Academic Writingfor

MSc dissertation studentsPart 2: Structure

©Dr Alison Crerar, School of Computing, Napier University, June 2004.

(These slides include notes pages)

Academic writing

structure

style

ethics

Structure of a dissertationLinkages between sectionsLinks and signpostsFunction of paragraphsConstructing an argumentLogical ordering of material

ToneAvoidance of ‘I’, ‘You’ sexismUse of professional vocabularyAcademic conventionsCare with nuances of meaningSentence formulationReference formatting & citations

Integrity, open-mindedness

Criticising kindlyEthical writing up

Structure > Structure of a dissertation

Title pageAuthorship declarationAbstractContents listList of tablesList of figuresAcknowledgements

Introduction and/or background incl. Scope & aims of the studyLiterature reviewWork conducted (e.g. requirements capture, design, implementation, evaluation)

ConclusionsCritical appraisal of achievementSuggestions for further work

Appendices (including such things as)Project proposalShort examples of codeDocuments used all created (e.g. questionnaire)Relevant correspondenceSample data collectedReferences

Structure > Linkages between sections

A weakness commonly seen in students’ dissertations is the lack of a clear connection between the literature review and the subsequent work conducted.

A good dissertation will show many backwards and forwards links. The main links should be:

•Between the scope and aims of the study and the literature review

•Between the literature review and the work conducted

•Between each of the elements of the work conducted

•Between any software developed and evaluated and the requirements phase of the work

•Between the conclusions and the scope and aims of the study

•Between the critical appraisal of achievement and the scope and aims of the study, and between the critical appraisal and the literature review.

•Between the suggestions for further work and the conclusions.

Structure > Links and signpostsExplain the structure of the narrativeProvide reminders of what has been coveredAnticipate reader’s questions and state where they will be addressed.

Following on from the review of agent-based technologies in Section 3.4…

In Section 2.2. it was argued that….

The remainder of this Chapter is devoted to exploring…. Section 4.1 provides… This leads on to a… in Section 4.2…

It appears from the literature that there are five main classification systems in use: these are described below in chronological order of invention.

There are other possible reasons for non-participation, these are discussed in Section 6.2 below.

A plausible interpretation of these results might be…..however, we examined…. and found that….

Structure > Constructing an argument

Damage to Broca’s area in the left hemisphere of the brain leads to a form of aphasia called Broca’s aphasia or agrammatism (Ellis and Young, 1988). The distinctive features of agrammatism are …..

Starting with a general statement of the type of problem and its cause, moving to a general description of the symptoms.

Whilst agrammatic production is characterised by a “telegraphic” form of speech with function words and morphological inflections omitted, asyntactic comprehension is characterised by… Patients’ comprehension of these sentences is typically evaluated using sentence-picture matching tests. In these tests the patient is presented with…

Distinguishing between output (speech) and input (comprehension) deficits and then proceeding to explain how comprehension deficits (the subject of our research) are usually diagnosed.

One of the earliest explanatory hypotheses for this performance pattern was that …. This hypothesis could not, however, explain the evidence later provided by ….

Giving a brief account of the theoretical accounts of the symptomatology, in the order that they were postulated (so giving a feel for how the field has developed.

Extracts (in order of appearance in the paper) from Beveridge, M. A. and Crerar, M. A. (2002) Remediation of asyntactic sentence comprehension using a multimedia microworld, Brain and Language, 82/3, 243-295.

Please, pause this slideshow at this point and do exercise 4.

Structure > Logical ordering of material

This concludes the second part of the academic writing workshop about “structure”.

In summary, the structure of a dissertation must follow a template (introduction, literature review, …). It is important that all sections have clear linkages and follow a logical ordering. Arguments within each section must be carefully constructed.

The next part of the workshop covers “ethics”.