Writing is a lengthy process that differs from person to person. Some people start writing by freewriting, while others might prepare their writing structure beforehand. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to write. You can begin writing at any stage that fits you, nonetheless writing abilities entail more than just employing letters and numbers to construct a text; they also entail the writing process that will help you enhance your writing skill over time. To help you with your writing process, you can refer to the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading) adapted from Aliotta (2018) below. You can also refer to the Writing Process on the figure above to evaluate your writing journey.
The very first important step to write is reading to gather the literature review and organize it accordingly (Aliotta, 2018). Indeed, how would you write if you do not have enough information to begin your writing. Other ideas of pre-writing activities can be accessed through the following links.
After having abundant resources, drafting can be the next step in your writing process. Before actually writing a text, we can talk about our research with someone, get the structure of our text done, make a mind map, or do a freewriting directly (Aliotta, 2018). Drafting is not a perfect writing yet, thus, rather than focusing on getting your sentences correct, it is better to have clear thesis statements and content first (Langan,2008). Other stages of drafting activities can be accessed through the following links.
After writing your draft, it is important to check and revise what you have written. If you do not know where to start, you can do it based on the urgency level of your draft (Aliotta, 2018) and rewrite or develop more paragraphs (Langan.2008). Hence, you might find yourself going back and forth in this process. To help you with your revising process, here are some links and strategies that you can follow,
Editing and proofreading might be mistaken to be the same stages. However, different from proofreading, editing might still focus on the core of the writing. Some areas that can be edited such as style editing, grammar, redundant information, or negative statements (Aliotta,2018). On the other hand, proofreading may involves reference formatting, grammar, and spelling (Aliotta, 2018). Other proofreading activities such as checking tenses, punctuation, word ending, vocabulary, spelling, and word order (Bailey, 2015). Some links below can help you through your editing and proofreading stages:
If you need more resources to help you understand the writing process or find the writing process that suit you, consider to visit the following links:
Aliotta, Marialuisa. (2018). Mastering Academic Writing in the Sciences: A step by Step Guide. CRC Press.
Bailey, Stephen. (2015). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (4th ed). Routledge.
Langan, John. (2008). College Writing Skills with Readings (7th ed). Mc Graw Hill.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. September 8 , 2021.
An academic paper’s organizational structure is more than just a document format or a collection of ideas given under several headings (introduction, method, etc.). Organizational structure also organizes our ideas so that the flow of ideas is conveyed (Ahmady et.al, 2016). It is crucial to note that adhering to an academic paper’s organizational structure is one approach for assisting writers to present their thoughts to the readers easily.
Among many organizational structures, the IMRaD or IMRaD(C) (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussions, and Conclusions) format is the most widely applied one. Indeed, high-tier journals worldwide are found to adopt the IMRaD format for publication (Trinh et.al, 2020). However, you should be aware that there are several organizational structures format that you must follow based on the type of research that you undertake. Review articles, conceptual papers, or field studies are examples of those papers which do not follow IMRaD format.
An introduction begins mostly with a context or domain of the study. You might see many papers’ Introduction begin with the broad point of view first before coming to a more specific idea. Indeed, an introduction is written from the general or broad ideas to the most narrowed (Todorovic, 2003). The shape of an introduction is usually associated with an upside-down triangle because the writer’s idea is getting more and more specific to the aim of the study. Hoghberg (2019) also associates the structure of a paper as an hour glass structure (see the picture above). As you can see on the picture above, the introduction begins with the background of what we know, what problems can be found, and what solution or aim to address the problems. To help you check your introduction, refer to some Introduction elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from some resources below.
Introduction elements/rhetorical moves adapted from Todorovic (2003):
Introduction elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Nair & Nair (2014):
Method refers to a description of how a research is conducted. Method should cover all the things that the researcher does to collect data until how the data is analyzed. Method section should also cover necessary information so it can be repeated by future researchers who wish to do the same (Nair & Nair, 2014). The elements covered in the Method section are presented below.
