english writing grammer

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September 2012

London South Bank University

Department of Urban Engineering103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA

www.lsbu.ac.uk

Notes on written communication and critical reasoning

Professor John Parkin




Department of Urban Engineering 2London South Bank University

CONTENTS

Contents .................................................................................................................. 2 List of Tables ............................................................................................................ 2 List of Figures ........................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 1 THE NATURE OF WRITING ................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2 PUNCTUATION .................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 3 SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE ......................... 8

A PREAMBLE ON THE STRUCTURE OF WORDS: SPELLING .......................... 8 SENTENCE STRUCTURE ......................................................................... 8 PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE ..................................................................... 15

CHAPTER 4 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE .................................................. 15 DEFINITIONS OF DESIGN, RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS ....................... 15 STRUCTURE OF REPORTS .................................................................... 19 OTHER TYPES OF DOCUMENT ............................................................... 28 PROOF READING ................................................................................ 30

CHAPTER 5 STYLE AND SUMMARIES .................................................. 30 STYLE ............................................................................................... 30 SUCCINCTNESS AND SUMMARIES ........................................................ 32 PLAGIARISM ...................................................................................... 33

CHAPTER 6 CRITICAL THINKING ....................................................... 34 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 34 EXPLANATION, INFERENCE AND ARGUMENT .......................................... 34 CREATING VALID ARGUMENTS ............................................................. 35 CLASSES OF FAULTY REASONING ......................................................... 36

CHAPTER 7 BACKGROUND: LITERATURE AND REFERENCING............. 37 COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE ........................................................... 37 TYPES OF LITERATURE AND THEIR WEIGHT ........................................... 38 THE LITERATURE SEARCH ................................................................... 39 REFERENCING .................................................................................... 41

CHAPTER 8 OTHER RESOURCES ......................................................... 45 References ............................................................................................................. 45

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 2.1 PUNCTUATION MARKS USED IN ENGLISH ........................................ 5 TABLE 2.2 CAPITAL LETTERS ......................................................................... 7 TABLE 3.1 COMMON ERRORS OF SYNTAX (AFTER BROWN, UNDATED) .............. 13 TABLE 4.1 OUTLINE PROCEDURE FOR DESIGN, RESEARCH OR EXPERIMENTS .... 20 TABLE 5.1 EXAMPLES OF DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE WORDS ................. 32





TABLE 5.2 SHORTENING PHRASES TO WORDS ............................................... 33 TABLE 7.1 EXAMPLE REFERENCES ................................................................ 44

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 4.1 EXAMPLE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................ 17





In an engineering sense, youmight think of punctuationmarks as the „fixings‟ or „nutsand bolts‟ (often nearlyinvisible) which are essential to

hold a structure together.

CHAPTER 1 THE NATURE OF WRITING

1.1. All writing is (presumably) written in order to be read. At the very minimum, good

writing is unambiguous and succinct. Preferably it also has a style which endearsthe reader to continue reading.

1.2. In the modern world, communication is about speed (email, twitter, facebook andso on) with accuracy and precision seemingly taking second place. However,professional writing, which (presumably) contains valuable thought needs to becarefully crafted and can take many revisions. As a technical professional, you willbe judged by your ability to convey ideas in writing. Consider: were you to write abadly written letter or report for a client, what impression would the client have of

your general capability, and how then might he or she view your specificcapability in your chosen engineering field?

1.3. Fundamentally, no writing is worth reading if it does not convey something whichis worth reading. What is worth reading will vary, but will include writing which

contains interesting facts or, better still, interesting ideas. These ideas are basedon claims which are built into explanations and arguments. Explanations andarguments need to be logical, otherwise they may not be accepted, and yourcredibility will suffer.

1.4. Cobbett (1823, p175) sums up writing as being about the conveyance of ideas ina lovely epithet:

„Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think what you shall write.‟

1.5. Above all, the meaning of what has been written must be clear to the reader,otherwise what has been written will not have been successfully communicated.

Consider:

There was a man hosting a foreign friend on a train journey throughthe English countryside. The visitor was standing by the openwindow occasionally putting his head out of the window to take theview.

His host noticed a tunnel approaching and said to his friend “Look out!”

1.6. What do you think happened next? There are many thousands of examples of attempts at communication which are ambiguous; this is just one of them.

1.7. These notes consider the building blocks of good writing. Chapter 2 discusses thevery important issue of punctuation. Chapter 3 considers the structure of writingat sentence, paragraph and document level. Chapter 4 provides some insight into

developing a good writing style and being succinct. Chapter 5 presents the

background to how a logical argument may be constructed and finally, Chapter 6discusses referencing.

CHAPTER 2 PUNCTUATION

2.1. Punctuation helps to make your meaning clear. Punctuation is not required in

spoken language because we put in the pauses and emphases by the way wespeak. We can make it plain when something isan aside, when we change the subject, when weask a question or when we make an exclamation.

2.2. Punctuation is essential for maintaining theaccuracy of the syntax (the proper construction)of a sentence. While punctuation may seem to be




Department of Urban Engineering 5 London South Bank University

a small matter, perhaps because the symbols are small in size in relation to thesizes of letters, its importance is out of all proportion to its size.

2.3. Table 1 below summarises punctuation marks used in English.

Table 2.1 Punctuation marks used in English

Punctuationmark

Name Purposes and examples

. Full stop A full stop is used to indicate the end of a sentence, which is ameaningful group of words with at least one subject and oneverb. A sentence is comprised of independent and dependentclauses. A sentence may have i) a single independent (ormain) clause, or ii) an independent clause and a dependent (orsub-ordinate) clause, or iii) two independent clauses (whichcould in fact be separate sentences). A dependent clausecannot be a sentence on its own as it is incomplete, that is, itdoes not have a subject and verb.i)A single independent clause:

The crane parked on the road.ii) Two independent clauses:

The crane parked on the road and the bus parked in thelay-by.

iii) An independent clause and a dependent clauseThe crane parked on the road after it arrived.

(The final clause is dependent on the initial clause).

The full stop is also used to indicate the shortening of a word;for example, „etc.‟ which is short for etcetera (meaning „and

the rest‟). [NB „etc.‟ should only be used when describinga sequence (e.g. 1, 2, 3 etc. to 10), otherwise, if therest of a list or sequence is unclear, the reader is left

guessing what else was in the writer‟s mind. It shouldNEVER be used in such a sloppy fashion]

; Semicolon i) A semicolon connects two main clauses and may be used inplace of the conjunctions „and‟, „but‟ , „or‟ and „because‟ .

The crane sat on the road; the bus parked in the lay-by.(Note that the above two clauses could be separate sentences.The writer, based on the fact that the ideas conveyed in eachclause are related to each other, has, however, chosen to keepthem in the same sentence).

iii) A semicolon is often used to separate items in a list whenthe items comprise multiple words or phrases.

A wedding comprises of the following parts: the preparation for marriage involving a developingunderstanding of the commitments involved; themarriage ceremony itself; a celebratory meal.

ii) A semicolon may be used before the words „for example‟ when what follows is a complete statement.

My son has several peculiarities; for example, he rollsaround in mud after he has washed.

: Colon i) A colon directs the reader to what follows, which may be alist, or a single item. The clause preceding a colon must besyntactically complete.

The most eminent nineteenth century engineers are asfollows: Smeaton, Telford, Brunel and Stephenson.

notThe most eminent nineteenth century engineers are:Smeaton, Telford, Brunel and Stephenson.

An example of a „one item‟ list is as follows: I had one ambition: to finish the notes.

ii) A colon may also be used before a statement of a result or aconsequence.

I have checked the calculations: they are correct.

, Comma i) To separate an independent clause from a dependent clause: After it arrived, the crane parked on the road.





(This sentence is similar to the one above, but its order hasbeen changed, and in this case it now needs a comma.)ii) For natural pauses, an early natural pause:

However, this is not the case in London.A later natural pause:

All these things may, eventually, come to pass.

iii) To provide additional information, used in a similar way asparentheses (brackets):

I have used my new calculator, the one with the special functions, to check the calculations.

iv) To maintain syntactical accuracy: A few days after, the engineer completed the design.

(without a comma, the above is not a sentence, but a phrase,and the reader is left wondering what happened a few daysafter the engineer completed the design)v) For emphasis:

Please reply, in writing, before the end of March.vi) To break up lists of items:

The people coming are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.The „Oxford‟ comma is an additional comma sometimes addedfor clarity before the „and‟ at the end of a list:

I surveyed the site, made detailed calculations, prepared a plan and section, and wrote the specification.

Another example, with the comma:We invited the cleaning ladies, J F Kennedy, and WinstonChurchill.

and without the comma:We invited the cleaning ladies, J F Kennedy and WinstonChurchill.

In the second example without the Oxford comma, JFK and WC seem to be named as the cleaning ladies.vii) When preceding direct speech or after direct speech:

Peter said, “I will do it.” “You are correct,” he said.

viii) In dates when the American style is used as follows: April 12th , 1965.

But better to stick to the English style:12th April 1965 (with no commas)

? Questionmark

Used after a direct question:What is for tea?

Not after an indirect question:He asked whether they should have question marks.

! Exclamationmark

Used to indicate an exclamation (abrupt or forceful utterance).Very rarely used in technical or academic writing.

“ ”, or „ ‟ Invertedcommas

To enclose direct speech or a quote:He said, “Oh no it isn‟t!”

To highlight a particular word, for example a technical orcontentious word.

The engineer provided a „new‟ idea. Was it really new, or was it derivative?(It is usually preferable to use single inverted commas becauseit is shorter and quicker on the qwerty keyboard, but beconsistent.)

‟ Apostrophe i) To denote the possessive (genitive), that is to say thatsomething belongs to someone. In the singular this is easy:

The boy‟s voice. (Think: the voice of the boy) When in the plural the final „s‟ is dropped so instead of „Theboys‟s voices‟, we write:

The boys‟ voices. (Think: the voices of the boys) (NB it has to be voices, because a group of boys cannot have asingle voice).Other examples:

One beam‟s mass (think: the mass of one beam) Two beams‟ mass (think: the mass of two beams) The roof truss‟s ends (think: the ends of the roof truss,

presumably its two ends)The roof trusses‟ ends (think: the ends of the roof

trusses, plural)





For proper names ending in an „s‟, the possessive „s‟ is added. Mr Williams‟s road was blocked. (Think: the road of Mr Williams was blocked)

[The exception is Jesus, where conventionally no additional „s‟ is added:

Jesus‟ followers. (Think: the fol lowers of Jesus)]

When the plural is formed without an „s‟, the possessive „s‟ isadded in the usual way.

The children‟s voices

ii) Apostrophes are not used to form plurals apart from theplurals of individual letters, numbers and signs. For example

There are two 3‟s, three t‟s and five +‟s.

iii) The apostrophe is also used to replace missing letters (e.g.it‟s for it is, don‟t for do not and so on). Note that in technicaland academic writing you should NEVER be so lazy as to use anapostrophe instead of typing the required missing letters.Cobbett (1823, p76) suggests that in such use „It ought to becalled the mark … of laziness and vulgarity.‟ The only exceptionto its used may be in poetry or where you are reporting speech

verbatim, or for very common shortenings such as “‟phone” (short for telephone), or “‟cello” (short for violincello).

[Note that apostrophes are not used in possessive pronouns(hers, yours, theirs, its) or for plurals.]

- Hyphen Used to connect compound words, including numbers. Someexamples include:

ex-wife, self-evident, twenty-three.As compound words become more regularly used, you may findthat the hyphen is dropped. For example, when once non-submission may have been common, you may now find it morefrequently written as „nonsubmission‟, but please, never „nonsubmission‟.(For more on hyphenation see Society of Petroleum Engineers,2009)

() Parentheses Parentheses are used to provide additional information in orderto avoid upsetting the syntax of the sentence:The kayaking kit (kayak, spray deck and paddles) wereloaded on the trailer.

(NB avoid using a pair of dashes in place of parentheses)

2.4. Capital letters in English are used at the start of a sentence and for proper nouns(the name for somebody or something). Some examples of use and misuse are

provided in Table 2.

Table 2.2 Capital letters

Use Example

At the beginning of asentence

This is a sentence, it has a capital letter at the beginning.(NB Treat titles as sentences)

For a proper noun and

adjectives derived fromproper nouns

Some examples of proper nouns include names of people,

places and organisations.Thomas TelfordRiver ThamesLondon South Bank UniversityThe Labour Government 1997 to 2010(but in a general sense „government‟ would have a lowercase „g‟.) England, and hence the adjective English

In acronyms andabbreviations

The meaning of an acronym or the full name for anabbreviation should always be written out in full the firsttime it is introduced. For example:

In the United Kingdom, the Automobile Association(AA) provides assistance to motorists. The AA has afleet of yellow vans.

For the First person I, not “i”.





CHAPTER 3 SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE

A PREAMBLE ON THE STRUCTURE OF WORDS: SPELLING

3.1. Two common problems occur in spelling: difficulties with homonyms and American

spelling.3.2. A homonym is a word that sounds the same, but is spelt differently. Occasional

lapses are perhaps tolerable, and should be corrected by tutors, but consistenterrors simply make the writer look stupid. Common examples include: their/there,week/weak and so on.

