need feedback? [You could, for example, be
trying to make a decision between choices, each of which seems equally viable to you.)

The objective in writing the progress report then is to present an up-to-date

account of the status of your research, to detail plans for the completion of
the research and to get feedback on all this.

149
Research proposals
You could be writing research proposals at various points: prior to enrolment
(perhaps as part of an application for a scholarship and/or as an application
for entry to study at a particular institution); not long after enrolment in a
research degree; at various stages in the first year or so of a research degree;
or prior to beginning the research component of a degree that includes both
coursework and research.
There are also various synonyms for a ‘research proposal’ produced dur-
ing the course of a degree: for example, ‘position statement’ or ‘statement
of intent’.

The timing of production as well as the level of degree in which you are
enrolled will affect the purpose, and therefore both the kind, and the extent,
of coverage in your proposal. Proposals produced prior to enrolment or in the
early stage of your degree may be quite limited and general, perhaps two or
three pages. Those produced a year or more after commencement of, say, a
PhD will be more comprehensive.
If you are producing a proposal to proceed to research after completing
the coursework component of your higher degree, your proposal will vary
in terms of length and complexity, so be advised by your supervisor as to
requirements, and range beyond discussions here if needs be, perhaps even
in > ‘Thesis writing’, Chapter 10. In certain areas of US study, for exam-
ple, the research proposal produced on completing coursework constitutes
up to the first three chapters of a PhD (introduction, literature review and
methodology chapters), as discussed in some detail by Watts (2003).
One way to see the proposal is as a marketing exercise, its main function
being to sell your research. In this perspective, the purposes are to allow your
reader/s to assess the value and viability of your proposed research and to
provide useful feedback on this. Your objective is to convince your reader(s)
that the following apply:

e The scope and quality of your research is suited to the level of the degree. Clearly, the
breadth and depth of research expected will be different for shorter and longer theses.
e The research as outlined is appropriate for the length. Again there is a vast difference
between the extent of research required for a shorter thesis of, say, 15,000 words and that
appropriate for, say, an 80,000 word PhD.
e The methods you propose to complete the research are appropriate, that is, it will be
possible to access the resources needed to complete the research, to conduct the

150
 interviews proposed, to carry out field research, to access suitable equipment, or to
obtain necessary materials, etc.
e Your proposed research is viable in terms of time available to complete the degree.

With a research proposal, then, you will need to address a range of issues to
do with the validity, viability and value of the research being proposed for
your level of degree.

SVE
LaF Bad Ne oS

This section poses questions to think about when focusing and developing
your proposal. Again, though, which questions are relevant and the amount
of detail included in answering them will depend on the degree in which you
are enrolled, the nature of your research, the stage you are at in your degree
and any disciplinary requirements.

What is your field of research or topic of investigation?

This question addresses what you are setting out to investigate, what it is
you want to look at or focus on. This could take the form of identifying the
field of research in which you are interested, the general topic area, or a spe-
cific topic. These distinctions are chartered in Figure 9.4 by way of an exam-
ple from Linguistics, which you can easily adapt to your situation.
A proposal is just that: what is proposed is not fixed for all time. Do not be
overly concerned when proposing a topic that you will have to stay with it,
particularly not prior to beginning, or early in your degree. Topics are some-
times changed or the focus shifts, along with other aspects of the study, as
occurs during fieldwork on occasion. Do take care, though, as a radical change
of topic might mean that an appropriate supervisor cannot be found, or that
your designated supervisor no longer feels able to supervise your project.

Field of research:

Second language acquisition

General topic area:

Forms of address in different cultures Ane opieanenent

Specific topic:

Intercultural problems in teaching forms of address to Thai

learners of English as a second language

FIGURE 9.4 Progressive refinement of a topic

151
What is the context of your study?
It is usual to provide relevant background information so as to contextualize
your proposed research, to describe the broad context of your study — the big
picture — and then say which aspects of the research field you want to con-
sider. This can be done by way of a mini-literature review, perhaps even a full
literature review if you are further on in your degree, which also allows jus-
tification of the foci and interests of your research, the issues you will be
addressing and so forth.
It may be that you have only a limited, general knowledge of what
research has been done, but that would be sufficient for a proposal accom-
panying an application, where you could provide background information
by way of topic generalizations. Ask yourself: (1) what background informa-
tion on my topic am I able to provide? And (2) how does what I want to do
fit in with my general understanding of what research has already been
done in the field?

Whatis the primary research objective or central research question?

This question addresses why you are undertaking your proposed research.
There are different ways to encapsulate the why of your research, and per-
haps you will use a combination of these: stating aims and/or objectives;
proposing questions that you want to answer; setting up hypotheses that you
wish to test, a hypothesis being ‘a proposition put forward merely as a basis
for reasoning or argument, without any assumption of its truth’ (New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary); or ‘laying out a problem’ in some detail.

What is the value of your research project?

This question needs addressing if you are enrolled in a doctorate, but not
necessarily otherwise. A PhD requires an original contribution to the
research field. Answering this question allows you to convey the nature of the
contribution you expect to make and say why you think it is important to con-
duct the research. The significance of your research project can be conveyed
through discussion of the existing literature — its strengths and weaknesses
and how your research fits in. Apart from providing information on the con-
tribution you expect to make to research, it may also be important for you to
mention practical or professional value attaching to your proposed research,
as might be the case with industry applications, commercial uses, reform
recommendations, and so on.

Will you be using theory, modelling and/or methodology?

If theory, modelling and/or methodology areee to be a special considera-
tion in your research, provide information to this effect, if you are able. If you
are further along in your degree, you may be able to discuss fully and justify
your theoretical framework or your choice of model.

192Z
 Do take care with this term, ‘methodology’, which should not be
confused with procedure (the next point discussed). As has been suggested,
a methodology is:

Arationale for the methods used to gather and process data, in what sequence
and on what samples, taken together, constitutes a research methodology.
This is not a grand term for ‘list of methods’, but an informed argument for
designing research in a particular way. A research methodology needs to
be appropriate for the research problem, and the justification that this is so
should form part of a thesis. (Cryer, 1996: 45)

It is not just a matter of preferring some methods to others, but of choosing

a combination of methods most appropriate to the research you wish to carry
out, and being able to argue convincingly that this is indeed the case.

How do you intend to proceed with your research?

If yours is an early proposal, say something about procedure. This reveals
how you intend to go about your research, what activities you will need to
carry out and in what order. It might be appropriate, for example, to provide
information about general plans for fieldwork if this applies (for example,
locations, or populations targeted), to discuss experimental or test plans, or
to identify primary sources to be accessed (such as archival materials). Of
course, in a more comprehensive proposal, all these matters might be cov-
ered in a methodology chapter, justifying and validating your approach.
The idea is to provide an overview of what you think needs to be done to
complete your research. Include as much information as you can so that a
reader can determine any likely problems, unforeseen by you, in carrying out
the research (for example, difficulty accessing and using materials or equip-
ment, locating suitable source materials, undertaking fieldwork or anything
else). Mention any potential problems you anticipate so as to get feedback.

Do you need to discuss relevant work experience?

Where appropriate, give a brief account of any work you have done and are
presently doing, putting special emphasis on anything, including courses you
might be teaching, relevant to the research you are proposing. Work experience
may feature prominently, particularly if this is a key reason for receiving strong
support in the proposed research from academic referees, and/or this experience
is highly relevant to your type of degree (for example, a professional doctorate).

Should you include a timetable for completion of your research?

The answer to this question is probably yes, if you are at the end of or beyond
the first year of research, but no if it is a proposal accompanying an applica-
tion for entry.

153
Ethics clearance is needed for various types of research using animals and
humans, including, at times, conducting interviews and doing surveys on
human populations. This will not concern you at the point of applying for
candidature, but discuss the matter with your supervisor before writing a
proposal during candidature.

It is usual in a research degree to undergo training of various types. But if

you are likely to need special training that could impact on time to comple-
tion (for example, learning a new language), then mention this, as you need
to know that such training will be supported.
You should think about other questions you might need to ask (and
answer) given your specific research interests, so as to ensure that supervi-
sors, or potential supervisors, are fully conversant with your research inter-
ests and needs.

ae ' further resources ©

Watts, M. (2003) The Holy Grail: In Pursuit of the Dissertation Proposal. |nstitute of International
Studies, UC Berkeley. An insightful essay — available in pdf — based on a training workshop
entitled: ‘Dissertation proposal workshop: process and parameters’.

154
 Thesis Writing

My
sf. developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: ‘

Manage your project more effectively by orienting yourself to thesis writing in your
discipline, taking advantage of online research management tools, and engaging
anticipatory thesis management strategies.
Avoid unnecessary work by settling typography and formatting decisions early.
Think through the implications of writing for examiners.
Understand a broad range of standard academic expectations of thesis writing —
both shorter and longer theses — so as to develop more rigour in your writing.
Identify strategies for dividing up the text and incorporating a thesis statement, struc-
turing chapters in different ways, gaining overall thesis control, and developing the
thesis abstract, introduction and conclusion.
Organize a thesis writing group as a mutual support and learning forum.

The hallmark of thesis writing is rigour: rigour in foregrounding and develop-

ing a thesis, in treating the lterature critically, in referencing all source
material, in using theory and justifying methodology, in presenting test or
experimental data, in mounting analyses, arguments and discussions, in
attending to readers’ needs, and in the overall style and presentation. This
chapter considers some generic strategies to assist with effective communica-
tion of your research, whether in a shorter or a longer thesis.
A shorter thesis is seen here as roughly between 10,000 and 25,000 words,
and a longer thesis as roughly between 60,000 and 100,000 words. As this
division is somewhat arbitrary, scan the chapter to see what might be rele-
vant for you. Where there is no distinction made between shorter and longer
theses, advice applies generally.

Managing the project

Communicating original research can prove more demanding and time-
consuming than anticipated. So, you need to put in place sound management
practices early in your degree (see also > ‘Managing your writing environ-
ment’, Chapter 1).

Orient yourself early on to the thesis as ‘product’ by browsing in one or two

recently passed theses in the degree for which you are now studying. Students
in your discipline may be producing different types of theses, such as case studies
or topic-based research, so select those that approximate your type of research.
Even then you could find that the same types of theses have different structures
because of the specifics of the research. If you are uncertain, ask your supervisor
to advise you on how to obtain appropriate theses for review, or, as a last resort,
key in ‘digital theses’ or ‘digital dissertations’ to access online libraries.
If your thesis is to be a set of published articles, review the whole of
Chapter 12 while browsing in this chapter and elsewhere in the book for use-
ful material given your research interests.

exercise: reviewing passed theses

As you review passed theses, you will need to avoid getting caught up in the interesting con-
tent, which is so easy to do. Keep focused on how writers go about the writing — the compo-
sition processes (see —> the exercise under ‘Mastering disciplinary writing practices’ in
Chapter 2 for suggestions about this type of focus). The idea is to get a feel for what constitutes
a thesis at your level of study in your discipline. Do not be intimidated by what you find, as you
are just starting out, and finished products never reflect the messy reality of research.

156
 Thesis writing

Having oriented yourself to what a thesis is, now activate strategies to ease
the path towards producing your thesis.

While your supervisor will guide your research, developing online strategies
for managing a larger research project can be effective in helping you to find,
keep track of and analyse materials that are in digital formats. Many tools
are available to assist you in this task, and there may in fact be tools devel-
oped specifically for your discipline or even for your department or school.
Some of the most generic are now discussed.

RSS
Generally agreed to stand for either ‘Really Simple Syndication’ or ‘Rich Site
Summary’, this is the key to directly accessing the most up-to-date informa-
tion that is published on the web, and is a very powerful way of aggregating
research content. Most websites these days come with an ‘RSS feed’ that
allows you to subscribe to the latest content that is published on the site and
then have it delivered to your ‘feed reader’ or ‘aggregator’. This means that
you do not need to keep checking websites for updates: instead, the updates
come directly to you. By subscribing to feeds, you can view the latest research
reports, blog posts, data streams, publications, notifications, photographs,
bookmarks, tags, Tweets, weather forecasts, news items, and so on, all in the
one place.
There are three main steps you need to go through in order to have such
content delivered to you. There are other ways of subscribing to content, but
this is how it works at its most basic:

e Set up a feed reader through a feed reading service: There are numerous feed
readers freely available on the web. If you have a Google account, then you already
have access to Google Reader. Netvibes.com and Pageflakes.com are also popular
feed readers and allow you to customize your feeds into a kind of ‘personal
homepage’.
e Find feeds that you want to subscribe to: To find out whether or not a site has a feed,
look for a small square and orange ‘RSS’ icon or some text that says ‘RSS’ or ‘Subscribe’
or similar. Click on the icon or text and you will be taken to a page that often looks very
plain or that is seemingly full of code. Copy the URL or web address of this page. This is
the RSS feed address.
e Paste the RSS feed address into your feed reader: Go back to your feed reading serv-
ice and paste the RSS feed address into the ‘add subscription’ or ‘add content’ area. You
will now receive directly to your feed reader any updates that are made to the site you
have subscribed to — there is no need to visit the original site again.

lion!
 ng and document management tools
These have ean been covered already in Chapter 1 (see > ‘Electronic
tools for increasing productivity’) and in Chapter 2 (see > ‘Strategies for
information storage’), but it bears reinforcing that such tools should be part
of your research management strategy to facilitate writing. Using a service
such as Evernote.com, Mendeley.com, or Zotero.org will allow you to file,
annotate, retrieve, and share the resources you both collect and produce
throughout the course of your research project.

Being able to keep track of useful websites is a core skill for the modern
researcher. Many students keep their bookmarked websites in a ‘favourites’
or bookmarks folder that sits on their local hard drive. This system is fine if
you are working only from the one computer, but we are increasingly required
to work across devices and on various machines; this means that if you have
bookmarked or ‘favourited’ a site on one machine’s hard drive, then you can-
not access that bookmark or favourite on another machine. Keeping your
bookmarks online can solve this problem.
Services such as Connotea.org, Delicious.com and Diigo.com allow you to
save, tag, search and share your bookmarks on the web so that you can
access them from any device that is Internet connected. By default, book-
marks that are saved to such services are usually publicly viewable,
although you may set them to private if you wish. Searching or subscribing
to (via RSS) other people’s bookmarks can also be an excellent way of finding
new or interesting research materials: if you find a user who is sharing
similar content to your own, you can browse their collection for further
resources.
Once your research management strategies are taken care of, you should
concentrate on putting in place early in your degree, practices that will aid
communication of your research in a thesis.

During years of research, it is easy to forget important details of what tran-

spired in the course of the research. So, just as experimental scientists keep
detailed notes in a laboratory book, it is advisable to keep a research journal
from the outset of research, regardless of your discipline.
The research journal can be a valuable aid to writing, as long as it is
focused towards that end. Keep detailed notes on precisely what you did and
why during the research phase, how you went about conducting the research
(the details), and your findings. Note reasons for all decision-making, so that

158
you will be able to justify what you did when you write your thesis, particu-
larly as this influences the conduct of your research. Take notes on anything
else that you think might possibly feed into the writing of your thesis.

Upgrading thesis production skills

Many libraries now have on-site and/or online training in getting the most
from your computer during the thesis production process (for example, work-
ing effectively with long documents, using style templates, or formatting a
print-based thesis). Take up such training if you do not already have the
know-how, as it will certainly reduce frustration with the mechanics of thesis
production.

Managing the project through regular writing

It is not enough to document details of your research, aad take notes,
important as these activities are. Writing skills atrophy if unused, which
is a definite hazard when writing longer theses, so try to ensure that, from
as early as possible in your degree, your research efforts issue in written
outcomes that are sustained pieces of writing — properly developed aca-
demic texts.

Write early and write often.

In the first phase, you could write up methods/procedure sections or early

test, experimental or field results, short comparative analyses of related
sources on some aspect of your subject, thematic analyses of literary or art
texts, analyses of archival materials or pieces of legislation — anything appro-
priate. You may then move on to an expanded research proposal (including
an early literature review), progress reports, seminar and conference papers,
or journal articles, all of which are discussed elsewhere in this book. Not only
will such writing clarify your thinking and keep you practised, some of it will
eventually feed into your thesis.

When you begin to write a first full draft of your thesis, set up a detailed
writing schedule that includes time available for reworking chapters in the
process of, or subsequent to, producing the first draft.

1o9
 exercise: setting up a writing schedule

Step 1

Set up a time line that demarcates months to submission and includes an actual submis-
sion date, as below (based on eight months to submission):

—+_+—+—}—_5)
Date today Submission date

Step 2

Now work backwards from the submission date allotting time segments to the different
writing tasks (for example, chapter drafts) and activities, as specified here for the last
month:

(Work backwards from submission date)

orem ere a A SOT! 2 (cr Re natty Me 3 a rire arn 2 Last month

e Proofreading and
editing
e Checking
references and
bibliography
e Polishing style
and presentation
e Photocopying
e Binding
e Submission

Step 3

Set up a schedule that details dates for submission and return of drafts, revision of the
whole thesis, and so on — everything you have to do to complete the thesis. Discuss the
viability of your schedule with your supervisor to negotiate any changes needed to
accommodate the supervisor's commitments.

160
At the point of beginning your first full draft, if you have not already done so,
clarify with your supervisor any institutional and/or departmental guidelines
or policy papers relating to the writing of your level thesis. Such documents
might be guidelines of a type that address general issues of style, formatting
and standard expectations, and perhaps also more substantive issues in
terms of focusing and structuring your thesis.
The few strategies now suggested complement the discussion on > “The
mechanics of academic writing’ in Chapter 3.
Put in place all appropriate formatting, such as margins and spacing,
before writing a first full draft. Changing aspects of formatting in later drafts
can throw out figurative illustrations that are tedious and time-consuming to
fix. It is best to set up a style template on your computer before drafting, and
to stay with this.
You might also want to keep a record of practices settled on in a first chap-
ter (for example, use of hyphenation, capitalization, or bold, italics, underline
in the text if relevant) so that you can refer to this record for later chapters,
as it is easy to forget when working across chapters, and time consuming to
standardize practices in the editing phase (spell-checking helps little with
‘consistency matters).

Expectations of theses
While your supervisor will advise you on disciplinary-specific expectations, there
are standard expectations that apply generally at any level of thesis writing.

Your final draft will need to evidence at least the following features:

e Coherent development of the entire thesis (see + ‘Principles of sound structure’, Chapter 4).
e Adequate signalling of intentions and embodiment of audience needs (see > ‘Bringing
examiners into view’ next).
e Evidence that the relevant literature has been thoroughly worked and understood. You
may need to write a literature review (see > Chapter 8) and/or integrate the material
you have read into your own discussions throughout the thesis.
e Logical rigour, sound reasoning and solid evidence in terms of analyses, discussions or
arguments (see > relevant parts of The research essay as formal argument’ in Chapter 5).
e (Perhaps) demonstrated knowledge and full critical appreciation of experimental or test
procedures, relevant theories, models or methodologies (see — ‘Treating information
critically’ in Chapter 2).

161
 e Competent presentation of material. Do make sure the thesis is a scholarly presentation.
Use appropriate citation and bibliographic formats as discussed under -> ‘Referencing
and plagiarism’ in Chapter 3. Proofread very carefully, and ensure that references are
correct in the text and the bibliography — cross-check these. Check the consistency of
legends for tables, figures, graphs, and so on, and that these are correct. Check that
there is a table of contents page, an abstract and whatever else is required at the
beginning, perhaps a list of abbreviations or acronyms if there are a large number in
your thesis.

: fe Key POiNtS sessiennmmeemn ‘ esi ca

It is useful to write your thesis with examiners in mind whether supervisors, internal or
external examiners, or by way of a viva.

Taking care of examiners’ needs is a further standard expectation, and one

that can prove something of a challenge for thesis writers. Difficult as it can
be to think beyond the sometimes obsessive intellectual processing that is
thesis writing, bear in mind that your thesis is primarily a communication
with the scholars who will assess it.
To recap in brief on ‘Attending to readers’ needs’ in Chapter 38, always
respect readers’ processing needs by signalling your intentions at appropriate
points throughout your thesis, as they know nothing about your decision-
making. It is also often necessary to contextualize your discussions as you
lead into subdivisions to ensure that your examiners are put in the picture as
to the what, why, and how of the discussion to follow.

gM eRe PLY Z
§ &Y SOEs OI

Think positively about examiners — they are not out to get you. They will,
however, be close critical readers concerned to maintain high standards in
the research field. Regardless of their subject expertise, it is important to
demonstrate that you have complete control and critical understanding of
any subject matter under discussion in your thesis.
By the time you approach writing of later drafts you have certainly earned
the right to a display of confidence and, as Ken Hyland argues, ‘writers gain
credibility by projecting an identity invested with individual authority, dis-
playing confidence in their evaluations and commitment to their ideas’
(2002a: 1091).