Method elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Todorovic (2003):
Method elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Nair & Nair (2014):
Result section presents the data or findings of the study. It reflects the answer to the aims or questions we seek in the introduction. The result section should be written clearly and sufficiently because it is the essential part of a paper (Nair & Nair, 2014). To help you track your Result section, some elements adopted from Todorovic (2003) and Nair & Nair (2014) are provided below.
Result elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Todorovic (2003):
Result elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Nair & Nair (2014):
As the heading implies, this section talks about how the writers discuss their results or findings. It is usually considered as the most difficult section by many students who have done one-on-one consultation with us. You can refer to the elements presented in this page to help you differentiate the Result and Discussion section. In summary, the Discussion part delves deeper into your findings/results and what you may infer from those facts; it is not only about presenting the data as we normally do in the Result section.
Discussion Elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Todorovic (2003):
Discussion elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Nair & Nair (2014):
The conclusion of an academic paper usually refers back to what we have written previously. However, the Conclusion is not a repetition of the previous sections (Kurniawan et.al, 2019). To help you check your Conclusion, refer to the elements of Conclusion below.
Conclusion elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Todorovic (2003):
Conclusion elements/ rhetorical moves adopted from Nair & Nair (2014):
Ahmady, Gholam, Mehrpour, Maryam, Nikooravesh, & Aghdas. (2016). Organizational Structure. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 230. 10. 455-462. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.057.
Hochberg, M. (2019). An Editor’s Guide to Writing and Publishing in Science. Oxford University Press.
Kurniawan, B. A., Warsono, Sutopo, D., & Fitriati, W.S. (2019). The Implementation of Effective Method for Writing Research Articles. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 8(9). 1879-1883.
Nair, R.K.P, & Nair, D.V. (2014). Scientific Writing and Communication in Agriculture and Natural Resources. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-03101-9_2.
Todorovic, Ljubomir. (2003). Original (scientific) paper – the IMRAD layout. Archive of Oncology, 11(3). DOI:10.2298/AOO0303203T
Trinh, T.P.T., Tran, T., Nguyen T.T., Nghiem, T., Danh, N.N. (2020). Comparative Analysis of National and International Educational Science Articles in Vietnam: Evidence from the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion Structure. European Journal of Education, 9(3), 1367-1376. DOI: 10.12973/eu-jer.9.3.1367.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. August 1, 2021.
An abstract is a compilation, summary, or short delineation of a complete text that covers the most important aspects of a text. As a result, an abstract is generally written last after you have completed the body of your paper so that you may incorporate the key components of your text. Background, aim and thesis statement, method, and results are the components found in an abstract (Bailey, 2015). Others may also include conclusions following the outcomes (SJSU Writing Center, 2020). Indeed, various publishers or journals have their own abstract forms; you should follow their standards and look for trends in the published papers in the journal or conference to which you are applying.
Abstract will be the first thing the readers read. It serves as a summary so that readers know what they will be reading (Booth et.al, 2016). Furthermore, it can entice readers to continue reading the complete text or not (Greeny & Lidinsky, 2015). One thing to note, readers, can be an editor as well. They may determine whether to continue reviewing your manuscript based just on the abstract. So, it is worthwhile to devote effort crafting a decent and appealing abstract.
Based on their patterns, there are three kinds of abstract: CPM (Context, Problem, and Main point), CPL (Context, Problem, and Launching point), and CPSM (Context, Problem, Summary, and Main point) (Booth et.al, 2016). These three abstract patterns use context and problem as a background to introduce why the study is important. However, the CPM ends with the main point which may include the aim and result of the study (Read Abstract Sample 1). On the other hand, the CPL pattern does not put the result section into account, instead, it has the aim and method/stages to attract the readers. The absence of the result section may make the readers curious to continue reading the paper (Read Abstract Sample 2). Different from the first and the second one, the CPSM pattern includes all the components (Context, Problem Aim, Method, Result, and Main point) as a summary (Read Abstract Sample 3); other writers might know this as an informative abstract.
