Storyboarding for Academic Papers

Research for academic papers can be time-consuming and when you finally start writing that research paper, you have enough arguments, proofs and conclusions to make it a fully featured academic piece. However, most of the time, when you go through loads of data and want to include many valuable facts into your writing, the main task is to organize everything logically: each argument needs to have its place where it highlights the main point of the research paper from the best angle. So, how to structure an academic piece the best way possible?

To answer this question, I need to tell you about my anniversary with my husband :) I wanted to have a corkboard for a long time because I have many post cards from my friends from all over the world and until quite recently they have been stuffed in one of my drawers. I wanted to pin them to the board and I did. My lovely husband presented me with a corkboard made with his own hands. I was very happy. When I pinned all the post cards, there was much space left and I started using it for my writing. I just wrote some facts or ideas and put them on the board. But, then, after lots of notes were pinned, while brainstorming I rearranged them, tried to look at the research subject from different angles and it actually helped me to create a successive outline for a research paper. And without realizing I used storyboarding for writing an academic piece. And I liked that experience much.

So, now you may have guessed the answer. I discovered that storyboarding is an effective tool for planning a paper where you can see how the changes in the structure may influence the output. And I strongly advise everyone to use this method which has many different forms. As you understood from my story about anniversary, I used a simple corkboard and notes but there are many programs like MindManager that may be downloaded to your devices. I use it when I go to work to the park or a café because it’s much more convenient than taking a corkboard to a public place :)

Try storyboarding for writing academic papers, maybe it is exactly what you need to improve your writing process!

Let’s Eat Grandma or the Importance of Commas

If anyone thinks that punctuation is not important in the English language, it’s time to get rid of such misconceptions. There is a popular mem on the Internet that perfectly summarizes my point.

And today, as you may have guessed, I will talk about commas. Commas divide the sentence into separate independent clauses, phrases or words. They are irreplaceable when it comes to long sentences with numerous clauses and different points of view. So, it is important to remember several rules in order to avoid confusion on the reader’s part.

• Commas Are Necessary before Conjunctions

It is necessary to add commas before but, and, so, or, nor, for, yet if the sentence is long and consists of independent clauses.

E.g. Freelance academic writers around the world improve their writing skills by using online courses, but some of them don’t have constant internet connection to upgrade their knowledge all the time.

However, if it is a small sentence with two independent clauses, this rule can be ignored.

E.g. These academic writers are from India and those ones are from Pakistan.

In addition, you don’t have to put comma before a conjunction if it joins subjects or predicates.

Filipino academic writers and American proofreader make a great team that produces high quality content.

• Enumeration Also Needs Commas

When you list some items in your sentence, they surely must be separated by commas (if you end up your enumeration with words or phrases like and so forth, and the like, and so on, etc., they need commas before them). Add a comma before a conjunction that names the last item in your listing.

E.g. Clients usually order essays, research papers, dissertations, case studies, and so on.

• Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses Are Picky

You need to understand the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses first. Restrictive clauses impact the general meaning of the sentence. It means that if you omit one of them, the sentence will focus on an entirely different thing. As a rule, it is used with the pronoun that and doesn’t require a comma.

E.g. The book that I have bought on the fair appears to be very useful.

Nonrestrictive clauses do not harm the meaning of the sentence if omitted. They are usually used with the pronoun which and require commas.

E.g. This book for international students by Stephen Bailey, which I have bought on the fair, appears to be very useful.

• Other Situations When Commas Are Needed

If you have a long introductory phrase at the beginning of your sentence, clarifying additional comments, place-names, parenthetical elements, repeated words or appositives (a word or phrase that follows a noun and plays an explanatory role), they are all used with commas or paired commas.

It is important to remember about these rules if you want your writing to look proficient. Of course, there are more points and exceptions that demand a more thorough examination, but these are the most essential ones. Use them wisely.

10 Freelance Academic Writing Fears More Frightening than Stephen King

You know that there are numerous phobias with weird names for almost every fear that a person can have: balonephobia (fear of needles and pins), cometophobia (obvious) or bibliophobia (fear of books; a kind of sacrilege, isn’t it?).

