Editing - the ultimate writing makeover

Makeovers can offer good value!

Everyone has seen programs on TV and articles in magazines where ordinary people improve themselves by changing their looks, their bodies, and sometimes their total appearance. You see young singers made over if you watch Idol where see awkward ugly ducklings are transformed into pop stars.

When you draft an assignment it could be fairly ordinary until you give it a makeover with your editing and proof-reading.

Keep in mind that a good makeover takes time and effort.

If possible:

• Take a break between writing and editing. This allows you to re-examine it as an editor rather than a writer.



• Read your paper at least a couple of times: separate reading for meaning from your proof-reading for expression, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Proof-reading needs to be done sentence by sentence.



• Note: spell-checkers don’t pick up incorrect words or homonyms e.g. ewe for you.



• Ensure your headings and text match.



• In your text refer to tables and figures and ensure all tables and figures are correctly labelled



• Schedule referencing time. If you have a lot of sources you may need several hours to ensure every in-text reference is correct and has a corresponding acknowledgement in the Reference List.



• Don’t mix and match referencing styles. You can’t simply copy and paste citations from other sources. You’ll need to adjust every one to the required style. See the Referencing Guide



• Attend to presentation features like matching headings and sub-headings



• Find a critical friend, someone who understands the content area to see if they understand what you have written. Ask them to point out any sections which confuse them but also ask them to avoid correcting the text. That’s your job.



• Meeting the deadline is part of the task so make sure you know how and where to submit to ensure you meet the requirements.

Here's an editing resource developed by learning advisers to help you on your way to a writing makeover.

Your assignment makeover will help your reader see the quality of your learning. Then work done, you can enjoy your holidays.

Best of luck

Helen

Students of distinction

Thanks to those of you who voted on our poll. We are keen to 'open the floor', as it were, to our fellow lecturers who are immersed in papers (your papers!) as we speak. As Learning Advisers, we see some students who want to take their work up to the next notch of excellence. Some students have studied in another country and find the strategies used at home don't seem to work as well in Oz. Others have come from secondary school and have a similar experience.

Is there a magic ingredient to writing a distinction level paper? If you are already a good student, what does it take to shift to the next grade? How can students get extra marks in exams?

Share your thoughts with us by posting a comment.

Helen and Andrea

Clear and concise writing

It is an unfortunate misconception that writing academically means writing long winded sentences (I know, I fell for this one when I first started Uni).

Simplicity, clarity and cohesive writing is almost always rewarded by lecturers who often have to wade through papers (and might I add, academic journal articles) which do not always follow principles of clear and lucid written communication. Before I post some resources, here are a few pointers which Learning Advisers pass on. These pointers apply to ALL types of writing, not just SCIENTIFIC writing.

• Use short sentences. I have read sentences which go for a paragraph. You will lose your reader.


• Remember structure in writing. I have learnt a great deal about this from my engineering colleagues who have this down to a fine art. Never underestimate the humble 'Firstly, secondly and thirdly' as a way to introduce ideas.


• Make sure you then talk about your Firstly, secondly and thirdly in this order throughout your paper, report, proposal or thesis.


• Remember one idea per paragraph.


• Always explain your key terms. This means... An example of this is... A rule of thumb is to write for an intelligent audience. There will be a certain amount of specialist knowledge but lecturers are often testing your ability to explain key concepts.


• Read your work out loud. Everyone should do this. You will be surprised at how effective this is in assessing the clarity of your expression. (If you run out of breath after a sentence, you know it's too long!!!)

Here is a selection of resources. Some of these are very, very simple but highly prized by student and academic, alike.

• Linking words (I love this one)


• Paragraph writing


• Shorter sentences for better writing

Thanks to those of you who voted for this post. Please continue to cast your votes or post comments about areas of interest and we will post up some ideas and resources. Does anyone have another writing tip to share?

Yours in clarity!

Andrea

Typing and all things online

Thanks to Arnold for his query about how to improve typing skills. I've done some detective work on Google this morning and found some fun tools to explore around improving your typing.

I also would like to profile some of the resources at UniSA to demonstrate what support is available to hone your online skills. (You might be surprised at what is on offer!)

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Dance mat typing was developed by the BBC for children. It's lots of fun, but obviously orientated towards the kids.

This typing tutor requires quite a bit of clicking around but once you get the hang of it, it's quite good.

Typeonline.co.uk is the most intuitive tool I found in my searches this morning. I rather like this one.

