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How to avoid plagiarism

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how to understand plagiarism – and avoid it

Plagiarism – definition

1. Plagiarism is defined as “Passing off someone else’s work as your own”.

2. It happens if you copy somebody else’s work instead of doing your own.

3. It also happens in those cases where people actually buy essays instead of doing the work themselves.

4. Schools, colleges, and universities regard this as a serious offence – and they often have stiff penalties for anyone found guilty.

5. Most people at school level call this ‘cheating’ or ‘copying’ – and they know it is wrong.

6. The problem is that at college or university, you are expected to use and write about other people’s work – so the issue of plagiarism becomes more complex.

7. There are also different types and different degrees of plagiarism – and it is often difficult to know whether you are breaking the rules or not.

8. Let’s start off by making it clear that all the following can be counted as plagiarism.

  • Copying directly from a text, word-for-word
  • Using text downloaded from the Internet
  • Paraphrasing the words of a text very closely
  • Borrowing statistics from another source or person
  • Copying from the essays or the notes of another student
  • Downloading or copying pictures, photographs, or diagrams without acknowledging your sources
  • Using an attractive phrase or sentence you have found somewhere
Why is this so complex?

9. The answer is – because in your work at college or university level you are supposed to discuss other people’s ideas. These will be expressed in the articles and books they have written. But you have to follow certain conventions.

10. Plus – at the same time – you will be asked to express your own arguments and opinions. You therefore have two tasks – and it is sometimes hard to combine them in a way which does not break the rules. Many people are not sure how much of somebody else’s work they can use.

11. Sometimes plagiarism can happen by accident, because you use an extract from someone else’s work – but you forget to show that you are quoting.

12. This is the first thing you should learn about plagiarism – and how to avoid it. Always show that you are quoting somebody else’s work by enclosing the extract in [single] quotation marks.

In 1848 there was an outbreak of revolutionary risings throughout Europe, which Marx described as ‘the first stirrings of proletarian defiance‘ in a letter to his collaborator, Frederick Engels.

13. This also sometimes happens if you are stuck for ideas, and you quote a passage from a textbook. You might think the author expresses the idea so well, that you can’t improve on it.

14. This is plagiarism – unless you say and show that you are quoting someone else’s work. Here’s how to do it:

This painting is generally considered one of his finest achievements. As John Richardson suggests: ‘In Guernica, Picasso lifts the concept of art as political propaganda to its highest level in the twentieth century‘.

Academic conventions

15. Why do colleges and universities make such a big fuss about this issue? The answer to this is that they are trying to keep up important conventions in academic writing.

16. The conventions involve two things at the same time. They are the same as your two tasks:

  • You are developing your own ideas and arguments and learning to express them.
  • You are showing that you have learned about and can use other people’s work.

17. These conventions allow you to use other people’s work to illustrate and support your own arguments – but you must be honest about it. You must show which parts are your own work, and which parts belong to somebody else.

18. You also need to show where the information comes from. This is done by using a system of footnotes or endnotes where you list details of the source of your information.

19. The conventions of referencing and citation can become very complex. If you need guidance on this issue, have a look at our detailed guidance notes on the subject. What follows is the bare bones.

20. In an essay on a novel by D.H. Lawrence for example, you might argue that his work was influenced by Thomas Hardy. You could support this claim by quoting a literary critic:

Lawrence’s characters have a close relationship with their physical environment – showing possibly the influence of Hardy, who Walter Allen points out was ‘his fundamental precursor in the English tradition‘ (1)

21. Notice that you place a number in brackets immediately after the quotation. The source of this quotation is given as a footnote at the bottom of the page, or as an endnote on a separate sheet at the end of your essay.

22. The note gives full details of the source – as follows:

Notes

1. Walter Allen, The English Novel, London: Chatto and Windus, 1964, p.243

A bad case of plagiarism

This video clip features the case of Ann Coulter. She is a best-selling American writer and social critic who has extremely right-wing views.

The film raises several plagiarism issues:

  • failure to acknowledge sources
  • failure to quote accurately
  • changing the nature of a quotation
  • misleading references (citations)
  • definitions of plagiarism
  • plagiarism detection software
  • legitimate quotation

Do’s and Don’ts

23. You should avoid composing an essay by stringing together accounts of other people’s work. This occurs when an essay is written in this form:

Critic X says that this idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘, whereas Commentator Y’s opinion is that this idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘, and Critic Z disagrees completely, saying that the idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘.

24. This is very close to plagiarism, because even though you are naming the critics and showing that you are quoting them – there is nothing of your own argument being offered here.

25. If you are stuck for ideas, don’t be tempted to copy long passages from other people’s work. The reason is – it’s really easy to spot. Your tutor will notice the difference in style straight away.

Copyright and plagiarism

26. Copyright can be quite a complex issue – but basically it means the ‘right to copy’ a piece of work. This right belongs to the author of the work – the person who writes it – or a publisher.

27. When a piece of writing is published in a book or on the Web, you can read it as much as you wish – but the right to copy it belongs to the author or the author’s publisher.

28. Nobody will worry if you quote a few words, or a few lines. This is regarded as what is called ‘fair use’. People in the world of education realise that because quotation is so much a part of academic writing, it would be ridiculous to insist that you should seek permission to quote every few words.

