Editing and style
The writing-editing process
Even though we tend to think of the ‘editing phase’ as something
that comes at the end of the thesis writing process, the reality is that the
process of writing a thesis may not be as linear as we think. It does not begin with research,
followed by writing, with editing as the final phase. In fact, many of the
editing strategies
suggested here should be kept in mind from the beginning. Writing is a process
through which your ideas develop and change. The process of editing itself
should
help to further develop your knowledge.
You have to craft your ideas in a way that communicates your argument to your
reader. To do this you need to see your writing as your readers will see it.
Remember it is your responsibility to guide your reader to see your argument,
and editing helps you to see your ideas more clearly.
- Your readers want a sense of structure and coherence.
- Your readers have certain expectations in terms of academic writing style.
- Your readers want to hear the voice of the writer – your voice.
- If English is not your first language you will need strategies in place
to overcome language issues.
- Meticulous proofreading is expected of scholarly work.
Here are some practical strategies to help you to look at your
thesis on different levels and for different purposes.
Structure and coherence
A well structured thesis should present its argument logically and coherently.
Coherence means that your ideas are presented so that your argument is easy
to follow. You need to share your intellectual journey with your reader, demonstrating
your knowledge, understanding, abilities and depth of thinking.
Overall structure
- Look first at the overall structure of your thesis. Look at the section
on What is a thesis? in the resource on Thesis structure. Does each section of the thesis perform
its proper function? Does it logically and coherently develop your argument?
- Reflect on the purpose of your thesis. Complete this statement and keep
it in front of you as you work through your thesis:
In my thesis I am trying to show that….
This should help you to focus on what you want to get across to the reader
as clearly and convincingly as possible.
As you near the completion of your thesis, and are writing your abstract,
you should check that your claims are clearly outlined.
- Use sections and subsections to establish structure. Does each subsection
have a descriptive heading in bold?
- Check that your table of contents corresponds to the major divisions and
subdivisions of the text. Headings and subheadings should be clear and explicit.
The table of contents should tell you at once if there are any major problems
in the logic of your thesis.
- Read the introductory chapter. Does it say why the work is being done?
Is the aim clear? Is it clear how the writer (you) intends to achieve this
aim? Are the thesis claims clearly outlined? Does the introduction outline
the pathway that the reader (examiner) will travel in arriving at the conclusion?
You want to provide a road map for your readers in the introduction so that
your intentions are clear.
- Read the concluding chapter – does it respond to the aim stated in
the introduction? Do the introduction and the conclusion complement each other?
Chapters
-
Read the introductory paragraph to each chapter in order. Do they follow
logically? Is there a link to the main idea of the previous chapter? Does
each introduction foreshadow the argument to be made in the following section
or sections clearly?
-
Look at the conclusion to each chapter. Does each concluding paragraph
provide a summary of what the chapter has achieved? Conclusions should not
be mere summaries but show how the chapter is advancing the argument as a
whole. Does each conclusion foreshadow or link to the following chapter?
-
Using a highlighter, identify the topic sentences. It is usually found at the start of each paragraph. The topic sentence summarises
the central idea of a paragraph and acts as a signpost to what is to follow
in the paragraph. If you
have a paragraph without a topic sentence, ask yourself what the main point
of the paragraph is, and write this up as the topic sentence.
Coherence
- Check that sentences within each paragraph are arranged in an orderly way
so that there is a logical flow of ideas. Paragraphs should not jump from
idea to idea, but flow from one logical thought to the next.
- Use linking sentences at the beginning and end of paragraphs to improve
the coherence or clarity of your work.
- You can also use key words to draw thematic threads through your thesis.
Coherence is supported by the repetition of key words, terms, phrases and
ideas. Highlight key words in your thesis statement. Then use these words
in your text, particularly in your topic sentences. It will help the reader
to stay on track with your argument.
- Check your signposts. As you will be articulating an argument through a
long document, you need to signpost your argument to make your work clear
and accessible to your readers.
