Paul J Warren (Example odd page) WritingSkills2010.docx
Writing Skills Course - Part 2
Technical notes
February 2010
Contents
Contents 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 2
Chapter 2 Content versus presentation 2
Chapter 3 Outlining 2
Chapter 4 Styles and Formatting 3
Chapter 5 Languages and Spelling 4
Chapter 6 Page setup 4
Chapter 7 Header and Footer 4
Chapter 8 Sections and Section Breaks 5
Chapter 9 Footnote Reference 5
Chapter 10 Endnote Reference 6
Chapter 11 Bibliographic software for references 6
Chapter 12 Cross-Reference 6
Chapter 13 Table of Contents 7
Chapter 14 Figures 7
Chapter 15 Equations 8
Chapter 16 Master Documents 8
Chapter 17 Thesis guidelines 8
Chapter 18 Software tools 9
Chapter 1 Introduction
This document is intended to give some practical advice for writing documents such as reports, papers or theses.
This document was originally written using Microsoft Word 2003 as part of Microsoft Office 2003 and running on WindowsXP operating system. Microsoft software is available at low cost from the Oxford University Computing Services Shop. See the shop’s website http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/shop for more details on obtaining the software for installation on your own computer, or talk to the administrator of the departmental or group computer you intend to use.
The newer version of Microsoft Word in Office 2007 has significantly different interface and the commands to achieve the effects described below are slightly different however the tips and suggestions contained within this document are generally applicable (even if you prefer to use alternative software packages such as WordPerfect, Latex, OpenOffice etc. ).
There are no University regulations concerning the choice of software for preparation of documents however compatibility is an important issue which should be considered at an early stage in discussion with your supervisor – who will probably want an electronic copy of your documents at some stage. Also be aware that some journals and publishers require specific software file-formats.
Also be aware that since 1st October 2007 candidates are required to “submit an electronic copy to the Oxford Research Archive” in addition to the printed copy for the library. This is a good reason to spend the time working out how to use the software to full advantage early on, rather than trying to force the thesis into a manageable format after submission.
Chapter 2 Content versus presentation
Content is always more important than presentation.
Careful thought about presentation can significantly enhance the impact/intelligibility of the content. More importantly, though, poor presentation can significantly diminish the impact/intelligibility of the content.
Formatting (e.g. font type, font size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, numbering etc.) and document layout (e.g. page layout, headings, sections, headers, footers, page numbers, page breaks, table of contents, index etc…) can be used to clarify the document structure. Formatting and layout can also be used to emphasise the key points (e.g. bullet-points, italics, bold).
This document uses a wide range of functionality available in Microsoft Word to facilitate the presentation and structuring of the content of this document, and is intended to be a (rather complicated) example of how to produce a professional-looking well-formatted document. Not all documents need all this functionality however large documents in particular may benefit from these tips and suggestions.
Chapter 3 Outlining
When starting a new document, think about the structure of the document. For example if starting a journal paper the structure of the document must conform to the Author Guidelines for that particular journal. A typical structure for a paper could be
Title
Abstract
Introduction
Experimental
Results
Part 1
Part 2
Discussion
Conclusions
References
Viewing the document in outline view is a useful way of quickly setting-up the overall structure.
View: Outline
When in outline view, type the text for the headings and sub-headings (e.g. as above) and then allocate each line the appropriate heading level (e.g. Introduction could be Heading1 and Part1 could be Heading2). It is then possible to control which levels to display or to move through the document structure expanding/contracting particular headings of interest. The outline view is also a useful tool for navigating around a large existing document, and a useful tool for reorganizing the structure of an existing document.
Chapter 4 Styles and Formatting
Rather than trying to format paragraphs as you write them, it is better to use clearly defined styles from the beginning.
Format: Styles and Formatting (Word2003)
Home: Styles (Word2007)
Since there are so many options for creating your own formatting it may be useful to look at an existing document which you like the format and look at the formatting to see how it has been achieved.
Format: Reveal Formatting (Word2003)
Home: Styles (show styles window) (Word2007)
For example, I have modified the ‘Heading1’ style which controls the format of the section headings by basing it upon the default ‘Normal’ style but changing to the following settings: font size 14pt, paragraph spacing 12pt before and 6pt after, font bold, keep lines together, keep with next paragraph, don’t hyphenate words at end of lines, bordered by single line below, numbering as per outline numbering, automatically update. In addition I have modified the normal style to have justified lines.
