Academic Writing for Graduate Students

The aim of this course is to help you develop as a writer within the English speaking academic community by raising awareness of, practicing, and reflecting upon the conventions of written texts. In addition to addressing issues related to academic writing, the course will also focus on the other language skills you will need to complete your graduate level work in English.

During the course, you will:

• Acquire an awareness of and ability to use effectively the discourse patterns of academic English

• Improve your critical reading skills, enabling you to think and write more clearly and incisively

• Become familiar with and practice the genres of the argumentative essay, critique and research paper

• Have the opportunity to develop your writing process through generating ideas, drafting, peer evaluation and individual writing consultations

• Learn to take into consideration the expectations of your readership with regard to academic English discourse conventions

• Reflect on your approach to reading in light of the demands of a graduate program • Learn to incorporate the work of other authors into your own writing within the requirements

of English academic practice • Expand and improve your ability to work independently by exploring new strategies for

learning • Develop your proof-reading and editing skills so as to be able to polish, edit and refine your

own written work without the help of others • Gain confidence in expressing yourself in both spoken and written English, through extensive

in-class writing and speaking, homework and consultations.

Most of the materials needed on the course are included in the Course Study Pack. Other program-specific materials will be distributed on a class-by-class basis. Your writing instructor will tell you about assignments and deadlines at the end of each class. In many cases, pre-reading assignments will be given. It is important that you complete the assigned readings before each class because they contain essential information that will be needed in class, and if some students do not have this information, a great deal of time will be wasted. These readings are now also accessible electronically from this webpage in case you have left your Study Pack at home.

Evaluating Arguments

A television ad for the 1964 U.S. Presidential campaign shows a young girl playing in a meadow. She’s maybe six or seven. She has long hair and she is wearing a sundress. She is plucking the petals from a daisy, and her lips are moving: he loves me, he loves me not. Suddenly she looks up and pauses: the camera zooms in close to her face, and then closer, to her eye, to the pupil of her eye, until finally the screen goes dark. Then a flash. Bright yellow. A roar. Black smoke. A mushroom cloud. An atomic wind. And the slogan of the ad:

VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JOHNSON ON NOVEMBER 3RD

Michael Connelly draws our attention to this ad, both dramatic and brutal, as being a prime example of a typically fallacious argument: what is called a false dilemma or the either/or fallacy. In this case, as Connelly indicates, the message is clear: we either love each other or we die. Or, to put it another way: "Vote Johnson or Watch the World Blow Up in an Atomic Holocaust."

The argument is fallacious in that the voting public of 1964 did not have to choose between nuclear war and Johnson. Many more alternatives were available, and the fact that there wasn’t a nuclear war probably had little or nothing to do with the election results. This example vividly illustrates the need to be aware, to be vigilant, to work continuously to develop our critical thinking and naturally, our critical reading skills.

And one vital aspect of critical reading is our ability to evaluate arguments. Michael Donovan defines this expression as our ability "to judge or assess its [an argument’s] persuasiveness," that is, to determine whether we can accept the argument or not, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the reasons provided. In other words, when we evaluate an argument, we must resist the temptation to view the text (visual, written or otherwise) as an "authoritative whole" and instead think carefully about how it has been constructed, what its purpose is, what assumptions have remained hidden or unstated, what the writer’s biases are, what the source of the information is, and how logically the argument has been put together. So vital is this aspect that one scholar even claims that analyzing and evaluating arguments is "the one skill that is most critical to a successful democracy." While this statement is in itself extreme enough to risk being deemed fallacious, there’s probably at least some truth in it.

How then might we go about evaluating arguments? Some strategies are very complex and require rigorous and extensive study of Aristotelian rhetoric and logic, but unfortunately, such methods are far beyond the scope of this course. What we can provide are practical suggestions that should help you critically reflect on others’ arguments so that you can assess their persuasiveness and thus accept or reject them accordingly.

Behrens and Rosen in Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum provide a fairly simple, three-step guide to evaluating arguments and conclusions. They ask we do so by "determining whether the author has (1) clearly defined key terms, (2) used information fairly, (3) argued logically and not fallaciously".

Clearly defined terms

As they observe, clearly defined terms contribute to an argument’s validity in that writer and readers need to agree on what is meant by these terms. For instance, in a phrase like "Democracy is a way of life," what exactly is meant by "democracy" (a system of government, a state of equality?), or for that matter, "a way of life" (life style, living standard, working conditions?)? Notice here that even the terms to define the terms remain vague and elusive and thus threaten to undermine the validity of the argument. The authors point out shrewdly how in some cases "the success of the argument—its ability to persuade—hinges on the definition of a term."

Fair use of information

When writers present evidence to support their arguments, Behrens and Rosen advise you to ask yourself as reader whether the information is correct, the most current, and just as importantly, whether it is "representative". They note how "ethical" writers will present evidence "in a spirit of fair play," which means they will avoid distortion—if not downright dishonesty—by providing both evidence which supports their views as well as evidence which may contradict them. Indeed, as we will see in "The Argumentative Essay" reading later in this study pack, a skilled writer can strengthen his or her case by first acknowledging opposing evidence, and then countering it.

Logic

The third aspect of the strategy—and any strategy which evaluates arguments—requires that we consider the logic of the argument. Behrens and Rosen point out how naturally writers’ arguments will have biases, which is perfectly legitimate as long as the arguments are "logically sound." As mentioned already, a "formal" study of logic, that is, the examination of structural "patterns" of premises without regards for the actual "content" of the argument, remains beyond the scope of this

class. But by applying a healthy mix of skepticism, common sense and critical reflection, we can interrogate the content of others’ arguments in order to judge the claims intelligently.

It may be helpful to keep in mind two points as you focus on the logic of a text. First consider the "grounds" on which the argument is based. Is it based on personal knowledge, reliable expert opinion, common knowledge, reliable testimony, necessary truth, or is it acceptable because your common sense tells you its plausible? Secondly, look closely at claims made to see if they are based on fallacious reasoning, like the campaign ad at the beginning of this reading. There are dozens of possible fallacies a writer may commit, just like the either/or dilemma we have already considered, fallacies which may seem on the surface persuasive—herein lies the danger—but which are in fact bad reasoning, or manipulative, or both. Proceed therefore with great caution when you read—whether it be an essay, an editorial, a website, or any text. Evaluate the arguments as you go along, and trust that, in the end, your vigilance in reading can only make you a better writer as well. Or is that argument fallacious?

Micro-level Argumentation — Paragraphing

Just as each text has an overall structure, with an introduction, a development of a main argument and conclusion, the smaller parts of each text also have their own micro-level structure. The smallest significant unit for the development of an idea is the paragraph. A paragraph is a text unit within which a single idea, or one aspect of a large and more complex topic, is developed and supported through a series of closely related sentences. The paragraph performs two main functions:

• it introduces a new topic (or aspect of a topic) and develops it, usually making some sort of claim and supporting it

• visually and logically, it distinguishes the present (new) topic from the previous one and from the following one

To be effective, a paragraph must have coherence and unity; that is the entire paragraph should concern itself with a single focus. If it begins with one focus or major point of discussion, it should not end with another or wander within different ideas. The sentences should lead on from each other logically so that each one answers the questions that come into the reader's mind when they read the sentence before it. If the reader has to go back and read more than once to understand what the writer is saying, this is an indication that the paragraph may not be coherent. A very long paragraph may also lack unity. If your paragraph fills a whole page (double-spaced), you should check it carefully to see whether that whole page deals with a single idea or whether it is better split into two or more smaller, more manageable units.

