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Planning a Dissertation

February 21, 2015 by Roy Johnson

planning, structure, headings, and creating order

Planning a dissertation – what is it?

A dissertation is a piece of academic writing normally submitted as part of a Bachelors or a Masters degree (BA or MA). In some cases the term ‘dissertation’ might be used interchangeably with thesis, which (in the UK) is normally reserved to describe work at PhD level.

A dissertation can comprise anything from 8,000-10,000 words up to as many as 20,000 words, depending on the subject, and is normally shorter than a PhD thesis. It is written to show that you can produce an original idea, engage in academic research, and follow the conventions of argument and written presentation at this level.

The main problem for most people is that they’re unlikely to have written such a long piece of work before. Dealing with large amounts of information and producing a long and coherent piece of writing isn’t an easy task. The conceptual skills required and the burden of generating so much writing can seem overwhelming. For this reason it is vital that you create a plan before you start.

The following guidance notes give an explanation of what’s required and a template to help you make that plan. The notes are a series of headings which will help you to clarify your ideas and create the outline or structure for what you have to do. They are not a timetable and they don’t cover the reading and research work involved in producing a dissertation. That part of the process is covered under Managing a dissertation.

Use these headings to generate an outline plan before you start any serious writing. The plan can be modified or enhanced as you go along – but at any given time you will have an overview of the project. This will help you to identify (name) any writing on which you’re working and decide its relevant position within the overall scheme. It will also save you from feeling ‘lost’ amongst your notes and your research materials.

It’s helpful to create your initial writing as chunks, or parts of the whole piece, rather than conceiving of the finished object at this stage. This gives you the opportunity to work on any one chunk whenever it’s convenient for you without becoming overwhelmed.

The title

You should have at least a rough idea of what you are going to write about. The provisional title does not have to be exact, and you can change it slightly as you go along. The act of creating a title forces you to clarify in your own mind the most important elements of your project.

It’s possible to start out with a long and possibly a slightly hazy title. But as you do more work generating the dissertation, the title should become shorter and more clearly expressed. [Some science subjects might require longer titles because of the complex names of chemicals or biological processes.]

The prime importance of the title is that it should specify exactly what your dissertation is about. Its secondary purpose is to act as a reminder while you’re writing that each part of the work should be directly related to its stated purpose. Your dissertation might be –

an argument
a survey
an investigation
a project
an analytic study

But the title is the most succinct expression of its subject and purpose.

The summary

Many dissertations also require an abstract or summary. This is a digest or a shorter version of the work as a whole. The abstract draws out in shortened form what’s contained in the complete thesis. It might also be known as a précis or a synopsis.

This might well be one of the last things you finalise. A summary is difficult to write before you’ve produced the work as a whole. But even a provisional summary will help you to keep the overall project in mind This too can be modified and updated as your work progresses.

The introduction

As in the case of the title and summary, the introduction might be something you only finish writing after you’ve done the main work of the dissertation. After all, it’s not easy to introduce something that’s not yet been written. However, you should have some idea of how you will introduce the main body of the work. It might be something like any of the following:

a description of what follows
the historical context to the subject
the origins of a problem to be studied
a summary of recent opinions
a digest of current research

Once again, even if you decide to change part of the dissertation as your work progresses, it’s better – at any given point – if you have a stated intention of how you propose to introduce the main body of your work. This ‘intention’ will help you to conceptualise the work as a whole and keep its structure alive in your mind.

Literature review

If the regulations call for it, you’ll need to include a section or chapter offering a literature review. This is a survey of the recent research findings on your topic or subject. You need to show not only that you have read the latest studies, but that you are able to digest their findings and arguments.

This is something that you can quite easily work on and store separately whilst you’re working on the rest of your dissertation. The exact position of the review in your plan will be determined by the conventions of your subject. It usually precedes the methodology, and will almost certainly come before any results.

Methodology

This is an optional section, depending on the subject of your dissertation. Subjects that involve any sort of scientific or quantitative investigation will require an account of the methods used. This account will include an explanation of how the research has been designed and implemented, and why the particular collection of data and the method of analysis has been chosen. The methodology might be qualitative, quantitative, or experimental, and it might involve gathering information and subjecting it to close scrutiny and analysis. Arts and humanities subjects tend not to have quasi-scientific methodologies, but rely on the close examination and analysis of materials and texts, followed by the your own persuasive arguments.