162
 Authority resides in rigorous conduct of your research under the guidance
of a supervisor, and in equally rigorous writing practices: fine-tuning argu-
ments and discussions by providing solid evidence and exploiting logical con-
nectors of the type given in the Appendix; using precise and incisive language
(see > ‘Clarity: the first rule of style’ in Chapter 3); careful referencing of all
source material (see > ‘Referencing and plagiarism’ in Chapter 3); clear
structure at all levels of the thesis (see > ‘Principles of sound structure’,
Chapter 4), and much more.

Taking contro!
During different stages of your research you may have found yourself in
awe of your supervisor and other scholars with whom you have worked. It
is now time to let that awe settle into collegial respect. As you write, respect
your knowledge and trust your own judgement: it is up to you to anchor
your preferred meanings when you write. You are in control of the writing,
and in being so you have the power to guide your examiners towards the
understandings you wish them to take up, to offset criticisms and get exam-
iners on side (see > ‘Engaging the reader’ in Chapter 12). After all, at this
stage you have become something of an expert, perhaps even the expert, on
your topic.

Longer theses
This section discusses some distinctive features of communicating original
research of the type presented in a longer thesis, in particular a doctorate.
The PhD needs to be seen realistically, particularly if you are researching in
a climate that allows only three-year scholarships, if, indeed, you have scholar-
ship funding at all. So do not make the mistake of pondering too much over the
great work you feel you have to produce or the revolutionary contribution you
need to make — you are not chasing a Nobel Prize. If the requirement is for an
original contribution, you will need to uncover new knowledge so as to advance
knowledge and (perhaps) practice in your field of research. In this case, your
supervisor will guide you as to the suitability of a topic or project.

tite G ns § bin GG S Y ae a

The information in this section is taken from examiners’ reports, to which

one of the authors of this book had access, and which were used in an
in-depth pilot study done by Brigid Ballard (1995). The study analysed
examiners’ reports for 62 PhD theses. Each thesis had three external

163
examiners, who were both national and international. The study covered
reports from six disciplines — English and History in the humanities;
Anthropology and Political Science in the social sciences; and Botany and
Zoology in the life sciences.
This was a small, localized study (see also, the expanded study by Holbrook
et al., 2004). It nevertheless has broader value in terms of generic quality
indicators, to be augmented by disciplinary indicators, as advised by your
supervisor; and some value too for theses other than PhDs. Examiners’ com-
mentary may also prove insightful if your thesis is to be examined by way of
a viva or oral, a subject explored fully by Murray (2003). Engaging generic
practices noted and valued by examiners will surely aid you in communication
of your research.

Overall quality and contribution to scholarship

Among thesis qualities most commonly valued was the capacity to contribute
innovatively. In the life sciences this was often communicated along the
lines of an incremental advance on a commonly recognized problem, with
summary comments like the following:

‘Pioneering work’ — ‘stimulating’ — ‘breaks new ground’ — ‘important and

valuable contribution to knowledge’ — ‘major piece of original research’ —
‘offers significant and useful insights’ — ‘advances scientific knowledge’ —
‘tackled problems difficult though intriguing to scientists’

Similar comments appear for theses in the humanities and social sciences:

‘... develops diverse and original methods which should exert an influence
on other scholarship in the field.’ ‘This is a major piece of original
research.’
‘... a major contribution both to ethnography and to social theory.’
‘This thesis is an important contribution to the history of the domestic
economy in X [country named], to women’s history and to the agricultural
history of X.’

‘This thesis breaks new ground that will, I think, prove to be significant to
the scholarship in the area.’
‘As an original contribution to knowledge ... this thesis qualifies twice over.’

In assessing the nature of the contribution, examiners also considered ‘jus-

tification’ for the research undertaken, the importance of the ‘questions’
being addressed and ‘issues’ canvassed; the capacity to relate research con-
cerns to those of the broader discipline; and the grounding of the research in
the relevant scholarship.

164
 fhesis writing

Whether there was a formal, separate review of the literature or not, thorough
knowledge and critical understanding of the relevant literature was
extremely important to examiners, engendering such comments as:

‘Takes account of all relevant literature’ — ‘close critical review of others’

investigations’ — ‘relates findings fully and forcefully to extant literature’ —
‘judicious use of a wide range of sources’.

But, more critically:

‘failure to review and take up relevant literature across disciplines’ —

‘appears not to be fully conversant with the literature’

Evidence of publication in quality journals was highly regarded by exam-

iners in the life sciences in assessing the overall quality of a thesis. Examiners
in the humanities and social sciences also considered, and provided advice on,
publication, either as journal articles or as monographs, but did not attribute
the same importance to there being existing publications from the thesis in
assessing overall quality, though this may have changed in subsequent years.

Scope, viability of topic, breadth and depth of study

Examiners were also concerned about the appropriateness of the chosen
topic for the level of a PhD and the time frame:

‘To tackle such a topic is clearly to undertake a task “involving a compre-

hensive study of a scope and size that could normally be expected to be
completed in the equivalent of 3 years’ full-time study”.’ [This latter quote
is taken directly from the university instructions sent to examiners. |
‘The candidate has identified a viable topic, researched it with appropriate
techniques and methodology, and reached results with care and clarity
rarely accomplished by a doctoral candidate.’
‘... although “viable”, the topic is also extremely difficult to address.’

Some topics were clearly thought beyond the scope of a PhD, and others not
viable:

‘Neither the supervisor nor the student seem to recognize that they were
tackling a major problem that was probably too difficult.’
‘This is a monumental thesis involving, in my view, too much effort for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.’
‘Undoubtedly, the thesis adds an appreciable amount of detail to what is
already known ... Yet it is doubtful whether the material is significant

165
 enough to warrant a reference to the thesis in any future publication ... It
may be that this is not the candidate’s fault. Assiduous though the research
has been, it is possible that material of the desired significance 1s simply not
there to be found.’

Examiners further took account of the breadth and depth appropriate for a
PhD, sometimes commenting on the scope and quality of the bibliography
or list of references in the process of determination.

The importance attrib

in research techniques and procedures is evident in the following sum-
mary remarks:

‘Has mastered a diversity of procedures’ — ‘high technical expertise’ — ‘displays

competence in the variety of techniques’ — ‘demonstrates acquisition of the art
and techniques of research science’ — ‘maturity of scientific approach’ —
‘employed intelligently a wide range of current techniques’ — ‘used a range of
experimental techniques with great effectiveness’ — ‘data analysed by appro-
priate statistical methods’ — ‘well designed piece of research’.

But also this:

‘Each of the other topics investigated in the thesis are at a low level of tech-
nical expertise and not carried through to conclusions.’

Many examiners from the life sciences complimented students on the

quality of their data and the logical rigour of their discussions. For
example:

‘Good solid empirical data’ — ‘data suggests careful observation’ — ‘careful

selection of data for presentation’ — ‘the logical rigour of the discussions is
extremely impressive’ — ‘logical and systematic throughout’.

The more negative comments tended to be of this type:

‘... too often prepared to reach firm conclusions in the light of insufficient
data.’ ‘... there are observations in the Discussion that were not mentioned
in the Results.’

‘... gets caught up in the minutiae of the results and has failed to highlight
the significance of many of his findings.’

166
 These reports suggest you need to be realistic about the importance of your
results — grand speculations are not appreciated. You will also need to draw
out the significance of the results in the discussion section, and their implica-
tions, as doing this was thought essential by examiners.
Examiners of theses in the humanities and social sciences were no less
careful in their scrutiny of analyses and arguments, with many praising and
detailing evidence of ‘critical thought’ (or remarking on the lack thereof).
One noted ‘the subtlety and brilliance of analysis’ in a thesis; others com-
mented as follows:

‘The whole thesis is vigorously argued. It is one of the strengths of this work
that it repeatedly provokes argument and, indeed, invites debate through-
out the text.’
‘The structuring of the argument is, indeed, one of the most reassuring and
impressive aspects of the thesis.’

‘The quality of the analysis is excellent throughout — the present work rep-
resents a well researched, well argued study.’
‘The author almost always appears aware of alternative explanations and
[the] reasoning is frequently ingenious.’ .

But also:
‘

‘The first two models are in danger of functioning as straw men in the
argument ...’

There was also this type of comment, which highlights the value examiners
attributed to overall coherence:

‘The connecting discussion throughout the thesis is almost always clear and
intelligent.’
‘The weakness of the thesis lies in its inability to maintain a common
thread of argument throughout what is a very long and detailed piece of
work.’

Where theory was an important consideration, this too was carefully

assessed. One examiner praised the candidate’s awareness of ‘alternative
theories and explanations’; another, the ‘theoretical sophistication’ of the
study; and yet another, the ‘creative’ and ‘rigorous’ use of theory in the thesis
under examination.
The importance of ‘sound’ methodology and its careful application in con-
text was another vital consideration for many theses, as was ‘clear definition

167
of concepts’ — one examiner displaying considerable annoyance because of a
student’s failure to define seminal concepts.

Academic style and presentation

Details of style and presentation were consistently referred to in the com-
mentary, with examiners in the life sciences being particularly meticulous
about these aspects. Examiners were enthusiastic about ‘clarity and simplic-
ity’, ‘conciseness’, a ‘succinct’ thesis, ‘consistency of style’, impressive ‘flow
and cohesion’ of discussions, with further comments like this:

‘The physical presentation of the material, the quality of the line drawings,
charts, and illustrations are of outstanding quality.’
‘Let me observe in conclusion that this thesis is not only full of original insights
and judicious syntheses but also impeccably written and presented as a material
object, which makes the task of reading much more pleasurable.’

There was strong disapproval of ‘discursive and unfocused’ writing, a ‘jour-

nalistic style’, ‘long-windedness’, ‘frequent repetition’ (on several occasions),
and labouring the point:

‘There is a tendency to “overkill”. When the candidate proves a point [the

candidate] continues to prove it again and again.’

Some examiners were clearly irritated by excessive numbers of typographic

errors and spelling mistakes, many of them meticulously listing these for
future correction. Careful proofreading is indeed important.

Summary implications of the reports

All examiners took careful account of the instructions for examination sent
to them in making their judgements, often framing comments regarding
assessment in terms of the phraseology of that university’s instructions. So,
if your thesis is to be examined externally, try to obtain a copy of these
instructions to which your supervisor could have access.
Examiners were keen to pass students, and felt bad, displaying irritability,
when struggling to find positive comments to make about a thesis. They did
not expect perfection, and sometimes easily accommodated both high praise
and strong criticism of aspects of a single thesis. On occasion, more serious
criticisms were tempered by examiners’ making allowances for probable
causes of perceived weaknesses in a thesis. Generally, they seemed to see the
candidate as an ‘apprentice’ at the beginning of a career in research, not at
an end. (This is despite the fact that many of you will not continue with
research careers.) Mostly, these reports show considerable encouragement
and support for doctoral candidates.

168
 Thesis
"racic
writing
itin

Examiners perceived the role of the supervisor(s) as extremely important,

congratulating both student and supervisor on an excellent thesis, and often
including the supervisor in criticisms of a problematic thesis. Also, some
examiners thought they were not the best person to examine, or had insuffi-
cient knowledge to do so, which highlights the importance of choosing external
examiners carefully, where this applies.
Coverage of the thesis being examined was, in all instances, comprehen-
sive. The 186-plus reports (there were extras because of resubmissions) show
that all examiners were diligent and detailed in their assessment of the
research and writing on both the levels of the overall thesis and individual
chapters. It would seem, from these reports at least, that very little escapes
their eye.

Shorter theses

Shorter theses can have distinctive topic orientations, which, in turn, will
affect expectations of your thesis.

The issue-driven topic

One dominant orientation across many disciplines is the issue-driven topic.
In this context, engaging key issues of interest to scholars in your discipline
will be central to the development of the discussions/arguments presented in
your thesis (see > “The research essay as formal argument’, in Chapter 5).

The data-driven topic

Perhaps yours is a data-driven topic, where the accumulation and presenta-
tion of new data (for example, through fieldwork, local surveys, interviews,
the generation of statistics, participant or non-participant observation, con-
ducting trials or tests) is paramount. (See > ‘Avoiding the urge to rush into
data-gathering’ in Chapter 2.)
It could also be that your interest has led you to improve, even marginally,
on an existing model or product by way of a series of practical tests. Data
generated by way of these tests might then be used in your thesis to critique
that model or product.

The literature review orientation

Orienting the topic to a review of the literature also seems to be an attractive
option for many shorter projects. In Box 10.1, the student signals this orien-
tation in the thesis introduction.

169
 aw case study example

box 10.1: Signalling a literature review orientation

Thesis title
Community participation: A key element in mother and child primary health care
activities

Extract from the introduction

This literature review aims to present, in the context of health care, a synthesis of the
major themes and arguments relating to the concept of community participation and PHC
[Primary Health Care] and MCH [Maternal and Child Health Carel. It is acknowledged that
there is a wealth of literature on the general concept of community participation; however,
this review will be confined to community participation as it relates to MCH/PHC. First,
literature on the different theories, practices and approaches to community participation
will be reviewed in the PHC context, along with the debate on the vertical/horizontal
approaches to PHC. Second, current issues relating to MCH and its correlation with
women’s participation and health will be reviewed. Third, a framework for further
research will be formulated. This will be followed by a summary of the major themes and
future directions for research.

There may be other possibilities available to you. Or it may be that your

orientation is decided for you by way of disciplinary expectations.

Regardless of orientation, a shorter thesis should also be a critical (see 3

‘Treating information critically in Chapter 2), but not necessarily an exhaus-
tive investigation of a topic. The scope of the study is likely to be limited
along the following lines:

e The review of literature will be selective, perhaps confined to essential readings and
recent research only that allows you to position your study in the research context.
e Data-gathering is likely to be small-scale and localized. You will probably be working with
easily accessible subjects, conducting interviews or tests, doing short surveys, or carrying
out manageable experiments.

170
 • Arguments ond discussions will necessarily be limited, though logically sound, so thot
generolizing from findings to other contexts is not likely to be on oim, though speculoting
obout these findings might be warranted (see ➔ 'The thesis conclusion' below).

Structuring a thesis

Structuring a the::-i~ i~ an emergent, growing, developmental process of draft-

ing and re-drnfting: it is the bringing to full maturity of your ídeas, the
details of which are progressively refined during writing.
Strategies presented in the remainder of this chapter are designed to help
you with macrn-structuring - dividing up the text, overall structuríng, struc-
turing thesis chapters, gaining control of the thesis as a whole - and structur-
ing individua! parts of the thesis - the abstract, the thesis introduction and
the thesis conclusion. Do review ➔ 'Principles of sound structure', Chapter 4,
which covers brainstorming and mind-mapping techniques, sequentíal
outlining and using sub-headings effectively, controlling paragraph develop-
ment to capture the main ídeas that push along your thesis or overall point
of view. and manipulating sentence structure to focus ímportant points so
that readers do not miss them.

The thesis text is usually divided along the lines of Figure 10.1, although varia-
tions do occur and shorter theses are unlikely to require a statement of originality.

--..,
Cover of the thesis
Statement of originality
Acknowledgements
Abstract ~
Preliminary matter
Table of contents
Lists of tables, figures, plates, etc. (optional)
List of acronyms or abbreviations (optional) __,
lntroduction
Parts and/or thesis chapters
Conclusion
} ~ Body of the thesis

Appendix(ces) (optional)
Bibliography or List of references } ~ End matter

FIGURE 10.l Basic divisions of a thesis

171
 • key points

Check whether the ordering of preliminary matter and wording is standardized in your
institution by way of policy or guidelines.

These are a few points to keep in mind:

• On the table of contents pages indicate the page number of the start of each chapter, and
perhaps those of subdivisions or sections within these - practice varies. lnclude also page
numbers of appendices and bibliography or references list.
• Pages of the preliminary matter are usually numbered with Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv,
v, vi, vii, and so on). On rare occasions though, pages in the preliminary matter appear
unnumbered, so review theses in your discipline.
• Consecutive page numbering in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on) is used
for the body of the thesis, from the first page of the introduction to the last page of the
thesis.

Structuring and developing writing on the scale of a thesis can be intellectu-

ally hard work. These two strntegies will complement the many suggested in
➔ 'Principles of sound structure', Chapter 4 .

. 1 , " · worc n
As you approach structuring, first think about word length. Approximately
how many words will you need for each chapter. given designated word
length of the thesis? If you are inclined to overwrite. work from a lower word
length in allotting the number of words to chapters (for example. estimate on
the basis of 70,000 words for a thesis with an upper limit of 80.000 words).
Examiners generally seem to appreciate tighter theses.

li .,
All thesis writers, regardless of discipline. will need to communicate precisely
what they are doing and why. and what they wish to demonstrate. show or
argue. So, when structuring, activate the set of questions in Table 10.1 for
overall thesis design and for design of chapters and their subdivisions. Just
do your best pre-writing and re-engage the questions after writing chapters.
Answering the what/so what questions in Table 10.1 feeds into the develop-
ment of a thesis statement, as elaborated on next.

172
 Thesís writing

TABLE 10.1 Core questions for structuring at any level of the text

WHAT? WHY? HOW? WHAT/50 WHAT?

/Research focus) /Research purpose) /Research method or /lmplications of your
procedure) research)
How do chapter Why are you How are you going to What are the main ideas/
titles line up ín terms covering this order your discussion in points you want to make
of the overal! subject matter in the subdivisions of each in developing your
research focus laid each chapter? chapter? discussíons or arguments
out in your thesis What precísely are What precisely are you ín each chapter - review
introduction? your research going to do and in what 'Developing texts' ín ➔
Does each chapter objectives, the order are you going to Chapter 4?
title actually capture hypotheses you are do these things? Why? You may be uncertain
essential coverage testing, or the This will involve obout these ideas/points
in that chapter (may questions you wish consideríng chapter until you·write a first
need adjustment to answer in each titles and the logic of draft. But, if you are clear
after the chapter is chapter? their ordering wíthin the obout some, jot them
written)? How do chapter thesis, as well os down now when
Can you provide a objectives fít in subdivision headings structuríng.
succinct précis of with your overal! and the logic of their Answering the 'So what?
precisely what you aims and orderíng within each is vitally important when
will be covering/ objectives, as laid chapter. writing. You need to draw
doing ín the out in your thesis The best arrangement is out the implications of
introduction of each introduction? one that ensures a your díscussions so that
chapter? Have you identified coherent line of your reader is not left
Do your subdivisíon clearly your discussion throughout thinking: 'Weil I take your
headings seem to objectives in dealíng each chapter and point, and thís is all very
capture the essential with specific topics across the thesis. interesting (e.g. a great
coverage of each ín the different piece of analysis wíth
chapter (líst subdivisions? good critical insights) but,
subdivision (Check printout and so what? Why are you
headings and do a review ➔ 'Using telling me all this - what
print out)? sub-headings is the point of it?'
effectively' in
Chapter 4 to ensure
that headings do
capture the true
focus of each
subdívision - adjust
if necessaryl.

n key points

Pause frequently when wrítíng to consider that critical question: 'So what 7 ' Keep asking
yourself os you write: what are the implications of my arguments/discussions 7

173
The notion of a 'thesis' as in ·argument' does not resonate with all research-
ers. Still, if your thesis is required to be a connected piece of writing, then it
is useful to think in terms of 'argument', as this notion embeds the idea of
substantiating all knowledge claims made in your thesis, while ensuring a
coherent line of development throughout the thesis.

h key points

Put o 'working thesis' into o heoder so thot it turns up ot the top of eoch poge of your draft.
This is o useful woy to refine it os you write ond remind yourself thot eoch chopter should
somehow be contributing to thesis development where this is required.

For some students, pinning down a thesis can be like trying to hit a moving
t arget - difficult. Perhaps it will help to think about it in different ways:

• Whot do I think my overall argument octuolly is?

• Whot is the big messoge I wont to communicate to reoders?
• Whot is the overoll point I om trying to moke thot underpins whot I soy throughout my
thesis?
• Why should somebody wont to reod my thesis 7 Whot is new/different/importont
obout it?

Your t hesis is your answer to that BIG question driving your research (for
example, a why is it so question, or what caused it, or how can it be done or
improved). Even a rough, working thesis can help guide your early structur-
ing efforts. Confine your thesis statement to a single short sentence, no more
than two or three lines:

MY THESIS IS THAT ........................................................... .

(This always takes the form of a big general assertion - a statement.)

The example below constitutes a thesis statement, as laid out m the

in trod uction:

I will argue that X's [country named] poor record of environmental law
enforcernent and compliance by industries cannot be explained solely by ref-
erence to specific aspects of enuiron mental law, but rather, is a result of the
uery nature of X's social, political and legal system.

