Weekly Reflection (Week 9)

During this week, Miss Amreet taught us on the important styles for informative websites. When we do an academic writing, technical or even scientific writing, it is important to use MLA/APA/The Chicago Manual of Style/Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual. Secondly, for the style in academic writing, there are three sections that we must consider, first is the front matter. Second is the body and for the third section is the back matter. For the front matter, we need to have the title page, abstracts, executive summary, table of contents and list of illustrations. Meanwhile, for the body part of academic writing, we need to add the introduction, survey of literature, research questions, methods, results, conclusion and recommendation. As for the third and final section, we can consider putting the glossary, list of symbols, references, bibliography or appendix.

            There are many styles in writing an academic writing. It all depends on the ‘field’ itself. Firstly is lab report sort-of-writing. Next are interim reports and site studies. Most sites that publish and archive academic articles and industrial reports offer different versions of each item-one for reading on screen, the other for printing (html,pdf). Next, all publication and copyright information should be included in the document (before printing). Finally, the pagination should also be correct.

            After that, we learned on the technical, academic and scientific style. Usually, scholarly and scientific journal writers employ specific subject-and audience-driven technique. But we need to avoid jargon. Jargon is actually sentences may be densely packed with technical terminology. They are written for expert who are comfortable with the vocabulary and syntax of their field. As for the complex syntax; the text features a substansial number of complex, compound and complex-compound sentence structure. Next, if we use symbols and equation, it is critically important to proofread all symbols and technical terms for even slightest error. Whereas words, phrases or entire passages in other languages; some academic discourse adopts the convention of assuming that well-educated scholars in literature and the humanities should have a reading familiarities with Latin, German, French, and possibly ancient Greek. Meanwhile, it is recommended for us to have extensive explanatory footnotes/endnotes. This is because, many scholarly works provide footnotes and/or endnotes to help clarify and explain historical, scientific, arcane, or archaic materials.

           

            Next, we also learned on how to construct online help files and manuals. They are often created as a separate small programs that can be accessed from the toolbars on powerful games and software commonly in use. These sub-application tend to incorporate detailed contents, indexes, hyperlink, multimedia files, and search functions. Not only that, online manuals and help files are created for various purposes. Firstly, it is for product ownership, use, and care. Secondly, it is for product repair and maintenance. Thirdly, it is for policies and procedures and lastly, it is for system administration and management. Last but not least, this online help files and manuals have to be user-friendly in design. The rule is to not make visitors work too hard. We then also learned on a few guidelines when working as a writer. Firstly, we need to welcome visitors to the site. Secondly, maintain a respectful tone. Thirdly, do the work by putting some thought and planning into resources we put online. Fourthly is to simplify things. We may use bulleted lists, alphabetical indexing and logical categories. Fifth, we can provide printable version and finally, keep distraction to a minimum.