Structure

A dissertation is often organised into a number of parts or chapters. The subject under enquiry might suggest or determine what these parts or chapters could be. Splitting your work into separate parts will make the process of composition easier. It means that whilst working on one part, you can temporarily separate it from the others. The arrangement of these parts might be determined by –

chronological order
logical progression
steps in a process
narrative sequence
equal significance
category groupings

The following are three practical examples based on this notion of creating structure. One further advantage of following this procedure is that the total word-count for the dissertation can be (roughly) divided between these sections or chapters (plus the introduction and conclusion) to produce a well-balanced whole.

A historical study of economic depression in the 1930s might be split into four main chapters covering the years 1930-1933, 1934-1936, 1937-1939, and 1939-1940
A study of Shakespeare’s tragedies might have four separate main chapters, one each on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth
A study of inner-city pollution might be structured by separate sections on traffic density, open green spaces, air pollution, and housing density

Conclusion

You might not know the final conclusion of your dissertation project until you finish writing, but you can fill in this section with what you think or hope it might be.

This is a very good case where the title of your dissertation might be of help. If your dissertation title includes ” … show the influence of X on the work of Y …” you know that your conclusion must discuss examples of the work of Y and should reveal instances of the influence of X.

Bibliography

Colleges and universities usually have their own house guidelines for the manner in which bibliographic information is presented. In addition to this, various subjects and disciplines follow their own conventions – or they might adopt internationally recognised systems such as the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA), the Harvard System, or the Modern Language Association (MLA) system for bibliographic presentation.

It’s very important that you acquaint yourself with the system used for your subject and make sure you know all the small details of referencing, citation, and the listing of sources – including references to materials on the Internet.

Fortunately, this part of the dissertation is easy to produce, because you simply add to the list of texts and secondary sources you have used as you go along. The bibliography might even be divided up into primary and secondary sources.

Planning a dissertation – related study guides

How to fail your dissertation
Comic but very useful tips on how to avoid common mistakes

How to write a thesis abstract
A tutorial on how to create a one-page summary for longer works

How to solve research problems
Study tips for recovering from common errors and bad planning

Definitions of a thesis at Wikipedia
Structure, style, and variations by country, plus web links

How to write a thesis and which software tools to use
Data management, mind maps, creating structure, and bibliographies

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Planning essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Planning essays – strategy
You can approach planning essays using a number of different writing strategies. Some people like to start writing and wait to see what develops. Others work up scraps of ideas until they perceive a shape emerging. However, if you are in any doubt at all, it’s a good idea to plan your work. The task of writing is usually much easier if you create a set of notes which outline the points you are going to make. Using this approach, you will create a basic structure on which your ideas can be built.

2. Plans
This is a part of the essay-writing process which is best carried out using plenty of scrap paper. Get used to the idea of shaping and re-shaping your ideas before you start writing, editing and re-arranging your arguments as you give them more thought. Planning on-screen using a word-processor is possible, but it’s a fairly advanced technique.

3. Analyse the question
Make sure you understand what the question is asking for. What is it giving you the chance to write about? What is its central issue? Analyse any of its key terms and any instruction terms. If you are in any doubt, ask your tutor to explain what is required.

4. Generate ideas
You need to assemble ideas for the essay. On a first sheet of paper, make a note of anything which might be relevant to your answer. These might be topics, ideas, observations, or instances from your study materials. Put down anything you think of at this stage.

5. Choosing topics
On a second sheet of paper, extract from your brainstorm listings those topics and points of argument which are of greatest relevance to the question and its central issue. Throw out anything which cannot be directly related to the essay question.

6. Put topics in order
On a third sheet of paper, put these chosen topics in some logical sequence. At this stage you should be formulating a basic response to the question, even if it is provisional and may later be changed. Try to arrange the points so that they form a persuasive and coherent argument.

7. Arrange your evidence
All the major points in your argument need to be supported by some sort of evidence. On any further sheets of paper, compile a list of brief quotations from other sources (together with page references) which will be offered as your evidence.

8. Make necessary changes
Whilst you have been engaged in the first stages of planning, new ideas may have come to mind. Alternate evidence may have occurred to you, or the line of your argument may have shifted somewhat. Be prepared at this stage to rearrange your plan so that it incorporates any of these new materials or ideas. Try out different arrangements of your essay topics until you are sure they form the most convincing and logical sequence.

9. Finalise essay plan
The structure of most essay plans can be summarised as

Introduction
Arguments
Conclusion

State your case as briefly and rapidly as possible, present the evidence for this case in the body of your essay, then sum up and try to ‘lift’ the argument to a higher level in your conclusion. Your final plan should be something like a list of half a dozen to ten major points of argument. Each one of these points will be expanded to a paragraph of something around 100-200 words minimum in length.

