Guide to Elaborating Student Papers (Part B)

Masterpen has compiled this guide to help students improve their academic writing performance and acquire the skills required to achieve a perfect result. This guide includes a part of the generally accepted rules of writing and is a continuation of the article Writing Guide (Part A).
These rules must be studied thoroughly in order to be able to write student assignments properly structured, with a scientific style and not elaborate or literary. However, you must understand the meaning of the scientific text and follow the rules closely to be sure of success. Only if you fully understand the specifications of a scientific paper will you master academic writing in its true dimension.

General rules for writing Student Papers

Adhere to the specifications of the work assigned to you.
Write based on generally accepted scientific rules.
Your work must be scholarly, meaning it must be original, complete, accurate, and unique.

Uniform style
Be careful that verbatim quotations and paraphrases adapt to your own style, following a uniform style (rather than stitching together different textures).
What does scientific work mean?

Remember that a scholarly paper is not just a text compiled from verbatim quotes and paraphrased information from other writers in the literature. On the contrary, to write a scientific paper you must collect information and data from various valid bibliographic sources, in order to prove and support your positions (opinions) on the subject you are studying.

Scientific knowledge means I document what I write

Always prove what you write, using sound and logical arguments from authoritative literary sources. Document adequately the arguments, evidence and information you present in your paper, using references, footnotes, images, examples, diagrams, tables, etc.
Do not forget that scientific knowledge is defined as knowledge verified by logical arguments (I believe = I know well).

In academic writing we are precise – we don't guess – we don't generalize

Do not assume, do not predict, do not draw arbitrary conclusions. The arguments, evidence, information and conclusions contained in your paper must be based on references to the literature.
Answer precisely, clearly and completely the subject you are dealing with and do not deviate.
Use clear conceptual sentences.
Don't generalize, don't be absolute, vague and imprecise. Avoid phrases: "It is common knowledge that...", "It must be due to...", "science has discovered" etc.

Scientific discourse requires expressive parsimony

Avoid rhetorical figures of speech (exaggerations, abusive expressions), categorical and absolute claims, big "talks", moralism, journalistic expressions, elaborate speech, lyrical outbursts, colloquial expressions, simplistic, popular and everyday expressions, the verbose phrases, the literary, lyrical and sophisticated style, as the scientific discourse requires expressive simplicity.

The scientific text is not a philosophical essay

Avoid rhetorical questions, do not ask questions within the text, as the scientific text is not a philosophical essay or a journalistic article, to raise questions that the readers should answer together with the author.

Scientific reason is simple – precise – strict

Scientific discourse is concise, comprehensive, impartial, precise, clear, intelligible, rigorous and impersonal and not emotional, emotional, passionate, biased, enthusiastic, ideological.

We do not list our personal opinions

As scientific discourse is characterized by objectivity, avoid citing your personal opinions and using words such as "Unquestionably...", "Clearly", "Undoubtedly", "It is commonly accepted...", "It therefore follows as an unquestionable assumption" except and whether you have identified a large number of authors in the literature who support the view or argument you are citing. Prefer scientific wording: "Research has shown", "After a literature review it has been found", "Evidence shows that it is", "It seems that" etc. However, it is more correct to use phrases such as: "Petrou and Vassiliou (1996) argue that", "The Peters and co. (2000) also found that", "Several researches (Petrou & Vassiliou, 2007) have shown that...", "Previous researches (Petrou & Vassiliou, 2007) have shown that...", "As indeed Papanaoum (1996) argued. .”, “According to Petrou (2007, as cited in Vassiliou, 2005)….”, “As emphasized by Vassiliou (2007)”, “Petrou and Vassiliou (2007) found that”, “Petrou and Vassiliou ( 2007) claim that...", "From the review of the relevant literature it was found", "Papakostas (2008, as cited in Vassiliou, 2001), argued that", "Petrou and Vassiliou (2007)) suggest ...", "The Petrou and Vassiliou (2007) consider...", "The Vassiliou and co. (1983) proved that", "Vasilio (1997:132) reported that".

We avoid expressions of the spoken word

Avoid expressions of the spoken word, as the written word is more strict, synthetic and systematic.

The percentage of the text attributed in your own words exceeds 80% of its total length

Develop the topic in your own words, avoiding constant quotations from other authors. Do not forget that there is a permissible limit on the size (it should not exceed 5-6 lines) and on the frequency of quoting single excerpts, which you should not exceed. Please note that quoting long excerpts requires special legal arrangements regarding the author's copyright. So don't overdo it and give most of the text in your own words. Let your own style and ideas prevail.

Be careful about the sources you use

Use only approved sources of scientific articles and scientific journals, promoting reliable scientific knowledge.
Treat sources from the internet with a critical spirit and use original texts (primary sources).
Never cite a source that you have not checked for reliability, accuracy and completeness.
Avoid using sources where the author's name is not mentioned because they are of dubious validity. In such cases, try to find the original text, which mentions the name of the author and full details of the source.
Avoid using Wikipedia as a bibliographic source.

Beware of plagiarism

You write but you don't copy. Otherwise it is considered plagiarism.
Do not copy from other work posted online or from work you own you elaborate in the past, because it is considered plagiarism.
Even when you quote the text in your own words (i.e. when paraphrasing) always refer to the sources (by citing parenthetical references or footnotes), and not just at the end of each paragraph, because each paragraph contains a lot of information from different sources. We point out that even paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don't meticulously cite the source.
If you translate a foreign language passage and you quote it without paraphrasing it, also constitutes plagiarism. This means that you must paraphrase the translated passages and at the same time meticulously cite the source within the text to avoid plagiarism.

Be careful how to cite sources

When you use a source in your text, always cite that source with citations and carefully record the full details of the source in the bibliography. ATTENTION: There should be correspondence between references and bibliographic references. No citations listed in the text should be omitted from the bibliography.
List in alphabetical order only the primary sources in the list of bibliographic references and not the secondary ones, because you used only the former.
In the list of bibliographic references, list only the sources that you have cited in your text by reference.
Write in the list of bibliographic references first the Greek sources, then the foreign language sources and finally the Internet Sites.
Remember that to cite the source in the text you must cite the last name of the author and the year of publication in parentheses (Harvard system or parenthetical citation), while in the bibliography list you must cite the full details of the source.
When quoting at length from another author's text you must enclose in parentheses, in addition to the author's last name and the year of publication, and the number of the exact page (or pages) from the source from which the quotation was taken. However, in electronic sources that do not normally have a page number, use paragraph numbering.

When quoting verbatim quotes from other authors' texts, enclose them everything within quotation marks, making meticulous reference to the source (author's last name, date, page). Omission of even one of the above constitutes plagiarism. Therefore, quoting exact passages is plagiarism if you do not enclose the quote in quotation marks even if you meticulously cite the source.

Don't forget: Quotes, Author's Surname, Date, Page

Exact quotations must be cited in your text, without any variation in content and punctuation. However, if you want to omit a part of the passage you are quoting, then you must insert a bracket with 3 ellipsis […] in the omitted part. But if the passage you omitted was between 2 periods then enclose within the bracket 4 hyphens [….]. However, if you want to write a comment or clarification within the same quote, you must put it in square brackets [ ].
Always carefully cite sources (author's last name, date, page number, or Web address) under the figures, maps, charts, and tables you cite in your work, first citing the word Source with a colon and then the full details of the source as follows: Source: Author (year) or Website Address. Meticulous reporting is imperative either in cases where you quote the table, figure, image etc. from another source or in cases where you have paraphrased/edited their data. ATTENTION: Cite the source directly below the table, figure, diagram, etc.

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