The Structure of a Paragraph

An effective paragraph also has a clear and logical development over several sentences: each sentence has its role in building up an argument, whether by introducing a claim, expanding upon it, providing or analysing evidence, or drawing a conclusion. Though the theoretical research on paragraph structure is too complex to cover in detail here, some broad guidelines may be given.

a. The Topic Sentence

Most paragraphs will have a topic sentence. The topic sentence presents the subject of the paragraph; the remainder of the paragraph then supports and develops that statement with carefully related details. Because it introduces the subject that the paragraph is to develop, the topic sentence is typically the first sentence of the paragraph. It is effective in this position because the reader knows immediately what the paragraph is about.

Example:

Much has been written about the social problems caused by the transition to democracy in Central Europe.

In certain situations, however, the topic sentence may appear elsewhere – one common example of this, as we have seen, is the introductory paragraph of an essay, where the topic sentence is, in fact, the thesis statement, i.e. the last sentence in the paragraph. One case where a paragraph may not have a topic sentence is if it is a

transition paragraph, i.e. the second or third of a series of paragraphs all of which share the topic sentence of the first.

b. Expansion or restatement

It is very common after the topic sentence for writers to develop further or expand their main idea. This may also involve a more detailed or qualified restatement of the topic sentence. It is a relatively common stylistic trick to start with a relatively simple topic sentence and then restate or expand it.

Example:

Indeed, in the long term, it may be that the social problems of transition will in fact prove more difficult to overcome than either political or economic issues.

c) Limitation

Another common strategy after the topic sentence is to immediately limit or narrow the paragraph to a precise aspect of the topic which will be discussed.

Example:

Amongst these problems, however, some of the most serious are those experienced by women, whether this be in the family or in the workplace.

d) Illustration

A frequent feature of good paragraphs is that having made a claim in the topic sentence and elaborated it, the writer then brings examples or evidence to support his or her claim. This can be very helpful in persuading the reader of the validity of the writer’s position, as we saw earlier in the course. In academic writing, this illustration may well take the form of quotation from or reference to research carried out by others. We will deal with this aspect of writing more thoroughly later in the course.

Example:

Research by Hofstetter and Igel (1995), for example, has shown that women in former East Germany experienced considerably higher rates of depression and resorted more often to psychiatric help in coping with social change than their male counterparts.

e) Analysis

Of course, it is not enough to simply drop an example in the reader’s lap. Having given an example, the writer must then analyse and demonstrate what this example proves and what can be learnt from it. Analysis may also be employed in direct relation to the topic sentence by analysing aspects of the topic, the expansion or the limitations mentioned.

Example:

While one cannot, of course, dismiss the possibility that these figures are skewed by men’s refusal to seek help for fear of appearing ‘weak’, nevertheless, comparable research in Hungary (Radnoti 1997) suggests that the areas in which the greatest social change has occurred, notably the conflict between breadwinning and child rearing, are areas where women are more involved than men.

f) Conclusion

Finally, the writer needs to ‘finish off’ the paragraph, usually by concluding with a sentence that either reiterates or states in modified form the idea presented by the topic sentence. There may be some overlap between analysis and conclusion, as a good analysis may reiterate the topic sentence anyway, but one of the two is needed. Effective paragraphs rarely finish with an example.

Example:

Clearly then, the study of the social effects of transition should not neglect gender as an important factor for consideration.

Ways to make your paragraphs more cohesive and coherent

A number of techniques that you can use to establish cohesion and coherence within your paragraphs are described below.

a) Think of your writing as a dialogue

In good coherent writing, each sentence addresses the expectations that appear in the reader’s mind when they read the sentence before. When your reader reads a sentence you have written, various expectations may be formed in their mind. If your next sentence meets some or all of those expectations, the reader will see the logical connection. If the next sentence fails to meet any of the reader’s expectations, he or she will need to go back and read again to see what the connection could be; having to do this is frustrating and makes for slower reading. When checking your writing, it can be helpful to work through and see if there is actually a logical flow between sentences that the reader can follow. If not, you will need to add or rewrite something.

b) Move from old information to new

Imagine you are at the airport and you want to find the gate for your flight. Which organisation of information would be easiest for you to understand: a list by gate first then destination, or destination first, then gate? The second would probably be more useful because it starts from what you already know. In all types of writing, it is easier for your reader if you start with what they know (either generally, or because you have said it earlier) and then move to the new information later in the sentence or paragraph.

c) Repeat key words or phrases

Particularly in paragraphs in which you define or identify an important idea or theory, be consistent in how you refer to it. This consistency and repetition will bind the paragraph together and help your reader understand your definition or description.

d) Use parallel structures

Parallel structures are created by constructing two or more phrases or sentences that have the same grammatical structure and use the same parts of speech. By creating parallel structures you make your sentences clearer and easier to read. In addition, repeating a pattern in a series of consecutive sentences helps your reader see the connections between ideas. The paragraph below uses this technique very effectively. The parallel structures and repetitions have been underlined.

No woman gives birth to a baby. She gives birth to a girl or a boy, who will grow up to become a woman or a man. Descriptions of birth experiences sometimes tell us that the parents remained momentarily oblivious to the child’s gender. But that is not usual. Birth attendants almost always announce the sex of the child even as she or he emerges: it is a crucial piece of information which will have profound effects on the way that the family relates to the child, how others see the child, and how the child learns to know who she or he is. This will, in turn, shape the ways in which the child-become-adult comes to express his or her self in solitude and with other people.

e) Use clear reference

Reference (words or phrases which refer back, or – sometimes forward – to something which is mentioned elsewhere in the text) is extremely helpful in guiding the reader as to relationships between and within sentences. There are basically three types of simple reference:

It/they Weak Refers back or forward within a sentenceThis/these Stronger Refers back, usually to a previous sentence This/these + repeated noun, synonym Strongest Refers back to previous sentence

or summary word

Notice how both ‘it’ and ‘this’ (in italics) are used in the example paragraph above to refer back to earlier ideas or concepts. Neither would be suitable to replace the other.

‘That/those’ can also be used to refer back, but is much less common. It has two basic uses:

1. To refer back to an item which is similar in type but different in nature to one mentioned earlier, eg. ‘The density of lead is greater than that of iron’. Here ‘that’ refers to a density again, but not the same one as in the earlier part of the sentence.

2. To refer back to something, at the same time distancing it from it from the reader’s attention, eg. ‘There were attempts in the early sixties to introduce a form of consociational powersharing, however, those attempts were largely unsuccessful and will not be considered here’. Here, ‘those’ refers back to ‘attempts’ in the first part of the sentence but at the same time indicates that the attempts mentioned will not become the focus of present attention. (Notice again how the sample paragraph on the previous page uses ‘that’ to refer back and move away at the same time).

f) Use transition words or phrases between sentences and between paragraphs

Transitional expressions emphasise the relationships between ideas, so they help readers follow your train of thought or see connections that they might otherwise miss or misunderstand. The paragraph below shows how carefully chosen transitions (in bold) lead the reader smoothly from the introduction to the conclusion of the paragraph.