10. Relevance
At all stages of essay planning, and even when writing the essay, you should keep the question in mind. Keep asking yourself “Is this evidence directly relevant to the topic I have been asked to discuss?” If in doubt, be prepared to scrap plans and formulate new ones – which is much easier than scrapping finished essays. At all times aim for clarity and logic in your argument.

11. Example
What follows is an example of an outline plan drawn up in note form. It is in response to the question ‘Do you think that depictions of sex and violence in the media should or should not be more heavily censored?’. [It is worth studying the plan in its entirety. Take note of its internal structure.]

Sample Plan

QUESTION: ‘Do you think that depictions of sex and violence in the media should or should not be more heavily censored?’

Introduction

Sex, violence, and censorship all emotive subjects

Case against censorship

1. Aesthetic: inhibits artistic talent, distorts art and truth.

2. Individual judgement: individuals have the right to decide for themselves what they watch or read. Similarly, nobody has the right to make up someone else’s mind.

3. Violence and sex as catharsis (release from tension): portrayal of these subjects can release tension through this kind of experience at ‘second hand’.

4. Violence can deter: certain films can show violence which reinforces opposition to it, e.g. – A Clockwork Orange, All Quiet on the Western Front.

5. Censorship makes sex dirty: we are too repressed about this subject, and censorship sustains the harmful mystery which has surrounded us for so long.

6. Politically dangerous: Censorship in one area can lead to it being extended to others – e.g., political ideas.

7. Impractical: Who decides? How is it to be done? Is it not impossible to be ‘correct’? Any decision has to be arbitrary

Case for censorship

1. Sex is private and precious: it should not be demeaned by representations of it in public.

2. Sex can be offensive: some people may find it so and should not have to risk being exposed to what they would find pornographic.

3. Corruption can be progressive: can begin with sex and continue until all ‘decent values’ are eventually destroyed.

4. Participants might be corrupted: especially true of young children.

5. Violence can encourage imitation: by displaying violence – even while condemning it -it can be legitimised and can also encourage imitation amongst a dangerous minority.

6. Violence is often glorified: encourages callous attitudes.

Conclusion

Case against censorship much stronger. No necessary connection between the two topics.

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Preparing Dissertations and Theses

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

postgraduate writing skills from start to finish

Many students reach postgraduate studies and have a difficult time producing their dissertations and theses – for two reasons. First, they’ve probably never written such a long piece of work before and second, because they’ve probably never seen one and therefore don’t know what it’s supposed to look like. Bill Allison and Phil Race start off this brief guide to postgraduate writing skills with the first issue which most students are likely to confront – how to choose a research topic.

This needs to be done with some care, because you can be saddled with your choice for anything up to three years or more. It’s not unknown for some people to become bored by their own subject. Fortunately, the preliminary work of looking at the literature and searching the databases of research, is a lot easier these days since most of this information will be available on line.

Next they explain what’s required in a research project – the ability to identify a problem, analyse it, read the literature, develop a research method, select the data, do the work, draw conclusions, and write up the results following the academic conventions of your subject.

The rest of the book is devoted largely to producing the written product which will be the material outcome of the research. This involves understanding the structure of dissertations and theses – knowing the correct order of their parts. This covers items which students often find difficult, such as how to reduce a thesis which might be anything up to 80-100,000 words long into a succinct 400 word abstract.

The other things which may people find difficult are quotations, referencing systems, and bibliographies. These are all worth understanding as soon as possible, because research which is perfectly successful can easily be referred back for ‘further revisions’ if the referencing is irregular or the bibliography doesn’t follow the specified standard.

Next they cover the process of doing the research itself – the actual work of the project and how to keep track of what you are doing. They stress the importance of writing up your work, organising your files, keeping records, and backing up what you produce – which should be easy now that the price of disk space and storage has fallen.

The last part of the book deals with the really small details of the physical object you will create – the page layout and margins, abbreviations, tables, the size of fonts, line spacing, and everything down to the way the finished pages will be bound.

So that covers just about everything. It’s up to you now to do the necessary work – and then you can collect your degree.

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Brian Allison and Phil Race, The Student’s Guide to Preparing Dissertations and Theses, London: Routledge, 2nd edn, 2004, pp.100, ISBN: 0415334861

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Presentation of essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Presentation
The presentation of your finished work is an important part of its success. You should deliver your work as clearly and as neatly as possible. Try to observe the following general guidelines to create an attractive page layout. You may not necessarily gain marks for good presentation, but you are likely to loose them for work which is untidy.