3.3. Ensure that your computer is set to „UK‟ English (…tools…language…setlanguage…). Nothing annoys an English academic more than American mis-

spellings (e.g. program for programme, modeling for modelling and so on).

SENTENCE STRUCTURE

The two parts of a sentence

3.4. A sentence, for it to be more than just a group of words, needs two parts, both of

which are essential: a subject and a predicate. The predicate says somethingabout the subject. The example below illustrates the point.

Subject Predicate

The concrete mixing lorry arrived on time at the construction site.

3.5. In English, the subject usually precedes the predicate, but this is not always

necessary, as in the following sentence for example: „With a mighty bang was the building demolished by the explosion‟. This sentence is quite awkward, butsometimes such inversion can be quite poetic. It is usually better in technicalwriting to stick to the order: subject followed by predicate.

3.6. The verb is an essential word contained within the predicate and more is saidabout this word shortly.

The eight parts of speech3.7. The table below summarises the eight parts of speech.

Part of speech Description

Noun A word that names something. There are four types of noun:Proper noun: name of a person or thing, e.g. John, The Albert

Hall. These nouns take a capital letter in English.Abstract noun: e.g. truth, honesty, learning.Collective noun: e.g. fleet (of buses), herd (of cattle)Common noun: bicycle, lorry (i.e. all other nouns which arenot proper, abstract or collective)A noun can be the subject of a sentence

Verb The essential word in the predicate. Verbs are one of two broadtypes:Action words: e.g. designed, drew, wroteBeing words: e.g. is, were, became, seems, appearsFrequently, the verb comprises more than one word: e.g. theengineer was told of the catastrophe as it happened.

Verbs are also classified as follows:Transitive verbs: if the action contained in their meaning is „carried across‟ (transmitted to) a direct object. The traincarries commuters.Intransitive verbs: where the action is not carried across to adirect object. Verbs can act transitively or intransitively, butbeing verbs can only act intransitively, as there is no action to

carry across. The worker dug (intransitive). The worker dug ahole (transitive).





Pronoun A word used for, or instead of, a noun. Their use makes asentence quicker to read, but only when it is clear what noun itrefers to.Good use: The client was disconcerted, because he was not

expecting additional payments to have to be made. (He clearly

refers to the client, and is a nominative pronoun, see below)Bad use: The client was annoyed with the engineer, becausehe was expecting a payment. (It is not clear whether the he isreferring to the client who might have been expecting apayment, or the engineer who might have been expecting apayment).

Nominative pronouns are the subject of the sentence and areas follows: I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural), they.Possessive pronouns denote that the noun which the pronounstands for possesses something and they are as follows: my ormine, your or yours, his, her or hers, its, our or ours, your oryours, their or theirs.Objective pronouns denote a noun which is the object of the

action and are as follows: me, you (singular), him, her, it, us,

you (plural), them.Adjective An adjective says more about a noun or a pronoun, it is said to

„qualify‟ a noun. There are four types of adjective:Descriptive: e.g. the red car, the large house, the blossoming

tree.Number (quantity): the four students, the eight engineers.Demonstrative (i.e. those adjectives which point out): e.g.that drawing, those widgets.Ownership: e.g. his scale rule, her calculator.The articles: „The‟ and „a‟ (or an) are usually referred to as the „definite article‟ and the „indefinite article‟ respectively, butessentially, they are adjectives.An adjective usually precedes the noun to which it refers,

however, this may not be the case in sentences with „being‟ verbs; e.g. „The design was flawed.‟ Some words can act as pronouns or adjectives:I thought that proposal would win (adjective). That won thecontract (pronoun)Several engineers were involved (adjective). I chose several (pronoun).

Adverb An adverb says more about the verb, an adjective or anotheradverb and it is said to „modify‟ them. Adverbs essentially answer the questions how, when, where,how often, and also to what extent (degree)?

How did she write? She wrote quickly .When did he arrive? He arrived early .Where was it constructed? It was constructed there.

How often did he call? He called twice.What level of pain did he sustain? He suffered much.

(The words how, when, where and why are in themselves

adverbs.)The lecture theatre is too warm. (too is an adverb addingmeaning to the adjective warm.)He designs extremely well. (extremely is an adverb whichadds meaning to the adverb well .)

A further example: „The location where (place) you will dig thetrial pit will have soil which is, of late (time) very (degree)

cohesive because of the rain.‟

Preposition A preposition positions a noun or an action and it is the firstword of a phrase which contains a noun or a pronoun.

The car drove under the bridge.I arrived home before her.





Prepositions (coupled with some of their opposites) include:in/out of, under/over, after/before, with/against, to/from,at/near. A prepositional phrase is an adjective or an adverb.

The dumper truck on the site had a flat tyre. (on the site is

and adjectival phrase which qualifies the dumper truck by

adding meaning to it).The bus parked in the garage. (in the garage is an adverbialphrase modifying the meaning of the verb)

Conjunctions Conjunctions are words which join parts of a sentence togetherand include: and, but, neither/nor and either/or.

Interjections Interjections are words used to express emotions: Oh!, Mmm!,Aargh!. They may be phrases: Oh my gosh!, I say!

3.8. It should be pointed out very clearly that a word is defined as one of the aboveparts of speech depending on what it does in a sentence. For example, the word

„clean‟ may either be a verb or an adjective: I clean the window (verb). The bookis clean (adjective). There are very many examples of the same word performinga different function in a sentence.

Verbs and their tenses

3.9. The verb is undoubtedly the most important word in a sentence and it should bechosen with the greatest of care.

3.10. There are two „voices‟ in English: the „active‟ voice and the „passive‟ voice.

Active voice: Cubbitts built many houses. (Cubbitts= subject; built = verb inthe simple past tense; houses = object )Passive voice: Many houses were built by Cubbitts. (Many houses = subject;were built = verb; Cubbitts = “agent”) Note how in the passive voice, the noun (a proper noun in this example) iscalled the “agent”, i.e. the person doing the action, and it is preceded with a “by”.

3.11. There are three tenses:

(i) Present tense sub-divided into two tenses:a) Simple present (Active: I do; Passive: It is done)b) Present progressive (Active: I am doing; Passive: It is being done)

(ii) Past tense sub-divided into six tenses:a) Simple past (Active: I did; Passive: It was done)b) Past progressive (Active: I was doing; Passive: It was being done)c) Simple present perfect (Active: I have done; Passive: It has been done)d) Present perfect progressive (Active: I have been doing; Passive:

Closest equivalent “It has been (in the process of) being done”, but thisis clumsy )

e) Simple past perfect (Active: I had done; Passive: It had been done)f) Past perfect progressive (Active: I had been doing; Passive: Closest

equivalent “It had been (in the process of) being done, but this is

clumsy )(iii) Future tense. The sense of future is conveyed in quite complex ways in

English:a) Future (Active: I/we shall/will do, you/he/they will do; Passive: It will

be done. NB „shall‟ is only used with the first person and is becomingless common than „will‟. The negative (in spoken language only) is

reduced to I/we shan‟t/won‟t do; you/he/they won‟t do).b) Future progressive (Active: I will be doing; Passive: It will be being

done)c) be about + infinitive (Active: I am about to do; Passive: It is about to

be done)d) be + infinitive (Active: I am to do (that tomorrow); Passive: It is to be

done)e) Future using the present progressive (Active: I am doing (that

tomorrow); Passive: It is being done (tomorrow))





f) Future perfect to connote action completed at some time in the future(Active: I will have done (that tomorrow); Passive: It will have beendone (tomorrow))

g) Future in the past (I was going to do that yesterday and others, see agrammar book)

3.12. It can be quite a difficult task to determine which voice and tense is appropriate inwriting a report. When writing about what others have done (for example in aliterature review) it is usually best to use the active voice in order to avoidawkward and clumsy constructions of the passive.

e.g. Ashley and Banister (1989) studied cycling to work based on census dataat ward level in the three metropolitan districts. ( Ashley and Banister=subject;studied=verb; cycling to work=object )

3.13. When writing about the analysis performed in the main body of the report youshould avoid “I” and “We” (the first person singular and plural respectively) andthis usually means, therefore, that you will need to write in the passive voice.

e.g. All respondents were asked whether or not they would have considereddismounting. ( All respondents = subject; were asked = verb in simple past tense; note there is no “agent”, it is implicit ). Not “I asked all respondentswhether or not …”

Simple, complex, double and multiple sentences

3.14. It would be trite to have many short sentences, such as the following.

I have a puppy. He is a nice puppy. I take him for a walk each day. Igive him a bone for lunch.

3.15. It is much more satisfying to express more than one idea in a sentence usingseparate clauses as follows.

After I have given my puppy a bone for his lunch, I take him to thepark for a romp, where we both have a nice time.

3.16. Some of these clauses can stand alone as a sentence and these are called mainclauses, while others cannot stand alone as a sentence and these are called sub-ordinate clauses.

3.17. There are three types of sub-ordinate clause as follows:

Type Function Example

Adjective-clause

Qualify thesubject word inanother clause

Offices that have air conditioning sell well in themarket place. (italicised words qualify thesubject).

Adverb-

clause

Modify the verb,

or an adjective,or an adverb, oranother clause.

The piling rig started when the dawn broke.

(italicised words modify the verb)Company margins were as small as our competitors. (italicised words modify adjective

small)She designs quicker than he colleagues do.(italicised words modify the adverb quicker).

[There are ten types of adverb-clause: of time, of place, of manner, of reason or cause, of purpose,of result or consequence, of condition, of concession, of comparison, of degree or extent(but it is not necessary to remember these!)]

Noun-

clause

These are

equivalents to anoun

What the client most feared is collapse. (italicised

words are the subject of the sentence)Engineers estimated when the building would becomplete (italicised words are the object of thesentence)

3.18. Sentences may be of the following four types:





Type Features

Simple One finite verbComplex One main clause and one or more sub-

ordinate clauses

Double Two main clauses (with or without one

or more sub-ordinate clause)Multiple More than two main clauses (with or

without one or more sub-ordinateclause)

3.19. Summarised below are the components of a sentence and these draw on the parts

of speech discussed above:

Component Qualifier or modifier

S u b j e c t

Subject word Adjective or adjective phrases

P r e d i c a t e

Verb Adverb or adverb phraseDirect object word Adjective or adjective phrases

Indirect object word Adjective or adjective phrases

Predicative word or words orcomplement (used whenverb is a „being‟ verb and noobject can be used).

3.20. The words in bold have to be present to make a sentence. With due deference toall world religions, classically, the shortest sentence in English is usually quoted asbeing from the King James version of the Bible, John Chapter 11, Verse 35 „Jesuswept.‟ This contains simply the subject word, „Jesus‟, and the verb, „wept‟.

3.21. Examples using simple sentences:

Simple sentence with doing verbThe red crane slowly lifted the heavy pallet onto the flat roof.Subject withqualifier

Verb withmodifier

Object withqualifier

Indirect object with qualifier and preposition

Simple sentence with being verb

Concrete is greySubject verb Predicative word

Word order

3.22. The normal word order for a sentence is subject followed by verb and then anyobjects (the classic „the cat sat on the mat.‟) Consistent use of this format would

be dreary and alternative word orders can assist in placing emphasis. Considerthe following (after Cooper, 1964):

A new product must not only be created, but experimentally developed, to besuccessful.

To be successful, a new product must not only be created but experimentallydeveloped.

3.23. The difference between them is on the emphasis you want to make and thecontext within which they lie. In the first the emphasis, because it is at thebeginning of the sentence, is on the creation of a new product. In the secondsentence, the emphasis is on the degree to which a new product may besuccessful.

Sentence length and readability

3.24. If you have to read a sentence (or a paragraph) a second or even third time

before its meaning is clear, then it has failed. Choosing the right length for asentence is quite important for its adequate comprehension and, particularly if





you think your English is weak, shorter sentences are probably a better choicemost of the time.

3.25. Twenty to twenty-five words is a good length for a sentence. Sometimes peopleuse formulas for identifying how complex a sentence is. One such is the so-called „Fog Index‟ which is calculated as the average sentence length plus the

percentage of words with three syllables or more all multiplied by 0.4. On a scaleof 6-17 anything above 12 is purported to be difficult. The problem with suchsystems is that the mathematics does not point you to ways of making thelanguage clearer, and hence they are of limited value.

Errors in syntax (sentence construction)

3.26. Syntax is the relation between words to form phrases. It is all too easy to makesyntactical errors. Just as when you play a piano, it is easy to accidentally hit a

wrong note, so with the construction of phrases it is easy to accidentally make amistake. Table 3 summarises some common errors of syntax.

Table 3.1 Common errors of syntax (After Brown, undated)

Description Problem Examples

Agreement of subject andverb

The subject of thesentence may be inthe singular, butfurther words maydefine thecomponents of thesingular noun. Theremay be more thanone singular noun,making the subjectplural.

i. The test tubes and Bunsen burner are of goodquality

ii. George, as well as you, is to blame.iii. The company is in favour of mechanisationiv. Our only land mark is the hillsv. None of us is perfect (None means „not one‟,

and is singular)vi. Either of them seems reasonable (either the

one of them, or the other one of them, hencesingular)

vii. This kind of machine is goodviii. These kinds of potatoes are popularix. Dynamics concerns moving bodies.x. The data show this to be the case (data is

always plural).

