Websites on Writing Process

Bates college has a web page entitled "A Strategy for Writing Up Research Results" which covers the whole writing process, including the all essential peer-review. http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/htwstrategy.html The peer review occurs after your draft is complete, you have made sure your logic is sound, and you have tried to make your paper as concise as possible without loosing clarity. You then show your article to a reader not familiar with what your research is about. If that reader is used to reviewing other people's papers, then you are all set; More often, however, you may have to explain what you expect of him or her. The peer-review form put together by Bates college is great. It helps a reader, even you, check out a paper methodically before sending it to the unknown super-reviewer whose publishing veto power will mean everything to you and your future. http://www.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/peerreview.html The OWL writing centre from Purdue University has a page entitled "General Writing Concerns (Planning/Writing/Revising/Genres)". It has many links to the extensive contents of its site divided into four categories, two of which are about the writing process: 1) "Planning/Starting to Write" and 3) "Revising/Editing/Proofreading". http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/ I recently found a 55 page "Guide to Academic Writing" from the University of the western Cape, completed in September 2003, written by Nelleke Bak. Although its emphasis is on writing a thesis, many of its topics are applicable to the writing of a scientific paper. There is an interesting section on literature review and on critical reading (you will need to read many papers to prepare the related work section of your paper). It also covers the topics of plagiarism and citations. You will find it on Google if you ask for "What are you expected to do when asked to “Critically discuss ". It is a Microsoft Word file.