John Blake Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Hacks for academic writing

Overview

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Introduction• Context, difficulties• Academic discourseHacks• Ten hacks

Context

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Institution• 30% PhD / 70% MS• 750/150 students; • 70/30 balance (cn. vn. th. in.)• Bi(part)lingual environmentCenter• 4 full-time faculty

Difficulties identified

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Key issues• Accuracy• Brevity• Clarity• Objectivity• FormalityCopying and pasting• Justifiable text recycling• Plagiarism & patch writing

Academic discourse

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Community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991)• Periphery to core• Rules – overt and covert• Rejection & rewrites• Mentorless meanderingComputer literacy• Text editor functionality• Online assistance

1. Templates and versions

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• Save as different versions – e.g. v01. v02, v15 submitted, v18 shortened lit rev

• Use template– Often provided by target publication– Create your own template in your preferred text

editor• Structure by percentage and words– Overwriting vs underwriting– Sections, sub-sections, – paragraphs, sentences (topic, citation, explanation)

2. Spell and grammar checkers

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• Use spell and grammar checkers• Be aware of false positives– Grammarly (free version)• 5-page short paper; 40/280 errors = FP

– MS Word users • Ensure all document set in eng on jp OS.• Tweak settings (F7 options/proofing/settings)

– users• Add module or check on terminal or copypaste to MS

and ignore noise

Grammarly

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Corpus-based error detector

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Current url http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~johnb/ErrorDetector.htmlFrom October 2016 http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~blake

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3. Harnessing functionality

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MS Word • Use style tab

– e.g. normal, heading 1, etc.– auto-formatting features, e.g. Table of contents, list

of figures – especially for long documents, e.g. dissertations

• Track changes (ctrl + shift + e)– Change tracking options

• Insert comment (ctrl + alt + m)

Web-based editing, e.g. Google docs • Real time but fewer features

Track changes

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Comments

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4. Colour text

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Undergraduate essays – Structure focus• Blue – topic sentence• Red – citation• Black – elaborationUndergraduate essays – Citation focus• Black – own text• Red – long and short quotations• Blue – paraphrases and summariesGraduate academic papers, e.g.• Red – conclusions• Blue – premises• Black – other

Colour-coded essay

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The objective of time management is to use our limited time in a more effective and efficiency way in order to achieve our goal. As ‘Mindtools’ (no date) states, one of the main characteristic of time management is to “concentrate on results, not on being busy.” Some people, who have not well managed their time, spend their all day time and work very hard to do just a little and irrelevant things. It may be due to lack of a well planning and schedules. However, …

5. Google Translate

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en-de similar languages – high accuracyen-jp dissimilar languages – low accuracy

Use statistical machine translation wisely• phrases/clauses/sentences• Back-translate to check accuracyUse exact match Google search to validate accuracy and suitability of translated text

6. Building better sentences

• Step-by-step– I mixed A with B in C.

• Predictive text (statistical probability of next word)

• Wildcard missing word search “This is * a banana”

not, what, simply, me eating, just, how• Thesaurus synonyms (shift + F7)– activate receptive vocabulary

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Sentence build

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1. I mixed chemical A with chemical B.2. I mixed chemical A with chemical B in a XXXX.3. Chemical A was mixed with chemical B in a XXXX.4. Chemical A was mixed with chemical B in a XXXX

using a XXXXX5. 60ml of chemical A was mixed with 40ml of

chemical B in a XXXXX using a XXXXX6. 60ml of XXXXX was mixed with 40ml of XXXXX for

60 seconds in a XXXXX using a XXXXX7. 60ml of XXXXX was mixed with 40ml of XXXXX at

a temperature of 45 degrees celcius for 60 seconds in a XXXXX using a XXXXX.

Wildcard search

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Search in Google “This is * a banana”

Results“This is not a banana” “This is what a banana” “This is simply a banana” “This is me eating a banana” “This is just a banana” “This is how a banana”

7. Abstraction

• Maximum meaning in fewest words• Focus on processes and results not doers

• Temporarily relocate replaced text to footnote

Paragraph Sentence Phrase

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8. Generic integrity

• Check balance of word types– Lexical profiler, e.g. lextutor.ca (Cobb, 1999-2016)• e.g. General 65%, Academic 10%, off-list 25%

cf. General 88%, Academic 2%, off-list 10%

• Check readability• Check thematic development– Bananas are a type of fruit. A banana is a popular..– The banana is sweet. The sweetness stems from…

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Lexical profile via Lextutor.ca

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9. Citations

Quote

Paraphrase

Summary

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• Consider using software, e.g. Endnote• Insert hyperlink to electronic

source (e.g. as footnote) while working on paper

• Use colour to help remember the stage of citation

10. Proofreading• Plagiarism checker

– iThenticate, Turnitin, etc.• Recruit lay reader

– Put ? if something is hard to understand• Systematic error checking

– e.g. VAT for verbs. (voice, agreement, tense)– e.g. Use find function for is & are to check S-V agreement

• Sleep-spaced reading– Write Sleep Re-read– If time is pressured, try biphasic or polyphasic sleep.

• Proof-listening– Use text-to-speech engine to avoid screen-memory confusion24

Any questions, comments or suggestions?

johnb@jaist.ac.jp