Research Methods

Exercise 6: edit

You will be given two short pieces, written by other people. Revise each of these two pieces to improve the writing style. That is, edit for spelling, grammar, punctuation, flow, expression, clarity, and so on. Mark the changes on a paper copy, then type up the result.

You will be assessed on how well you improved the originals in terms of style, but not in terms of factual content.

Instructions

Please follow these instructions carefully. Failure to edit the correct two summaries may result in loss of marks.

The following files contain the same four summaries. There is one summary of each of the four papers from exercise 3. Please download the PDF and print out the two summaries that you are going to edit. Mark your changes on your print-out. Type up the result. As a courtesy, I have provided both RTF and TXT formats, which you might find helpful as a template for typing up your improved version.

You must edit the following two summaries from these files.

  1. Everyone must edit the summary that is of the same paper that they worked on for exercise 3 (i.e., edit summary A11, B32, C42, or D51 depending on which paper you summarised yourself for exercise 3).
  2. Everyone must edit summary B32 ("Balancing the expected and the surprising in geometric Op art"). If you already did this in step 1, go to step 3.
  3. If, and only if, you summarised the Op art paper for exercise 3, then you have a free choice of which of A11, C42, or D51 you wish to edit.

Hand in your two marked-up print-outs and print-outs of your two typed-up improved versions.

If these instructions are not clear then please e-mail Neil Dodgson.