I haven’t found anything related to academic writing specifically but the closest disorder to it is atychiphobia or academic phobia – the fear of failure in learning. Well, I can’t say that I’m obsessed with the idea that I must excel at everything I learn, but I have some fears that have appeared as a result of my occupation. Let’s look into them more closely.

1. I won’t make it until deadline.
2. I will accidentally plagiarize something.
3. My statement proofs are not convincing enough.
4. My writing skills haven’t improved.
5. The client won’t like the paper.
6. I have missed a mistake!
7. I am not qualified enough for that assignment.
8. My language has degraded.
9. I have missed an update in citation rules.
10. All my writing has disappeared from my laptop.

I am sure that some freelance academic writers understand me and my fears. It is natural to be nervous when you are about to complete a serious task because some details may not be taken into account. There is always a risk …

On the one hand, I understand that these fears make me more thorough and diligent. On the other hand, they sometimes stop me from using, for instance, innovative data because it seems almost unreal and I think that the client may not accept that.

Confidence play an important role in academic writing and it certainly needs to be developed but at the same time doubting your decisions can sometimes make your work better.  

And What Can I Do Now with My Research Skills?

Recently, I have found out (unexpectedly) that my research skills have completely changed my behavior. How could that happen? Well, I’m not sure but I do know that I benefit from this proficiency every day (and not only when I’m working).

• I Always Look What Is at the Bottom of the Sea

When I learn a new term or hear some new information, I instantly google it and never stop on the simple definition. I want to know more: how and when did it appear? Who contributed to it? What are the results of its existence? And I hardly can stop there. The best benefit of the research skills is that you always want to know more and deepen your knowledge on every new subject you come across. And you know what it does with your mind besides widening horizons …

• “Anything You Say May Be Used Against You in the Court of Law”

When there is a discussion, I never claim anything if I’m not 100% sure that it’s true. It often happens that my friends have hot debates over some matters but I prefer to avoid taking somebody’s side unless I know exactly who is right. That is the habit that you acquire while researching and writing academic papers. There is a strong benefit to that: I never turn out to be wrong :)

• I Can Find Any Info That I Need

When my husband needs to find out when that lecture he attends is or my kids don’t know how to make a cover for a DIY notebook, here comes the researcher that lives in me. Well, it may seem that everybody can find that information and that is true. But it concerns those who know how to form correct questions to type in the search bar and this is exactly what research teaches people to do.  

I think that the research skills have greatly helped me to become a better person because, now, I feel that I can find out anything I need or want. And that is a marvelous feeling!

Book Review: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

Recently I have published a post about “Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day” by Joan Bolker and today I will talk about something much more serious. The book by Bolker focuses on developing a writing habit of producing some text every day. And “A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations” by Kate L. Turabian has very specific instructions on academic writing and that’s exactly what every academic writer needs.

There are several reasons it is definitely worth buying (it’s better to opt for a paper copy because the kindle version has some navigation problems as the reviews say. Anyway, I have a paperback copy):

• It Is Compact

It doesn’t have any paper wasted on unnecessary information: everything is concise and each detail plays an important role for an academic writer.

• It Is Written in Plain English

You won’t have any troubles perceiving the information from the book because the language is simple and clear, so you won’t have to read the sentence twice to get what it is about.

• It Is Written for People

By this point I mean that this book contains not only technical details of academic writing (how to use abbreviations; how to cite electronic sources; etc.) but it actually gives some tips on how to place the word “research” in your head so that it would acquire the correct meaning. It also helps the process of deciding on the topic for your paper which is one of the most important things in academic writing.

I highly recommend this book to freelance academic writers because it will definitely help you become that professional you want to be. In spite of my 16-year experience I found much useful information in it. This is the most trustworthy resource and it gives you a great deal of confidence because once you write a paper following the instructions from this book, you are certain that you’ve done the right thing.

Why Do You Need to Use Corpora?

Corpora … It is a strange word that sounds a little bit scary for me because (I don’t know why) it associates with Umbrella Corporation from “Residence Evil”. Well, it doesn’t matter really. What’s important here is that corpora can help you a great deal with academic writing. How? Let’s see.

