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Writing Up You University Assignments
and Research Projects

ROBERT BRUNET SOLÉ

Department of Chemical Engineering, URV, Tarragona
Sustainable Computer Aided Process Engineering Group

Robert Brunet Page 1 of 16

4. Approaching your writing project: tips and
strategies
4.1. Planning carefully
4.2. Deciding on your writing approach
4.3. Sourcing and selecting information
4.4. Recording information/ making notes
4.5. Drafting
4.6. Defining terms
4.7. Supporting your claims
4.8. Acknowledging alternative perspectives


4.1. Planning carefully

• Set yourself deadlines for completing particular sections of your assignments or
research report.
• What matters is that by creating milestones and setting goals you palce demands on
yourself and doing so help ensure that your assignment or report progresses.
• By being organized in this way you also make it easrier for your tutor or supervisor to
monitor your progress, and therefore to be of grater assistance to you.


4.2. Deciding on your writing approach
• Some people prefer to begin writing almost immediately, continually adjusting and
refining their work as they go along, until they eventually produce a final,
acceptable draft.

• Others prefer to leave the writing-up until the final phase, by which time they will
likely have copious notes and a very clear idea of what the final product will look
like.

• Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.

• Writing from the start
1. Process of writing can help to generate ideas and clarify yout thinking.
2. It can be motivating as it gives you a real sense of progress.
3. Each piece of writing can be used to generate and guide discussion with your
supervisor.
• Writing from the start
1. When you begin writing you have a very clear idea about the precise structure of
your assignment/ research report.
2. You sepnd less time in wasted writing
3. You will able to focus almost entirely on the process of writing rather than on the
clarification and analysis of ideas and data.


• The information you include in your work may come from a variety of different
sources. Some of these will be oral, and some written.

4.3.1. Oral sources of information
•Lectures;
• Seminars/ research seminars;
• COnference presentations;
• Professional organization and Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

4.3.2. Written sources of information
Journals;
Books;
References found in books and journal articles
conference proceedings


4.3.3. Electronic sources of information


4.3.4. Keeping up to date
• If your work is to be current and relvant it is important that you keep up to date with
the latest information.
• Passive services can be consulted periodically by visiting a web page for the latest
inforamtion. Services include:

• discussion lists and newsgroups;
• funding alerts;
• journal alerting;
• monitoring web-page changes;
• new publications;
•News of forthcoming conferences;
•News services with email alerting;


• As you read your sources, you will need to identify, highlight and record relevant
information.

4.4.1. Identifying relevant information
• Look for key words associated with the ideas or information you are seeking.
• Look for the names of scholars/writers associated with the ideas or information
you are seeking.
• Look for the titles of books, articles and so on associated with the ideas or
information you are seeking.
• Read abstracts of articles. These will give you a synopsis (summary) of the
content of the article. In the case of a website search, the results will often
include a brief description or introduction to, or sample sentences from the
website.
• Read the information found in the prefaces and on the back covers of
books.
• Look through tables of contents.
• Look through indexes.


4.4.2. Indicating relevant information
• Underlining or marking relevant information in the margin.
• Photocopying or scanning, and then highlighting the relevant information.
• In the case of information sourced from a website, you can either
(a) copythe relevant information into a word document, or
(b) copy the complete web page and later indicate the relevant passages by
highlighting, bolding, underlining or italicising them, or by changing the colour of the
relevant text.


4.4.3. Recording relevant information
a/ Distinguish main and supporting ideas
• Write main ideas on the left of your notepaper, and offset supporting ideas to the
right.
• Use spidergrams, such as the following example:

• You therefore create a visual map of the material you are reading, a graphic
representation of the hierarchy of ideas it contains.


4.4.3. Recording relevant information
b/ Arranging notes to reflect the layout of an article or book
• This can be done using chapter numbers, titles, headings and sub-headings.

d/ Detailing your sources clearly
• Try to be very methodical in recording your sources. Trying to remember and locate
your sources later on can be very difficult, time consuming and frustrating.

e/ Using abbreviations
e.g. for example i.e. in other words
etc. Et cetera, and so on vs. Versus, in contrast to
temp temperature FB feedback
f/ Using abbreviations


4.5. Drafting
• Drafting means writing a rough frist copy of your assignment or research report (or a
part of it), which you will edit and refine later.

• Drafting is a crucial part of the writing process for the follwoing reasons:

5. It is very rare for writers to produce their best work at the first attempt.
6. Your ideas may change or develop during or after writing of your first draft.
7. You may notice errors in your thinking.
8. There may be grammatical errors that need correcting or styling weaknesses that
recquire adjustments to phrasing, vocabulary and so on.
9. You may decide to impriove the visual presentation of your work by making changes
to the format of the text.
10. You may simply have forgotten to include information- points of analysis, quotations,
grpahics, data and so on.
11. Drafting helps you become more familiar with your work and with its strengths and
weaknesses.


4.6. Defining terms

• You must remember to define clearly any terminology you use in your assignment/
research report.
• Define any key temrs; i.e. terms that are central to your work, are somewaht
specialised, and occur frequently.
• Define any term that have a particular meaning in your field of study which is
different and distinct from any general meaning they may have when used
elsewhere.
• Define any specialized language that is the unique to your field of study and is not
found elsewhere.
• Define any terms whose meanings have become unclear as the result of diffwerent
writers defining and employing them differently.


4.7. Supporitng your claims

• When writing up your work you need to be especially aware of the need to support any
claims you make with adequate evidence.
3. The more crucial or fundamental your argument, and the stronger the claims you are
making.
4. Well-structured, logical argument is a powerful weapon when handled with skill and
care.
5. Empirical data that have been documented or which have emerged from your own
research.


4.8. Acknowledging alternative perspectives


Thanks for your attention!

ROBERT BRUNET SOLÉ

Department of Chemical Engineering, URV, Tarragona
Sustainable Computer Aided Process Engineering Group


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