29. In fact there is an unwritten convention that you can quote up to 5% of a work without seeking permission. If this was from a very long work however, you would still be wise to seek permission.

30. This permission is only for your own personal study purposes – as part of your course work or an assignment. If you wished to use the materials for any other purpose, you would need to seek permission.

31. Copyright also extends beyond writing to include diagrams, maps, drawings, photographs, and other forms of graphic presentation. In some cases it can even include the layout of a document.

The Johann Hari case

A recent case which has drawn attention to subtle forms of plagiarism is that of British journalist Johann Hari. He writes articles and conducts interviews for The Independent newspaper. It was revealed that in many articles (and particularly his interviews) he had inserted quotations from the previous writings of the interviewee, or from interviews written by other journalists. In both cases the quotations were unacknowledged. .

He was criticised in particular for creating the impression that the words had been used in his own face-to-face interviews by sewing together the quotations with apparently on-the-spot dramatic context – as in “puffing nervously on a cigarette, she admitted to me that …” and that sort of thing.

When it was revealed that his prime quotations were lifted from written sources up to five years old, Hari was forced to issue an apology. He claimed that interviewees were sometimes less articulate in speech writing than in writing, and that he merely wanted to present their arguments in the best light.

This feeble ‘explanation’ ignores three of the principal issues in plagiarism. He did not produce his own paraphrases of the interviewee’s ideas, but used their words from other sources. He went out of his way to conceal his sources and create the entirely bogus impression of a first-hand interview. (Some people have wondered if his interviews actually took place.) And he used the work of other journalist, from work they had published previously, without acknowledgement.

So how exactly was Hari guilty of plagiarism?

  • He quoted other people’s words as if they were his own.
  • He didn’t acknowledge his sources.
  • He concealed the cut and paste origins of his composition.

A number of his essays and interviews have been analysed, and he has been shown to be guilty of systematic plagiarism. The majority of Internet comments point to the fact that he acted unprofessionally. All his previous work was scrutinised, and it has been suggested that he return the 2008 George Orwell Prize that he was awarded for distinguished reporting.

He began to edit his personal Wikipedia entry, inserting flattering comments on his own work and abilities. But to make matters doubly worse, he then resorted to something even more underhand. Using a false identity (‘David Rose’) he began making pejorative edits to the Wikipedia entries of anybody who had criticised him. When challenged, he denied all this, but was eventually forced to admit the truth and apologise.

Guido Fawkes on the Hari issue and here

Detailed analysis of Hari’s plagiarism

Plagiarism and the Web

32. The World Wide Web has made millions and millions of pages of information available to anybody with access to the Internet. But even though this appears to be ‘free’ – copyright restrictions still apply. If someone writes and publishes a Web page, the copyright belongs to that person.

33. If you wish to use material you have located on the Web, you should acknowledge your sources in the same way that you would material quoted from a printed book.

34. Keep in mind too that information on a Web page might have been put there by someone who does not hold copyright to it.

What follows is the rather strictly-worded code on plagiarism from a typical university handbook.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the theft or appropriation of someone else’s work without proper acknowledgement, presenting the materials as if they were one’s own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and the consequences are severe.

a) Course work, dissertations, and essays submitted for assessment must be the student’s own work, unless in the case of group projects a joint effort is expected and indicated as such.

b) Unacknowledged direct copying from the work of another person, or the unacknowledged close paraphrasing of somebody else’s work, is called plagiarism and is a serious offence, equated with cheating in examinations. This applies to copying both from other student’s work and from published sources such as books, reports or journal articles.

c) Use of quotations or data from the work of others is entirely acceptable, and is often very valuable provided that the source of the quotation or data is given. Failure to provide a source or put quotation marks around material that is taken from elsewhere gives the appearance that the comments are ostensibly one’s own. When quoting word-for-word from the work of another person quotation marks or indenting (setting the quotation in from the margin) must be used and the source of the quoted material must be acknowledged.

d) Paraphrasing when the original statement is still identifiable and has no acknowledgement, is plagiarism. A close paraphrase of another person’s work must have an acknowledgement to the source. It is not acceptable to put together unacknowledged passages from the same or from different sources link these together with a few words or sentences of your own and changing a few words from the original text: this is regarded as over-dependence on other sources, which is a form of plagiarism.

e) Direct quotation from an earlier piece of the student’s own work, if unattributed, suggests that the work is original, when in fact it is not. The direct copying of one’s own writings qualifies as plagiarism if the fact that the work has been or is to be presented elsewhere is not acknowledged.

f) Sources of quotations used should be listed in full in a bibliography at the end of the piece of work and in a style required by the student’s department.

g) Plagiarism is a serious offence and will always result in imposition of a penalty. In deciding upon the penalty the University will take into account factors such as the year of study, the extent and proportion of the work that has been plagiarised and the apparent intent of the student. the penalties that can be imposed range from a minimum of zero mark for the work (without allowing resubmission) through to downgrading of degree class, the award of a lesser qualification (eg a Pass degree rather than Honours, a certificate rather than a diploma) to disciplinary measures such as suspension or expulsion.

