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Honors College
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Communicate
Inform
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Entertain
Persuade
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We write to think,
not think to write
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Corollaries
1. Clear writing is evidence of clear thinking
2. Scholars should be writing often
Scholarship
a prolonged conversation, a dialogue
you have a seat at the table
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What will you say?
How will you reach them?
Write!
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
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Writing Process
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Writer’s Block
5
Sharing your work
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
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Writing Process
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Writer’s Block
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Sharing your work
Forms of Scholarly Writing
Less Formal
More Formal
Planning documents
Thesis
Prospectus
Dissertation
Research journal
Poster
Emails
Book
Letters
Journal article
Memos
Conference abstract
Conference paper
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
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Writing Process
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Writers Block
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Sharing your work
Typical Thesis Outline – Best Practices
Abstract
Introduction
Expected content, style, and
organization may vary by discipline.
Methods/Procedures
Results/Findings/Product
Discussion & Conclusions
References
Critical Reflection
Science writing tends to be very
formulaic – strong constraints like
writing poetry (e.g., Haiku or
Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter)
Abstract
A one-paragraph summary of the main points of your thesis.
Often ~1 sentence per section of your thesis.
Must Stand Alone
Often distributed separately from the main body of your writing
Often have limits such as 150 - 300 words.
Example Abstract
Fell, K. 2014. HUP! The presence
of virtuosity in Irish traditional
music. Explorations 9: 7 – 16
Example Abstract
Lawless, T. 2014. Sickly Sweet: The
Development of a Standardized Method
Testing for Lactose and Fructose
Intolerance and Malabsorption.
Explorations 9: 92– 100
Introduction
Funnel your reader into your work
Broad Introduction to Topic
Significance?
Literature Review
put work in context
Your specific objectives,
hypotheses, and questions
How many paragraphs are in Honors Thesis introductions in your discipline?
Materials & Methods
• Describe the materials used
• Describe the methodology
– data collection
– analytical frameworks.
• Describe your data analysis procedures (quantitative or
qualitative)
Results
• Describe what you learned
• Report your evidence or supporting arguments
• In the sciences
– typically short and sweet
– includes references to figures and tables with your supporting
evidence
• In the creative space
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Film = results
Music Score = results
Photography = results
Play Production = results
Discussion
1. Don’t repeat your results; explain them.
What mechanisms might explain your results?
2. What is the significance of your results?
3. How do they compare to values previously
reported in the literature?
4. Critically evaluate your science.
Are your results accurate representations of the
phenomenon you studied?
What would you differently next time?
Activity (~15 min)
Pick an Honors Thesis from the table
– Preferably something from your discipline
Read the Abstract
– Can you describe what the student did?
Write down the first level outline
– Does if follow the “best practice” outline presented?
– Does it include a separate section for a literature review?
Count the number of paragraphs in each section
– Discuss these numbers with your peers – what was the average #’s?
Select 2 Figures or Tables to examine
– Based on the captions, can you infer the main point of the Fig/Tab?
Scan the Discussion or Conclusion section
– What were the 2-3 main points of the student’s thesis?
How many references did the student cite? Format?
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
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Writing Process
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Writer’s Block
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Sharing your work
Pre-Writing
Writing that occurs before you write
your actual thesis
Part may serve as drafts of sections
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Research Journal
Action Plan
Literature Review
Prospectus
Consider “SOAPStone”
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Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Subject
Tone
SOAPStone: A Strategy for Reading and Writing
| Ogden Morse
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/preap/teachers_co
rner/45200.html
Outline – Plan your Writing
Organize your thoughts into an outline
– Multiple levels (1st, 2nd, 3rd Headings)
• Tools
– In MS Word use Heading Styles, then use Outline View in Word
– Use mind mapping software to brainstorm an outline
– Paragraph level
• main point of the paragraph?
• Supporting evidence?
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Literature Review
Listen before
you Speak
Given that scholarship is a protracted dialogue,
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You must read & review the relevant literature.
• Follow disciplinary guidelines, discuss procedure with mentor
• Perhaps write as a stand alone document
• Must be thorough
• Organize and Summarize main ideas – by topic, method, author, etc.
• Note important authors and major conclusions
• Include a bibliography with the works you read and cite
• Read other’s bibliography to find relevant works
Drafting the Essay
• Use your preparation tools
– Plan
– Outline
– Research journal
• You don’t have to write in linear order – start
with the section you know the most about
– Try writing the introduction in reverse paragraph
order
– Try by starting to write the methods section
Edit and Revise
Expect to edit and revise your work.
