Literary Abominations and Other Crimes (Author: )
1. Style and Presentation
It is generally easier to write using sub-headings because they help to control structure and remind you what material should be in each part.
Write in sentences: the minimal requirement for a sentence is a subject and a verb not starting with a conjunction (and, since, as etc.). Don’t make sentences too long, as they easily become convoluted and you will lose the thread of your argument. Usually a sentence will also have a predicate, and perhaps subordinate clauses. Comments like “nas” or “n.a.s.” in the margin means that the marked passage is not a sentence. Usually (but not exclusively) this means that the sentence does not have a (complete) verb in its principal clause.
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Note: a present participle (e.g. being, having, doing) by itself does not constitute a complete verb. A present participle needs an auxiliary verb (e.g. is being, is having) to comprise a complete verb. Alternatively, replace the participle with a simple form of the verb (e.g. replace “being” with “is”). Participles can, of course, introduce phrases (e.g. “Being afraid of the dark, John is …”).
“Non sequitur” as a comment means that the conclusion or inference doesn’t follow from the preceding argument. A non sequitur is “an inference or a conclusion which does not follow from the premises” (Macquarie Dictionary, Revised Edition, 1985).
Assertions/statements of fact: need references to support their truth/validity. Use references also to indicate source of others’ arguments and short quotations (avoid long quotations— paraphrase instead, appropriately referenced).
Harvard system of referencing: use (properly!) rather than footnoting. Especially with typewriters, or simpler word processing packages which don’t support footnoting well, essay preparation is easier if you avoid footnoting. When quoting the views of an author whose works you have not read, don’t use Harvard referencing in a way that implies you have read the original work—e.g. “Smith (1962)”. Use forms such as “Smith (as quoted in Jones 1981, p.34)”. If you quote from an edited work (e.g. Head and Patience), cite the author not the editors. Use referencing system properly (e.g. if at end of sentence, fullstop after reference not at end of quoted text). Construct a bibliography properly : don’t just copy—or, worse still, photocopy— some or all of the references from the handouts.
Why use references? to acknowledge the intellectual provenance of material/arguments (see comments on plagiarism below), but you can still make your own arguments using others’ ideas by paraphrasing (but still properly referenced); don’t use slabs of quotes, as (long) quotes are not a satisfactory substitute for your own argument (long quotes don’t demonstrate you understand the argument).
. plagiarism: “the appropriation or imitation of another’s ideas and manner of expressing them … to be passed off as one’s own” (Macquarie Dictionary, Revised Edition, 1985)
Do a final, thorough check on the essay for unreadable handwriting, spelling mistakes, inappropriate words, typos etc.
Wordprocessing: there is no excuse for typographical errors (use a spelling checker—BUT spelling checkers won’t pick up the wrong word typed correctly (e.g. “form” typed instead of “from”) nor sentences that don’t make sense (read through hardcopy). Take particular care when using a wordprocessor’s thesaurus that you know the meanings of words that it suggests.
Apostrophes—be able to distinguish plurals and possessives, and contractions: e.g. “the policy is good”; “the policies are good”; “the policy’s main objective” (=the main objective of the policy); “the policies’ main objective” (=the main objective of the policies); “the policies’ main objectives” (=the main objectives of the policies); “the policy’s a good one” (= the policy is a good one); also “its colour” (=the colour of it) and “it’s coloured” (=it is coloured)
Leave space(s) after punctuation marks, otherwise lines may end short on hardcopy. footnote references are placed after punctuation – e.g. here.1 but not here2, – and never use numeric footnotes to numerals – put footnote after text (100 kilograms per hectare3) or a non-numeric
footnote (100† kilograms per hectare) but this is harder to do as it’s difficult to mix numeric and non-numeric footnotes in the same section in Word.
Avoid literary abominations—especially “as such” (can mean “therefore”, “particularly” …), and “of” instead of “have”, as in “I might of gone to the lecture”, and the Americanism “off of” (as in: Eve took the apple off of the serpent). Non-economists often use the ugly term “cost-benefits”; be an economist and prefer the term “net benefits”. A lazy way of turning a verb into a noun is to add “ment” to the end of it; but there are usually better alternatives—e.g. use “abolition” instead of the clumsy “abolishment”. Use “centred on” rather than “centred around”. Avoid forms like “is dependent upon” – use “depends on”.
Be able to use the following correctly: there/their; labour (people who work) vs. Labor (as in Australian Labor Party, but note the British Labour Party); principal and principle; “heavy” relates to weight/mass, whatever its current colloquial meaning (e.g. correct use as in “ is heavy”); 1970s, not “70s”; don’t use ampersand (&) except where correct – e.g. “Allen & Unwin”, “ & Son”; government/party/opposition are singular nouns and take the singular form of a verb (i.e. “the government is …”) unless you want to indicate disunity (e.g. “the NSW State Liberal Party are again agonising over a leadership challenge”); dependent and dependant; use “effect, effects, effecting” and “affect, affects, affecting” properly; “estimate”, “calculate” and “predict” have different meanings; don’t use “our” when referring to “Australia”; don’t use abbreviations like “Aust.”, “govt”; don’t compound words (correct form in parentheses) such as “inturn” (in turn), “aswell” (as well), “alot” (a lot), “thankyou” (thank you). Beware of the term “value added”—not only are industries that process agricultural products “value adding”, but so too is agriculture itself!
