Technical Writing Resources

Process for Preparing Manuscripts

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  1. Conceptualization

  As soon as you start a project, develop a concept statement for your work and eventual paper. It is expected that ALL students leading a project to have concept statement. Writing is valuable tool that will help sharpen your focus, identify potential roadblocks and solutions, and work more efficiently.

  The concept statement should be 1-2 sentences and should articulate the key message of your paper including expected outcome(s), planned methods, and potential impact. Once you have a one sentence vision for your paper, submit it for review. This should be done within 1 week of starting to lead a project.

  For more details on a concept statement and writing a paper, read this article on 10 simple steps to writing a research paper.

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  2. Literature Survey

  Steps of a Literature Survey

  Step 1. Define Scope

  You should have a draft of your concept statement before you start your literature review. This will likely be revisited and possibly revised to be more sharply defined as you write your literature review. However, it is vital to start with an objective and scope in mind, otherwise your literature survey can grow unwieldy and overwhelming fast.

  Step 2. Initial Survey

  Find and review papers related to your concept statement. The search should broad but shallow. Do not read papers in detail during this step. This should be a simple first pass only (see How to Read Research Articles section). Limited time should be spent on this step (1-2 hours per day over 3-5 days).

  Step 3. Revise Scope

  Further refine your concept statement and define boundaries. The boundaries should be derived from your concept statement. Some example questions you could ask yourself as you define your boundaries:

  • What salts do you need to include in your literature review to support your concept statement?
  • Are there a lot of studies out there in my targeted salt system? If not, what similar salt systems have been studied?
  • What analyte(s) are you planning to study?
  • Are there a lot of studies out there on your analyte(s)? If not, what similar analytes are there that have been studied?
  • What type of electrodes need to be studied? What types of electrodes do you plan to use?
  • What types of measurements have been made? What types of measurements do you need to perform to support your concept statement?
  • Take some time to come up with your own questions to help guide your survey and clearly define your scope.

  Step 4. In-Depth Survey

  Organize, read, and examine relevant studies from Step 2 in greater detail. Start by giving the papers found in Step 2 a second pass (see How to Read Research Articles section). Your study and notes should be focused on identifying key knowledge gaps where your study can contribute, as well as key lessons learned to help you fine tune your plan to execute your research.

  During the second pass, you may add more studies during this step as you notice references and citation of relevant studies. Research rabbit is valuable tool for finding and tracking references and citations (see Resources for Finding Studies). You may also eliminate studies from your survey that appear to be irrelevant to your survey upon closer inspection. Lastly, you will identify any studies worth closer inspection for the third pass.

  Only a few and most relevant paper should make it to the third pass (see How to Read Research Articles section), as it is time consuming. During the third pass, the study should be relevant enough that you can visualize how you will replicate or adopt the methods and results reported in your own work.

  Step 5. Finalize Scope

  Revisit and refine your concept statement as needed. Revisit and refine your research and/or experimental setup and plan. Repeat any of the above steps as needed.

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  3. Figures and Storyboard

  The next step in preparing an article for publication is to submit an outline of your paper with figures (see step 3 of linked article above). This can be done on slides or in a written document. The idea is that the figures and tables will form the skeleton of your paper. We will likely iterate on this outline a few times for your first couple papers.

  In the first submission of your outline, you should have:

  1. Tables and/or figures with labeled headers and/or axes including units (formatting for aesthetics will come in later drafts)
  2. Short captions for each table and figure
  3. Short statements or bullet points in between figures and/or table to form the narrative framework of the paper

  In subsequent submissions, you will:

  1. Improve the formatting of figures identified as fitting for the publication narrative (use the guidelines for figures in the publication checklist to help you in this process),
  2. Revise figures identified as unclear in their presentation,
  3. Remove or replace figures identified as unhelpful or unnecessary.
  4. Refine captions to be concise, clear, and complete
  5. Improve logic flow of the content
  6. Have one bullet point representing roughly 1-2 paragraphs in the soon-to-be-written paper
     
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  4. Rough Draft

  Next, you will submit your rough draft. This draft should essentially be a more filled out narrative of the storyboard. An introduction does not need to be written at this point. The draft should include a detailed methods section, full narrative for the results and discussion section, and a rough (e.g., bullet points) conclusion section.

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  5. Refined Draft

  After the rough draft, you will likely submit a couple refined drafts. Before submitting each of your refined drafts, please review the linked Publication Checklist to ensure your manuscript is meeting the general guidelines and standards expected. An introduction section will need to be included in your refined draft.

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  6. Prepare for Submission to a Journal

  Double-check all journal requirements and formatting. Assemble a list of reviewers to include in your submission with help from your advisor.