There is also another type of abstract classified on how it is structured: structured abstract. This abstract can be distinguished easily from other abstracts because of how it is structured. It has labelled before every section (e.g Background, Method, Result, and Conclusion). Some journals might ask the writers to differentiate each label into a few lines or paragraphs while other journals might still want to incorporate the label to be in one paragraph abstract (See Sample Abstract 4). All writers should note that the structure of an abstract should always follow the guideline of the journal, conference, or publishers.
Abstract Sample 1
CPM: Context, Problem, and Main Point
The study of the self-protective behaviours of dairy cows suffering dipteral insect infestation is important for evaluating the breeding environment and cows’ selective breeding (context of the previous research). The current practices for measuring diary cows’ self-protective behaviours are mostly by human observation, which is not only tedious but also inefficient and inaccurate (problem). In this paper, we show that an automatic monitoring system based on video analysis can more effectively analyse dairy cows’ self-protective behaviours and the living environment in the process of dairy cow breeding and management (main point).
The example above is modified from Li Jia, et.al. (2018).
Sample 1 begins with a context from the previous research and follows by the problem of the ideal situation. Based on the problems, the writers provide solution as the main point. The main point also includes the result of the study “effectively analyse”. In other words, this abstract include:
Abstract Sample 2
CPL (Context, Problem, and Launching Point) or Descriptive Abstract
The study of the self-protective behaviours of dairy cows suffering dipteral insect infestation is important for evaluating the breeding environment and cows’ selective breeding (context of the previous research). The current practices for measuring diary cows’ self-protective behaviours are mostly by human observation, which is not only tedious but also inefficient and inaccurate (problem). In this paper, we develop an automatic monitoring system based on video analysis (aim). First, an improved optical flow tracking algorithm based on Shi-Tomasi corner detection is presented. Then, a detection algorithm is used to calculate the number of tail, leg, and head movements by using an artificial neural network. The accuracy range of the tail and head and the recall rate was analysed. (Launching point / method).
One way of making the readers curious is writing an abstract without the result. However, not all journal or publishers use this format. Moreover, CPL is well known as a descriptive abstract. Descriptive abstract does not provide results and conclusion of the research. It incorporates key words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. In summary, CPL includes:
Abstract Sample 3
CPS (Context, Problem, Summary, and or main point) or Informational Abstract
The study of the self-protective behaviours of dairy cows suffering dipteral insect infestation is important for evaluating the breeding environment and cows’ selective breeding (context of the previous research). The current practices for measuring diary cows’ self-protective behaviors are mostly by human observation, which is not only tedious but also inefficient and inaccurate (problem). In this paper, we develop an automatic monitoring system based on video analysis. First, an improved optical flow tracking algorithm based on Shi-Tomasi corner detection is presented. By combining the morphological features of head, leg, and tail movements, this method effectively reduces the number of Shi-Tomasi points, eliminates interference from background movement, reduces the computational complexity of the algorithm, and improves detection accuracy. The detection algorithm is used to calculate the number of tail, leg, and head movements by using an artificial neural network. The accuracy range of the tail and head reached [0.88, 1] and the recall rate was [0.87, 1] (summary / aim, method, and result). The method proposed in this paper provides objective measurements that can help researchers to more effectively analyze dairy cows’ self-protective behaviors and the living environment in the process of dairy cow breeding and management. (main point/ conclusion)
The example above is taken from Li Jia, et.al. (2018).
Unlike Abstract Sample 1 and 2, CPS abstract includes all elements that you might find in a full paper. CPS includes summary of aim, method, and result. It ends with a main point or conclusion. The main points included in Sample 1 and 3 is similar as they provide readers of what they will find in the paper. Which is the main point of what the readers would like to know before deciding to read the full text or not. In conclusion, the CPS abstract includes:
Abstract Sample 4: Structured Abstract
Purpose: The purpose was to evaluate the use of Web-based library resources by third-year medical students.
