Discuss The Strategies Successful And Unsuccessful You Can
Discuss the strategies (successful and unsuccessful) you can use to organize and write that paper. What new APA guidelines have you learned? What are some ways to be more precise – and concise – in your scientific writing?
Effective organization and writing of a literature review and introduction are fundamental skills that significantly influence the clarity and impact of scholarly work. Successful strategies often include developing a clear outline before beginning the writing process, which helps in logically sequencing ideas and ensuring each section seamlessly flows into the next. Goodson's (2017) Exercise 35 emphasizes the importance of starting with a well-defined research question or problem statement, which serves as a guiding star throughout the writing process. This approach prevents the writer from deviating into irrelevant details and maintains focus on the core objectives (Goodson, 2017). Additionally, employing thematic organization—grouping related studies around specific themes—can enhance coherence and allow for a comprehensive synthesis of existing literature.
On the unsuccessful side, a common challenge arises from attempting to include too much background information or over-explaining concepts, which hampers conciseness and readability. Excessive detail can obscure the primary purpose and overwhelm the reader, which is why precision in language is crucial. Revising drafts to eliminate redundancy and filler phrases helps improve clarity. As noted in the latest APA guidelines (American Psychological Association, 2020), writing should favor clarity and brevity—using straightforward language and active voice. Incorporating concise sentence structures and precise vocabulary reduces verbosity and fosters understanding.
To enhance precision and conciseness, one technique is the ‘kill-the-gerund’ method, replacing nominalizations with active verbs. For example, instead of saying "the implementation of strategies was conducted," one can say "we implemented strategies." Peer reviews or reading the paper aloud can also reveal overly complex or redundant sentences that need simplification. Incorporating these strategies ensures that scientific writing is accessible and impactful.
Overall, integrating a clear outline, thematic organization, and strict editing practices aligned with current APA guidelines significantly contributes to producing well-organized, concise scholarly papers. These practices not only improve the clarity of the manuscript but also demonstrate respect for the reader’s time and cognitive load, making the research more effective and influential.
References
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). APA.
- Goodson, P. (2017). Becoming an academic writer: 50 exercises for paced, productive, and powerful writing. Sage Publications.