A Position paper on the criteria for considering text to be well written by Academic Conferences and publishing International

A position paper on the criteria for considering text to be well written by Dan Remenyi Visiting Professor School of Data and Systems Studies Trinity College Dublin

Introduction The intention of this position paper is to stimulate a discussion on the issue of the criteria for considering text to be well written. There is no intention that this position paper should be regarded as presenting a definitive account of the issues related to considering text to be well written. Instead of relying on my own experience of this topic and simply discussing it in a class room situation I decided to conduct a small survey. To this end three questions have been posited as follows:1. What would you consider to be suitable criteria for stating that a

piece of text is ‘well written’? 2. How important would you say it is that a research degree dissertation

is considered ‘well written’? Please supply a score on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is no importance and 10 is of crucial importance. 3. How do you rate your own ability to ‘write well’? Please supply a

score for your writing on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent. These three questions have been sent by e-mail to four individuals all of whom are highly experienced academic authors and teachers, who I regard as exceptional writers. Three out of the four potential informants responded to my small survey. I chose to send this small survey to only four people because I was only interested in the opinion of authors who have a high level of achievement in the field of writing for the purposes of offering their advice to novice writers.

Data I have extracted the replies from the e-mails received from the three authors and I have reproduced these without reformatting and without any changes or corrections below. First reply:1. What would you consider to be suitable criteria for stating that a

piece of text is ‘well written’? Good, grammatically correct English. Easy to read. Easy for the target audience to understand. Good structure (proper paragraphs, beginning, middle and end, etc.). Good flow, does not leave the reader wondering how he got to this point. Appropriate use of language for the target audience. 2. How important would you say it is that a research degree dissertation

score for your writing on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent. (when I put my mind to it). Day to day not always as good as this though.

Second reply:1. Criteria for 'well written' text would include: Coherence and logical flow Appropriate tone and awareness of purpose and audience Attention to rules of language construction, such as paragraphing, sentencing etc Correct use of grammar (although this might be less important if the above are in place)

2. I would like to say 10, but given the concerns about 2nd and 3rd language writers of English, I would say 7. I think my first two criteria warrant a 10. 3. Somewhere between 8-10

Third reply:1. Criteria for a well-written text: (a) The text must focus on a theme that a specific group of readers find interesting/ intriguing. (b) The text must contain new information or must reorder and reanalyse existing information to provide new insights. (c) The text must have a proper beginning, body and end. (d) The beginning and end of the text must provide general information, and the middle more specific/ detailed/ complex information. (e) The text must show thematic traction, coherence, progressions and completion. (f) The value of a text lies in the extent to which it reveals the value of other texts through a critical comparative analysis of current sources on the theme under consideration. (g) The value of a text lies in the extent to which it leads to a renewal of insights about a theme, not in the authoritativeness of sources cited. 2. Importance of well-written dissertations: (a) Masters level: 7/10 (b) Doctoral level: 8/10 - 9/10 3. Own ability to write well: 9/10 - 10/10

Commentary on some of the above issues The three responses are similar in several different ways which at least shows that there is some consistency in the standards required for writing in academe. Regarding the first question, What would you consider to be suitable criteria for stating that a piece of text is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;well writtenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;? the three authors provided a list of the attributes of well written text. What they have produced is a type of deconstruction or at least enumeration of the issues involved. The number of attributes listed and the words used differ from author to author but they all address the same sort of issues. The second

question, How important would you say it is that a research degree dissertation is considered ‘well written’? Please supply a score on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is no importance and 10 is of crucial importance, received high scores ranging from 8 to 10. There is no doubt that this issue of writing well is of crucial importance to the respondents. The third question, How do you rate your own ability to ‘write well’? Please supply a score for your writing on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent, is of special interest. All three have the ability to write at level 10. On a good day all three would produce text at this level but as the answers imply these individuals do not write at their best level all the time. This is an important issue as even good writers can experience problems even to the extent of writer’s block.

A different perspective There is a different view of what might be the criteria for stating that a piece of text is ‘well written’ and this is based around the thought that the purpose of written text is to communicate one or more ideas. If this is indeed the case then the test of whether something is ‘well written’ needs to focus on whether the message which the author intended to transmit in the text was indeed received. In the light of this approach the following is relevant. The claim that a piece of text is well written is the result of a subjective assessment and it will vary according to a number of factors, chief among which are what is the purpose of the assessment and who is performing the assessment exercise. In the context of this position paper the purpose of this question is to highlight the issue of good writing in the academic environment at research degree level and the most important person/s who will be performing the assessment will be the research degree candidate’s examiners. A piece of text is well written if it engages the readers for which it was produced in the way the author intended. The readers will only be engaged if the text is written in an interesting way which makes them think about the issues being addressed. The story or argument of the text should be unfolded logically in such a way that it is easy to understand. In this respect clarity of the arguments with no ambiguity is what needs to be aimed for. The reader should on finishing the text feel satisfied that he or she understands the matters addressed in the text as well of the

author's motives in written the piece. The story told in the text should be as complete as possible. It is hard if not impossible to achieve this if the structure of the text is not appropriate or the grammar is poor or there are spelling and typographical mistakes. But even a text which is perfectly written without any errors may not be regarded as well written for academic purposes. The detail of how the message is compiled is certainly of importance and they are listed in the responses I received from my small survey and there is no need to repeat them here. However it is worth emphasising the findings of the small survey with regards to the importance of technically good writing. Technically good writing is crucial to competent research. Poor spelling and grammar, a poor tone which undersells or oversells the importance of the research, the structure, logic or flow of text can directly detract from the value of the research to a point where even competent research could become valueless. The final point to be made from the small survey is that no one writes at his or her best all the time. It is for that reason that written text has to be revised. There will often be many revisions. It has been suggested that novelists sometimes revise their text as many as 30 times before they are satisfied with it. Hopefully academic research writing will not require as many revisions as this. By the way it is possible to over revise and this can lead to unacceptable delays and even abandonment of an academic research project. Academic writing is seldom â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;perfectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and a researcher needs to know when the text is good enough.