Quoted with the permission of Manchester University

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to be a Student

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100 great ideas and practical habits on student life

There are lots more guidance books on study skills than there used to be. In the past it was assumed you would pick up the necessary skills as you went along, or by some sort of mystical osmosis. It’s good that educational institutions have been forced to make themselves more transparent – but there’s still a long way to go, which is what makes books like How to be a Student helpful for would-be students. It would be useful for anyone entering further or higher education.

How to be a StudentThis spells out what’s required at a really basic and practical level. Making sure you turn up to your lectures for instance, and what to do when you get there. Learning about the complexities of plagiarism, and how to develop your own voice when writing essays. How to deliver presentations with confidence and style. Everything is spelt out in short, clear manageable chunks, so there is nothing which should overwhelm the people who the book is aimed at.

And it’s not all study skills. The authors also cover topics such as dealing with periods of boredom and knowing when it’s time to teak a break; preventing small problems from growing to become big obstacles; plus dealing with finance and not letting money problems get in the way of your studies.

The good thing about this book is that it’s based on real life and it deals with the actual problems many students face. There’s advice about phoning home, drinking, personal relationships, dealing with boredom, coping with bureaucracy, and even what to eat to feel better.

They cover writing skills, reading skills, revision and exam skills too – but these are taken alongside all the other personal issues as sources of potential worry and uncertainty which these guidance notes seek to dispel.

If you need advice on all these topics written in a manner which is friendly and non-patronising manner, this is a good place to start.

© Roy Johnson 2005

How to be a Student   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to be a Student   Buy the book at Amazon US

Sarah Moore and Maura Murphy, How to be a Student, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005, pp.138, ISBN: 0335216528

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How to create a bibliography

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the basic conventions for academic writing

1. bibliographyAt the end of any scholarly writing (an essay, report, or dissertation) you should offer a list of any works you have consulted or from which you have quoted. This list is called a bibliography – literally, a list of books or sources.

2. The traditional way of showing this information is to use the following sequence:

Author – Title – Publisher – Date

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

3. In some cases, you might be expected to present this information with the author’s surname listed first – as follows:

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

4. If you are using the Harvard system of notation, the date follows the author’s name – thus:

Eagleton, T. (1983), Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell

5. Notice that book titles are shown in italics.

6. If you are using a ‘standard’ text, give the editor’s name first, as in the following examples:

Mark Amory (ed), The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.

Frank Kermode (ed), The Tempest, Methuen, 1954.

7. List the items of a bibliography in alphabetical order according to author’s or the editor’s surname.

8. Don’t list works you have not consulted or from which you have not quoted. Doing this creates the impression that you are trying to claim credit for work you have not actually done.

9. You might find that your bibliography repeats much of the information given in your endnotes or footnotes. Don’t worry about this: these two separate lists have different functions. In addition, your bibliography may contain works from which you have not directly quoted.

10. Here’s an extract from the bibliography of a second year undergraduate essay on the sociology of domestic labour:

Bibliography

Beeton, I., Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press, 1991.

Best, G., Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana, 1979.

Branca, P., Silent Sisterhood, Croom Helm, 1975.

Burman, S. (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm, 1979.

Burnett, J., Useful Toil, Allen Lane, 1974.

Darwin, E., ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August 1890.

Davidoff, L., The Best Circles, Croom Helm, 1973.

Davidoff, L., ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Economic and Social History, Vol.7, 1974.

The Harvard System

11. Some subjects adopt the Author-Date method of referencing – which is also known as the Harvard System. Full details of the texts you have quoted are placed in the bibliography in the following order:

Author – Date – Title – Place – Publisher

Smith, John. (1988) The Weavers’ Revolt, Chicago, Blackbarrow Press.

12. The list of texts which appears at the end of your essay should be arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surname. The list differs from a traditional bibliography in that the date of publication follows the author’s name.

So – the same bibliography shown above would appear as follows in Harvard style:

Bibliography

Beeton, I. 1991 Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press.

Best, G. 1979 Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana.

Burman, S. 1979 (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm.

Darwin, E. 1890 ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August.

Davidoff, L. 1973 The Best Circles, Croom Helm.

Davidoff, L. 1974 ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Social History, Vol.7.

Davidoff, L. 1987 and Hall, C., Family Fortunes, Hutchinson.

[…and so on]

bibliography Full details of Harvard style referencing.

© Roy Johnson 2009

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How to create good page layout

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basic principles of effective page design

Good Page LayoutGood page layout
More and more people today are using computers for essay and project writing. The advantages for improved presentation are dramatic. Once most people have started to enjoy the facilities computers offer for editing, rewriting, and presentation, they often wonder how they ever managed without them. Typewriters become a thing of the past.

Editing
The main advantage of the computer is that you can rewrite and edit what you produce. You might start out with just a sketchy outline, but you can add extra examples, delete mistakes, and move paragraphs around. You can build up to the finished product in as many stages as you wish.

First drafts
At first you might want to carry on producing the first draft of your work in hand-written form. You type it into the computer’s memory or onto disk. Then you can edit what you have produced, either on screen or by printing out your document. This is quite common for beginners. Most people abandon the handwriting stage in a gradual manner.

