Getting Going on your Thesis and

Getting Your Work Published

Aims

By the end of the course, participants will feel more

confident about starting, or continuing, to write

their thesis and about the process of getting their

work published.

Specific Objectives

By the end of this course we will have

• identified the features of good writing in a thesis or journal article

• identified individual sections or building blocks of the thesis

• understood the content and writing style for each section

• practised writing an introduction and received feedback from a partner on this draft

• understood the mechanics of getting published

• developed a structure for your thesis

Four Features for Assessing Writing

Academic writing includes a thesis, dissertation

or research article and must have good

• Content

• Selection

• Organisation

• Presentation

What Makes Academic Writing Good?

Content• Original, sound research, timely, valuable, justifiable,

replicableSelection• (WHAT is included, and in how much detail.) Focused,

in sufficient detail that someone else could replicateOrganisation• Logical, following a conventional pattern for article or

thesisPresentation• Appropriate writing style/ choices of words and

phrases. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, all correct. Visually: does it look nice on the page? Typography, layout, clear diagrams

Criteria for getting your PhDGeneral skills Content of thesis Form of thesis

Knowledge of the general field of scholarship to which the particular subject belongs

A work of substance, representing not less than 2 years (normally 3) of full-time research

Presented in a satisfactory manner

Critical judgement in a particular subject

Distinct addition to knowledge

Clearly and precisely expressed

Competence in designing and executing a theoretical or empirical enquiry

Originality (discovering new facts, critical examination of existing facts or ideas; devising and conducting investigations into ideas supplied by others)

Arguments logical and intelligible

Capacity to assume responsibility for independent research in the field

Example language and their message

1 ‘This is original’• While much effort has been directed towards the study of these genes

in the rat, relatively little is understood about them in the mouse.2 ‘This is important and exciting’• This study will be important for several reasons.• A detailed understanding of the murine Cyp4a subfamily would be

crucial for understanding…• Ventilation engineers are increasingly turning to analysis tools to assist

them in the design and operation of mine ventilation systems.3 ‘This work is good quality’• Nottingham is the perfect location to conduct research of this kind…

the localised nature is one of the strengths of the study.4 ‘I know the relevant literature, and how my works fit in with it’• Thus the issues of ‘captive’ and floater’ consumers raised by Moir

(1990) and discussed in Section 4.2 are included in the design of this study.

Research about writing

• Daily regime improves productivity – Boice 1990

• Writing is a thinking tool/mode of learning – Elbow 1973, Emig 1977

• Need a range of approaches and strategies – Murray 1995, 2000

• Text generation strategies better than cognitive strategies (learning about how to write) – Torrance et al. 1993

• “To be a successful writer I know of only two methods; read a lot and write a lot” – Stephen King (ok not really research)

Task

How do you write?

Types of writer

Structurer

Needs all the answers before starting to write

Wants clear assessment criteria

Writes to a document plan

Freewriter

Uses writing to ‘think’ – clarify the answers

Happy with uncertainty

Structure falls out of the writing

Why?

“There’s plenty of opportunity for self-doubt. If I write rapidly I can keep up with my original enthusiasm and at the same time outrun the self-doubt that is always waiting to set in”

Stephen King

“The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do freewriting exercises regularly … It isn’t just therapeutic garbage. It is a way to produce bits of text that are better than usual: less random, more coherent, more highly organised”

Peter Elbow

One strategy: Freewriting

• Write for 5 minutes non-stop In complete sentences Don’t worry about grammar DON’T EDIT OR CROSS OUT

• Topic what you want to write about next

• Today’s is

“What I already know about my thesis and what I still need to find out”

Using Freewriting to find a structureFreewrite to ‘What is this document about?’

Analyse for main headings

Freewrite to ‘What are the themes in this section?’Analyse for sub-headings

Freewrite to ‘What are the ideas in this sub-section?’Analyse for bullet points of key ideas

Freewrite to ‘What is this idea?’

How to Write The Introduction

Your introduction (to your thesis or paper)needs to:

• grab the reader’s attention• establish your credibility• set the scene• justify the work which is to be reported• tell the reader what is coming next

One way to achieve this is the Four Move Schema.