A corpus (pl. corpora) is a large electronic collection of texts which can specialize in a specific language (Corpus of Contemporary American English), certain dialect (Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech), separate industry (Corpus of American Soap Operas), etc. So what? How can it exactly help you?

Let’s imagine that you are writing an essay for an American student and you are not sure whether you should use the word “offense” or “offence”. So, you go to the Corpus of Contemporary American English and here is what you see:

You need to:

• Press enter;

• Type the word “offense” into the search bar;

You will see that the word “offense” has 13634 occurrences and if you want to see it in the context, you just need to click this word.

• Type the word “offence” into the search bar;

You see that it has only 289 occurrences and it gives you the evidence that “offense” is more common in American English. To compare the results you may also examine the same words in the British National Corpus.

Overall, corpora can be used to check which prepositions are used with this or that word or how some certain phrase is applied in the context. This way or another, corpora are irreplaceable tools in academic writing once you learn their value. 

Copyediting in Academic Writing

Checking your own writing can be a nasty task because you tend to miss lots of your own mistakes. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t do without a professional editor or proofreader: you can manage this yourself if you are attentive enough and have plenty of aces in the hole.

My previous article was devoted to editing itself and this one will be on copyediting. Moreover, it will be the last one from the series of after-writing text processing because content editing is simple and proofreading is a combination of editing and copyediting tricks.

So, we proceed to copyediting. It is a stage when you have to spot all the grammar and spelling mistakes: it means that you aim at the “landmine” enemy because they are tiny and not visible from the 1^st sight. This stage needs all your attention and concentration and that’s why you better use some of the techniques that can help you boost your focus:

• Use grammar checkers: I know that it’s obvious but some people radically avoid using them because free grammar checkers are useless (not all of them) and paid ones are expensive (true story). The truth is that you can find a free grammar checker that will indicate all your spelling mistakes at least. And for grammar pitfalls you’ll have to use your thorough eye.
• Watch for 3^rd person singular: the most common mistake in academic writing is –s with verbs when there is he/she/it. Why’s that so? Because academic sentences are long and even if you ace at English grammar, you can miss this sneaky –s among the clauses.
• Use the right preposition with the phrasal verb: you know how it’s going, you put the wrong preposition near the verb and it has a completely another meaning. So, always check the phrase in the dictionary or use corpuses.
• Check for commas with that/which: relative clauses are little devils of English syntax and punctuation, so you have to be sure where to put the comma and where you don’t need it at all.
• Don’t mix up which/who/that.
• Avoid filler words: filler words are indicators of a conversational tone and you don’t want to have that in an academic paper. So, delete all the “it’s like”, “sort of”, “um”, “you know”, etc.;
• Eradicate redundancies: it means that you have to remove unnecessary repetitions because academic writing is no place for extra words: everything must be clear and precise. Check out some redundancies that must be eradicated: http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/redundancies.htm.
• Eliminate contractions: they are likely to be found in informal writing but not in a research essay or dissertation.

These are the basic things that must be noticed first and foremost. Of course, there are more mistakes that can hide in your texts but they are individual. So, you must observe what corrections you make not to miss the mistakes the next time. I wish you luck with your writing! Be attentive all the time!

Editing Techniques for Freelance Academic Writers

As you have seen from my previous post, I started to write a series of articles on after-writing text processing. I strongly believe that writing is only 50% of producing a great piece, the rest is on editing, content editing, copyediting and proofreading. You have to be really attentive with writing because it is much easier to notice someone else’s mistake than yours. So, I’ll try to grasp the details of every stage of this process and I’ll start from editing.

As I’ve mentioned before, editing is the 1^st step you have to take after writing your rough draft. During this stage you check the text for structure mismatches that can spoil the big picture. For instance, you have three paragraphs in your essay but the 1^st one is 300 words and the 2^nd one is two small sentences. Or you see that the sentences are very big and the reader will lose the thread after reading it all. And there can be even minor gaps like full points that should or shouldn’t be at the end of your subheading or something like that.  Of course, it looks inappropriate and that’s what editing is for. But I won’t tell you long lists of 25+ editing techniques that you can find all over the Internet, I’ll just mention three that work best for me:

1)      edit 5 hours after the text has been written;
(after you have just finished the piece, it will seem perfect to you because you’ve worked so hard on it and have had several genius ideas. I don’t want to upset you but it’s surely not perfect and you will see it after some time passes.)