On-screen editing
At first, you will probably want to see what you have written printed out as soon as possible. As you gain experience however, you will probably edit on screen and only print out the finished version of your work. WYSIWYG word-processors (What You See Is What You Get) allow you to see on screen what the finished document will look like.

Presentation
The most important element of presentation is the layout of the page. No matter what the content of your work, it will look better if is given plenty of space in which to ‘breathe’. You should leave plenty of blank space around what you write. Do not attempt to cram the maximum amount of text onto each page. If you are using any sort of pictures, tables or visually quoted material, let it stand well clear of the text.

Margins
Learn how to set generously wide margins. One inch minimum at the top and bottom of the page is normal. One inch or more at each side. If your work is going to be presented in a folder or binder, you should also allow at least 0.25″ ‘binding offset’ (also called a ‘gutter’).

Columns
If your piece of work is anything like a newsletter, a magazine, or a popular report, you might wish to use multi-column layout. On A4-sized paper, two columns will probably be appropriate, but you might choose three if you reduce the size of the left and right margins. If you find working in columns difficult, prepare your text separately first. Your final task will then simply be one of laying out the page.

Line spacing
The computer and printer will produce your work very neatly, but will probably do so by using single line spacing. Even though you are likely to be pleased by the neatness, learn how to set for one-and-a-half or double line spacing. This will give you more opportunity to create good layout.

Fonts
For the main text of your work, choose a font with serifs such as Times New Roman or Garamond. Avoid the use of sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica. These make continuous reading difficult. Unless your work is connected with fine arts, advertising, or graphic design, avoid using fancy display fonts (such as Poster or ShowTime) altogether: these are designed for advertising and shopfront display.

Display fonts

Fontsize
In general, the size of your chosen font should be eleven or twelve points. This will make your work easy to read, and the font will appear proportionate to its use when printed out on A4 paper. You might wish to use large font sizes of fourteen-point size for subheadings, and sixteen or eighteen point for main headings. Long quotations (where necessary) are normally set in eleven or ten-point size.

Font variety
Although you may have a wide range of fonts at your disposal, you should keep the number you use to a minimum. Two or at the very most three different fonts will be enough for most pieces of work. On this issue, graphic designers have an expression – “More is less” – which means that the greater the number of different fonts used on a document, so the less effective they become.

Justification
Most word-processors will produce your work with the text ‘fully justified’ – that is, with both left and right hand edges aligned. This will produce a neat overall impression. However, it can cause ‘rivers’ of white space to appear in the text, caused by irregular spaces between the words. You may wish to choose left-justification (like this paragraph). This will leave the right-hand edge ragged, but the spaces between the words will be regular. If in doubt, full justification usually offers more overall neatness on the page.

Indentation
If your work contains items such as numbered lists, columns of figures, or anything else which is set off from the left hand margin, always use the TAB key or the INDENT command to position the item. Never use the spacebar: this will not help you to achieve precise alignment. ‘The word-processor is not a typewriter’. Take full advantage of any facilities for indenting to regularise your presentation of quotations. Double indentation is for those longer quotations that would otherwise occupy more than two or three lines of the text in your work. Try to be consistent throughout.

Quotations
Long quotations (where necessary) should normally be set in the same font as the body of your essay. The size however may be reduced by one or two points. This draws attention to the fact that it is a quotation from a secondary source. Alternatively (and in addition) it may be set in a slightly different font – but don’t use too many different fonts.

Paragraphs
If you use double spaces between each paragraph, you do not need to indent the first line. [This is only necessary when there are no spaces between the paragraphs.] One good reason for having the double spaces, apart from its looking more attractive, is that it will help you to ‘see’ each paragraph as a separate part of your argument or discussion.

Page numbering
Learn how to switch on automatic page numbering for all your essays and projects. The numbers should normally be placed at the bottom of the page, either in the middle or in the right-hand corner. You may also place page numbers in page ‘footers’ – that is a piece of text which occurs at the bottom of every page.

Spelling
If your word-processor has a spell-checking facility, then use it before you print out your document. But remember that it is unlikely to recognise specialist terms and unusual names such as Schumacher, Derrida, or Nabokov. These will not be in the processor’s memory. You will have to check the correct spelling of these yourself, as you will any other unusual words. Remember too that a spell-checker will not make any distinction between They washed their own clothes and They washed there own clothes, because the word there is spelt correctly even though it is being used ungrammatically.

Grammar-checkers
If your word-processor has a grammar checker, use it before you finalise your document. These devices are very useful for spotting over-long sentences, awkward syntax, missing verbs, and all sorts of grammatical errors. You might find them annoying to use at first, but the best of them will offer you advice and potted lessons as well as corrections of any errors. Persist, but be careful: even machines can sometimes be wrong.

Book titles
Use the italics or the bold commands of a word processor to indicate the titles of books – but remember to be consistent throughout your document. A.J.P. Taylor’s The Origins of the Second World War is just as acceptable as Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa though the former is more usual and preferable.

Footnoting
Advanced users may well be tempted to take advantage of automatic footnoting facilities. Word-processors can certainly remove all the headaches from this procedure. However, do not clutter your text with them just for the sake of showing off your command of the technology. Numbered endnotes are much easier to use and to control.