2. Paper
Use A4 size paper. This is now accepted as the international standard for most printed and written materials in the fields of education and commerce.

3. Writing
Word-processed or typewritten work is becoming the norm. Remember that standards of presentation are being driven up all the time. Some tutors might deduct marks for bad handwriting or untidy work.

4. Margins
Leave margins of at least one-and-a-half inches at each edge of your text and at least one inch at the top and bottom of each page. This might seem over-generous at first, but it will almost certainly enhance the appearance of what you produce.

5. White space
The purpose of all this white space is to leave plenty of room in which your tutor can write detailed comments or corrections. These comments will offer you direct guidance on what you have written. This is very valuable feedback which should help you improve
the quality of your work.

6. Line Spacing
If the document is a normal essay, use one-and-a-half or double line spacing. This too will create space for tutor comment. If the document is one which will be read at greater length, such as a report or a dissertation, use normal single line spacing. The comments on such work are sometimes made on separate sheets.

7. Paragraphs
Leave extra space between paragraphs. If you follow this rule you do not need to indent the first line of the paragraph. This enhances page layout, and it will also help you to organise the structure of your argument.

8. Pages
Print on one side of a page only. Leave the other side blank. Remember to number each of the pages. This will lessen the chance of your work becoming disordered. The blank pages are available for additional comments if necessary.

9. Headings
Headings or question rubrics should be separated from the body of the essay text. Emphasis should be given by using bold or (less desirable) italics. There is no need to underline titles or headings, and do not create them in continuous capitals.

No punctuation marks (other than question marks) should be used after headings or sub-headings.

10. Titles
Choose italics to indicate the titles of book-length publications, and remember to be consistent throughout your document.

11. Presentation
When submitting your essay, keep the pages together by using one of the transparent plastic document holders which are now increasingly popular. Securing by one staple in the top left-hand corner is acceptable, but do not fasten pages together with pins. These are a hazard for all concerned.

12. Postage
If you need to post work back to your tutor, use large A4 size envelopes. Avoid folding your written work, and do not use small sized envelopes which are designed for letters.

13. Security
You might wish to take a photocopy of your work as a precaution against loss. This could be useful if you are a distance learning student using the post, or if you have a particularly long or valuable essay on which you have spent a lot of time. If you are using a word-processor, keep a backup copy of your work on disk.

14. Photocopying tip
If you have a typed essay which contains a lot of mistakes, here is a tip for improving the appearance of your work. First, blank out mistakes with correction fluid, make your alterations – then take a photocopy of the final draft. Submit the photocopy and keep the original.

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Print Journalism

June 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

essays on journalism – from print to the Internet

More than 12.5 million national newspapers are sold in Britain every day. The figure goes up to 14 million on Sundays. And for every copy of the Guardian sold each day, ten copies of the Sun cross the counter – which is what led former Sun editor Kelvin McKensie to rather cruelly call the Guardian ‘the world’s worst newspaper’. This publication covers every possible aspect of print journalism, and I suspect it has been produced in the hope of becoming a standard text in departments of journalism and media studies.

The chapters are written by ex-journalists now teaching at four universities – City London, Sheffield, Cardiff, and Lincoln – so it seems there must be a regular career path leading out of the Street of Shame and showing other people the best way to get there. Articles in the first section deal with the history, structure, and the financing of print media. Who owns what; which titles sell most copies; and how they make a profit.

There’s a certain amount of overlap and repetition here, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the newspaper and magazine publishing business is a lot more complex than it appears on the surface. The second section gets straight down to practical advice for would-be journalists: how to be a reporter; how to conduct interviews; what makes a good news story; how to write good introductions and structure paragraphs.

Then, moving into the newsroom itself, there are chapters on the role of news editor, what sub-editors do, and how pictures are captioned. The individual essays could profit enormously from more illustrative examples, and almost every page is crying out for graphics.

The would-be journalist is given a detailed breakdown of news features, and more importantly how to successfully pitch your ideas to editors, then how to write them if and when they are accepted.

Once you have written your piece and checked it several times over for style, content, accuracy, spelling, and grammar, it then goes to a features editor who will edit it all over again. There’s a whole chapter explaining this process. It’s a tough world, and this is required reading for anybody who wants to make a success of freelance writing.

