Dr. Taisir Elgorashi
Institute of Communication and Power Networks ICaPNET
School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
University of Leeds
Academic Writing
ELEC5882M
MSc Individual Project
Week Activity/Deadline
Week 5 Introductory Lecture, 26 Oct 2021
Weeks 5-7 Project hunt/allocation, Check out Find & Secure a Project on the
Minerva for details. Deadline: 12 Nov. 2021, 5 PM.
Weeks 8 Supervisory meetings start
Weeks 8-17 Phase I: Perform literature review and plan your project..
Weeks 18-21 Phase II: Develop theory, Initial design simulation, mathematical model
or hardware
Week 19 Lecture on Technical Writing, TBC
Discuss the structure of your interim report with your supervisor.
Week 24 Submit your interim report, VLE Turnitin submission; Deadline: 4 May
2022
Week 24-25,
S1-S7
Phase II
Phase III: Build software/hardware, Revise design, Obtain results,
Critical analysis of results.
Week S3 Lecture on Presentation Skills: TBC
Week S7 Final report submission Deadline: 3 Aug 2022
Week S8-S11 Viva Exams
Project Timeline
• Interim report: a formal brief background and problem
definition and future plans for the project.
• Final report: will take the form of an academic paper.
• You will be assessed by two examiners: your supervisor (50%)
and an assessor (50%).
• The commitment part is marked only by your supervisor
• We will use Minerva Turnitin submission.
• Assessment criteria is available on Minerva.
Assessment
Interim report (2000 words) 20%
Week 24 (Deadline:
4 May 2022 )
Final report (5000 words) 40%
Week S7 (Deadline:
3 August 2022)
Viva (Oral Examination) 30% Week S8-S11
Project Progress, Commitment
and Independence
10%
Outline
 What is Academic Writing?
 Generic Structure of an Academic Report
 Tips for Academic Writing
 Editing
What is Academic Writing?
 Used in academia by scholars to present information to display
a clear understanding of a particular subject.
 Targeted at a critical and informed audience.
 Follow a logical structure and should be supported by evidence.
 Formal language:
 Precise
 Concise
 Provide adequate details to replicate the results.
 Publications in top journals gives good examples of academic
writing.
Generic Structure of an Academic Report
Title page
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Acronyms
Introduction
Literature review
Problem Description
Methodology
Design
Implementation and testing
Critical evaluation
Conclusions and Further work
Appendices
References
Preamble
Main Body
(2000 words limit)
Preamble
• Title page
• Should be short and descriptive
• You have the chance to change the title before submitting your final report
• Full name and student ID, degree title, month and year of submission
• Acknowledgement (Optional)
• Table of Contents
• List the various parts of the report
• proper style for headlines
• List of acronyms
• Alphabetically ordered
• Must be spelled out fully in its first appearance
• Abstract
• One page (usually of one paragraph)
• aimed at someone unfamiliar with your project
• Gives an outline of the project:
 the problem tackled
 the methods used
 high level summary of outcomes
 your main conclusions
Main Body
Introduction
 Provides a context for your project
 Gives motivation for undertaking this project
 Brief description of the problem
 Summary of the objectives and contributions of your
project
 Summary of the content of the remaining sections of your
report: “The rest of this report is organised as follows. In
Chapter 2, ...”
 The parts included in your report can vary
depending on the nature of your report.
 Use tables and figures effectively.
Literature review
Problem Description
Methodology
Design
Implementation and testing
Critical evaluation
Main Body
Main Body
Conclusions and Further work
 Conclusions:
 You reiterate the main points you have
discussed in your report.
 Typically in the past tense.
 Future work:
 In the interim report: Gantt chart for
remaining parts of the project.
 In final report : extensions of your research
direction.
Appendices
 Any details of your work that does not fit into
your main body, such as
 Extra background reading
 Codes
 Lengthy derivations
 No word limit
 You will also be able to upload extra material,
in addition to your report, onto Minerva.
References
 We use IEEE style for referencing: numerical style or alphanumeric style
 For references with at least one author, use the first three letters of the first
author’s last name, followed by the last two digits of the year of
publication. For example,
 [Bev97] J. R. Beveridge and E. M. Riseman, “How easy is matching 2D
line models using local search?” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis
and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 564-579, June 1997.
 If there are more than one reference with the same label, make distinction
between them by adding letters a, b, c, and so on. For instance, [Bev97a],
[Bev97b], [Bev97c], and so on.
 For online resources with no particular author use [Wwwxx] as the label
format, where xx represents a two digit number starting from 01 to the total
number of such references. For instance, if there are eleven of such
references, use labels [Www01], [Www02], ..., and [Www11].
