How to write your seminar paper

1. How to write your seminar paper

2. What we’re going to look at • The Writing Process • What to aim for when you write • Writing at the Paragraph Level • Writing at the Document Level • Revision of the Paper • Some Tips on How to Write “Real Good”

3. The Writing Process (1) • What method do you use when you start to write? • The personal approach • Asking questions such as: • Why am I doing this? • What is the problem etc? • The list-maker's approach • Write an outline • Expand the outline • The "moonshine" method (involves distillation)

4. The Writing Process (2) • Writing always involves the following cycle • Write • Read • Discard some • Write again • Read • Discard some more etc. (5x, 10x, 20x YMMV)

5. Good Writing (1) • On good writing, Sir Peter Medawar wrote: • Brevity, • cogency (convincing reasoning) • and clarity • are the principal virtues and the greatest of these is clarity

6. What to aim for when you write (2) • People who write obscurely : • are either unskilled in writing • or up to some mischief

7. What to aim for when you write (3) • Some cultural differences between Finns writing in Finnish and Speakers of English writing in English • Native Speakers of English write English with a respect for a reader’s time • Native Finns write Finnish with a respect for a reader’s intelligence • Please write with respect for a reader’s time

8. Every paragraph you write should have the following features: It should only express one idea or theme It should start with a sentence which clearly states this idea It should be coherent It should contain variation The Paragraph Level (1)

9. Every paragrah should only express one idea or theme The main sentence of a paragraph is known as the topic sentence It usually comes first in the paragraph The topic sentence can be supported by other secondary sentences The Paragraph Level (2)

10. Every paragraph should be coherent Paragraphs should have ordered patterns, i. e: An enumerative pattern (first, second, etc) A chronological pattern (on the first day, on the second day etc) A spatial pattern A logical pattern A general-to-particular pattern Etc The Paragraph Level (3)

11. Every paragraph should contain variation You can achieve this by Varying the length and structure of your sentences Using the stronger active voice rather than the passive (more on this later) Putting the more important words at the beginning or end of the sentence The Paragraph Level (4)

12. The Paragraph Level (5) It is important to make smooth transitions between sentences in paragraphs To do this, use some of the following transitional words on the other hand in addition likewise then

13. An example of a good paragraph The Paragraph Level (6) The town's traffic problems are appalling. For a start/First/To begin with the town lies on a major commercial route. Second/Next/In addition, it generates its own rush-hour traffic. Moreover/Furthermore it is near enough to London to be caught by the capitals weekend traffic. Anyway/Besides/In any case the narrow streets were not built for today's cars and lorries. Thus/Altogether action is urgently needed. Topic sentence

14. The Document Level A paper usually has the following sections: Abstract Introduction (Materials and Methods) (Results) Discussion References

15. Revision of the Paper (1) When you check your completed paper: Revise for content Revise for clarity Revise for completeness Revise for conciseness

16. Revision of the Paper (2) Points you should look for when revising for content: Does every sentence say something? Are you too caution when you draw conclusions? It is quite usual to show uncertainty about some of your findings, but don’t overdo it! Look out for ambiguous sentences

17. Revision of the Paper (3) Points you should look for when revising for clarity: Does every sentence say what you want it to say? Usually, we know what we want to say, but may write it down in such a way that only we know what it means!!!

18. Revision of the Paper (4) Points you should look for when revising for completeness: Make sure that your every thought is complete Can any of your pronouns be confused as to what they refer to? Look out for sentences where the reader might have problems interpreting what you mean

19. Revision of the Paper (5) Points you should look for when revising for conciseness: Throw out phrases such as: It should be noted that It is interesting to note that Throw out unnecessary prepositions Do not overuse the passive

20. Revision of the Paper (6) Use of the passive voice: Writers should use the active voice when possible, because: The active voice gets you closer to your readers You use fewer words when you write using the passive

21. Revision of the Paper (7) Use of the passive voice: However, you may still use the passive for the following: To get more variety in your writing For situations where you don’t want to be identified as the culprit

22. Revision of the Paper (8) Beware of spell checkers: Look at this paragraph which would have gone through a spell checker unchanged, and remember to never depend totally on a spell checker! I rote a text witch I ran threw a spelling checker. Sins their where know mistakes in the hole paper, it must bee perfect. I sawed the fail on may computer and I can use it whenever I wont two shoe that I can right good English.

23. How to Write “Real Good” (1) Watch out for articles (a, an, the and Ø) This is hard because the rules for the use of articles in English are so difficult to formulate The situation is so bad that over the last ten years, there have been at least four Ph.D’s at the English Department of Helsinki University on the use of articles in English

24. Flow Chart for Articles

25. How to Write “Real Good” (2) Watch out for American and British Spelling Even though the Americans are taking over everything in the world these days, apart from making efficient voting machines The British still hold on to their way of spelling words So Use either one of the other forms in your thesis

26. How to Write “Real Good” (3) Bone up on the rules for the use of punctuation in English The English comma is particularly difficult to pin down We’ll now look at some punctuation marks and their uses

27. The comma Used between words in a series Used between phrases in a series Used between clauses in a series

28. The Semicolon (;) The semicolon is usually used in long complex sentences. It gives a longer period of rest than a comma, but a shorter rest than a full stop. It is used to separate clauses which could have been two sentences, but have a similar meaning and are of equal importance e.g. I saw him the other day in the broad light of day, he was almost as I had known all those years ago; although he was much fatter.

29. The Colon (:) This punctuation mark is used to signal something ahead rather than separating or stopping the reader. We use it: To introduce a list To introduce direct speech: He said: "I like it here.” To introduce an explanation, or some other aspect of the first part of a sentence e.g. I had three problems with it: with its size, its ability to cope, and its inventor.

30. The Dash (–) It is used to mark a pause, like a comma

31. The Hyphen (-) This is used when we form compound words such as a 7-year-old boy, or in numbers such as twenty-seven.

32. The Apostrophe (‘) To form plurals of expressions which usually don’t have plurals, such as the 1990’s, this can be also written as the 1990s To form plurals of numbers and letters, e.g., 2 s’s or 2 20’s make 40. To form the possessive case e.g., Seppo’s books

33. The Apostrophe (‘) (2) However note that possessive pronouns do not take an apostrophe, note the difference between the it’s and its in the following sentence. It’s (it is) commonly known that its colour is blue.

34. How to Write “Real Good” (4) Beware of typical Finnish errors in English, such as: “Shortly”, when the writer means “briefly” “On the other hand” and “on the other hand”

35. How to Write “Real Good” (5) Finally, pay no regard to that well known mathematician and cabaret artist, Tom Lehrer when he says in his song, Lobachevsky: I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lochevsky. In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:Plagiarize!

36. Happy Writing: “Real Good” Let’s now do a couple of exercises to start you off writing your papers. Donald Smart email: smart@cc.helsinki.fi

37. Which versus That Which is always used in a nonrestrictive relative clause (one that could be omitted without changing the meaning of the basic sentence): The most common examples of panel methods are the aerodynamic codes of Hess and Smith (ref. 26), which were originally developed for nonlifting surfaces. That is used in restrictive relative clauses (one that cannot be omitted without changing the meaning of the basic sentence): This is the house that Jack built.