Attractive Engaging Title

Explanatory and/or informative subtitle containing

main message or main elements under discussion

BK2AC1 Bouwkunde als Wetenschappelijke Discipline

BSc Bouwkunde, Technische Universiteit Delft

Your Name
BK study number
email

June 2018

Theme name of the track

Name supervisor: dr.ir. Justin Bieber

Abstract – Here you need to write a very brief summary of the paper (about 125-
175 words): the presentation of the ‘scientific gap’, the main research question,
your review approach and the main findings. Do not forget those main findings!
The abstract should be concise, but it should engage the reader. Before deciding to
invest time on reading a paper, the audience will read the abstract. This is when
she decides whether this paper is worth reading, or not. A badly written abstract
will put the reader off! A clear, concise, engaging abstract will hook the reader. This
text, including the last sentence, consists of 122 words. So you see and understand
now – knowing this number – that a ‘brief summary’ indeed is quite brief.

Key words – review paper, format, academic writing, referencing, BSc

Bouwkunde, BK2AC1
[Between 3-7 key concepts or words, in the same line, using lower case, separated
by commas. Important key words first. Imagine people will find your paper on the
Internet by typing these words: they should synthesize the content.]

1 Introduction
To start your introduction, you give a brief overview of the issue you want
to tackle in the paper: the motivation for the paper, including the ‘problem’
and ‘lack of knowledge to solve it’. Secondly (in a new paragraph) you
introduce the main question you want to / are going to answer. Thirdly,
you need to introduce your literature review approach in a paragraph. Not
by saying I reviewed author X, Y and Z. But giving and presenting the
relevance and the arguments why you considered those sources / people to
read and critically assess.

1
 And there is a fourth important ingredient for your intro. Do not
forget to also explain the structure of your paper in the introduction. And
you do not have to introduce the introduction. It is like putting the table of
contents in the table of contents. It is just silly.
In the next sections you will discuss the current literature on your
subject and develop and explain the theoretical framework ordered by
author, by sub question, by sub theme...whatever structure fits you and
your paper! In the final section(s) you will need to present the conclusions
and recommendations.
You might wonder if there is room in a literature review paper for
your ‘personal opinion’ about what you found in the literature. Yes, there
is! To a certain extent… Reviewing means much more than only
summarizing what others have been writing. In the body of the paper you
might want to compare authors. That might be your personal way of
presenting your findings. At the end of each section, you might want to
reflect (with arguments) on what authors said. At the end of the paper you
might want to interpret your findings. It is all possible, as long as it is clear
what is the work of the (original) authors and what is your contribution.
Please do not mix up those two.

2 Clear and definite title

(Avoid very generic titles. Instead, explain what this section is about
in the title)

Here you can discuss the current literature on the subject. Do not forget the
rules for citation; we use the APA style of referencing in the BSc BK (Elling,
Andeweg, De Jong, Swankhuisen, 2011).

Have you noticed by now how to build a section, a paragraph group and a
paragraph? Starting a paragraph group (or starting a section), you start
completely at the left side with you first word of the sentence. In the case of
this paragraph, it is the word ‘Have’ that starts at the left side of the column
structure.
For the second paragraph of the same paragraph group, you can use
the indent strategy. See the word ‘For’ in this paragraph that is indented!
Remember that a paragraph consisting out of only one sentence, is not a
paragraph! But a paragraph group can consist of one paragraph! Like in
this section having two paragraph groups: one on how to discuss the
literature and one paragraph group consisting of two paragraphs on how to
write paragraph groups.
To start (a paragraph) with a so called topic sentence is usually a
good strategy for writing paragraphs. Most important things first! Some
readers only read the first sentence of paragraphs. They do? Yes, they
really do.

3 Clear and definite title

2
(Avoid very generic titles. Instead, explain what this section is about
in the title)

When discussing the existing literature (after all, you are building on the
shoulders of giants!), please do not forget to include maps, photos,
diagrams, drawings to explain your point. If you include them, you need to
discuss them and make sure there is strong connection between image and
text. Like so (Figure 1):

Figure 1: General view of the Zuid-as, a business centre in the South of the City of
Amsterdam. The picture shows the general concept of underground infrastructure and
mixed development above it.
Source: Bureau Zuidas http://amsterdam.nl/zuidas/

Note that the figure is numbered. There is an explanatory caption

(you need to situate the reader). It is not enough to say this is the Zuid-as. It
helps when you say what it is and where it is located. It is important that
you clarify to the reader why that image is important and what do you
want the reader to notice. You also need to include the source and the
website where this picture came from.
In your text, you will need to make reference to this picture, like so:
In Figure 1, we can see how the infrastructure plays a fundamental role in
the location of this business hub of Amsterdam. The whole project relies on
this infrastructure being underground, which will make development at
ground level possible.
You need to reference all your pictures and maps, otherwise you
could be producing plagiarism. If the picture or map is produced by you,
you also need to indicate by saying something like ‘map by author’ in the
caption. You can use the column structure (center!) for lay-outing your
illustrations.