Consistencyand balance

Two parts of asentence areinconsistent witheach other

i. The crowd was dispersed by the police andwent its way (not their way)

ii. When one chooses a career, one shouldconsider whether one is content to do it for therest of one‟s life.

iii. If the children want to play, they must showthemselves worthy of it.

iv. The shortage of natural materials has beenaided by the production of new syntheticproducts (not just „…aided by syntheticproducts‟)

v. The railway age succeeded the canal age. (not just „…followed the canals‟)

Future and

conditionaltenses

Tenses need to be

consistent

i. When the plan is passed, the pedestrian zone

will be here. (future tense)ii. If the plan were to be passed, the pedestrian

zone would be here. (conditional tense)iii. We shall be pleased to see you if you are free.

(future)iv. We should be pleased to see you if you were to

be free. (conditional tense)

Dangling andunrelatedparticiple

An initial clause mayset the scene and itssubject should bethe same as thesubject of thesentence

Examples in error:While walking into town, the clock tower struck one.(implies that the clock tower was walking into town,should be „While I was walking into town, the clocktower struck one)Looking along the road, the traffic was congested.(How could the traffic look along the road? Possibly:

„As one looked along the road, the traffic wascongested‟)





Gerund A gerund is a nounformed from a verband ends in „ing‟.For example, for theverb „to learn‟, theequivalent noun to

describe the actionis „learning‟. As aresult, be carefulwith possessives

The students‟ learning engineering so quickly was thereason they could begin to design well. (The learningof the students of engineering ….) Please overlook my being late for the interview(Please overlook the state of my being late…)

Commonconfusions

Through commonuse, some errorsdevelop the illusionof being correct

i. „Due to‟ means „caused by‟ and „owing to‟ means „because of‟. „The traffic was held upowing to fog.‟ „The rise in unemployment, dueto inflation, is continuing.‟

ii. Comprise does not take the preposition „of‟. „Aspade comprises a handle and a blade.‟

iii. Affect (verb)/effect (noun), think specialeffects). „The special effects will not affect me.‟

iv. „Alternately‟ means „by turns‟ and „alternatively‟

means a choice between two items. For achoice between more than two, the word is

„options‟ v. „fewer‟ is used when the items may be counted,

„less‟ is used when the items cannot becounted. „There are fewer cars tonight andthere is less congestion.‟

vi. „Programme‟ means a schedule and „program‟ is reserved for use with computers. „Theprogramme of work involving a computerprogram.‟

vii. „i.e.‟ short for id est and means „that is‟); „e.g.‟ short for exempli gratia and means „forexample‟.

viii. Some unusual plurals: criterion/criteria;phenomenon/phenomena; medium / media;datum / data; stratum / strata; stadium /

stadia.ix. „Only‟ needs to be positioned before the word itqualifies. Compare „Only he came once a week‟ (he was the only one who came once a week)with „He only came once a week‟ (he came, butonly once a week).

Pronouns Case i. A common mistake is to use the objectivewhen the nominative is required. „They did themischief, it was not my brother and me.‟ Should be „it was not my brother and I .‟ Theguide as Cobbett (1823,p92) suggests is to „fillup the sentence with all the words that areunderstood; and if there be errors, you willsoon discover them. Leaving out understoodwords is common and called ellipsis. In the

above „it was not my brother and I who did themischief

ii. An example where the difference changes themeaning quite clearly: a) „I love you more thanhim‟ and b) „I love you more than he‟.

Danger words i. IF Milk is nourishing, if tuberculous. (Canmean „on condition that‟ or „even though‟

ii. WHILE. While he is inexperienced, he will bedo the job adequately (can mean „during thetime which‟ or „even though‟)

iii. BOTH. He was both deaf to argument andentreaty (Needs positioning immediatelybefore words to which it refers)

iv. ONLY. Only he came once a week. He only

came once a week. (As for both, needs





positioning immediately before word towhich it refers).

PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE

3.27. Deciding how to divide your work up into paragraphs does not always become

apparent until after the words have been written. Sir Ernest Gowers suggested(Gowers, 1962):

The subject does not admit of precise guidance. The chief thing toremember is that, although paragraphing loses all point if theparagraph is excessively long, the paragraph is essentially a unit of thought, not of length. Every paragraph must be homogenous insubject matter, and sequential in treatment of it.

3.28. You have to work quite hard at paragraphs and be prepared to re-arrange idesonce you have got them on paper so that the order of the „story‟ that you aretelling is logical. The worst thing to do is to „beg a question‟ in the readers mind.Consider the following three (very short!) paragraphs.

1 I ate beef stew for supper last night.

2 I have a rash on my arm this morning.3 I always have a rash on that arm after I have eaten beef stew.

3.29. In the order presented above, the reader will immediately have a question in hisor her mind as to why the writer might be saying that he has a rash on his arm,

this morning in particular. That question which has been „begged‟ is onlyanswered by the final paragraph.

CHAPTER 4 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE

4.1. Documents are written for different purposes and these notes assume that adocument is being written either as a Report, or for some other purposes such as

an essay, letter, or email. The first part of the chapter deals with reports whichare usually written to summarise a design, some research, or an experiment. Thenature of design, research and experimentation is now defined. There is then asection on report structure. The next section discusses other types of documents(i.e. essays and communication documents), the final section addresses the veryimportant point of proof reading.

DEFINITIONS OF DESIGN, RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS

4.2. This section defines in turn design, research and experimentation. It thendiscusses aims and objectives, or the alternative, research questions andhypotheses.

Design

4.3. Design is the creation of an artefact or process. The Oxford English Dictionary

definition is not that helpful as it states that the verb to design is to „decide uponthe look and functioning of (a building, garment, or other object), by making adetailed drawing of it.‟ Design is much more than this.

4.4. The Joint Board of Moderators (which accredits civil, structural and transportengineering degree programmes) suggests that the design process needs theexercise of „continuous judgement, adaptation, modification, ingenuity and nearlyalways a need for imagination and flair.‟ The Board suggests that a competent

design engineer will:

understand that design is a creative process;

be able to cope with uncertainties;

be able to „think outside the box‟;

be able to interact with clients;





know how to gather relevant information;

be able to sort and synthesise all relevant information;

be able to work with people together and to plan and track progress; and

be able to justify the chosen solution to stakeholders.

Research

4.5. Research is systematic investigation in order to establish facts, postulate theories

and make predictions. The term is frequently used loosely in everyday life, andindeed in education prior to higher education. Research is not about simply „finding things out‟ from the existing literature.

4.6. The origins of research may be traced to Francis Bacon (1561-1626) whosesuggested scientific method was to collect a vast number of facts and from them,through an inductive approach, develop theories. He advocated a step-by-step

approach and his analogy for the scientific method was that of a ruler which helpssomeone draw a straight line: the scientific method was a mechanical aid todiscovery. Scientific method was further developed by those associated with theRoyal Society and Sprat‟s history of the society (1667) suggests the underlyingphilosophy (Gribbin, 2005):

To this I shall add, that they have never affirm‟d any thing,concerning the cause, till the trial was past: whereas, to do it

before, is a venomous thing in the making of Sciences: for whoever has fix‟d on his Cause, before he has experimented; canhardly avoid fitting his Experiment, and his Observations, to hisown Cause, which he had before imagin‟d; rather than the Causeto the truth of the Experiment itself‟

4.7. Research is hence concerned with fitting hypotheses to the observed facts ratherthan twisting facts to fit mistaken ideas. The manner of the testing of such

hypotheses is undertaken by review of competent peers, often through opendiscussion at conferences and through peer review of papers before they are

published in journals. The origin of this approach may be traced to a conciliatoryletter from Robert Hooke to Isaac Newton, part of a tense series of exchangesconcerning light:

Your designes and myne I suppose aim both at the same thingwch is the Discovery of truth, and I suppose we can both endureto hear objections, so as they come not in a manner of openhostility, and have minds equally inclined to yield to the plainest deductions of reason from experiment.

4.8. Newton was a querulous and secretive man and his response, however seeminglyconciliatory, contained perhaps the most famous line in scientific history „If I haveseen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants‟. Out of context, this is

often assumed as a comment on his development of his theory of gravity: inreality it was a put down to Hooke, suggesting that Hooke‟s work on light is of novalue.

4.9. Research possesses originality and will include the analysis of data which has notalready been analysed in the way proposed. The data could have been collectedespecially for the research (through survey, interview, measurement orobservation), or it might have been collected from existing sources (government

or academic databases of social, economic and other data). Researchers need tolearn to be very careful in their observations and techniques and be ready for theunexpected.

4.10. The research project is more than a coursework assignment: the research processmust seek the information, analyse it and offer conclusions. Modest objectives areadequate at undergraduate level, but every research project has to have at itsheart some level of analysis, and the best research projects will have some

quantitative analysis.





4.11. Research goals may be summarised as: the aim, the supporting objectives, theresearch question and one or more hypotheses.

Laboratory experiments

4.12. In essence, laboratory experiments are a sub-set of research. A research project

may comprise of a number of strands of work, one of which may include a rangeof laboratory experimentation. A laboratory experiment will usually be undertakenin order to provide measurable data to help understand a system or process, andto confirm a theory.

Aim and objectives for design and research

4.13. Aims and objectives are relevant to both design and research. The aim is astatement at a strategic level and will always be in the form “To do” something.The aim will be supported by the objectives and linked to the main hypothesis.

4.14. Objectives are statements of what the project will do to support the aim. Theymust be capable of having an outcome, and the success of the project will bemeasured against them. Examples might be „to determine‟, „to assess‟, „tocompare‟, „to design‟, „to calculate‟, „to correlate‟, „to develop‟, „to establish‟, „to

evaluate‟, „to examine‟, „to find out‟, „to measure‟, „to review‟, „to show‟, „tosurvey‟, „to test‟. The objectives should be modest and achievable within theresource constraints.

4.15. The aim and objectives should be written as bullet points in the introduction aspart of the narrative. Figure 1.1 shows how the first page of the introductionmight look. It can be seen that a few short paragraphs of introduction will leaddirectly up to the aim and objectives.

Figure 4.1 Example Aims and Objectives

4.16. Small projects may have two or three objectives. The logic behind the choice of aim and objectives should be based in theory, literature and the needs of people

working in the field. It is frequently necessary to re-confirm the aim and





objectives again after the background or literature review has been presented. Inshorter documents this may be done as part of the summary of the literaturereview. In longer documents, there may be a separate chapter devoted to this re-confirmation, sometimes linked with the chapter on methodology.

4.17. For a research project, it can be useful to be so specific as to state the particular

quantitative variables in the objectives. A study may have more than oneobjective, but still pursue the same theme by using the same IndependentVariable (IV) or Dependent Variables (DV). For example:

4.18. Objectives using the same Independent Variable:

to correlate method of payment (IV) with safety (DV),

to correlate of method of payment (IV) with quality (DV), and

to correlate method of payment (IV) on timely completion (DV).

4.19. Alternatively, objectives may use the same Dependent Variable

to correlate method of work (IV) on safety (DV),

the influence of method of payment (IV) on safety (DV), and

(the influence of project planning (IV) on safety (DV).

The alternative: a research question and hypothesis

4.20. An alternative, but complementary, way of expressing a research goal is througha question. Such a question needs to be robust and relevant. For the example aim

in Figure 1.1, the research question might be: What is the effect on cycling levelsof population density and road network density? The wording in the researchquestion should mirror the wording in the objectives.

4.21. A hypothesis is a supposition, or a proposed explanation as a starting point forresearch. Modern Western science works on the basis of falsifiability after the

philosopher Karl Popper1. Hypotheses hence need to be very precise and are often

written as a “null hypothesis”, that is an hypothesis implying „no difference‟.Again using the aim from Figure 1.1, an appropriate null hypothesis might be: „there is no difference in levels of cycling in the UK as compared with NorthernEuropean countries based on population density and road network density‟. Thishypothesis is potentially falsifiable through the proposed analysis.

4.22. The alternative hypothesis is also important to understand. Based on ourgeneral knowledge about cycling levels we might suppose that the alternativehypothesis to the null hypothesis described above would be: „levels of cycling inthe UK are lower than other Northern European countries based on populationdensity and road network density‟. This presupposes a direction to the difference,if the null hypothesis is not provable. It should be noted that this is different thanassuming the alternative to be: „levels of cycling in the UK may be higher or lower

than other Northern European countries based on population density and roadnetwork density‟. This difference becomes important when undertaking statistical

tests and will determine whether one-tail (where the assumption is that the signof the difference is known), or whether two-tail (where the sign of the differenceis unknown) tests are performed.

4.23. Professor Martin Rees in his acceptance speech of the Templeton Prize in 2011said: “But, as always in science, each advance brings into focus new questions

1 Classical science had been based on empiricism, which is the development of scientificknowledge based on experience through observation and induction. Karl Popper, anAustrian and British philosopher (1902-1994) proposed what he called „critical rationalism‟,and argued that scientific theories are abstract. He suggested that the only way to prove a

theory is through falsifiability: a single negative outcome will be logically decisive and show

a theory to be false, but a whole string of positive outcomes cannot prove a theory to betrue. Popper's philosophy now lies at the heart of modern research methods.





that couldn't previously have even been posed and which enlarge our horizons stillfurther.”