174
Everything do1w in this shorter tlwsis (tlw product) was meant to advance
t he a bove thesis (the argument).

Chapter structuring options

Often PhDs have as many as eight or nine chapters; a shorter thesis might have
about four . Word length will affect the number of your chapters and/or parts,
but so too rnn the principle of structuring used, the type of research and so
forth. It could be that there is a preferred basic structure in your discipline,
which should take precedence over suggestions to follow. Or perhaps your
supervisor will refer you to one of the useful resources that target structuring
and writing theses in cognate disciplines, such as that by Perry (1998) on mar-
keting and related fields.

lf you are researching in the experimental sciences, you will likely use
some variation of this model in structuring core chapters: introduction,
materials and methods, results, discussion, a model that is discussed in
detail under ➔ 'Experimental or technical reports' in Chapter 9. This
might be called a science model of structuring, though certainly not all sci-
ence theses evidence this modelling, and disciplines other than those in
scien ce u se the structu r e.

This model, which is not confined to researchers in the social sciences, has a
pre-given partial structure for the first three or four chapters: introduction,
literature review, methodology, and perhaps theory. Subsequent chapters
will be organized around themes or sets of issues identified in reading the
literature and/or from collation and analysis of data - organization of these
chapters will depend on the orientation of your research (start experimenting
with how to structure later chapters a s soon as possible).

Some students (and supervisors) have reported the value of taking this par-
ticular approach to structuring. First they process their data, producing dif-
ferent sets of illustrations (for example, tables, graphs, plots, figures, bar or
pie charts) for each chapter. They then consider the order in which they want
to present the illustrations in a chapter, and structure accordingly.

175
 This is a model in which a considerable intellectual effort is expended before
the writing of each chapter begins. Research in which a mass of data is proc-
essed as illustrations will certainly lend itself to this type of structuring.

Your research might be of the type that easily lends itself to the sequential
model of structuring chapters, where there is an inbuilt logic to the
sequencing of chapters, as was the case with the historical chronology under-
pinning the nature of one studenťs research. Moving successively from land-
mark changes pre-contact through landmark changes occasioned by European
contact to ongoing changes in the present - was the underlying principle of a
structure of his thesis that had both parts and chapters.

There is no pre-given structure behind this model, which can indeed be notor-
iously challengmg because of the inherent formlessness of the nature of the
research (usually reading based).

case study example

box 10.2 Early structural experimentation is vitally important

with this model

One studenťs solution to this challenge, arrived at towards the end of the first year
through structural experimentation, was a photographic model of structure: Chapter l
provided a broad overview (wide-angled shot) of the two distinct traditions of Western
supernaturalism to which the two poets under examination inclined, and the concep-
tual implications of their different preferences. There was then a move in Chapter 2 to
a midd/e distance shot of the conceptual tie-in of these two traditions with other areas
of the Western metaphysical tradition, which in turn were linked to the literary move-
ments attracting the two poets os well os the types of literary criticism they espoused.
Chapters 3 and 4 then zoomed in for close-up shots, detailed analyses of the early
poetry to show how each poeťs conceptual framing of reality was influenced by the
different traditions of Western supernaturalism to which they held. The Conclusion then
built on these four chapters to show how conceptual changes in the poetic output of
each poet mirrored progressively changing attitudes to their preferred forms of Western
supernaturalism.

176
 sis writing

If there are no disciplinary requirements for thesis structuring, be creative

and experiment during the research phase, perhaps coming up with more
than one likely structure to discuss with your supervisor. Let your research
objectives determine the best structure for your thesis. It could be that your
chapter structure will evolve from central themes covered in your research,
or the seminal issues you wish to engage, as happened in the example dis-
cussed in the next section under > ‘Visually mapping core chapters’, which
was a case-study type thesis.

Gaining overall thesis control

Different strategies are now suggested for gaining control of the overall struc-
ture and development of the thesis.

Visually mapping core chapters on paper, or with a computer, appeals to some

students. Take time to study Figure 10.2, which is an example of a student’s

(a)
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

Property
rights Practice
preservation — _

Governance <—————_> Sustainable

use

POLICIES/
Biodiversity LEGISLATION
conservation

Recognition (b)
(c) of property SECURE
EFFECTIVE National rights Local PROPERTY
GOVERNANCE erspective perspective _ RIGHTS

Reconciling

FIGURE 10.2 Computer modelling of thesis chapters

177
successful attempt at doing this, as he set out to determine the logical rela-
tionships among his thesis chapters. His topic was The legal/policy frame-
work for integrating indigenous peoples in protected area management in X
[country named].
Each fundamental issue in the central triangle — governance, sustainable
use and recognition of property rights — was covered independently in suc-
cessive chapters (chapters 4, 5 and 6). These were the chapters analysing
data from the case studies. In each case, there was analysis of the dichoto-
mies pictured in the relevant circles: the balancing of property rights
preservation and biodiversity conservation in terms of ‘Governance’; the com-
promise of practices and policies in terms of ‘Sustainable use’; and the
reconciliation of national and local perspectives in terms of the ‘Recognition
of property rights’.
Chapter 7 then provided a comparative analysis of the implications of
these three issues and chapter 8 expanded the discussion to determine an
appropriate policy framework that would allow for (a) Sustainable livelihood,
(b) Secure property rights and (c) Effective governance. (The first three chap-
ters of the thesis, not included in the above model, covered the introduction,
theory and methodology, respectively.)

Do attempt a solid table of contents (TOC) outline before writing your

first full draft, even though it will need some reworking on completion of
the writing. A TOC outline is a useful guide as you move through the
writing of different chapters, which you may not necessarily want to
write 1n sequence.

exercise: building a table of contents

The purpose of this exercise is to determine the logical relations among the different parts of
the thesis, not just to work out what you want to cover (see also > ‘Sequential outlining’ in
Chapter 4).

Step 1

Some supervisors require that their students produce a full, rough draft of the introduction;
others are happy with questions of this type being answered in dot point form:

178
 What is your topic of investigation? What problem are you tackling, what are your
research objectives or questions? Why is it an important topic of investigation?
What contribution do you expect to make to the field of research (if relevant]? What
subdivisions do you need in your introduction?

Try to answer these questions as clearly as you can, and then mock up chapter outlines.

Step 2

Now apply the set of core questions — What? Why? How? What/So what? — annotated in
Table 10.1 to determine the logic of relations among the parts. Doing this will allow you to
assess the following:

e How the foci and objectives of the different chapters fit in with your overall
research focus and objectives as laid out in your thesis introduction.
e Whether the order in which you have placed your chapters, subdivisions and further
sections within these, is best after all — whether they evidence a logical flow.
e Whether that main ideas (if you know them) that you wish to bring forward in the
different chapters are likely to contribute to the coherent development of a thesis or
unifying point of view.

Discuss your outline with your supervisor. Make any suggested adjust-
ments, and then move on quickly to the writing itself. Spend no more than
two or three weeks on this task.

<2 4

With a detailed thesis outline (DTO), the table of contents is expanded in

two ways:

1. A two or three page thesis introduction is attached, which develops more fully what is
to be covered (for example, different foci, research aims/objectives/questions, hypoth-
eses tested, discussion of the problem at the heart of the research, issues addressed,
methodology or theory, outline of the thesis structure, a statement of the thesis (as in
argument).
2. A paragraph or two precedes each chapter of the table of contents in order to provide
detail on what you will be doing, why you are doing it, how you will go about this, and
what you want to show or demonstrate — overall arguments within individual chapters.

When producing chapter introductions, students make multiple use of such

words and phrases as: introduces, outlines, examines, presents, analyses, pro-
vides an overview, discusses, concludes, purposes, objectives, summarizes,

Wo
reviews, illustrate, this shows, it is shown, in order to demonstrate, I argue.
We see this happening in this example:

Chapter 3 explores the historical context of forestry development in X from

industrial forestry to social forestry, to community forestry in the context of the
ideals of sustainable forest management. Specifically, this chapter analy-
ses forest-based development in X within five major periods in order to under-
stand various reasons for forest degradation as experienced in the country. This
chapter shows how forestry development in X is administered in a techno-
cratic fashion that has failed to take into account the social dimensions of forest
management. Finally, this chapter introduces the development of the SEP
for Y as a new forest management approach for sustainable forestry. (Our
emphasis)

How far you will get with a DTO depends on the stage at which you write
it: before producing a first full draft; to gain more control of the writing after
you have produced a first full draft; or when you have come unstuck during
chapter drafting. Just do your best.
Students do find producing a DTO demanding (a lot of hard thinking is
involved). Still, the effort is considered worthwhile in the end.

Ey case study example

box 10.3 Students report many benefits from producing

a detailed thesis outline

One group of research students approaching the thesis write up were encouraged to
produce a detailed thesis outline. Doing this, they said, had ‘reduced anxiety’ and
‘increased confidence’:

e This was because they now had a stronger sense of ‘how the whole thing hung
together’, to quote one.
e Oras another student commented: ‘The best thing about the detailed thesis outline
exercise for me was that | was able to concentrate totally on the bits [of the thesis]
| was writing because | sort of knew how everything fitted in.’
e And another had this to say: ‘My table of contents was pretty good but | still didn’t
know where | was really going with the argument until | did the detailed thesis
outline. It helped me sort out my argument — what | really wanted to do with my
chapters. It was great.’

180
 Thacie warritinec
INESIS WETIAG

The writing of a DTO is formulaic. You can shape introductions more crea-
tively when you come to write them, while still communicating clearly foci,
objectives and procedure, parts of your argument, and whatever else is needed.

The thesis abstract

Abstracts are differently focused and vary in length from about one
third of a page to three pages. Shorter abstracts tend to focus only on find-
ings, while longer ones usually evidence broader coverage of the type in
Figure 10.3.
The abstract, often dashed off at the last minute, is important in that it
could be the first imprint of your research on examiners. It could also
be used by other researchers to decide whether or not to take the trouble to
view your thesis in full, which might be the only avenue for accessing your
research if you do not publish. Avoid a poorly constructed PhD abstract,
which is also there for everyone to see in such international directories as
Dissertation Abstracts. Consider the set of core questions offered in Figure
10.3 and take up what is appropriate for your research and discipline.
Often about one-half to two-thirds of the abstract is reserved for discussion
of findings/conclusions and their implications for past and future research,
though, again, you may wish to devote more space to different aspects of your
research that you consider vitally important.

Why was it important to undertake the study? (And for PhDs: what does
it contribute to scholarship in your field?)

What is the scope of your enquiry? Were any delimitations placed on

the study? (While you will undoubtedly point this out in your introduction,
itis also helpful to restate this concisely in the abstract.)
About ,
of space What did you actually do?

What were your research objectives/questions/hypotheses?

What approach did you take? (If you need to, discuss your methodology,
how you went about fulfilling your objectives, what models, or theories,
etc. you used.)
What were your findings? Set out clearly the main conclusions reached
About 7 and provide some discussion of how you arrived at these.
3

of space Also draw out their implications. Mention too any inconclusive findings,
[ten giving reasons for them.

FIGURE 10.3. Core questions for structuring an abstract

18]
The thesis introduction

The purpose of your introduction is to introduce readers to the research pre-

sented in the body of your thesis: to the foci and parameters of your research,
justifications for choices made, thesis procedure and so forth. While consider-
ing the following issues, bear in mind that the introduction is functionally
significant in shaping reader expectations of what to expect on reading your
thesis. Do consult with your supervisor on length, focus and development of
the introduction before writing to gauge if any preferences prevail.

Quan key points

Align what you say you will do in the introduction with what you actually do in the body of
your thesis.

If you have produced a well thought through table of contents or detailed thesis
outline, it should not matter when you write your introduction. Still, supervisors
frequently recommend that students write an introduction prior to producing a
first full draft, although this will eventually need to be rewritten, or tidied up,
in order to accommodate changes made during the writing process.

Deciding what information to include in the thesis introduction and what to

include in the introductory sections of individual chapters can prove chal-
lenging. This is primarily a matter of scale, as shown in Table 10.2.
The set of questions now presented is designed to help you focus and
develop your introduction, perhaps using sub-headings in the process —
engage those relevant for your type and length of thesis, and include addi-
tional questions if needs be:

e What is your topic of investigation, your research focus? It is helpful to state this up front
in a paragraph or two leading into the introduction, so that readers can easily contextual-
ize discussions to follow.
e What are the aims/objectives and/or hypotheses informing the research? Do you need
to provide a problem statement as well?

182
 incom: Caneines
NesiS Whig

TABLE 10.2 Information scale for the general and chapter introductions

Thesis introduction Chapter introductions

The purpose of the thesis introduction is to orient the reader to the Chapter introductions
research presented in the body of your thesis. perform a similar
The introduction should include all information necessary to prepare the orientation function in
reader, to put the reader in the picture as regards the specifics of your that they introduce the
research project: what the thesis focuses on, the context of the study, the reader to the foci, aims,
research questions or objectives driving the investigation (should be procedure and argument
broad enough to encompass those in specific chapters), of each specific chapter,
the methodology applied, the argument you intend to present, etc. and provide any other
necessary reader
lt may be necessary at times to reserve more detailed discussion of information for that
issues etc. for specific chapters and signal where these will be chapter.
discussed in greater depth.

e Do you need to justify the scope of your study (delimitations]? You may need to tell your
reader precisely what you are covering and what you are not covering and why, perhaps
to offset potential criticism for not having done something you never intended to do.
Why is the research you have undertaken important? Can you demonstrate its centrality?
Or how is your study different from others done in the research field? What contribution
will your research make to knowledge? What is your thesis, as in argument? (All of this
may be conveyed through context, the next point.)
How much context, background information, do you need to set the scene, provide the
‘big picture’? (This can be extensive in some theses, even up to 20 or more pages.]
Consider the relevance of what to cover in terms of reader needs: what and how much
background is needed to ensure your examiners will be well positioned to enter the body
of your thesis.
Should there be a formal literature review in the introduction (sometimes used to provide
context] in which you draw out the issues you will be addressing, or elsewhere, or not at all?
Do you need to explain your methodology, field or experimental procedure, or provide a
discussion of the theoretical framework of your thesis here in summary form, in separate
chapters, or not at all?
Should you include a chapter-by-chapter outline of your thesis? If not, how might you
otherwise convey the overall structure of your thesis? How will you indicate what you are
going to do, in what order you will do these things and what you want to show or dem-
onstrate in various chapters?
Are there any other questions relevant to your research or disciplinary needs that you
want to add?

The thesis conclusion

The thesis conclusion is your opportunity to step back and reflect globally
on your completed research project with a view to communicating what

183
you see as important and meaningful about it. A basic function of the con-
clusion is ‘to summarize the progress which has been made in achieving
the aims of the research’ (Oliver, 2004: 151). Higher-level research conclu-
sions extend to showing how you have advanced knowledge in the subject
area, perhaps demonstrating the value of your research in terms of practi-
cal implications/application, and considering the possibilities for future
research.
Thesis conclusions vary greatly in terms of titles, length and complexity,
depending on disciplinary/research requirements, as pointed out by Bunton
(2005), who provides an insightful discussion of thesis-oriented PhD conclu-
sions in science and technology, and in the humanities and social sciences.
Your conclusion may be fairly short and straightforward; or it may be long
and complicated, and very demanding to write in drawing out and discussing
fully findings and conclusions of individual chapters. In more complex conclu-
sions, students often return to the aims/objectives/questions/hypotheses that
informed the research as an aid to structuring when processing groups of
findings and drawing out their implications.

Merely listing or repeating your findings from various chapters — chapter 1

shows, chapter 2 shows, etc. — gives no insight into the meanings you attach
to these findings. Not only do you need to draw chapter findings into a
coherent whole, you need to think about the weight and significance you
attach to these.

Conveying significance
Not all findings will be equally important, so think about them in terms of a
scale of significance by considering questions of this type:

e What do! consider most important about my findings in general and why?
e Which findings seem to be of greater or lesser significance and why?
e Are there any specific findings to which | want to draw particular attention and why (per-
haps because they are unusual, striking or unexpected)?
e Has my methodology or anything else affected the validity or reliability of my findings and
is this something that needs to be discussed (for example, biases inbuilt into the research
design)? (Do not overlook discussion of limitations if applicable, even ifthese were outside
your control, as examiners will not.)

By processing thesis findings in this way, you are bringing them into a new
set of relations, providing a global synthesis of what your research means in
the final analysis.

184
Processing involves carefully drawing out the implications of your findings.
Your findings may have significant implications in terms of research (for
example, theoretical, methodological or modelling implications), or practice
(for example, application to industry, policy or legislation).
It is usual to situate findings in the contexts of past and future research:
the extent to which your findings align with, question or challenge other
scholars’ work and why (in the conclusion, work from your findings to the
literature — the reverse mode of a literature review); and the implications for
future research — perhaps your research raises further questions or issues
that need to be addressed, exposes previously unrecognized problems or the
need to reconceptualize these, or calls for revised hypotheses, and so on.
As a writer of a shorter thesis you may not be in a position to suggest
future research, but this does not mean you should avoid thoughtful discus-
sion of implications.

eae) case study example

box 10.4 Drawing out the implications of your findings can add zest to
a conclusion

A shorter thesis examined the fall of a democratically elected government to determine

whether the key actors participating in the downfall had acted within the framework of
that country’s Constitution. The student concluded that they had done so. But in her view,
a major implication of her findings was that there was perhaps a need for review of the
Constitution itself in the context of twenty-first-century society. This she aired in the con-
clusion, giving thought-provoking reasons why she believed such a review might be
warranted.

Grounding speculations
The implications of your research project may be complex and variable, leading
you into the realm of speculation. Some findings, for example, might appear to
have implications beyond the parameters of your research, and they may do.
But you need to be judicious. Ensure that such speculations are contained
within the boundaries of the arguments and discussions developed in the body
of your thesis. Keep your speculations grounded; do not let them float free from
these boundaries so that they appear wildly improbable or even questionable.

185
 won key points

Use the more tentative language (for example, it seems, perhaps, maybe or it could be,
possibly/possible, or it is likely/unlikely) suited to speculative uncertainty.

Organizing a thesis-writing group

Your fellow graduates can be a great personal and academic resource when
writing your thesis. A thesis-writing group is a fruitful learning forum provid-
ing opportunity for reflection on the complexities of structuring and developing
a thesis, and the sharing of ideas and helpful feedback from peers on your
drafts. It is also a motivational stimulus in providing regular opportunities
to share your grievances, frustrations, challenges, and, of course, your tri-
umphs with fellow research students. Furthermore, such a group can reduce
the sense of isolation that you and fellow students may be experiencing, if
you are doing solitary research.
If there is no existing group of this type in your research environment and
you feel it would be useful to form one (either on campus or online), follow
these steps.

exercise: organizing a thesis writing group

Step 1

First approach an appropriate authority (for example, a graduate coordinator) to gain an

email distribution list for research students in your group. Then send out a friendly email
to determine level of interest. To work well such groups do need commitment from those
involved.

Step 2

Having determined a sufficient level of interest, then organize a first meeting to sort out
conduct of the group. Consider matters of this type (adapt suggestions for online groups):

e Whether you want it to be a students only group in which you will read each other's
outlines and drafts, meet regularly to provide feedback on these, and to discuss strat-
egies to address writing challenges, and so forth.

186
 e Whether you want to reserve the possibility of inviting writing experts or scholars to
address your group on occasion.
e How often you want to hold meetings, venue for meetings, length of meetings, prior
distribution of materials for meetings, whether refreshments will be provided or not,
and so forth.
e What organizational protocols you will follow. Usually the organization of such groups
is democratic, with members opting to take charge of their own sessions by distribut-
ing copies of their draft to fellow students, identifying what specifically they would like
feedback on given the stage they have reached in the writing, and perhaps organizing
the procedure for their session. People also like to chat and have a bit of fun. While you
and other students may initially be tentative about critically evaluating each other's
work, well-intentioned criticisms will always be welcome, as will more positive com-
ments on a draft.

Biggam, J. (2008) Succeeding with your Master's Dissertation: A Step-by-step Handbook.

Maidenhead: Open University Press. An excellent reference for the first-time author of a
shorter thesis, with detailed process information and discerning comments on the common
mistakes made by students.

Bolker, J. (1998) Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting,
Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis. New York: Henry Holt. Pre-Internet days, but is
nevertheless encouraging, embedded in sound writing principles, and provides timeless
‘how-to-do’ tips on such matters as developing self-reflection and regularizing writing to
promote productivity.

Dunleavy, P. (2003) Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis
or Dissertation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Not one to dip into for targetted informa-
tion, but an immensely readable journey through thesis production, which contains many
insightful comments, stimulating ideas and practical suggestions.

187
 Presentations

4 me developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to:

Understand and distinguish key expectations of tutorial and seminar presentations.

