ACADEMIC WRITING TIPS FOR

SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Siti Nurhasanah, S.IP., M.Si.

husna.rifa04@gmail.com
#Junewritethink2020

Master of American Studies

School of Strategic and Global Studies
Universitas Indonesia Materi ini diadaptasi dari Permata Wulandari
WHAT IS THESIS/JOURNAL ARTICLE TO YOU?
VERN’S DIAGRAM ON INTER-RELATED IDEAS

ECONOMY
Overlapping
ideas

INVESTORS’
STOCKMARKET
RETURN
Spider Map
Factor
1

Factor Central
factor2
4 idea

Factor
3
 The Idea Map
(or Spider Map)
1) With this type of graphic organizer, students put the
main topic of their essay in the center of the page.

2) Then they brainstorm, writing supporting ideas all

around the page.

3) They should put ideas that relate to each other

together, in the same section of the page.

4) Eventually ideas (and related details) that they can use

to support their main topic become clear.
Copyright 2012 www.time4writing.com/free-writing-resources Copyright 2012
 Sample Flow Chart

trees drop need to

It's ready for
their sweep
autumn! winter
leaves leaves

Ideas flow logically into each other, coming to a

final conclusion.

Copyright 2012 www.time4writing.com/free-writing-resources Copyright 2012

 The Flow Chart
This is often the simplest type of graphic organizer.

Students list ideas or events in a sequential order:

• chronologically, or
• by a cause & effect relationship, or
• based on a logical progression, or
• mapping out different possibilities or
outcomes

Copyright 2012 www.time4writing.com/free-writing-resources Copyright 2012

 THINKING PROCESS (PLEASE DO)

WHAT GOALS DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE IN RESEARCH?

1)TOPIC – CURRENT, HOT

2)ISSUES / PROBLEMS – WHAT ARE THEY?

3)OBJECTIVES – WHAT
ARE THEY?

4)METHOD – HOW
PEOPLE DID IT?

5)RESULTS – FINDINGS
WHAT ARE THE FINDINGS ?
WHY ARE THE FINDINGS LIKE THAT?
 Academic Research Process
Common structure of dissertation/thesis
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography
Publications
Requirements for writing
dissertation/thesis
• Analyze
• Gather data
• Experiment
• Test
• Design Technical
• Compare Skills
• Calculate
Dissertation
• Organize /Thesis
• Write Writing
• Edit Skills
• Review
• Proofread
• Verify
• clarify
 What is Academic Writing?
• It is a formal writing.
• Charcteristics of Academic writing:
a) A formal tone
b)Use of the third-person rather than first-
person perspective
c)Clear focus on the issue or topic rather than
the author’s opinion
d)Precise word choice
e) The writing follows a certain Process
 Academic writing
• Types of Academic Writing
– essay
– research paper
– Master Project paper/ PhD thesis
– journal article
– book review
– Synthesis or an abstractt
– review of the literature
– annotated bibliography
 Academic vs Non academic
• Non-academic
eg. “ I find the article is very bad, many mistakes in
the grammar”
The writer writes in a personal capacity, using the word
“I”. It also contain personal opinion
• Academic
Eg: The article is bad as it contains many grammatical
mistakes.
The writer writes as a third person, avoid strong
adjectives like “very bad”, focus on the issue which is
the article
 Conventions of writing acadmic
writing/report
• Spelling
- What are wrongs with spelling?
• Punctuation
- what should you do?
• Capitalization – capital letters?
• Grammar – broken sentences
• Paragraphing
- what should paragraphs be?
 WHAT IS EFFECTIVE
ACADEMIC WRITING??

LEFT A LASTING
IMPRESSION IN THE MINDS
OF THE READER

EASY, COMPREHENSIBLE,
INTERESTING TO READ

BROUGHT A CHANGE IN
SOMEONE’S LIFE
The Ingredients of Effective Writing

• Strong writing.
-THINKING precedes writing. (mind-mapping ideas)
- Solid PLANNING. Observe the Table of contents of completed theses to
observe the coverage. For journal article, observe the layout
- spend time to DISTILL information from literature/ articles reviews

• Excellent Grammar and writing conventions

(tenses, spelling, punctuation, comma, conjunctions)
• Connection of ideas. Sentence to sentence, paragraph to
paragraph
 Solutions for Writing Issues
Use Fully grammatical sentences and
punctuation.
Use coherent paragraph form.
Each paragraph must has follow from the
previous one.
Use Simple sentence structure.
Every sentence must contain one idea only
Each sentence must follow logically form
the one before.
(continue…)
 Continue ..
Avoid slang and informal language.
Avoid abbreviations.
Link your ideas in a sensible sequence.
Avoid passive voice wherever possible.
Avoid repeating words and phrases in
close proximity to one another.
.

