Specific Applications Theses and Journal Articles

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Specific ApplicationsTheses and Journal Articles

• Part III

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Theses and Journal Articles

• Differ from other forms of technical writers in
  that they are typically written for a much
  narrower audience specialists in the field.
• The audience share assumptions, knowledge, and
  background and have the need and interest to read
  CAREFULLY.
• Thus, no need for for features provided primarily
  for non-experts, such as Foreword and Summary
  sections. In depth technical discussion is
  encouraged.

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Theses

• Theses and Thesis?
• Thesis and dissertation?
• For example of style and format at the University
  of Washington, visit
• http//www.grad.washington.edu/stsv/00stylman.htm
• Style and format is different from one university
  to another.
• A thesis is written for a committee of experts
  who know the field, you must convince them that
  you know the field as well.
• You must show your committee that your topic
  represents an original contribution to knowledge.
• Contribution in a masters is different than a
  Ph. D. How?

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Thesis structure

• You provide an Abstract, which is usually less
  than 200 words and serves as a
• Screening Device to give readers an idea of
  what the whole document is about, so that they
  can decide whether or not they want to read the
  whole document.
• Stand Alone Text. Keep in mind that if the
  Abstract gets separated from the document, it
  should still represent it. Researchers can use it
  to search for a topic or for future
  consideration.
• Preview in case the reader continues and read
  the whole document. It frames the document and
  prepares the reader for the main points to come.

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• 4. Indexing, indexers often depend on abstracts
  to help identify key words and phrases for cross
  indexing.
• Four moves are recommended in an experimental
  research article
• Background information
• Brief idea of the specific topic and methodology
• Major findings
• Conclusion
• Examples see my paper .pdf format on the web,
  and the example given in lecture about The Use
  of Plaster Casts.

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• Usually, abstracts are written after the fact,
  how?
• Promissory Abstract, cases in which abstracts
  are written before the paper is written or before
  the work is done. In this case do not overstate
  the material that you will ultimately present.
• In the Introduction you introduce the problem
  and narrow down the scope of work.
• Having identified an issue, you describe your
  research design in a Problem Statement, which
  should have been approved by your committee long
  before you start writing.
• You must demonstrate familiarity with all the
  current knowledge related to your topic and you
  must identify an interesting issue within that
  body of knowledge.

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• You do that in the literature Review. It must
  be extensive, begins at a general level and
  narrow down to a very specific one.
• You then describe your research, several
  chapters. You describe the methods and justify
  their use.
• You describe your research in A very detailed
  fashion so that your committee can make sure that
  you left nothing out.
• Do not copy the style of a journal article, do
  not assume that the reader will fill in
  unstated steps.

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• After describing the results of your research,
  you discuss them in a long Concluding Section.
• Do not try to skimp on this part.
• This section is a mirror image of the
  Introduction. You broaden the scope of work here
  that you narrowed down in the Introduction.
• Emphasize the importance of your work, relate the
  findings to the problem statement given in the
  introduction.
• Finally, you should acknowledge any shortcomings
  in your research, not doing so, might jeopardize
  your credibility. here, professing weakness is
  actually a strength.

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Recommendations

• Avoid wordy paragraphs, use the least amount of
  words to describe what you want. Avoid repetition
  of a meaning.
• Avoid broken sentences when you can. Tie the
  sentences with on the other hand, nevertheless,
  ..
• Ask yourself if you need to give examples to
  clear a claim.
• Example talking about five remote sensing
  methods, then Combinations of them have been
  used in the past and ideally new combinations
  will improve data collection. That claim needs an
  example.
• Check if your claims are clear, would the reader
  ask of what? How? After s/he reads a sentence.
  For example Natural resource regulatory
  requirements and management needs place
  increasing importance on environmental
  monitoring. of what?

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• Use scientific and precise words. Avoid words
  such as better, if you say important justify
  it. For example Purpose of Study To develop a
  better and more cost effective method. what is
  better?.
• Another example Models of what? are much
  better (use more precise language, what does
  better mean in this context?) if developed with
  reliable and detailed data.
• Do not lose the reader through the paragraph,
  first give a general statement to prepare
  her/him, them elaborate. For example Various
  levels of data detail are required to address
  environmental monitoring and management
  requirements.
• - Avoid very long sentences and very long
  paragraphs.

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Journal Articles

• Select the appropriate journal, the most common
  reason for rejecting an article is that the
  subject is not suitable for the journal. The
  table to the right shows the most common reasons
  for rejecting articles.

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Most common mistakes

• Rambling confused, tedious, wordy,..
• Do not show problem or significant of the result.
• Failure to make a case.
• Failure to cite previous work.
• Too long-overlay detailed information.
• Poor graphics.
• No mention of uncertainties.
• Technical errors
• Failure to follow journal guidelines. Read them
  carefully and check other issues. They vary even
  within the same field.

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General Remarks

• Journal articles must be original and genuine
  contribution to knowledge. They should be new and
  different.
• The results should be somewhat new or unexpected.
  Should be unexpected?
• Specialist readers do not read the article from
  start to finish, they look immediately for the
  results.
• To accommodate that, you foreground the main
  results by
• Using a title that states or implies the major
  findings
• Stating the major findings in an informative
  abstract.
• Citing a key visual aid early in your article.
• Use informative section headings when possible

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Article Structure

• The following are the most common items of an
  article, other items may be present according to
  your application
• The abstract, covered earlier.
• The Introduction
• to define the problem and describe its
  importance. Swale recommended four moves
• Establishing the field
• Summarizing previous research
• Preparing for present research by indicating a
  gap and/or raising questions.
• Introducing present research
• See the attached example

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• 3. Methodology
• It establishes the validity of the results.
• It Demonstrates that you have done everything the
  right way, made no technical errors, and used
  acceptable method
• It provides the mechanism by which your work can
  be verified and repeated.It must contain
  sufficient details to allow the reproduction of
  your results, exactly.
• To establish the above, you must
• Identify exactly what materials you used.
• Identify any special conditions, temp. light,
  moisture,..
• Identify any special selection criteria. Why this
  type of pipes or soil?

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• Identify the specific method you used. You can
  reference a standard procedure, but must fully
  describe a new procedure.
• Justify, when necessary, your choice of criteria,
  material, method, or conditions.
• 4. Discussion
• It explains the implications of your results, it
  explains why your work is important and how it
  contributes to the field.
• If you can, show that your work disproves some
  hypothesis or supports another Hypothesis A
  predicted that I would find B, but I did not.
  This result questions the validity of Hypothesis
  A or indicates its inadequacy.

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• In arguing that your work is important, consider
  answering the following questions
• Were your results expected? If not, why not?
• Do your result contradict or support other
  research results?
• Do your result contradict or support existing
  theory?
• Do your results suggest that modifications or
  extensions be made to existing theory? What are
  they?
• Could your result lead to any practical
  applications? What are they?
• Do your result suggest other observations or
  experiments which could be done to confirm or
  extend them?

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• Results
• Presents the major generalization(s) you are
  making about your data
• Presents in compact form the data supporting the
  generalization.
• Consider the attached example of part of a
  results section. Observe the relationship between
  the generalization and supporting data.
• Conclusion??