Academic Writing Excellence

I am currently supervising Masters students and their work is good! However, I notice some common errors I consistently feed back on which are really easy to put right. This is important as we want our reader to understand FULLY what we mean when we write. So what is it? Well, students very often leave a sentence unfinished and incomplete. Its because all the information is in their head and they know exactly what they mean. The problem is they haven't conveyed that to the rest of us. Here is a (fictional) example: "Smith and Jones' (2020) study showed that men who eat vitamin C rich food have greater rates of fertility". Greater rates of fertility than whom? Men who DON'T eat Vitamin C rich foods? Women who DO eat Vitamin C rich foods? Who are we comparing these men to? And when we say "greater rates" what do we mean? Did Smith and Jones (2020) put a figure on this? Was it a statistically significant figure? If so, how significant? And are we talking about 1 per cent or 50 per cent? This figure could make a big difference to the strength of our argument!! SO always be specific and sufficiently detailed and we should always finish our sentences!!

In the process of writing a third paper as part of a research project I am working on. At the 'I have got no idea what this is about' phase. I always get to this point and hate it. Just need to keep going and once I feel I have a story of some sort, take a step back. You can never see the bigger picture when you are in the middle of it all.

Vox reports the AI and ChatGPT boom might already be over.

Is the AI boom already over? Generative AI tools are generating less interest than just a few months ago.

How Citation Searching Can Help Us Find The Right References Faster!

Ever found a paper that is perfect to include in your work but its really old? or you need to know who else has cited it and so bring your work right up to date? or make sure you haven't left a key author out by mistake? Citation searching can help us find these references quickly as it enables us to search both forwards and backwards in time. Check out my tutorial for more...

Citation Searching How citation searching can help you find references faster

HOW TO CHOOSE A GREAT TITLE FOR YOUR DISSERTATION OR PAPER

I am currently choosing a title for my latest paper. Obviously the title has to reflect what's in the paper but in a way that grabs the readers interest (especially if that reader is an assessor, reviewer or marker of your work!).
One good technique if you are using qualitative data is to select a quote from your data set that sums up the theme of your paper or dissertation. Something someone said always gets attention.
But also you need to have some key words in your title because if you want readers to be able to find your work later on (most dissertations end up in a repository) you need to think about the sorts of terms they might be using to search. Especially these days when just about everything is digital.

So what are your core concepts and themes?

Sometimes a title can be a statement, other times a question.
Another technique is to have a short title and then a colon followed by a longer title with more detail. For example: 'The Sweetest Thing: How the Sugar Trade Created Contemporary Shipping Routes' (I have totally made that up). That way you can use more vernacular or everyday language that makes your title interesting and more accessible to a wider audience. So if you like you can have an academic bit to your title and a less academic bit.

Finally, just to say your title is very important so you need to spend some time thinking about it. And write it last, when you have a clear view of exactly what your work is about so that your title exactly reflects your work!!

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