The Good, the Bad

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The Good, the Bad the Ugly

• Writing Up the Report
• CCG, Spring 09
• Corrie Lynn McDougall

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Basic Information for Report

• Final papers must be font 12, 1.5 line-spaced,
  single-sided
• Select one convention of English and be
  consistent

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Academic Research Problem
Analysis
Theory
Method
Empirical Data
Puzzle
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Archetype of a Project Group of 4ish

• Introduction
• Problem Formulation (5p.)
• Methodology (5p.)
• Definition of Key Concepts (5p.)
• Theoretical Framework (10p.)
• Body
• Empirical Section (15p.)
• Analysis (15p.)
• Conclusion (5p.)

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The Bad Reportboring

• Long and heavy word-for-word quotations
• Presented in a fragmented way with primitive
  categorizations
• Too detailed
• Cut-up in incoherent pieces

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Reasons for bad texts

• The author can
• Be drowning in comprehensive complex interview
  texts
• Go native
• Fear making subjective interpretations
• Not know which story to tell

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The Good Report

• Is read ?
• Is direct communication, often with a few pages
  summary
• Lives up to being a piece of art
• Is able to resist an interrogation in court

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Aim of Reporting

• Inform other researchers public about
  significance reliability of the results
• Contribute with new knowledge
• Formulate in a way that the conclusions can be
  controlled by the reader
• Contains the main aim, methods, results and
  implications of the study

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Styling the Report

• Use Third Person
• Use the Past Tense
• Achieve Good Standards of Spelling Grammar

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Research Methods Chapter

• Describe how the research was conducted
• What methods used, When did research take place,
  Location, How access was obtained, Who was
  involved, How many, How were they selected
• Justify the procedures
• Feasibility, appropriateness, rigour,
  consistency, representative, valid, reliable,
  ethical
• Acknowledge any limitations to the methods
  employed
• Unexpected factors that arose, influence the
  quality of research, authenticity, honesty,
  couldve been improved

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Front Page Presentation

• Front Page contains the following
• Title of project
• Your name
• Semester and Program (ex. 8th Semester Project,
  CCG)
• Type of Project (Semester, Internship, Thesis)
• Name of University and Date
• Number of Characters
• Title Page (second) contains
• Title of project
• Any visuals
• Your signature with name below
• Supervisors name

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Proceeding Pages Presentation

• Following Pages
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements (if you like)
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• Introduction..
• Report must be clearly structured with sections,
  headings sub-headings (bold and upper case)
• Pictures/Diagrams/Tables must have a caption or
  title with explanation, date and source
• Page numbering is preferably at the bottom

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Quotations the Report

• Connection with the normal text
• Quotations must be contextualized
• Quotations must be interpreted
• Balance between quotations text
• Quotations must be brief
• Use the best quotation
• Reproduce quotations in a written form
• Have a simple sign system for editing quotations

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Why Use Quotations, Paraphrasing and Summaries?

• Provide support for claims credibility to your
  writing
• Refer to work that leads up to the work you are
  now doing
• Give ex. of several points of view on a subject
• Call attn to a position that you wish to agree or
  disagree with
• Highlight a striking phrase, sentence or passage
  by quoting the original
• Distance yourself from the original by quoting it
  in order to cue readers that the words are not
  your own
• Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

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Differences among Quoting-Paraphrasing-Summarizing

• Quotation must be identical to the original
• Must match the source document word for word
• Attributed to original source
• Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from
  source material into your own words
• Attributed to the original source
• Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the
  original passage
• Summarizing involves putting the main idea into
  your own words, including only the main points
• Attribute summarized ideas to the original source
  
• Significantly shorter than the original and take
  a broad overview of the source material

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Basic Quotation Guidelines

• Quotations must reproduce exactly the original
  authors words, including spelling,
  capitalization, and punctuation
• An ellipsis () indicates where words are omitted
• Square brackets ( ) are added for reasons of
  grammar or coherence

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Basic Quotation Guidelines

• A sentence should establish the relevance and
  context before the quote
• Commentary after the quote provides analysis (the
  reader should not be left to interpret its
  meaning)
• Tags to introduce sources into your work
• Ex. Gram argues, describes, explains, claims..
• Halkier compares, hypothesizes, concludes..