You are unlikely to be invited to write comment or opinion pieces, but you could break into print via reviewing. How to write them is explained in detail – and these days its as likely to be reviewing radio and TV programmes as traditional books and theatre performances.

Print journalism is now as we know being challenged by the online world – though you are even less likely to earn income from it. There are essays which analyse the differences between newspapers’ print and online versions, and technical advice on how monitor screen and web browsers affect how and what we read on screen.

There’s also advice on writing blogs and wikis, before the collection winds up with essays on the ethics and law in journalism, copyright, and intellectual property rights – which is one of the best short explanations of a complex issue I have seen for quite some time.

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Richard Keeble (ed), Print Journalism: a critical introduction, London: Routledge, 2005, pp.347, ISBN: 0415358825

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Proofreading your writing

March 2, 2013 by Roy Johnson

how to check your work for publication

Proofreading and making corrections is the very last stage of preparing a document for publication. At this point the main content of what you have written should already be finalised – checked for accuracy of content, grammar, spelling, completeness, and layout.

Proofreading looks at the presentation of the text in great detail – mainly for matters of bibliographic and typographic consistency. You will be checking on features in the document such as the following, checking for regularity and consistency.

Capitalization of headings
Font size and style
Spacing between paragraphs
Regularity of indentation
Use of italics and bold
Page numbering
Hierarchy of headings

Word-processors

Word-processors take a lot of the strain out of proofreading. Spell-checking will be easy, and matters such as letter-spacing and line-spacing are automatically regularised.

The basic appearance of writing on the page (or screen) is also controlled automatically.

For instance, text justification can be set as left-aligned or fully-justified. Left-aligned text creates regular spaces between words, but the right-hand edge of the text will be uneven – which is called ‘ragged right’ or ‘unjustified’. Choice of justification will be determined by the document type.

Fully-justified text creates an even left and right-hand margin – but there may be uneven spaces between words. These gaps can cause what are called ‘rivers’ of white space to appear in the text. These are created by irregular spaces between words.

Word-processors can usually give you control of a number of features in a document. These can be set automatically, and therefore eliminated from the number of tasks involved in proofreading.

Hyphenation on and off
Picture captions
Headers and footers
Size of titles and sub-titles
Treatment of numbers
Use of quotation marks
Bibliographic citations
Punctuation of lists
Page numbering
Hierarchy of headings

Proofreading example

The following extract contains several elements that require an editorial decision. That is, where choices of house style must be made about the use of capitals, quotations, commas, numbers, and so on. The passage does not contain any mistakes.

In 1539 the monastery was ‘dissolved’, and the Abbot, in distress of mind—recognising that there was no alternative but to co-operate with the King’s officers—blessed the monks (they numbered fifty-seven), prayed with them, and sent them out from the abbey gates to follow their vocation in the world.

There are eight issues here that call for editorial decisions on the styles used in presentation of text.

Dates are shown using numbers [1539]
Quotations are shown using single quote marks [‘dissolved’]
Capitals used for titles of specific office holders [Abbot, King]
No capitals for informal references to institutions [monastery]
Em-dash used for parenthetical remarks [—]
Use of -ise not -ize for endings [recognising]
Numbers up to 100 shown in words [fifty-seven]
Use of the serial comma

These details make all the difference between an amateur attempt at document production, and a successful and professional piece of work.

Inconsistencies in any of these style issues will cause problems for the reader: For instance, Abbot is an official title, whereas abbot is merely a term to describe the type of clergyman.

House style

House style is the term given to a set of conventions for the presentation of printed documents in an organisation.

The conventions might be formalised as a printed style guide [The Economist Style Guide, New Hart’s Rules] or they might be an informal set of guidelines governed by tradition and convenience.

Any company that wishes to appear professional will have its own house style. It can decide on its own protocols, some of which might contravene traditional practices.

The organisation could be any form of business or official body:

Publishing company [a newspaper or magazine]
Government body [Department of Education]
Legal institution [Courts of Justice]
Commercial enterprise [IBM, Amazon]

These organisations have a house style so that there will be consistency and uniformity in the way they present themselves visually to the world.

They might wish to specify the size and font style of their titles, headings, and sub-headings. They are likely to specify how graphics are to be displayed, and they might have policies regarding the use of foreign or emotionally loaded terms.

For instance, newspapers have to make policy decisions on how to describe a dictator’s staff – as a ‘government’ or a ‘regime’.

Proofreading method

The first choice you will need to make is between proofreading on screen or on paper. Many people find it easier to spot mistakes if they print out a document and do the editing and proofreading by hand.

The advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are essentially as follows.

Editing directly on screen has the advantage that you do not have to transfer corrections from paper to screen. The disadvantages are that any changes you make will over-write the original text. It is also harder to see small details on screen than on paper.

It is true that you can save each separate version of an edited text. This means you have a record of your earlier versions. But each new version leads deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of complexities when making comparisons to select the best.

Editing by hand on a printed document has the disadvantage that all corrections will need to be re-typed, The main advantage is that the original text will still be visible if second thoughts arise.

For details of the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches, see Editing documents on screen and paper.

You might find it difficult to concentrate on all the small details of proofreading. This is because it is very tiring to hold a number of issues in your head at the same time.

If this is the case, try this tip to make things easier. Split the task into a number of separate stages. Proofread for just one feature at a time. Go through the work checking only on your use of capitals in headings; then go back again to check only on your use of italics, and so on. Use the list of features below as a guide.

Abbreviations	Full stops
Apostrophes	Hyphens
Bold	Italics
Brackets	Numbers
Capital letters	Quotation marks
Colons	Semicolons
Commas	Spelling
Dates	Titles

Further detailed guidelines on

Editing your writing

Proofreading marks

There is also an elaborate system of marks used in professional proofreading for correcting the proofs of printed documents. These are for the specialist, and it is unlikely that the average writer would need to use them. But they might be of interest.

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Publicity, Newsletters and Press Releases

May 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

beginner’s practical guide to promotional writing skills

Oxford University Press have just brought out a series of short beginner’s manuals on communication skills. Their emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. Alison Baverstock’s guide shows you how to generate effective publicity and promotional writing skills through careful writing. It’s aimed at anyone who needs to publicise an event, an organisation, or a cause – whether it’s a big commercial business or just your own hobby. She starts from the position that the written word is powerful and important, and that different standards of correctness or informality are required depending on the medium – be it email, letters, press releases, or company reports.

Next comes what she calls ‘promotional writing’ – copy which is trying to persuade, sell something, or convince readers. Her advice is to avoid jargon, and to choose short, clear expression, rather than writing which is striving to impress. You should check your grammar, and avoid the common pitfalls of weak writing – such as split infinitives, misplaced apostrophes, and inconsistent tenses.

She shows how to write press releases to gain publicity, and how to angle a story to make it more appealing. The secret is to make clear distinctions between different media, and she gives plenty of examples, showing how to contact people to advantage in a way that’s more likely to get your story accepted.

The general advice is quite logical. You need to make your appeal for attention attractive, accurate, and functionally effective. This means going into a lot of detail and being rigorous about names, phone numbers, and contact details.

On newsletters she emphasises the importance of the relationship with subscribers. As a newsletter editor myself, I was interested to see that she places maximum importance on the interest of the reader, not on the writer or editor. Obviously, the newsletter should be interesting, and she explains a number of strategies for hooking the reader’s attention.

There are also lots of excellent tips along the way, and examples of good and bad practice based on real-life situations. This guide will be of use to anybody who wants to engage with the world of public writing.

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Alison Baverstock, Publicity, Newsletters and Press Releases, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.98, ISBN: 0198603843

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Publish your academic writing

October 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

getting your academic work into print – and on line

If you want to get ahead in the world of colleges and universities, there are no two ways about it – you will have to face the challenges of academic publishing. It might be articles, reports, or the results of a research project. It could be chapters from a thesis, or the whole work itself – re-drafted into book form.

Quite apart from your subject, there are two important things to keep in mind. The first is that your work will be scrutinised not only by the publisher, but by specialist reader(s) who are experts in your subject. They will be looking at the quality of your work in terms of commonly accepted academic standards; and they will checking to see that you have demonstrated that you are up to date with the latest research in your field of study.

If they give your work the thumbs up, the publisher will them be making sure that you have presented your work in compliance with their own house style guides. Publishers are increasingly demanding these days : they use economic arguments to transfer a lot of the work of compositors and editors back onto authors.

Writing for Academic Journals
Rowena Murray is an experienced writer on the subject of academic writing. She is author of How to Write a Thesis and How to Survive Your Viva. What she says in this guide should be encouraging for people in ‘new’ universities, people in disciplines which have only recently been considered academic, and those in professions such as the NHS which are under pressure to become more academic.

She deals with the important issue of getting to know your target publications. There’s really no way round this: you need to know what they’re looking for, and how they want it presented. For those who might not have written a scholarly paper before, she shows you how to analyse one and uncover its basic structure and arguments – with a view of course to constructing your own.

