Specific Applications Theses and Journal Articles

1. Specific ApplicationsTheses and Journal Articles Part III

2. Theses and Journal Articles • Differ from other forms of technical writers in that they are typically written for a much narrower audience: specialists in the field. • The audience share assumptions, knowledge, and background and have the need and interest to read CAREFULLY. • Thus, no need for for features provided primarily for non-experts, such as Foreword and Summary sections. In depth technical discussion is encouraged.

3. Theses • Theses and Thesis? • Thesis and dissertation? • For example of style and format at the University of Washington, visit: http://www.grad.washington.edu/stsv/00stylman.htm • Style and format is different from one university to another. • A thesis is written for a committee of experts who know the field, you must convince them that you know the field as well. • You must show your committee that your topic represents an original contribution to knowledge. • Contribution in a master’s is different than a Ph. D. How?

4. Thesis structure You provide an Abstract, which is usually less than 200 words and serves as a: • “Screening Device” to give readers an idea of what the whole document is about, so that they can decide whether or not they want to read the whole document. • “Stand Alone Text”. Keep in mind that if the Abstract gets separated from the document, it should still represent it. Researchers can use it to search for a topic or for future consideration. • “Preview” in case the reader continues and read the whole document. It frames the document and prepares the reader for the main points to come.

5. 4. “Indexing”, indexers often depend on abstracts to help identify key words and phrases for cross indexing. • Four moves are recommended in an experimental research article: • Background information • Brief idea of the specific topic and methodology • Major findings • Conclusion Examples: see my paper “.pdf” format on the web, and the example given in lecture about “The Use of Plaster Casts….”

6. Usually, abstracts are written “after the fact”, how? • “Promissory Abstract”, cases in which abstracts are written before the paper is written or before the work is done. In this case do not overstate the material that you will ultimately present. In the Introduction you introduce the problem and narrow down the scope of work. • Having identified an issue, you describe your research design in a “Problem Statement”, which should have been approved by your committee long before you start writing. • You must demonstrate familiarity with all the current knowledge related to your topic and you must identify an interesting issue within that body of knowledge.

7. You do that in the literature Review. It must be extensive, begins at a general level and narrow down to a very specific one. You then describe your research, several chapters. You describe the methods and justify their use. • You describe your research in A very detailed fashion so that your committee can make sure that you left nothing out. • Do not copy the style of a journal article, do not assume that the reader will “fill in” unstated steps.

8. After describing the results of your research, you discuss them in a long Concluding Section. • Do not try to skimp on this part. • This section is a “mirror image” of the Introduction. You broaden the scope of work here that you narrowed down in the Introduction. • Emphasize the importance of your work, relate the findings to the problem statement given in the introduction. • Finally, you should acknowledge any shortcomings in your research, not doing so, might jeopardize your credibility. “here, professing weakness is actually a strength”.

9. Recommendations • Avoid wordy paragraphs, use the least amount of words to describe what you want. Avoid repetition of a meaning. • Avoid broken sentences when you can. Tie the sentences with: on the other hand, nevertheless, .. • Ask yourself if you need to give examples to clear a claim. Example: talking about five remote sensing methods, then: Combinations of them have been used in the past and ideally new combinations will improve data collection. That claim needs an example. • Check if your claims are clear, would the reader ask: of what? How? After s/he reads a sentence. For example: “Natural resource regulatory requirements and management needs place increasing importance on environmental monitoring. “of what?”

10. Use scientific and precise words. Avoid words such as “better”, if you say “important” justify it. For example: “Purpose of Study – To develop a better and more cost effective method.” “what is better?”. Another example: Models “of what?” are much better (use more precise language, what does better mean in this context?) if developed with reliable and detailed data. • Do not lose the reader through the paragraph, first give a general statement to prepare her/him, them elaborate. For example: “Various levels of data detail are required to address environmental monitoring and management requirements.” - Avoid very long sentences and very long paragraphs.

11. Journal Articles • Select the appropriate journal, the most common reason for rejecting an article is that the subject is not suitable for the journal. The table to the right shows the most common reasons for rejecting articles.

12. Most common mistakes • Rambling: confused, tedious, wordy,.. • Do not show problem or significant of the result. • Failure to make a case. • Failure to cite previous work. • Too long-overlay detailed information. • Poor graphics. • No mention of uncertainties. • Technical errors • Failure to follow journal guidelines. Read them carefully and check other issues. They vary even within the same field.

13. General Remarks • Journal articles must be “original” and genuine contribution to knowledge. They should be new and different. • The results should be somewhat new or unexpected. Should be unexpected? • Specialist readers do not read the article from start to finish, they look immediately for the results. • To accommodate that, you “foreground” the main results by: • Using a title that states or implies the major findings • Stating the major findings in an informative abstract. • Citing a key visual aid early in your article. • Use informative section headings when possible

14. Article Structure The following are the most common items of an article, other items may be present according to your application • The abstract, covered earlier. • The Introduction: to define the problem and describe its importance. Swale recommended four moves: • Establishing the field • Summarizing previous research • Preparing for present research by indicating a gap and/or raising questions. • Introducing present research See the attached example

15. 3. Methodology: • It establishes the validity of the results. • It Demonstrates that you have done everything the right way, made no technical errors, and used acceptable method • It provides the mechanism by which your work can be verified and repeated.It must contain sufficient details to allow the reproduction of your results, exactly. • To establish the above, you must • Identify exactly what materials you used. • Identify any special conditions, temp. light, moisture,.. • Identify any special selection criteria. Why this type of pipes or soil?

16. Identify the specific method you used. You can reference a standard procedure, but must fully describe a new procedure. • Justify, when necessary, your choice of criteria, material, method, or conditions. 4. Discussion • It explains the implications of your results, it explains why your work is important and how it contributes to the field. • If you can, show that your work disproves some hypothesis or supports another: “Hypothesis A predicted that I would find B, but I did not. This result questions the validity of Hypothesis A or indicates its inadequacy.”

17. In arguing that your work is important, consider answering the following questions: • Were your results expected? If not, why not? • Do your result contradict or support other research results? • Do your result contradict or support existing theory? • Do your results suggest that modifications or extensions be made to existing theory? What are they? • Could your result lead to any practical applications? What are they? • Do your result suggest other observations or experiments which could be done to confirm or extend them?

18. Results • Presents the major generalization(s) you are making about your data • Presents in compact form the data supporting the generalization. Consider the attached example of part of a results section. Observe the relationship between the generalization and supporting data. • Conclusion??