Variables and parameters. “Variables” take on a variety of values and are related by functions such as supply and demand curves (e.g. variables may be “size of output”, “output price”, “level of exports”). A “parameter” is a variable which has a given value in a particular case, and parameters are usually (but not always) the constants in functions (e.g. parameters may be “elasticities” or “slopes” of supply and demand curves, “probability of success of research”, “level of adoption of new technology”). The effects of different values of parameters can be considered: e.g. different demand curve elasticities.
Don’t begin a sentence with “This is …” or “That is …” when it is unclear as to what “This” or “That” refers.
Avoid anthropomorphisms such as “This essay will discuss …” wherever possible. (Use a dictionary to discover the meaning of “anthropomorphism/anthropomorphic” if necessary.)
Gender: the use of the masculine gender to encompass both male and female—e.g. “he” to “stand for” “he” or “she”—is a convention which has long outlived its usefulness. “He” is not used for inanimate things (such as rocks) and, for consistency, “he” should not be used for animate things which clearly are, or clearly could be, female. Unless specifically referring to someone of known gender (e.g. “ … he”), write in a gender-neutral way – e.g.
1 the right way
2 the wrong way 3 one right way
use gender-neutral plural forms such as “the farmers … they” rather than “the farmer … he”. [Note the inappropriateness of Sowey and Hargreaves’ “cheerful disclaimer of sexism”: “As with Romeo and Juliet, so with our pronouns—the male embraces the female”. This is terribly, terribly twee and might have been acceptable in the 1950s; but anyone with a passing knowledge of Shakespeare would know that Juliet was no mere passive embracee! (cf. Sowey, E. and Hargreaves, C. (1989), Dissemination of econometric models: is a new age dawning?, Australasian Meeting of Econometric Society, University of , Armidale, 13-15 July).]
Tabulated data and figures: give title, and source where appropriate. For tabulated data, use an appropriate number of decimal places and/or significant digits and generally right-align columns of data (so that data can be easily scanned by column).
“Collective noun” – identifies a group, team, committee etc. In general, collective nouns use singular forms of verbs etc. For example, “the team is (not “are”)”, “the committee’s decision (not “committee’s decisions”)”; unless the group is effectively acting as individuals: “the committee are irrevocably split” (??)
2. And, finally …
If you get the jokes in the following, then you’re well on the way to becoming a better writer. The following letter recently appeared in an airline industry magazine:
In recent months I have read several letters from Golden Wingers describing what are the desirable traits of a well written letter. I offer thoughts on the subject, which I believe were first formulated by the American writer, :
Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs has to agree with their subjects. Proof read carefully to see if you words out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must not shift your point of view. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with). Don’t overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. … Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. The adverb always follows the verb. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague: seek viable alternatives.
Watters, R. (1992/93), “Viable alternatives”, Letters, Golden Wing, December/January 1992/93, p.38
The following letter appeared in the Herald in May 1994. Don’t write like this. there’s a move afoot
im delighted to see there is a move afoot to rid the written language of such irrelevances as apostrophes commas and hyphens we mustnt forget that theres a vast host of other superfluities in written english such as capital letters what purpose do they serve and all the other punctuation marks which havent been with us all that long a mere matter of a few centuries so if we managed without them then im sure wed have no difficulties now especially since its so hard to teach the rules to kids when we all know that learning shouldnt be encumbered with anything like a bit of effort its meant to be fun fun fun while were at it wed
better do something about teaching in other areas after all whos ever going to need arithmetic and algebra when weve got calculators to do all that stuff and dont we have computers to do all the geometry and satellites to do all the mapping and as for history well thats all in the past so it doesnt matter any more and literatures full of nasty old punctuation so whats really necessary for our educational future only economists and entertainers well well weve arrived back at that old idea of bread and circuses theres progress for you
ps ive never even heard of ted matulevicius
May 1 Goonellabah.
Beaver, S. (1994), “there’s a move afoot”, Letters, Herald, 17 May, p.16 3. Finding and evaluating reference material
Library catalogues and databases may be used to find material for essays etc., but how do we assess the (likely) quality of material—even before we access it?
1. Type of publication
. books (or “monographs”): these may take several years to write, and probably at least a year to publish, and so the material may be somewhat dated even when the book is first released; this may be especially true in second editions. The humanities publish much original research in books, but these tend to be less used in the social sciences for publishing original research. In the latter, books are often textbooks or compendiums of “state-of-the-art” essays on economic theory. May not be closely peer-refereed.
