Manuscriptology 101

Refining your academic writing skills

© Joaquim Baeta. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
About me
❖ Writer.
❖ Copy editor (making scientists
sound smart since 2009).
❖ Documentarian, (and founder
of) Scenoptica.
❖ Content development and
digital strategy consultant.
At UGM
❖ UGM Annual Conference Series.
⬥ Leading UASC web team.
⬥ UASC websites design,
development, and management.
⬥ Communication and
engagement (social media,
MailChimp, Flickr, YouTube,
photography, films).
⬥ Rector and chairmen’s speeches.
⬥ Basically anything related to
English.
At UGM
❖ Consulting on BPP UGM language editing
program.
❖ Journal development (getting UGM journals
to a point of respectability).
⬥ IJBiotech website/brand redesign and
content, article layout redesign and
typesetting, language quality control.
⬥ Humaniora website content, article
copyediting, preparation (mostly Lelly)
for Scopus.
⬥ AJSTD website/brand redesign, article
layout redesign and typesetting, issue
editorial design.
About me (the actual important information)
❖ I’m not an academic.
❖ I don’t work in your field.
⬥ Arcane terminology that makes sense to you means
nothing to me.
❖ My approach to academic writing:
⬥ Does a lay person understand it?
⬥ Good academic writing means fundamentally good English
writing.
What to expect from this clinic
❖ Learning through example.
❖ Gaining a better understanding of your strengths and
weaknesses.
❖ Identifying common mistakes in Indonesian writing.
❖ Understanding what and what not to do when writing your
manuscript.
❖ Developing simple techniques to ensure your writing is
easier to edit or evaluate.
What not to expect from this clinic
❖ To suddenly have good English.
⬥ Improvement is not an instant process.
❖ To have good English without hard work.
❖ To have your manuscript edited… without you learning
something.
❖ For me to sell you a product or service.
Part 1
Overcoming the problematic
tendencies of Indonesian authors
Hard truths about learning English
Hard truths about learning to write in English
❖ Writing is a skill.
⬥ It takes years of practice to perfect.
⬥ We have to start from a solid foundation.
⬥ We have to learn good technique.
⬥ We have to keep working to “stay in shape”.
Hard truths about learning to write in English
❖ There is no miracle cure to bad English.
⬥ Improvement takes time.
⬥ A workshop is a tool, not a solution.
❖ Just because you understand your writing, it doesn’t
mean others will.
⬥ People are not mind readers!
⬥ You have to write for the reader not yourself.
Hard truths about learning to write in English
❖ Everyone needs an editor.
⬥ Every professional author has an editor.
⬥ A workshop is a tool, not a solution.
❖ A good English writer starts as a good Indonesian writer.
⬥ Are you a good writer in your native language?
Editing Indonesian authors
What it’s like to edit Indonesian authors

Me
Editing Indonesian authors = many colours; many comments

❖ This paper
took many
weeks to
edit.
❖ I worked
closely with
the author.
❖ Sometimes
daily
discussions.
Editing Indonesian authors without discussions

❖ Not as many
colours.
❖ Larger comments…
but no answers to
my questions.
Editing Indonesian authors takes time
❖ Less than 5% of papers that I have edited took less than 2
days.
❖ Authors need editors not proofreaders.
⬥ (Publishers need proofreaders.)
❖ Even if the author wants quick and “easy” editing, simply
reading the manuscript takes time—and therefore editing
it takes even longer.
 Again:
The lower the quality of
the English, the longer
it will take to read the
manuscript.