Hyphenation
If your word-processor automatically hyphenates words at the end of a line, take care to read through the work before you make your final print-out. Eliminate any howlers such as ‘the-rapist’ and ‘thin-king’. This needs to be done with extra care if you are using newspaper columns.

Widows and orphans
In laying out your pages, avoid creating paragraphs which start on the last line of a page or which finish on the first of the next. These are called, in the jargon of word-processing, ‘Widows and Orphans’. The solution to this problem is to control the number of lines on a page so as to push the text forward. An extra-large gap at the bottom of a page looks better than an isolated single (or even double) line of text.

Titles
Titles, main headings, or essay questions may be presented in either a slightly larger font size than the body of the text. They may also be given emphasis by the use of bold. You should not use continuous capital letters in a title, heading, or question. This looks typographically ugly. Do not underline headings: this makes them more difficult to read.

Emphasis
Although many people think it is good idea, there should be no need to underline something to give it emphasis. If you have a title, heading or a question at the head of a piece of work, then a larger font, and the use of bold and double spacing will be enough to give it emphasis and importance. Underlining any text makes it harder to read.

Italics
Italics are normally used to show emphasis – when something is very important. They are also used to indicate a word of foreign origin, such as ouvrier (French – workman) or nihil (Latin – nothing). Book titles should be shown in italics – such as War and Peace. Smaller pieces of work such as stories, articles, and poems are shown by putting the title in single quotation marks. For instance, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’.

Print-preview
Use the print-preview facility to help you lay out the contents of a page before you print it. Get used to the practice of switching between draft mode and print-preview. In draft mode, you view the text in detail and you can make fine adjustments to what you have written. In print-preview, you have a one-page overview of your text. Make sure that your text is properly aligned and laid out on the page. Check the spacing of paragraphs and the appearance of your text. Ensure that your titles, subtitles, and any section headings are set at the correct fontsize and weight.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to fail your dissertation

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clear guidelines for guaranteed disaster

Failing your dissertation is admittedly not an easy task, but if you try really hard you can fail by ignoring all the good advice you have been given. If in doubt, you should adopt the suggestions which follow. They can be summarised as three main principles:

Obscure the idea

Make sure your topic is wide and vague. Then wander around the main idea without ever stating it precisely. If by mistake you do manage to choose a well-defined, suitably limited topic, do not despair. You can always take detours and amble away from the topic for a while.

Do not develop your ideas. Simply re-state them in safe, spongy generalisations. Don’t bother finding evidence to support what you say. Always point out this kind of repetition with the phrase ‘As previously …’. Better still, repeat word for word at least two of your statements.

Disorganise your discussion. For example, if you are using chronological order to present your material, keep your reader alert by making repeated jumps from the past into the present and back again.

Begin a new paragraph every sentence or two.

By generous use of white space make the reader aware he is looking at a page devoid of sustained thought.

Like this.

Mangle the sentences

Fill all the areas of your sentences with dead wood. Incidentally, ‘the area of’ will deaden almost any sentence, particularly when displayed prominently at the beginning.

Use sentence fragments and run-on or comma-spliced sentences. Do not use a main subject and a main verb, because the reader will get the complete thought too easily. Just toss in part of the idea at a time, as in this ‘sentence’.

To create variety, throw in an occasional run-on sentence, thus the reader will have to read slowly and carefully to get the idea, if there is one.

Your sentence order invert for statement of the least important subject matter. That will force the reader to be attentive to understand even the simplest points you make.

You, in the introduction, body and conclusion of your dissertation, to show that you can contrive ornate, graceful sentences, should use convoluted sentence structure.

Frequent separation of subjects from verbs by insertion of involved phrases and clauses, frequently giving rise to errors of concord, show that you know what can be done to a sentence.

‘Slovenize’ the language

Add the popular ‘-wise’ and ‘-ize’ endings to words. Say ‘Timewise, this procedure is faster’, rather than simply, ‘This procedure is faster’. Choose ‘circularize’ and ‘utilize’ in preference to ‘circulate’ and ‘use’. Practice will smartenize your style.

Use vague words instead of precise ones. From the start, establish vagueness of tone by saying ‘The thing is …’. Keep the reader guessing throughout a reading of your work.

Employ lengthy Latinate locutions wherever possible. Shun the simplicity of style that comes from apt use of short, old, familiar words, especially those of Anglo-Saxon origin. Show that you can get the maximum (L) not merely the most (A-S) from every word choice you make.

Inject some humour into your writing by using the wrong word occasionally. Write ‘then’ when you mean ‘than’ or ‘to’ when you mean ‘too’. Every reader likes a laugh.

Find a ‘tried and true’ phrase to clinch a point. It will have a comfortingly folksy sound for your reader. Best of all, since you want to end in a conversational, friendly way, sprinkle your conclusion with clichés. ‘Put a little icing on the cake’ as the saying goes.

Last word

Well, too ensconce this whole business in a nutshell you, above all, an erudite discourse on nothing in the field of your topic should write. Thereby gaining the reader’s credence in what you say.

Suggestion-wise, one last thing: file-ize this list for handy reference for the next time you have to write anything.