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Within UniSA there are some other resources to hone your online skills. Learningfast is very popular. What I really like about this one is that you can learn functions as you need them like using graphs in Excel or heading styles in Word. There are some self-paced tutorials around most Office applications, including PowerPoint.

Software Help has a top ten tips approach and Online Learning has some general information aboout using online applications (such as discussion) at the University of South Australia.

Do post your suggestions, if you find any useful sites either within UniSA or from other organisations. Also feel free to appraise these resources - let us know how you find them.

Have fun.

Andrea

Tell us what you would like

Helen, Susanna and I very much enjoyed working with you during the Writing in the Sciences series this study period. We do regard our work in this area as continually unfolding and we will post new academic writing goodies as we encounter them.

Although the formal workshops are finished for 2007, please vote on our poll for any other areas you would like covered either in a blog post or in a workshop next year. Alternatively, you can post a comment below.

Andrea

Tony Buzan and Mind mapping

Thanks, Susanna, for pointing us to this one.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ

This is highly recommended - if not compulsory - YouTube viewing for science writers.

The credibility scale

Hi (again)

Some weeks ago, I posted the 'credibility quandry' in which you were asked to give a relative credability weighting to these sources:

Here are the answers (although, obviously it depends upon the context in which you are using them). Mostly people in our workshop agreed with these, but please feel free to debate by posting a comment. A bottom line: the stronger the source, the more credible and convincing your argument.

Andrea

A new mind mapping resource

Hi science writers

I just thought I'd post this resource from our colleagues in Research Education. There are some excellent references here to mind mapping and I know this is the big buzz at the moment.

Hope you're all well at this busy end of the year!

Andrea

Reading in the sciences

Helen’s five platinum rules when reading for academic purposes:

1. Select from recommended and respected academic or professional sources.

2. Know your purpose for reading a particular text now.

3. Know how the text works and use that knowledge to read more efficiently.

4. Record the key points from the text and your critical response to it.

5. Keep good records so that you don’t have to


a. reread

b. check the bibliographic details later.

Being a good reader doesn’t guarantee you know all you need to know about reading for specialised purposes. If you missed the session last week, watch out for the next advertised session on reading more effectively – early next year.

See these useful resources on reading:

· Reading critically and analytically

· Reading log

· Remembering your work

Helen

Workshop reminder

A quick reminder about the upcoming Writing in the Sciences workshops for this Friday, September 7 in GP 2-38

• 12.00pm - 1.00pm - Using technical and academic language to their best advantage in scientific writing
• 1.00pm - 2.00pm - Using sources and finding your critical voice in scientific writing

We look forward to seeing you at the workshops.

Helen and Andrea

Using sources with confidence

Today's session focused mainly on the credibility of sources in writing. My hot tips for extra marks in Writing in the sciences are:

• Know the club. There will always be a group of well established and recognised writers who publish frequently in your topic areas. (If you are writing at postgraduate level, get to know the Gurus so well that you know exactly where the source comes from without even checking!)
• Show breadth of research. Nothing puts a lecturer off more than a superficial reference list.
• Show clusters of agreement (Duff, 2006; Johnston, 2007 and Jones, 2005) and disagreement (Jones, 2005; Johnston, 2007 and Duff in Johnston, 2005 p. 7).
• Try to keep your sources as current as possible - particularly important for writing in the sciences and in engineering where things change so quickly.

We looked at the credibility of sources. Which of these is MOST credible and which of these is LEAST credible to use in an assignment? You can post a comment if you like and I'll post up the answers next week.

(Online version, because the print is pretty small)

This week's resources are:

• Levels of Understanding
• Reporting the ideas of others
• The Harvard Referencing Guide (online modules)

We didn't get through everything this week, so next week we will do some more in this area (specifically using sources to report ideas and paraphrasing).

Have a great weekend.

Andrea

Frameworks and foundations in writing

Hi readers

If there is one thing I have learned about writing from engineering students, it is how to structure it well with logic, order and cohesion. They know how to build a good piece of writing.

This week's Writing in the Sciences examined how structure in writing provides the predictability readers come to expect from a report, thesis, or research article.

Firstly, we explored the 'typical' sections of a piece of scientific writing - the thesis, report or research paper:

Secondly, we attempted this exercise (it's a little bit like that game you used to play at school , where you had to match the animal with its home). See if you can match the section with its properties.

Match the sections

Match the sections (colour coded) answers

Thirdly, we explored the various facets of the typical piece of scientific writing. For example:

Abstracts, Introductions and Conclusions

The literature review

'Connectors' for cohesive writing (this one has a five star ***** rating from me!)