Setting/Participants/Resources: Third-year medical students (147) in a twelve-week multidisciplinary primary care rotation in community and ambulatory settings.
Methodology: Individual user surveys and log file analysis of Website were used.
Results/Outcomes: Twenty resource topics were compiled into a website to provide students with access to electronic library resources from any community-based clerkship location. These resource topics, covering subjects such as hypertension and back pain, linked to curriculum training problems, full-text journal articles, MEDLINE searches, electronic book chapters, and relevant Websites. More than half of the students (69%) accessed the Website on a daily or weekly basis. Over 80% thought the Website was a valuable addition to their clerkship.
Discussion/Conclusion: Web-based information resources can provide curriculum support to students for whom access to the library is difficult and time consuming.
The sample abstract above is taken from Tannery et.al. (2002)
Structured abstract provides the label of each section included so the readers can easily spot what they are trying to look for in a paper. There is no exact label that should be put in a structured abstract. The requirements will be different on each conference or journal.
There are many ways in writing an abstract. You may need to find what is best for you because everyone has different techniques. One thing to note, you need to always start by finding the main ideas of every section (Introduction, Method, Result, Discussion, and Conclusion) you have in your full paper. Some different strategies of writing an abstract can be seen on the link below:
Booth, C.W., Colomb, G.G., Williams.M.J., Bizup, J., & FitzGerald, T.W. (2016). The Craft of research (4th Ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Greene, S. & Lidinsky, A. (2015). From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide (3rd Ed). Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Jameson, A.R., & Kostinski, B.A. (2002). When is Rain Steady?. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 41(1). https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2002)041<0083:WIRS>2.0.CO;2
Li, Jia., Wu, P., Kang, f., Zhang, L., Xuan, c. (2018). Study on the Detection of Dairy Cows’ Self-Protective Behaviors Based on Vision Analysis. Advances in Multimedia, Vol. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9106836
Sirithunge, C., Buddhika, G.A., Jayasekara, P., & Chandima, P. D. (2020). An Evaluation of Human Conversational Preferences in Social Human-Robot Interaction. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. Vol. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3648479
SJSU Writing Center.2020. https://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/handouts/Abstracts.pdf
Tannery, N. H., Foust, J. E., Gregg, A. L., Hartman, L. M., Kuller, A. B., Worona, P., & Tulsky, A. A. (2002). Use of Web-based library resources by medical students in community and ambulatory settings. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 90(3), 305–309.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. October 8, 2021.
Plagiarism is a serious issue in the academic field. It is critical to understand that plagiarism is the intentional use or copying of other people’s ideas or works (Swales & Feak, 2012). The video above is presented to help you understand what plagiarism is. As White mentions in the video, you can plagiarize unintentionally because you don’t have enough understanding of plagiarism (ClickView, 2014). You also may deal with heavy consequences if you plagiarize someone, thus, you should understand and prevent plagiarism before you get yourself in trouble.
To help you understand more about plagiarism, some situations can be used as examples to identify how something can be identified as plagiarism. Some situations that can be considered as plagiarism may include one or several points from the following list taken from Bailey (2015):
More information about plagiarism examples can be accessed here
With the aforementioned information and examples of plagiarism, you should have a better idea of what constitutes a plagiarism, particularly in the higher education. It is time for you to take extra precautions when dealing with the use of someone else’s work. Not to mention, plagiarism practice is detectable, especially when you find several writing styles in one paper, off-topic writing, unrelated citation to the writing topic, incoherent ideas, or give-away presence (Baggaley in Librero, 2012). An experienced reader, editors, or reviewers can easily spot plagiarism practice. You may get severe consequences if you are found to plagiarize someone.