(Adapted from Emerson Society Quarterly, 1963)

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to Find Information

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skills for locating, evaluating, and recording information

The recent news that Google intends to scan the contents of several research libraries into its database should serve to remind us that not everything is available on the Internet. But good researchers still need to be able to find information from a variety of sources. This book shows you how to do it. Sally Rumsey includes all the most obvious topics concerned with the information gathering process, such as how to use a library, how to identify existing research, and how to use the World Wide Web for locating information.

How to Find Information You would expect that from any serious guide of this kind. But she also includes chapters on aspects of research which many people find baffling. These include actually identifying an information need in the first place; citation searching; locating and evaluating resources; citing references; keeping records; and how to keep up to date with the latest trends.

Everything is tackled in a very thorough and methodical manner. If like me you’re one of those people who learn from seeing, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of diagrams, tables, and flow charts to illustrate her suggestions.

So, for instance, the chapter on using a library covers types of libraries, classification systems, and how to search the catalogue using a variety of techniques.

Of course a great deal of attention is devoted to online searching – and quite right too. It includes search terms, Boolean operators [and/or/not] and how to interpret the results.

With the very welcome expansion of online resources however, there is a danger that a lot of people will simply do an Internet search, then give up immediately if they don’t find what they are looking for. Serious researchers need to be more persistent.

In fact all information search skills will need to become more sophisticated as time goes on – but we shouldn’t forget that for the moment the majority of the world’s assembled wisdom resides in the form of what Nicholas Negroponte calls “ink pressed onto dead trees”.

I was glad to see a chapter on plagiarism and copyright – though I think at postgraduate research level the niceties of plagiarism warrant spelling out in a lot more detail.

The audience for this book is quite wide – serious undergraduates, all postgraduates, librarians, researchers, and even tutors who have an interest in keeping up to date with information skills.

It’s written in a friendly and approachable style and laid out in a user-friendly way, and there’s a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a webliography or whatever we eventually decide to call a list of web addresses.

© Roy Johnson 2008

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Sally Rumsey, How to Find Information: a guide for researchers, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2nd edition, 2008, pp.223, ISBN: 0335226310

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How to Get a Good Degree

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making the most of your time at university

The quick answer to how to get a good degree is of course to graduate with first class honours from a world class university. But such advice is about as reductively simplistic as Paul Getty’s ironic formula for getting rich: “Rise early. Work late. Strike oil.” Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, and Phil Race’s guidelines are based on the realistic supposition that most students need support and guidance throughout the whole of their three years as an undergraduate. It’s a supposition that is sadly true more than ever in the current academic climate (in the UK at least). Tutors are under government pressure to produce ‘research’ (which few people read) and many of their original teaching commitments have been sub-contracted to part-time teachers and postgraduate students.

How to Get a Good DegreeThe net result is that students need the skills to support themselves through their coursework and assessments. Race starts off by covering issues such as motivation and self-awareness via a series of checklists in which students make a judgement of their current attitudes – with a view to enhancing them to improve their chances. In this way they can come to understand the basic processes of successful learning.

Students are urged to make an audit of their strengths and develop the skills of effective time-management. This is followed by learning to get more out of lectures, plus the significant differences between taking and making notes.

He also covers the skills required to make profitable use of small group tutorials, seminars, field work, laboratory work, and even work-based learning. There’s a whole chapter on learning from feedback on written work, showing students what they can gain in addition to the assessment of quality based on the mark awarded.

Then comes a major section on making the best of ‘learning resources’. These can be anything from lecture handouts, student support services, to the library and making intelligent Internet searches.

But the life of a student isn’t all intellectual work and enquiry. So he also covers personal aspects of student life – such as where to live, how to cope with a part-time job, and how to develop your computer skills.

Finally, though it might well have come first, he deals with the issue of improving your assessed course work. This includes essay writing skills, making presentations, completing projects, and how to do practical work. He tops this off with revision and examination skills, so by the time you come to the end of the book, just about every conceivable aspect of undergraduate life has been covered.

After that, it’s up to any student to apply all this excellent advice. If that’s done as thoroughly as it’s all been explained, the result should be a good degree.

© Roy Johnson 2007

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Phil Race, How to Get a Good Degree, Open University Press: Maidenhead, 2nd edn, 2007, pp.272, ISBN: 033522265X

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How to give seminar presentations

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tips for effective communication skills

1. Seminar presentations are short informal talks giving the results of your researches into a topic on the course. You are sharing your ideas or discoveries in a way that gives seminar participants an opportunity for discussion. These seminar presentations form a normal part of the teaching and learning process in postgraduate studies.

2. The person who will learn most from this exercise is you. The act of investigating sources, digesting information, and summarising other people’s work will help to clarify these matters in your mind.

3. You will also develop your confidence in handling information, making useful notes, and presenting an argument.

4. Unles the topic has been given to you by the course requirements, you can usually choose your own. Select something which reflects your own particular interests. If you are in any doubt, check with your tutor.