2)      read out loud or use some text-to-speech software;
(while listening to your own words, you’ll perceive them from a different perspective and you may notice not only perfunctory issues but touch upon other text processing stages like content-editing or copyediting.)

3)      change the font of the text.
(if you switch from Times New Roman to Comic Sans, your brain will think that it’s not the same text anymore, that it’s someone else’s. That’s why the possibility that you’ll notice more issues is much higher.)

These are my favorite means of editing and they always work very well. They seem very simple but that shouldn’t worry you: as the 1^st stage in text processing, editing with these strategies will be effective enough for the after-writing text processing. So, my dear colleagues, use these techniques and polish your texts with pleasure!

Editing, Content Editing, Copyediting or What the Hell?

When you start typing in the search box “what is the difference between proofread …”, this is what you get:

And you just wanted to make sure that you understand what editing is. But don’t start panicking when you see so many things that other people do with their texts. Although you have thoughts like “OMG, my writing could have been better if I had revised, edited, copyedited, content-edited it before proofreading!”, I’m positive that you did everything abovementioned by just correcting mistakes and making sure that your essay or article looks decent. Believe me: the fact that you didn’t know how all the stages of writing are called (which will be fixed in a few moments) doesn’t make you a bad writer.

When I mentioned “all stages of writing”, I didn’t make a mistake because just spilling out all the words on the paper or into a Word doc is not enough; if you want to do a great job, you need to thoroughly go through your text before sending it to a client. And I’ll tell you how to call every step of this process so that you can structure all the actions in your head, have a chance to show off in front of your employer and can feel how good you are.

So let’s begin.

I know that there are numerous definitions and contradictions regarding differences between different stages of text processing, so I’ll depend on my own classification that I’ve embraced by searching the internet, trying everything in practice and selecting the best ones. Consequently, I’ll refer to editing, content editing, copyediting and proofreading.

·         Editing – you look at your writing from the distance, so to say. You foresee that the structure is right, the organization is logical and your text looks harmonious when you give a quick glance at it. Thus, I sometimes call this stage “above ground”.

·         Content Editing – you check that the content actually meets the requirements of the assignments, whether the facts that you mention are truthful and relevant and if there are any contradictions. Consistency is very important in your career, so be sure to watch it.

·         Copyediting – here is the stage that can be called “underground” because you have to eradicate all the spelling, grammar or stylistic mistakes from your text. I’m sure that you do it regularly but maybe now, knowing how it’s called, you can say to every mistake in your writing “YOU SHALL NOT PASS”.

·         Proofreading – finally the words that freelance academic writers meet so often: on this stage you correct all the tiny winy errors or inconsistencies that could pass your guard before and polish your essay to be perfect before sending it to the client.

And that’s all. Isn’t really that bad, is it? Well, here I have to additionally mention “revising” or “revision” which comprises editing, content editing and copyediting into one word. But I wouldn’t risk missing even one stage during text processing because when you have everything in a crowd in your head, you surely can lose something out.

I hope that this classification will help you deliver academic content of the best quality and you won’t have problems with editing or proofreading anymore.

Good luck, my friends.

“Write Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day” by Joan Bolker

When you see such kind of titles, you are sure that the dissertation catastrophe is averted and you can breathe freely. But it’s not completely true: even if you are following the schedule (I don’t even mention you falling behind), 15 minutes a day won’t make the dissertation written on time and the author of “Write Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day” fully agrees with it.

This book is a quick read (only 150 pages) and if you hope that after covering it you’ll sit and finish your paper, you’re wrong. It also contains some outdated info like pros and cons of using a computer which is understandable due to the time it was written (1997). But I believe that everybody who has a thesis to produce MUST read Joan Bolker. Sounds contradictory? I’ll justify my point. This book:

• Outlines the process of dissertation writing and you approximately know what you are getting into;
• Prepares you morally and gives you some food for thought on how to set realistic goals and what barriers you may face down the road;
• Offers different types of writing for various types of people (free writing, zero draft, writing every day, sketching out your ideas all the time before you move to the next step, write first, etc.).
  