The next part of the book deals with how to find a topic and develop an argument. You can do this by mining your reading notes, expanding a brief presentation, or maybe adapting a chapter from your dissertation or thesis.

There’s also lots of sound advice on planning, outlining, and the art of writing abstracts. She also shows you how to draft your text and create the appropriate style. This is followed by the process of revision and editing,

Although it is aimed at those writing for publication, this book will in fact be useful for anyone who wishes to sharpen their academic writing skills and understand something about the process of preparing a text for its public launching.

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Getting Published
Jerry Wellington starts by looking at the variety of positive reasons why people write and publish – as well as the numerous fears which might prevent others from doing so. He argues largely in favour of publishing in established, printed journals on the grounds that they offer the author more credence and protection. Next comes advice in taking account of the publication in which your writing will appear. You need to take into account its readership, and most crucially the type of article or review and how it will best fit the editor’s requirements.

He then goes through the process of submitting an article for publication – both from the writer’s and publisher’s point of view. Much of this is taken up with the pros and cons of the peer review process. Then comes the case of publishing in book form. After warning quite rightly that you shouldn’t write a word until you have a contract, he then shows you how to prepare a publication proposal in great detail. Finally he looks at future possible trends in publishing – which focus largely on electronic journals and what’s called ‘self-archiving’ – which is covered next.

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Scholarly Journals at the Crossroads
This is a review of the arguments for and against electronic publishing of academic writing – largely the work of Stephen Harnad. His argument is that scholars working in what he calls the ‘esoteric’ fields of narrow specialisms (particularly the sciences) do not need to publish on paper; they merely wish to be read by their peers.

And since they don’t expect to be paid for what they make public, why shouldn’t they put their work straight onto the Net in preprint form. Once their work is on the Web, they can invite comment, make whatever revisions they feel warranted, then archive the finished article in digital form. By following this procedure, peer review is maintained, but the system works more rapidly and less expensively. Most importantly, they can avoid the dinosaur procedures and high costs of traditional print journals. As he puts it himself (in characteristically succinct form):

“What scholars…need is electronic journals that provide (1) rapid, expert peer-review, (2) rapid copy-editing, proofing and publication of accepted articles, (3) rapid, interactive, peer commentary, and (4) a permanent, universally accessible, searchable and retrievable electronic archive.”

The more books one reads on electronic publication, Hypertext, and digital technology, the more one realises how convenient, comfortable, portable, and aesthetically pleasing the printed book remains – produced by what Nicholas Negroponte describes as “squeezing ink onto dead trees”. But this does not invalidate Harnad’s proposal: if a text is urgent, hot, and written for a minority – we’ll read it on-screen, add comments, and send it back within the hour, rather than wait for the Dinosaur Publishing methods (and timescale) of ‘getting it onto paper’.

This is a book for specialists, but it encompasses issues which are part of the profound effect of the forces of digitisation and the Internet. The vested interests of commercial publishers and academic institutions may take some time to shift, but their fault lines are remorselessly exposed here. Harnad’s vision and his debate with contemporaries gives us a view of a world which is breaking apart, in the very process of being overtaken by the forces of New Technology.

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Towards Electronic Journals
Carol Tenopir takes a similar view and considers it more-or-less inevitable that print production costs will push academic writing towards digitised publication. The Web was actually created so that academic researchers could share their findings across the Internet – doing so quickly and free from any commercial restrictions.

If you write a paper on rocket science, you can put the results directly onto a web site and announce the fact to special interest groups. That way, you can invite feedback, critical comment, and peer review – and receive it fairly quickly, instead of having to wait up to two years as you would if the paper was put into the slow-moving production methods of commercial publishers.

Scholarly journals take a long time to produce; they are very expensive; and very few people read them. Why bother then, when the same results can be made available fast, free of charge, and to a much wider audience? How much does it cost? What are the trends in scholarly article authorship and readership? What are the overall implications of electronic journals to publishers, libraries, scientists, and their funders? These are some of the fundamental issues underpinning this book.

The argument on costs is overwhelming. Electronic publishing saves on printing costs, re-printing costs, storage costs, archiving, and inter-library loan costs. And all the other arguments return again and again to the obvious advantages of electronic publication.

They point out that readers both inside and outside universities will continue to demand materials in printed form. Which is true. It’s amazing how many people continue to print out documents – for the sake of convenience, and habit. But to quote Nicholas Negroponte again, the future is digital.

