Scholarly writing and publishing Seminar

1. Scholarly writing and publishing Seminar Dr. Ada Peter, Director International office and linkages, Covenant University

2. The field Notwithstandingpersuasion is at the center of research writing

3. Different disciplines, of course, work on research problems • Though there are exceptions, but researchers in the natural sciences

4. natural sciences Problems that readers already know about (or that obviously emerge from a line of established research).

5. Humanities Often invent research problems that are novel to readers, with new and unexpected consequences and significance.

6. social scientists

7. Problems! Problems! Problems! Makes or breaks a student research project: the quality of the problem that the writer poses. Students with good questions • Find more useful sources • Read more thoughtfully, and make better decisions in planning and drafting their papers

8. Problems! Students with not even a question to • Answer, much less a good problem to solve, are more likely to wander, • To pursue dead ends, to write for themselves rather than for their readers

9. Before we continue… • Identify a project you are currently working on or plan to work on. • It will be much easier and productive to relate to the remaining parts of this workshop • What kind of question are trying to answer?

10. questions and how experienced researchers think

11. Three kinds of questions

12. Conceptual questions: Attempts to explain things

13. Conceptual questions:

14. PRACTICAL QUESTIONS • It is practical when your answer to your so what? • Tells readers what to do to change or fix some trouble some or at least improvable situations • E.g. I am working …… • So I can find out factors…….. (so what if you do?) • Then I can tell the Government how to counteract those factors when……..

15. Applied Questions • What we must understand before we know what to do. • This middle kind of question, raises a question whose answer is not a solution to a practical problem but only a step toward it • So what if you do: then we can understand specific factors that cause……

16. BUT For every beginner: What in the world ?

17. SIGNIFICANCE

18. Elements of Good writing (Harvey) (field notwithstanding) • Thesis • Motive • Evidence • Analysis • Stitching • Structure • Style • Title • Key terms • Reflections • Sources • Orienting

19. MoTive

20. Motive

21. Thesis

22. analysis

23. analysis

24. Reflections

25. Reflections

26. Reflections

27. Evidence

28. Sources • Persons or documents, referred to, summarized, or quoted, that help a writer demonstrate the truth of his or her argument. • They are typically sources of • (a) factual information or data, • (b) opinions or interpretation on your topic, • (c) comparable versions of the thing you are discussing, or • (d) applicable general concepts

29. Stitching/Paragraphs

30. Orienting • Bits of information, explanation, and summary that orient the reader who isn’t expert in the subject, enabling such a reader to follow the argument

31. Structure

32. Style • The choices you make of words and sentence structure

33. Title/Key terms

34. The paper • Stable context: Unchanging facts/problem…. For many years… • Status Quo: common but incorrect assumptions…. At first glance • Destabilizing Moment: Describe something that shows the status quo to incomplete .. Fails to take into account • Consequences: Why should the reader care • Resolution: State you claim; provide a better explanation

35. But at the end

36. Just in case you ever need help! An organized Writing support group

37. Best wishes Ada Peter, PhD.