Readers will find it

difficult to read; editors
will find it difficult to
edit.
Problems I encounter editing Indonesian writing
❖ Indonenglish.
⬥ Bad sentence structure rooted in Bahasa Indonesia.
⬥ It makes sense to an Indonesian, but not a non-Indonesian.
⬥ “While eating his noodles, the cockroach peed in his tea.”
vs. “While Tim was eating his noodles, a cockroach was
peeing in his tea.”
⬥ “The data based on our analyses” vs. “Based on our
analyses, the data”.
Problems I encounter editing Indonesian writing
❖ Compensating for a limited vocabulary.
⬥ Inappropriate word usage.
⬥ Using big words when small ones will suffice.
❖ Over-written and consequently nonsensical sentences.
⬥ “I did not go to campus today because I felt sick, especially since it
was raining.”
⬥ "Based on the fundamental understanding, it is mentioned that
when religion came in to Java, in which the society was included as
Javanese people, had accepted Islam as part of their social and
spiritual life.”
(I’m not joking about over-writing sentences.)
“In one case, the subject reported that when they were feeling depressed, sad,
or just out of place, they would pack their belongings into a small backpack,
write a couple of short letters to their friends—just to prevent them worrying
about their whereabouts—and set off travelling around Indonesia, adding that it
really did not matter where they would go (it was included in their reporting
that in their youth they were fascinated with the aesthetics and lifestyles of
ancient nomadic peoples, so it became their custom to buy a ticket for a bus
driving to nowhere, or to hop onto the first ferry going to a distant island, and
then they would sit, drink from their canteen, and watch the endless country
pass by them), as ultimately they would rediscover that life was worth living.”
Problems I encounter editing Indonesian writing
❖ Simple errors (e.g. missing articles, plural/preposition
confusion).
❖ Inconsistent use of terminology.
❖ Use of Google Translate.
❖ Either over-confidence (overuse of bad writing) or lack of
confidence (second-guessing existing skills).
❖ Complacency (my English is good enough, just fix it
quickly).
Self-awareness and self-evaluation
The value of self-awareness
❖ Self-awareness allows us to identify:
⬥ When we need an editor (or simply another set of
eyes).
⬥ What are good at.
⬥ What we must improve.
❖ Lack of self-awareness is harmful.
⬥ It prevents you from progressing as a writer.
⬥ It wastes everyone’s time.
The value of self-awareness
❖ If we know that our writing can be improved then we can take
steps to ensure that it is:
⬥ Easy for a journal to assess.
⬥ Easy for an editor to fix.
❖ As writers, our responsibilities are:
⬥ To be precise.
⬥ To be consistent.
⬥ To be clear.
The value of self-evaluation
❖ We can ask ourselves simple questions to deduce whether our
writing needs improving.
⬥ Did I calculate my data correctly?
⬥ Am I presenting my data ethically?
⬥ Am I using the correct terminology?
⬥ Am I being consistent?
The value of self-evaluation
❖ All of these questions can be answered by you without
the need for an editor.
❖ Leaving them to an editor or reviewer will:
⬥ Waste everyone’s time, and
⬥ Potentially cost you more in editing fees.
Always remember
❖ Bad English is forgivable, bad science is not.
⬥ An editor can help you with your English, but not your
research.
❖ Your first priority should be the content of your manuscript.
❖ Contrary to popular belief, good academic writing is not
about pretty sentences.
⬥ It’s about communicating your research efficiently and
effectively.
Part 2
Writing exercise
Why we’ve focused on content
❖ Because of the limited time, much of this clinic has
focused on the content of your writing.
❖ This is because substance is often overlooked in favour of
style.
❖ Fixing the content of your article should be your first
priority, and is the easiest thing you can do.
Writing exercise
❖ In this part, we will address basic elements of writing.
⬥ Grammar—clauses/sentences follow the rules of English.
⬥ Word usage—we use the correct words.
⬥ Clarity—the content is concise, precise, and easy to read.
⬥ Cohesion—how we connect sentences.
⬥ Coherence—readers understand what we mean.
⬥ Logical flow—each idea flows into the next logically.
⬥ Structure—all paragraphs fit together.
Visit this Google Docs
link and answer the bit.ly/2zAb6nX
questions
Homework
Homework
❖ Re-evaluate your work using what you have learned today.
⬥ Is my writing consistent?
⬥ Is my writing clear?
⬥ Have I used the correct technical nomenclature?
❖ Edit your work using tracked changes, so you can see yourself
improving.
Homework
❖ Use Duolingo (download the app or
visit duolingo.com).
⬥ Duolingo allows you to practise
English everyday.
⬥ It also helps you refine your
fundamental English skills.
⬥ (I use it to learn Bahasa
Indonesia.)
End.