  

But those are not the most important things. The whole point of this book is that it forces you to develop a daily writing habit that can keep you from getting stuck (writer’s block is a frequent phenomenon in academic writing). Instead of freaking out that your dissertation is far from the stage it should be on, you can engage in a productive daily routine that will bring you much more fruit than you can imagine. If you find time to work on your project every day, you’ll spend more than 15 minutes and produce great writing. And to end my review of “Write Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day” by Joan Bolker, I’ll quote Megan from Goodreads: “So this book is not a miracle worker. It doesn't write your dissertation for you. It doesn't even promise what the title suggests it might. But it is honest, sometimes funny, and often inspiring - which is pretty good for a book on writing nonfiction.”

Stay Away from These Words in Academic Writing

Academic writing is a separate sphere that has its rules and peculiarities. The style is very plain and clear, so, any vagueness must be avoided. There are words that should be dodged if you want to look professional enough for your clients. And that’s what I’m going to talk about.

There is no place in academic writing for words like:

-          I/My

There mustn’t be anything personal in a paper you are writing. Your main goal is not to express your opinion (unless the requirement clearly states it) but to prove some point with solid facts or numbers.

-          Thing

Frankly speaking, it’s my junk word that I sometimes use too much. I always try to keep it in check but when editing, I always delete one or two astray “things”. I even have a small note as you can see. Hope it’ll help.

-          Kind of

It’s one more junk word (fortunately not mine) that appears very often in not really appropriate places. You can replace it with more academic equivalents like “within the parameters of” or “in the category of”.

-          Of course

This word doesn’t show you from the best side. When you are to write a paper, you obviously need to research because you don’t know everything. But the use of this word presupposes that you’ve taken the topic and covered it in 30 min. You and I know that it’s not true. So, avoid it.

-          And so on

Your much better options are to enumerate everything till the end or to use “etc.” This is the word that characterizes informal language but not the academic style that is expected of you.

This list is not full. There are loads of restrictions in terms of academic style but I’m not going to mention them all. These words are highlighted because they are taken from my own experience and mistakes. Of course, I use them: that’s why I have this blog, to blow off the steam so to say. So, dear writers: watch your writing and run your blogs; they really help tame the urge to use junk words.

If the Client Doesn’t Give You the Task, Ask for It Yourself

Clients can be very different and the communication we have with them is very important. Sometimes, when we fail to find the common ground it’s usual for us to blame the customer. However, it’s often our own fault because we don’t ask enough questions to clear up the situation or make other mistakes that prevent us from understanding each other. Here is what I’ll tell you: there are 3 golden rules that you must repeat like mantra every time before you go to sleep:

1.     Always Ask Questions

This is your spaceship that will get you to the Moon and back. If you see that the client haven’t included a clear task or haven’t mentioned some details, it’s your green light that means you need to ask. Moreover, even when it seems that everything is stated, ask questions to clarify whether you’ve got the task right. Remember that it’s vital for your freelance academic writing career.

2.     Say “No” When It’s Necessary

The global problem of any freelancer is that they are afraid of saying “No” to their clients due to the fear of losing them. But, in fact, when you take up loads of assignments or plunge into something you are unable to complete, it is much worse than just turning down an offer. If you have promised to fulfill the task but haven’t delivered the result, you lose a client, your reputation and several future clients too. Think about that carefully.

3.     Meet the Deadlines

The last but not the least, as people like to say. If you provide high quality writing but fail to deliver it within the set deadline, the client will ignore it once or twice but then he or she will find the person who will do the work on time. Believe me, there is nothing better than the job done by a professional sent exactly when it’s needed.

These are the rules that you have to learn and follow. Some of you may think or say that they are very basic but people who look for such kind of articles with a hope to solve their problems with clients clearly have troubles with these rules. So, before trying to use some techniques or ask yourself whether you’ve done something wrong, make sure everything is ok with these three corner stones.

Good luck to you!