Knowing that plagiarism can be detected easily, we should not take the plagiarism issue lightly. Some consequences might occur because we fail to acknowledge someone. You may fail a course or even drop out of college if you deal with plagiarism issue (Bailey, 2015). I believe that no one wants to have such experience. Some links below will help you understand the consequences of plagiarism more:
Many prior research reveal that students lack the information required to understand plagiarism and how to avoid it (Voelker et al, 2012; Probett, 2011). This condition is certainly common among beginner writers. To help you avoid plagiarism, there are some principles adopted from Turabian (2013) that you need to note:
More strategies for avoiding plagiarism can be read on the following websites
ClickView. (2014, May 23). What is Plagiarism. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoAISJrULw
Librero, F. Felix. (2012). Writing Your Thesis: A Practical Guide for Students. University of the Philippines Open University
Probett, C. (2011). Plagiarism prevention. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(2), 170-172.
Swales, M.J., & Feak, B.C. (2012). Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Skills and Tasks (3rd Ed.). University of Michigan Press
Turabian, L. Kate. (2013). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Rev. Ed. The University of Chicago Press
Voelker, T., Love, L., & Pentina, I. (2012). Plagiarism: What they don’t know. Journal of Education for Business, 87(1), 36-41.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. September 11, 2021.
One way of avoiding plagiarism is citing. Citation is an acknowledgment or credit given to someone else’s idea that we use (Librero, 2012). Citation is one method of avoiding plagiarism and a critical idea in maintaining academic integrity. You are being honest with other people’s works by ensuring that you have correctly cited someone because “other people’s ideas are treated as an intellectual property” (Geyte, 2013, p.101). Therefore, properly citing others’ works will help you prevent plagiarism, acquire the trust of your readers, and gain scientific or social value (Booth et.al., 2016). To cite properly, you have to understand in-text citation and reference word to refer to someone’s else idea.
One way of citing a source is using in-text citation. In-text citation can be defined as putting citation “immediately after the source material—whether it’s a quotation, paraphrase, or summary” (Texas A&M University Writing Center, n.d). One thing to keep in mind is that the citation should adhere to a specific citation style, such as MLA, APA, or IEEE. Before submitting to a journal or conference, it is best to read the author guidelines. You can visit some websites below to assist you distinguishing various citation styles.
Reporting verbs are used to refers to someone’s works. It is a common practice in the academic writing field. Reporting verbs can be written in the present tense to indicate a recent work or past tense to indicate an older source (Bailey, 2015). An example of reporting verbs can be seen in the following examples
Notice the bold words on the examples above (state, supports, and discovers). These words are the examples of reporting verbs. The reporting verb “describe” for example, is used to simply state Carla’s & Margareth’s statement about something. Meanwhile, “supports” is used to state Lagnan’s belief or agreement over something. To conclude, different reporting verbs might have a different intention, thus, knowing different verbs and their meaning is useful to help you use them correctly. Some links below provide many lists of reporting verbs that you can use in your writing:
Geyte, V.E. (2013). Writing: Learn to Write Better Academic Essays. Harper Collins Publishers.
Librero, R. F. (2012). Writing Your Thesis: A Practical Guide for Students. UP Open University.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. August 28, 2021.
Quoting is another method of avoiding plagiarism. According to Geyte (2013), quotation refers to utilizing someone else’s precise words in a quote, often known as direct speech in English grammar. Different from paraphrasing or summarizing, quotation is using the exact author’s words without any attempt of summarizing or paraphrasing. However, it should be mentioned that the quotation should also include the citation. If you fail to properly cite your sources, you may face plagiarism charges. Furthermore, remember to utilize the relevant citation format (MLA, APA, IEEEE, etc.). The following example shows how to incorporate a quotation into a passage.