4.24. The consequence of this is that research aims, objectives and questions maychange even over the duration of a single research project. A good researcherstands alert to this. As a consequence, the title of research should only be

regarded as a working title, and will need to be reviewed at the conclusion of thework. The final title should reflect the nature of what was in fact undertaken anddiscovered.

STRUCTURE OF REPORTS

4.25. A report will require an introduction, an ordered sequence of sections or chapterswhich logically describe what has been done, and a conclusion.

4.26. A design project report or a research project report is a record or the design orresearch activity that has been carried out. Note that if no activity has taken place,a document cannot be written. A suggested framework around which a designproject, research project or laboratory report may be written up is identified below:

Cover page and contents listing (including figures, tables and

appendices listing)Summary (or abstract)

Ch 1. IntroductionCh 2. Background / theory and literature reviewCh 3 Methodology of the design, research or laboratory experimentCh 4. Analysis (results and findings)Ch 5. DiscussionCh 6. Conclusions and recommendationsReferences and bibliography

Appendices

4.27. !!Note: Neither the Summary nor the References are chapters, and theyshould not be given chapter numbers!. Note also that the above is only aguide. The background literature may be so large that Chapter 2 needs splitting

into more than a single chapter. The Analysis may form a separate chapter fromthe results and findings. There may be a need for separate chapter for theconclusions and the recommendations.

4.28. The preliminary pages of a document should include a cover/title page,declaration that the work is their own (this is sometimes required, e.g. for theses),acknowledgements (if required), summary (or abstract) and contents page. Thesepages may often be numbered using roman numerals, with the exception of thecover page, which is not numbered.

4.29. The contents page lists chapter titles and main sub-headings as well as listings of figures, tables and appendices. Glossaries of abbreviations, symbols (such asGreek letters used in equations) and terms may follow on from the contentslisting. The glossary of terms ensures a specific understanding even for quite wellknown terms.

4.30. Table 1.1 identifies a possible order of procedure for the process of undertakingthe work necessary as part of a design, research or experimentation project.





Table 4.1 Outline procedure for design, research or experiments

Stage Research activity Document writing activity

1 Identify a subject area of interest

2 Define design, research orexperimentation goals

Articulate the problem and write a draftintroduction specifying aim, objectives (andmeasurement variables), and researchquestion and hypothesis as required. Definean appropriate working title (It might beeasiest to start a title as “An investigationinto…” or “A design for …”.

3 Background / literaturereview

(i) Write notes on what has been read byyou in readiness for writing theliterature review chapter.

(ii) Identify the gap in the literature that theresearch will address (if required).

(iii) After everything has been read andnotes made, shape the chapter

appropriately.4 Review research goals for

continued validity againstthe identified gap(s) in theliterature (if a researchproject)

5 Formulate the study design:define the data measuresand potential data sources,specify the method of analysis (e.g. statisticaltests to be used).

Write up the methodology chapter

6 Obtain the design data or

the research data thatmeasures the independentand dependent variables

7 Analyse data (and designwith the data if a design

project)

Write up analysis and results or designs

8 Discuss the data, and write up in theDiscussion chapter.

9 Draw conclusions and recommendations andwrite up.

10 Review and update introduction.11 Write the abstract.

12 Proof read the documentNotes1 The stages will be to an extent iterative. For example, if there is no suitable data to be

found at Stage 5, the research goals will need to be revised.2 Stage 7 is arguably the most important stage, and it should certainly be one of the most

time consuming stages.

4.31. The articulation of the research goals should be the first writing stage of thedissertation. These will be refined after the literature review, and perhaps againbased on what data is available for analysis. The first substantial part of theresearch document to be written up will be the literature review.

4.32. It is always best to open up a word-processing document, establish a draft overallstructure using what seem like appropriate headings, and write up notes andideas in the relevant places in the document as work progresses. The final





document will be the result of much iteration. Document production and proof reading is time consuming and tortuous. Good reading is difficult writing!

The Abstract

4.33. The abstract, or summary, does NOT form part of the flow of the document, but is

something that may be read separately and will in 200 to 250 words:

define the aim and objective of the research;

state the data used in analysis;

describe the method used;

present the main result(s) found; and

state the main findings and conclusion(s) derived.

4.34. A good guide is to write two sentences on each of these five areas. This is verydemanding and requires hard work. It is NOT possible to copy and paste parts of

the „introduction‟ and „conclusions‟ chapters. If you do so, you will be using toomany words and not be sufficiently describing the data set and analysis methodadopted.

4.35. The abstract should be written at the end of the period of research. (NB. Theabstract to these notes, in so far as it has been possible for a document notrelated to design, research or experimentation, has been written adopting the fivepoint list above.)

The Introduction (Chapter 1)

4.36. Writers need to focus very carefully on what an introduction should contain.Usually they need to go through three or four drafts. They are the hardest part of the document to write, because they need to set the scene in a logical order.

4.37. In a document which reports research, it is normal that the introduction chaptershould include the following:

(i)

A statement of some fairly well know and relatively un-contestable factsabout a topic area. The way of describing this will depend on the proposedresearch but could be based on a history, theory, law, statistics, orwhatever other paradigm seems most appropriate);

(ii) The opening up of an area of interest in which the design is to take place or,for research, could reveal deeper understanding;

(iii) Statement of goals (aim, supporting objectives, research question andhypothesis);

(iv) a very brief (one paragraph) outline methodology;(v) an outline of the structure of the document which will summarise in

sentence or phrase the contents of each chapter.

The Background or Literature Review Chapter (Chapter 2)

4.38. This is such an important and distinct area, that a whole chapter is devoted to it

in these notes in Chapter 7.

The Methodology Chapter (Chapter 3)

Primary and secondary data

4.39. It is important that a research project clearly describes how it was executed; whatmethod was used to achieve the objectives. A study could be fundamentallyflawed if a mistake is made in the methods used, e.g. the population not selectedcorrectly, an inappropriate method of analysis used, a poorly written researchquestionnaire, etc. A methodology chapter should substantiate each step along

the way, and describe the overall method used to achieve the aim.

4.40. Bell (1993) quoted in Fellows and Liu (1997, p. 14) suggests five types of research style: (i) action, (ii) ethnographic, (iii) surveys, (iv) case study, and (v)

experimental. It is noted that definitions varies amongst authors, and the





boundaries are therefore somewhat blurred. Data may be collected by theresearchers and hence be “new” data, this is termed “primary data”. Alternatively,researchers may use data that has already been collected, for example bygovernment departments and which is then made available on the internet. Thisdata is termed “secondary data”. Good examples of these data sets are the

census, transport statistics and audit commission best value indicators.4.41. If a questionnaire is used, place it in the appendix and discuss each section

individually – substantiate why each question was asked. Refer to similarquestions by previous researchers if possible. If interviews were undertaken,describe how they were conducted. If observation of a production process isundertaken, full details must be given. The verbatim transcripts of qualitativeinterviews may also be included as an appendix. If the study involves apopulation, it must be described and quantified. The process used to select asample from a population must be described and substantiated. Reliability andvalidity are very important concepts in research. The methodology section mustdescribe how the study ensures reliability and validity are achieved. The dataanalysis process must be described; the methodology must substantiate why aparticular analytical tool was selected. The methodology should not only describe

the method that was actually used, but it should also state what alternatives wereconsidered and rejected at the various stages of the process, and why they wererejected. Why, for example, was a postal survey used instead of interviews; whywas quantitative analysis used instead of qualitative; why was non-parametricstatistical analysis used in preference to parametric analysis and so on.

4.42. If secondary data is used, the methodology chapter must substantiate that thedata is robust, reliable and valid. The chapter must argue why a particular sourceof data was appropriate to the problem being examined.

4.43. It does not matter whether the data analysed is primary or secondary. It doesnot matter which analytical tool is applied to the data. One of the requirements of a dissertation is merely that there is some data that is analysed. The more robustanalytical tools, providing they are appropriately applied, will more likely achievebetter marks.

4.44. Examples of primary data are: (i) case studies, (ii), laboratory and fieldexperiment (iii) individual interviews, (iv) focus groups, (v) postal surveys, (vi)time and motion studies or observation and (vii) action research or participation.Students often feel that they need to use a questionnaire in their dissertation – itmust be emphasised that this is not the case.

4.45. Secondary data maybe obtained from libraries or maybe available in theworkplace. Data is available on economic performance, cost, environmentalpollution, traffic flows, safety etc. The European Union publishes a whole host of

statistical data. Other sources include the government statistical office,government agencies, local authorities, professional institutions, company reportsetc. Data may be taken from the published work of other researchers providedthat it is acknowledged/cited. Part-time students may have access to an

abundance of data in the workplace e.g. production levels, costs, safety targets,personnel records. Employers need not be fearful of releasing information;confidentiality of data can be respected. Research documents often do not give

details of data in its absolute raw form and thus it is hidden - often appendicesmerely include data in some sort of summarised form. If this latter data is stillthought to be commercially sensitive, the whole research document can beclassified as confidential and thus its circulation restricted.

4.46. Another requirement of a research project is that there should be some originality;it may be adequate to merely analyse the data in a different sort of way. The

task of the researcher who wishes to use secondary data is to define the problem,and then perhaps bring together data for two variables that have not beenbrought together before. The process requires thought, a little insight andperhaps a little ingenuity. An example may be a correlation between

unemployment levels and percentage of home owners in European Union states.





Soft and hard data

4.47. Soft data can be classified as such if it comes from opinion surveys. It can beargued that just because people are of the opinion that product A is better thanproduct B in respect of say quality, it does not mean that this is the case in afactual sense. Quality can be measured in a variety of ways - factual data can be

obtained from laboratory experiments about each of the products. It is this latterdata that should be arguably used to distinguish between the quality of twoproducts; it is surely this data that the sponsor of a project needs.

4.48. But it is commercial life that people will make decisions about products basedupon their opinion and without looking at the data provided by factual studies. Inthis sense it is peoples' opinions as much as fact that drive the national economy.Opinions may be fairly loose and people may be persuaded to change them.

Attitudes are more deep-rooted, and more difficult to change. Values are moredeep rooted still and are only likely to change over a long time span (Oppenheim,1992, p. 179).

4.49. It is often appropriate to collate „factual information‟. Such data may besecondary data, or be from experiments or observation. It may alternatively be

historical data that lies in archives and needs „bringing together‟ or abstractinginto a form suitable for analysis.

The Analysis (Chapter 4)

4.50. The middle of the report should include some analysis – taking perhaps oneelement of a problem, breaking it down, establishing causes and effects. Suchanalysis needs data of some sort.

4.51. Recognising limited resources, it may be that a research project is predominantlybased on only one type of robust data analysis. It does not matter which,provided there is some type of analysis of some type of data. Robust analysis

involves the application of some kind of academic tool; some academic tools maybe considered more robust than others.

4.52. Two major analytical schools exist: qualitative and quantitative. Some peoplemay be able to use both methods, but often a person is specialist in one or theother. Crudely speaking qualitative methods involve analysing words andquantitative methods involve the analysis of numbers. But this definition is not

adopted by all authors. Some authors describe attitude measurement based onopinions, views and perceptions as qualitative data [Bryman (1988) cited inNaoum (1998, p. 43)]. Holt (1997, p. 73) describes such methods as quantitativedata. The boundary between the two may be blurred by a question such „as howdo you f eel today‟; the respondent is given a choice of four answers (i) great, (ii)fine, (iii) not very good, and (iv) lousy. The analytical process may allocatenumbers to each answer, so that great = 3 through to lousy = 0. The answer

given is clearly qualitative; it expresses the feeling of the respondent using a wordthat is carefully selected. But the subsequent analysis will be quantitative.

4.53. Factual statistical data are clearly quantitative. Unstructured interviews, wherebyinterviewees speak freely, aim to find out how people view the world. Data fromsuch interviews are labelled „qualitative‟.

4.54. Qualitative data may aim to gain insights and understand people‟s perceptions of the world. Beliefs, understandings, opinions and views of people are examined.

The data will be unstructured in its raw form. Data needs to be filtered, sortedand manipulated if analytical techniques are to be applied. Qualitative data maybe analysed by counting key words or grouping like answers. Qualitative analysismay be merely findings derived from reading other work or from readingtranscripts of interviews. A more rigorous approach may involve some kind of comparison of findings in a tabular format or content analysis (word counting) of

data. The qualitative analysis expert will labour meticulously over transcripts,using perhaps computer software such as NUDIST (Non-numeric unstructureddata indexing, searching and theorising) as a tool to assist in the analysis. One





may remember a testimony given by President Clinton – what does the word „is‟ really mean?

4.55. It is argued that the best studies comprise the analysis of both qualitative andquantitative data. The qualitative analysis may come first; speaking to people,teasing out issues and problems. The literature review may be considered to be a

qualitative analytical tool. The quantitative analysis follows, using numerical datato test hypotheses. The researcher may then revert back to more qualitative datagathering to help in interpreting results and findings from the quantitative tests.