This is a study which is aimed at researchers, librarians, publishers, and anyone interested in electronic publication, and they go out of their way to provide hard evidence for decision-makers.

If you are interested in one of the lesser-known but burgeoning forms of electronic publishing – then you should find this a rich source of hard facts for the debate.

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Publishing on the Internet

October 2, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a selection of resources

What if your ambitions are for publishing on the Internet? After all, many writers now launch their work in writers forums, creative writing groups, and even in personal weblogs. The Internet has made it possible to reach a worldwide audience with just a few IT skills – and it’s all for free!

You have the chance to place your work in writers’ groups, you might create your own web site, or you could start blogging. In addition, you could promote your work via a personal website and an email newsletter. Whichever route you choose, you should be aware of the difference between writing for the screen and the printed page.

What follows is guidance and resources covering all these new possibilities. You need to know what is available for writers on the Internet, and where to find it. eBooks and email publishing are a very attractive and cost-effective option you can learn about easily. Blogging is cost-free and currently very hip. And knowing the difference between writing for the screen or for print will show that you know what you are doing.

The Internet: A Writer’s Guide
The main strength of Jane Dorner’s book is that she is a professional writer who practices what she writes about. She writes for both print and screen, and promotes her work via a personal web site. This book explores both the new opportunities for writers created by the Internet and the practicalities of publishing on your own site.

She touches on writing groups which exist in the form of mailing lists, websites, newsletters, chat groups, and conferences, and she also deals with eBooks plus annotated lists of all the sources a writer could possibly wish for – from libraries to bookshops, dictionaries to writing circles, newspapers to writing style guides, electronic publishers to free Internet service providers.
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Creative Web Writing
If you are mainly interested in traditional creative writing Jane Dorner has another book which shows you the skills you need if you want to put your writing onto the Internet. She is speaking to those people who have been creating poems and stories in their back rooms and getting nowhere. This guide covers collaborative story-telling, research online, interactivity and flexible text, as well as the nuts and bolts of styling for screen reading. Most importantly, she explains the range of new markets, new technologies, and how to apply them.

Creative genres are covered, including autobiography, poetry, broadcasting, screen-writing and writing for children. She also describes how to look carefully at contracts, how to submit your writing to an electronic publisher, and how to deal with Print on demand (POD) outlets. There’s a very useful survey of the various delivery methods and payments for eBooks. This is one of the most popular methods for aspiring authors to reach new readers. This section will be required reading if you are thinking of venturing into this world.

The central part of the book deals with new forms of writing using Web technologies. This is one field in which she has clearly done her homework. She shows examples of writing in the form of Blogs (Web-logs) email (epistolary) narratives, fictions illuminated by graphics, the weird world of MUDs and MOOs, Flash-animated writing, and phonetic poetry.
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The Internet Writer’s Handbook
Karen Scott’s book is a detailed guide to publishers of the two formats which are most digital – e-zines and e-books. It’s in the form of an international A-Z of the best websites for writers to target, with full contact details for all websites listed. She offers plenty of detail on how to submit your work , how much publishers will pay, and even how they are most likely to respond. The topics these eBook publishers cover range from poetry and fiction, through non-fiction feature writing, to specialist technical and hobbyist publications.
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Publish your writing

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Punctuation

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

beginner’s guide to the basic principles of punctuation

Oxford University Press have just brought out a series of short beginners’ manuals on communication skills. Their emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. Punctuation in English can be almost as tricky as spelling. Robert Allen cleverly approaches the topic by explaining what punctuation is for, and how it can help you to write more effectively.

He recognises that choices are not always clear cut. Does a pause in a sentence warrant a comma, a semi-colon, or maybe even a dash? And his explanations of the answers are illustrated throughout by everyday, practical examples. Beginners in particular will find his explanations very reassuring. He describes the basics of constructing statements and how they are best expressed using the basic elements of punctuation – from the comma to the full stop. Next comes the more complex issues of representing speech and using such punctuation marks as the colon and the semicolon. Don’t worry – everybody has problems with that one!

In fact there’s a useful section on how to avoid the most common mistakes in punctuation – such as using too many commas, or using the comma as a substitute for the full stop.

The second part of the book is a simple checklist of each common mark of punctuation – showing how each is used. And he ends with comments on the most popular problems – including what he calls ‘the grocer’s apostrophe’.

This is easy to read and understand. It’s a book which will be suitable for anyone unsure about what is ultimately a matter of taste and style.

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Robert Allen, Punctuation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.104, ISBN: 0198604394

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beginner’s guide to the basic principles of punctuation

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