The cartoon above, besides being pretty funny, made this retired English professor think, after having a hearty chuckle, “who would even think of doing such a thing?”
People who are new to academic writing, that’s who. First-year college students, usually American, and taking their first composition courses and who, bless their hearts, do not know the difference between college composition (learning academic writing for research, which is what they will be doing for the next four years) and creative writing (a course for people who wish to become writers or teach writing). I recall first-day writing prompts that, like, literally read like they were texting me about their bff or bae with “ur” for “your” or “you’re,” and “2” for “two.” Needless to say, my second-day class lecture was always based on why we do not write the way we speak – or, in other words, why we do not use the vernacular in academic writing.
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The Literature Review
The Literature Review is the next important step in your thesis introduction. Different from an annotated bibliography, the review of the literature you have used (books, journal articles, periodicals, etc.), should:
- Review your discipline style: APA, Chicago, Harvard, and so on.
- Show that you are familiar with the essential background information on your topic.
- Help your reader understand your thesis.
- Tell your reader what has already been written about your topic.
- Show that your thesis is original and has not already been covered by someone else.
- Show where your study will fit in with the current body of literature on the topic and within your field. Think in terms of “what gap will my project fill?”
Remember: the literature review is not a list. It should be a comprehensive analysis and review of all of the relevant literature you have chosen to study.
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In this series, we will attempt to provide general information that should apply to most graduate students, particularly in the United States and Canada. While there are some differences in terminology between the UK and the US, most everything else applies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Our last post dealt with the first sections of the Introduction, from the introductory sentence to the Purpose of the Study. We continue this week with the final components of the introduction: the Research Questions, Significance of the Study, Definitions of Terms, and Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
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Your entire college writing career should have prepared you to write a top-notch introduction. After all, you have written countless research papers since your freshman year, and yet the Introduction seems to be the biggest hurdle for many writers.
Perhaps this is because it’s tedious; you are merely skimming the surface and providing talking points rather than getting into the deeper study that you have so passionately undertaken during your post-grad years.
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Writing the Dissertation Proposal
Mise en place. It is a French phrase that is used in the professional cooking world and it means “(putting) everything in place.” The mise en place of a professional kitchen is its philosophy and system. It is used interchangeably as both a noun (setting up the ingredients) and a verb (the process of preparing to act). It is also a good way to think about starting to write the thesis or dissertation.
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