5. Topics will vary from one discipline to another. They might be:

  • a ‘reading’ of a set text from the course, applying one critical theory
  • the report of an investigation or an experiment
  • a ‘literature’ review which surveys existing knowledge
  • a response to one of the tutorial topics from the course materials

6. A seminar presentation should not try to imitate an academic essay. It is better to offer a presentation on something smaller and more specific, rather than the type of general question posed in a coursework essay.

7. Don’t write down the presentation verbatim. Make outline notes, then speak to these notes using the set text(s), any critical theory, and your own extended notes as backup material.

8. If you have the resources, it is a nice courtesy to provide other members of the group with a copy of your outline notes.

9. Overhead projection facilities will often be available if you wish to show transparencies. Otherwise, photocopies of any illustrative material will be perfectly acceptable.

10. In more formal, public settings, PowerPoint presentations are now the expected norm – possibly with embedded web links and video clips.

Suggested Headings

The general headings for your notes may vary according to the topic of your choice and the approach you adopt. Here’s an example for a presentation in literary studies at post-graduate level. The following may be used – from which you should be able to see that some form of logical progression is required.

The set text
Explain which edition you are using, and any special considerations. You might indicate which different editions exist, and what led to your choice. In other words, you are explaining your selection of source materials.

The course topic or seminar question
You might say why you have chosen the seminar topic, or why it seems significant. If possible, you should relate it to the other major issues of the course. You are explaining why this issue or topic is worthy of consideration.

The critical theory
Give a brief summary of the origin and principles of any critical theory you will be applying. This will help to ‘situate’ your remarks. This is almost the equivalent of describing the experimental method in a scientific report.

Your own argument
Give a general summary of what you have to say, and its relation to the course as a whole. Make the stages of your argument clear, and indicate the conclusion to which they lead.

Scholarly details
You should provide full bibliographical details of any texts you use during the course of the presentation.

Topics for discussion
A good presentation should lead to questions or further issues raised by the subject of your enquiry. Including these issues as part of your conclusion should lead naturally into a discussion amongst the seminar participants.

© Roy Johnson 2009

How to improve your grammar

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basic guidelines for better writing

The quickest way to improve your grammar is to simplify your writing as much as possible.

Grammar is a combination of a number of different aspects of language

  • sentence construction
  • punctuation
  • spelling and vocabulary
  • agreement and syntax

The best approach is to tackle these issues one at a time.

Don’t try to improve your grammar by memorising rules – because there are many exceptions to most of them.

Sentences

In most writing, all normal sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

A normal sentence in English usually contains at least three elements: a subject, a verb, and an object.

Subject Verb Object
The cat eats the goldfish
My friend is tall
Some sheep are black

If you are in any doubt at all, follow this pattern. Sentences which go out of grammatical control often lack one of these elements, or they have them placed in a different order.

Short, clear, and simple sentences are usually more effective than those which are long and complex. Avoid piling up clause upon clause.

In the majority of cases, you should aim for clarity and simplicity in your written style. If in doubt, remember this rule: Keep it short. Keep it simple.

You should avoid starting sentences with words such as ‘Again’, ‘Although’, ‘But’, ‘And’, ‘Also’, and ‘With’. These words normally belong in the ‘middle’ of a
sentence, not at its beginning. Sentences which start with a conjunction are often left incomplete.

Punctuate your work firmly, making a clear distinction in your writing between marks such as the comma, the semicolon, and the full stop.

Punctuation

The comma [,] is used to show a slight pause in a sentence.

It is also used to separate words, clauses, or phrases.

He will never do it, whatever he says.
She bought some butter, a pint of milk, and some jam.
Cars should turn left here, whilst vans should turn right.

It separates two items when the first is not closely associated with the second:

She is a famous singer, whilst her husband remains unknown.

A very common use for the comma is to separate the items in a list:

The box contained a book, some pencils, and a knife.

The semicolon [ ; ] marks a long pause in a sentence.

It is half way between a comma and a colon.

Semicolons are used between clauses which could stand alone, but which are closely related.

He ran with his shirt over his head; he had forgotten his umbrella once again.
She couldn’t dance in her favourite ballroom; it was being renovated.

Semicolons are also used to punctuate mixed lists in continuous prose writing:

Four objects lay on the desk: a large book; a spiral-bound notepad; a glass vase containing flowers; and a silver propelling pencil.

If you are in any doubt at all concerning the correct use of the semicolon – then avoid using it entirely.

It is perfectly possible to write clearly and effectively using only the
comma and the full stop.

The full stop [.] (sometimes called the period) is a punctuation mark indicating a strong pause.

It is used most commonly at the end of a complete sentence – like this one.

This is a short sentence. This is another.
It happened suddenly in 1996.
There are two reasons for this (in my opinion).

The only common exception to this rule occurs when the sentence is a question or an exclamation.

Is this question really necessary?
What a mess!

Notice that both of these punctuation marks include a full stop.

Spelling

If you are not sure about the correct spelling of a word, look it up in a good dictionary.

The best ways to improve your spelling are:

  • learn commonly mis-spelled words
  • learn the common rules of spelling
  • learn good spelling strategies

The most commonly mis-spelled words are probably there/their, its/it’s, to/too/two, and are/our.

This problem is caused because these words sound the same as each other. Here’s how to tell them apart.