 References used in the main body and appendices will be listed in
alphabetic order based on their labels.
Tips for Academic Writing
 Do not wait to understand everything before start writing!
 Your audience are your peers: Give some background
information on topics not covered in your modules.
 Consistency in the tense used in each section: Use the
present or past tense when introducing evidence from
other authors.
 Avoid using complex language: Generally use short
sentences and straightforward structures.
Tips for Academic Writing
 Avoid informal language.
 Avoid repetitions.
 Pay attention to grammar and punctuation.
 Do not use contractions such as ‘can’t’, ‘don’t’ or ‘ isn’t’.
 Cite any references used to avoid plagiarism (plagiarism
exercise).
 Preferably create your own figures to avoid plagiarism.
Ensure figures taken from elsewhere are correctly cited.
Editing
 In writing you can produce something imperfect, then
revise it, rather than trying to produce something that is
perfect first time round.
 In editing you can give attention to details and refine your
writing to reach the required standard.
 It can be more effective to do editing in a number of
iterations. In each iteration you can be editing for a
certain purpose [*]:
 Editing for academic rigour
 Reducing redundancy
 Editing for consistency
 Signposting and linking
 Proof reading
* https://www.le.ac.uk/oerresources/ssds/writingskills/page_28.htm
Editing for Academic Rigour
 Should be your first editing focus.
 Here you need to consider three aspects:
1. You need to answer the two questions
 ‘What did I try to do and did I do it?’: you need to be very clear
about the difference between what you intended to do and
what you actually did.
 ‘What am I trying to say, and do I say it?’: important, and basic,
elements of the explanation might be missing.
2. Ensure that you have provided a well-structured and
clear thread of logical reasoning throughout your
report.
3. Check that you have given enough evidence for the
reader to believe your arguments. Read your own
work with a provocative and questioning attitude.
Reducing Redundancy:
simplifying and shortening
Long version Shorter version
on a regular basis regularly
if at all possible if possible
during the month of April in April
an increased appetite was
manifested by all the rats
all the rats ate more
during the time that while
conduct an investigation into investigate
has an ability to can
on two separate occasions twice
which goes under the name of is called
it may well be that perhaps
take into consideration consider
it was observed in the course of
the demonstration that
we observed that
 You can reduce the number of words by simplifying the
language used.
 If you are still over the word limit you will need to take a
decision on removing some paragraphs.
Editing for Consistency
 Examples of what you need to look for when
editing for consistency:
 Use of one tense throughout a section
 Formatting of headings and sub-headings
 Referencing style
 Labelling and numbering appendices,
tables, diagrams, figures, photos, and
other items
Signposting and Linking
 Help the reader construct and maintain a coherent picture of your work.
 Particularly important in a long documents.
 Signposting:
 Signposting is helpful in the introduction and at the beginning of
chapters.
 It helps the reader to appreciate the logical flow of your writing.
 Example: In this chapter, the method will be described in detail. The
chapter begins with a description of the physical setting in which the
data were collected. It then describes the process of recruitment to the
study.
 Linking:
 Used to guide the reader through different sections or paragraphs, so
that the logical structure of your writing is highlighted.
 Looks both backwards and forwards, thereby both reviewing what has
just been said, and introducing what is about to be said.
 Example:
 In the previous chapter I described …. In this chapter I will …
 The next sections describe ….
Proof Reading
 Examples of common problems are:
 faulty abbreviations
 duplication of words
 spelling errors
 too much space between two words
 missing or misplaced apostrophes
 inappropriate changes of tense
 singular and plural mixed up
 inaccurate cross-referencing of pages
 leaving a reference in the list, when it has been removed from the text
 No professional proof reading!
Resources in Minerva
 A template of the interim report is found in
Minerva.
 Useful resource on academic writing and
referencing are available in Minerva under
Learning Resources.
Plagiarism
 Source “In the academic world, plagiarism by
students is usually considered a very serious
offence that can result in punishments such as a
failing grade on the particular assignment, the
entire course, or even being expelled from the
institution.”
 Student “Throughout the academic world,
plagiarism is usually considered a very serious
offence, one that can result in punishments such as
failing the particular assignment, or the whole
course, or sometimes being expelled from the
institution.”
Notes
 Please familiarise yourself with the assessment
criteria.
 The structure and tips in this lecture are general
guidelines.
 Prepare a draft table of content and discuss it
with your supervisor.
 Stay within word count!
 You can contact me via email :
t.e.h.elgorashi@leeds.ac.uk
Best of luck!