The fact that the Tamagotchi is a miniaturized toy and can therefore easily be held and transported seems to be of great importance in its ability to elicit feelings of affection. Certainly there have long been computer mounted versions of pets – incorporated into the larger screen – which have not seemed to draw much reaction. As a result of this tactile or mobile element, children can stand in clusters each holding their own Tamagotchi, comparing qualities and deficiencies, as well as their own caretaking behavior and what they have or have not administered to their virtual pets. Furthermore, it is easy to show to others, providing them with the opportunity to boast of their acquisition, thereby becoming members of an ‘in-group’ of those children socially attuned to and with access to current trends. Moreover its small size permits them to hold it in the palm of a hand, to cuddle it, to take it to bed with them and to hide it in a pocket. In other words, the Tamagotchi allows for a relative sense of intimacy in relation to its owner. It is here, then that the unscripted action takes place.

There are many different transition words and phrases, and all have slightly different meanings, however, some of them are roughly similar. If you are not sure exactly how a word is used, a many grammar books and websites contain lists of transition words, however very few give any guidance or examples as to how to use them. A good way to find out how transitions are used is to use a concordancer, which searches many, many authentic texts for examples of how a word is used. To try using a concordancer, go to the Writing Center self access webpage and type in one of the phrases or words from the passage above.

Conclusion

In short, we can see that just as larger texts have a logical structure, each individual paragraph also has a structure, and that carefully planned paragraph development can help you to present and support your claims effectively so that your reader can follow and accept your argument. Reference and cohesive devices also help to hold paragraphs together, making explicit the role of sentences and their relationship to each other so that the reader can understand your ideas with less effort.

Making Decisions About Style

"If our goal is to tell students what stylistic features are characteristic of the writing in a given discipline, no answers will fit all the particular teachers they will meet ..." Peter Elbow

Introduction

Peter Elbow's thoughts on teaching features of academic style are particularly relevant for students in the CEU writing community, who have experience writing in a variety of languages and disciplines, and who are expected to produce advanced texts in English, often for the first time, in a style which

is appropriate for their discipline. However, CEU students frequently discover that stylistic choices appropriate in their discipline in their first language are not always suitable in English. In addition, academic programmes in almost all universities approach style differently, and even within departments it is not unusual for individual professors to have particular preferences. For example, a native English speaker who holds a PhD from Oxford University may not always have the same views on style as her Hungarian colleague, who wrote a Masters thesis in German and a PhD dissertation at a university in the USA. Some academics have strict stylistic criteria they expect students to follow; others care less about style and more about content. In other words, different audiences will have different expectations when it comes to the issue of academic style. For these reasons, the Writing Center believes it is important to present the issues related to style for your consideration, rather than advocate particular stylistic rules for you to follow.

Before continuing, it is important to make clear what we mean by style. Grabe and Kaplan have argued that graduate level students need "to develop a strong sense of style in their writing," and their approach is one with which the Writing Center agrees:

This individual style will include a recognition of how strongly a claim should be asserted, a knowledge of how and when to speak as an expert and invoke authority, and a sense of appropriateness of form and convention in writing ... The development of an individual academic style requires both a sense of stylistic options available to writers and a clear sense of valued academic and formal conventions of writing.

In light of this, the conventions of formal written register have been included here, along with some tips to help you make your writing more formal, should you decide to do so. In addition, the subject of register will be discussed in class. The other stylistic issues covered in this pre-read are ones the Writing Center has found most pertinent to students beginning the academic year.

From presenting and discussing these issues in the past, we have learned that some students may feel a particular writing style is being imposed upon them at CEU, or that they are losing an individual writing style that has taken many years to develop. We are sympathetic to these feelings. The purpose of this reading is to make you aware of some of the particularly relevant stylistic issues in English academic writing at CEU, so that you can make informed decisions about them. We do not consider ourselves the arbiters of style. Rather, our intention is to present some issues of style to you, so you may reflect on them in the context of personal and discipline-specific preferences. In this regard, the title of the reading is "Making Decisions about Style."

Two Issues to Consider When Making Decisions About Style

Genre

At CEU, students write a variety of different text types, or genres, including examinations, essays, literature reviews, proposals, seminar papers and theses. It is important to become familiar with the variety of writing tasks expected of you in the department, and the stylistic choices you can make when writing them. Examination answers are not always composed in the same way as essays, a literature review usually looks nothing like a proposal, and seminar papers presented orally in class during the school year may need to be revised for inclusion in a thesis. This short reading cannot run through all the differences - and similarities - in stylistic choices related to genre. Writing instructors can give you general advice in this area, but your best source of information will be the academic writing instructor in your department, and the professors for whom assignments are written.

Audience

As stated in the introduction, a writer will consider his or her readers when making stylistic choices. The issue of audience was first presented in section 2 of "The Argumentative Essay"; it might be useful to reread it as you reflect on the points discussed here and in class.

Some Stylistic Choices Available to Academic Writers

a) The Use of I, We and You

This is a controversial topic, at CEU and throughout the academic world. There are no rules concerning the use of I, we and you in academic writing; there are only choices. However, as academic writing is generally written in a formal register, you will find professors who believe that these pronouns should never be used. You will also write for many professors who think these are entirely appropriate, and who will encourage you to utilise them. Some professors may advise you to use them occasionally (in introductions and conclusions perhaps) while others may have no opinion on the subject. Much will depend on the programme, professor and genre in question, as well as your own preference(s). We recommend you discuss this issue in your department, and read widely in the discipline to see the choices practising scholars make.

b) Passive Voice in Academic Writing

This is another hotly debated issue in academia. Some professors do not consider passive voice appropriate, and they tell students to write in active voice as much as possible; others give students the opposite advice. This debate will not be resolved in your short time at CEU. While both active and passive voice are used in academic writing, it is important for you to know when, and why, to use one or the other. For example, writers sometimes choose passive voice in order to emphasise an action, rather than the actor. Many also find it a useful structure to convey an impersonal tone.

c) Invoking Authority and Using Sources

As William Grabe and Robert Kaplan have noted, knowing when and how to invoke authority is important for developing an academic writer’s individual style. Citing experts in the field is one factor which distinguishes this kind of writing from other forms of composition. Scholars are obligated to research the topics they write about, and acknowledge the information, ideas and/or arguments which have come from other writers, whether quoted, paraphrased or summarised. As you read course materials, notice how academics in your field refer to the work of other writers, and the effect this has on their style. Each department has particular guidelines on when and how sources should be used and cited. Ask your academic writing instructor for the specifics related to your programme; at some point during the year they will provide you with a style manual which includes information on the mechanics of footnotes and bibliography. These issues will be also discussed in more detail later in the course.

d) Register in Academic Writing

Register is the "manner of speaking or writing ... specific to a certain domain of communication." This way of communicating will be determined by how much a writer chooses to distance herself from her audience and topic. Below you will find four broadly defined registers: Familiar, Informal, Formal and Ceremonial. Think of them not as boxes, or points on a graph, but rather as bands on a spectrum with overlap from one register to the next. All are defined here so you can see how they flow from the very personal (familiar) to the very impersonal (ceremonial). Within the English language academic community, the conventions of formal register are generally followed; however, within some disciplines there has been a tendency in recent years to be more informal. At the same time, there are academics who choose to include a few informalities in an otherwise formal text, and writers who are at times more formal in a mostly informal paper. The choice of register for a particular text, part of text, or spoken presentation will vary depending on genre and audience.

i. Familiar Register

There is a very close relationship between the writer, topic and audience in familiar register. Not much has to be clearly stated, because the audience knows the subject very well. The writing is characterised by use of colloquial English, including slang, as well as a general disregard for many of the rules of spelling and written grammar.

