Week 6 Blog

Hello once again interested fans and readers. While my last blog had me focused on dealing with the discussion section of my paper and trying to find out where my research would fit into the academic conversation, this week had me switch my focus towards examining the different individual sections of my paper and seeing how to best transition between the different sections. I also continued to use papers similar to my own to get a better understanding for the type of organizational style that would best fit the information that I am trying to present to my readers and audience. With all this in mind, it has been a fairly calm week compared to the others.

The first step that I took this week was to examine the biggest portion of my paper: the literature review. I began by reading the lit review over by itself, taking note of the tone and general voice of this section of my paper. I noticed that for this portion of the paper I was generally very expository and a majority of the lit review was an explanation of terms or ideas relevant to the topic that I would be exploring. While this is essentially the purpose of the lit review, this tone did not continue throughout my paper, so I began to look for ways to slightly modify this tone and make this section of the paper more in line with the rest of it. One of the first measures that I took to attempt to correct this action was leaving in any explanations necessary for the audience’s understanding while still removing those that were not necessary to keep only the vital information. Another step that I took to better connect the lit review to the rest of the paper was to modify the final paragraph to lead into my methods section. This helped to provide the paper with a better flow and made it seem like the two sections were actually connected, rather than separate pieces on the same topic.

Besides my work to better transition within the paper, I also began seriously considering different methods of organization for my paper, such as when to employ sub-headings and a better implementation of footnotes. I found that while there is a consensus for the use of Chicago citation by papers in my field, there is very little agreement on specific paper organization and style, leaving the decision up to me. I found that, for the information being presented, the incorporation of footnotes for definitions in the lit review would likely decrease clutter and make the information more manageable to the audience, and I also noticed that while transitions between the sections of my paper are important, a clear indication of the beginning of a new section is also fairly important to maintaining audience clarity and retention.

This week has seen me place a very direct effort into the elements of organization and the transitional points of my paper, and I have quickly realized just how important a well-organized and clear paper is to the reader, even if the information is fairly clear or straight-forward.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic