Academic Skills and Learning Centre

Writing Journal Articles in English

Part 1: Orientation to Abstract (~20 slides) Teaching notes

Orienting yourself to publication

Research culture Purpose The Abstract

Action Writing Discussion Report back

Exercise: Taking stock, thinking ahead

Write for 5 minutes: What have you written and published in the past? What kind of publications do you want to produce and when? Discuss with your partner (5 mins)

+ How many words did you write?

What is a research culture?

The structure in which enable you, as a researcher, to produce, communicate, and understand new knowledge. The behaviours that enable you, as a researcher, to create and disseminate knowledge to others. Research culture considerations Institutional expectations and support Balanced expectations (e.g., teaching, administration, research) Reading groups Collegial support and encouragement Writing review Seminar programs Conference presentations Publication

Research barriers and opportunities

Role statement Perfomance expectations Teaching expectations Research training skills Library materials and skills Time Research dissemination Language Focus on promotion Project oriented research Academic publication Constructive feedback Peer review

Which of these might be a barrier? An opportunity? 10

Exercise: research culture

Discuss with your partner (5/5) What is your research culture? Identify three facilitators of research culture. Identify three barriers to research culture. Where would you publish if you could?

Report back 10mins

Academic researcher voices

[M]any [researchers] do not get engaged in real scientific research. They just see doing research as a way to earn extra income and getting other rewards such as being positively evaluated for their annual work. Bao [8] Sometimes the feedback is destructive rather than constructive [Assessors] do not ask questions with a view to helping the presenter do better but they tend to challenge, and test the researcher's knowledge, sometimes to make her lose face Xuan [8]

Pham Hoa Hiep, 2006. Researching the research culture in English language education in Vietnam, TESL-EJ, September, 10 (2).

Where to publish?
Consider where to publish What are relevant Indonesian journals? What are relevant regional journals? Discuss (5/5) and report back (10)

Audience: which?
Academics? Indonesian, regional, international? Non-academics, but interested, readers?

Knowledge of audience/readership determines the level of assumption and explanation, and style of communication.

Comment on the audience

Currently, the major thrust of orthopaedic clinical research should be directed toward documentation of the outcomes of treatment in terms of the physical and economic conditions of patients
J.J. Garland, 1988. Orthopaedic clinical design: deficiencies in experimental design and determinations of outcome J Bone Joint Surge Am.70:1357.

Immobilization in singleleg spica casting works well (88%-95%) for most stable fractures, if patients are not large, obese, polytraumatized, or do not have soft tissue problems. High energy fractures (even transverse and short oblique) with 2 cm of initial shortening as noted on the original radiograph without traction, have disrupted soft tissue envelope and displacement in the cast in up to 50% of patients
E. Kali and M. Cruz, 2007. Current Concepts in Pediatric Femur Fracture Treatment, Orthopaedics December: http://www.orthosupersite.com/view.aspx?rid=25283

Having a purpose in mind

What do you want to persuade, with evidence, the audience to think, believe, do? What do you think needs to be communicated and why? Whats puzzling, intriguing, interesting? Is there a silence that needs to be addressed? Is there an anomalous practice/approach?...

Exercise: identify audience and purpose

Write down What you want to communicate To whom? Why? (100 words) (5) Discuss and report back (5/10)

Abstract
Reader questions Should I bother with reading this? If so, what might be new/innovative/challenging/interesting/exciting about this? Useful in nutting out what you want to communicate to the reader Keep it as a work-in-progress until you finish the article

Abstract
In what context did you do What? Why? How? and What did you find? What are the implications of your finding/s?

Sample Abstract 1: Science

[Research Context] The validity of the designs of some published orthopaedic clinical-research publications has been questioned. [Purpose of current research what was done] To test the validity of these criticisms, ten published reports on the surgical treatment of patients who had a selected diagnosis were reviewed [Why] to evaluate the strategies that had been used in the design of the studies [How] Ten articles on the long-term follow up treatment after primary total hip arthroplasty for the treatment of osteoarthritis, published in peer-reviewed journals, were examined [Finding] All ten articles were found to be deficient in terms of design, to be flawed by confusing data, and to contain results of doubtful validity [Implication] In the future, reports on orthopaedic clinical research must focus more on the health of, and economics benefits to, the patients, and less on the outcome of the technology that was used in providing the services.
Source: JJ Gartland, 1988 Orthopaedic clinical research. Deficiencies in experimental design and determinations of outcome, The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 70, Issue 9 1357-1364.

Exercise: Sample Abstracts in Workbook

Choose one abstract: Humanities or Science

How long is it? How is it structured? What are the indications of Abstract moves? Review (15) and report back (10)

Exercise: what improvements?

How might this Abstract be improved? Discuss (5) and report back (5) White collar crime in Singapore: then and now This article attempts to give an overview of what constitutes white-collar crime, highlighting some of the more significant milestones of such in Singapores history, and perhaps also attempting to describe the rends which can be observed. It is perhaps a timely review, because the incidence of white-collar crime is escalating, as newspaper headlines bear this out regularly.
L. Anparasan, 2009.White collar crime in Singapore: then and now. 21. SAcLJ 16 2009 Retrieved from HeinOnline: http://heinonline.org Monday 19 July. p. 16.

Exercise: Draft your abstract

10 minutes to draft your abstract. Discuss with your partner What is clear? What needs to be explained/made explicit? How can the work be strengthened?

Orientation to JA writing: for next session

Homework: review your journal article: How long is it? E.g., Science =3-4,000 words Arts/Humanities = 6-10,000 words Law = 6-15,000 words What are its organisational features (structure, order, headings)? How many paragraphs are used for the Introduction and Conclusion? How long are the paragraphs?

Publication opportunities other than journals

Letter to the editor Op-ed Reflection Short communication Conference poster abstract Research/dissertation summaries Book review