From: collinsr@asu.eu To: westburyj@aol.com

Whattup with the assignment? I’m not even done reading, and it’s due in 24 hours. Gerhardt’s gonna kill me if I screw this one up. E me and let me know where you’re at. I’m gonna hit the library. Wanna meet later?

As you might guess, most professors consider features of familiar register inappropriate in academic writing.

ii. Informal Register

This is the register of much journalism, and is occasionally used in academic writing in some disciplines. Here there is also a close relationship between the writer, audience and topic, but not as close as in familiar register. The tone is conversational, but is not as intimate as above. Very often the rules of written grammar are adhered to, but features of spoken English – such as contractions – are sometimes used. In the example below, note the use of ‘I’, and how it draws the reader closer to the writer. (This distance is not as close as in familiar register above, but closer than in formal register below).

I tell myself in situations like that that I must resist the temptation to personalise what I’m witnessing. It’s an admonition that was difficult to heed that morning in Tanj. You see, I have two boys of my own, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, it was their faces I saw in front of me. I am embarrassed but not ashamed of the outrage and anguish I felt at that moment. Those emotions remind me that I cannot accept different standards for the children of Southern Sudan.

Note: The use of I in itself does not mean a text is completely informal. As mentioned above, some writers occasionally use the less formal I in their otherwise formal texts.

iii. Formal Register

This is the register in which most academic texts are written, including the ones for many CEU departments. The writing in this register is often defined by what it is not. It is not colloquial. Neither is it personal. Strong opinions may be expressed, but not subjectively. Writers who choose this register do not break any of the rules of written grammar.

Two explanations for the emergence of new types of female religious life have recently been popular.* One suggests demographic causes: religious women were the daughters for whom no husband could be found. The other explanation argues that the women who became beguines, tertairies, or heretics were simply a religious surplus, left on the fringes to attempt some kind of quasi-religious life after Cistercian and Premonstratenism doors closed and the friars showed reluctance to expand their pastorate to large numbers of nuns.* Demographic factors in fact lay behind all late medieval religious movements. The structure of the medieval family and of inheritance patterns necessitated alternatives to the role of marriage and procreation for a large portion of the population.

Students who have not had much practise writing in formal written register often have difficulties adapting to it. This may be because what defines the register is, as stated above, what it is not. A more helpful explication of the differences in formal and informal register has been done by Clanchy and Ballard. They write that in formal register:

The academic writer’s approach to his or her material is:

Analytical Objective Intellectual Rational

rather than Impressionistic Subjective Emotional Polemical

The academic writer’s tone is:

Serious Impersonal Formal

rather than Conversational Personal Colloquial

In addition, they note that in formal written register:

The academic writer makes [more] frequent use of:

Passive forms of verbs Impersonal pronouns and phrases Qualifying words and phrases Complex sentence structures Specialised vocabulary

Some of these issues will be discussed further in section 3 (p. 44) of this reading.

iv. Ceremonial Register

This register is rarely, if ever, used in modern academic writing; it is more often a feature of spoken discourse, used on special or solemn occasions. The sounds of words, and the rhythm in which they are delivered, are most important in ceremonial register. Speakers make such choices in order to leave a powerful impression on their audience. Thus, Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on 4 June 1940 said:

We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.

You will encounter this register most often when reading transcripts of speeches, as well as in other historic documents. However, you will probably not be encouraged to use it in your own writing at CEU.

As mentioned earlier, these four broad categories of register are not boxes into which all texts must neatly fit. You should remember that, in contrast to the examples above:

• An e-mail can occasionally be formal; • Some journalism is very familiar; • Academic papers may include features of informal register;

A speech might begin with a joke (familiar), move on to a personal anecdote (informal) and then outline an issue (formal).

The Conventions of Formal Written Register

If you decide that your writing should be more formal, or your professor has asked you to write more formally, here are some conventions to follow.

a) Avoid Words and Expressions from Spoken English

Informal words and expressions common in spoken English (colloquialisms) are often inappropriate when using formal written register. Try to:

Remove slang

Hillary totally flipped after the Speaker of the House ragged her in the press.

First Lady Hillary Clinton became incensed after the Speaker of the House criticised her in the press.

Where possible, choose more formal vocabulary Following the clean-up, algae levels in the river were pretty good compared to before. Following the clean-up, algae levels in the river were much improved.

The President’s assistant checked out the incident and got back to her the next day. The President’s assistant investigated the incident and reported to her the next day.

Avoid contractions The English Monarchy wasn't responding to the needs of the population. The English Monarchy was not responding to the needs of the population.

Find alternatives to beginning a sentence with so, and, or but So, air pollution increased significantly across the region. As a result, air pollution increased significantly across the region.

And postmodernists agree that her opinions are steeped in nineteenth century thinking. In addition, postmodernists agree that her opinions are steeped in nineteenth century thinking.

But this essay will argue in favour of a neostructuralist approach to the problem. However, this essay will argue in favour of a neostructuralist approach to the problem.

Rephrase lists which include etc. The consequences were higher taxes, lower wages, unemployment, etc. The consequences included higher taxes, lower wages, and unemployment.

b) Use Impersonal Constructions When Expressing Opinions I believe NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. We argue that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. You can see that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented.

In all the examples above, the writer believes that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. The phrases I believe, we argue, and you can see can all be found in samples of academic writing across the disciplines. However, as mentioned above, some professors believe I, we and you are not always appropriate in formal written register. If you need to increase formality in this area, we recommend you use impersonal structures. This can be done in a variety of ways.

First, an opinion can be stated directly. It should be obvious what the writer believes if she/he writes:

NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented.The writer can also invoke authority.

Jane Kay has argued that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. Many scholars believe that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented.

Whether the writer agrees or not with the opinion will become clearer in the sentences which follow:

Jane Kay has argued that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. This is confirmed by the catastrophic events which followed.

Many scholars believe that NATO’s strategy was poorly designed and carelessly implemented. However, this paper will challenge these claims.

Some other impersonal structures which are useful in expressing opinion are:

It is has been will be

argued asserted pointed out

that

Policy Makers Politicians Researchers

have claimed maintained suggested

that

Olivia Robinson Kissinger Dr. George Simpson

disputes doubts questions

Advocates Environmentalists Realists

dismiss urge recommend

For example:

It is often argued that the Ozone layer is being adversely affected by CFCs.

Many politicians in the region have maintained that the whole debate over EU enlargement is moot.

Dr. George Simpson questions the validity of the survey carried out by his predecessors.

Human Rights advocates recommend the sanctions against the regime remain in place.