4.56. Quantitative analysis at its simplest level may be a mere comparison of figures.This may involve analysis of unemployment figures, inflation, costs of products etc.Some people may have a fear of quantitative analysis or statistics, but suchfigures are common starting points for analysis in many arguments. Descriptive

statistics perhaps takes quantitative analysis one step further. Under the umbrellaof descriptive statistics is the calculation of means - a concept that is widely usedby many in every day work activity. Medians, modes, standard deviations arealso described as descriptive statistics.

Analytical techniques

4.57. The most rigorous statistical analytical methods are inferential statistics, and theyare often not complex. It merely involves the concept of variables, and seeks to

determine causes and effect or the influence of independent variables ondependent variables.

4.58. At higher levels of study all written work has to contain analytical study. Thisanalysis could be in the form of work leading to a design, experimental or fieldanalysis, analysis of secondary data sources or primary data sources eitherstatistical in nature or not. The argument for the inclusion of statistical analysis isthat it is accepted throughout the research community, worldwide, as being arobust analytical tool.

4.59. Many aspects of life anyway are about statistics, even if it does not involvestatistics in any sort of complex way. The analysis for example of unemployment

levels or inflation involves numbers and trends, often illustrated in line diagramsor the like. In this context the student may be using statistical data withoutactually giving it the „statistics‟ label. Using inferential statistical tests should not

be seen as being too complex. Such tests are certainly taught in schools and onthe first year of undergraduate programmes in disciplines such as psychology.They are not rocket science; they are a useful analytical tool that can contributesubstantially to the quality of research material. It is acknowledged that somestatistical tests are extremely complex; the complexity of test used however needonly match the level of study being undertaken.

4.60. The argument against the inclusion of statistical analysis is that there are other

analytical tools. The qualitative analytical school involves the researcher inlabouring over statements, interviews etc. Analysis pervades many subjectdisciplines and modules of study. Mathematical computations can involve

complex analysis. Network analysis techniques (arrow diagrams, bar charts) canbe used as a tool to compare the duration of two different projects. Cost benefitanalysis is sometimes used as a tool to assist the decision making process whentwo alternative infrastructure developments are being considered. The

possibilities are endless:

Value management: brainstorm alternative building designs to yield bestvalue solution. Integrate all construction disciplines in reaching suchsolutions i.e. architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical.

Drawings or sketches: comparison of alternative designs to yield technicalsolutions

Photographic surveys: use with computer images to enhance visualisationof proposed projects





Land survey plots: comparison of alternative sites for proposeddevelopment

U-values: comparison of alternative building designs to yieldenvironmentally friendly solutions

Decision trees: compare established theoretical models to a case studysituation

Feasibility studies: integrated design and cost service to establish viabilityof proposed projects. Perhaps incorporate some cost/benefit analysistechniques

Risk analysis: consider alternative projects in „what if‟ models to assesstheir financial viability i.e. what if interest rates change, ditto inflation, dittoUK to join EMU

Financial analysis: use data from the Building Cost Information Service(BCIS) to make a comparison of cost of two or more methods of construction

Building surveys: compare surveys undertaken independently by twodifferent building surveyors on the same property or plot of land.

Network analysis: compare an arrow diagram and precedence diagram astools for planning construction work

Measurement: measure components or elements of buildings using different'standard methods of measurement'

4.61. Many of the techniques maybe simply used to make „comparisons‟ between twodifferent „things‟.

4.62. The terms analysis, results, findings, conclusions and recommendations are oftenused interchangeable in the media. It is useful to distinguish between them, anduse such definitions as a vehicle for structuring the sequence of a research project.

4.63.

The analysis involves the application of academic or analytical tools to the data.If the analysis is qualitative, the result may be a table of comparisons of statements or frequency counts of key words or phrases. If the analysis isquantitative, the result may be the numerical figure at the end of a calculation,say the mean cost for two different products. The finding is the next logical step;qualitatively and quantitatively it may be found that product „A‟ is better or worsethan product „B‟.

The Discussion (Chapter 5)

4.64. The Oxford dictionary definition of a discussion is:

an examination by argument

a debate

4.65. The discussion requires that the results and findings be evaluated against eachother and against the theory and the literature. It should also deduce

explanations for similarities and differences; why and how. Carefully speculatecauses. Consider results and findings against the aims and objectives; perhapsthe discussion should be articulated under the heading of each objective.Causations should be examined. Link the discussion/analysis to the conclusion bygiving the findings and saying how they relate to the literature. Argue from theother side. Link the theory, literature, study findings, author‟s experience; andthen give a judgement.

4.66. A causal link may exist if:

There is a strong statistical relationship

It is difficult to think of a more important factor





The relationship is consistent over samples, time, different circumstancesetc.

The causal direction is clear

Potentially confounding factors have been controlled for

There is a clear dose-response relationship

The time lag to effect is logical

The relationship appears to hold universally (check other literature)

The statistical relationship may be explained in physical laws of physics.

4.67. The concept of seeing the project from the other side is important. Consider thecynic who may be critical of the research project. It is useful to articulate whatthe cynic may find - in some respects perhaps a recognition of limitations, butmore importantly a recognition that there are two sides to any debate. The

discussion chapter must try to have empathy with and respect for the other side.The process may again be analogous to the set of balancing scales, which areappropriate in the writing of the literature review. Many issues in life are not

black or white; they are grey. A discussion chapter should be written withsensitivity, recognising blurred boundaries that exist. The conclusions should not just „pop out‟ in the conclusion chapter. They should be developed in thediscussion chapter, and any arguments supporting them should be articulated.

4.68. There are many issues in life where there are two sides to the debate. Thepolitical world is full of issues where the decision making process is oftencontroversial, with seemingly compelling evidence on each side of an argument.In the dissertation context, whilst the writer may make a judgement on one side,the discussion chapter should not leave readers to examine the arguments fromthe other side.

Conclusions and recommendations (Chapter 6)

4.69. Conclusions are very important – the whole purpose of academic study is to give

robust conclusions. It is important to focus upon the writing style of a conclusion.If it is found that „A‟ is better than „B‟, perhaps the conclusions should answer thecynical question of readers – „so what?‟. The researcher may draft conclusions onthe assumption that something needs to change or something needs to happen.

4.70. The Oxford dictionary definition of a conclusion is:

a final result; a termination

a judgement reached by reasoning

the summing up of an argument, article or book

a proposition that is reached from given premises

4.71. In the context of a dissertation a conclusion could be expressed in the format of

something needs to happen. There should be a seamless transition from resultsof analyses to discussion to conclusions. Conclusions maybe a maximum of 2000

words. Each conclusion will be a separate paragraph, with no new material. Theconclusions should stand-alone – the reader should be able to understand theconcept behind each conclusion without having to refer to earlier chapters.Therefore the conclusion will include the results and findings from the earlierchapters. Each aim, objective and hypothesis will have a conclusion; it will assessto what extent have they been met. Link them by reference to the introduction.Hypothesis or objectives for future study may be recommended. It may be the

case that some readers only have time to read selected parts of the document,and in this context the conclusion serves as a means of bringing together thewhole of the document.

4.72. A research project can stand or fall by its conclusions. Students often write their

conclusions the day before submission is due. This must not be the case. Theconclusions must be laboured over long and hard. They should be the result of





many iterations, and be approached with „insight‟ and given a great deal of thought. Good conclusions yield strong recommendations. They should identifywhat has been achieved, what has been learned and who might benefit from thefindings. Conclusions support the research validity.

4.73. Recommendations detail suggestions for changes in practice and will identify

potentially significant aspects of the area which were outside the scope of thestudy. Do not force out conclusions and recommendations that are not reallythere; do not claim too much in the conclusions. Recognise the limitations of theproject. A conclusion should be a logical outcome of all that has gone before.The underlying reason of research projects is to draw realistic and tangibleconclusions from the study; even if the conclusions are negative.Recommendations include advice, praise or commendation – as well as calls foraction and further work. Recommendations should be bullet points – notdiscursive reading. Recommendations for further study should include a researchquestion or objective or hypothesis. They should also state the proposedmethodology for the study, the population and proposed method of analysis.

4.74. A recommendation may follow which suggests „how‟ the proposed change may beimplemented. This perhaps gives the researcher the opportunity to be innovative

and put forward good ideas.

4.75. Studies executed on the premise of establishing causes may be appropriate to aconclusion writing style which suggests something needs to change or happen;that is establish what the IVs are and conclude that they need to be manipulated.However some studies may not be appropriate to this style. The objective of some research may be to develop theories or explanations as to „why‟ thingshappen. The explanation may not be clear cut and definitive, and therefore aconclusion may be substantive in its own right if it merely articulates whysomething happens. Such explanation needs to be academically robust, but stemfrom the data analysis, results and findings in the study.

Data in reports

4.76. The presentation in a report of the data used is important. This will often be

presented in tables, graphs, diagrams, photographs or other means of quickly andreadily conveying information.

4.77. It is very important that every piece of data presented in a report is commentedon and evaluated by the author. It is not possible to expect the reader to providehis or her own interpretation of the data: it is the job of the author to do that.

4.78. Figures and tables throughout the document should be numbered, and prefixed bythe number of the chapter in which the figure or table appears, e.g. Figure 2.3 willbe the third figure in chapter two. The title and content of figures or tables shouldbe such that they can be understood on a stand-alone basis.

4.79. Appendices provide supplementary information that is too bulky to include withinthe main flow of the report. The general rule is that if there is data larger than asingle side of A4, it should be in the appendices. The data in the appendices willneed however, to be summarised in the main report.

4.80. The appendices help subsequent readers and users of the report and may include,for example, survey questionnaires. Appendices should be in the same order asthey appear in the narrative, and they should be designated by capital letter

(„Appendix A‟, „Appendix B‟ etc.) rather than by Arabic number. The main reportitself should include all information necessary to develop arguments, test thehypotheses and fulfil the aims and objectives of the study and not rely on thereader needing to have read the appendices. Appendices should be page-numbered.

4.81. Do not include published reference material in Appendices. This should bereferred to in the normal way using the Harvard Reference system.





Verb tenses for reports

4.82. The following provides a useful guide to tenses for each section of the report:

Abstracts: best in the present tense. E.g. The aim of the study is to …. Theresults show that….

Introduction: best in the present tense, but a lapse into the future tenseis also possible. E.g. “The literature review demonstrates that …”., or “it willbe shown in the literature review that …”. Literature review: could either be in the present tense or the past tense depending on the age of the research and the context and particular sentenceconstruction being employed. E.g. “Smith (1952) developed the theory of XYZ and Jones (2005) shows that data still support this theory.” Methodology, analysis, discussion: usually written in the past tense.

“Data from XYZ were analysed and showed …” (NB. There is no such word as “datas”, and so data can be either singular or plural, hence be sure toconjugate the verb accordingly in this case data is in the plural and so theverb is “were” and not “was”). Avoid the temptation to write in the futuretense, particularly the method, even if you are writing up before carrying itout.

Conclusions: Usually in the present tense. E.g. „It is concluded that …‟.

4.83. The important point is that the writer should be consistent.

OTHER TYPES OF DOCUMENT

Essays

4.84. An essay is a work of prose structured in such a way as to put across a point of view. An academic essay presents a coherent argument based on facts that areverifiable.

4.85. The main point of an essay set for a student is to help them think in depth abouta subject area, and so the process is as important as the end product. Theyrequire the write to:

think logically and argue a case;

relate theoretical concepts to particular issues; and

write cogently and fluently.

4.86. The stages are as follows:

Defining the subject area, aim and readership of the essay

Gathering of information from source material

Sorting that information into clustered groups and a logical order

Putting those ideas into words, and this will mean careful drafting and re-drafting.

4.87. An essay may set out to do one of the following: outline area of inquiry; narrate(for example a history); explain something; discuss something; describesomething; or compare and contrast two ideas or subjects.

4.88. The introduction should outline the scope and subject matter of the essay andthe point of view from which the subject matter will be treated (For example, theessay could be on concessionary fares in public transport. It may tackle thesubject from the point of view of the user and the way that they change behaviouras a result of free or cheaper fares, alternatively it may consider the cost to the

exchequer of the subsidy which is put in to providing concessionary travel)

4.89. The main body of the essay should progress in an orderly sequence such that thelogic of any argument being constructed is quite apparent to the reader. This willmean you need to group ideas appropriately together and think about whichgroup of points „lead‟ and which „follow‟. It should not leave the reader „beggingthe question‟, i.e. being unsure as to why something has been said, which only





becomes plain later. You are not writing „all you know‟ about a subject, but youare constructing a piece of writing to address a title. What you write should notmerely be interesting to you, but should be used to support the argument you areputting forward. Look at Chapter 5 which gives you some ideas about criticalreasoning.

4.90. The conclusion sums up the main points. You should think of it as a „summarising conclusion‟, rather than a full discussion (which is contained in themain body of the essay). New material should not be included in the conclusion.

4.91. In summary a good essay will:

Have answered the question implicit in the title

Have presented a coherent argument (i.e. one that stands up to logic)

Be objective and analytical and make appropriate use of evidence

Be well written (punctuation, structure at sentence, paragraph and documentlevel, with style, but being succinct). If it is well written, it will be easy to read.

