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Advanced Academic Writing 4 th lecture

Learn how to write abstracts and papers that effectively communicate your research to a broad audience. This lecture covers the importance of abstracts, how to write an abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and acknowledgments.

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Advanced Academic Writing 4 th lecture

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  1. Graduate school of Engineering Wide Lecture 3799-027 Advanced Academic Writing 4th lecture 5th period 16:50-18:35, Wednesdays Eng. 2nd bldg. Room 211 KumikoMorimura, Ph. D Global Ware Project Global Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, The University of Tokyo morimura@t-adm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

  2. Recap • Abstract • Introduction • Body Materials and Methods Experimental Procedures Results (Charts, Graphs, and Tables) Advanced Academic Writing 4

  3. Why you write an abstract Conference paper Journal paper freely accessible your reader quickly judge your reader see the big picture • You may be asked to present your research • The audience may read your title and abstract to decide • The abstract may remain in online databases PR For your paper Advanced Academic Writing 4

  4. How to write an abstract • Make sure a broad audience can understand your abstract without having the paper. • Read the “Instructions for Authors” or “Author Guidelines” of the journal or conference. • Objective & Background • What you did (method, result, discussion) • Conclusion & Future plan Advanced Academic Writing 4

  5. Introduction Objective & background 10% Earlier studies, the studies covered 50% What’s lacking, what’s needed more 20% Roadmap, introduction of your study 20% Do not repeat what is written in the abstract Advanced Academic Writing 4

  6. Review Paper for Journal of the Royal Society Interface Two decades of studying non-covalent biomolecular assemblies by means of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is a recognized approach for characterizing proteins and the complexes they assemble into. This application of a long-established physicochemical tool to the frontiers of structural biology has stemmed from experiments performed in the early 1990s. While initial studies focused on the elucidation of stoichiometry by means of simple mass determination, developments in MS technology and methodology now allow researchers to address questions of shape, inter-subunit connectivity and protein dynamics. Here, we chart the remarkable rise of MS and its application to biomolecular complexes over the two decades. Advanced Academic Writing 4 化学量論

  7. Body People should understand everything about your experiment by reading the paper. Mention the result occurred on this condition. Degree of accuracy of data and errors. Either tables or graphs can be used on a data. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  8. Materials and Methods • Name all the materials used in the experiment • Follow the procedure and write it • Write so as to be reproducible for anybody • Note all the chemicals (medicine) or device (apparatus) you used in the experiment • No brand name • Write the details briefly Advanced Academic Writing 4

  9. Results vs. Discussion Keeping hard facts and personal interpretations separated is very important in academia! Results: (What you did and)what the results were Discussion: What the results mean Advanced Academic Writing 4

  10. Conclusion Conclusion Restate the thesis statement Itemize the results Write the most important result Summary, evaluation, opinions, Final statement Mention what you should do next Advanced Academic Writing 4

  11. Acknowledgments • Appreciation for the instruction or the support related to the paper • Write apparently on what you appreciate • Do not exaggerate the fact • Do not make mistakes in writing proper names • If you acknowledge individual, ask his/her permission to put his/her name Advanced Academic Writing 4

  12. Acknowledgments • This research was supported by the Institute of Genomics Innovation. • We are grateful to Prof. Hara for his advice and suggestion on the experiments, • We thank Ms. Ito for her experimental assistance. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  13. We would like to thank …for …. • We appreciate the help received from … with the mass analysis. • The authors gratefully acknowledge… for … • The author is indebted to … for … • The authors are sincerely grateful to … for … • The authors thank … for … Advanced Academic Writing 4

  14. Let’s write an acknowledgement • Mention someone’s name whom you thank • Mention the fact he/she did for you Advanced Academic Writing 4