Other Issues Related to Academic Style

a) Using Qualifying Words and Phrases

Sometimes writers state opinions directly:

American cultural hegemony is destroying local traditions all over the world.Research shows, however, that academic writers are often cautious about making such strong claims or statements in their work; that is, they prefer to comment on, or hedge, an opinion:

It is possible that American cultural hegemony is destroying local traditions all over the world.

or Arguably, American cultural hegemony is destroying local traditions all over the world.

or American cultural hegemony may be destroying local traditions all over the world.

This is done in formal writing for several reasons. As stated above, the approach of formal register is objective and rational, rather than subjective and polemical. If you state your opinions directly, without qualifications, then you may sound dogmatic, and the reader might think that you are simplifying the issue(s) involved. In addition, by leaving room for some uncertainty - even when you are convinced yourself - you leave space for your readers to reach their own conclusions, based on the evidence you present. In the end, they may indeed be persuaded by your evidence that American cultural hegemony is destroying local traditions all over the world.

As Joseph Williams has pointed out, academic disciplines have various approaches to how doubt and certainty should be expressed; you should examine texts in your field to see when and how qualifying comments are made. Some common techniques include using modals (such as can and may) adverbs (including possible and apparently) as well as adjectives (such as certain and probable).

b) Sentence Length, Complexity and Punctuation

There are no rules governing sentence length or complexity in English. Sentences can be short and complex, or long and simple. Generally, it is best to vary the length and complexity of sentences so the reader’s interest is maintained and/or they are not overburdened. In general:

Try to combine very simple sentences.

Not But

In 1976, he was assassinated. This was bad politically. Chaos resulted.

His assassination in 1976 resulted in political chaos.

Do not include too many ideas in the same sentence:

Not But

His assassination in 1976 resulted in political chaos as all three opposition parties refused to recognise the president’s hand-picked successor, and for several weeks the situation remained uncertain and tense until a delegation from the OAU arrived in the country and met with members from all sides in the dispute, and brokered a peaceful resolution to the crisis before any violence took place.

His assassination in 1976 resulted in political chaos. All three opposition parties refused to recognise the president’s hand-picked successor, and for several weeks the situation remained uncertain and tense. Finally, a delegation from the OAU arrived in the country, met with members from all sides in the dispute, and brokered a peaceful resolution to the crisis before any violence took place.

In other words, use punctuation, conjunctions and linkers to vary sentence complexity. In some cases, punctuation choices can drastically change meaning. We suggest you read work aloud; often the placement of commas, semi-colons and periods (full stops) becomes clearer when you listen to the text. For further recommendations on the use of other elements of punctuation, such as dashes or quotation marks, consult style manuals in the library.

c) Using Acronyms

Writers often use acronyms (abbreviations based on the first letter of each word) to avoid repeating long terms over and over in a paper.

AFRO-NETS, MSF, UNICEF and the WHO developed a joint strategy later in the year; every AMVTN staff member interviewed for this report felt this co-operation was vital in stopping the epidemic.

However, it is unwise to assume that all your readers will be familiar with every acronym associated with your discipline. Even if they are health professionals, they may not know that AMVTN is the African Malaria Vaccine Testing Network. For this reason, it is common practice to spell out a term the first time it is mentioned, put the acronym to be used in parentheses, and use the acronym - as well as synonyms and pronouns - in the rest of the paper.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) was established to help displaced persons, but in this case it only made matters worse. The commission’s representative was from outside the country, and he had no experience dealing with the particular problems of the local bureaucracy. In addition, the UNHCR staff in Geneva made matters worse by failing to listen to the complaints about the representative.

Long research papers, theses and dissertations often include a glossary of acronyms/abbreviations.

d) Specialised Vocabulary/Jargon

All academic writers need to use special vocabulary:

Cyborg politics is particularly relevant here. Evidence to the contrary can be found in the samizdat of the 1960’s. Realists argue that his decision to compromise with the enemy was the only option. His cogito changed the course of philosophy.

Cyborg politics, samizdat, realists and cogito are examples of specialised vocabulary, or jargon, a type of academic shorthand whose meaning has been agreed upon by an academic community.

However, sometimes the meaning of jargon is not always clear:

This is just another typical example of the New World Order. The first government was simply not dealing with post-Cold War realities. His project was the most environmentally friendly one in the entire region.

The term New World Order has both positive and negative connotations, the realities of the post-Cold War may depend on your political perspective, and what is environmentally friendly to one scientist may not be so friendly to another. Sometimes, clarification is necessary:

In this paper, the end of antiquity will be used as Dr. Bettina Johnson defined it in 1973.In addition, if specialised terms are overused, the reader may be confused:

Neo-postmodernists and antideconstructionists agree ipso jure on a realpolitic approach to the problems of C4O3H2 levels as referred to in articles ss 7(4)(b) and 15(4) of the regulations concerning body knowledge and the Peter Principle.

However, it may be difficult to determine when a term is used inappropriately. We recommend you critically read texts to evaluate how specialised vocabulary is used and/or abused in your discipline, consult professors and other professionals for their opinions on the subject, and be conscious of how you use such vocabulary in your own work.

Conclusion

This reading is just the starting point when it comes to making decisions about individual academic style. In a few weeks, you will turn in your first paper. It is important for you to begin asking yourself what stylistic choices you need to make in order to write effectively in your department. Reflecting upon the issues related to style will be of enormous help to you throughout the academic year, especially when it comes time to write your thesis next year. As mentioned in the introduction, we believe graduate students need to develop a strong sense of style in their writing. We are available throughout the school year to assist you as you reflect upon these issues, and can be of

particular help if you decide to write in a formal register. However, as Peter Elbow wrote, we will not be able to give you all the answers you will need to cope with the various audiences for whom you are writing. The Writing Center believes the professors and writing instructors in each specific discipline are the best source of advice regarding these issues; we encourage you to seek out their opinions on style.

The Nature of Research Writing

During your studies at CEU, you will have to write various types of paper. In part, these will require the skills already addressed in the critique-writing section of this course, such as summary and evaluation of other articles. Many assignments will also involve you in developing an argument of your own in relation to the work of others. The most common of these, and perhaps the most important, is the research paper. In its essence, the research paper imitates the research article, an article published in a journal in the discipline. At this stage in your academic career, it may sound like a big challenge to write a publishable article, but past CEU students have written papers for their courses that, with revision, have been accepted for publication, so it is certainly not impossible. More importantly, writing research papers is practice for writing the publishable articles that your department hope you will produce later. John Swales, a leading authority on academic writing, refers to MA students as 'junior researchers'. This can be a helpful way of seeing yourself when you are trying to write your research paper: you are learning to write like a fully-fledged researcher.

