3 Writing For Publications
Learning Objectives:
- Develop a literature review by presenting significant content, identifying the challenges in your area of study, recognizing disputed thinking, and identifying gaps
- Convey the significance of your work including what it is, why it should be undertaken, and how it will be carried out
- Recognize and apply different genre and disciplinary writing conventions (when to use past and present tense or active and passive voice)
- Prepare a publication using writing guidance for the major disciplines
- Compose a cover letter to an editor and identify how to respond to a reviewer’s comments
Part One – Video Lecture:
Part One – Video Lecture – Video Transcript
Quiz One:
Technical Communication Tips: Literature Review
Recommended Exercise:
Before advancing to Part 2, try the following exercises.
- Pick one of your favourite research papers from literature in your discipline. Using “Google Scholar” and “Connected Papers” identify this paper as a landmark paper, or a paper specific to your sub-field, closely related to what you do.
- Using that same paper, find:
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- Which of the references cited within has been most highly cited (cited the most number of times in papers) by others?
- A more recent paper which cites the paper you originally chose.
Part Two – Video Lecture:
Part Two – Video Lecture Transcript
Quiz Two:
Part Two – Recommended Exercise:
Before advancing to the next module, try the following exercise.
Many Masters and Ph.D. students at your university have chosen to share their work online to make it accessible to a wider audience. Find, select, and download a Masters and a Ph.D. thesis, preferably from your field of interest/research and try critiquing each thesis using the criteria presented in the module. In particular, focus on the argument given for the purpose of the research/study of the thesis. A trivial purpose of a thesis is always clear – to fulfill the requirement of the graduate programme. But you should critique if the thesis presents a good case for the research/study. Is it convincing? Play devil’s advocate – how well do the thesis’ arguments hold up? Is numeric or quantitative data presented in a way that informs you? Are any included graphs/diagrams effective, informative and easy to understand? Finally, examine the conclusions – have they completed their argument or just summarized the findings of others? What can you learn from the successes and shortcomings of other student papers?