  15. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  16. Example list of references(Alphabetical for Harvard style) Fisher, R., Ury, W. and Patton, B. (1991) Getting to yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in, 2nd edition, London: Century Business. Hart, G., Albrecht, M., Bull, R. and Marshall, L. (1992) “Peer consultation: A professional development opportunity for nurses employed in rural settings”, Infront Outback – Conference Proceedings, Australian Rural Health Conference, Toowoomba, pp. 143 – 148. Phillips, J. (1999a). “Some paper title” Journal of Something, Vol. X, Nr. Y, pp. 8–28 Phillips, J. (1999b). “Follow-up paper on something” Journal of Something, Vol. X, Nr. Z, pp. 44–61

  17. Harvard system(Parentheticalreferencing) Phillips (1999a) found that … … which was later confirmed by a second experiment (Phillips, 1999b) Fisher, Ury and Patton (1991: 37) suggest that … Hart et al. (1992) state that … Advanced Academic Writing 4

  18. Example list of references(Order of appearance for Numerical style ) [1] J. Phillips, “Some paper title” Journal of Something, Vol. X, Nr. Y, 1999, pp. 8–28 [2] J. Phillips, “Follow-up paper on something” Journal of Something, Vol. X, Nr. Z, 1999, pp. 44–61 [3] R. Fisher, W. Ury, and B. Patton, Getting to yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in, 2nd edition, London: Century Business, 1991. [4] G. Hart, M. Albrecht, R. Bull, and L. Marshall, “Peer consultation: A professional development opportunity for nurses employed in rural settings”, Infront Outback – Conference Proceedings, Australian Rural Health Conference, Toowoomba, 1992, pp. 143 – 148.

  19. Numbering system(More common in Engineering) Phillips [1] found that … … which was later confirmed by a second experiment [2]. Recent studies [3] suggest that … Some researchers [4] believe that … Advanced Academic Writing 4

  20. Let’s discuss verbs, tense, and vocabulary used in the real journal paper. Searchforproton decay via In Super-Kamiokande Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ PHYSICAL REVIEW D 86, 012006 (2012) Advanced Academic Writing 4

  21. Exercise • Particular style? • Read the “Abstract (summary)” and “Introduction”. • Scan the paper for verbs • Group the verbs according to their meaning • Compare the styles of “Results” and “Discussion” Time: ca. 20 minutes Advanced Academic Writing 4

  22. Drill Advanced Academic Writing 4

  23. Verb Editing First draft - many short, simple sentences - simple verbs (to be, get, have, use, see, find out) • Simple verbs accurate verbs • beoccur, exist, appear, observe • getobtain, receive, earn, become, start to be, cause, reach, understand • Look up the meaning in an English-English dictionary http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ Webster’s College Dictionary, 4th edition Advanced Academic Writing 4

  24. What’s the difference? • Observe vs Acquire vs Gain • Indicate vs Illustrate • Assess vs Evaluate • Observe vs Watch Advanced Academic Writing 4

  25. Tense • In this study (work, study, research), we used  Past tense Our study examined…. We tried to determine…. • In this paper (paper, article, report), … is extended • Present tense This paper investigates … This article describes ……. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  26. Tense (1) Present tense • Established (general) knowledge “Differentiated cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state by transfer of nuclear contents unto oocytes or by fusion with embryonic stem (ES) cells.” • Research goal/summary “Here, we demonstrate induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic or adult fibroblasts by inducing four factors, …” • Hypothesis “…based on our hypothesis that such factors also play pivotal roles in the maintenance of ES cell identity…” • Figures and tables Figure 1 shows/illustrates… Table 2 summarizes the errors for each run period… Advanced Academic Writing 4

  27. Tense (2) Past tense • Specific findings (literature review) Scott proved that… • Current research description “We selected 24 genes as candidates for factors that induce pluripotency in somatic cells…” Advanced Academic Writing 4