Many students find the thought of contributing something new rather daunting. Novelty does not necessarily mean developing a major new theory, however, it does mean that you are expected to add something to the existing body of research, not just collect and repeat other people's work. There are many ways to express this 'novel' aspect: your contribution may be a new insight in an existing debate, the application of an established theory to a new area, an expression of disagreement with a certain position argued by another writer, or an extension of a previously developed line of enquiry. There are of course kinds of academic writing which do not create new knowledge, a sub-genre known as 'review articles'. The best known are what are often called 'state-of-the-art' articles, written by a leading authority on the field to conveniently provide an up-to-date overview for the less well informed about how new research and theory this specialised part of the field looks at the moment. As you can imagine, no-one at CEU is going to ask you to write one of these. A different kind of review that you may have to write at CEU, however, particularly when working on your thesis, is the literature review. A literature review is a piece of writing in which you 'review' previous research in your chosen field to show the reader how your own research-in-process relates to what has been written to date and, as Bellers and Smith put it, "to justify [your] research… by clearly expressing in what way the paper contributes to the existing body of literature…" A literature review is not usually a free-standing paper but more commonly serves to pave the way for a subsequent chapter or section that presents the author's own research or analysis. Some CEU professors may set assignments that look at first sight like a free-standing literature review but do not appear to have an obvious purpose comparable to that described by Bellers and Smith. If you are unsure of the purpose of an assignment you have been set, we always recommend that you go back to the professor who set the task and discuss it with him or her. This will usually clarify any misunderstanding - and probably help you get a better grade than you would by trying to guess what the professor wants.

Research papers, however, remain the key genre in graduate study, which is why we devote this section of our course 'Academic Writing for Graduate Students' to them. Depending on the professor, they may vary in length from 2500 to 5000 words, but all have in common that they involve you in solving a problem, theoretical or practical, by doing some sort of research, usually library research (reading, comparing and applying the work of others), though a few may require you to carry out empirical research (gathering primary data in some form and processing it). The process of producing a research paper involves several stages, and is not necessarily linear - you may have to go back and repeat some stages.

Initial research

In order to get a feel for what you might write about, you need to read around the area you are interested in. Part of this, naturally, will be the set readings for the course, but you will certainly need to go beyond these. Your course tutor may be able to help you here in suggesting further titles. In part you may also be able to trace earlier articles cited in the set reading and read these, but of course this will not help you to find more recent research.

Developing a research question

As you read, you will begin to get a feel for what is central (the questions everyone is talking about) and what is marginal (the aspects hardly anyone pays attention to), for what has been done and what has not been done. You may notice that one particular strand of research has overlooked a particular event, factor or process; that you know of a real-world situation that poses problems for the explanations offered by theorists, or presents an interesting case; that a problem you know of could be better understood through a particular theoretical perspective; or that there is something else which has not been done, not been done extensively enough or not been done in the best way it could have been. Gradually, you will be able to formulate the gap or lack you see in terms of a 'puzzle', an unanswered question which your research will attempt to answer. This is your research question, and it will act as the driving force of your paper, helping you to decide what else to read, how to structure your argument, and how to relate yourself to the sources you have used.

More reading (and note-taking)

This is where the serious reading starts. The reading you did so far served simply to frame the problem. Once you have found your research question, you can begin to read in a much more targeted way, hunting for just those articles or parts of articles and books that are relevant to the answering of your question. As you read, you will be focusing and noting down specifically those parts of others' work that are relevant to your question, skipping over or only reading hastily those parts that address broader issues. As mentioned above, this is not a simple linear process: your new reading may force you to refine or modify your research question, and this in turn may give your subsequent reading a new direction.

During the whole process of researching and writing, it is important to take effective notes. There are many ways of note-taking, including annotating photocopies, highlighting key information (possibly in different colours) filling in an outline, using reference cards and others. Whichever way you choose, you will need to use the information later, so do write down all the bibliographical details and page numbers at this stage. This can save a lot of time and effort (and avoid accusations of plagiarism) when you come to use these sources in developing your claims. It is also generally not a good idea to copy out large chunks of the original text, even if computer technology makes it easy to do so nowadays. Doing so increases the temptation to patch together your paper out of the quotations of others, making it less of your own work. We will discuss quotation, paraphrase and summary of the work of others in more detail, including the issue of plagiarism later in this part of the course.

Identifying the structure of your research paper

Apart from the obvious fixed components of the paper - the introduction and the concluding section - it is hard to identify a common structure across disciplines. In the natural sciences, Swales notes that a pattern of Introduction-Methodology-Results-Discussion is common, where the need for a research experiment is identified, the method to be used is described and justified, the results laid out and the meaning of those results discussed. This pattern is much less universal in the social sciences, even when empirical research is involved, and is largely irrelevant to disciplines such as history or law. Besides, as we have mentioned, many papers you write here at CEU will not involve primary data gathering experiments, so this model is not so helpful. Instead, in the social sciences and humanities, the structure of the paper tends to be dictated by the nature of the problem. Will the background context to a situation or an event need to be explained? Will two theories need to be compared for relevance? Will a case need to be analysed? The answers to these questions will help determine the structure of your paper.

Some people like to start by drafting an outline of how their paper will develop, breaking it down into parts and then working on each of those parts. This has the advantage that it allows you to see the different parts of the paper and how they relate and build on each other. You can see those areas that need more development or clearer organization, and the outline acts as a visual representation of the whole paper. Others prefer initially to draft more freely, then to select, revise and reshape from what they have written and see how an outline evolves from their attempts to answer the question. Whichever way you use, there will come a time when you need to plan the structure of your paper and fit the thoughts and ideas you have so far into that framework. Not planning the structure of your paper at all may lead to a piece of writing which is a 'stream of consciousness' - a wandering exploration of where your thoughts took you. While some writers, such as Derrida or Foucault, are brilliant and knowledgeable enough to do this and pull it off, it is not a strategy calculated to achieve a good grade at MA level.

Writing a first draft

Although you will have a lot of reading to do, we recommend that you don't wait until you have finished reading the last article before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Drafting in itself is part of the process of thinking. As E. M. Forster put it: "How can I tell what I think until I see what I say." By putting your ideas down

on paper, you will gain insights as to how different aspects of the question relate to each other in a way that rarely occurs simply from reading. The view that the researcher sits alone with his or her books fermenting an idea for an article until it is complete, then dashes it off on paper in a few hours is a rather naïve one. Writing is a messy process of drafting ideas, thinking about them, doing more reading, changing your mind, reorganising stuff and gradually getting nearer to the final, polished paper. Some people like to draft initially with pen and paper, while others are very comfortable getting their first thoughts down straight onto the computer; this is a matter of personal taste.In helping gather your thoughts, probably the most important part of your paper is the introduction, because it outlines what you intend to do and why. So many students have difficulty with this crucial part of the paper that in the final section of this course we devote a whole lesson to the structure of introductions. For now it is enough to say that a well-drafted introduction can help clear your mind and enable you to see the best structure and development for your paper. It also helps you to outline for yourself how you will relate to the work of others, and to prevent others' research from taking over your paper. For this reason, although some writers recommend you write your introduction last, we usually suggest you draft the introduction early on, then go back and revise it when the paper is written.

Final comments

Writing research papers, then, constitutes a key part of learning for the 'junior researcher' and this part of the course is designed to help you acquire this skill, addressing the use of sources, the structure of introductions and conclusions, and other important issues. Of course CEU is not the only university where students have to write research papers, and there are links on our webpage to several useful sites that can also help you with research writing.