Letters and emails

4.92. The box below shows the format of a letter.

London South Bank University103 Borough Road

LondonSE1 0AA

1st September 2011

Mr S Holmes221b Baker Street

LondonNW1 6XE

Dear Mr Holmes

Observation for engineers

My colleagues and I have long been admirers of your powers of observation which you use to great effect in solving crime.

We would be pleased if you would consider providing a short course weare thinking of running called „observation for engineers‟ . Would you beinterested in providing a guest lecture on this course?

Yours sincerely,

Professor Ivor Spanner

4.93. Key points are:

Address of sender (in order to receive a reply!)

Full date (for record purposes, NB a date is never complete without the year)

Name of recipient includes initials in the address block

Salutation (Dear Mr Holmes, which excludes initials, but first name may beused if you know him well)

Title (Observational instruction)

Body of text is in short paragraphs and is as succinct as possible, and usessentences which are as short as possible as this makes it quicker to read.

Sign off („Yours sincerely‟ if you know the person by name, otherwise forletters addressed as „Dear Sir‟, or „Dear Madam‟, use „Yours faithfully‟.)





4.94. The box below shows the format of an email

To: [email protected] From: [email protected]

Subject: Observation for engineers

Mr Holmes

My colleagues and I have long been admirers of your powers of observation which you use to great effect in solving crime.

We would be pleased if you would consider providing a short course weare thinking of running called „observation for engineers‟. Would you beinterested in providing a guest lecture on this course?

RegardsProfessor Ivor Spanner

4.95. Key points are as follows:

Subject line is always given as it helps sorting (Observational instruction)

Salutation is usually just the person‟s name (Mr Holmes, or Sherlock if youknow him well)

Body of text is in short paragraphs and is as succinct as possible, and usessentences which are as short as possible as this makes it quicker to read

Sign off usually just „Regards‟ and then your name. Do make sure you usesome sort of polite sign off.

4.96. The key point is that you should regard emails as being akin to letter, and not textmessages. They should be written in proper grammatical sentences. (The authorof these notes has sent emails back to students when they have not been writtenin appropriate language or expressed in proper English asking them to write themproperly).

PROOF READING

4.97. The proof reading stage is veryimportant and the process must bemeticulous. It is not only about contentbut also mistakes in, for example:grammar; spelling; missingapostrophes; missing words; andlayout. Every sentence should bereadable with perfect clarity and noambiguity.

4.98. A document of, say, 3,000 words in length will probably at some stage of its lifebeen, say 5,000 words in length. Information that is unnecessary needs to be cut

out. Notes on this are provided in the chapter on summaries.

4.99. Reading final year projects, MSc dissertations and PhD theses can provide usefulideas about document structure and research methodology. They may alsoprovide a useful list of references if they are in a similar field of inquiry as theproposed research.

CHAPTER 5 STYLE AND SUMMARIES

STYLE

5.1. Consider the following change in London Transport Executive Notices before andafter revision carried out in 1949.

If an idea needs to be in a report forlogical construction of an argument, asentence describing that idea needsto be in the report. If a sentence ispresent in a report which really doesnot add anything of value, or repeats

what is said elsewhere, it should bedeleted.

mailto:[email protected]












Dogs - beforeSmall dogs may, at the discretion of the conductorand at owner‟s risk, be carried without charge uponthe upper deck of double-deck buses, or in single-

deck buses. The decision of the conductor is final.

Dogs – afterYou can take your dog with you if it is a small oneand the conductor agree. It travels free, but at yourrisk. If the vehicle is a double-decked, you mustboth go on the upper deck.

5.2. The second is more direct and more easily readable. You should always adopt themost direct style possible.

5.3. Consider the following two letters; it is fairly clear which is better (after Cooper,1964).

Dear Sirs,

XYZ has recently given consideration to the sending of Christmas Cardsand, although it is certainly not without its pleasant side, we have decidedregretfully to discontinue the sending of Christmas Cards for this year.

I am sure that you will appreciate that the warmth of the feelings of all inthe division who have had, and are having dealings with you isundiminished, and that as in the past, but henceforth silently, our goodwishes will be with you at this time of year.

Yours faithfully ……

Dear Sirs,

We have decided to discontinue our practice of sending Christmas Cards.We should, as ever, like to wish you the compliments of the season.

Yours faithfully …….

5.4. As a further example, the following letter from Dr Johnson, one of the foremostproponents on the English language, to James MacPherson is terse, emphatic, has

no superfluous words, is direct and every word says what it means (from Cooper,1964).

I have received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered meI shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shalldo for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think acheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.

What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; Ithink it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to thepublic, which I here dare you refute. Your rage I defy.

5.5. Cobbett (1823, p177) suggests that „One of the greatest of all faults in writingand in speaking is this: the using of many words to say little.‟

A word on rhythm

5.6. Cooper (1964) uses the following speech by Sir Winston Churchill to make thepoint that language, to be engaging for the reader, benefits from a certain rhythmto its construction. The second box illustrates how much less poetic the speechcould have been.





Ever since your victory at Alamein you have nightly pitched your moving tentsa day‟s march nearer home. In days to come, when people ask you what youdid in the Second World War, it will be enough to say: I marched with theEighth Army.

Sir Winston Churchill

You have advanced rapidly ever since your victory at Alamein. When people, indays to come, ask you what you did in the Second World War, you will be ableto tell them you fought in the Eighth Army.

5.7. Fowler (1965) states “A sentence or a passage is rhythmical if, when said aloud, it

falls naturally into groups of words each well fitted by its length and intonation forits place in the whole and its relation to its neighbours. … It is an instinctcultivable by those whom nature has not bestowed it, but on one condition only – that they will make a practice of reading aloud.”

A word on choice of words

5.8. The careful selection of the correct word is very important. The most important

word in a sentence is, arguably, the verb and so the choice of the verb is the most

important choice for a writer to make.

5.9. Words may either simply denote something in a neutral way, or they may bringwith them some connotative meaning, either pleasant or unpleasant. Table 5provides some examples.

Table 5.1 Examples of denotative and connotative words

Denotative ConnotativeNeutral Pleasant Unpleasant

write inscribe scribblethin slender scraggy

ungainly awkward lumpycry weep whine

deceive hide cheat

frown grimace scowlenlarged distended bloated

5.10. You should, in technical and academic writing, usually attempt to select the moststraightforward and direct of all possibilities.

5.11. Minutes of meetings tend to be very difficult to write because you are usuallytrying to use different verbs to describe the actions that have been undertaken at

a meeting, but most of the actions are very similar and involve speaking! The listof words below may be helpful when trying to differentiate:

Reported, commented, explained, said, stated, outlined, highlighted, expressedthe view, would…., clarified, tabled, presented, discussed, rebutted, confirmed.

SUCCINCTNESS AND SUMMARIES

5.12. The following rules should be adopted for general writing, and when attempting towrite summaries of work that you have undertaken. Rules 1 to 5 are for your ownwork, and rules 6 and 7 apply when you are summarising the work of others.

Rule 1 REDUNDANCY and REPETITION. All unnecessary words and phrasesmust be cut out, and nothing should be said more than once.

Rule 2 SIMPLE SENTENCES. Wherever possible, sentences must besimplified so that phrases do the work of clauses, and single words replacephrases.

Rule 3 ILLUSTRATIONS. Provided the main point is clearly stated, leave outall examples and illustration of it.

Rule 4 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. Similes should be omitted, and elaboratemetaphors and other figures of speech simplified.





Rule 5 GENERALISING. Sum up all unimportant detail, so that the generalpoint is clearly stated, but the details are omitted.

Rule 6 NOTE TAKING. Take notes of the main points

Rule 7 YOUR OWN WORDS. After making notes of the main points, build up

the summary from them in your own words. Refer back to the originalpassage, but never copy whole phrases or sentences from it.

5.13. Cooper (1964) offers some useful suggestions for reducing phrases to singlewords as shown in Table 4.

Table 5.2 Shortening phrases to words

Phrase wordIt is clear that clearly

It was note that if If

It is obvious that Obviously

It is observed that molecules which Molecules which

It has a tendency to It tends to

For the reason that becausetake into consideration Consider

If the improvements mean that If

A word on analogy

5.14. By contrast with the discussion above, the use of analogy can be very powerful in

providing explanations. Three examples follow (after Cooper, 1964).

Oil as you know is a liquid lubricant. But there are other substances, solids infact, which also have lubricating properties. Graphite is one of these. Any pipesmoker will know that the way to slacken a tight joint in the stem of a pipe is torub an ordinary lead (graphite) pencil over it. Graphite lubricates in a ratherdifferent way to oil; it fills up the irregularities in the surface of bearings andenables them to slip more easily over each other, see figure 4. Bur graphite isnot the answer. It fulfilled a very valuable function during its hey-day, but

something more was needed.

Whilst this idea is rather difficult to grasp in theory, there is a very simplepractical demonstration. Take a pack of ordinary playing cards and hold themtogether in the palms of the hands. Now rub your palms together. The two outercards of the pack will stick to your hands, but the cards in between will slide overeach other quite freely. In other words your hands are the bearing surfaces, theouter cards are the “plating” of polyslip molecules, and the cards in between arethe gliding layers of molecules.

We further observe that the molecular chains are in no sort of order, butresemble rather bits of string with which a kitten has been playing

PLAGIARISM

5.15. Plagiarism is the representation of another person‟s work, withoutacknowledgement of the source. When this is done by a student for the purposes

of satisfying formal assessment requirements, penalties apply. Most peopleconsider plagiarism as simple common „theft‟. (In some countries, the penalty for

thieving is to have ones hand chopped off!)

5.16. Examples of plagiarism include:

the use of a single phrase from another person‟s work or from the internetwithout the use of quotation marks and reference to the source;

the summarising of another person‟s work or an internet source by changinga few words or altering the order of presentation;

the use of images such as graphs, tables, photographs withoutacknowledgement of the source;

the use of ideas or intellectual data of another person or the internet

without acknowledgement of the source;





copying the work of another student;

collusion with other students on work which is then submitted as though itwas an individual student‟s own work;

the submission of a piece of work which has previously been assessed for

a different award;

5.17. Plagiarism may be avoided by these three golden rules:

Avoiding Plagiarism Rule 1: read the work of another person and makenotes about what you read in your own words.

Avoiding Plagiarism Rule 2: After making notes of the main points, buildup the summary from them in your own words. Refer back to the originalpassage, but never copy whole phrases or sentences from it.

Avoiding Plagiarism Rule 3: Make proper reference to the source

material using the Harvard convention. See LSBU Helpsheet 30 and thenotes on the structure of research and the research document.

5.18. NEVER EVER use the copy and paste commands to take material from

elsewhere and place it in your document. This is a certain way of committing plagiarism.

5.19. You may be used to a „copy and paste‟ approach from your school days. You needto break this habit now. In higher education we expect you to think about what

you are writing, rather than just copy what someone else has written.

CHAPTER 6 CRITICAL THINKING

INTRODUCTION

6.1. The whole point of doing a degree is that your intellectual behaviour is developed

in some way within your particular field of inquiry. This intellectual behavioural

development can only come through thinking. Every assignment is in some waytesting your ability to think.

6.2. We all think in a general sense, but often our thinking is biased, distorted orpartial, prejudiced and ill-informed. Critical thinking imposes some standards onthe way we think in order to improve our ability to formulate problems, gatherrelevant information, challenge assumptions and assess alternatives, come toappropriate conclusions, and communicate the results of thought.

6.3. Critical thinking is based on reasoning and this has a purpose (there is some endin view), is usually based on resolving a question or problem, is based onassumptions, comes from a particular point of view, is based on information andis shaped by ideas or concepts. Reasoning is built up of inferences which leadtowards conclusions, and these conclusions may have implications.

6.4. As an example, the following may be an example of critical thinking. „Aeroplanesare noisy (information), they disturb human populations (information and point of view), hence airports should not be built in locations where aeroplanes will over-fly populous areas (conclusion), so we should build an airport in the ThamesEstuary (implication).‟ Clearly, however the issue is more complex than may bewell argued in a single sentence.

EXPLANATION, INFERENCE AND ARGUMENT

The explanation

6.5. The following statement explains why you should not use masonry in earthquakezones.

Masonry is brittle, so should not be used to build structures in

earthquake zones





6.6. It comprises of two claims, the first is that masonry is brittle, and the second thatmasonry should not be used to build structures in earthquake zones. The firstclaim is used to infer the second claim. There is an unstated assumption thatbuildings in earthquake zones need to be flexible and so the above could be re-written in a fuller form as:

Masonry is brittle and buildings in earthquake zones need to beflexible, so masonry should not be used to build structures inearthquake zones.

6.7. However, it is up to the writer to judge whether assumptions need to be stated.Stating all the assumptions makes the explanation fuller, but may not make itclearer as the assumptions may be obvious and well accepted.

The Inference

6.8. The following statement infers something about the future:

Houses in England are made of masonry, so when the next earthquake strikes they will fall down.