Focus and develop an abstract to increase your chances of getting a conference paper
accepted.
Identify key factors influencing poster design and develop capacity to design your own
posters.
Identify practices influential in successful planning.
Understand how to make the best of formatting options available to you in different
situations of presenting.
Avoid some of the technical problems associated with slideshows.
Identify strategies to effectively manage a listening audience, the presenting venue, deal-
ing with the unexpected and nervousness.

This chapter covers common types of presentations: tutorial, seminar, confer-

ence and poster presentations. It is advised that you first read the section refer-
ring to your particular type of presentation in the first half of the chapter, and
then the general advice contained in the second half. Throughout the chapter,
a distinction is made between text (any written material) and graphics (for
 Presentations

example, images, photographs, diagrams, figures, plots, tables, charts, maps,

and photographs).

The nature of oral presentations

The oral presentation is an interactive mode of communication that has a vari-
ety of functions. Its basic elements are configured in Figure 11.1 so as to convey
the set of relations common to situations in which you will be presenting.
A presentation is often accompanied by a paper to be submitted to lecturers/
supervisors, or circulated at a conference you are attending and/or published
in the conference proceedings. Nevertheless, what you present orally is likely
to be different from what you write in an accompanying paper, which is why
the two are kept separate in Figure 11.1.

In presenting, you will need to:

e (Possibly) handle the demands of multi-media presentations.

e Design your talk to fit the time available to you.
e Tailor your language and organize your talk to suit a listening audience.
e Control the presentation of your work and interaction with an audience.
e Employ strategies to attract and hold audience interest.
e Develop the ability to ‘think on your feet’ when responding to questions or feedback from
the audience.
e Manage nervousness, which offen accompanies speaking to an audience.

YOUR YOUR
AUDIENCE READERS

FIGURE 11.1 The basic elements of an oral presentation

189
Note the repeated mention of ‘audience’ in these points, a dimension given
much emphasis in this chapter. Having a live audience both constrains and
opens up your possibilities.

Tutorial and seminar presentations

Tutorials and seminars are two prominent types of presentation within
eraduate coursework and research.
Coursework and research students will not necessarily have the same objec-
tives or interests in presenting their work. Nevertheless, there are some com-
monalities to consider whether, as a coursework student, you are giving a talk in
a tutorial meeting to fellow students and your lecturer, or, as a research student,
presenting a more formal seminar paper to departmental and/or other students
and staff of your institution, and perhaps invited guests from the community.

Prepare in advance of your tutorial or seminar by clarifying expectations.

identifying formatting requirements

&

Clarify with your lecturer/supervisor whether there are special requirements

for the format of your presentation. These may be set out in course guides, or
they may be formalized in departmental/centre guidelines. In other situa-
tions your lecturers will simply tell you what is expected. Or you may be left
to your own devices, in which case a useful starting point is to generate ideas/
strategies by reflecting on what impresses you about other speakers and
their presentations (take some notes to this effect).

Determining assessment procedures

Clarify the criteria by which your presentation (and paper?) will be assessed.
In coursework you may be asked to submit a paper, either before or after
your talk, as part of the assessment and there may be different criteria for
assessment of your presentation and your paper. Lecturers may also give dif-
ferent weight to various aspects of your presentation (for example, ability to
initiate group discussion of important ideas; evidence of clear understanding
of key issues, procedures or theories; clarity of structure and delivery of the
talk) and of the accompanying paper (for example, breadth and depth of read-
ing; the quality of the argument; and methodological soundness).
As a research student you are likely to be presenting as part of a progress
review to showcase your work and gain useful feedback from peers and other
colleagues.

190
Research students often report a fear of undue criticism in progress review
seminars, and unfortunately such fear is occasionally borne out, which is why
this subject is treated separately from strategies for managing nervousness
at the end of this chapter.

You cannot be expected to have all the answers with research that is still in progress.

If your research is still in progress, there will be uncertainties, perhaps

incomplete developments or gaps in your research of which you are aware.
Try these strategies to offset criticism:

e Remind your audience at the outset that it is work in progress in order to elicit their under-
standing and forestall criticism of the type that assumes you are already the expert.
e Assign the audience a useful role. Tell them on which aspects of your project you would
particularly like feedback so that you can benefit fully from their expertise.

Assigning the audience a role can help forestall undue criticism and pro-
vide you with valuable feedback, just the feedback you want. Furthermore,
if you have concerns that the nature of your coverage or the structure of
your talk might invite criticism, again tell the audience why you are
covering that material, or why you have structured the presentation in
the way you have. Others will not necessarily see the sense of what you
have done.

Conference presentations
As material in the second half of the chapter is relevant to producing a con-
ference paper, this section focuses only on getting a paper accepted.

In some research areas, a fully written paper has to be submitted for a confer-
ence. More commonly, papers are accepted on the basis of abstracts, which
are called for by conference convenors, usually by a set date. There may be

i
 cacemic SUCCeSS

standard expectations as to the formatting of your abstract, which you will

know about (for example, using the introduction, materials and methods,
results, discussion format). Or you may be given instructions as to the for-
matting of your abstract and designated word length, though often the only
directive given concerns length.
As your abstract will compete with all others — perhaps with those of senior
academics as well as, in some cases, senior people from many other areas of
endeavour — you need to give thought to its composition.

Composing the abstract

Where there is a conference theme it is usually expected that an abstract
address that theme. Demonstrate the link between your subject and the con-
ference theme by building the theme wording into your abstract. But is this
enough? One study suggests not. While the specifics of this study may not
seem relevant, it does have interesting general implications for many
research areas and disciplines.
Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995) report on ‘gate keeping’ at a particular
academic convention, the large annual conference of the professional US
organization called College Composition and Communication. In 1993
approximately 4,000 proposals (one-page abstracts) were submitted from
which about 1,000 were accepted for presentation. Initially, a pilot study (of
96 abstracts) was conducted to isolate distinguishing features of successful
abstracts as opposed to general features evidenced in most abstracts
received. A later extended study issued these results (Berkenkotter and
Huckin 1995: 102):

1. The high-rated abstracts all addressed topics of current interest to active, experienced
members of the rhetoric and composition community; the low-rated abstracts often
did not.
2. Almost all of the high-rated abstracts clearly defined a problem; the low-rated abstracts
often did not.
3. The high-rated abstracts all discussed this problem in a way that would be seen by
experienced insiders as novel and therefore interesting, whereas virtually none of the
low-rated abstracts did.
4 The high-rated abstracts usually projected more of an insider ethos through the use of
terminology, special topoi [traditional themes; rhetorical or literary formulas], and/or
explicit or implicit references to the scholarly literature of the field than did the low-rated
abstracts.

As detailed in Table 11.1, there are at least three important implications

that can be drawn from the two studies that may have general application in
many areas of research.

¥ozZ
TABLE 11.1 Implications for focusing a conference abstract

Implication 1 Implication 2 Implication 3

e {twill help to review e You should be on top of e |tis important to lay out a
abstracts from previous what is going on in your problem clearly and propose to
sessions of the research field: know the treat it in a new or different way
conference at which literature well, the shifts that is likely to prove exciting (or
you will present, if in research directions, the at least, attractive) to
these have been hot topics and issues. experienced researchers in the
published. e Demonstrate your field, and be manageable
e Try grouping their knowledge of all this in your within the time allowed for
distinguishing features use of the disciplinary presentation.
(see exercise below). language and by way of
scholarly references.

exercise: workshopping the abstract

Before writing your abstract, examine abstracts from relevant, published conference pro-
ceedings and consider questions of this type:

Why might these abstracts be of interest to the audience targeted?

Does the writer make an effort to situate his/her audience by providing appropriate
background information or context? (The extent of background information given will
depend on the nature of the audience — the more general the audience, the more
context needed.)
Does the writer convey explicitly or implicitly the value/significance of the research
being reported on in the paper?
How are the abstracts organized? Review two or three and break them down into
moves like so: first, s/he does this, second, s/he does this, third, s/he does this, and so
on. Also, consider the level of detail provided with the different moves.
Do you consider that these are confident writers on top of the research field? How is
this confidence conveyed in the writing?
Do all abstracts make a strong impact on you? Or do some impress more than
others? How would you rate the abstracts you are reviewing, say, on a scale of
] to 10?

Poster presentations
Poster presentations are popular at some conferences. You could consult
professional graphic designers to advise you (some institutions have such

13
people) or get help from those experienced in poster design in your department;
or, ike most students, you could design your own. Some students use compu-
ter software such as Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or InDesign, and many
simply use word processors or PowerPoint.
Find out if there is a graphics area or technology support centre on your
campus that might give advice and allow you free or cheap access to such
equipment as a colour printer and photocopier, lamination facilities, and so
on. You can achieve a striking and attractive poster with some care and
thought.

As external factors might impinge on your design, do some prior research

along these lines:

e Find out if there will be a large display of posters, where yours might be one of a hundred,
or just a small display.
e Enquire whether the exhibition of posters will stand alone, or whether you will be
expected to stand beside your poster to give additional information and talk with inter-
ested people.
e Find out what space will be available to hang your poster if you do not already know. You
will need to know both approximate dimensions and the orientation (that is, vertical or
horizontal).
e Find out what you will need to hang it with — Velcro fasteners or what. (You can be caught
out by not taking your own.)
e Consider whether the poster you have in mind will be portable if you have to carry it long
distances, say, for an international conference.

Above all, a poster is a visual composition, or as some prefer including

Woolsey (1989), a ‘visual grammar’, your key concern being how to utilize
text and graphics to aid comprehension.

: pace key points sssessesssscmsmmsssse ees -

When it comes to poster design, bear in mind the golden rule: simplicity, clarity, brevity -
less material rather than more is best.

194
 exercise: designing posters

Step 1

Before you begin design, think back to posters you may have seen and found attractive.
Can you pinpoint striking features that you could draw on?
Decide on what type of poster you want. Do you want a poster that is a large
single entity (most popular) or one that consists of various bits (not that popular)? If a
single entity, what size is the poster to be? What backing do you want to use? Your
choice of material, its type and thickness, may be affected by whether or not you
want lamination — matt is better than gloss. Now follow the dot points and suggestions
in the next three steps.

Step 2

e Decide on the ratio of illustrations to written text that you need fo fill, but not crowd, an
A4 sheet of paper.
e Decide on what to include in the written text, perhaps a title, sub-headings, dot points
and/or continuous text. Consider a short, pithy title. Strip all text ruthlessly so that only
the most essential information is conveyed. The written text should complement the
graphics.
e Reproduce the separate bits of text for your poster in appropriate type fonts, sizes
and variations as discussed below under ‘Pitfalls of using graphics’.
e Decide on what graphics you will use (for example, pictures, photographs, graphs,
diagrams, tables, maps or figures).
At this point ask yourself: how readable will my text and graphics be from a distance
of, say, 15 or 20 feet? Look at the difference between READABLE and Readable.
Enlarged fonts vary in the space they take up and in their readability depending on the
style chosen. BLOCK letters are not a good idea, as they do not allow for the definition
afforded by a mix of upper and lower case letters, which is easier on the eye. Also,
what size should your graphics be?

Step 3

Assemble the separate bits (the title, sub-headings, blocks of information, graphics, and
so on} in an imaginative and creative way, experimenting with design proportions of
space, graphics and text. Try not to get stuck in the groove of ‘linear’ arrangements.
Another possibility is to carve up the poster using sweeping curved lines or circles of
information, which can be most effective.
(Continued)

195
 Now experiment with the positioning of texts, graphics and space to produce a scale
model of the overall design on a piece of A4 paper. Although people’s gaze tends to
move from left to right, and offen gravitates towards the centre of a design, some
effective posters are not centred and can be read in more than one direction. At this
point be prepared to go back to the drawing board to rewrite text, alter graphics, or
find substitute ones if necessary. Leave a suitable amount of blank space or your poster
will look too crowded; about a quarter of the total space available should be blank.
Consider what mix of colours you want: as background, to give emphasis to key points,
or to ensure communicative consistency in the overall composition (for example, the same
colour/tone being used to highlight all key points or for headings). Experiment with the
colour spectrum on your computer; try strong contrasts (for example, bright yellow on
blue or purple on green) or sharp tonal variations in a single colour. Consider two or three
colours with tonal variations, as an overuse of colour can distract from rather than help
communication. Colours can change from computer monitor to colour printer, so do a
test print. Get a colour printout of your assembled A4 poster before you enlarge it.
Move back from your display to try to gauge the overall communicative effect — ask a col-
league's opinion. Are there changes you could make to improve communication? Is it easy to
read from a distance? Do the graphics increase or detract from the overall communicative
effectiveness?
Leave it for a few days and return for another look.

Step 4

Scrutinize every detail of your poster. Edit ruthlessly and proofread very carefully, as you
want to avoid errors appearing at the enlargement stage.
Now that you are sure all is in order, proceed with the enlargement. A4 to A2 is equal
to double the enlargement in text height, and A4 to AO is equal to four times the enlarge-
ment in text height.

This next part of the chapter contains generic advice intended for students mak-
ing a presentation of any kind. As a general rule, invest 90 per cent of your energy
in planning, preparation and rehearsal, and 10 per cent in delivery to improve
the likelihood of a successful presentation — make it a triumphant occasion.

Planning for success

Design of a presentation should always begin with a thorough analysis of the
audience, unless of course there is a highly specialist audience from your
research area.

196
 WOVE
EVE MAS ose
CE
BY S\S WSF

If you are presenting in a course, you will know your audience — fellow
students and your course lecturer. As a seminar presenter you could have
a mixed audience: staff and students from your discipline and possibly
from other disciplines, and perhaps invited public guests, such as practi-
tioners in the field. Determining audience make-up could be challenging if
you are presenting at a conference. You may be able to deduce this from
the nature of the conference itself or from materials sent to you on regis-
tration, but if not, ask the conference convenors about the likely audience
composition. You may also be taking courses that require you to develop
skills for presentations in your future professional life. A psychology grad-
uate, for example, had to design a presentation with an audience of young
children in mind.

exercise: audience profiling

The idea here is to generate as much knowledge about your audience as possible prior
to preparing your presentation.

Step 1

Profile details of the audience for each of your presentations by considering these types
of matters (where relevant):

e Audience size?
e Cultural background? (For example, English-/non-English-speaking background; other
cross-cultural sensitivities to note.)
e Gender balance?
e Age make-up?
e Education level? (For example, tertiary, technical, school leaving certificate, mixed.)
e Make-up of the group? (For example, disciplinary or interdisciplinary academics/
graduate students, disciplinary area specialists, university administrative staff,
professionals, practitioners, business people, government representatives, mixed
group.)
(Continued)

7
 Step 2

With your profile before you, now consider the following questions, the purpose being to
determine whether your particular audience will really want to hear what you wish to
present, which has nothing to do with how controversial or not your paper might be:

e What three assumptions can you make about the likely interests of your audience in
general? Jot these down.
s At what three points might your research interests and knowledge converge with
those of your audience? Jot these down too. (Exercise your creativity with a mixed
audience — you may be surprised at what you uncover.)

x BrSum SS PEOLR LR O% E

With an audience profile in hand, consider adjustments you may need to make
to the language of your presentation in order to accommodate your audience.
All disciplines have specialist languages, specialist terminologies, spe-
cial ways of speaking and communicating, which is fine for initiates but
not for a mixed audience with varying levels of knowledge and expertise.
If, for example, you are working in a highly theoretical or technical field,
modify your use of terminology to accommodate all members of a mixed
audience.
Listening effectively requires thorough understanding of the language of
delivery. If your audience is likely to be from different language backgrounds,
embody respect for this in your language choices, and in your delivery by
enunciating clearly, slowing down and speaking up.
A lower level of formality is better suited to oral communication. Keep the
language clear, simple and concise, less formal. First (I) and second (you)
person usage is common in presentations. As you are interacting with an
audience, remember to speak to that audience, certainly not as casually as
you would with friends, but informally, which does not mean that you cannot
also sound competent and professional.

Also give brief consideration to venue in terms of what you may wish to do
with your audience (we return to the subject of venue later).
Will the setting and room layout be suitable for your type of presentation?
For example, you may want your audience seated at tables for workshop
activities, or if you wish to have the audience engage in group discussions a
formal theatre with fixed chairs would be unsuitable.

198
 Prasentalions

A demanding feature of all oral presentations is staying within the allotted

time. You need to take full account of the time you have to speak (be it 10 or
20 minutes, an hour or more) in developing your talk if you are to manage
time effectively. In short, make special allowances for the fact that you are
presenting to a listening audience; building in redundancy to help the audi-
ence follow; moving between media; or explaining graphics in slideshows.

SSE I.INEINW GILG ODES

Do remember: it takes longer to speak from a paper than to read it through at your desk.

Be specific in drawing up a timeline: so many minutes for the introduction,

outline, different parts of the talk, conclusion, and do a test run to ensure it
will work for you on the day (see > ‘The value of prior rehearsal’ later on in
this chapter).

Formatting options
Popular formats are slideshows, particularly PowerPoint, or multi-media
presentations combining formatting options featured below, as well as other
media not discussed here (for example, video or DVD). Still, where there is
choice, canvass a range of formatting options before making a final decision
on how to organize your presentation.

If your talk is to be fairly short, say 10-15 minutes, you may decide to speak
from scripted notes. This situation is akin to having to write a 1,000-word
essay; it might seem easy, but it is actually quite difficult.

~ . : . sa . ~ QE WWHEISS

7
WY

With a short talk, try to uncover what is significant about your topic for that audience rather
than cover the topic.

199
Writing for academic success

Having a short time to speak exerts considerable pressure on selection, decid-

ing what is most significant to include in your talk. Begin with these questions:

e What is significant/important about my subject?

e What is new about it and what might be especially interesting for my particular audience
(return to your audience profile}?

All your effort will be directed to this matter of selection, after which you may
decide on an outline of main ideas or key points around which to build your
short talk. Or you may decide to develop the talk around a set of graphics (for
example, tables, figures, or charts), or as a PowerPoint presentation (note
comments below under > ‘Slideshow technicalities’).

If you are presenting a formal, longer paper and speaking for, say, 50 minutes,
you may feel too insecure to work from scripted notes and prefer to read
your paper. Or it may be that you are expected to read your paper, word
for word.

Coursework students
In a course, you may be asked to read, in a 20-40 minute time slot, a written
paper of, say 1,000—2,500 words, to be submitted at the end of the session
for assessment, or reworked after feedback from the presentation. Usually,
this type of presentation occurs in a tutorial where your audience is homo-
geneous — fellow students and the lecturer. There is then little to be said in
terms of formatting, except to stress that you structure the paper in a way
that it will not be too difficult for the audience to follow — you still need to
take account of audience needs.
Also, review strategies discussed below under > ‘Fine-tuning and rehearsal’
(outlining papers, making objectives clear, building in repetition, summariz-
ing key points for emphasis, pausing for effect, projecting voice and varying
modulation, and so on).

Research students
You could be asked to produce a substantial written paper as part of a
progress review and give a presentation. Some aspects that may concern you
about this situation are:

e Trying to reduce a lengthy paper, sometimes 40-50 pages or more, to fit your pres-
entation time.
e Addressing an audience of mixed disciplinary/academic interests, which may include
other research students and departmental staff as well as staff and students from

200
 outside your department and/or invited guests, or even audiences with a more complex
make-up.
e Handling questions and criticisms from the audience.
e Managing nervousness.

All these challenges are discussed in the remainder of this chapter. Seek
advice too from your supervisors and lecturers, other staff members and more
advanced students. Many of them will be experienced speakers who have had
to work through similar concerns.

Some graduates feel they have neither the time nor the inclination to rewrite
a lengthy paper to accommodate reading for a specified time, and so decide
to highhght certain parts of the paper to read and leave it at that. You may
adopt this approach, or you may prefer to rework the paper. As it is imprac-
ticable here to include an example of a reworked paper, these few strategies
for condensing are offered.

Condensing the material of your paper

Making your full paper available to the audience prior to a presentation will
leave you in the enviable position of not having to provide detailed support
for all that you say. So cut excessive detail, the very thing that can make the
reading of a paper tedious, however imperative it is that such detail be
included in the writing. While you can take liberties with evidence, referring
the audience to your paper if more detail is requested, do be prepared to refer
them to precisely where in your paper that detail can be found.
While: you may wish to read some sections, you can break up the presenta-
tion by drawing on strategies of this type:

e Condense - for example, summarize a lengthy argument as key points on an overhead

or slide, or isolate and list key issues to discuss.
e Outline — for example, model or picture the framework of your argument, theoretical
discussion, experimental procedure, methodology.
e Use graphical material — for example, tables, graphs, figures, and drawings, to convey
information succinctly.