Some important points about structure in scientific writing are:

• That the predictability of the sections assists the reader


• It should make wide use of numbered sections and sub sections


• Ordering can be chronological or in groups of ideas (thanks Ivan for this one)


• Each section should introduce the next


• Each section should (where possible) mirror the next. (For example, the abstract and introduction will 'talk' to each section in order of their appearance in the report.)

Next week we will run two sessions: Using sources and Getting the most out of journal articles.

Andrea

Hi readers

The mind mapping workshop generated a lot of interest and there was a very positive response from students. The highlight of the workshop for me was the attendance of 4 students who were using the technique successfully in completing their Mathematics Clinic 1 and 2. They discussed how they used mind mapping to quickly brainstorm their project, divide tasks and come up with solutions. The highlight of mind maps for them was the ease of use and the fact that their entire project could be seen at a single glance.

Mind maps can be used in every discipline limited only by the imagination of the user. They are great at simplifying tasks and breaking down problems into their component parts. They are also a great study and planning tool.

As well as using them in your university work they are also great for solving personal goals, and objectives, planning holidays and time management.

If you have any queries about applying or using mind maps in your work please contact me. Mind mapping is my special interest and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Susanna

Mind Map Presentation

To Google or not to Google - wise words from Wynton

Wynton Heading may be an Academic Librarian who knows his onions, but he is cautious about Googling his onions.

Using databases, the perils of relying too heavily on Google for research and some rather excellent nooks and crannies of the library website were discussed with aplomb by Wynton at the inaugural Writing in the Sciences workshop for this year, held last Friday.

For more than 15 years, Wynton has been up-close-and-personal with the databases and information systems at the University of South Australia as the intrepid Academic Librarian.

Wynton and the other Academic Librarians are required to keep tabs on the 20,000 electronic journals held at Mawson Lakes for Science and Engineering. It is important to note, that the library on this campus is privileged for its vast store of electronic journals, linking student and academic alike to a vast pool of cutting edge scientific research and debate.

Firstly Wynton took yours truly and a group of 8 Science writers through some information fundamentals. The starting blocks for research include understanding the principles of sources:

• primary (research data)



• secondary (books, journals, reports etc)



• tertiary (encyclopedias and reviews).

Once these are acknowledged as legitimate sources for finding information, he focused on the second and most often used area - the secondary source. Research data can be found published in a vast array of firstly books, secondly standards and patents and thirdly Journal articles.

Google was a 'contentious issue' for Wynton, when asked if there was a trend towards greater reliance on the mega-search engine Google Scholar - a recent addition to the Library web pages.

Wynton said 'Google is fine, but don't rely on it as your only source for research'.

'The capability of Google grows with each year but you still need to carefully evaluate the source of your information to make sure that it is credible', he said. For example, while Google Scholar provides some up-to-date links to journal articles both on the World Wide Web and in the UniSA library, it is difficult to get a full spectrum of articles. The best approach is to use a combination of Google Scholar and other library databases such as IEEE Explore.

Wynton's 'best pics and tips' for Science writers include:

• To scour the bibliographies in books for relevant journal articles


• McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of Science and Technology


• The Libraries Australia indexes (a five star rating, from Wynton)


• Emerald (mostly for business students but contains the creme de la creme of journal articles.


• IEEE Explore (which is absolutely huge)

Wynton's final musing was that 'information' is an over-used term and it is appropriate that it is linked with words like 'overload' and 'glut'. He explained that science writers should never reject anything, but should avoid relying on one area of search too much.

Friday, August 13: MIND MAPPING. This WILL change your approach to writing. REGISTER NOW!

Welcome to our blog

Hi students, staff and other blog devotees


This blog is for all aspiring scientific writers to explore some of the common writing issues in science.

The blog will join companion workshops, which will run through the remainder of Study Period 5 at the Mawson Lakes Campus of UniSA.

Some of the topics covered in the face-to-face workshops will include:

• Finding and Using Information (what ARE the best databases, anyway?)


• Mind-mapping (organising your ideas)


• Frameworks (what goes into an 'introduction' anyway?)


• Sources (how to use them to your best writing advantage)


• Journal articles (reading for meaning and efficiency)


• Technical and academic language


• Critical thinking


• Editing
  

And more...REGISTER NOW

So stay posted and please contribute to our writing community. We would like to hear from you about any workshop ideas you might have.

Andrea and Helen