6.9. The above inference is weak as it relies on unstated assumptions which may ormay not be true, not the least of which is that the next earthquake to hit theUnited Kingdom is of a sufficient magnitude to cause structural damage. Of courseinferences may be much stronger than this.

The Argument

6.10. An argument is essentially a sequence of claims which may require more than onesupporting claim. The following statement presents two claims before a concludingclaim:

Houses in England are made of masonry. The United Kingdomsuffers only minor earthquakes, so English masonry houses are safefrom earthquake damage.

6.11. There are two separate statements here which, taken together, lead to the claim

that English houses are safe from earthquakes.

6.12. A fuller arguments might be written as

Houses in England are made of masonry and masonry is brittle (1).Brittle buildings suffer damage and collapse in earthquakes (2). TheUnited Kingdom is not in an active earthquake zone and suffers only

minor earthquakes when they do occur (3). On this basis, houses inEngland are safe from earthquake damage and collapse (4).

6.13. The assumptions are stated as well as the claims. Note that sentence (1) andsentence (2) work together to create an outcome, which is then set againstsentence (3) before coming to the conclusion in sentence (4).

6.14. Notice that the conclusion is prefaced by the words „on this basis‟. Examples of

other words and phrases which frequently may come before a conclusions are:hence, so, therefore, consequently, it follows that.

CREATING VALID ARGUMENTS

Inductive and deductive reasoning

6.15. A valid argument needs to be based on sound reasoning. Inductive reasoning may be used where repeated observations tend to lead the observer to aconclusion. In such cases, the claim must be beyond question based on sound

evidence. The evidence must be credible and consideration must be given to thefollowing:

the motives of the experimenter;

any biases which may creep in either knowingly or unknowingly;

the extent to which the approach is neutral;





an assessment of any vested interests;

the expertise and reputation of the people involved;

the ability to perceive from the evidence collected;

any independent corroboration which is available.

6.16. Deductive reasoning, by contrast is where a new conclusion emerges fromcombining existing knowledge. A syllogism is an example of deductive reasoningand has a „major premise‟ , a „minor premise‟ and a „conclusion‟ , as the examplebelow illustrates.

Major premise: All good students are intelligent

Minor Premise: All LSBU students are good students

Conclusion: All LSBU students are intelligent

6.17. The Subject is „LSBU students‟ and „intelligence‟ is the Predicate. The middle, or

linking description is „good students‟. Hence the general pattern is:

Major premise: All „linking description‟ are „what is predicated‟

Minor Premise: All „the subject‟ are the „linking description‟

Conclusion: All „the subject‟ are „what is predicated‟

CLASSES OF FAULTY REASONING

6.18. There are many examples of faulty reasoning. Some are listed below.

Inappropriate use of percentages, particularly for example quoting alarge percentage when the population to which it refers is only small. (If youwere to say that 80% of the respondents thought the new cycle facility wasgood, this would sound impressive and you may attempt to use this figure towin an argument about infrastructure provision. It tells a different story if you realise, perhaps, there were only twenty respondents!)

Inappropriate use of ratios when real numbers would reveal a differenttruth.

Over-generalisation or wrong generalisation (the no smoke without fireargument) for example „It always rains in the North‟ .

‘Slippery slope’ or ‘thin end of the wedge’ arguments, for example „If welet our eight year old go to bed late tonight, she will always now want to goto bed late‟ .

‘Straw man’ arguments, where an argument is misrepresented. Person A „We should invest more in public transport.‟ Person B „No, subsidy for publictransport is a waste of money.‟ (Investment has been misrepresented assubsidy, two different things)

Restriction of options. For example, lower interest rates and quantitativeeasing are the only two options presented in an argument about recoveryfrom a recession, when other options such as for example, adjusting taxes

may exist.

Circular arguments are arguments which rely on their premises for theirconclusions. „Only people good at mathematics choose engineering. The factthat engineers are good at mathematics proves this.‟ This is wrong becausethere is only one proposition: engineers are good at mathematics. Engineersmay become good at mathematics through their training.

Ad hominem arguments („against the person‟ arguments) are argumentswhich attack the person and not the argument. „He is wrong because heknows nothing about it.‟





To quoque arguments ( „you too‟ arguments) are based on a judgementthat a person is hypocritical. „You cannot think that we should reducegreenhouse gases because you own a car‟.

Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc ( „with this, therefore because of this falsecausation). A correlation between two independent variables does not

necessarily imply causation. This is one of the most common fallacies in thescientific process of inductive logic. When a correlation is found, separately, areason for causation still also needs to be found. „York has many cycle routesand this is why there are a lot of cyclists in York‟ (it may be that the manycyclists in York created the need to build cycle routes, not the other wayround).

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc ( „after this, therefore because of this‟ or false

time dependent causation). Event B may follow Event A, but it is notnecessarily the case that Event B was caused by Event A. might followanother event, the second event. „The rooster crowed leading to the sun‟srising‟

False Premise. Arguments where conclusions are drawn from an inaccurate

premise. „Making all buses free will increase ridership because the only thingkeeping people off buses is the high price‟ (The reason given is probably nottrue: there are many reason including comfort and journey time which peoplewill consider in making decisions about whether or not to use a bus).

Missing Premise. Arguments where a conclusion is drawn but without apremise being stated. „Making all buses free will increase ridership‟ (Theunstated premise is that price is the only thing keeping people off buses)

Arguments that appeal to popularity, for example „Rioters should getstiffer prison sentences for criminal activity‟.

Arguments that appeal to pity. „We should give it to him because hedeserves it after all he has been through.‟ (and only for the reason that hehas been through it and for no other logical reason!)

Arguments that appeal to authority. „Professor Potter has been correct onsimilar things in the past, therefore we should believe him now‟

Arguments that appeal to history. „This old wives tale has been known for

hundreds of years‟

Arguments based on false analogy. Airports are analogous to bus stationsbecause they are both transport hubs. The profile of people passing throughthese hubs is therefore similar.

CHAPTER 7 BACKGROUND: LITERATURE AND REFERENCING

COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE

7.1. The background or literature review is an important part of a project: it identifiesthe current state-of-the-art (knowledge and understanding) in a field of inquiry.The literature review seeks to

confirm the latest position is in the field;

define the extent of current knowledge;

describe what is happening at the leading edge; and

identify gaps which warrant research and lead into the aims and objectives.

7.2. The writing up of a research paper in a literature review may take between oneparagraph and two sides or more, depending on its relevance to your researchaim and the value of the research undertaken. It may be appropriate to reproduce





tables of results from the reference, again if relevant to your researchmethodology and aim. The write up should contain the following parts:

Clear statement of the aim of the research being referenced.

The number of observations in the study and an overview of the method of

data collection.

The form of analysis.

Variables considered and rejected and variables tested and retained.

Consequences of the research.

Conclusions, recommendations, where relevant to your aim.

7.3. It is not sufficient, however, that a literature review merely comprises statementsextracted from previous work which are bolted together. The review should makeintelligent links and demonstrate that the literature has been examined critically

and with insight. It is these latter two that are often most difficult to master and itis good to make use of the work of one author to criticise the work of another, sothat any criticism is informed.

7.4. The literature review will need to present material usually in a chronological order.The chapter will however, need to be sub-divided around the different themesrelevant to the research topic, perhaps for example: the historical development,the policy framework, background statistics, research into the different aspects of

the problem (as many as are required) and so on.

TYPES OF LITERATURE AND THEIR WEIGHT

7.5. The weighing process is assisted by recognising the value of the source materialwith a refereed journal at the „high value‟ end of the scale and a web page ormedia report2 at the „low value‟ end of the scale.

7.6. Academic journals contain papers that are rigorously refereed, and are basedon robust research using sound methodology. Authors tend to be very specialist in

their field, and the papers are often the output of university research. Suchpapers are based on evidence and may be considered to be in the top division of written work. Within the division there are some journals which may be informallyranked in the upper quartile, some in the middle and some in the lower quartile.Academics can be most pleased with their work if it is published in the leading

journal in their field. Journals will have an ISSN (International Standard SerialNumber) and this is a sign of their status as a “published” document. It should benoted that most journals are now available to the academic community as e- journals (electronic journals) and are available on the web in restricted areas andsearchable through web based search engines. Their presence on the web shouldnot be confused with other web based sources of lesser importance (see below).

7.7. Review papers are syntheses of findings reported in papers and are themselvesreported in academic journals which often contain the word „review‟ in the title

(for example the journal „Transport Reviews‟). The purpose of a review paper is tocollect together and analyse the findings from primary research papers in order toprovide further revelations about the subject matter. They may simply provide apartial overview of the field of inquiry, or they may be reviews of methods, orreviews of concepts and theories.

7.8. Conference proceedings are often useful sources of data. Again some

conferences are more prestigious than others. Conferences on the whole, though,are often not thought to be as prestigious as refereed academic journals, since itis more difficult to achieve publication in the latter. Conference proceedings may

2 Media reports may be a useful way of finding out who is researching in a field. You should

avoid using media reports as primary reference sources.





be refereed, but more often than not, they are not refereed. Refereed proceedingswould usually have an ISSN, but most often conference proceedings do not havean ISSN.

7.9. Books and textbooks are clearly important, but it should be remembered thatthey are often not based on evidence and research, and therefore may be

considered less substantive than academic journals. The style of many text booksis merely explanatory. They are termed “secondary” sources in that they will inturn refer to primary research outputs, such as papers in journals. Books have anInternational Standard Book Number (ISBN) and this is a sign of their status as a “published” document.

7.10. News media, such as magazine and newspaper articles, should have little or noweight placed on them (even though they may have ISSNs, the equivalent of

ISBNs for journals). They can provide a background context and may containreferences to other source material, but no more than that.

7.11. World wide web pages can provide data, reports, and opinion and may beclassified in three ways:

Web pages of public sector organisations, from which authoritative facts,reports (with an ISBN or otherwise) or secondary data sets as well as “greyliterature” (without an ISBN) may be downloaded. This might include

universities, research laboratories, academic organisations providingsecondary data (e.g. MIMAS and EDINA), government departments andinternational bodies (e.g. the United Nations, The European Union,International Panel on Climate Change). Note that some reports may merelybe policy or strategy documents.

Web pages of private companies, trade organisations and otheridentifiable organisations that may be incorporated bodies or charities.These web pages may provide “grey literature”, that is literature which isunpublished (that is, possessing no ISSN or ISBN), or sometimes may alsoprovide published literature. It may also include proprietary productinformation or policy or lobbying information.

Other web pages from non-verifiable sources. There are millions of webpages of which the authorship is unclear and for which their purpose is

unclear, or alternatively, clearly biased. These should be avoided.

7.12. The above list is not exhaustive, but most literature will be classifiable into one of the broad groupings identified above.

THE LITERATURE SEARCH

7.13. The primary entry point for student research is the LSBU library home page:http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/library/. Following the search by subject link, it is possible

to follow a link to the appropriate faculty and departmental website. Core e-resources are then listed at this location. Two important abstracting engines areISI Web of Knowledge and ScienceDirect.

7.14. Further up to date information on sources of information and the use of those sources should be obtained directly from the library.

7.15. Equally as important as the electronic search is the „browse‟ search through paper journals or e-journals. Students must not think, however that all important

information in a field is listed electronically. Where information is notavailable electronically, and is also not on the shelves of the University library, itcan be obtained through the inter-library loan process. Material can beobtained from the British Library and other libraries through the inter-library loan system within a couple of days by filling out a formhttp://www.lsbu.ac.uk/library/html/interlibloans.shtml. The importantpoint here is that it can be a time-consuming process, and so it is important tostart the literature review early.

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/library/







7.16. Students may become aware that their subject area is one for which a particularuniversity may have specialised staff. It follows that there may be severaldissertations or theses stored on that university's shelves. Do not be afraid toapproach the university to see whether you can borrow copies, we have a host of reciprocal loan arrangements.

7.17. At the end of the literature review process the student should clearly know:

the leading academic journals,

the lead industry data sources,

the leading conferences,

the centres of knowledge/excellence in the field,

the relevant professional institutions,

the lead government department in the field,

the relevant government bodies and agencies,

countries with an interest in the field,

the leading national and international researchers in the field,

the leading authoritative web sites in the field.

7.18. The need to browse may involve the student travelling to places in other parts of the country. Students should not only use their university, college or localmunicipal library. Often universities have reciprocal arrangements wherebystudents from one institution may visit the library in another. A visit to the libraryof professional institutions or trade bodies may also be useful. Governmentagencies often have specialist libraries relating to particular fields of inquiry, forexample business or the environment. Before travelling long distances it may beprudent to arrange an appointment to ensure that access is possible.

7.19. It can also be very useful at the literature search stage to talk to people who have

an interest in the field. They may direct you to important information and theymay even redirect the thrust of your work. If done humbly and politely, wellworded e-mails to leading authors in the field may produce some useful guidanceor references.

7.20. The depth in a literature review is probably best obtained by gaining „referencesfrom references‟. Early leads can be obtained in the literature review process byelectronic searching and browsing. Once an article is found, at the end of that

article is often a list of references to other work in the field. The student shouldobtain these references, and having done so, will find more references at the endof the new reference; and so the process goes on.

