SCHOLASTIC WRITING

Dipendra Gautam (dipendra01@tcioe.edu.np)

Associated Faculty
Institute of Engineering, Thapathali Campus (MS Eq. program)
"MY AIM IS TO PUT DOWN ON PAPER WHAT I SEE AND
WHAT I FEEL IN THE BEST AND SIMPLEST WAY."
- E. HEMINGWAY

“PUBLISH OR PERISH”!!!
 WRITING FOR RESEARCH
 Without dissemination, research remains [virtually] imagination!
 People often ask: Are you paid once your get published?
 Basiccomponents of a research paper: Title, Abstract, Keywords,
Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and discussion, Conclusion,
Acknowledgement, References
 SOME PICKS AND PERKS
 Manuscript Language:
Question: Do publishers correct manuscript language? Ans: NO!!!

Manuscript language: Tenses:

- Accurate - Present: Facts and hypotheses
- Concise - Past: Experiments/works done
- Clear - BUT: do not change tenses within a paragraph (One para,
- Objective one idea!)

Grammar:
- Use active rathe than passive!
- SCIENCE is gender neutral though!: - The author concluded that …
- BUT NOT: S/he concluded that…
- Write 12-17 words sentences!
- Standalone sentences are preferable rather than sentences messed up with conjunctions.
- Avoid contractions: don’t, can’t rather use do not, cannot!
- Science is mediocre, do not mess science with extreme forms of words!
- Use negative sentences positively: e.g. rather than ‘it is unimportant to note…’ use ‘it is not important to
note…’
 SOME PICKS AND PERKS

Grammar:
- Redundancy is not pleasant (unpleasant!?) in scholastic writing: rather than ‘due to the fact that’ use
‘because’ or ‘since’, ‘in order to determine’ use ‘to determine’
- Keep sibling sentences together
- Order matters: e.g. rather than ‘The results showed that there is positive correlation based on the
experiment’ use ‘Based on the experiment, the results showed that there is positive correlation.’
- Writing a para: Start with topical sentence (the center of gravity) and end conforming the topical
sentence.
- Do not break ideas and do not provide guest appearances timely!
- Check if your paper is riverine or not!
- ‘This’ unqualified: Do not use ‘This is the most important finding of the study’, what does this ‘this’
mean? So sentences should be objective! No subjective phrases: ‘high resolution’, ‘new finding’,
‘latest finding’!
- Do not use expressions of your belief: e.g. ‘We believe that the buildings are resilient.’
- Do not show your emotions in writing! e.g. ‘The respondents were delighted to answer the queries’
- No loose sentences and back to back adverbs: e.g. the survey was conducted quickly and cheaply.
Rather use: We conducted 100 surveys in 10 days. There is nothing to show in quick and cheap
aspects. Researching is not cinema going, datum seldom work when replicating!
 THE TITLE

- Short, concise, and when possible a catchy one! Readers would be lured!
- Always thing about your readers.
- Not more than three lines. e.g.
 ABSTRACT

- Concise summary of key aims and results

- If your abstract does not seduces the reader, they would not go down!
- 2-3 lines: motivation/background
- 2-3 lines: objectives
- 2-3 lines: methods
- 2-3 lines: results and key message
- Avoid using passive forms! Do not hesitate to use, “We conclude….”
- In total: 100-200 words!
- Tense: Simple past!
 KEYWORDS

- 3-5 or more if necessary!

- Are the buzz words and have the strength to show your article if someone searches!
- No more than three words keywords: e.g. ‘basic ethics in writing research’ cannot be a key word.
 INTRODUCTION

- The introduction should lay the ground-work for why the paper is worth
reading, and
describe where the work fits within the existing literature.
- Introduce the novel elements of the paper in the introduction, thus
providing motivation
for the reader to penetrate the main text.
- Do not over-burden the reader by making the introduction too long. Get
to the key parts of
the paper sooner rather than later.
- Can be three paras: - Background –Literature review and problem
statement –Objectives
- Tense: Mostly present; for literature review: past is okay!
 MATERIALS AND METHODS

- How was the work done should be written thoroughly.

- It should be clear enough to replicate by other researchers: meaning, if
the process is repeated by other researchers, same results should be
obtained from same data/setup.
- Use flow charts when appropriate
- Tense: Simple past: rather than ‘the test was done’ use ‘we tested five
samples’..
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

- What is obtained from what setting? Pictures, graphs, tables, and so on

should be placed.
- Tense: Simple past!
- Discussion: Present tense!
- Connect yours with existing!
- Show how your work is novel and unique but has gotten values
- Put your findings into context.
 CONCLUSION

- Readers need to know what they have read and why it was significant.
- Remind the reader why this paper was worth reading and publishing.
- Concluding sections also provide a venue to set the stage for future
research directions.
- Relate back to introduction, and the hypothesis
- Summary of evidence supporting each conclusion
- Implications and significance of your research
- Write the limitations and future avenues (if you are continuing) too
- Tense: Present!
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

- Give credits to the ones who deserve

- Acknowledge funding support if any
- Also acknowledge the reviewers as they are doing the reviewing job free
of cost just for the sake of SCIENCE!
- But do not be emotional, e.g. your boyfriend wants his name
there…hmm.. That’s not fair!
 THE WRITING ORDER

1. Prepare figures, tables, graphs and write RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2. Materials and methods
3. Conclusion
4. Introduction
5. Abstract
6. Keywords
7. Title
Use Mendeley so that you do not need to worry about referencing!
WHAT THE PROS SAY TO YOU?
 TIME TO THINK

1. Publishing ethics: check the journal websites

2. Always read guide for authors available in journal homepage
3. Plagiarism!?
4. You are allowed to adopt/extract but copyright issue may be there! Think
before using.
5. Prepare a draft, let that incubate for some days, get back to the
manuscript again, you will literally serve as an editor yourself!
6. Do not hurry to write and publish. You just need perseverance though!
7. If you cannot address all the issues, be frank and tell the truth! Hiding truth
is suspicious.
8. Do not submit simultaneously in several journals! That is malpractice!
9. Use the SIMPLEST possible form of language, no jargons, no voluminous
words!
 TIME TO THINK
10. What is take away message of your paper is important!
11. Honestly deal with the mistakes! Do not be over smart, reviewers are
super humans.
12. No slicing, no self plagiarism too!
13. Do not show your love in research garden! Unethical is that! No gift and
guest authorships!
14. Do not try to manipulate and teach reviewers even though they may be
wrong! Appreciate them and defend yourself proactively!
15. Believe that journals need you, not you need the journal in any cost!!!
16. FINALLY: Failure is obvious, love failure than raw success! There are
thousand others options and believe in Japanese proverb: fall seven times
and rise at the eighth!
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE QUALITY WRITING: REVIEWERS WOULD SAY I DO NOT LIKE
THE MANUSCRIPT LANGUAGE SO I SUGGEST REJECTION! How bitter would be
this, just think!
 SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH CAREER
- Timely publishing
- Read 100 before writing
- Review others’ papers as well (this is our religion!)
- Do not be biased when researching! Trash the egos before joining this
marvelous field.
- This is novel work, just think: your great granddaughter may read your
paper and think of you! So, work in improvement of science!
- Researching is beyond the degrees too!
 DO NOT RUSH, ALWAYS FIND A RIGHT
JOURNAL AND HAVE PASSION

- Good journals take time to review

- Do not lose passion (raw publication is worse than no publication)
- Find indexed journals: https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php
THANK YOU!!!