Example of quotation in APA style in-text citation format:
A beginner writer might be clueless about the importance of citation in writing. Anna (2019) also mentions that “80% of freshmen in a university fail to understand the importance of citing a source”. One of the reasons mentioned by Damian (2019) is “copying and pasting have been a cultural practice in a country”.
For more rules of the citation formatting, visit the links below
Before you quote, you should understand why you are quoting someone’s exact words. You can utilize a quotation If you are dealing with one of the following circumstances mentioned by Bailey (2015):
When you know what source you want to quote, you can begin by copying the exact word to your writing. However, there are some basic rules you must adhere to in quoting. Adopted from Greene & Lidinsky (2015), here are some basic rules that you can follow:
Besides the rules above, there are some punctuation rules you must follow in quoting. Please refer to the punctuation rules taken from Bailey (2015) below:
Quotation sandwich is a term that refers to a way of framing a quotation in your text. Three elements make up a quotation sandwich: (1) the introduction sentence, (2) the quote, and (3) the explanation of the quote (Graff & Birkenstein, 2018). Some examples of quotation sandwich (in APA citation style) are as follow
For other resources about quoting and quotation sandwich, please refers to some links below
Just like on citation page, quoting also need reporting verbs. Refers to some links below for several lists of reporting verbs.
Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C. (2018). They say I say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (4th Ed.) W.W Norton & Company.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. September 8, 2021.
Paraphrasing or better known as indirect quotations means writing someone’s idea using our own words. It’s critical to maintain the original text’s or thoughts’ meaning when paraphrasing. Richard & Schmidt (2010) also defines paraphrasing as writing with different words/phrases. Although we use our own words to express the original ideas, paraphrase does not always result in a shorter text (Hirvela & Du, 2013). It should be noted that paraphrasing is different from summarizing. Finally, a correct citation to credit the author needs to be included(Monash University, n.d). Plagiarism could occur if you don’t cite your sources properly.
The list below shows tips to paraphrase
To help you edit your paraphrased text, some tips adopted from Wallwork (2011) below can be used.
Claim (verb)→ synonym → argue or assert
Liquid (Noun) → synonym → fluid
Analyze (verb)→ analysis (Noun)
Classify (verb) → classification (Noun)
If you need more tips to paraphrase and understand more about paraphrasing, consider to visit some links below:
Hirvela, A., & Du, Q. (2013). ‘Why am I paraphrasing?’: Undergraduate ESL writers’ engagement with source-based academic writing and reading. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(2), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.11.005
Klements, Kurtis. (2021). Patchworking. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/2021/01/29/patchwriting/
Richards, J.C., & Schmidt, R.W. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics(4th Ed). Pearson Education.
The Writing Center; University of Wisconsin-Madison. (n.d). Quoting and Paraphrasing. https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/quotingsources/
Wallwork, Adrian. (2011). English for Writing Research Papers. New York: Springer. Springer.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. August 11, 2021
Have you ever read a paragraph or text and had the impression that the ideas between the sentences are jumping and unconnected? In that case, there might be a cohesion issue in the text. Cohesion in a text gives the flow and directs our readers to follow our ideas. Lexically, a text with cohesion means it sticks together by reference words or conjunction (Bailey, 2015). Cohesion is important as it can direct our readers to follow our arguments easily. Lacking cohesion on a text, on the other hand, can confuse your reader and decrease the readability of your text. Thus, it is critical to improve the text cohesiveness.
Cohesion can be enhanced using several strategies such as using reference words, conjunction, repeated words/ideas, or ellipsis. The video above explains how you can enhance your cohesion using a pronoun, lexical signpost, repetition, or anaphoric nouns (AWUC, 2015). Two common methods are discussed further below.
Some examples of reference words are he, she, their, it, these, their, etc. Let’s look at the Sample texts below
Sample text 1:
“During the COVID-19 emergency, many different human activities have been strongly modified or banned. The pandemic has made many people around the world stay at home at some point in time, strongly limiting actions and unfortunately personal freedom. These restrictions have been necessary to save lives” (Caniato et.al., 2021)
Notice how the words “these restriction” are used. It refers to the idea of the previous sentences. It sticks and joins the sentences together because it clear to the readers that “these restriction” refers to the banned activities during the covid-19 pandemic limiting people and their freedom.