- You can signpost at all levels of text: through chapter headings and subheadings,
introducing and concluding paragraphs, paragraphs, sentences, and words.
You can use signpost words, phrases and sentences to tell the reader where
your writing is going. Simple examples are,‘first’, ‘next’
and ‘finally’.
- You can give the reader directions or present an overview; you can forecast,
recapitulate or review. For example you may look forward with phrases like: ‘The third chapter will cover...’, or ‘We will see, when
we analyse the data more closely that ...’ You may look back with
these phrases: ‘In chapter two we examined...’ or ‘We
have seen that the key question which emerged ...’
- Use link words to make each step of your argument easy to identify. Link
words or transition words include: ‘however, ‘also’,
‘too’, ‘in addition’, ‘like’, ‘similarly’,
‘in the same way’, ‘but’, ‘on the contrary’,
‘therefore’, ‘as a result’.
Finding your voice as a researcher
Academic work builds on and makes use of the work of others. We need to acknowledge
this, and reference ideas accurately, but your reader will also want to hear
the voice of the author.
- Look at how you have chosen to refer to the ideas of others in your work.
The way you reference other people’s ideas in your text indicates how
you view the ideas of other researchers. Consider the following sentences:
Fox hunting should be banned (Reynard 2003).
Reynard (2003) argues that the hunting of foxes should be banned.
In the first sentence the writer is implicitly agreeing with Reynard whereas
in the second sentence the writer has opened up a space between himself
or herself and Reynard and is able to either present a counter argument
or introduce other writers with differing or convergent views.
The first referencing style is said to be information prominent, and is
usually more appropriate when discussing ideas about which there is general
agreement. The second, or author prominent style, enables you to position
your own views within more controversial debates.
- You can use reporting verbs to enrich your engagement with the ideas of
others and make your position in a debate clearer. Try getting the highlighter
out again and mark all the verbs that describe what other writers are doing.
For example, the writer ‘believes’ or ‘contends’ or ‘demonstrates’ or ‘disagrees’.
- Check that there is 100% correspondence between the works you have cited
in your text and those you have listed in your reference list.
Academic writing style
Deakin University has five faculties. Within each faculty are schools, and
within schools there are disciplines. While different disciplines have writing
styles and ways of constructing an extended argument which may differ in many ways,
the writing styles in different disciplines are not discrete genres and frequently
there are overlapping ways of doing things. As a thesis writer, you are an apprentice
to the scholarly traditions within your discipline and therefore all the suggestions
and strategies that follow should be considered in terms of the academic community
within which you are writing.
Writing in an academic style,
in this instance, means writing to communicate your message clearly and accurately to an expert audience.
At postgraduate level, mastery of the language of your discipline is, of course,
expected, so you have a twofold responsibility – to use the language of
your discipline accurately and to use it in a clear, concise way.
Here are some strategies, suggestions and principles to keep in mind as you
look over your writing.
Sentence and paragraph length
- Vary sentence length, but avoid long, convoluted, rambling sentences. There
should be one main idea in each sentence. As a rule of thumb, if a sentence
is more than three lines long, consider breaking it into two sentences.
- Use paragraphing to help the reader. Look at the shape of your text on
the page. If you see a continuous block, your paragraph is probably too long
and difficult for the reader. Try breaking up the paragraph, using clear topic
sentences.
- If your paragraphs are very short it may be that your points need more
development. About three to four paragraphs per page should be about right.
Subtle argument
- Use tentative verb forms. Often it is not possible or appropriate to make
a definite statement or come to a single conclusion, so the use of tentative
language is often a feature of academic writing. For example, rather than
concluding that the cause of ‘a’ is ‘b’, try more
tentative forms such as: ‘may be’ or ‘might be’. Rather
than asserting your claims, qualify your writing with expressions like ‘it
is likely that’ or ‘it is possible that’.
Clarity and conciseness
- Be concise. Say what you have to say, no more and no less. Get straight
to the point – don’t waffle! Avoid unnecessary words – edit
ruthlessly. For example: ‘It will be noted that…’
or ‘It should be pointed out that…’.