7.21. In searches, be careful about differences in spelling between the UK and USA, e.g.colour/color, heteroscedasticity/heteroskedasticity, and differences in terminology,e.g. a footway in the UK is a sidewalk in the USA.

Theories, models and paradigms

7.22. The aim and objectives, hypothesis and research question are better understood if they are grounded in a theoretical framework and the literature review shoulddescribe and confirm the basis of the theoretical context for the research. Atheory is a systematic rationale (or view) of phenomena and which specifiesrelationships between variables to explain the phenomena.

7.23. A research project may involve the development of a model or improvement of anexisting model. A model is a representation of a process or system validated

against observable data: it must capture reality as closely as possible. A modelpermits prediction (or forecasting) whereby, given the relevant inputs, theoutputs maybe determined. The researcher will seek to introduce change in therelevant inputs and observe the effects on the outputs (sensitivity testing).





7.24. The literature might refer to a „paradigm‟, which is a simply a theoreticalframework. Mostly, research works within an existing paradigm. Paradigm shiftsare relatively rare (and often claimed but mostly illusory) and may fundamentallyaffect the way a system is viewed. A good (although quite extreme) example of aparadigm shift is Einstein‟s theories of special (1906) and then general (1916)

relativity, which moved thinking on dramatically from Newtonian mechanics.Critical analysis and weight

7.25. References are quoted as evidence of the current state of play in a field of inquiry.First of all, it has to be decided whether or not the material in the referencerelevant. If it is, it may either SUPPORT or DETRACT from an argument. There arethree stages to the process of inclusion:

Include the material factually and neutrally.

Add every other reference of relevance.

Review every reference included to come to a rounded view on theircontribution.

7.26. It may be helpful to consider the exercise of writing a literature review as onewhereby all the evidence pertaining to a particular issue is collated and placed ona set of balancing scales. Some of the evidence maybe substantial, rigorous andstem from a research project which has been well resourced and funded. Other

evidence may be less substantive, lightweight, anecdotal and merely the opinionof important (or unimportant) people (e.g. many statements from the mediawould fall into this category). In collating evidence, the author must consider theweight of each individual piece, and consider on which side of the balancing scaleit should be placed. Researchers can add their own evidence based on theirpersonal verifiable experience and findings.

7.27. The issue then becomes one of making judgements, very importantly not givingopinions or expressing personal views. The judgement should be made impartially,recognising the weight of the evidence on each side of the scale. Opinions, takenindividually, are lightweight, anecdotal and prone to change. Writers must putthemselves in the position of judge in a court situation and may for example saysomething like “On the balance of the evidence from research project A andevidence B, it is likely that . . .”. The concept of weight is important; the analogy

maybe that an independently sponsored report executed by a team of leadingpeople in the field may weigh 100kg, whilst a small scale piece of work funded byan interest group may weigh less that 1kg.

7.28. The critical appraisal aspects of a literature review may be enhanced by the use of terms which emphasise that comparison is taking place, such as: „whereas‟, „onthe other hand‟, „alternatively‟, „but‟, „another view‟, „the opposite stance‟, „this iscontradicted by‟. Such terms reinforce to the reader the critical nature of the

literature review, and they help to focus the writer's attention on the need to becritically appraising the material being discussed.

Summarising appraisal

7.29. At the end of the literature review there should be an „appraisal‟ which assesses,in the author's words, the implications of the literature on the study and relates itto the aims and objectives. It may be titled „summary‟, „appraisal‟, „summarisingappraisal‟ or „critical appraisal‟. Whilst the literature will be from a wide variety of

sources, it must be written as though it were a funnel, with the output beingconsolidated and narrow, with legitimate contentions, assertions and argumentsfor advancing the area of knowledge further. Typically say „from the literature thefollowing fundamental issues arose …‟. Revisit the research questions, aim,objectives and hypotheses at the end of the literature review.

REFERENCING

7.30.

It is important to list bibliographic information:





to avoid passing off a fact or statement, and comment or conclusion in yourwork as though it were yours (plagiarism);

to allow the reader enough information to find the source and therefore beable to read it him or herself; and

to allow the reader to evaluate the weight you place on the reference source(article in a referenced journal more weight than, e.g. a book perhaps andcertainly more weight than an unregulated web-site).

7.31. It would be clumsy to write something like this:

C.A. Ashley and C. Banister in a paper titled „Cycling to work fromwards in a metropolitan area: factors influencing cycling to work‟ on pages 173 to 178 of the journal traffic engineering and control,Volume 30, Number 6, June 1989 studied cycling to work based on

census data at ward level in the three metropolitan districts.

7.32. Instead, we place all the bibliographic information in a reference list at the end of the document, like this:

ASHLEY, C.A., BANISTER, C., 1989. Cycling to work from wards ina metropolitan area: factors influencing cycling to work. Traffic Engineering and Control , 30(6), pp173-178.

7.33. Listing all the bibliographic information at the end in this way allows the sentence

to be more easily understood, like this:

Ashley and Banister (1989) studied cycling to work based oncensus data at ward level in the three metropolitan districts.

7.34. The practice of referencing is very important in academic work andshould not be treated lightly.

7.35. There are two generic styles of referencing: the Numeric System and the HarvardSystem. Science and engineering journals tend to use the Harvard System

(although, for example, the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers uses

the numeric system!). Each journal will have its own specific peculiarities andeditors tend to provide „Notes for authors‟ which detail these requirements. Inthis programme of study, the required style is the Harvard BritishStandard Version. There are a number of specific sources which can help withthis, in particular LSBU (undated) and Anglia Ruskin University (2009) provide

useful guidance.

7.36. Perfection that is required: full stops and commas, and so on should all be in thecorrect place. The basic order of presentation of bibliographic information in areference list is as follows:

Author(s) (This may sometimes be the name of an organisation if a personalauthor is not identifiable, for example DfT, for Department for Transport)

Year of publication

Title of article or chapter (in edited books) (if a paper or chapter)

Journal title (if a paper in a journal)

Title of book (if a book or report)

Volume and issue number (for journals)

Edition number (for books)

Publisher (Books or reports, this may be the same as the author in whichcase it is repeated, for example, Department for Transport)

Place of publication (for books or reports: as well as, or instead of being ageographical place, this could be a virtual place, i.e. a web page, for examplewww.dft.gov.uk)





Page numbers (for journals)

7.37. References should be listed alphabetically.

7.38. Table 7.1 summarises examples of references for different types of sourcematerial.





Table 7.1 Example references

Type of sourcematerial

Components and order of the reference plus an example

Article in journal AUTHOR, A.A., AUTHOR, B.B. and AUTHOR, C.C., YEAR. Title of article.Title of Journal , vol(issue), pp. xx-xx.

e.g.PARKIN, J., WARDMAN, M. and PAGE, M., 2007. Models of perceivedcycling risk and route acceptability. Accident Analysis and Prevention,39(2), pp364-371.

Book AUTHOR, A.A., AUTHOR, B.B. and AUTHOR, C.C., YEAR. Title of book .Xxx ed. Publisher: place.

e.g.BRYMAN, A. and CRAMER, D., 1999. Quantitative data analysis withSPSS™ release 8 for windows. A guide for social scientists. Routeledge,London.

Chapter in book AUTHOR(S), YEAR. Title of chapter. In: EDITOR(S) (Ed.(s)) Title of book . Xxx ed. Publisher: place. Ch. X. or pp. xx-xx.

e.g.PARKIN, J., RYLEY, T. and JONES, T., 2007. Barriers to cycling: anexploration of quantitative analyses. In: ROSEN, P., and HORTON, D.

and COX, P. (Eds.) Cycling and Society . Ashgate: London. Ch. 3.Un-refereedconferencepaper

AUTHOR(S), YEAR. Title of paper. Conference title, place, dates.e.g.

GUTHRIE, N., 1999. UK Cycle centres: factors that determine theirsuccess. Velo-City, 11th International Bicycle Planning Conference,Graz, Austria. 13-16 April.

Refereedconferencepaper (akin to

chapter in abook)

AUTHOR(S), YEAR. Title of paper. In: Editor or name of organisation.Title of conference. Location, date, publisher: place. pp xx-xx.

e.g.

COPE, A.M., ABBESS, C.R. and PARKIN, J., 2007. Improving theempirical basis for cycle planning. In: Heydecker, B. Mathematics onTransport, Proceedings of the 4th Institute of Mathematics and its

Applications International Conference on Mathematics in Transport .Elsevier, Holland.

Report by an

organisation

ORGANISATION NAME, YEAR. Title. Publisher (usually the organisation

name again), place.e.g.

DfT, 1996. National Cycling Strategy . Department for Transport,London.

Web page AUTHOR(S) or SOURCE, YEAR. Title of web page or document .Available at: URL [Accessed date month year]

e.g.ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY (2009) Harvard system of referencingguide. Available at:http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm?harvard_id=29#29[Accessed 9th February 2009]

TransportResearchLaboratoryReport1

AUTHOR(S), YEAR. Title. TRL Report No. Transport ResearchLaboratory: Crowthorne.

e.g.GRAYSON, G.B., 1996. Behavioural adaptation: a review of the

literature. TRL Report 254. Transport Research Laboratory:Crowthorne.

Newspaper ormagazine2

PUBLICATION NAME, YEAR. Title of article. Date, pp. xx-xx.e.g.

NEW SCIENTIST, 2007. No driver required. 17th Nov. 2007, p5.

Personalcommunication

COMMUNICANT, YEAR. Type of communication and title (if appropriate), location and date as appropriate.

e.g.SKINNER, A.J., 2000. Personal conversation on the 08:39 Bolton toManchester train on 12th May.

Notes1 Transport Research Laboratory Reports are separately listed because they are a

slightly special case for two reasons: they are usually referenced by the authors ‟ names rather than as TRL reports and because the Report Number is usually alsoquoted.

2 Relevant for publications which appear more than once per month. If the journalistsname is printed with the article, then this may be added to the reference.





7.39. Most journals are now available electronically as well as in paper copy. If theyhave been read on the web, they should still be referenced as described in Table2.1 above. It is common now for papers to have a digital object identifier (doi)associated with them (e.g. doi: 10.1007/s11116-007-9137-5). This is like a „telephone number‟ for the particular paper and is searchable using search

engines. While it is not currently common practice to include DOIs in a reference,this may change with time.

7.40. A few points to note about how to include references in the text are as follows:

The initials of the authors are not included in the main text. For example,Guthrie (1999), NOT Guthrie, N. (1999).

When there are three or more authors, the reference in the text should beshortened to just the first author, plus the words „et al.‟ (short for et alii,

meaning „and the rest‟). For example Parkin et al. (2007).

It may be appropriate to reference a particular page in a book, for exampleBryman and Cramer (1999, p 23).

If a date is not apparent, stated „undated‟ where otherwise the year would

appear.

7.41. Start your reference list as soon as you start to write your literature review. If youread something, but do not actually reference it, put it in a separate list and call

this the bibliography.

CHAPTER 8 OTHER RESOURCES

8.1. You may wish to look at one or more of the very useful web sites which deal withEnglish, grammar and critical thinking as follows:

Grammar:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/endangered-punctuation-the-semicolon-360/ http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs023/1102470512326/archive/1103334863961.html

Critical Reasoning:http://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/critical-reasoning-for-beginners/id387875756?ls=1

REFERENCES

Anglia Ruskin University (2009) Harvard system of referencing guide. Available at:

http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm?harvard_id=29#29 [Accessed 9th February 2009]

Brink-Budgen, R. van den (2010) Critical thinking for students : learn the skills of analysing,evaluating and producing arguments 4th Edition. Oxford : How To Books.

Brown, J. (undated) Grammatical pit-falls. Imperial College notes, unpublished.Cobbett, W. (1823) A grammar of the English language. 3rd edition 2003. Oxford University

Press: Oxford.Cooper, B.M. (1964) Writing technical reports. Penguin: London.Fellows, R. and Liu, A., 1997. Research methods for construction. Blackwell Science:

London.Fowler, H.W. (1965) Fowler‟s Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Geach, P.T. (1976) Reason and argument . University of California Press: Berkeley.Gowers, E. (1962) The complete plain words. Penguin: London.

Gribbin, J., 2005. The fellowship: the story of a revolution. Penguin books: London

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/


http://www.i-com.net/blog/endangered-punctuation-the-semicolon-360/


http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs023/1102470512326/archive/1103334863961.html



http://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/critical-reasoning-for-beginners/id387875756?ls=1












Holt, G.D. (1997) A guide to successful dissertation study for students of the builtenvironment. The Built Environment Research Unit, University of Wolverhampton:Wolverhampton.

LSBU (undated) How to do Your Referencing Using the Harvard System. Helpsheet 30.http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/library/helpsheets/hs30.pdf [Accessed 14th October 2010]

Ruchlis, H. And Oddo, S. (1990) Clear thinking: a practical introduction. Promethues Books:New York.Society of Petroleum Engineers (2009) Style guide. Society of petroleum engineers.

Available at http://www.spe.org/spe-site/spe/spe/papers/authors/Pub_StyleGuide.pdf [Accessed 30/8/11]

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/library/helpsheets/hs30.pdf


http://www.spe.org/spe-site/spe/spe/papers/authors/Pub_StyleGuide.pdf


