1. Writing is a Process: Give Up the Illusion of the First Draft as the Finished Draft

Writing is a skill that is developed by practice. You learn by doing and re-doing. Take a paragraph and revise it three different ways. Some versions will read better than others. Assume it will take you at least three drafts to get a decent version that can be shared with a cold reader who can provide you with feedback. Take that feedback and revise at least once more. If you make extensive changes, have another person review your work.

Capture your ideas and major points in your initial draft. You may find using an outline helpful or you may prefer to write a stream of consciousness. Mindmaps and storyboards are helpful for nonlinear thinking.

Some suggest that you write an early version without your data as a way of helping you clarify your thoughts. Consider addressing the following questions:

This is an opportunity for you to discover what it is you believe (your underlying theories, hypotheses and assumptions). You may find some gaps as you write; write around the gaps using a placeholder. For example, I use this: <<add more later>> as a placeholder when I know I want to say more but dont have all the information I need at the time I am writing.

Don't try for perfection in early drafts. Early drafts are likely to be wordy and some sections may contain overlapping material. This is normal. Polishing occurs in the later versions. Cut and Paste technology allows you to try different arrangements to see how the writing flows. As you revise and edit, you will move toward a more elegant product.

Begin by asking yourself these kinds of questions:

You want to consider your purpose as well as the requirements of your audience (see point # 3). The clearer you are about your purpose, the easier it will be to spot material that is off the point. Delete anything that is off the point. Whenever you want to add material, ask yourself: how does this contribute to the purpose of this paper? If it doesn't, leave it out. If you are not sure, leave it in initially but underline it; go back to it later and ask the tough question: does it add value to my paper? If not, delete it. You are seeking coherence.

When you write for the public, you are always writing for others. It is always about communicating ideas, concepts and information so others can understand. Your purpose is never about showing how smart you are, how much you know or how hard you have worked. Ask yourself:

What are the issues and concerns that the audience is most interested in?

What are the major points you want your audience to get?

What level of detail is important for them?

How will they use your material?

When writing for a technical audience, you may highlight some of the important technical aspects of your work. When writing for a general audience, you will de-emphasize the technical aspects by using clear and simple English. The technical aspects of your work as well as greater detail may be placed in an appendix. This also means no jargon or acronyms!!. If you must use acronyms, define them first time and in subsequent sections if it is possible that a reader may skip through your report. Alternatively, you can provide a list of definitions in an appendix.

Why should anyone spend their valuable time reading what you have written? Your goal is to hook your reader right from the start. Tell your reader why reading this paper or report is important. You might use an example that will capture their interest or lead with a bold (but true) statement about the importance of the subject. Connect the subject of your paper to something you know is important to your audience. Remember, even your professor has to be hooked into reading your paper with interest and enthusiasm. Never say I am writing this paper as a requirement for this course. It is a boring way to introduce your work.

Your writing should have structure, order, focus and coherence. It gives the reader a sense of completeness. The beginning and the ending connect in a way that is meaningful. The middle supports both the beginning and the ending. Your goal is to provide specific, accurate and honest information that builds a logical argument that is easy to follow.

One way to organize your thoughts is to place your ideas on post-its. Post them on a wall. Now you can organize and reorganize your ideas until you have captured the flow of the story you wish to tell. You can then develop a detailed outline that provides the map of how you wish to order your ideas.

All writing contains a structure. In an essay type paper, you want to provide an introduction, a discussion and a conclusion. In a reflective journal, you want to anchor your work in the literature and then provide a real life example that illustrates the basic ideas or concepts. In a research report, you want to provide the introduction, the background or literature review, the research questions, the scope (how terms were defined and measured, the population of interest), the methodology used to collect and analyze the data, the results (findings of your research), a discussion of the results in terms of the larger research question, and a conclusion in terms of future research. In a policy-oriented research paper, your conclusion will relate back to the policy: what should be done based on this research, if anything?

There is a structure within each paragraph. Lead with your major point in the first sentence of each paragraph. The rest of the paragraph supports the lead sentence. Only the topic mentioned in the lead sentence should be contained in that paragraph. Begin a new paragraph if you want to change topics or change your lead sentence to encompass all that you wish to say in that paragraph.

If you have a long paper, you may find it helpful to provide an abstract (academic journals require a 100-word summary) or a 1-2 page executive summary for a technical report. Both should give a brief overview of the issue, the major research questions and methodology, and the major findings and conclusions.

In an early draft, you may have some of the architecture built in so you can remember what you are doing. It is OK to say In this section I will write about how I looked at the relationship between x, y and z. However, in the final version, get rid of the scaffolding. Begin by writing about what you found out about the relationship; for example, X is strongly related to Y but not to Z.

Strunk and White:

"Rich ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating." ( p. 72)

"Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able." ( p. 76)

Simple writing is elegant. It is accurate and precise yet uses a minimum of words. The weight of a paper does not contribute to its value. It is harder to write a short paper that says something important than to write a long paper than meanders without a purpose. Avoid verbose, redundant, or meaningless expressions; they take up space but do not add value.

The active voice is easier to read and understand than the passive voice. Here are some examples from Strunk and White:

Passive: My first visit to D.C. will always be remembered by me.

Active: I will always remember my first visit to D.C.

Passive: There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.

Active: Dead leaves covered the ground.

Passive: The reason he left college was that his health became impaired.

Active: Failing health compelled him to leave college.

Passive: It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had.

