Scientific writing 3.0: A reader and writer's guide - Jean-Luc Lebrun, Justin Lebrun 2021
Purpose and qualities of structures
Headings-subheadings: the skeleton of your paper
Paper structure and purpose
Purpose of the structure for the reader
· It makes navigation easy by providing direct access to parts of the paper.
· It helps the reader rapidly locate the section of the paper related to the author’s contribution.
· It allows the reader to quickly grasp the main story of the paper by making a logical story out of the succession of headings and subheadings.
· It sets reading time expectations through the length and detail level of each section.
Purpose of the structure for the writer
· It reinforces the contribution by repeating Title/Abstract keywords in the headings or subheadings.
· It helps the writer divide the paper into informative, nonredundant, and logically connected sections that support the contribution.
Qualities of a structure
|
Here is a very simple and productive method to ascertain the quality of your structure. “Flatten” your structure on a blank piece of paper. By this I mean, write the title at the top of the page, and then write ALL headings and subheadings in the order they appear in your paper. Once done, underline the words structure and title have in common. Do you detect any discrepancy here? Are contribution keywords from the title missing in the structure? Is it because you are using synonyms? Change your structure to bring it closer to the title. Are you using acronyms that are defined in the text and make your headings obscure? If so, remove them or give their full name. Do you have frequent structure keywords which are absent from your title? Shouldn’t they be part of the title? Could it be that your structure is right and your title is wrong? If so, change the title. Once you have examined how well the structure matches your title, have someone else read your flattened structure and explain to you what he or she thinks your paper contains. The less this person knows about your work, the better. Ask this person if the logic is visible in the succession of headings or subheadings. If the person is largely puzzled, you are not quite ready to publish yet. Rework your structure and your paper. When the story is clear, give a quick syntactic check. Is the syntax of your headings parallel? Are subheadings orphans? When the volunteer reviewer asks questions, do not start explaining! Remember that you will not be there to explain your structure to your readers once your paper is published. Just take note of the questions, and adjust your structure or title accordingly. |