PowerPoint is the standard medium for slideshows, and may even be a man-
datory requirement in your research area. Well done PowerPoint presentations
are visually aesthetic and exude an aura of sophisticated professionalism.

201
u~ed by an audience-sensitive presenter, such presentations can be exciting
and powerful. But not all is golden in this realm: presentations can also be
boring for audiences, a complaint one hears too often.
Yale Professor Edward Tufte, who has published a monograph on the cog-
nitive style of PowerPoint, notes (2003):

At a minimum, a presentation format should do no harm. Yet the

PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivialises content.
Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play- very loud,
very slow, and very simple ... PowerPoint is a competent s lide manager and
projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a
substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking:
Respect your audience.

A curious effect of this audience/content neglect is a type of memory stasis -

the audience fails to remember anything much about the presentation 10
minutes later, which defeats the point of giving the presentation in the first
place. Full critical appreciation of audience interests/needs as discussed at dif-
ferent points in this chapter is as vítal as it is with other presentation formats.
Where choice does exist, considering possibilities inherent in other formats
covered above, should help you to decide whether PowerPoint is the best
option given the specifics of your presentation situation. Study the next sec-
tion as it contains many considerations that are applicable to presenting using
PowerPoint.

• key points

Mastery of the sl ideshow medium does not equate with a successful presentation.

Online slicieshow options

Popular as PowerPoint is, students are also choosing to use online slideshow
services to host and/or create their slideshows. Slideshare.net and Slide.com
provide popular online platforms for hosting and displaying slideshows in
PowerPoint, Keynote, pdf and other major formats. Uploading your pres-
entation to one of these services provides you both with an online 'backup'
(see ➔ 'Backing up your work' in Chapter 1) and with a public platform for
sharing your work and raising your profile (do not forget to tag your presen-
tations so that people can find them).
Other tools allow you to create slideshow presentations in a non-linear,
more flexihle fashion. With Prezi.com and Vue.tufts.edu you can create

202
 PresPntotions

free-flowing slideshows that easily incorporate rich rnťdia. But again, he

careful not to becomť bt:sottt>d with tlw ·wow' factor oť such tools: clarity oť
presentation must be your priority.

rwar <: of 1sinp gr .,.. •-:s

Watch that ~-ou do not fall into the trc1p oť using graphics as a substitute
for thoughtful content selection and structuring oť your talk. This can lead
to presenters failing to make critical connections, or including too much
information for audience comfort, or zooming through graphics too fast, all
of which can happen with PowerPoint presentations. It is frustrating for
audiences to have a presenter show a complex tahle or figure that is infor-
mation dense. only to have it whipped away before it can be read; or for the
audience to realize that the print is too small to read; or for them to find
that there is too much information to process and the speaker cannot man-
age this either: or to have a single tahle conveyed in eight slow-moving
slides or bites of information so that the audience loses sight of the overall
picture.

Sl'deshnw tAr~nir~lit'~E
When designing and presenting a slideshow, consider the following points:

• Aim to fill the frame of each slide.

• ln choosing colours, consider combining opposite colours on the colour spectrum for
best effect. Do take care with reds and greens together as this combination might con-
found colour-blind people.
• Work towards consistency of design - for example, repeating colour and font sizes for
different levels and types of information - in a set of slides. Your audience will soon tune
in to the communicative meanings thus embodied.
• Experiment with fonts, as some are better than others. Courier New las in the example
below) gives good definition, os does Arial or Helvetica Neue. Avoid using all upper case
letters, which are hord to read. lt is important that people will be oble to read your visuals:

Headings (about 34-36 point)

Sub-headings (about 28-32 point)
Text Of Visual /No Smaller Thon 20 Point/

• Consider no more than obout five points for the text of a slide. Condense information in
each point so that the point itself consists of no more than 10-12 words.
• Ensure graphic materials (for example, tables, figures, diagrams, and maps) contain
only essential information. lf these are necessarily complex, be prepared to draw out in
a concise way what is significant obout them.

203
 • Use abbreviations where your audience will understand these - this saves space.
• Consider incorporating other media (for example, rather than waiting while the audience
reads, say, a lengthy quotation, include on audio recording of the quote to switch them
to the listening mode).

If you are doing a slideshow presentation, be sure you have a reliable

backup just in case something goes wrong. It is prudent to have a copy of
your presentation on a hard drive (for example, your laptop), on a thumb
drive, and also on a networked drive (for example, on the Internet in a service
such as Slídeshare.net or Dropbox.com, or even emailed to yourself).
You should save your presentation in pdf format. Pdf will ensure consist-
ency in formatting, regardless of the version or branci of software available at
the presentation facilities.

Fine-tuning and rehearsal

A key factor in the success of any presentation, including poster presenta-
tions, is meeting audience expectations in terms of their interests and
processing needs, so give this matter close attention in both the design and
delivery stages.

Essential to a successful presentation is effective audience management.

Strategies for addressing the key aspects noted in Figure 11.2 can be encoded
in the planning of your presentation.

Attracting audience interest

In all situations of presenting, you will need to work at attracting audience
interest.

Avoid seeming unenthusiastic about your topíc (perhaps as an

unfortunate effect of nervousness). Enthusiasm is indeed very catching, as

ATTRACTING ORIENTING THE HOLDING

AUDIENCE AUDIENCE TO AUDIENCE
INTEREST YOURTALK INTEREST

FIGURE 11.2 Key aspects of audience management

204
 Pre--:2rtcti0nc;

illu-trr1t,·d in thi- aťarl,·mir.-:-' rJp,·ning crJmnwnts to H hnrnd general audience,

who appeared riveted:

1 - -<Jm,-t 1 rn 1·.- m\·.-t r·rÍ<Jll:-. :-;rm1HinH_•:-, impE.:nélrahle, sometimes ťrus­

:-ir·1•·r1 1 ·,.
tr;.-;t 1n;2. u-ualh h;ird wrJrk. and <;ftr,n hanl wr;rk for little result. But science
ís always exciting. Fascinating and exciting.

If it seems appropriate, and if you feel comfortable with it, build

-<Jm,- hum<;ur intr; yr;ur talk. Fr;r f.:xample. an academic presenting to a hroad
;w;1d1·mir.- audi,:ncr· b,-g;-rn her talk hy silently putting up an overhead of a
humrJr<;u- n,:w--,pé:ifJ<:r u.i.rtr;rm rm a highly topical issue of the time regarding
:-1r r1d,-mir, -rJL-:1rir·_.., (gr·rn:r8.ting much laughter), and then said: 'I know you
,.,;r;u]d :-dl rr1thr·r talk abrJut this. hut I'm going to talk ahout ... ' She certainly
r::-Ju~ht th,- intr:rr::-:t rif hn audience. and there was substance to follow.

These are great devices hecause they are

1 ,r1 <· thr: :-wdif-:'ncr: tr; relaté to. Také the engineér who began his rather
fr;r
tr:r.-hnir-al tolk by humr;n;usly detailing thé types of structural mismanage-
mr:nt that wr;uld ensure C(;llapse oť the ťamily home, and captivating his
audience in the process.

Another strategy is to link your conference

pa r;r:r tr; thr;_c,r; pn:sented prÍ(Jť tr; your own; even a ťew casual references in
r;r1_:.,:.,íng urn br: o usr_:ťul way tr; engage, and re-engage throughout, the audi-
r:nr.-r:. Thi:., i.c, particulorly impn:ssive where there is a conference theme, as it
helps give a sense of continuity to ongoing presentations.
With tutorial and seminar presentations, remember not all people will
br: <:qw:1lly int<:n:sted in y(JUr t(Jpic, so you may have to work a hit harder to
g<:n<:rnt<: oudir:nu: int,::n:st. On a course, you will he guided in this by what you
think will intr:n:st and stimulate students taking the same course as you. As a
r<:'-o<:an.-hr:r. yr;u cr;u]d m,::ntirm in your introduction how you think your paper
might br: n:h:vant tr; th,:: discipline as a whole, or how it complements work
being done in other areas of the discipline. Ask yourself:

• //h; rr1 1gr1t th8 rJrj ;rJnces I orn rnoking in rny research interest members of the wider
d1':;r:.1rJl 1r11C;? r (r_Ju rnn ossume thot 'outsiders' hove come precisely because they are inter-
ested in your topíc.)

Or•~nting fh~ oudiencE> to your talk

Start by thinking about these questions:

• What ismy talk obout?

• 'I /h/ om I tolking obout this topic to this particular audience (return to your audience
profile)?
• How will I approach the talk?

205
Build into your talk an overview of the paper you intend to present; keep it
simple and clear. Remember that your audience is listening, not reacling.
Audience members are not able to backtrack, but instead rely on you to make
the information easily accessible by adopting strategies of this type:

• Use on overhead/slide to outline or model the talk before you begin.

• Give the audience a written outline before you begin; keep this tight and compact.
• Circulate your poper the day before your presentation so that people have on opportunity
to read it before your presentation. (Circulating a poper at the beginning of a presentation
is not a good idea. People then tend to read the poper instead of listening to your talk,
distracting both them and you. Sometimes, unfortunately, conference convenors request
distribution of the poper at this point.)

,k,\j m::e 1nte"'0 S1

Your audience is alert and listening - they know what your talk is about.
Now, how will you hold their attention? In the main, try to remain sensitive
to audience reactions , and consider the following strategies:

• Let your eyes roam across the audience. Make eye contact with many, not just one
or two.
• Modulate your voice, change pace sometimes and pause for effect. Presenters often
speak too fast. For a mixed audience of English and second-language speakers you
should deliberately slow down, which is a good idea anyway. Speaking too fast can be
a side effect of nervousness, which needs to be managed.
• Speak up. Make on effort to project your voice, particularly where there is no micro-
phone. Audiences tend not to be forgiving of the softly spoken.
• Alter the pitch of your voice to avoid tona I monotony, which can be soporific or on incite-
ment to daydream. Sometimes audiences do need a wake-up reminder and a change
of pitch can achieve this.
• Pause frequentty. Give the audience time to absorb your ideas, to have these implanted.
• Summarize and recap - look backwards and forwards - help the audience to remem-
ber and to follow. While redundancy or repetition is a negative in writing, it is a positive in
presentations.
• Try not to turn from the audience when speaking to graphics (a big problem with slide-
shows). A laser pointer might be available, but could be distracting if it is left to wander
randomly os you glance up from your computer at the audience.
• lf you notice someone snoozing in the audience, do not be thrown. Not all members will
stay with you all of the time (particularly not those who have had a heavy night outl), but
some may be completely engaged and listening intently.

Make reminder notes to yourself about all these matters on your paper or on
prompt cards, particularly if you are prone to any of the above (for example,
'SPEAK UP').

206
 Pres0n1aíions

The value of a full rťllťarsal prior to prPsťntation rannot be overemphasized.

To manage tinlť ťťťťctivťly, you will neťd to practise the delivery of your talk.
preferably in front of a n audience.
If you are located on campus. the lwst option is to get together with fellow
students and borrow a room at _vour institution with the requisite equipment
ancl other venue needs. Ask your lecturer/supervisor about this; it is usually
possible for short periods. Fellow students can be very helpful in providing
useful feedbark before the official presentation takes place - remember to
inform them about the nature of your audience, if needs be. A trial run can
be relaxing and fun, alert you to the necessity for last-minute changes, help
quell nervousness and increase confidence.
Family or friends might be willing audiences but, if you will be using
equipment unavailable at home, you could be misled as to the effectiveness
of your time management. Or, as a last resort, you could record yourself
speaking your paper, and play it back so as to act as your own critic. But
this is unlikely to give you a secure sense of how long it will take to deliver
your paper, particularly if you will be moving between written text and
visuals .

On the day: issues of delivery

By this stage you should be well prepared, rehearsed and brimming with
confidence. But other issues may arise in relation to delivery.

Whenever possible, visit in advance your venue for presentation. Look over
the equipment a n d consider matters of this type:

• How big is the room? Will all audience members be oble to hear if there is no micro-
phone (do you need to get one?) ls the screen for visuals positioned so that those in
the back row will be oble to see it or does it need some adjustment?
• Will all your equipment needs be met and can you operate the equipment? Test equip-
ment beforehand. lt can throw your timing out if you have to fiddle with equipment to get
it to work, and this can cause anxiety, though the audience is bound to be sympathetic.
Ali equipment in the room may be operated from a complex panel, and there are differ-
ences in such panels. lt will be disconcerting if the panel is one with which you are
unfamiliar.

207
Anything can go wrong with a presentation, and it often does: the equipment
breaks down; or the room you are scheduled to speak in is changed at the last
minute and you find it has no computer outlet for your PowerPoint presenta-
tion; or you realize you are running out of time and you have far from finished
your talk; or a speaker on your panel has run way over time so your talk needs
to bt; cut short on the spot; or the format of your panel session has been changed
and you suddenly find you have less time to speak (it never seems to be more!).
As regards this last point, two useful strategies a r e:

l. Always think through beforehand how you might cut your poper short if you were to
discover your speaking time had unexpectedly shrunk - actually mark out what you
could cut without disturbing the overall coherence of your talk.
2. Learn your opening remarks by heart - not merely the polite or funny bits, but the intel-
lectual lead-in. Do the same with your concluding remarks. A rambling conclusion or no
conclusion because you are out of time can increase anxiety. Be oble to cut straight to
the conclusion if you run out of time.

You may have to make quick adjustments to cope with a new situation, but
most presenters have had to confront the unexpected at some time, and are
likely to feel sympathetic if this should happen. Draw your audience into your
dilemma; make the best of the situation, and do not let it throw you offbalance.

Question time often makes students nervous. It is easy to feel such relief at
having finished your presentation that it is hard then to concentrate on ques-
tions. But do try to listen carefully because question time can be complex, as
indicated by the situations mentioned below.

The belligerent or antogonistic question

Often the reasons behind aggressive questioning go beyond the scope of a
paper, perhaps to a preferred ideology, theory or methodology, and there is
little you can do except to respond if you can and move on quickly. Avoid
engaging in argument in question time. Or, if your interest is aroused, offer
to continue the convers ation in a coffee or lunch break.

Uncertainty obout what is being asked

Sometimes questioners are themselves uncertain about what it is they are
really asking and so tend to be circuitous in putting questions. If you think
there are questions being asked but you remain confused, ask politely for a
r ewordin g of the question(s), or for just one question at a time .

208
When you do not know the ans
You may be presenting work in progress that is incomplete, so you may not
have all the answers. That aside, no one is infallible and it is easy to be
caught out on occasion. You should admit you had not thought of that point
and thank the questioner for drawing your attention to it. But be sure that
the question is not simply irrelevant.

The irrelevant question

Some questions might be outside the scope of your paper, in which case just
say so in your response. Or the question might imply the need for further
research, beyond your scope, and you could say that. Or, if the question is
more in the nature of a comment or observation of little relevance, then say
so, or perhaps smile, nod and move on.

When there is not actually a ‘question’

There can be a tendency for audience members to want to share their views
and ideas rather than ask specific questions; others want to have their say.
That is fine and can be interesting. But overlong, rambling speeches from
audience members can be a problem too, unless there is a good Chair.
When this happens, it might help to glance at a Chair who is not interven-
ing, or you might have to politely intervene yourself to end the one-way
‘conversation’.

Many presenters (students and academics alike) experience nervousness.

Some nervousness is good — it keeps you alert and focused. But excessive
nervousness can be terrible; all your careful preparation can collapse under
a feeling of enormous strain.

Take charge of your audience — lead them towards appreciation of your paper.

Be realistic
Try not to place impossible expectations on yourself. It really does not matter
if your presentation is not perfect, if all does not go quite according to plan.
Presentations rarely do, as seasoned presenters know well.

Z09
pene |Hee in self-sabotaging ‘inner talk’ of the type that predicts diffi-
culties and failure — for example, ‘I’ve never been any good at presentations’,
or ‘They're going to hate my paper’. Instead, visualize your past successes
and triumphs, your many past achievements — focus on a specific academic
achievement that made you feel great.

Foetn ec 4oree easeuet

Remember that the conference convenors found your paper interesting enough
to include. You do know a lot about your particular subject, and the audience
can be persuaded that they want to hear what you want to tell them.

Ke r presentation in perspective
Ttis oe the whole of your life, justa are of your overall academic endeavours
at this time.
Nervousness usually decreases with further experience, but if you think
the problem serious enough to warrant help, take steps to control it by con-
tacting your counselling centre for professional advice. In the main, do not
place impossible demands of perfection on yourself. Prepare well, do a prac-
tice run of your talk with fellow students if possible (help each other out),
think positively, try to enjoy the opportunity to present, and do not be too
concerned if everything does not go perfectly on the day — it rarely does.

a ee =» further resources ©

Alley, M. (2003) The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical
Errors to Avoid. New York: Springer-Verlag. An engaging, rich resource with great illustra-
tions that is relevant for anyone who wants to master the slideshow medium and technical
presentations.

Shephard, K. (2005) Presenting at Conferences, Seminars and Meetings. London: Sage

Publications. A highly practical guide to presenting across disciplines that complements and
expands on material covered in this chapter, and contains a chapter dedicated to a subject
not discussed here: the advantages and disadvantages of videoconferencing.

Sprague, J. and Stuart, D. (2008) The Speaker's Compact Handbook. 2nd edn. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth. More of an introduction to effective public speaking that provides essential infor-
mation, great tips, checklists, learning tools (including speechbuilder express and infotrac),
and discrete chapter access to specific topics of interest.

210
 Publishing and Raising Your Profile |
WSF WF CG CO

is. developmental objectives

By applying the strategies, doing the exercises and following the procedural steps in this
chapter, you should be able to: ‘

e Appreciate the advantages of self-publishing some of your work online.

e Understand how to raise your profile by building an eportfolio.
e Take a constructive approach to the sensitive issue of co-authorship with supervisors.
e Identify strategies for targeting an appropriate journal and shaping a paper for
publication.
e Understand the peer review process and possible outcomes, and identify strategies
for dealing with calls for substantial revision, or rejection of your manuscript.
e ldentify strategies for contacting book publishers and focusing a book proposal.
e Form a publication syndicate with fellow students in your research group as a mutual
support and learning forum.

As a graduate, publishing may be a new endeavour for you. This chapter

initially considers online publishing and setting up an eportforlio to raise
your profile before turning to two major avenues for disseminating your
research: journal article and book publication.
Pre-publishing or self-publishing online
Many students are choosing to ‘pre-publish’ or ‘self-publish’ their work on the
web in various formats, including in blogs, wikis, podcasts, slideshows, videos
and even on Twitter. All of this counts as self-publishing online.

Shri SUING

The advantages of distributing your work online are many (see also >
‘Raising your profile: setting up an eportfolio’ in the next section for more
information on the types of tools and services that you might use for
self-publishing).

Self-publishing online can be a valuable way of disseminating, and getting feedback on

your work, before sending it out for formal consideration.

Testing ideas and staking a claim to them

In formal publishing, the processes of peer review, editing and revision mean
that there is normally a significant lag time between the time you submit
work for consideration and the time it actually appears ‘in print’. If you pub-
lish your work online, however, you can disseminate your material immedi-
ately and attract comments and criticism from the online community,
including from your peers and colleagues. This can be especially valuable if
you want to test a controversial thesis or idea for coherence and relevance
before sending a paper off to a journal for formal consideration.
Because of the time it can take to have your work published via formal
channels, you may want — or need — to assert your rights to your intellectual
property sooner rather than later. This 1s especially the case in fast-moving
areas, such as Computer Science or Engineering, where methods, designs
and technologies quickly become obsolete and where a year or two’s delay in
publishing your ideas could cost you the advantage. Publishing online can
help you stake an early claim to your work.

increasing your visibility

As with presenting at conferences, self-publishing online increases your visibil-
ity in the research community and can be an important part of your networking

DN
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PUDHSNING GNO raising your prone

(see 4 ‘Networking for support’ in Chapter 1). The more material you dissemi-
nate online, the more ‘searchable’ you become.
There will aiways be times during thesis writing when your belief in your
ability to produce good ideas and to write well will be tested. Self-publishing
your work can lift your morale, especially when you receive positive feedback
on the material you have posted.

Writing your way to clarit

Throughout this book you are advised to write early and write often. Of course,
you can always generate material by putting written matter into a Word
document and keeping it on your hard drive, but producing items for an
online readership (or viewership or listenership) can be a strong incentive to
the intellectual and creative processes.
Writing regular blog posts or making frequent additions to a wiki helps form
the writing habit and can even help you overcome writer’s block (see >
‘Managing common writing concerns’ in Chapter 2). Neither do you have to
write enormously lengthy tracts when self-publishing in this manner — simply
a few hundred words might be all you want to add at any given time. This can
reduce some of the pressure you might feel when you tell yourself that you have
to write extended arguments in order to be producing worthwhile material.