The Four-Move Schema

• Move 1 – Establish the general field of the research

• Move 2 – Briefly mention key previous work in the field

• Move 3 - Make a link between previous work and the author’s present work

• Move 4 – Briefly describe the present work

An Example of an Introduction‘Late presenters’ after paracetamol self poisoning

Bradley, M., Nguyen-Van-Tam, J.S. and J.C.G. Pearson 1998 in J. Epidemiology and Community Health.

The popularity of paracetamol as a drug for self-poisoning has increased dramatically since the early 1980s [1, 2]; nowadays almost 50 percent of episodes of self-poisoning presenting to hospital involve the ingestion of paracetamol or paracetamol-containing drugs [3-5]. 1It is estimated that about 70 000 episodes of paracetamol self-poisoning occur each year in Britain 6. Although serious morbidity and deaths are rare, [6, 7] these usually result from late presentation, which reduces the effectiveness of available antidotes [8, 9]. 2The epidemiology of paracetamol self-poisoning has not previously been described in detail in relation to recorded delays in presentation for treatment.

3We studied, retrospectively, all episodes of paracetamol self-poisoning occurring at either of the two acute hospital units in Nottingham during the first six months of 1996. These included patients seen only in the accident and emergency department, as well as those admitted for in-patient care.

4

References:1 Hawton, K, Fagg J. Trends in deliberate self poisoning and self injury in Oxford, 1976-90, BMJ 1992,3, 304: 1409-112 [ . . . ]

Your Thesis

Before writing anything, you need to be clear about the importance of your own work. This exercise is designed to help you to clarify why your research is being done.

Work with a partner. Take it in turns to talk through your answers to the following prompts:

1 Briefly, what is your research about?

2 Why is the work important?

3 In what way(s) is your work different from anything which has gone before?

Exercises to Help you Get Going:

Practising writing an Introduction

Conceptual Frameworks

Building Blocks of a Thesis

Conceptual Frameworks

…are mind maps of your research. They help you to set down all the components of the research project and then organise them into segments such as:

Hypothesis

Literature Review

Research Design

etc.

Mind Mapping

Task

Mind Mapping

Bullet point approach

• A more structural approach than freewriting

• Alternative to mind maps or can be used in conjunction with them

• Construct lists of priorities and bullet points to summarise main ideas

• Create lists then re-order according to logical sequence or order of importance

• Refer to Page 19 in the handout

Task

Bullet Points

Editing

• Editing is separate from “writing from scratch”

• Successful writing is a 2-stage process: write first, edit later

• Freewriting helps separate these stages

• Different objectives for each stage

Grammar/spelling

Structure

Content

Coherence

Expression/style

• Possible editors to help you?

• Remember – editors are not responsible for your mistakes!

Quick editing test

How many Fs?

Frozen foods are the result of years of scientific studies and the

refinement of refrigeration.

Getting into the writing habit

TASK: generate some prompts to help you write for 5 minutes each day

What could you write about on day 1? ... Day 2? ... Day 3?

PUBLICATIONPROCESS

Steps To Publication

1 Select topic

[2 Write to editor to ask if there would be interest in

topic]

3 Draft paper

4 Obtain comments from friendly colleagues/ ask advice about journals

[5 Give paper at conference and draw on comments]

6 Submit to journal

7 Preliminary assessment by editor

8 Acknowledgement sent

Steps To Publication Contd.

9 Paper sent to referees10 Referees submit comments11 Editors confer12 Editors send letter with 3 possible contents:

13 Do revisions14 Join publication queue15 Journal produces proofs16 Publication!

Accept paper with minor revisions

Please rewrite & resubmit

Reject

The Structure Of Academic Papers

(title)

(abstract)

Introduction

Description of previous work

Description of your work

Discussion

Summary and Conclusions

The Structure of Academic Papers

• (title)• (abstract)• Introduction• Description of previous work• Description of your work• Discussion• Summary and Conclusions

Personal Action Plan

List three key things you have learnt about writing skills:

1…………………………………………2…………………………………………3…………………………………………

How are you going to put these points into practise when you are writing?

1…………………………………………2…………………………………………3…………………………………………

What’s Next?

• Academic support www.nottingham.ac.uk/as

• CELE http://vsac.cele.nottingham.ac.uk

• Writing map

• Writing buddies?

• Writing workshops – run by Graduate School and AELSU (dates to follow)