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Basic Quotation Guidelines

• A quote of four lines or less appear in the text,
  enclosed in quotation marks ( )
• Longer quotes are
• separated from the main text,
• begin on a new line,
• are indented approx. three centimetres from both
  margins
• Font size 10 - 12

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Example of long quote..
5.1 Policy Implications of Dependency
School   The term development should describe
enriching the living standards of all people of
the developing world rather than representing
increased productivity and industrialisation.
Alvin So characterizes one of the fundamental
implications of Dependency, Thus
developmental programs should not cater to
elites and urban dwellers, but should attempt
to satisfy the human needs of rural peasants,
the unemployed, and the needy. Any developmental
program that benefits only a small sector at
the expense of the suffering majority is no
good at all.1   In addition to Sos proposition
that development programs must include each
strata of society, the Dependency school
discourages further contact with core countries
and it can be inferred - foreign-dominated
multinational institutions
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Why is Citation Important?

• To back up your assertions.
• To give credit to others for their ideas.
• To demonstrate to your audience the work that
  you have done.

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What Should Be Cited?

• FACTS
• IDEAS OF OTHERS
• WORDS OF OTHERS
• OBSERVATIONS

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A Paraphrase is..

• Your own rendition of essential information and
  ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a
  new form
• One legitimate way to borrow from a source
• A more detailed restatement than a summary, which
  focuses concisely on a single main idea

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6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

• Reread the original passage until you understand
  its full meaning.
• Set the original aside, write your paraphrase
  on a paper.
• Jot down a few words to remind how you envision
  using the material.
• Check your rendition with the original to make
  sure that your version accurately expresses all
  the essential info in a new form.
• Use quotation marks to identify any unique term
  you borrowed from the source.
• Record the source so that you can credit it if
  you decide to incorporate the material into your
  paper.

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Example of Paraphrasing

• Original Passage
• Students frequently overuse direct quotation in
  taking notes, and as a result they overuse
  quotation in the final paper. Probably only
  about 10 of your final manuscript should appear
  as directly quoted matter. Therefore you should
  strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing
  of source materials while taking notes.
• Lester, James Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed.
  (1976) 46-47
• Legitimate Paraphrase
• In research papers students often quote
  excessively, failing to keep quoted material down
  to a desirable level. Since the problem usually
  originates during note taking, it is essential to
  minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester
  46-47).
• OR
• Students should take just a few notes in direct
  quotation from sources to help minimize the
  amount of quoted material in a research paper
  (Lester 46-47).
• A Plagiarized Version
• Students often use too many direct quotations
  when they take notes, resulting in too many of
  them in the final research paper. In fact,
  probably only about 10 of the final copy should
  consist of directly quoted material. So it is
  important to limit the amount of source material
  copied while taking notes.

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Styles of Citation

• Two main ways to credit other peoples ideas,
  statements or work
• Author-Date Style or Harvard Style
• Parenthetical
• Note-System or Chicago Style
• Footnotes/Endnotes

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Harvard Style

• Author-Date Style, parenthetical ( )
• Traditionally used in Natural Sciences
• Referring to general work
• Only name of author and year of publication in
  parentheses
• Referring to specific point
• Name of author, year and page
• Citations are placed at end of a sentence
• Because of the underdevelopment of the Romanian
  wine market, the Carl family purchased four
  vineyards in the Bona region (Landes 1976, 121).
• Full citation given in bibliography

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General Examples of Harvard Style

• Book - more than one author (general work)
• Citation in text (Craton and Saunders 1992)
• Biblio form Craton, M. and Saunders G. (1992)
  Understanding Globalisation. New York Routledge.
• Article from Journal (specific point)
• Citation in text (Herring 1998, p.211)
• Biblio form Herring, G. (1998) A Food Fight
  That Affects Us All. Third World Quarterly vol.
  26 (3) 214-219.
• Newspaper article - no author
• Citation in text (Chicago Tribune 19944)
• Biblio form Gun injuries take financial toll on
  hospitals. Chicago Tribune (1994) 24 February.

