Avoiding plagiarism by summarizing and paraphrasing.

Quotations should not be over-used, so you must learn to paraphrase and summarize in order to include other writers’ ideas in your work. This will demonstrate your understanding of a text to your teachers.

- Paraphrasing involves re-writing a text so that the language is substantially different while the content stays the same.

- Summarizing means reducing the length of a text but retaining the main points.

10. Incorporating data and illustrations into your research

Another aspect of academic writing is data commentary. Data are statistical information that is presented graphically in the form of tables or figures; they are used to support the information and ideas of the academic researcher. Illustrations include a range of images such as photographs, screenshots and diagrams. In academic writing, illustrations should only be used to help clarify ideas or information; in other words, they should enhance an explanation. you should always provide the sоurсе of your data.

Graphs аnd сhаrts, (known as figures) and tables саn summarize key information in а very concise way.

Pie chart Bar chart Table graph

Histogram Cross section flowchart Table

Types of diagrams

Diagramsare visual ways of presenting data concisely. They are often also called figures. In an academic article they are usually labelled Fig. (Figure) 1, Fig.2, etc.

A pie chart is a circle divided into segments from the middle (like slices of a cake) to show how the total is divided up. A key or legend shows what each segment represents.

A bar chart is a diagram in which different amounts are represented by thin vertical or horizontal bars chart but the bar width also varies to indicate different values.

A table is a grid with columns and rows of numbers.

A cross – section is something, or a model of something, cut across the middle so that you can see the inside. A label gives the name of each part of the cross section.

A flow chartis a diagram, which indicates the stages of a process.

11. Writing introductions

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 1947