Using the work of others authors

The embedding of arguments in networks of references not only suggests an appropriate disciplinary orientation but reminds us that statements are invariably a response to previous statements and are themselves available for further statements by others. Ken Hyland(1)

Writing is the principal means of communication in the academic community, with ideas and evidence being exchanged through the publication of articles and books. The rules of discourse in this academic community require that you, the writer, situate yourself in relation to the existing body of published knowledge, whether in order to use it as support, to exemplify a point, to build on it, or to take issue with it. The term for this reference to the works of other authors is citation. In order to be accepted as an academic, you have to fulfil two requirements: you have to show some sort of original contribution to the discipline, and at the same time you have to demonstrate that you are, as Phillips and Pugh (2) put it, 'aware of what is being discovered, argued about, written and published by your academic community across the world'. Academic writing is often seen as a kind of balancing act between these two contradictory aims, and this balance is certainly something that many students find difficult to achieve. As one former CEU student put it: 'if you use too many sources, your own ideas get lost, but if you write on your own, it's like 'who's interested? - where's the authority?' Making reference to published authors who have said something similar or discussed similar questions is the key way of increasing your own 'authority' - establishing your credentials as someone who is entitled to contribute to the academic dialogue.

How is citation used?

The different purposes for which citation can be used are numerous and too complex to go into exhaustively, but a few examples are mentioned here:

Presenting the literature in the field

Britten (1998), in discussing preliminary training for non-native speaker teachers, argues for a progression from an initially more trainer-centred approach which will be able to cope with a high input and trainees' inexperience of trainee-based approaches, gradually moving towards a more developmental, self-help approach.(3)

Here, the writer is simply presenting an argument put forward by an established author. The word 'argues' tells us that this is Britten's main idea and that he might therefore be assumed to be an authority whose opinion must be considered. Several lines later, in fact, the writer goes on to say that Britten's approach is suitable to apply to his (the writer's) particular situation.

Comparison of existing views

One of Schön's key arguments in his critique of the applied science model is ... (several lines omitted) This view is not at odds with Widdowson's (1984:89) comment that teachers who do not analyse the principles behind their teaching suffer from haphazard methodology. On the contrary, Schön's second requirement for effective education (1983:50) is precisely that ...

Again here in comparing two views of established authors and showing how they complement each other, the writer is adding authority to his argument. Note the phrases in (added) italics which the writer uses to make the cited authors, Schön and Widdowson, 'do what he wants' - in other words, it is in these phrases that we can hear the writer's own voice.

Support of the writer's view

A common lexical marker in using sources for support of your own view is the word 'as' before the cited author's name:

This traditional teaching cannot, moreover, serve as an ideal model for students to experience what they might later put into practice in their own classes; on the contrary, as Britten points out (1988:3), it is more likely... to encourage student teachers to go out and teach the way they were taught.

By using 'as', the writer claims ownership of the idea expressed but uses a citation of Britten who has said the same thing to lend greater authority.

Referring

It is common for researchers not to reiterate the basic details of a study related to what they are writing about, but simply to refer the reader to read the study themselves if they want more information. In these cases, the reference is often preceded by 'see' or 'cf.' For example:

Thus, Americans speaking at normal volume might be considered rather quiet in some parts of Africa and rather loud in some parts of the Far East (cf. Applegate, 1975).(4)

Exemplifying/providing evidence

Often a writer will present an argument or outline a general position, then follow it up with evidence from the research of others. For example:

Critics also question whether the process approach realistically prepares students for academic work. According to Horowitz (1986a), the approach "creates a classroom situation that bears little resemblance to the situations in which [students' writing] will eventually be exercised" (p.144). He goes on to suggest that...(5)

Thus the first sentence is the writer's own assessment that (many or at least some) critics question the approach. In the second sentence, Horowitz is then brought in as one example of a critic, and his criticisms of the approach under discussion are outlined. Having started like this, the writer could now easily go on to mention other authors and their criticisms, so as to fully show the weaknesses of the approach.

The exact role of citation and its interrelation with voice in academic writing is very complex, and limited research has been done. The best way to improve your understanding of how to use citation without losing your own voice as writer is to pay attention as you do your reading to how established writers cite others, and how they distinguish the ideas of other authors from their own so as to maintain their own voice.

To quote or not to quote?

Having decided that research you have done is helpful in presenting your position, and that you want to cite that author, you still have to make a choice as to the best way of doing this. There are basically three issues to consider when using the work of others writers:

• whether or not to quote a writer's words• how to paraphrase or summarise a writer's words if you decide not to quote• whether or not to use the writer's name in your sentence, together with a reporting verb such

as 'notes' or 'suggests' to distinguish their ideas from your own

These three issues will be dealt with in more detail below.

a) Using Direct Quotation

In general, when writers choose to quote rather than paraphrase, they usually do so because the language in the text is vivid, provocative, unusual, or because the exact wording is historically or legally important; and this could possibly be lost in a paraphrase or summary.

For example:

"Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life." (6)In such cases, especially where the original to be quoted is short and pithy, it is probably better not to paraphrase.

How do you know when and how much to quote?

Research by Hyland(7) into the use of citation in research articles in both sciences and humanities suggests that quotations are relatively rare compared to summary or paraphrase. Hyland's figures suggest that even in the humanities, only 8-12% of citations involve quotation. If your paper focuses on some primary source such as a significant speech, an important manuscript, or some government document or legislation, you may need to quote more extensively from the original, explaining such matters as the content, tone, wording, and structure of that work. Secondary sources, however, such as critics who have commented on the primary source or experts in related fields, should be quoted much less frequently. Again, to maintain your own voice, if you quote someone, don't just leave your reader to work out for themselves why you quoted that person; follow up the quotation with a comment of your own which ties it into your argument.

How to incorporate quotation into your writing

Your department will be able to advise you on the exact techniques it requires for quotation and referencing. Some basic guidelines are given here:

a. Always quote accurately.

c. Enclose all quoted material in quotation marks (" ") and cite the exact source immediately after the quotation, even if you have mentioned this source earlier. If you need to quote longer passages (usually more than four lines), set the quotation off in an indented, single-spaced block (called a 'block quotation'). If you do this, you no longer need to use quotation marks.

d. Sometimes, for the sake of clarity or length, you may want to alter a direct quotation in some way to eliminate unnecessary detail. If so, enclose any changed or added words in square brackets [ ], and indicate any deletions with three ellipsis points (...). Be especially careful that any changes you make in a quotation do not alter its essential meaning. In addition, use these marks sparingly: too many brackets and ellipsis points make for difficult reading.

e. When you quote less than a full sentence, be careful to match the grammar of your own words to those of the quotation so that the two fit together as if they were one sentence. If you have to change the grammar of the original quotation, you should put any altered words in square brackets [ ].

b) Using Paraphrase and Summary

Usually, not all of the piece you want to quote may be relevant, or it may say what you want to say in a rather lengthy way. In such cases, it is usually a better idea to paraphrase or summarise the author's words instead of quoting. Similarly, when you want to cite an author's ideas but you feel that his or her argument would not benefit from the inclusion of the exact words, it is sensible to paraphrase or summarise. Secondary sources used to lend authority to your own voice should usually be paraphrased or summarised.