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Chicago Style

• Note-System, footnotes/endnotes
• Used in Humanities and Social Sciences
• Sources placed at bottom of page or end of
  document
• Notes within next are in short form (ex.
  Christiansen 2000, 12)

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General Examples of Chicago Style

• Book - more than one author
• Footnote form (with a biblio) Craton and
  Saunders 1992, 24
• Bibliographic form Craton, M. and G. Saunders.
  Understanding Globalisation. New York Routledge,
  1992.
• Article from journal
• Footnote form (with a biblio) Herring 1998, 216
• Bibliographic form Herring, Gina. " A Food Fight
  That Affects Us All. Third World Quarterly 26,
  no. 3 (1998) 214-219.
• Newspaper article - no author
• Footnote form (with a biblio) Gun Injuries 1994,
  6
• Bibliographic form "Gun Injuries Take Financial
  Toll on Hospitals." Chicago Tribune, 24 February
  1994.

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Tricky Issues..

• Translation
• English, Spanish, French and German do not need
  to be translated in European Universities
• All other languages can be translated by the
  author, as long as there is a footnote indicating
  so, for example As translated by author
• Citing a Source from a Secondary Source
• Citation should appear in text as, f.ex., (Munck
  as in Randall 1998, p.12)

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Electronic Sources

• An electronic source is cited like any other
  source
• Ex. WWW sites, databases, newsgroups etc.
• Supply as much info as possible about source
• If possible draw an analogy to a relevant print
  source
• Pagination can be provided with pdf files,
  otherwise omit page numbers and include paragraph
  numbers

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Examples of Electronic Style

• Electronic Journal - Chicago
• Foster, John B. Marxs Ecological Value
  Analysis in Monthly
• Review 52 no.4 (2000)
• (21 October 2001).
• Electronic Journal Harvard
• Foster, J.B. (2000) Marxs Ecological Value
  Analysis in Monthly Review Online database
  52(4) Available from Accessed 21 October 2001
• In text example (Foster 2000, paragraph 8)

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Usage of Ibid. and Op. Cit.

• Ibid. Latin term, in the same author and source
  as the immediately preceding reference
• Op. Cit. Latin term, referring to an earlier
  citation
• Michael Craton and Gail Saunders. Understanding
  Globalisation. New York Routledge (1992) 24.
• Ibid., p. 25.
• Gina Herring. A Food Fight That Affects Us All."
  Third World Quarterly 26, no. 3 (1998) 216.
• Tom Eliot. Doing Development. London Earthscan
  (1989) p.141.
• Herring, Op. Cit., p.218.

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Bibliography Presentation

• Format
• Begin on new page, following last page
• Page should be numbered
• Page Format
• Title is centred 3cm from top of page
• Lengthy bibliographies sometimes have categories
  according to type or subject of source (n/a to
  AAU projects)
• Entry Format
• Single-spaced
• First line flush with left margin, second and
  subsequent lines are indented 3cm from left
  margin
• Entries listed in alphabetical order, authors
  family name (not numbered)

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Defining Plagiarism

• Presenting extracts from books, articles, theses,
  websites and other published or unpublished works
  such as working papers, seminar and conference
  papers, lecture notes or other students works,
  without clearly indicating their origin with
  quotation marks and/or references such as
  footnotes
• Using very close paraphrasing of sentences or
  whole paragraphs without due acknowledgement in
  the form of reference to the original work
• Quoting directly from a source and failing to
  insert quotation marks around the quoted
  passages. It is not adequate merely to
  acknowledge the source.

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Here we are!

• Think of a working process a writing process
  from the start
• Good luck on the exam!