There refers to a place, whereas their means belonging to them.

The table is over there, in the corner [place]
We are going to their house [belonging]

Its means belonging to, whereas It’s is a shortened form of It is.

The dog is in its basket [belonging]
It’s too late now [It is]

To means ‘towards something’, too means ‘very or in addition’, and two is the number 2.

We are going to the concert [towards]
It was too cold for swimming [very cold]
He ate two chocolate bars [number 2]

Agreement and Syntax

There must be grammatical logic or coherence in the links between parts of a sentence.

This is called case agreement.

If the subject of a sentence is singular, then the verb form must be singular as well.

The shop [singular] opens at nine o’clock.
On Thursdays the shops [plural] open late.

Sometimes confusion occurs because a statement begins in the singular but then drifts into the plural

Wrong
It can be argued that a person has the right to know when they are dying.

The easiest solution to this problem is to make the subject plural and its verb plural as well.

Correct
It can be argued that people have the right to know when they are dying.

Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence.

It concerns both word order and agreement in the relationship between words.

The following statements follow normal English word order:

The cat sat on the mat.
My old brown leather suitcase.

The following statements do not follow normal English word order:

The cat on the mat sat.
My brown leather old suitcase.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to plan research projects

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approaches to undertaking a major piece of work

Research projects

The length and purpose of research projects will depend on the level of your studies. At third year undergraduate level it might be between 3000 and 8,000 words. This might involve gathering information or making a brief investigation. An MA dissertation on the other hand is usually a longer piece of detailed academic analysis. This might be 15,000 words long or even more. A PhD thesis must be a piece of original research. Typical theses might be between 50,000 and 80,000 words long – or more.

Production
The principal difficulty is generating and handling so much material. Most people do not have the experience of assembling and writing such a long piece of work. You need to develop patience, persistence, and intellectual stamina. The material must also be given structure and coherence. You also need to present the material using the conventions of your subject-discipline.

Planning
Your essay-writing skills are your main source of support for such a task. You will need to shape and re-shape your work according to some plan or outline. This plan might change as you progress, but it will provide reassurance. Think of the work as a very big essay which will take a long time to complete. It is also likely to change both its shape and substance as you progress.

Research ProjectsConfidence
Despite your fears about tackling such a large piece of work, there are several reasons why you can feel confident of success. When you reach this stage you should know quite a lot about your own subject. You should now be accustomed to the language and conventions of your discipline, and aware of its principal concepts. By this stage you should also have all the basic study skills you will need. Remember that unless your project is a PhD thesis, it is unlikely that you are being asked to demonstrate dazzling originality. A research project is designed to give you the chance to show that you can make an in-depth investigation of a topic, and present your findings in an academic manner.

Form
The form of the project will depend on your subject and its conventions. It could be a review of ‘the literature’ of one aspect of your subject. It might be the writing up of a particular case study or investigation. Some reports offer the results of surveys or interviews. Others may be the records of scientific laboratory experiments. You should make yourself aware of the form of research projects in your own subject area.

Selection
Select a topic in which you are genuinely interested. This interest will help to sustain your commitment throughout the research. Completing a long piece of work is very difficult if you become bored with the topic. Be prepared to change the topic [in the early stages] if you are not happy with your first choice. Do this in consultation with your tutor or supervisor.

Topic
The best topics usually emerge from some subject you already know well. Select an item of interest which has arisen during your coursework. Do some preparatory work in narrowing down the subject to a precise focus. Don’t take on something that is too large or poorly defined. Both of these approaches will create additional difficulties. A limited project which is successful will gain more credit than an over-ambitious failure.

Examples
Study examples of other people’s successful projects. Copies of such work are usually kept in departmental libraries. Check what other topics have been covered in your subject or discipline. Discuss the possibilities with your tutor or supervisor, and with other students.

Conventions
The project is an exercise in undertaking a larger piece of work. You must also present your results in the conventional form for your subject. You are not usually expected to be dazzlingly original. You are showing that you have understood your subject, you can research a topic in some depth, and and can use the protocols of your discipline in presenting your results. Many people become very frustrated with the systems of academic quotation and referencing for instance. It’s a good idea to have full control of these at the earliest possible stage. This will save you lots of time later.

The hypothesis
Some projects begin with a clear idea, and evidence is sought to prove its validity. Alternatively, a body of work is investigated until an idea begins to emerge. You might even start from an intermediate position in which a vague hunch is pursued and revised in the light of your investigations. Each one of these approaches can be equally valid. The important thing is to be aware of which one you have chosen. The worst position to be in is floundering and uncertain, between all three.

The method
Keep relating your hypothesis to the evidence, and vice versa. Be prepared to change your hypothesis in the light of evidence if necessary. Do not be tempted to distort the evidence to prove your point. You should make the method clear to yourself first, and this will help you to explain it as part of your report or your dissertation.

Pedagogy
The extended project is used increasingly in further and higher education. It is a convenient teaching method, especially when numbers of teaching staff are getting smaller. Students learn through engagement with their materials and chosen topic. In fact it is a very efficient way of learning, because you are engaging with your subject matter in both a theoretical and practical manner. In one sense, you are teaching yourself.

© Roy Johnson 2009

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