Expanding possibilities
Publishing in the digital age need not be limited to text-based or ‘paper’ formats.
Online publishing provides multiple and more flexible formats for communicating
your work. You will probably produce at least one or two slideshows throughout
your research degree and these can easily be added to a slideshow hosting serv-
ice (see > the next section), as a way of expanding your online, self-published
profile. If you are more adventurous, you might want to publish videos or audios
related to your research, or you might consider Tweeting your ideas.

Be selective about what you put online. Although you can, in theory, self-
publish anything you want, it is nevertheless good practice to think carefully
about your purpose in publishing online, and to edit and proofread all materi-
als before hitting ‘publish’, ‘save’ or ‘upload’.

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7
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It is not advisable to publish online anything and everything you write.

ZA9
 Q Tor ACadeMic SUCCESS

Before you self-publish any of your research or ideas online, you should
also consider that self-publishing is not typically regarded as ‘proper’ pub-
lishing in the academic community. Although it is easy to publish your own
work online, doing so lacks the prestige of having your work published in a
peer-reviewed journal or by a well-regarded publishing house. You need to be
strategic about which material is suitable to self-publish and which material
would more usefully be sent away to a journal.
You may need to ‘pitch’ your work at a different level online. Work that you
produce for a journal article or book is usually in-depth, highly developed and
complex; online environments do not generally sustain this approach to com-
munication. If you are self-publishing online to attract audiences that you
expect to give feedback on your ideas, then make sure that you express your-
self clearly and simply so people can grasp your main points quickly. If, on
the other hand, you are self-publishing as a way of generating material for
formal publication in the future, then you must adjust your style and tone to
suit the requirements of conventional scholarly discussion when you later
submit a paper for peer review.
You might get negative reactions to or comments on your work. In publish-
ing anything for general consumption on the web, there is always the pos-
sibility that you may encounter more criticism than anticipated. If the
criticism is fair and helpful, then graciously accept it and use it to improve
your thinking (this should be one of the reasons why you choose to self-
publish in the first place). If the criticism is rude, abusive or genuinely
unmerited, then you are within your rights to ignore it and even remove it
from your site or profile.

Raising your profile: setting up an eportfolio

As a research student, you should start to think now about raising your pro-
file within your chosen field of study. A simple way to do this is to set up an
online portfolio, an ‘eportfolio’", that brings together your various writings,
presentations and other research-related materials. The idea of an eportfolio
is to introduce yourself to the research community and to promote your work.
Providing a web link to your online portfolio can also impress potential
employers no end, and it may be what distinguishes you from the competition
when it comes to applying for a job.
There are two main choices in constructing an eportfolio: (1) build a basic
eportfolio using only the tools provided by the service you use for your eport-
folio; or (2) create an expanded eportfolio by placing your eportfolio materials
on a number of different specialist sites and then ‘feeding’ them into a central
gateway to your online presence.

214
 Publishing and raising your profile

A basic eportfolio will find you using a single service to host all your eportfo-
ho materials. You might choose a blogging service such as WordPress.com or
Blogger.com (blogs make for excellent eportfolios), or you might prefer for the
task a dedicated eportfolio service such as Mahara.org. These services are
very powerful and offer a large range of functions, but with a basic eportfolio
you will only be exploiting their capacity to upload documents, files and
images, and to create written blog posts. Choose this model if you want the
simplest of online presences, or if you lack confidence in drawing together a
variety of sites into the one location. Do note, however, that because of the
hmited use you are making of your eportfolio, valuable ways of promoting
your work, as now discussed, are being overlooked.

The idea of developing an expanded eportfolio is that you distribute various

bits of content across the web and then draw it all together in the one place.
At first glance, it might not seem to be a good idea to have all your portfolio
materials in disparate online locations. There are, however, distinct advan-
tages in choosing this format. over its alternative.
This approach allows you to choose the ‘best tool for the job’. With a basic
eportfolio, you are only using the functions provided and/or supported by the
service that hosts your material. But if you expand your approach, and distrib-
ute your work amongst a number of specialist services (for example, you upload
your slideshows to Slideshare.net and your Word documents to Scribd.com —
these are all described below), then you are able to embed visual, ‘scrollable’
displays of that work into your central eportfolio. This makes for a richer, more
accessible — and more impressive — experience for visitors to your site.
Having your work distributed across sites and services also makes you
more ‘searchable’. If you have a presence in Twitter.com and a résumé on
LinkedIn.com, for example, you are increasing the chance of having your
expertise recognised by potential employers at the same time as increasing
your exposure to your audience.
You can, furthermore, include a much greater variety of content. For example,
you could share interesting research articles or websites that you have found by
adding a feed to your online bookmarks or you might want to embed a YouTube
video that you find useful or instructive. This adds to the dynamic, ‘rich media’
nature of your eportfolio and will make visitors want to explore further.
Some tools and services you might consider when setting up your expanded
eportfolio are now discussed.

215
Running your own research-related blog can be an excellent way to promote
both yourself and your work. Writing short entries (between, say, 200 and
600 words) can become an important part of your eportfolio in that such writ-
ing can communicate to your visitors what you are ‘about’ as a thinker and
researcher. And the more you blog, the more you increase your searchability
on the web. Using a blog as your main eportfolio site is discussed below.

LinkedIn.com is somewhat like Facebook for professionals and is a great way

to control your professional identity online. If you want to keep your personal
and professional lives separate, then you could use Facebook for friends and
family and LinkedIn for colleagues. LinkedIn allows you to create a profile,
add updates, connect with and search for others in your field, and generally
expand your networks. As with all elements of an expanded eportfolio,
though, you need to keep your profile up to date.

Fac OK
Many students already have a Facebook.com account, so you may consider
connecting your Facebook to your eportfolio. This would work if you feel con-
fident that your Facebook already presents a fairly professional account of
yourself to the world (as opposed to one that might be more personal or pri-
vate in nature), or if you feel that you can handle Facebook’s privacy settings
well enough to manage your public image. Be careful, though: Facebook’s
privacy settings are complicated and change frequently, so there is no guar-
antee that you will always be able to control what others do and do not see.
If in doubt, use a service such as LinkedIn for your professional life.
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As with all the social media described in this book, it is how — and how well —
you use them that matters to your research and writing. Twitter.com may be
a way of relaying to the world the most inane happenings in your everyday life,
or it may be a way of conveying research-related discoveries, pointing to the
latest report in your field or networking with like-minded scholars.

Slideshows
As a research student, you will hkely give several oral presentations
throughout your degree and those presentations will, in turn, likely be sup-
plemented by a PowerPoint or slideshow presentation (see > ‘Slideshow
(PowerPoint) presentations’ in Chapter 11). Do not allow this excellent
material to be hmited by the time and space of the actual presentation itself:
increase your audience by uploading your presentations to a slideshow and

216
 Publishing and raising your profile

document hosting service such as Slideshare.net. Slideshows and documents

hosted on Slideshare can be embedded and displayed in your eportfolio. This
allows visitors to view and click through your presentation there and then,
without having to download, unless they wish to and you have provided the
option for them to do so.

Documents
It might be adequate to upload a Word or pdf document to your eportfolio but
in order for visitors to view your material they must first download and save
it, which can be inconvenient at times. A more elegant solution is to host your
documents on a document hosting service such as Scribd.com and then
embed a viewable version in your eportfolio — just as you would do with slide-
shows, as described above. All of this adds to your online presence and
increases your searchability.

Video and audio

If you are a more advanced web user, you might even consider producing
some audios or videos to embed in your eportfolio. Depending on your field of
studies, and depending on whether or not you have the skill, means and time,
you might create videos of laboratory techniques you are developing, of field
sites you have established, or even of interviews you have recorded with
informants (with ethics approval and their permission, of course). Audio for-
mats can also be effective in an eportfolio and are excellent vehicles for dis-
cussions of theory-related topics, or of interim research findings. Not only
does adding video or audio to your eportfolio demonstrate your thinking
around your discipline area, it also shows off your skills in producing these
kinds of media.

In choosing a service to host your eportfolio, you should select a robust, reli-
able platform that allows you to export or backup your content. Blogging
services provide a near perfect means for creating an eportfolio, whether you
are using a basic or expanded format. You do not have to turn into a full-
blown blogger, though; you are simply using the platform to assemble your
eportfolio. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that blogs are designed to
display dynamic content in the form of blog entries or posts in reverse chron-
ological order.
WordPress.com and Blogger.com (Blogger is owned by Google) are perhaps
the two largest blogging services. They have each been around for several years,
are dependable and reputable, and provide excellent functionality for free.

ANY.
 In terms of features, WordPress has almost everything you can think of, so
if you are looking for the most powerful and flexible platform for your eport-
folio, then you might choose WordPress. Blogger, on the other hand, does not
have quite the same level of functionality, but it is a little simpler to use.
Both services allow you to customize the appearance of your eportfolio, offer-
ing many different ‘themes’ to choose from.

What goes into your eportfolio will be up to you, but you should have at least
a curriculum vitae (CV), some examples of your work (whether they be papers
or presentations or both), and your contact details. Anything less than this,
and your site will hardly be worth visiting.

Include your employment history (past 10 years is normally enough), your

higher education history, a list of any publications or conference papers, pro-
fessional memberships, awards or any other relevant information. Do not
include the contact details of referees as you are publishing your CV on the
web, and your referees may not want their details made known. It is best if
you provide your CV in both html (web page) and pdf versions. Avoid upload-
ing Word documents, as they do not always print well.

Contact details
Think about how you would want people to get in touch with you. If you pre-
fer email, then use an email address that you check regularly. Keep your
contact details up to date.

Presentations, keynotes, and conference papers

Add a section to your portfolio that provides copies of any presentations you
have given in the past. A short abstract on each, as well as the venue and
date for your presentations should also be provided. Any slideshows should
also be saved in ‘handout’ format and in pdf. Visitors do not want to have to
print out 60 pages at one slide per page.

Scholarly papers
Provide copies of, or links to, your published and unpublished papers.
Remember, though, that if your work has been published in a journal,
then the journal probably owns the copyright on your paper, which means
you should only provide a link to the paper, not a copy of the whole paper
itself.

218
Awards
Let visitors to your eportfolio know of any awards or nominations that you
have received. Include PhD or research scholarships under this heading.

Blog
As stated earlier, it can be strategic to write the occasional blog post, even
if you do not see yourself as a dedicated blogger. Blogging raises your pro-
file at the same time as letting people know about the great ideas you are
developing.
Of course, how much material you choose to include, and the variety of
tools and services you draw into your central eportfolio, will be up to you, but
you must keep your site up to date. Even if you have all the skill and where-
withal to create the most elaborate expanded eportfolio, visitors will not
return to your site if there is only ‘old stuff on it.

Journal publication
Publishing papers in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals remains a major
avenue for disseminating your research. You may be writing a paper from
scratch, perhaps because you are doing a thesis by publication, or wishing to
publish papers from completed thesis chapters. Where the research reported
on in a chapter is focused on a single experiment or test, as in some sciences,
there is high compatibility between chapter and manuscript design. In the
arts and some areas of science and the social sciences, however, thesis chap-
ters are more complex and are not easily converted to publishable papers,
because as Sadler (2006: 8) points out:

An article needs a clear, unitary focus. It is often difficult to lift an intact

section [let alone a full chapter] from a thesis, extract the relevant entries
from the references and publish it as an article. How an article can be
developed from a thesis depends on the thesis topic and the structure of the
dissertation itself. (Qur emphasis)

In such cases, a chapter may contain two or more potential papers, and con-
siderable rewriting to reshape material for publication. Strategies presented
in subsequent sections should help you with this.

on God ©

There are many well-established, top-class ejournals. If, however, you are
thinking to publish electronically, take a little care to establish the duration

219
of the journal and its scholarly status — whether or not it is peer reviewed — as
there is an element of instability in this avenue of publishing. One student
reported that a new ejournal that looked promising in her social science dis-
cipline disappeared after publishing just two issues, consigning the papers
published in it (including hers) to oblivion.

The advantage of these journals is that anyone can access their articles free,
which could increase the breadth of your readership and, subsequently, your
chances of being cited by other authors. Just confirm whether or not you will
have to pay to publish in such a journal.

Including supervisors as co-authors can be an excellent learning experi-

ence, and bestow reflected prestige from publishing with well-known,
respected scholars in your research area. Still, co-authorship is an issue for
some students. While the following discussion draws on a student publica-
tion that issued from a survey of students and supervisors in one science
discipline, the observations are more generally applicable.
The authors observe:

. students and supervisors [in the survey] agreed on the basis for
co-authorship of publications. Most students and supervisors thought that
co-authorship was appropriate only when the supervisors had contributed
both intellectual input and had written sections of the manuscript.
(Christian et al., 1997: 30)

- » key points

If the issue of co-authorship is worrying you and others in your research group, meet and
decide on strategies to resolve the situation.

Christian et al. suggest discussing this issue with supervisors early in the
research to avoid conflict. As a guide to determining a supervisor’s contribution,
they also advise using Galindo-Leal’s table (cited in Christian et al., 1997: 30)
to assess the percentage input of a supervisor in five categories: planning;

220
executing (for example, a test or experiment); interpreting; analysing; and
writing, which you can try if you wish.
A further issue turns on whose name should go first on the publication —
presumably yours if you have done most of the work, though practice can
vary. While co-authored publications from thesis work are unlikely to nega-
tively affect the requirement of originality, you could also discuss this with
your supervisor.

Targeting an appropriate journal

Although rejections are part of the business of publishing, you can minimize
the possibility of rejection by avoiding inappropriate journals. If your research
is highly specialist, there may be only one or two journals in which to publish.
Otherwise, before you act, consult with your supervisor about suitable jour-
nals for publication. A journal’s impact factor may be a consideration, but
there is some controversy around this (see, for example, Van Aalst’s (2010)
discussion of impact, especially as it relates to Google Scholar). Also, take
note, during reading, of where significant scholars in your research field are
publishing.

Jaw TE eee!

To determine the fit between your paper and the targeted journal, construct
a profile of that journal. Doing this will also aid the writing process if you are
a sole or first author on a joint publication.

exercise: building a journal profile

Consider carefully the following questions (add your own too) and take some notes on
your findings:
e How often is the journal published? Might time delay in publishing, say yearly, affect
the relevance of your paper (in fast-moving research areas material becomes dated
quickly)?
e What are the scope and aims of the journal? This information is usually provided at the
front end of journals (online and print); if it is not, quickly review abstracts and/or intro-
ductions to see what types of content are favoured. Does your content seem to fit the
(Continued)

221
 journal's profile (for example, a theoretical versus a practical focus, a preference for
more multidisciplinary-type articles, professional or academic]?
e What appears to be the reach of the journal's audience — broad general interest? Inter-
or cross-disciplinary interest? Disciplinary interest or a specialist audience within your
discipline? Would your paper have the right appeal?
e What quality indicators or scholarly attributes can you isolate to help determine the
status of the journal — is it well known in your research area?

Shaping a paper for publication

Having identified an appropriate journal, obtain instructions to authors
for publication. These are sometimes printed at the back of journals, or you
may need to write for them or download them from the Internet if the jour-
nal is online. These editorial instructions are highly prescriptive and
cannot be negotiated. Follow them meticulously, and make sure your paper
conforms in all respects before forwarding it to the publishers. Instructions
may consist of several pages covering many details of journal house style
and formatting preferences, all of which will need to be incorporated in
your paper.

SFO:

Do adopt a professional approach to preparation of your manuscript for, as

suggested: “Traits of successful research and practitioner authors include
being systematic, persistent and amenable to editing and revising their
manuscripts in order to make them publishable’ (Chisholm, 2007: 139).

Give the aspect of persuasion careful thought when writing the abstract (or
the introduction if an abstract is not required).

9) key points

Convey the value or significance of your research to journal readers.

222
 Publishing and raising your profile

Ask yourself:

e What potential body of readers of this journal might be interested in my article, or aspects
of it, and why?
e How can | convey to those readers what is innovative, different, important or exciting
about the research presented in my paper?

Do think carefully about these questions. The idea is to attract as many

potential readers as possible. You could review and compare abstracts of
published authors in your journal of interest by applying the > exercise on
‘Mastering disciplinary writing practices’ in Chapter 2, which is designed
to direct your attention away from content to composition practices and
processes — take up what seems appropriate.

The value of the exercise just mentioned is reinforced by a seminal linguistics

study that is contextually relevant. In his substantial investigation of the
introductions of published articles in mainly science disciplines (some social
sciences), John Swales proposed the CARS (Creating a Research Space) model
of journal article introductions (Figure 12.1). The arrows on the right indicate
the declining persuasive effort required by a writer in moving from the point
of convincing a reader of the significance, value or importance of the research,
to explicit statements on the nature of the research presented in the paper.
Compare this CARS model with introductions of articles in the journal
you have selected. Not all science articles evidence these types of successive
moves, or even different ordering of the moves, in their introductions, but
many do. Many of the moves indicated also appear in the introductions of
articles in areas other than science, and in many theses too. The CARS
model is at least a fine example of how to go about uncovering composition
or organizational strategies being applied in the writing of journal articles
(not just the introduction), or any other type of writing for that matter.

ngaging the
Over 15 years of linguistic research in academic writing has shown that aca-
demics work hard to engage readers and get them on side, and that academic
writing is not as impersonal as might be thought:

. while impersonality may often be institutionally sanctified, it is

constantly transgressed. This is generally because the choices which realise
explicit writer presence ... are closely associated with authorial identity
and authority. (Hyland 2001b: 209)

Tage
Move 1 Establishing a territory
Step 1 Claiming centrality [of the research being
presented]
and/or
Step 2 Making topic generalization(s) Declining rhetorical effort

and/or
Step 3 Reviewing items of previous research

Move 2 Establishing a niche

Step 1A Counter-claiming
or
Step 1B Indicating a gap
or
Step 1C Question-raising
or
Step 1D Continuing a tradition Weakening knowledge claims

Move 3 Occupying the niche

Step 1A Outlining purposes

or
Step 1B Announcing present research

Step 2 Announcing principal findings

Step 3 Indicating RA [research article] structure Increasing explicitness

FIGURE 12.1 Creating a Research Space — the CARS model of journal introductions (Swales, 1990: 141)

Ken Hyland, a noted linguist and scholar, has studied different aspects of
what might be called ‘the insider ethos’ of writing papers. Presently relevant
is his study of reader engagement (2001a). Hyland points out: “Writers con-
struct an audience by drawing on their knowledge of earlier texts and relying
on readers’ abilities to recognize intertextuality between texts’ (2001a: 551).
(By intertextuality, he means the way in which the same practices recur in
different disciplinary texts, and sometimes more generally in academic texts.)
Constructing an audience involves varied aims that can be summarized in
paraphrase from Hyland (2001a) as follows:

Soliciting reader solidarity, trying to encourage particular reactions, secur-

ing reader agreement, inviting reader collusion, manoeuvring readers to see

224
 Publishing and raising your profile

things in the same way as you do, positioning readers as fellow-travellers,

appealing to collective understandings, predicting and responding to possi-
ble objections and alternative interpretations, and so forth.

Drawing on a corpus of 240 research articles and interviews with academics

from the same disciplines, Hyland identified strategies for how academic
writers engage their readers to achieve these aims. Table 12.1 is a tabulation
of his characterization of these strategies, which contribute to a strong

TABLE 12.1 Strategies for engaging the reader

Strategy Examples
Using inclusive first ‘One might argue that in order to understand the codes, the learner
person, indefinite and needs to become ...’
second person pronouns ‘We know, however, it is only in the last few years that ...’
‘We can readily see that there are two kinds of ...’
‘If you concede that mental properties have causal powers ... then
you must consider the causal role of mental properties to be
somehow dependent on the causal role of physical properties.’
Making references to (The adverbial phrase of course seems important here.)
shared knowledge — ‘Of course, we know that the indigenous communities of today have
perhaps fo concede a point been reorganized by the Catholic church in colonial times and after.’
only to turn the reader The obviously correct relation between these two lengths is ...’
towards your own argument ‘Chesterton was of course wrong to suppose that ...’
Using directives (Includes imperatives, and obligation modals referring to actions of
the reader — for example, must, ought, should, have to, need to, etc.)
‘A distinction must be made between ...’
‘What we now need to examine is whether there is more to
constancy than this.’
‘Hence it is necessary to understand the ...’
Using questions both real (‘Real’ questions are not all that common, but are sometimes set up to
and rhetorical generate interest and provoke reader thought in concluding comments.)
‘Do these findings mean that the current approach needs to be
modified or that an entirely new approach needs to be developed?’
(The ‘rhetorical’ question is more commonly found. It may be used in an
introduction to ‘establish a niche’) ‘How can these findings be
reconciled? Our goal in this paper is to offer an explanation of these ...’
(Or as a transition device, say between paragraphs.)
‘What is it then that the Zapatistas want?’
(Note comments in ‘Strategies for linking paragraphs’ in Chapter 4
on using the rhetorical question as a transition device.)
Using asides addressed to ‘And — as | believe many TESOL [Teaching English as a Second
the reader (sometimes Language] professionals will readily acknowledge -— critical
marked off from the thinking has now begun to make its mark ...’
ongoing flow of the text) ‘It is worth noting in passing, that the conscience of those
engaged in the moral condemnation that accompanied such
reporting does not seem to have been greatly troubled by ...’