Sample text 2:
“Velcro is a fabric fastener used with clothes and shoes. It was invented by a Swiss engineer called George de Mestral. His idea was derived from studying the tiny hooks found on some plant seeds. They cling to animals and help disperse the seeds. Velcro has two sides, one of which is covered in small hooks and the other in loops. When they are pressed together, they form a strong bond” (Bailey, 2015)
The paragraph above shows a connection between the sentences by using the reference words (underlined). Instead of repeating the word Velcro in the second sentence, the writer replaces it with “It” to refer to the Velcro. Secondly, instead of writing the name of the engineer in the third sentence, the writer uses simply “his”, to show that he refers to him. It is important to note that you can use reference words if what you want to refer to is clear and the reader can easily spot it.
Linking words are used based on their language functions. For examples:
These words can be used to make your sentences stick together, thus, enabling the readers to follow your logical flow easily. An example of using these in a paragraph can be seen below.
Sample Text 3:
“Previous studies estimated a wide range of uncertainty in premature deaths attributed to ambient air pollution (AAP) from residential energy use of between 73,000 and 511,000 (ref. 15). However, none of these studies looked at how residential emissions of air pollutants or mortality are distributed across households or trace other emissions sources to the household consumption that triggers them. As a result, it is unclear how the contribution of households to AAP compares to the mortality risks that they face from.” (Rao et.al., 2021).
Other strategies of enhancing cohesion can be access through the following links:
Caniato, M., Bettarello, F. & Gasparella, A. (2021). Indoor and Outdoor Noise Changes due to the COVID-19 Lockdown and their Effects on Individuals’ Expectations and Preferences. Scientific Reports, 11, 16533. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96098-w
Rao, N.D., Kiesewetter, G., Min, J. et al. (2021). Household Contributions to and Impacts from Air Pollution in India. Nat Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00744-0
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. September 17, 2021.
Coherence must be improved in order to build unity in a text. If cohesion relates to how smoothly your thoughts flow from one sentence to the next, coherence refers to how logically structured and presented your ideas are. A paragraph can have cohesion but lack coherence. For example:
Sample Text 1
Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools have become increasingly popular, especially in the educational field. Many university students in Indonesia, for example, have begun to use AWE to help proofread and edit their article journal drafts. It happens because of AWE’s automated feedback, explanation of errors, and user-friendly services. If they find writing important, they might find many issues in writing. Thus, many students find this tool to be needed in enhancing their drafts.
The above sample paragraph discusses AWE and how it has grown popular in educational field. To discuss the topic and make the paragraph cohesive, some reference and linking words are used such as, because of, if, these, and thus. Despite using some cohesive devices, this paragraph is not coherent. Try to find the reason why the italic sentences cause the paragraph to be lack of coherence. Consider watching the video below to help you find the answer.
To create unity and coherence in your text there are three ways adopted from Greene & Lidinsky (2015) that you can refer to:
“Use transition words to link ideas from different sentences”. Similar to Cohesion, achieving coherence can be done by using transition or linking words such as because, although, however, in addition, furthermore, etc. One thing to be noted, these words have different language functions. You might make your text incoherent by using these words incorrectly.
For more strategies in creating coherence in your text, visit the links below:
Skillcourse. (2019, October 12). Cohesion & Coherence. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDUgsLZzTTI
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. September 21, 2021.
What is a paragraph? “A paragraph is a group of sentences that deal with a single topic” (Bailey, 2015). This single topic is better known as a topic sentence. Many scholars would put this sentence at the beginning of their paragraphs, however, as Booth et.al. (2016) suggest, the topic sentence can appear at the last sentence of the paragraph as well.
