Writing Clearly and Concisely Essays - Bibliography, Writing

Writing Clearly and Concisely APA Manual Chapter 3 and Supplemental Material 3.01-3.03 3.01 Length less is more 3.02 Headings Hierarchy Equal importance to same level headings Avoid having 1 subsection in heading 3.03 Levels of heading Assume introduction, no header 3.04 Seriation Numbers Ordinal emphasis 1. Bullets Squares or circles Alphabets (a), (b), (c) Organization of key points within sections, paragraphs, and sentences Itemized conclusions or steps in a procedure 3.05 Continuity in Presentation of Ideas http://larae.net/write/transition.html http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/trans1.html http://www.smart-words.org/transition-words.html Words Concepts Thematic development Punctuation Transition Pronouns Time links (then, after) Cause-effect links (therefore, consequently) Addition links (moreover, furthermore) Contrast links (but, conversely) 3.06 Smoothness of Expression Abruptness Transition Consistent use of verb tense Past tense-results Present tense-implications and conclusions Careful hyphenation Choose synonyms with care 3.07 Tone Envision the reader Be clear and direct, but also interesting and compelling. Be professional. Non-combative Ex. Chan (2010) did not address Chan (2010) completely overlooked 3.08 Economy of Expression Use short words and sentences. Say only what needs to be said (p. 67). Redundancy They were both alike a total of 68 participants instructions, which were exactly the same as those used absolutely essential has been previously found small in size one and the same completely unanimous period of time Wordiness Unit Length Sentences Paragraphs 3.09 Precision and Clarity Word Choice Say what you mean, mean what you say Feel vs. think or believe Like vs. such as Colloquial expressions Write up vs. report Expressions of quantity Quite a large part Practically all Very few Jargon Is it necessary to be technical? Clearly define term Monetarily felt scarcity vs. poverty Pronouns Be sure referent is clear This, that, these, those This test, that trial, these participants Comparisons Avoid ambiguity Ten year olds were more likely to play with age peers than eight year olds Attribution Third person Use a personal pronoun We reviewed the literature vs. the authors reviewed the literature Anthropomorphism No human characteristics associated to animals or innate objects Pairs of rats vs. rat couples Researchers controlled for versus the experiment controlled for Editorial we Only use we to refer to self and co-authors We usually attempt to be clear in writing. As researchers, we usually. 3.10 Linguistic Devices Heavy alliteration Rhyming Poetic expressions Clichs Metaphors Use sparingly Figurative expressions Use with caution APA Style Tutorial http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx Literature Review Empirical reports designed to: Test a theory Reveal a qualifier of an existing effect Resolve conflicting findings Contrast two theories against each other Link two previously unconnected bodies of research Extend prior work in some theoretically meaningful way Empirical reports require a review of the literature that already exists Allows you to familiarize yourself with current theories, trends, concepts in specific area of interest whats already been done? What still needs to be accomplished? What interpretations have others offered? Enables you to understand and evaluate the findings of previous researchers in order to plan for future research allows you to add to body of knowledge Provides a rational for your hypothesis Provides a foundation for your study Benefits of reviewing the literature Helps clearly define your area of interest or research problem Allows you to discover new approaches by reviewing what has been done and not done Avoids approaches of replicating past research that has been shown to be futile Gain insight into previous methods, measures, approaches Find recommendations for future research Gain knowledge about a particular area of interest Approaches to literature reviews Choose an area of interest, read all relevant studies and organize in a meaningful way Choose an organizing theme or point that you want to make and select your studies accordingly Choosing a topic Choose a topic of current interest Narrow the topic Write about something that interests you Example of focusing a research topic: autism (much too broad) Description of autistic children (still too broad) Symptoms of autistic children and emotionally disturbed children (getting there but still a little too broad) Create a controlling question such as what are the theories explaining autism? How well do the theories fit the symptoms? What literature do you review? Empirical (database) studies Review articles Theoretical articles Methodological articles Case studies Books Chapters Government documents On-line documents Okay, now where do I get the literature? Journal databases World Wide Web Dissertations Unpublished reports Basic literature search strategies using electronic databases State your topic in a sentence or question Choose effective keywords or short phrases Use a shortcut (truncation symbol) for variant word endings (e.g., *, ?,:, !) Connect the keywords using ORs or ANDs Basic Search Process Plan search Choose database(s) Select words to represent concepts Construct strategy Perform search Review results Change strategy if necessary Search again Print or download or e-mail results Strategies to adjust if too many or too few records Too many? Limit years of publications Require one or more keywords to be in article title Use proximity operators (ex: Psychosocial NEAR intervention) Too few? Include more terms Separate phrases Use truncation (ex: autis* instead of autistic or autism) Choose a different database Examples