It’s a process.
Style Matters
The power of your writing is linked to its style.
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Study a style manual to make sure that your prose is lively, varied [with respect to sentence
types and lengths, and paragraph types and lengths], exact, refreshing, gripping.
Elements of Style – Schemes
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Balance
Parallelism: similarity of structure in a pair of series of related words, phrases, or clauses
Antithesis: the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure
Anastrophe: inversion of the natural or usual word order
Parenthesis: insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence
Apposition: placing side-by-side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation or
modification of the first
Omission
Ellipsis: the deliberate omission of a word or of words readily implied by the context
Asyndeton: deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series
Polysyndeton: deliberate use of many conjunctions
Repetition
Alliteration: repetition of initial, medial or final consonants in two or more adjacent words
Anaphora: repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses
Epistrophe: repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses
Climax: arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance
Antimetabole: repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order
Elements of Style – Tropes
Metaphor: implied comparison between two things of unlike nature
Simile: explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature
Synecdoche: figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole
Metonymy: substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant
Puns: a play on words
Personification: investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities
Hyperbole: the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect
Litotes: deliberate use of understatement
Rhetorical question: asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the
purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely
• Irony: use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of
the word
• Onomatopoeia: use of words whose sound echoes the sense
• Oxymoron: the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
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Writing Process
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Writer’s Block
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Sharing your work
Strategies
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If you have difficulties with a section, leave it and work on another that may be easier for you to complete.
Always write something down, even if it is a passage in your journal about how “unsuccessful” you were at a particular stage of
the project. Such writing may prove to be informative and useful when composing later. Sometimes moving to write in the
informal space of your journal will let you free-write with fewer constraints and pressure that will unlock what was blocking your
original progress.
Leave the writing alone for a while if you must (but no longer than a few days), or “sleep on it” and work on the project the next
day—rest, relaxation and time off are often all that you need to come up with more ideas and a stronger will to continue writing.
Take a nap, go on a walk (exercise), or eat a snack to give your mind an opportunity to “work” on an idea without forcing yourself
to slave over the project. This is another form of incubation, as you may have done during the early stages of considering a topic
for the project.
Remember that all professional writers also experience this problem; they just take it in stride as part of the composing process
and do not allow it to trouble or vex them in pursuing their passion to write.
Don’t be nervous about writing; just know your subject well and you won’t be.
Avoid caving in to distractions (like computers, games, cellphones, etc.) if you become stuck in a writer’s rut.
Do like the Puritans used to do and carry a pocket-sized notebook (Research Journal) with you at all times to record ideas for
writing as they come to you. Since good ideas do not always materialize just when you need them to, it is best to get into the habit
of jotting them down as they come, realizing that some may come to you at the oddest of moments, places, or times, like when you
are even sleeping!
Consult online websites for additional ideas to overcome this problem.
Most writing advice includes the suggestion to write for a set period everyday. One of the challenges to writing is the mental and
physical challenge of starting a writing session as well as exiting a writing session. The advantage of writing everyday is that it
lowers the barrier to re-entering your writing because you were just in it recently. It also lowers the anxiety of stopping because
you can be confident that you will pick up with the work tomorrow. Some writers try to stop with an uncompleted sentence to give
them a specific place to pick up. Building on the writing everyday idea, an artist in Athens, GA described his approach as
“cooking” his writing. Each day he set a kitchen timer for a set period of time. While the timer was going, he could write or not
write on his project – but he restricted himself from doing anything else (no phone, internet, email, looking for references,
formatting, laundry, etc).
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Scholarly Writing
2
Thesis Structure
3
Writing Process
4
Writer’s Block
5
Sharing your work
Opportunities to Share – Getting it Out There
• Local or Regional Meetings or Forums
– UNCW Student Showcase
– Poster vs. Presentation
• Defense
• Publish your work!
– Discipline Journal
– Explorations
Engaging with your Discipline
• Attend professional meetings
• Chair a session at a conference
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Scholarly Writing
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Thesis Structure
3
Writing Process
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Writer’s Block
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Sharing your work
Take Home Points (aka learning objectives)
After attending this workshop, you should be able to ….
1. Describe the structure of a scholarly thesis
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2. Identify the stages of writing
3. Apply common methods and strategies to perform scholarly
tasks including sharing your work with an audience