Active: He soon repented his words. {p. 19}

You will note that the active voice tends to be shorter than the passive voice.

They also suggest the use positive statements:

"He usually came late" is better than "He was not very often on time."

"He thought the study of Latin a waste of time" is better than "He did not think that studying Latin was a sensible way to use ones time." {p. 19}

Always use spell check before printing your final version!!!

In addition, use a grammatical software package if you have one available. This is not as easy to use as the spell check but will help identify some errors.

This paper has one inch margins but is single-spaced. Lots of white space is used in formatting to help the reader identify areas of interest. I assume people will skim rather than read every word. I have also used a 10-point font to save on the number of pages needing to be copied.

9. Citing Sources and Quotes-Absolutely Essential!!!

If you are referring to the works of particular writers or paraphrasing their ideas, you would typically indicate that by including the author and the date of the publication in parentheses. For example, several authors have argued that public administrators are not as incompetent as the media and politicians have led the general public to believe (Johnson 1991; Goodsell 1994; Wolf 1996).

If you are quoting directly from a text, you must use the exact words. You use three periods ... to indicate text has been omitted (and four periods .... if the end of a sentence has been omitted). If the text is four or more lines long, the quoted text should be indented and single-spaced. You can then either footnote or include the author and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote.

If you are using material from the Internet, please provide the exact source so that the reader can obtain the document.

It is remarkably easy for your work to be misunderstood. One word can cause confusion. Talk with your reviewers if possible. Ask what changes he or she might recommend; this will tell you if they misunderstood what you said or disagreed with what you said. If they misunderstood, then you need to find a way to clarify your statements. If they disagreed, you need to find out if you have sufficient evidence to support your point of view. If it is a difference of values, you may want to consider softening your words. This is a judgement call.

Look at criticism as an opportunity to sharpen what you have to say. It is not personal nor is it a sign of failure. It is an opportunity to refine your writing skills.

This is a brief overview of the topic and the rationale as to why the topic is important.

If there is some specific information about the history of the problem or program, then provide a background section. This should be succinct. It should include only the information needed for the reader to understand your research.

Academic papers should provide a review of the relevant literature. Only those articles that are specifically related to your research questions should be included with a succinct summary of their major findings. You may find it helpful to discuss their research approach and some critique (it will depend upon your study). Your work does not occur in a vacuum. The literature review provides grounding. What have you learned from these studies that guided this study?

Objectives: What are the objectives of your research project? What are the research questions or hypotheses that you have attempted to answer? How do these questions connect to the issue you stated in your introduction?

Scope: What is the population of interest? State the type of sampling procedure, the number included, and the response rate (if applicable). Where was the study conducted? What is the time period in which the study was conducted? How will specific terms be measured? What would you have liked to have included or done, but couldn't because of resource limitations? Provide the rationale for the choices you made.

Methodology: What kind of research design did you use? What kind of data collection approaches did you use? What were your dependent and independent variables and how were they operationalized (if applicable)? What statistical procedures were used to analyze the data.

Discuss the overall strengths and limitations of your study in terms of internal and external validity.

Summarize the overall results and major findings in terms of your research questions. If you have three research questions, report the major (most important) results or findings for each one. You want to state whether the results are statistically significant (if applicable) and the strength of their association (if applicable).

For your key findings, provide the reader with charts (or tables) that clearly tell your story. If you have additional detail, provide the tables in an appendix. Be sure to tell your reader where to find the material (see Chart 1) or (see Appendix II). Use the titles of your charts and tables to tell your story of what you found, not what you did. For example, a chart or table title that says Those with More Education Tend to have Higher Income is much more informative than Regression of EDUC with INC or Education by Income. Do not abbreviate your variables in charts and tables. Say education rather than EDUC and Mothers Education rather than MAEDUC. Make your results accessible to the reader.

Restate the purpose of this study and the general research questions in terms of what you learned from this study. Did your research confirm or refute existing literature or beliefs? Did it support or fail to support your hypotheses? What are the implications of your study for policy or future research? How did the limitations of your study impact your results? What future research needs to be done based on what you have learned from your study?

Provide whatever background is important for the reviewer to assess your proposal. If you are looking at a specific program, agency or geographic location, provide sufficient information for the reviewer to see the connection between the problem stated in the introduction and the scope of the study you are proposing.

The literature review anchors your study into the current stream of knowledge. You want to choose studies that are directly related to your study. They should address similar research questions; they may look at different variables, use different methodologies, and/or take place in different times and places. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of these studies. Most important, what are the lessons learned from the prior work that you can incorporate into your proposal.

Briefly describe your preliminary study, if done: the research question, your methodology and major results. What did you learn for this study that can be used in your new and improved study?

Objectives: What are the objectives of your research project? What are the research questions you would like to answer or the hypotheses you would like to test?

Scope: What is the population of interest? What is the geographic area of interest?

Methodology: What method(s) will you use? What is the rationale for your selection? What are the strengths and limits of your study?

What do you believe will be the contribution of this new study? Why should they fund this? What are the unique advantages that you bring?

Becker, Howard S. Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article

Copyright, 1996, Yogesh Malhotra, University of Pittsburgh, Katz School of Business Ph.D. Program

A production of BRINT.COM.

Locke, Lawrence F. et. al. Proposals That Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals, (3^rd. Edition). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993.

Strunk, William Jr. and E.B. White. Elements of Style, (3^rd. Edition). NY: Macmillan Publishers, 1979.

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers (4^th Edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.