What does an engaging message look like? The first step in creating an engaging message is to clearly state the issues being addressed and why they are important. It is essential to understand that any academic message will have a small number of individuals for whom it is of interest and it should be stated who these are. The message needs to find a starting point with which members of the intended audience will agree and the flow or argument needs to be unfolded logically. The central core of the message has to be unambiguous. The message needs to be concluded with some of summarising remarks. Writing often reflects the attitude of the writer and if the message is not of considerable interest to the writer this attitude may well show in the text that he or she produces. It is difficult for someone who is bored with his or her subject to write about it in an engaging manner. There are also some

academics who are content enough to teach and even to engage in research, but who have difficulty in expressing themselves in writing. Such individuals will not find it easy to produce engaging written material. A sign of being bored with the subject matter can be seen by the writer attempting to provide too much detail such as defining words or providing unnecessary references. In a recent example a doctoral degree candidate felt it appropriate to define a bank and to give a reference to a definition of an information system. Academic writing, especially at research degree level, has to be aimed at a sophisticated audience of whom the examiner is the most important player. On the other hand there are some academics who are wordsmiths and who revel in producing interesting text and sometimes the flowery text produced by such people can interfere with the readerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to engage with the text. A balance is definitely required. Well written text needs to comply with the rule of parsimony which encourages researchers to explain in as few words as possible.

The assessment of written text As mentioned above the assessment of a piece of written text is subjective or largely subjective. There will obviously be agreement if a piece of text is marred by excessive typographical, spelling and grammatical errors. Academic text should be written formally so there is no room for argot, humour or expletives. But there can be significant differences of opinion about the value of an error free piece of text. These differences in opinion will invariably stem from issues related to the intention of the message and also to the audience for whom the message was written. It should be obvious that not everyone will come to the same piece of text with the same objectives and the same values and that the mindset of the reader will affect their understanding and evaluation of the text. There are now interesting devices on the web which facilitate judgement concerning the quality of written text. These are referred to as Readability Indices. Any search engine will locate several of these. One example of a Readability Index or Test may be found at http://www.onlineutility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp Researchers should know about this type of writing assessment, but should keep in mind that such software applications are only indicators of excessive complexity. The personal judgement of accomplished academic writers is the only robust, if sometimes controversial, way to assess written academic text.

Second language research degree candidates There are many second language research degree candidates in English speaking countries and writing at an academically adequate standard can be

a major problem for these people. Universities generally do not admit to making allowances for such individuals as it would give the impression that standards can be lowered. However research degree candidates can sometimes obtain help with their academic writing by using a proof reader. Assistance with proof reading is generally acceptable. Having a dissertation edited is not. In fact having a dissertation edited is dangerous as an editor in attempting to improve the language could change the meaning of the text. There can be some confusion concerning the differences between proof reading and editing. Proof reading includes pointing out errors in spelling, grammar and layout, including tables and figures. Editing refers to finding these errors and in some way assisting in the correction of them. Increasingly universities are discouraging supervisors from editing the text of their research degree candidates. Research degree candidates writing in a second language can inevitably be under a major disadvantage. It is important for the research degree candidate to always remember that he or she bears all the responsibility for what is submitted to the University for examination.

Limitations of this paper This position paper has been written to cover a wide range of issues. By its nature it has not been possible to address some of these in the depth they deserve. The topic of this paper requires considerable reflection by a researcher before he or she takes a position on how he or she will write up his or her research. It is intended to use this paper in discussion groups and thus there will be ample opportunity to more fully explore many of these issues.

Summary and conclusion In order to write well a researcher needs to be in command of the research area, the research processes and the contribution which the research has made. If there is any question of the researcher not having completed the research to the required standard this will become apparent in the writing up of the work. The writer needs to be aware of the level of understanding of his or her audience and has to lead the reader through the central milestones of the research process. It is essential not to talk down to the reader. It is important that the writer does not over-sell the achievements of the research, but rather presents them in a positive but balanced way. Many academics do not write well and some may perhaps never write well no matter how hard they try. But such academics and research degree candidates can improve their standard of writing considerably if they know

what the requirements are and how they might go about learning how to improve their writing. Good writing is for most people a craft skill and by that is meant that it can only be learnt by working alongside a skilled practitioner. It normally cannot be learnt from a lecture or from reading a book. In general writing cannot be learnt quickly, although there are some individuals who will naturally write well. It is important for all academics who wish to have their research published to acquire the skills of good writing.

Exercise following on from reading this paper This paper can be assessed to establish if it should be considered to have been well written. By the criteria discussed above the reader is now asked to evaluate the following: Has the paper engaged the reader? Has the reader found the issues interesting? Did the argument unfold logically? Is the argument complete? What if anything is ambiguous? Has the reader felt satisfied that the text did what it purported to? Consider these questions on your own for 5 minutes and then discuss them in a group for 10 minutes.