Writing..

1. Writing.. • materialises ideas and results • academic writing: • exams • reports • assignments • dissertation/thesis “good ideas and works can only be materialised via good writing skills”

2. MSc Research Skills Module Faculty of Engineering and Computing Lecture Week 5: Writing and publishing research content Boon Kee Low

3. Writing beyond academy... • convince management about business ideas • survey, investment appraisal, technical reports and user manuals • advertising and marketing messages • curriculum vitae

4. The objectives of this lecture: • learning outcomes: • Understand the practical aspects of writing; • Write and present technical reports • Understand the importance of publishing research works • sections: • Writing the outline and the first draft • Focusing • Writing the common bits: abstract, introduction and conclusion • Publishing your research work

5. 1. Writing the outline • enable relevant elements of the document to be identified • expect to refine the outline throughout the project • typical sections for an outline: • Title, content page, glossary and acknowledgement; • Introduction, literature review and concept; • Research design and implementation; • Results and analysis; • Conclusion, recommendations and further works; • Appendix and references

6. 1. Writing the outline

7. 1. Writing the first draft • go for the sections you feel most at ease with: • literature review /background design/implementation analysis/results • abstract conclusion/recommendations introduction • Typical order of writing cycle • aim to get a quick flow of ideas on to the paper/word processor

8. 1. Writing the first draft • start writing early and frequently • 3 steps techniques for writing generate organise construct

9. 2. Focusing • focus on your readers • what knowledge do they have? • what can they understand the technical terminology? • put yourself in your readers shoe • focus on document quality • no spelling errors and grammatical sound • concise (short and ‘crisp’ sentences) • well structured (subheadings) • avoid ‘chatty’ expressions

10. 2. Focusing • focus on specification • quantitative: words/pages limits, presentation requirements • qualitative: scope - is the specific topic adequately covered? • REMEMBER: quantity is no substitute for quality.

11. 3. Writing the abstract • abstract • is the essence or the core of the document • enable the relevance of document (to the readers) to be determined • writing it means ‘REVEALING THE CORE’ • should contain 3 elements: • statement of the research scope and objective; • research method/algorithm used • major findings • use collective terms: ‘empirical studies’, ‘OPPS’ etc. • use the 3-step writing technique

12. 3. Writing the introduction • introduction • engage the reader for the rest of the text • give the ‘big picture’ • expanding the abstract (the core) and incorporating broader issues relevant to the work • avoid diving into theoretical and technical details

13. 3. Writing the introduction • introduction should contain: • background information: definitions, brief review of past research, application • objectives and hypothesis • proposed method • description of document content: e.g. ‘chapter X describes…, the next two chapters then focuses on….’ • reuse research proposal for writing introduction and abstract

14. 3. Writing the conclusion • conclusion • bring your main achievement into focus • a response to introduction with an emphasis (‘punchlines’) of your key results • should contain: • statements of accomplishment of research objectives: e.g. ‘The project has undertaken ‘Objective A, B, and then C etc..’ • a summary of key results: ‘How they fulfilled the objectives stated?’ • statements of limitations and further works

15. 4. Publishing your research • why publish? • easy to re-use and adapt existing work • 3 scope of interest: • research and developments: peer recognition, avoid ‘re-inventing the wheels’. • commercial interests: business plans/new software developments, relevant to technology transfer schemes • self interests: strengthen your employment potentials, extra income

16. 4. Publishing your research • academic means: • conference: 3/4 pages with some research originalities • refereed journal: normally 4000-7000 words, strictly reviewed by experts • commercial means: • trade magazines • competition, e.g: £300 for 1000 words research case studies (CIOB) • commission reports and £2000 for up to 7000 words review of a research topic (RICS)

17. 4. Publishing your research • electronic (WWW) publishing • the use of WWW is becoming widespread • hyperlinks and discussions group • the use of multimedia: software demonstration • online CV for ‘roaming’ employers • a special handout and online tutorials can be found on the Module website

18. Research Skills Module Website • additional information, links, examples, handouts, references http://www.sbe.napier.ac.uk/staff/bkeelow/student.htm