Source: Collated from Hyland (2001a).

225
authoritative voice. (See > ‘Bringing examiners into view in Chapter 10.)
There are also other strategies, such as ‘boosters’ (for example, indeed, it is
clear that, undoubtedly, in fact), as discussed in Hyland and Tse’s later reap-
praisal of such strategies (2004: 168). Hyland’s body of work has much to
offer the diligent, interested student (see, for example, Hyland (1996) on the
significance of ‘hedging’ in scientific articles, or Hyland (2002b) on argument
and engagement in academic writing).
It is the use of strategies of this type that demonstrates the extent to which
all communication, including academic writing, is indeed a ‘social process’
(Bazerman, 1988: 251), or, better still, a social practice of the academy.

exercise: identify disciplinary practices for

engaging the reader
Step 1

Select two or three journal articles in your discipline, articles you are reading for your
research.

Step 2

Skim them with a view to identifying and highlighting any practices of the type in Table 12.1.
Think about the impact such practices have on you as reader.

Approaching a book publisher

While finding an interested publisher is certainly not easy, the degree of
difficulty could depend on the marketability of your proposed book.
Occasionally, students have had publishers interested well before complet-
ing their theses because their research was topical and of high interest to a
wider audience. But this is not usual. If you are writing a thesis with a view
to turning it into a book, discuss early on with your supervisor and other
colleagues ways in which you might reasonably modify the writing of your
thesis to cut down on the amount of rewriting you will have to do for book
publication.

oy v) g

If you are planning to approach a publishing house, there are a few matters
to consider upfront.

226
 Publishing houses have different requirements. They are not likely
to welcome whole theses being forwarded, although some might accept
electronically a full manuscript of a reworked thesis at the point of
approach — you would need to check. Well-known publishers have web-
sites, so do clarify the precise steps you need to take in approaching any
particular publisher.

The proposal
You will need to produce a ‘proposal’. Again proposal formats are different for
different publishing houses; you should be able to download a set of guide-
lines from the relevant website. Be sure to write to specific requirements
under the given sub-headings. You should also be able to identify on the site
the appropriate editor to whom your proposal should be sent, and whether or
not it is acceptable to do this by email. Proposals usually contain information
of this type:

e Asynopsis of your intention in producing the book — its justification, its importance or its
topicality.
e Acomparison of competitive publications in your area: how your manuscript differs, what
it has to offer that others do not, its unique qualities.
e A table of contents outline; perhaps an introduction and/or a sample chapter.

Goawoe key points ===

Your proposal will be important in sparking initial interest, so do give it careful thought.

You will certainly need to address the issue of the intended market (pub-
lishing houses care about sales) — some questions you will need to grapple
with being:

e Who do! see as my potential audience?

e How broad might the base of this audience be? Is interest likely to be generated beyond
my subject speciality (a good idea in the current marketing climate]? If yes, among what
types of readers and why?
e Why might people want to read my book instead of another on the same or a cognate
subject?
e Why might they want to read my book alongside already published books on the subject?
What am | adding in terms of value?
e Is my book likely to be included as a compulsory or recommended text for any course/s?

221
Talk over these questions with colleagues before writing your proposal. If your
proposal is accepted (perhaps after being sent for peer review — see > the next
section), you will then confront the challenge of turning your thesis into a book.
At this point, stop thinking in terms of your thesis, and start thinking in terms
of a manuscript you want to publish. Talk to as many academic colleagues as you
can (particularly those who have published books) for advice on what they think
you will need to take into account during the rewrite for publication.
As you have an entirely new audience (no longer your thesis examiners),
the introduction will need to be reshaped to address their interests. Also, a
book typically has less detail and a less rigorously formal style than a thesis.
The nature of your audience, however, will impact on the extent of rewriting
required. A more specialist academic audience would involve less reworking
than would be the case for a broader, more general readership.

The peer review process

It is highly likely your paper will be sent to referees (reviewers) if you are
approaching a scholarly journal, and almost certain your book proposal will
be sent for review.
Journal editors are concerned to select papers they consider most repre-
sentative of the journal’s interests (scope and aims), and the best available to
maintain their reputation. Publishing houses too have reputations to main-
tain, and they are very interested in the market place, so your intended market
will matter. The higher the status of the journal or the more prestigious the
publishing house, the more advantage the editors have in selection, and the
more care they are likely to exercise in ensuring they make the best possible
choices. This is where referees come in.
Many quality journals are called refereed journals, meaning that articles
published in them have been reviewed by outside referees or readers before
acceptance for publication. Editors of these journals select papers from those
they receive and send them on to reviewers who are scholarly experts in the
field of research being addressed in your paper. Publishing houses have a
similar procedure with book proposals.

Referees of your journal manuscript or book proposal will be asked to address

questions of this type (articles and books have not been separated out here
because for more academic publications similar types of questions will be
asked, although questions specific to your particular book proposal or article
will be included):

228
 Publishing and raising , your
}
profile
lee *

e Is there a relevant and informative title — ‘eye-catching’ may also be appropriate in some
cases?
e ls there a clear and concise abstract? (An abstract is not always required, even for certain
peer-reviewed journals, as some students in both the arts and sciences point out.)
e Is the article likely to have the right appeal for journal readers? Or is the book likely to
appeal to the intended market as laid out in the proposal? Do you think people would
actually buy it and why?
e Does the research reported on contribute new, innovative and/or significant insights?
As suggested above, this needs to be foregrounded in your abstract and/or introduction.
e Does the introduction provide appropriate and sufficient context, in terms of breadth and
depth, to put the audience in the picture?
e Are the foci, objectives and (perhaps) methodology or procedure all clearly laid out?
e How sound is the methodology or how well integrated is the theory (if relevant)?
e Does the paper/book evidence logical rigour? (For example, in terms of the validity of
arguments, or interpretations of results or data, including speculations that arise from
these.)
e Are the coverage and use of references in the paper/book adequate, and are the refer-
encing details correct?
e ls the paper/book well-written? (For example, clearly focused, well organized and coher-
ently developed, concisely written, and correct grammar/spelling.)
e Does the style of the book have the right appeal for the intended audience? (For exam-
ple, use of sophisticated disciplinary terminology will not suit a broader, more general
audience.)
e What do you see as the strengths/weaknesses of this paper/book?
e Are there any ways in which the paper/book can be improved?
e Should the paper/book be published? Revised? Not published? Why or why not?

Accept
Your paper has been accepted as it is, or with only minor revisions, after
review by referees. Or you have been offered a contract on the basis of peer
review of your book proposal. Congratulations.

Revise and resubmit

They are interested — great — but you are asked to make substantial revi-
sions. As you read the reviewers’ reports, you could experience a confusion of
feelings (outrage, embarrassment, anger or disappointment), as does happen.
Do not be surprised if the criticisms of both content and style are extensive;
this is not unusual. Put the reviewers’ reports aside for a few days until you
have calmed down; until you have recovered from having your work picked
over in such a humbling way; until you have regained your equilibrium and
a bit more objectivity.

229
 When you return to your manuscript, consider following these points:

e Attend to minor criticisms.

e Consider carefully all substantive criticisms. Then, implement worthwhile suggestions,
noting precisely what you have done to address criticisms and where (give page
numbers). Do be prepared to justify your position, probably to the editor, with respect to
suggestions you do not wish to take up. Some criticisms might seem to you to miss the
point, to be off the point, or fo be unbalanced or biased.
e With a book, you may be asked to write a response to reviewers’ reports detailing how
you will address criticisms and suggestions for improvement. It could be that not until you
have done this will your proposal be taken to a ‘Proposal meeting’ where it will be
decided whether or not to offer you a contract.
e Be prepared for the possibility of having your manuscript go back and forth between
yourself and editors more than once as you try to meet suggested improvements and
negotiate with them.

Peer review can sometimes be harrowing. But it can also be a great learn-
ing process if you approach it that way. Of course, if your thesis is to be a set
of published articles, peer review prior to publication is bound to secure
positive examination.

Reject
Your paper/book proposal has been reviewed and rejected, and you are discour-
aged. This is understandable. But do not let the rejection bruise your confidence
too badly; even experienced authors have confronted rejection at times. This
need not be the end of the story for you, and will not be if you think of the process
of getting published as a tough training course, with you just starting out.
With the feedback you receive from editors and/or reviewers, you can now
consider reworking your manuscript to send elsewhere, or the editors might
already have suggested more appropriate journals or publishers to contact,
which we strongly advise you to do. You now have the advantage of schol-
arly input in your second attempt at publication. Keep trying. Do not give
up too easily.

Forming a publication syndicate

A variation on organizing a thesis-writing group, as discussed in Chapter 10,
is to form a ‘publication syndicate’, as laid out by Sadler (1999). Doing this
would be particularly useful if you and other students in your research group
are producing a set of published articles as a thesis.
The general idea is to discuss members’ draft manuscripts in structured meet-
ings organized by the convenor of the group. As Sadler (1999: 144) points out:

230
 Publishing and raising your profile

The syndicate itself simply consists of a group of like-minded [students/

academics] who agree to act cooperatively to further their mutual
scholarship and publication. The members should be committed to the
task of accelerating the production of either manuscripts for publication in
academic journals, or chapters for publication in edited books.

In such a group, it would be possible to take up many of the issues discussed

in this chapter at relevant points in the publication process, to give each
other feedback on drafts, to encourage each other, and to share difficulties
and triumphs along the way.

further reSOUrCces snenss:smsscmese

Belcher, W.L. (2009) Writing your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic
Publishing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. An excellent resource for those of you
starting out or struggling to get your work published that takes you inside journal publishing
processes and enables you to embed daily writing around all else that you may have to do.

Caro, S. (2009) How to Publish your PhD. London: Sage Publications. Provides valuable
insights from an insider perspective into the fluid world of academic publishing and practical
guidance on the processes involved — a must if you want to maximize your chances for book
publication.

Cohn, E.R. (2004) ‘Beyond the electronic portfolio: a lifetime personal web space’, Educause
Quarterly, 27(4): 7-10. A short article that may be a little old, but it nevertheless points to some
of the basic principles of developing an ongoing web presence.

231
 Appendix: Words and Phrases for
Developing Discussions

To list, or show ‘time’ relationships

First/second/third, etc. Previously Now
After that Last/Finally Afterwards
When Next/My next point Meanwhile
Before Earher Presently or
currently
At the same time Simultaneously Concurrently
Initially Already Later
Thereafter Subsequently Following
Proceeding from

To add information

Furthermore/Further Also Besides

Moreover As well Another reason
In addition/Additionally Similarly The factor/point is
Likewise Supplementary to this

To endorse others’ work (or to use theirs to endorse yours)*

Affirms Agrees Endorses

Concurs Confirms Makes clear
Valdates Supports Corroborates
Approves Conforms X is of the same
opinion
Verifies Validates Repeats
Ratifies Vindicates
 is ror aeve1op1nq discus: ,ior1~

To question or problematize others' work*

Accedes Assumes Claims
Concedes Confirms Makes clear
Conjectures Contends Contrasts
Dismisses Generalizes Presumes
Speculates X goes so far as to suggest Denies
Contradicts Surmises Professes
Declares

To present a neutral stance on others' work*

According to X ... Analyses Cites
Comments Compares Considers
Defines Demonstrates Believes
Details Elaborates Explains
Indicates In the view of X ... Justifies
X makes the point that ... Notes Observes
Points out Posits Postulates
Predicts Pro po ses Puts forward
Reports ' States Theorizes
X's approach indicates that ...

To show a causal (cause and effect) relationship

So Since this is so Therefore
Consequently Hence Dueto
Thus Beca use of this It follows
For As a result ... The 'if/then'
construction
Accordingly Correspondingly That being so

To draw a 'conclusion'
This implies/suggests/indicates/shows/establishes/demonstrates/confirms,
and so on.
I t can be inferred tha t To sum up In summary
In conclusion It can be concluded that To summarize
Finally In closing Lastly
In ending

233
To clarify a previously stated idea
In other words Put succinctly In effect
To put this another way That is By this I mean
(Or simply restate the idea in a different way)

To introduce a 'contrasting' or 'qualifying' idea

In contrast Conversely But
However N evertheless Although
Even so On the other hand Al terna ti vely
Unlike Yet Whereas
(then bring in
contrast)
N onetheless In spite of this Notwithstanding
Regardless Despite

To provide an 'example'
For example For instance To illustrate
... , including ... . .. , such as ... :.. , as is illustrated
by ...

* Based on Coffin, C., et al., (2003) Teaching Academie Writing. A Toolkit for
Higher Education. London: Routledge.

234
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UC Berkeley. http ://globetrotter. ber keley. ed u/Diss Prop Workshop/process/ (accessed
3 January 2011).
Webster, J. and Watson, R.T. (2002) 'Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing
a literature review', MIS Quarterly, 26(2): xiii-xxiii.
Weston, A. (2009) A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th edn. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Woolsey, J.D. (1989) 'Combating poster fatigue: how to use visual grammar and analysis
to effect better visual communication', Trends in Neuroseienees, 12(9): 325-32.

237
 Index

abbreviations, 204 assessment cont.

abstract language, 66 source materials, academic merit, 45-6
abstracts topíc analysis, 92
conference presentations, 191, 192, 193 The Association for Support of Graduate
publication, 222-3 Students, Graduate Junction, 6
technical reports, 144 assumptions, 38, 41, 99
thesis writing, 181 audiences
'action before motivation' technique, 12 analysis, 197-8
active verbs, 67 canvassing questions, 208-9
active voice, 70-1 disciplinary writing practices, 37
aggressive questions, presentations, 208 interest, 204-5, 206
analogies, 205 invisible, 30
analysis, thesis writing, 166-7 management, encoding, 204-6
Android phone, 23 presentations, 197-9, 205-6
annotation of texts, literature review, 134 profiling, 197-8
antonyms, dictionary of, 68 reader engagement, 2,23-6
appendices, technical reports, 146 reports, 140
appraisal mode, literature review, 131-2 slideshow presentations, 202
appropriateness see also readers
email communications, 18 authority, writing with, 162, 163
journals, 221-2 automatic backups, 32
presentations, 198 automatic style generators, 59
sequential outlining, 76 awards, 219
thesis writing, 165
argument backing up, 28-32
art of, 35 automatic backups, 32
building, 97-102 different locations, 32
developing, 102-4 external backups, 31
examination essays, 122-3 less obvious material, 30
faulty reasoning, avoiding, 99 online assignments, 30-1
formal, research essays as, 90-1 regularity, 31
meaning of, decoding, 90-1 slideshow presentations, 204
neutralizing opposing arguments, 98 Bakhtin, Mikhail. 64
'positions,' developing, 90, 95, 97-8 balanced self-management exercise,
sources, arguing from, 98 7. 9-11
strengthening strategies, 100-2 Ballard. B„ 91. 163
thesis writing, 166-7 bandwidth. 29
article reviews, 107-10 Bazerman, C., 226
assessment begging the question, 99
essays, 91 Berkenkotter, C., 192
presentations, 190 bias, 41, 146
 Index

bibliographies, 59, 60, 166 communication cont.

see also references formality, level of, 198
b10rhythms, 11 with lecturers and supervisors, 16-20
black and white thinking, 99 multiple tasks, managing, 14- 16
Blackberry, 23 as a social process, 226
Blogger.com, 215, 217, 218 style improvement, effect on, 66
blogs, 75,129,216,219 uncertainties, resolving, 17
posts or comments, 111 comparison, 100
bookmarking tools, online, 129, 158 competence, research techniques, 166
book reviews. 107- 10 computers
Botany, 138 health hazards, 12
Box.net. 14. 32 laptops, 23, 24
boyd, d ., 29-30 local folders, 50-1
brackets, quotations, 61 Macintosh, 32
brainstorming, 74, 75, 140 personal, 12
'brick' materials. 115 see also Internet; services,'online; websites
Bubbl.us. 75. 76 Computer Science, 137
Bunton. R.. 184 conciseness, 1, 67, 68--9
business reports, 141-2 conclusions
assuming/drawing, 99
Cacoo.com. 75 disciplinary writing practices, 37
calendar applications, 13 research essays, 95, 104
CARS (Creating a Research Space), 223 thesis writing, 183-6
category indexes, literature review, 134 condensing, 117, 201
causal analysis, 101 conferences, 191-3, 218
causality, attributing, 99 confidence, 71,162,180
Cham, Jorge, 6 confidentiality, 19
The Chicago Manual of Style, 59 connectives, logical, 84
Chisholm. K.. 222 Connotea.org, 158
Christian, R., 220 consistency, 57, 203
chronological approach, literature review, 135 contact details, eportfolio, 218
circular reasoning, 99 context, 2, 152
Clanchy, J., 91 control, thesis writing, 163
clarity copyright laws, 25-6
email communications, 19 care questions, thesis writing, 172, 173, 181
as first rule of style, 65-72 Council of Australian Postgraduate
publication, 213 Associations, 6
clichés, 67 coursework examinations, 113-24
'click-drag-drop' interface, 75 coursework presentations, 190
clinicals, 48--9 coursework students, 49, 200
closed-book exams, 113 coverage, brainstorming, 7 4
CmapTools, 75 covers, 105, 147
co-authorship, 220-1 Covey, S., 9
coherence critical approach
paragraphs, 81-2 checklist, 132
structural, 102-3 cross-cultural communication, 20
test, 86 and existing knowledge, status, 42
thesis writing, 167 hunches, following, 43-4
see also incoherence information types, 42-3
College Composition and Communication, literature review, 132-3
USA, 192 source materials, 38--40
colour choice, slideshow presentations, 203 theory, 40-2
communication critical feedback, 54, 191, 214
cross-cultural, 20-2 critical reading reports, literature review,
digital issues, 18--20 134-5

239
critique (question-raising), 39-40 English for Academie Purposes, courses
cross-cultural writing/communication, 20-2 in, 22
cross-disciplinary research, 1 English language
Cryer, P., 153 correct use, 21-2
cure, business reports, 142 assecondlanguage,20-3, 35, 61,118
cutting of word length, 104-5 wikis, 112
CVs, eportfolio, 218 enthusiasm, presentations, 204-5
eportfolio
data gathering, 46-7, 170 basic. 215
data lock-in. online services, 28 contents, 218-19
data security, 27 documents. 217
dates, priority, 11 expanded,215-17
deadlines, 53 hosting, 217-18
definition, 100 setting up, 214-19
deletion of information, 19, 27 equivalence, notion of, 82
Delicious.com, 129, 158 error detection, 58
design, 194, 203 essay exams, 114
detailed thesis outline (DTO), 179-81 essays
detail level, technical reports, 143 argument, 122-3
diagnosis, business reports, 141 assessing, 91
diaries, yearly, 10 body of, 123
dictionaries, specialist, 41, 95 research see research essays
dictionary applications, 22 reviewing presentation, 145
digital audios, 25 essay-type examina tions, 116-1 7
digital communication issues, 18-20 writing the paper, 122-3
Di Gregorio, Silvana, 135 ethics clearance, research proposals, 154
Diigo.com, 129, 158 Evernote.com, 13-14, 32, 51, 134, 135, 158
direct quotations, 61, 105 evidence, building of argument, 97
'discards' file, 85 evidence-based knowledge, 42
disciplinary action, plagiarism, 60 examinations. 113-24
disciplinary experts, contact with, 7 closed-book, 113
disciplinary language, 22, 34-5, 37 coursework, 113-24
disciplinary practitioner, reader as, 64 essay-type, 114, 116-17
disciplinary writing practices, case study, 35-7 exam room strategies, 120-1
discovery mode, literature review, 130 interpretation of instructions, 120
discussions multiple-choice, 118-19, 123-4
agenda, 17, 22 open-book, 113
disciplinary writing practices, 35, 37 order of answers, determining, 120-1
organizational strategies, 35 pre-seen, 114
technical reports, 145, 146 review of past papers, 115-16
thesis writing, 166-7 revision plan, setting up, 114-20
words and phrases for developing, 232-4 short answer, 118, 123
Dissertation Abstracts, 181 starting answer in 'permitted study
documentation, 14, 217 period,' 120, 121
document management tools, 158 take-home, 113-14
double spacing, 105 time schedule, working out, 121
Downes, S., 99 writing the paper, 121-4
downloading, 23, 60 examiners' reports, thesis writing
Dropbox.com, 14, 32, 204 quality indicators, 163-9
summary implications, 168-9
effectiveness, email communications, 18, 19 Excel, 134
effort maximization, 8 Executive summary, formal reports, 14 7-8
ejournals, 219-20 expectations
email communications, 18-20, 27 cross-cultural communication, 20
EndNote. 134 presentations, 190