Something else [new paragraph group]. Have you noticed that the section
texts are justified? It depends on the conference proceedings format what
you should do! For us, titles should not be justified, but the section texts do.

4 Clear and definite title

3
(Avoid very generic titles. Instead, explain what this section is about
in the title)

You have reviewed the literature. Now it is time to discuss. Remember that
it is important to support your discussion with citations as well (Elling,
Andeweg, De Jong, Swankhuisen, 2011). This is the way to cite a specific
text while you write. When you do it by hand, pay attention to the
differences between the various forms of citation for books, journals,
magazines and electronic sources. You can quote passages from texts,
which will make your argument stronger. See an example below:
Smith (1983: 25) stated that ‘sales people with high need for
achievement sell the most kitchen appliances, whereas those with low need
for achievement are better at selling garden tools’.
Note that the part between inverted commas is a direct citation
from a book written by Smith in 1983. The passage quoted here comes
from page 25. If you quote directly from a text, you need to say where it
comes from so other people will be able to find the same passage.
This style of quotation only works for short quotations. For longer
quotations (40 words or more), you need to use a different style: Miele
(1993: 276) found the following:

The "placebo effect," which had been verified in previous studies,

disappeared when behaviours were studied in this manner.
Furthermore, the behaviours were never exhibited again [italics
added], even when real [sic] drugs were administered. Earlier
studies (e.g., Abdullah, 1984; Fox, 1979) were clearly premature
in attributing the results to a placebo effect.

Here, you are reproducing a passage from Miele’s book word by

word from page 276. You need to place it in a kind of ‘box’ of text, with
different margins than the rest of the document. You can also add italics or
make the font size different to make sure the reader understands this is a
quotation and not your own text.
Most important is to discuss the passage immediately afterwards.
Many people think that only adding a passage makes from someone else
makes your text more authoritative. But you need to discuss that passage
nevertheless and give the reader your own interpretation of it. You need to
help the reader understand what you understood by reading this passage.

4.1 Subtitle

Sometimes it is necessary to split a section into several subsections. You

can do that by indicating the hierarchy of the subsection using numbered
subtitles. This paper template has a maximum two levels in the section
structure: sections 1, 2, 3, 4 5 on the one hand and 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 on the other.
So, do not build more yourself, such as 1.1.1, 1.1.2!

4.2 Subsection 2

4
It does not make sense to have only one subsection. You could/should have
integrated your text in the main section then. Subsections: when you have
only one, you should have none!

5 Conclusions
Here you will announce and discuss your main conclusions. You repeat,
first of all, your main research question as introduced in the Introduction.
Then, summarize the most important steps of your argument(s). And
thirdly give an actual answer to the question! It is important that you make
reference to what you have already discussed in the previous sections.
Remind the reader about your main ideas as presented in the main body of
the paper.
You all did your literature review study in the field of the built
environment. The character of the planning and design activities attached
to our field of interest, is eminently propositional. This means that you
could, based on your study, propose design and planning interventions, or
methods, or principles or... An academic text, like your literature review, is
not necessarily propositional, but there might be elements you want to
indicate or propose for design and/or planning (recommendations). You
also might want to indicate that there is a gap in literature or that, through
your research, new ideas have come up that have not been explored.
Indicating further research avenues is perhaps as important as having a
strong conclusion. Remember you want to add, as an academic, to the
existing body of knowledge and state of the art!

References
This is a very important part of your academic paper. You need to reference
your ideas and your discussion. Remember that in the text I made a
reference to Elling, Andeweg, De Jong, Swankhuisen (2011)? Remember to
use the APA citation system and the APA format and to put the references
in alphabetical order (and not in the order they appear in the text).
This would be the complete citation, which you need to include in
the references:

Elling, R., Andeweg, B., De Jong, J., Swankhuisen, C. (2011). Rapportagetechniek. Schrijven
voor lezers met weinig tijd. Vierde druk. Groningen/Houten: Noordhoff Uitgevers.