  28. Tense (3) Present perfect tense • Previous research whose results are already known to be true or discussion is in progress. Studies have suggested that… • Discussing previous results without direct reference to the paper (usually put in brackets) “Several genes that are frequently upregulated in tumors, such as Stat3 (Matsuda et al., 1999; Niwa et al., 1998), E-Ras (Takahashi et al., 2003), c-myc (Cartwright et al., 2005), Klf4 (Li et al., 2005), and b-catenin (Kielman et al., 2002; Sato et al., 2004), have been shown to contribute to the long-term maintenance of the ES cell phenotype and the rapid proliferation of ES cells in culture.” Advanced Academic Writing 4

  29. Voice (態) Active 1st person: We carried out an experiment 2nd person: You carried out an experiment 3rd person: The authors carried out an experiment Passive An experiment was carried out (…by the authors? …by other researchers?) Formal Advanced Academic Writing 4

  30. Vocabulary used in the “Discussion” Degrees of uncertainty • ... may/might … • … suggests that … / It is likely that … • The previous analysis only consider the channel while the present work accounts for the entire channel including … • …. has resulted in ….. • …. is improved over the previous works………Most of this improvement is derived from …… • The result is slightly worse than the previous analysis, • The new result represents an improvement to the analysis. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  31. Vocabulary used in the “Discussion” Unexpected outcomes • Surprisingly, … • There is no significant excess of proton decay … Raising new hypotheses / explanations • This result gives further constraints on relevant … • This could be explained by … Advanced Academic Writing 4

  32. Vocabulary used in the “Discussion” Implications, future work • Our findings may have wide applications … • …, which may eventually …. • Further studies will be required to …More detailed analysis will … • We still do not know … • One question that remains … • Another unsolved question is … Advanced Academic Writing 4

  33. Modal verb • opinion, possibility may, might, can, could, would, will (<) • opinion Should, ought to, must, have to may not, might not, shouldn't, wouldn't can‘t, won’t, impossible (<) Advanced Academic Writing 4

  34. transitions • In short, Thus, In conclusion, In summary, Therefore, To conclude, To summarize, and also, Furthermore, another, In addition, Moreover, In fact, That is, As a matter of fact, For instance, To illustrate, such as, In contrast, however, On the other hand, Because, since, For this reason, therefore, as a result, consequently, First, Second, First of all, Last, after, After that, Advanced Academic Writing 4

  35. Before, Next, More important, One way, Another way, most important, Similarly, Also, Likewise, both…and, alike, the same as, although, while, differ from, though, whereas, more than, although, instead of, except, in spite of, even though, yet, otherwise, unless, still, while, generally, in general, as a general rule, obviously, naturally, certainly, unquestionably, admittedly, of course, even now, surely, Advanced Academic Writing 4

  36. Peer review Advanced Academic Writing 4

  37. Importance of Peer Review • By the peer review, you will realize writing has something to do with colleagues • There are readers of something written • Recognize what is needed by peer review and checklist • It is effective to know how the colleagues write about the thing • Feedback • Rewrite Peer review is not for criticizing, but for making your writings better. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  38. Peer review check sheet Advanced Academic Writing 4

  39. How can we improve our writings? Advanced Academic Writing 4

  40. Revising and Rewriting • Add more details, examples, explanations, • Reorganize (if needed) • Improve paragraphing • Change words • Think of sentence structure • Correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar Advanced Academic Writing 4

  41. Rules • Argument should run as a logical sequence. • No essential steps should be left unwritten. • Be as precise, unambiguous, and explicit as you can. • Don’t hesitate to state your conclusions boldly and definitely. Advanced Academic Writing 4

  42. Some famous books about writing style & punctuation But… ALWAYSrefer to the guidelines for authors of your journal! Advanced Academic Writing 4

  43. ProficiencyTest • Nov.4th(Next week) • 16:50-18:35 (Bepunctual) • Room 213 (a huge auditorium in front of this room) • If you cannot take this test next Wednesday, let us know. We will arrange the test date for you. Advanced Academic Writing 4

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