Summary and paraphrase are similar, in that both entail using your own words rather than those of the author; however, while summary involves shortening the original and capturing the key ideas, paraphrasing usually means keeping the same length as the original idea but expressing it in other words.

i) Paraphrasing

When you want to include all the ideas of another author from a particular sentence or paragraph, but do not feel the need to include the author's actual words, you will probably choose to paraphrase. In this sense, you are not changing the essential content, but rather rewording the original. There are a number of ways of approaching paraphrasing, but most techniques include the following three steps:

• Isolate the essential ideas in the text• Restructure the sentences, changing the syntax and form of words• Use close synonyms or related words where suitable

ii) Summarising

When you want to include only the main ideas from another author's work, it will probably be appropriate to summarise the information. This normally happens when you want to include the main ideas from whole pages of another author's work. As with paraphrasing, it is important that you use your own words in presenting information. This means that the techniques mentioned above can also be employed in summarising. It is often helpful to take notes and then write a summary from your notes rather than from the original text.

As with quotation, indicating the sources of paraphrase and summary is important. Failure to cite sources for material that is not in quotation marks but that you could not have arrived at by yourself, even if you do it unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. As you are carrying out research reading, it is helpful to add under any notes you make the exact source that they come from. If your notes are incomplete or your source is unclear, relocate the original to clarify the information. Resist the temptation to write your paper without adding any references to your reading and then put these in later at the editing stage; working in this way leaves you open to the danger of unintentional plagiarism.

c) Using reporting verbs (integral citation)

You can refer to an author's work in two ways: by integral or non-integral citation. In integral citation, the author's name is integrated in your sentence, usually with a reporting verb like 'suggests' or 'argues', while in non-integral citation it only appears in footnote or in brackets Especially if you are using a footnoting system, non-integral citation has the disadvantage that the original author is almost invisible in your text, therefore there is a greater risk of the reader

confusing the author's ideas with your comments and interpretations. Integral citation avoids this problem by giving prominence to the author's name.

Compare these two examples:

Non-integral

There were distinct perceptions of family and caste in 19th century accounts of bathing resorts(1), which on closer analysis can reveal a great deal about the nature of perceptions of caste in society generally.

(1) Somloi, G. "Spa Resorts in 19th Century Hungary", Hungarian Historical Journal Vol.23, no.4 Budapest 2001

Integral There were, as Somloi has rightly pointed out, distinct perceptions of family and caste in 19th

century accounts of bathing resorts(1). Closer analysis of these perceptions can reveal a great deal about the nature of perceptions of caste in society generally.

(1) Somloi, G. "Spa Resorts in 19th Century Hungary", Hungarian Historical Journal Vol.23, no.4 Budapest 2001

In the first example, although technically the placement of the footnote correctly identifies the end of the material from the source, the reader might easily overlook this and attribute both points to the original author. In the second example, it is much clearer that the second sentence is the writer's comment on the source.

The addition of a reporting verb also gives you the chance to tell the reader how you relate to this source. In the second example above, the phrase 'has rightly pointed out' does two things: first, it shows the writer's positive evaluation of the source - that the writer shares this opinion; secondly, it shows, by the choice of verb, that the information taken from the source was not the author's main hypothesis but something that was made clear on the way to the main hypothesis, and is therefore perhaps less contentious. Hyland's research showed that in the humanities, around 50% of citations used reporting verbs (ranging from 34% in Marketing to 67% in Philosophy), the most popular being suggest, argue, claim, note, point out, discuss, show and explain.(8)

Plagiarism

There are several good reasons for crediting sources. First, it increases your authority, showing that you have read and are familiar with the existing research in your field. Second, it places your research in the broader debate and indicates where more information can be obtained about the topic. Lastly, giving credit to your sources is a way of paying the intellectual debt you owe to those scholars whose work you used. Failure to pay this debt is called plagiarism and is punished in the academic world.

CEU's policy document, "Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism"(9), defines plagiarism like this:

Plagiarising, that is, the offering as one's own work the words, ideas, or arguments of another person without appropriate attribution by quotation, reference or footnote [is a violation of the academic integrity code]. Plagiarism occurs both when the words of another are reproduced without acknowledgement, or when the ideas or arguments of another are paraphrased in such a way as to lead the reader to believe that they originated with the writer. It is the responsibility of all University students to understand the methods of proper attribution and to apply those principles in all materials submitted.

In CEU, and throughout the English academic community, plagiarism is taken very seriously. Indeed, there have been recent cases in CEU where students have had to leave the university because they had failed to mention their sources. It is also worth noting that in the eyes of the university you

have committed just as serious a crime if you accidentally forget to add a reference as if you deliberately try to pretend that someone else's theory is your invention. Following the guidelines in this pre-read should help you to avoid these dangers. A few commonly asked questions are given below to help clarify certain cases.

Q: If I paraphrase the source materials completely into my own words, is reference necessary?

A: Remember that it is not only an author's words that are intellectual property, but also their ideas. If you have reclothed their ideas in your own words, you are just as guilty as someone who steals a car and resprays it in a different colour to make it look like their own car.

Q: I've heard the particular idea that I want to express in so many different places that I don't know who first said it. Do I have to provide a reference, and if so, how do I do it?

A: Some ideas belong to what is called 'common domain'. This means that they are generally known and accepted in the field as common knowledge, perhaps because they have been around for a very long time, or because many authors have independently mentioned or assumed them. Of course, it is hard to know when something is common domain. When in doubt, it is often safest to do a little research and see if you can find, if not the original source of an idea, then at least someone who mentions it in their writing.

Q: What if the information I found in one of my sources is purely factual, like who won an election, or the amount of pollution in a river?

A: When we are talking about generally known facts like election results, this is definitely common domain and does not need to be credited. However as soon as you move from fact to interpretation (for example why the election result happened the way it did), you need to cite the author who interprets the fact in that way. When you are talking about something like pollution levels, however, the situation is quite different: we don't all know how dirty a river is just by looking at it; someone had to do the research to find out just what is in there, and their research needs to be cited to give them credit.

Q: How many words in a row can I take from the original before it will be considered plagiarism?

A: There is no formula or calculation that can or should be applied to the number of words taken from the original. It would not be unusual for two papers to contain the same four or five consecutive words; however, where key words or unique phrases are repeated word for word from a previously written text without acknowledgement, the writer's work will undoubtedly be rejected for reasons of plagiarism.

Conclusion

Using the work of other authors in your own writing, then, is a key feature, some might say the key feature of academic writing, and as has been shown here, in the English academic community, it is not only important to acknowledge the sources you have used so as to avoid plagiarism, but also so as to lend greater authority to your own words. As regards the technical details of citation, your department will have its own special requirements regarding issues such as whether to use footnotes or embedded references, and you should always consult your departmental writing instructor or a professor in your department to find out exactly what is required.

References 1. Ken Hyland, Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2000), 21. 2. E. Phillips and D. Pugh, 1994. How to get a PhD. Quoted in D. Silverman, Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook (London: Sage Publications), 2000.

3. This and the next two examples are taken (with kind permission) from a student thesis. 4. Terence Odlin, Language Transfer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1989. 5. Tony Silva, "Second Language Composition Instruction," in Second Language Writing, ed. Barbara Kroll, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 16. 6. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, 1845. 7. Hyland op.cit p.26. 8. Ibid. p.27. 9. "Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism," as printed in Administrative Policy Papers, (Central European University, 1996) no.25 (italics added for emphasis).

[Other examples cited are taken from unpublished work of CEU students with the authors' permission or are invented]