1. Publishing English Lesson 3
USTC School of Management
Spring 2018
Teacher: Dr. Murray Sherk
Course Website:
(Click on the “Publishing English” link.)

2. Reminder: Attendance and Weekly Reports
Attendance is required in this course.
SoM says: Miss >1/3 = fail
You lose some for each absence or late.
Weekly report of your hour of work on class project is required. Each worth 1%
Week 1: Not needed, but Ali submitted one
Week 2: Ali, Ayesha, Cynthia, Hirra
(others lose 1%)
Week 3 (this week): Cynthia, Usman, Ayesha, Dickson, Hussain, Athar, you?

3. Lesson 3 Outline Review of Lesson 2 What makes a good paper good?
Advice from an experienced and successful research writer
Examining model papers
Principles for good writing
Tools of the trade:
Finish tour of MS Word, Grammarly

4. Review of Lesson 2 Fallacies and how to avoid them
10 Common Logical Fallacies: Ad Hominem, Amphiboly, Appeal to Pity, …
Checking for fallacies is a type of proofreading
What makes a good paper?
Views: Editor’s, Reviewer’s, Reader’s
Tools of the trade: Tour of MS Word
Article: “The Science of Scientific Writing”

5. Homework of Lesson 2 Grasp main ideas of SSW article
Choose and bring to Lesson 3 a “model” paper (hardcopy or electronic)
Register for Grammarly
Play with MS Word
100-word weekly report

6. Lesson 3 Outline Review of Lesson 2 What makes a good paper?
Advice from an experienced and successful research writer
Examining model papers
Principles for good writing
Tools of the trade:
Finish tour of MS Word, Grammarly

7. Advice from Exec. Dean Yu Yugang
Academic contributions are the most important ingredient for publishing success
Interesting types of contributions:
counterintuitive findings – where common sense is misleading
generalization – wider application to different cases, including about limits of where techniques work

8. Theory is better than examples.
Advice from Yu Yugang
Theory is better than examples.
Case studies, surveys, etc. are good but a general theoretical proof is better
Theorems are better than observations

9. 3 General Advice Points from Yu Yugang
Highlight your contributions
As you write your paper, make a research question list, then choose the best question for your next paper.
Make friends with peers
Discuss results, borrow ideas, get them to assess the quality of your ideas

10. Advice about reviewers from Yu Yugang
“Referees are always correct” (!?!?)
At least, their comments are always useful
From their point of view, their comments are true.
If you think those comments are wrong, that tells you that your presentation was not good enough for an expert to understand… Rewrite!

11. Lesson 3 Outline Review of Lesson 2 What makes a good paper?
Advice from an experienced and successful research writer
Examining model papers
Principles for good writing
Tools of the trade:
Finish tour of MS Word, Grammarly

12. Your homework from last week
Bring a “model” paper from a top-level journal in your research area.
A paper you wish YOU had written
Take that paper out now
If you do not have a paper with you, go online and find one quickly.

13. “Questions about a model paper”
Randomized Groups of 3
Sit with your triple.
See the course website page
“Questions about a model paper”
You (the triple) may do the questions in any order you choose.
Discuss these answers together, comparing your 3 papers.
In what ways are your papers different? In what ways are they the same?

14. The point of analyzing model papers
Even between model papers, there are significant differences in writing style.
There is no magic formula for success.
But there are ways to guarantee failure!
Check the journal. Find out what each journal prefers or requires.
Being concise and clear always helps.

15. Lesson 3 Outline Review of Lesson 2 What makes a good paper?
Advice from an experienced and successful research writer
Examining model papers
Principles for good writing
Tools of the trade:
Finish tour of MS Word, Grammarly

16. Some principles for good writing
From your homework reading article: The Science of Scientific Writing (SSW) by Gopen and Swan
“If the reader is to grasp
what the writer means,
the writer must understand
what the reader needs.”

17. SSW Principles of Writing
Publshing English Lesson 3 before lesson
12/11/2018
SSW Principles of Writing
Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb.
Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize.
Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward.

18. SSW Principles of Writing
Publshing English Lesson 3 before lesson
12/11/2018
SSW Principles of Writing
Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
Usually, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new.
Usually, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure.