WRITE AND REWRITE OVER TIMES TO ACHIEVE

ORIGINALITY
What are the Features of Effective Writing?

• The five Features of Effective Writing are:

a) focus,
b)organization, (mind mapping, table of
content)
c)support and elaboration,
d)style, and
e) conventions
 Focus

• Focus is the topic/subject established by the

writer in response to the writing task. The
writer must clearly establish a focus as he/she
fulfills the assignment of the prompt
 Organization & Connectivity
• Organization is the progression, relatedness,
and completeness of ideas. The writer
establishes for the reader a well-organized
composition, which exhibits a constancy of
purpose through the development of
elements forming an effective beginning,
middle, and end. The response demonstrates
a clear progression of related ideas and/or
events and is unified and complete.
 Support and Elaboration
• Support and Elaboration is the extension and development of the
topic/subject. The writer provides sufficient elaboration to present the
ideas and/or events clearly.

• Two important concepts in determining whether details are supportive are

the concepts of relatedness and sufficiency. To be supportive of the
subject matter, details must be related to the focus of the response.
Relatedness has to do with the directness of the relationship that the
writer establishes between the information and the subject matter.
Supporting details should be relevant and clear.

• The writer must present his/her ideas with enough power and clarity to
cause the support to be sufficient. Effective use of concrete, specific
details strengthens the power of the response. Insufficiency is often
characterized by undeveloped details, redundancy, and the repetitious
paraphrasing of the same point. Sufficiency has less to do with amount
than with the weight or power of the information that is provided.
 Style

• Style is the control of language that is appropriate to

the purpose, audience, and context of the writing task.
The writer’s style is evident through word choice and
sentence fluency.
• Skillful use of precise, purposeful vocabulary enhances
the effectiveness of the composition through the use
of appropriate words, phrases and descriptions that
engage the audience.
• Sentence fluency involves using a variety of sentence
styles to establish effective relationships between and
among ideas, causes, and/or statements appropriate to
the task.
S Author Objectives & Methodolo Findings Comment/Gap
N Title Related gy
Publication Variables
R Fidanoski .F, Vesna Mateska .V. To investigate the Sample Size: Mixed Result:  The study suggests
1 & Simeonovski .K.(2013) relevance of board 15 banks in i. the size of both that the results are
size, board Macedonia the still biased because of
“Corporate Governance and composition and Supervisory and several limitations
Bank Performance: Evidence CEO qualities in the Data: the Managing including:
from Macedonia” banks and their Secondary board is manipulation of
performance data for the positively related Financial statements,
period 2008- to ROA undervaluation of
MPRA IVs: 2011. assets, use of
Munich Personal RePEc Archive Board size, Board ii. none of the manipulative policies
Online at http://mpra.ub.uni- composition and variables in the to record
Analysis:
muenchen.de/46773/ CEO qualities model has depreciation,
Regression
MPRA Paper No. 46773 posted significant adoption of different
Analysis (OLS)
6. May 2013 18:12 UTC DVs: relation to ROE methods to
Profitability (ROA, consolidate accounts
ROE), Efficiency iii. a significant & and others (see
(CIRATIO) and positive Chakravarthy, 1986).
Capital relationship
requirement (CAR). exists b/w the Sample size is small
size of the  Period need to be
Control Variables: Managing board extended
Bank’s age (AGE) and the Cost-  Macedonian
Credits/Deposit Income context only
Ratio (CDRATIO) Ratio  secondary data only
Dummy for Bank’s  Model need to be
nature (BNATURE). robust by adding
other Variables.
S/N Problem Statement Research Questions Research Objectives

R1 The study by Fidanoski, Mateska How do corporate To determine the

& Simeonovski (2013) on governance mechanisms relationship between
“Corporate Governance and correlate with survival corporate governance
Bank Performance in and growth of mechanisms with the
Macedonia” focused only on the commercial banks? survival and growth of
financial performance of 15 commercial banks.
sampled banks in Macedonia,
with less emphasis on systemic
(survival and growth) and social
performance (Corporate Social
Responsibility) of firms which
are expectations of various
stakeholders (Zahra & Pearce II,
1989 and 1992).