Proper Ways of Writing a

Journal Article
Journal – A Channel for Research
Communication

Writing up the findings of research into an article to be

published in a scholarly journal is considered as “the most
common method of scholarly communication”
 34,000+ peer-reviewed journals in late 2014
Publishing 2.5 million articles per year
Growth at 3 percent per year
Characteristics of a Good Topic

The topic should be interesting for you

An enhancement of a previous research
Areas or weaknesses of the current research should not
be easy to identify
The article should be based on current trends
The article should not be too broad or too narrow
Doing The Writing

 Make an outline for your paper

 Break down the writing process into steps
 Schedule specific times to write your article
 Assign a due date for each step
 Start with which ever part you find the hardest
 Use word processing to write you article efficiently (MS Word)
An Article Follows The IMRaD Format

Introduction: What was the question?

Methods: How did you try to answer it?
Results: What did you find?
and
Discussion: What does it mean?
Order of Reading and Writing an Article

 People read the sections of research articles in various orders

 You can write the sections in any order, but a convenient
order to write is:

• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Introduction
Steps on Writing an Effective Journal
Article

1. Prepare the Tables and Figures

2. Write the Methods
3. Write up the Results
4. Write the Discussion
5. Write a clear Conclusion
6. Write a compelling Introduction
7. Write the Abstract
8. Compose a concise and descriptive title
9. Select keywords for indexing
10. Write the Acknowledgements
11. Write up the References
Some Tips in Writing an Effective Journal
Article:

1. Have a strategy, make a plan

2. Analyse writing in journals in your field
3. Do an outline and just writ
4. Get feedback from start to finish
5. Write with others
6. Be persistent, thick-skinned and resilient
7. Take care of yourself
End of Report