Professional Documents
Culture Documents
your Materials and Methods can be thoroughly described before you have compiled your Results; your Results must be organized before you can analyze them in your Discussion; you must know your Conclusion before you can write an Introduction that sets the Conclusion in its natural place in science; Title and Abstract summarizing your paper must first have a completed paper to summarize.
Title
Importance of the article title:
The first thing to get the editors attention Used by scholars in literature search
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Front matters
Dedication Acknowledgement Preface
These items are not always written in scientific and formal language
Abstract
Abstracts should be:
Clear Indicating your work Non-verbose!
COMPARE THESE TWO TITLES. A Study of the insulating properties of some materials AND A comparison of the thermal insulating properties of styrofoam and fibreglass
Function
The abstract provides the reader with a brief preview of your study based on information from the other sections of the report. It is often the last part of the report to be written. Many readers depend on the abstract to give them enough information about the study to decide if they will read the entire report or not.
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Abstract
Summary of Manuscript (200-300 Words)
Problem investigated Purpose of Research Methods Results Conclusion
Tips
I usually write the abstract last Four sentences
1. 2. 3. 4. State the problem Say why its an interesting problem Say what your solution achieves Say what follows from your solution
Abstract Structure
B some Background information P the Principal activity (or purpose) of the study and its scope M some information about the Methodology used in the study R the most important Results of the study C a statement of Conclusion or recommendation
To Start: Introduction
Common mistakes
Too much background or methods information Figures or images References to other literature, figures or images Abbreviations or acronyms
Introduction
Make it brief (~1/5 of the papers total length)
Grab the reader's interest while introducing the topic Explain the "big picture" relevance (remember: hourglass) Provide the necessary background information
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FYI
Some reviewers dont like you to claim your own
approach to be novel At least dont put novel in your paper title they said novelty is to be judged by them, not to be claimed by you
found rather than simply stating what they found. Try to be specific when explaining findings
Background paragraph
Elaborate why the problem is hard Critically examining prior work
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Related work
Dont make unjustified unobvious criticism on
related work if you dont have experimental results to back you up
Common mistakes
Watch out for phrases like "400 volts of ac current". Current does not have units of volts. As a related matter, use the same measure consistently. For example, do not compare costs per year with costs per month.
Lists
TIPS
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six or 6 ?
Single digit numbers (zero through nine) are spelled out, while numbers of two or more digits (10, 20th Century, ...) use figures. There are several exceptions to this simple rule: use figures for all numbers when there are numbers of two or more digits for related quantities in the same sentence , such as "6 of 23 physicians recommend". Always use figures when a unit of measurement follows (e.g., "5 A"). Always spell approximate values, "round numbers", (see The Chicago Manual of Style, p. 233 of the 1982 edition). If the approximate value is followed by a unit, then the unit is not abbreviated.
about five years two orders of magnitude about four times larger several kilovolts a few tens of megahertz a few volts
48 point
36 point
24 point
18 point
14 point
12 point 10 point 8 point
six or 6 ?
Use figures when mathematical operations are implied:
factor of 2 33 matrix
Being selective
1. Cover seminal work, leading theories, concepts in the area For theories, try to refer to the original research, rather than a textbook reference. 2. Multiple authors
Use when your assertion is particularly important, or may be questioned. A plethora of literature exists about men and women masquerading as the opposite gender online (Curtis, 1997; Dickel, 1995; Kendall, 1996; McRae, 1996, 1997; Reid,1995, 1996a, 1996b; Turkle, 1995; Van Gelder, 1991; Whitty, 2002).
When a number is at the beginning of a sentence it is always spelled-out. If this rule produces a result that looks awkward, it may be better to rewrite the sentence to avoid starting with a number.
Avoiding repetition
Smyth (2004) highlights the importance of referring to authors in different ways: their name, pronouns, investigators, researchers Brown (1999) conducted a study on gender differences. She demonstrated how . Brown concluded that/It was concluded thatSimilarly, another researcher looked at Similarly, instead of relying on the word research, also use investigation, study, project, work
TYPE IS TO READ
Type is to read
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Liked by authors, hated by readers Reading should not require a glossary Unwieldy word occurring > 10 times
First Draft
Write as quickly as possible As if thinking out loud Get everything down Ignore spelling, grammar, style Skip troublesome words Correct and rewrite only when the whole text is on paper Do not split the manuscript among the co-authors