Professional Paper Writing

1. Report Paper: summarize and report the findings of the author on a particular subject.

2. Research Paper: assemble facts and ideas and by studying them to draw new conclusions as to facts or interpretations, or to present the material in the light of a new interest.

3. Course Paper: refer to the paper written after a specific course is learned or at the end of the term.

4. Thesis Paper (Dissertation): written and submitted in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of MA or MS (or Ph.D) in a specific discipline.

Writing a Professional Paper: 5 Steps

Step 1: Searching for good ideas

Step 2: Finding topics

Step 3: Considering audience and purpose

Step 4: Moving from brainstorming to drafting

Step 5: Editing and refining

Styles of Professional Paper Writing

Formal:

More serious approach to a subject.

Relate everything to his readers objectively and systematically

Ruling out slang or dialectic expressions or colloquialisms or informal contractions

Little use of the first and second persons like “ I”, “you” Make little effort to appeal to his emotions

Title（题目）

Generalizing the text: summarize the central idea of the paper concisely and correctly

Attracting readers

Using more nouns, noun phrases and gerunds

Using incomplete sentence

Being brief and concise

Being specific

Avoiding questions titles

Being standard

Sample Analysis

“On Learning Foreign Language and Cultural Background Teaching”

“On Foreign Language Learning and Cultural Background

Teaching” (Good)

“Developing Computer Internet and the Spread of Culture and Information”

“The Development of Computer Internet and Spread of Culture and Information” (Good)

“Is Literature Useless in TOEFL?”

“Literature Useless in TOEFL” (Good)

Author

Bearing author’s responsibility

Facilitating retrieval and correspondence

Rule of spelling: WANG Wei

Printing format unified

Number of authors: not over 4 writers

Professional title omitted: professor, president, chief manager, doctor

Address:

Linguistic Features（语言特色）

Nominalization: keywords in the form of nouns, not verbs

Specifically concentrated meaning: use single word of a specific meaning, not verbal phrase (absorb – take in; discover- find out)

Abstract（摘要）

Miniaturizing the text: condensed statement of the contents of a paper

Limited Length:

200 words the maximum for a long report or paper; Never more than 500 words.

3-5% of the length of the paper

Descriptive (Indicative) Abstract: state the general subject matter of the document the follows

Informational (Informative) Abstract:

Highlight the findings and results, briefly and quantitatively,

A condensed version of the research paper.

Informational-indicative Abstract: a combined form that bears specific information about the principal findings and results

and general information about the rest of the document.

Complete Content:

Statement of the problem;

Statement of the approach to solving the problem; The principal result

Formalized Structure

1. Topic Sentence: go straightforwardly to the subject or problem and indicate the primary objectives of the paper Ex. The paper present a simple prescription for..

The purpose of the paper is…

In this paper, we aim at…

2. Supporting Sentences: further specify the subject to be presented; taken as a main body of an abstract

Ex. The theory is characterized by…

Detailed information has been acquired by the authors using…

Special mention is given here to…

3. Concluding Sentence(s): analyze the results, explain the application, point out the significance of the research Ex. In conclusion, we state that…

The studies we have performed showed that… Finally, a summary is given of…

4. Writing Requirements

Integrity（完整）

Concise（简要）

Consistency（连贯）

Concentration（浓缩）

5. Five Steps for Writing

Step 1: Underlining key words and sentences

Step 2: Listing essential points of the paper

Step 3: Boiling down each section to a sentence or two Step 4: Drafting the abstract

Step 5: Checking the final draft

6. Five-Answer Strategy

Q1: What is the general knowledge of your topic in the academic field?

Q2: What research topic is the paper to focus on?

Q3: What method or material do you use to support your main point of view?

Q4: What conclusion will you draw?

Q5: What is the main contribution of the paper?

A1 to Q1 (one sentence)

A2 to Q2 (one topic sentence, one or two supporting sentences)

A3 to Q3 (two or three sentences to give specific information)

A4 to Q4 (one sentence)

A5 to Q5 (one sentence)

Sample

(Q1) This paper compares East and West (American and Chinese) campaign practices and reveals the prominence（重要性) of culture and its impacts upon the operation of public communication campaigns. (Q2）Specifically, this comparative study shows that, Chinese and American campaign practices differ in (1) ideologies（意识形态）and perceptions（理解力）;

(2) approaches and strategies; and (3) implementations（执行） and evaluations（评价）. (Q4) In running the campaigns, Americans rely heavily on mass media and concentrate on short-term goals, whereas Chinese depends more on interpersonal（人际）influences and primarily on ling-term social effects. (Q5) These differences in campaign practices are however attributable to（归因于）their respective（各自）cultural orientations.

7. Likely Mistakes / Common Errors

Mixed writing style

In this paper, .. the non-national firms can very cheap……… In this way, the competitive ability of……..

This paper will explores ………………………….

Over-simplified Statements

Monotonous Expression

The influence of……Some …….

A practical construction ……In this paper, the stone……., a necessary ……………………..

Incomplete Contents

Displacement of Information