- Avoid empty repetition, for example, ‘actual facts’, ‘acute
crisis’, ‘may possibly’, ‘first and foremost’.
Such phrases are features of oral rhetoric and can sound overblown in the
more precise context of academic writing.
- Avoid using clichés that carry very little meaning, for example:
‘in this day and age’, ‘down to earth’, ‘unbelievable’.
- Be careful that you aren’t inadvertently using slang.
- Be precise. You cannot assume that your reader will automatically
follow your thought processes.
- Check that when you use a pronoun, the subject noun you are referring to
can be clearly identified. Try not to use a pronoun unless you have already
mentioned the noun in the same paragraph. You cannot expect your reader to
remember what you are referring to. Incorrectly referenced pronouns are a
frequent cause of ambiguity.
- Do not use contractions such as ‘isn’t’ or ‘can’t’.
Write them in full.
Grammatical forms
- Think about whether active or passive voice is appropriate. The active
voice is generally recommended as it is clearer and more direct. However,
in methodology sections for example, the reader is often more interested in
what was done than who did it. In such cases, the passive voice is the one
to use.
- The use of the first person ‘I’ and ‘my’ are acceptable
in some disciplines but not in others. Generally it is the more scientific
and business focused disciplines that avoid the use of ‘I’. Even
where the first person is appropriate, beware of overuse as this reduces its
power.
- Keep your verb tense consistent.
- Use the appropriate tense:
- In the introductory chapter, the present tense is the most common.
- Literature reviews can be written in the past, present perfect or present.
Think carefully about your choice as it will have subtle influences on your
meaning.
- The methodology (what you did) and the results (what you found) will
be in the past tense.
- The discussion or conclusion may again be a mixture of past when summing
up what has gone before, and the present tense, when reflecting ‘general
truths’.
Inclusive language
- Use inclusive language. This means that the choice of words doesn’t
exclude either gender. To avoid awkwardness here, you may use plurals. Instead
of using ‘his’ or ‘her’, ‘man’ or ‘woman’
(the singular form, which excludes the opposite gender) you may choose
to use ‘their’, ‘they’ or ‘people’ instead.
If English is not your first language
- Try to find out what errors you typically make and how to correct them.
- Never use words if you are unsure of their meaning.
- Beware the thesaurus! Do not use words you might have found in the thesaurus
unless you are confident about how to use them. It really takes familiarity with the language
to be able to select which synonym is appropriate in a particular context and which will sound odd.
- The active voice is less complex to use than the passive voice.
- Keep sentence structure simple and keep sentences short. Long complex sentences
are more likely to have grammatical mistakes.
- Check that nouns and pronouns agree in number and person, especially if
your sentence is long or complex in structure. For example, ‘Anderson
and Poole argue ... they...’ not ‘ Anderson and Poole argues ...
he...’
- Check subjects and verbs agree in number.
- Skim your paper, stopping at words that end in ‘s’. The present
tense is the most frequently used tense in thesis writing. Check every verb
in passages which use the present tense.
- And of course check the elusive articles ‘a’ and ‘the’
– the first thing you learn and the last thing you get right.
Tips for proofreading
- Leave time before you proofread your thesis. This will help you to be more
objective and to view your work from the perspective of the reader.
- Reading your paper aloud can help to improve sentence structure and punctuation.
- You may also like to look at the Academic Skills handout on Editing.
References
Anderson, J & Poole, M 2001, Assignment
and thesis writing, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld.,
Chapter 15 pp. 155-163.
Evans, D & Gruba, P 2002, How
to Write a Thesis, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Chapter 11.
Deakin links
Academic
Skills
www.deakin.edu.au/studentlife/academic-skills/
- Editing
www.deakin.edu.au/studentlife/academic-skills/handouts/editing.php
- Postgraduate
www.deakin.edu.au/studentlife/academic-skills/postgraduate/