. journals (or “serials”): used in the social sciences to publish original research. In economics, journal articles are often rather theoretical and primarily used to publish answers to new or modified theoretical puzzles rather than to examine the economy of the real world to understand it better. Most journals referee submissions for quality control. In the more prestigious journals, it may take several years for an article to be refereed, revised and finally published; many published journal articles carry the date on which they were submitted for consideration, and then accepted for publication. Publishers are increasingly producing an electronic version of journals, on CD-ROM or increasingly on the Internet. This version may not contain all of the information; may be published before or after the print version; may only contain an abridged version of the article; or access may be limited to subscribers or require particular software to view.
. reports: often used by government or lobby groups to investigate particular issues. Government often commissions a group of “eminent persons” to undertake a review leading to a report; reports were traditionally written by public servants but now increasingly written by consultants. Also reports by various parliamentary committees. Various government bodies publish regular reports of various kinds (e.g. ABARE, Auditor-General, Productivity Commission). Quality likely to be highly variable (little peer-reviewed) and, especially with lobby groups, reports may be intentionally biased. Reports often appear on the Internet before they are published in print, often with useful (and sometimes not useful) commentary—e.g. parliamentary papers such as the Budget Papers which are made available when tabled.
. newspapers, magazines and other ephemera: articles written by journalists who do not necessarily have any formal training in the topics they report. Generally produced to tight deadlines (especially newspapers) and quality control may be low except in easily-verified cases of facts (and, often, not even then). Often newspaper articles closely report media
releases of government and interest groups (such as business, trade associations and trade unions).
. electronic documents: a huge variety of material, sometimes specialised in electronic form but also including much material available as print material. Electronic documents may be available via floppy and CD-ROM disks, but increasingly via the world wide web (WWW). Electronic documents available via the Internet include WWW homepages (of organisations and individuals), and newsgroups and listservs which disseminate the thoughts, arguments and rantings of individuals registered for those exchanges. Quality control likely to vary depending on source. See, for example, the University of Sydney’s “Information Literacy” material at: http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/skills/infolitpolicy.html
2. Sources of published material
. established commercial publishers: for books, increasingly for journals, for newspapers and other ephemera, and electronic material.
. learned societies (e.g. Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society or Economics Society of Australia): originally the principal publishers of journals, which published the research reports of their members. Also may publish newsletters.
. governments: output ranges from quality (i.e. peer-reviewed) research reports, political reports (e.g. reports of parliamentary committees), reports of parliamentary activities (“Hansard” or “parliamentary proceedings”) including parliamentary debates and reports of parliamentary committees, to ephemera such as media releases.
. interest groups: “summit” employer groups (e.g. national groups such as the Business Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (formerly Confederation of Australian Industry), Australian Mining Industry Council, National Farmers’ Federation, Metal Trades Industry Association), and corresponding State-level summit groups; associations representing particular industries (e.g. education; manufacturing and sub- groups such as vehicle manufacturing or component parts) or products (e.g. farmers, forestry, fishing, mining) at national or State level; individual firms (some firms are so large (e.g. in mining, some manufacturing, retailing) that they have influence independently of corresponding employer associations; professional associations and societies (e.g. the Australian Medical Association and the specialists’ colleges, the lawyers’ Bar Councils and Law Societies, Institution of Engineers, and corresponding groups for accountants, auditors, economists and agricultural economists, agricultural scientists etc.); “summit” employee groups (e.g. the Australian Council of Trade Unions) and individual trade unions; service organisations (e.g. motorists’ associations), cultural associations (e.g. the RSL, and arts and sports clubs), ethnic associations, religious groups, secular and religious welfare organisations (e.g. philanthropic such as and Salvation Army, consumer such as Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations and Australian Consumers Association, pensioners, overseas aid) and social organisations for non-human welfare (e.g. RSPCA and WIRES for animals; and Landcare groups, Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace and Wilderness Society for conservation generally). In general, material published by such groups may be assumed to be intended to further the particular interests of these groups.
. Internet: may disseminate material from all of the above. Web sites carry material which managers of these sites wish to be disseminated, together with links to other sites of which the site managers approve. Is likely to carry an ever-widening range of material, especially as more sophisticated charging mechanisms are developed for Internet access.
For additional ideas, see: Schmidt, J.B. (1984), Apparatus: a mnemonic for the evaluation of reference resources, in B Katz and R A Fraley (eds.), Evaluation of Reference Services, , , pp. 301-311.
3. Evaluating material ex ante
Suppose you have found reference(s) relating to a particular topic. Should you take the time to obtain and read this material? This is an economic decision problem (there are costs and benefits, even if the major cost is time) under uncertainty (you don’t know exactly what’s in the material). A few suggestions:
• who wrote the material and why?—do you need material from this source? why?
• what type of material is it?—political, interest group, detailed investigation, economics
(theory or empirical), other relevant material? —do you need this type of material? why?
• what is the likely quality of this material?—ranging from peer-reviewed to dashed-off to rantings and ravings. do you need this type of material? why?
• how large is the item?—book or large report ranging to newspaper article. Is size a likely indicator of quality? Is this item likely to contain relevant material?
4. And what you do read, critically evaluate …
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