When you are a beginner writer, it might be difficult to develop a paragraph, not to mention a whole academic paper. You might also get overwhelmed to write many paragraphs without any guidance and experience. Therefore it is crucial to understand how a paragraph can be developed starting from knowing the parts of a paragraph. In writing a paragraph, there is a common structure used such as topic sentence, supporting sentence, and concluding sentence (Heard & Tucker, 2012).
A topic sentence is the main idea of a paragraph. It is important to understand that one paragraph covers one topic sentence that is developed from the main idea. Mostly, the topic sentence appears at the beginning of the first sentence of a paragraph. Adopted from Heard & Tucker (2012) there are 3 kinds of topic sentences:
Example: Exercise is very beneficial.
This topic sentence is considered too general because there are various exercises that it is impossible to be explained all in one paragraph.
Example: Doing plank for thirty minutes a day will strengthen your cardio-vascular system by thirty percent.
This topic sentence is considered too specific because there is a possibility that there is nothing to say to support this sentence.
Example: There rate of car ownership varies across social status in India.
This topic is considered adequate as you can develop this with the variation mentioned in the topic sentence.
Between the three examples, the adequate topic sentence certainly is the desired one. Some links below can help you learn to develop your topic sentence:
Supporting sentences are more specific than the topic sentence. These sentences are developed based on the topic sentence; thus, you cannot put new ideas that do not belong to the topic sentence. Some details that you can put to develop the supporting ideas, such as:
Some ideas to develop these details into your paragraph can be accessed through the following links:
A Concluding sentence is used to signal the end of your paragraph. It is optional and does not have to be written in every paragraph. In an academic paper, we might find the concluding sentence in the last paragraph the Introduction section, or possibly in the literature review. Having a concluding sentence can help you summarize your points or as a cohesive device that can link your idea to the next paragraph (The University of Sydney, n.d).
Overall, some links below can be used if you want to enhance your skill in writing a paragraph
Booth, C.W., Colomb, G.G., Williams.M.J., Bizup, J., & FitzGerald, T.W. (2016). The Craft of research (4th Ed.). The University of Chicago Press.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. August 31, 2021.
There are a few things to consider before giving a presentation at an international conference. If you’re attending a conference for the first time, you might be frustrated by the fact that you only have 15-20 minutes to present your entire work. To interest your listeners in a short amount of time, meticulous and prepared planning is therefore required. You must also recognize that the audience at a conference differs from that of readers. To present your work orally, you’ll need to take a different strategy. For example, use an attractive and easy to listen to approach in presenting points clearly and briefly for each section of your paper
You might not be able to present all the things in your paper, so focus on the essence of the sections (Introduction, Method, Result, etc.) in your presentation. Here are some points adapted from Turabian (2013) that can be used
Originally, Turabian (2013) mentions three focuses such as:
You might also use these original points for your presentation, especially if you have a shorter time to present. In conclusion, your presentation should be clear, explicit, and brief yet organized. “Arrange your ideas coherently and express your ideas vividly” (Barker, 2010). Instead of putting a long text in your presentation, create phrases that describe each point above using points, bullets, or SmartArt graphics.
After you have the essence of your paper ready, you can prepare:
Unlike your writing, your presentation is more informal, so there are some considerations that you might use when presenting:
Barker, A. (2010). Improve your communication skills (2nd Ed.). KoganPage.
Turabian, L. Kate. (2013). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. (Rev. Ed.). The University of Chicago Press.
Tuhovsky, I. (2018). 21 Days of Effective Communication: Everyday Habits and Exercises to Improve Your Communication Skills and Social Intelligence. Positive Psychology Coaching Series.
Meilisa Sindy Astika Ariyanto. Oktober 21, 2021
Download Proofreading Checklist document here
Proofreading Checklist Video by Ms. Caroline Ward consist of 4 parts: Opening & Basics, Organization, Content, and Mechanics.