19. Checklists Give a plan for doing something
Helps to get started
Make sure you do not miss anything important

20. SSW Principles of Writing
Publshing English Lesson 3 before lesson
12/11/2018
SSW Principles of Writing
Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb.
Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize.
Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward.
Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
Usually, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new.
Usually, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure.
Idea: Put these into a checklist for your writing! (you may want to reword them)

21. More principles for good writing
See course website page:
“Principles for Good Writing”
(This list of principles will grow as we learn more in classes and workshops.)

22. Principles for good writing
From “Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace” (BCG) by Williams and Bizup
Murray’s summary of BCG:
“We write badly when
we try to sound too scholarly.”

23. BCG Example 1 and SSW principles
1a. The cause of our schools’ failure at teaching basic skills is not understanding the influence of cultural background on learning.
1b. Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because they do not understand how cultural background influences the way a child learns.
[SSW3] Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
[SSW5] Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb. (i.e. put lots of information in verbs)

24. BCG Ex.1 and BCG principles
1a. The cause of our schools’ failure at teaching basic skills is not understanding the influence of cultural background on learning.
1b. Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because they do not understand how cultural background influences the way a child learns.
[BCG1] Principle 1: Make Main Characters Subjects
[BCG2] Principle 2: Make Important Actions Verbs
“A sentence seems clear when its important actions are in verbs (not nouns).”
Do not try to sound scholarly by making verbs into nouns.

25. BCG Example 2 and nominalizations
“The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many middle-class American workers.”
Nominalizations = when a verb is used in a noun form.
Both SSW & BCG say we should put information in verbs, so nominalization is a bad idea!
Where do you see nominalizations above?
We want to turn them [back] into verbs!

26. BCG Ex.2: Main characters and actions
“The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many middle-class American workers.”
What/who are the main characters?
corporations, workers
What do the characters do or have done to them?
outsourcing  outsource. Corporations outsource
loss  lose. Workers lose

27. BCG Ex.2: Edited version
“The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many middle-class American workers.”
Main characters: corporations, workers
Nominalizations:
outsourcing  outsource. Corporations outsource
loss  lose. Workers lose
“Many middle-class American workers are losing their jobs because corporations are outsourcing their high-tech work to Asia.”

28. We will cover other principles later, but for now let’s work with these
[SSW3] Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
[SSW5] Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
[BCG1] Make main characters subjects.
[BCG2] Make important actions verbs.

29. (Exam question?) Fix this sentence.
“Last week, as the teaching of a lesson was taking place on the part of Murray, a cessation of internet access occurred, causing an implementation of alternative activity execution.”
[SSW3] Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
[SSW5] Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
[BCG1] Make main characters subjects.
[BCG2] Make important actions verbs.

30. (Exam question?) Fix this sentence.
“Last week, as the teaching of a lesson was taking place on the part of Murray, a cessation of internet access occurred, causing an implementation of alternative activity execution.”
“Last week, Murray was teaching a lesson when internet access failed, so he did the activities differently.”

31. Actual Exam Question from last year
“The undeniable fact that domestic firms wanting to expand to various other countries should find some established larger local partners who can be original equipment manufacturers in the other countries must not be ignored.”
[SSW3] Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
[SSW5] Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
[BCG1] Make main characters subjects.
[BCG2] Make important actions verbs.

32. Lesson 3 Outline Review of Lesson 2 What makes a good paper?
Advice from an experienced and successful research writer
Examining model papers
Principles for good writing
Tools of the trade:
Finish tour of MS Word, Grammarly

33. Continuing our tour of MS Word
Recall: As professional writers, we need to invest time to understand our writing tools and make full use of them.

34. Grammarly Test
Go to the course website and click on the “Grammarly test document”.
Open the downloaded document in Word.
Enable Grammarly to check the document.
What does Grammarly correctly catch?
What mistakes does Grammarly miss?
When does Grammarly suggest the wrong thing?

35. Word’s Spelling & Grammar Checker
Now note Word’s spelling and grammar checker results for the same document.
What does it catch that Grammarly didn’t?
What does it miss?
Strange: You may have to tell Word NOT to ignore problems to get it to check everything!
Review tab / Language / Set proofing language -- Make sure “Do not check…” does not have a checkmark

36. Homework:
Read the short article at matt.might.net/articles/successful-phd-students
Come prepared to discuss this next week.
You might want to follow some of Dr. Might's links for interest.
Run Grammarly on some of your own writing.
Where is it correct? Where is it wrong? (False positive or false negative)
Come prepared to show examples to a classmate next week.
As you must do every week, a 100-word report to Murray about what you did in your scheduled hour of work on your course project.