The way you share your ideas across the profession Writing! The way you share your ideas across the profession

Introduction Again, some get nervous about writing What if I’m not good enough? What if everyone hates my work? What happens if the entire profession, simultaneously, laughs at me???? Fortunately, there is a system to follow! Systems make everything easier We are going to look at a formal research or evaluation paper structure – most others will follow a similar formatting Introduction

Start at the beginning… Let’s assume you have your topic and material already – for example, the research project you just finished! The introduction section comes first Hypothesis Problem statement (why we are bothering to do this at all) But is frequently written last You don’t always see where you have been until you get to the end of the journey Start at the beginning…

Other people have talked about your topic (no matter how wacky and out there!), so go see what they did You may not have to do a research project if someone else already did it! You might want to revise another project to base it on your work Or you can see how a piece of it give you information about your work This is NOT an annotated bibliography! It is a piece of your paper Literature Review

This is the easiest part to write (for me, anyway) – just tell the reader what you did! I used a Q Method to identify competencies I used a survey to reach out to libraries across the country I interviewed fifty people Whatever you did is what you say here. Then others can see that your work has merit and can be relied on as a basis for their future work Methodology

Results Also a pretty easy part – tell the reader what all you found! How you report this will depend on your research/evaluation tools: Quantitative methods will have charts, graphs, numbers, statistical data Qualitative methods will have reports of interviews, or observations, or other content analysis of documents Never pretend to find things you did not!! Not only VERY unethical, but not necessary. It is valuable to know “this completely fell apart, small fires started, and no one should every try it again.” Results

This is really the heart of the whole thing – where you tell people what it all means It can be the easiest and/or the hardest section to write, even within the same report! Just be honest – talk about the great things you found, the mistakes you made, and what it ultimately all means Discussion

Conclusion Wrap it all up! Look back to the introduction (it seems like such a long time ago), and point out here that you did everything you said you were going to do Quick summary And…done!  Conclusion

Where to publish your work?? First: PUBLISH!! SHARE YOUR IDEAS!! Okay, now – where? Peer reviewed journal: most prestigious, but may lack a large audience Professional/Association journal: sharing your work and experience with similarly-thinking people where it can resonate Blogs: yours or someone else’s, it can be a way to share ideas back and forth with readers Where to publish your work??

Where else to share your work? Presentations: not strictly writing, but you do have to write proposals and have everything organized Community organizations/events Conferences: state, regional, national, international Posters: more graphic and visual, can be a great way to share your experiences! Colin Purrington (the best name ever for LIS! Sadly, he’s a science guy) has good tips: http://colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/posterdes ign These are science posters, so yours can be less wordy and more visual -> more fun!  Where else to share your work?

I encourage you (VERY VERY MUCH!!) to go out there and share your ideas Start while you are at Simmons! NEVER feel like no one will care – if you write and share in a way others can understand, they will DEFINITELY care! For more info: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/ These guys are great at helping people to write more effectively! And, in conclusion…