240
 Ind @

expectations cont. iCal, 12

reasonableness, 209 ideas, opinions distinguished, 91
thesis writing, 161-3 illustrations-based model, thesis writing, 175-6
experimental reports, 142-6 illustrations, technical reports, 145—6
typical parts, 143 impartial tone, 72
exploratory essays, 89 impersonal voice, 70
external backups, 31 implications, drawing out, 185
incoherence, 77, 78
Facebook, 8, 12, 19 independence, developing, 20
LinkedIn compared, 216 index cards, 51
family support, 7 indexes, category, 134
FAQs (frequently asked questions), 29 Industrial Relations Act 1988, 35
feedback, critical, 54, 191, 214 inferences, drawing, 99
feed reading services, 157 information
field of research, 151 critical appraisal, 38—44
field reports, 148-9 deletion, 19, 27
file storage, 14 disciplinary writing practices, 36
first person, 70 discriminating needs, 47-9
focusing goal setting, 45
abstracts, 222-3 indexing, 134
business reports, 141—2 literature review, 133-6
journal publication, 219 safety, online, 27
research essays, 96—7 storage strategies, 50-1
research proposals, 151—4 task-focused, ensuring, 44—9
revision plan, 114-16 technical reports, 142-3
thesis writing, 182-3 types, diversity of, 42-3, 48, 98
fonts, slideshow presentations, 203 inner resources, 8
formal reports, 146 ' innovative contribution, thesis writing, 164
formatting, 57, 161 institutional resources, 6
presentations, 190, 195, 196, 199-204 intellectual property (IP), 26
Freemind, 75 intensive reading, 49, 130, 132
friends, support from, 7 International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors, 59
Google, 14, 29, 75 Internet
Google Calendar, 12 access to, 29
Google Docs, 14 citing sources from, 60-1
Google Scholar, 127, 129 email communications, 18-20, 27
graduate writing culture, understanding, 34-7 evaluation of sources, 45—6
grammar, 22, 23, 57-8 intellectual property implications, 25-6
grammar-checkers, 57, 58 literature review, 129
graphics, PowerPoint presentations, 203 punctuation guides, 58
groups safety issues, 25-30
thesis writing, 186—7 sources from, 60-1
tutorial ‘conversations, 21 see also computers; services, online; websites
guidance, accepting, 20, 21 interpersonal relations, 22
interviews, 47, 148
health hazards, 12 introductions
Holbrook, A., 164 argument see argument
holists, 52 context, establishing, 95
Huckin, T., 192 defining important terms, phrases or
humour, presentations, 205 concepts, 95
hunches, following, 43—4 disciplinary writing practices, 37
Hyland, K., 162, 223, 224-5, 226 laying out a position, 95
Hyland, L., 226 procedural statements, 96
hypotheses, technical reports, 146 reader-orientation function, fulfilling, 96—7
 yy ACageMic SUCCESS

introductions cont. literature review cont.

research essays, 94—7 critical appraisal, 132-3
technical reports, 144-5 detaching from research in hand, 137-8
thesis writing, 174, 182-3 disciplinary writing practices, 37
iPhone, 23 discovery mode, 130
iTunes, 25 and essays, 88
information processing, 133-6
journals Internet, 129
appropriate, targeting, 221-2 key themes, concepts, issues or debates,
ejournals, 219-20 135-6
evidence of publication in, 165 library resources, 127-8
house style, 59 methodological approach, 136
open access, 220 orientation, 127
publication, 219-22 processing and structure, 135-6
refereed, 228-9 purpose/functions, 125-7
research, 158-9 refining mode, 131
judicious tone, 72 review mode and orientations, 126—7
shortcomings, 136-8
Kaufer, D., 91 strategic management of reading, 129-32
keynotes, eportfolio, 218 thesis writing, 169-70
key words, 51, 120, 124, 133 writing tasks engaged, 126
logical connectives, 76, 84
laboratories, student, 48-9
language macro-structuring, 171
abstract, 66 Mahara.org, 215
disciplinary, 22, 34-5, 37 marketability, 226, 227
distinctive, from another author, 61 Mashable.com, 28
presentations, 198 materials, technical reports, 145
pronunciation, 22 matrix method, literature review, 135
variation in, 67 maximization of effort, 8
verbs, 35, 67 McCloskey, Donald, 66, 67
vocabulary extension, 67 mechanics of academic writing, 56-8, 161
word meaning, 68 memory stasis, 202
see also English language Mendeley.com, 51, 59, 134, 135, 158
laptops, 23, 24 metaphors, 205
law methods
copyright, 25-6 disciplinary writing practices, 37
disciplinary language, 34-5 research proposals, 152-3
layered approach to writing, 52 technical reports, 145
lead-words, 79 thesis writing, 167-8
lecturers Microsoft Office, 14
communication with, 16—20 mind-mapping, 75, 76
emails, response to, 18 Mindmeister.com, 75
presentations, 190 The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
as readers, 63 Papers, 59
relationship with, 19 mobile phones, 20, 23
and resolution action planning, 17 mobile technologies, 23—35
wiki assignments, 111 advantages of use, 23-5
library use, literature review, 127-8 safety, online, 25-30
Linguistics, 138 modelling, research proposals, 152
LinkedIn, 215, 216 motivation, boosting, 12
listening skills, 198 multiple-choice examinations, 118-19, 123—4
literature review, 125-38 multiple communication task planning,
appraisal mode, 131-2 14-16
contrary findings in literature, 136 Murray, R., 164

242
 index

National Association of Graduate Professional personal voice, 70

Students (USA), 6 PhD theses, 163-6
The National Postgraduate Committee (UK), 6 photographic model of structure, 176
nervousness, presentations, 191, 204, 209-10 photographs, 24
‘networked publics,’ 29-30 pitch, 206
networking strategies, 6-8 pitching of work, 214
neutral tone, 72 plagiarism, avoiding, 60-3
Ning.com, 8 planning
note-taking, 13-14, 61, 158 pre-planning, 8
presentations, 199-200 presentations, 196-9
NVivo, 135 revision plan, setting up, 114-20
Podbean.com, 25
occupational overuse syndrome, 12 podcasts, 25
Oliver, P., 184 point of view, and paragraph development, 80
online assignments, backing up, 30-1 polarities, notion of, 82
online documents, 14 Political Disclosures Act 199.1, 35
online networks, 8 Popken, R.L., 80
online reference managers, 59 position papers, 89
online services see services, online positive thinking, 210
online writing, 110-12 poster presentations, 193-6
open access journals, 220 PowerPoint
open-book exams, 113 cognitive style, 202
open-ended model, thesis writing, 176-7 eraphics, pitfalls, 203
Open Office, 14 presentations, 194, 199, 201—4, 216-17
opinions, ideas distinguished, 91 technicalities, 203—4
oral presentations, 189—90, 199 unexpected, dealing with, 208
organization, disciplinary writing practices, 37 practicals, 48-9
organizational information flow, reports, 143 precision, in writing, 68, 163
organizational strategies, discussions, 35 Preece, R., 47
Orwell, George, 66 prejudices, 38
Outlook, 12 preparation, 33-55
common writing concerns, managing, 51—4
paragraphs critical treatment of information, 38-44
coherence, 81—2 eraduate writing culture, understanding,
development, 80—2 34-7
introducing, 82 information storage strategies, 50-1
length, 80-1 reading load, managing, 49-50
linking strategies, 37, 82-3 task-focused information, ensuring, 44—9
logical flow, 37, 84 pre-planning, 8
main ideas, use of, 80 pre-seen exams, 114
question-and-answer transition, 83 presentation
references, placing of, 63 research essays, 105
repeating words/phrases/ideas, 82—3 thesis writing, 162, 168
structure, 37 presentations, 188-210
summarizing transition, 83 audiences, 197-9, 205-6
paraphrasing, 61, 98 conferences, 191—3
passive voice, 70-1 criticism, progress review seminars, 191
peer review process, 228-31 delivery issues, 207-10
outcome, 229-30 distinctive features, 189—90
peer support, 6, 7 eportfolio, 218
perfectionism, 52 fine-tuning and rehearsal, 204—7
permitted study period, examinations, 120, 121 humour, 205
Rerryva Cuealuco linking paper to prior papers, 205
persistence, online data, 30 nervousness, 191, 204, 209-10
personal computer (PC), 12 oral, 189-90, 199

243
Writing for academic success

presentations cont. questions cont.

orientation of audience to talk, 205 multiple-choice, 118-19, 123—4
papers, getting accepted, 191-2 peer review process, 218-19
poster, 193-6 problem-solving, 118
PowerPoint, 201—4, 216-17 vs. rambling speeches, 209
presenting compared with writing, 8 refining, 131
reworking of papers, 201 research proposals, 152
setting/room layout, 198 self-questioning, 120
tutorials/seminars, 190-1 skimming, prior to, 50
unexpected, dealing with, 208 see also examinations
value, presenting, 207 quotas, Internet usage, 29
venue considerations, 198, 207 quotations, direct, 61, 105
Prezi.com, 202-3 quote marks, 61
primary information, 42, 98
‘principle of five,’ 12 readers
priority dates, 11 as disciplinary practitioners, 64
privacy issues, online communication, 19, 24 engaging, 223-6
Terms of Service, 26—7 needs of, 63-5, 136
procedural statements, 96 as subject specialists, 64—5
procedure, research proposals, 153 see also audiences
productivity tools, 12-13, 14, 28 reading
professionalism, 222 building ‘position’ during, 97-8
prognosis, business reports, 141—2 intensive, 49, 130, 132
progress reports, 149 management of load, 49-50
project management, thesis writing, 156-61 presentation papers, 200-1
pronunciation, 22 strategic management, in literature review,
proofreading, 58, 59 129-32
psychological problems, 53 unproductive, 50
Psychology, 137 reasonableness
publication, 211-31 in essays, 91
advantages of distributing online, 212-13 in presentations, 209
approaching book publishers, 226-8 reasoning
eportfolio, setting up, 214-19 appeal to reason, argument as, 90
evidence of, 165 faulty, 99
ideas, testing, 212 Recommendations, formal reports, 147-8
marketability, 226, 227 record keeping, 148
online pre-publishing or self-publishing, referees, peer review process, 228-9
212-14 reference lists, 59, 166
peer review process, 228-31 references, 58-63
shaping paper for, 222-6 direct quotations, 61
visibility, increasing, 212-13 offline strategies, 59-60
The Publication Manual of the American online reference managers, 59
Psychological Association, 59 plagiarism, avoiding, 60-3
publication syndicate, forming, 230-1 style choice, 59
punctuation, 23, 58 reference works, 41
Purdue OWL, 22, 61 refining mode, literature review, 131
rehearsals, presentations, 207
qualification, 43, 102 relevance, maintaining, 103, 104
question-and-answer transition, paragraphs, 83 reliability, online services, 28
questions Remember themilk.com, 12
aggressive, 208 reminder applications, 13
canvassing, from audience, 208-9 repeating words/phrases/ideas, 67, 82
Conese, IPA, Wes}, GH repetitive strain injuries, 12
critique, 39-40 replacement words/phrases, 67
irrelevant, 209 replicability, online data, 29

244
reports, 1389-42 revision plan, 114—20
audience considerations, 140 course objectives, grounding revision in,
business, 141—2 114-15
cover, 147 focusing, 114-16
critical reading, 1384—5 past exam papers, reviewing, 115-16
Executive summary, 147-8 systematizing, 116-19
experimental/technical, 142-6 testing efficacy, 119-20
field, 148-9 rigour, in writing, 155, 166
formal, 146-8 RSS (Really Simple Syndication’7/‘Rich Site
graduate writing culture, understanding, 34 Summary’), 157, 158
progress, 149
project management, 140 Sadler, D.R., 219, 230-1
Recommendations, 147—8 safety, online, 25-30
structural divisions (technical reports), 142-6 samples, record keeping, 148
thesis writing, 168 scepticism, healthy, 44, 46, 133
variation in, 139 scholarly papers, eportfolio, 218
research aims, technical reports, 143 scholarly practices, reviewing, 223
research essays, 88-106 scholars, visiting, 7
argument see argument science model, thesis writing, 175
conclusions, 104 scripted notes, presentations, 199-200
as formal argument, 90-1 searchability, online data, 29
introductions, 94—7 secondary information, 42, 43
presentation, reviewing, 105 second language students, 20—3, 35, 61, 118
short, 89-90 self-censoring, 18
synonyms, 88-9 self-management, effective, 6-16
topics, 91-4 balanced self-management exercise, 7, 9-11
word length, 104—5 self-monitoring, when writing, 52-3
research journals, 158-9 t self-publishing, 214
research objectives, proposals, 152 self-questioning, 120
research project, online tools, 157 seminars
research proposals coursework examinations, 115
ethics clearance, 154 presentations, 190-1, 205
focusing and developing, 151—4 see also lecturers; supervisors
procedure, 153 sentences
purposes, 150-1 complex, 58, 84
questions, 152 compound, 84
theory, modelling and/or methodology, logical connectives, 84
152-3 manipulation of structure, 84—5
timetable for completion, 153 paragraphs, linking, 82-3
training, 154 simple, 84
research students, presentations, 190, 200-1 topic, 80
resolution action planning, 17 variation in structure, 85
resources sequential model, thesis writing, 176
inner, 8 sequential outlining, 75-9
institutional, 6 serialists, 52
restatement, 101 services, online
results backing up, 28-9
disciplinary writing practices, 37 blogs, 215
technical reports, 143, 145-6 business robustness/longevity, 28
thesis writing, 166—7 data lock-in, 28
reviews eportfolio, hosting, 217-18
academic, conducting, 108-10 information provision/deletion, 27
book or article, 107-10 knowledge of business, 27-8
structuring, 110 practical issues, 28-30
types, 108 pricing, 27

245
 ; £m larmic ecriccoce
mq Tor acaagenic SUCCESS

services, online cont. style manuals, 59

productivity tools, 13-14 sub-headings
public vs private sites, 28 disciplinary writing practices, 37
reliability, 28 effective use, 77—9
safety issues, 25-30 excessive, 78
Terms of Service, 26—7 slideshow presentations, 203
short answer examinations, 118, 123 subject specialist, reader as, 64—5
short essays, 89-90 sub-topics, 74, 75
sic, in quotations, 61 summaries, technical reports, 144
signalling, 37, 65, 170 summarizing, 61
significance, conveying, 184 supervisors
signposting, 65 accepting guidance from, 20, 21
skimming, 49-50, 80, 130, 131, 132 as co-authors, 220-1
Slide.com, 202 communication with, 16—20
Slideshare.net, 129, 202, 204, 215, 217 emails, response to, 18
slideshow presentations, 201—4, 216-17 interpersonal relations, 22
online options, 202-8 literature reviews, 133
smartphone applications, 12, 14, 23, 41, as readers, 63
dT, 08 relationship with, 22
social networking, 8, 19 and resolution action planning, 17
social science model, thesis writing, 175 thesis writing, 169
Sociology, 137 support, sources of, 6—7
software, literature review, 135 surveys, 47
source materials Swales, John, 223, 224
argument from, 98 synonyms
assessing academic merit, 45—6 dictionary of, 68
critical appraisal, 38—40 research essays, 88-9
distinguishing from own comments, 62—3 synoptic essays, 89
practices governing use of, 60-1 systems engineering, disciplinary
task-specific uses of, 62 language, 35
see also plagiarism, avoiding; references
‘spam, 27 table of contents, thesis writing, 178-9
specification, 102 tablet (touchscreen) devices, 23—4, 41, 57, 58
speculations, grounding, 185 tags, 30, 51
spell-checkers, 57 take-home exams, 113-14
spelling, 23, 57-8 task lists, 13
statement of purpose, research essays, 95 task-specific objectives, plagiarism arising from
stress management, 5—32, 53, 191, misunderstanding, 62
209-10 Taylor, Dena, 125-6
structural coherence, 102-3 Techcrunch.com, 28
structural divisions technical reports, 142-6
formal reports, 146 typical parts, 148
technical reports, 142-6 telephone communication, 18
structure, 73-87 Terms of Service, websites, 26—7
mapping in writing process, 82 text
overall, improving, 86—7 conciseness, 69-70
sequential outlining, 75—9 development, 79-85
text development, 79-85 distinguishing source material and comment,
thesis writing, 171-5 62-3
visual mapping, 74-5 dividing up, 171-2
Strunk, W. Jr., 66 texting, 20
style issues theory
clarity, 66—8 assumptions, 41
references, 59 critical evaluation, 40—2
thesis writing, 168 definitions, 40—1

246
 Index

theory cont. time management/timetabling cont.

disciplinary writing practices, 37 research proposals, 158
frameworks, 41—2 weekly timetables/yearly diaries, 10
research proposals, 152-3 timescale, email communication, 19
thesis writing, 167 titles, technical reports, 144
theory section, technical reports, 145 to-do lists, 13
thesis writing, 155-87 tone, 53, 71—2, 112
abstracts, 181 Toodledo.com, 13
academic style and presentation, 168 topics
anticipatory strategies, 158-9 analysing, 92—4
backing up, 31 data-driven, 169
basic divisions, 171 issue-driven, 169
chapter structuring options, 175-7 refinement, progressive, 151
conclusions, 183-6 research essays, 91—4
constraining factors, 170-1 research proposals, 151
core questions, 173 sequential outlining, 75
coverage, 169 setting up, 92
detailed outline, 179-81 thesis writing, 165—7, 169-70
digital theses, 156 topic sentences, 80
expectations, 161—3 touchscreen devices, 23—4, 41,
formatting, 161 57, 58
groups, organizing, 186—7 training, research proposals, 154
hazards of computer work, 12 TsexP e226
introductions, 182-3 Tufte, E., 202
key strategies, 172-3 tutorials
literature review orientation, 169-70 conversations, entering, 21
longer theses, 129-30, 156, 163-9 presentations, 190-1, 205
orientation to, 156—7 ‘ see also lecturers; supervisors
overall quality/contribution to scholarship, Twitter, 129, 215, 216
164-5 typography, 57, 161
passed theses, reviewing, 156
processing findings, 184-5 uncertainties
regular practice, 159 communication queries, 17
research techniques/methodologies, 166 coursework examinations, 119
scope, viability, breadth and depth of presentations, 208
study, 165-7 task-focused information, ensuring, 44
shorter theses, 130, 156, 169-71 unsuitable authority, appealing to, 99
statement, 174-5 uploading, 29
structure, 171—5
table of contents, 178—9 vagueness, avoiding, 68
timing of writing, 182 value
topics, 165—7, 169-70 presentations, 207, 210
typography, 161 research proposals, 152
upgrading production skills, 159 Van Aalst, J., 221
visual mapping of core chapters, 177-8 Vancouver referencing style, 59
writing schedule, setting up, 159-60 venues, presentations, 198, 207
‘thumb’ drives, 31 verbs
timeline, setting up, 11 replacement, 67
Time Machine facility, Macintosh tenses, 35
computer, 32 video recordings, 24
time management/timetabling visiting scholars, contact with, 7
exam room strategies, 121 ‘visual grammar, 194
oral presentations, 199 visual mapping, 74—5, 177-8
and plagiarism, 63 Vitae: Realising the potential of researchers, 6
progress reports, 149 vocabulary extension, 67

247
voice, 70—2, 206 word length
voice recordings, 24 cutting essays, 104—5
Vue.tufts, 202-8 sequential outlining, 76
thesis writing, 172
Wallace, M., 38 WordPress.com, 215, 217, 218
Watson, R.T., 126 word processing, 58, 194
Watts, M., 150 words
websites meaning, 68
free services, 29 worn-out, 67
mind-mapping, 75 work experience, research proposals, 153
pricing of tools and services, 27 Wray, A., 38
public vs private sites, 28 writing approach, monitoring, 52—3
technology industry, 28 writing, as intellectual demanding task, 8
Terms of Service, 26—7 writing block, 53—4
see also computers; Internet; services, online writing pattern, regularizing, 11
Webster, J., 126 writing process, mapping the structure in, 82
White, E.B., 66
Wikipedia, 75 YouTube, 12, 215
wikis, 75, 111-12
Woolsey, J.D., 194 Zoho.com, 13-14
word counts, 105 Zoology, 138
wordiness, 68 Zotero.org, 51, 59, 134, 135, 158

248
 -+sAGE Study Skills

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ISBN: 978-0-85702-92 8-7

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