Inexperienced authors tend to control the look of a document on an as-needs-must basis and the resulting document does often look acceptable. However producing the document has required many more formatting decisions, it is difficult to subsequently modify the overall layout or formatting and it is difficult to ensure consistency of formatting (especially if the document may have multiple authors, such as a co-author or secretary). Here are some particularly common examples of poor practice which should be avoided by the use of styles
· Avoid using multiple spaces and/or tabs to indent paragraphs or to align columns of text
· Avoid mixing too many fonts within one document
· Avoid using empty lines as space fillers, or to control page roll-overs
Chapter 5 Languages and Spelling
The default setting on most installations of Microsoft Word is to use English (U.S.). It is recommended that the default language should be changed to use English (U.K.).
Tools: Language: Set Language… (Word2003)
Start:All Programs: Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings (Word2007)
The language settings control the automatic selection of dictionaries for checking spelling and grammar. There are significant differences between English (U.K.) and English (U.S.), which many people find irritating. It is worth running spell checking continuously while you type. You can enable continuous checking of spelling and grammar via Set Language or you can run a spell-check manually via the Spelling and Grammar or Proofing.
Tools: Spelling and Grammar… (Word2003)
MicrosoftOfficeButton: WordOptions: Proofing (Word2007)
If working on a large document it is also worthwhile creating and updating your own custom dictionary in order to teach your computer that specific scientific words you use frequently are acceptable. e.g. microstructure, nanomaterials etc.
Chapter 6 Page setup
This page is A4 size (UK uses A4 whereas USA uses Letter, so this setting often needs changing).
The default margins in this version of Microsoft Word are 2.5cm top 2.54cm bottom 3.2cm left 3.2cm right. These setting leave quite a lot of blank space and can be reduced for single page documents, such as this page, which has margins set to 1.5cm top 1.5cm bottom, 1.5cm left 1.5cm right. Note that some printers have smaller printable areas than others, therefore reducing margins less than 1.5cm can cause problems and should be considered carefully if the document is intended for electronic distribution and various printers.
File: Pagesetup (Word2003)
PageLayout (Word2007)
If the document is to be bound into a booklet, then the binding needs extra space called the gutter margin. This document will be printed double sided and bound so the gutter has been set to 0.5cm with mirroring. This means that the document automatically tracks whether the page is a left-handed page or a right handed page.
Chapter 7 Header and Footer
The header and footer at top and bottom of the page respectively should contain useful information about the document. In this document the header gives the name of the author and the name of the document, whereas the footer gives the last print date and the number of the page relative to the whole document. Autotext inserts can be easily configured to your own preference. The format of the page numbering can be modified if necessary (e.g. add chapter numbering to a thesis).
View: Header and Footer (Word2003)
Insert: AutoText (Word2003)
Insert: Page Numbers (Word2003)
Insert: Header&Footer (Word2007)
Documents with different left-hand and right-hand pages like in a book can have different headers and footers on left-handed and right-handed pages. Similarly the header and footer of the first page can be different. This behaviour depends upon the page set-up layout.
File: Pagesetup (Word2003)
PageLayout (Word2007)
Chapter 8 Sections and Section Breaks
Further flexibility of page layout settings such as headers and footers is available by dividing the document into sections.
However as a note of caution, different headers and footers can become confusing when the document is not long enough to have a left-handed and a right-handed page for each section of the document, since it is only possible to view the header and footer of a page that exists. A simple workaround for setting-up headers and footers in a document with multiple sections is to insert some temporary page-breaks.
Insert: Break (Word2003)
Insert: Pages: Page Break (Word2007)
Last printed 15/02/2008 1:51 PM Page 9 of 10
Paul J Warren (Example odd page) WritingSkills2010.docx
Figure 1 Example dialog box for inserting an endnote
Figure 2 Example dialog box for inserting a caption
Last printed 15/02/2008 1:51 PM Page 9 of 10
Paul J Warren (Example odd page) WritingSkills2010.docx
Chapter 9 Footnote Reference
The bottom of this page shows two footnotes, which are referenced with symbolic[†] and numeric[1] markers respectively.
Insert: Reference: Footnote (Word2003)
References: Footnotes: Insert Footnote (Word2007)
Chapter 10 Endnote Reference
The last page of this document shows some example reference styles which are commonly found in Journals and theses. The style of the reference varies according to whether the article is a journal paper [[1]], a proceedings paper [[2]], or a book [[3]]. Note that it was necessary to change the default style for ‘Endnote Reference’ and ‘Endnote Text’ in order to achieve the effect requested by the journal (e.g. Acta Materialia or a typical thesis). Endnote references automatically update when another reference is inserted (e.g. before [2]). This is a major effort-saver when writing a thesis! A typical thesis contains >200 references spread over 150 pages of text (and figures) so adding a new reference (e.g. before [2]) causes major effort if you are maintaining the numbering system manually.
Insert: Reference: Footnote (Select Endnote) (Word2003)
References: Footnotes: Insert Endnote (Word2007)
In addition to referring to other published literature it is usually necessary to refer to tables and figures in the same document. Again when preparing a thesis which may contain more than 100 figures it is preferable to set the caption numbering to be controlled automatically.
Insert: Reference: Caption (Word2003)
References: Captions: Insert Caption (Word2007)
Chapter 11 Bibliographic software for references
Several different software packages exist which enable automatic formatting of references and importing of references from other databases e.g. Microsoft Endnote which is free from OUCS shop under the Microsoft site licensing scheme. [NOTE: http://www.endnote.com provides a patch necessary if working with XPservicepack2] After the software has been installed there is an extra item on the Tools menu called EndNote.
Tools: EndNote (Word2003)
Add-Ins: Menu Commands: Endnote (Word2007)
All the main on-line bibliographic search tools allow outputting of data in a format compatible for reading into a local copy of Endnote. This is a very powerful method of managing your references and is very worthwhile for formatting references when writing papers and theses. OUCS run courses on how to use Endnote effectively.
Chapter 12 Cross-Reference
When referring to an journal paper for a second time (e.g.[1]) as opposed to a new paper (e.g. [[4]]), rather than making a duplicate reference you should make a cross-reference to the existing endnote so that if the numbering changes (due to inserting another reference/endnote) then the cross-reference numbering updates automatically.
Insert: Reference: Cross-reference (Word2003)
References: Captions: Cross-reference (Word2007)
Similarly cross-references can be used to refer to figure and table captions e.g. Figure 1 shows the insert endnote dialog box whereas Figure 2 shows the insert caption dialog box.
Chapter 13 Table of Contents
A thesis requires a table of contents. It is a major undertaking to generate a table of contents manually (and especially to update it each time the page numbering changes!). Microsoft Word can be configured to generate a Table of Contents automatically if styles have been used to identify the appropriate chapter headings and and sub-headings.
Insert: Reference: Index&Tables (Word2003)
References: Index (Word2007)
The table of contents does not detect changes. In order to update the table of contents, first select the existing table of contents and then either click F9 or insert the table again.
For a thesis it may be useful to insert a table of figure captions and a table of table captions also as shown on the front page of this document.
Chapter 14 Figures
There are many ways to insert figures into a document. Word knows about two types of graphic items – pictures and drawings. Pictures are fixed images usually produced by another program and inserted into the document, whereas drawings are creatable and modifiable in Word.
Figure 3 shows the default menu layout for Word2003 used to create this document.
The image in Figure 3 was a screen capture created using a simple freeware package called MWSnap3 downloaded from the www.tucows.com software repository. After capturing the image into the program MWSnap3, I copied and pasted the image directly into this document.
Edit: Paste (Word2003)
Home: Paste (Word2007)
Alternatively I could have saved the image from MWSnap3 to disk and then inserted the image from file to achieve the same effect. One advantage of saving to disk then inserting from file is the ability to select the file format, which in this case was a choice of bitmap, jpeg, gif, png or tiff. The choice affects the file size, resolution, color etc. Tiff is large but maintains resolution, jpeg is smaller due to compression and for graduated colour, gif is for blocks of colour (i.e. not photos)