Advice & Helpful Tips on Writing with Sophistication in the Humanities
Writing is an essential skill for all scholars working in the humanities. Students must write essays, reviews, dissertations and theses in order to earn their degrees, and the production of scholarly books and articles as well as conference presentations and instructional materials is a vital part of the academic career that follows. A very high standard of writing is usually expected from humanities scholars. If, for instance, you are writing about literature and literary authors, your analysis and arguments will be much more persuasive if your own prose is accomplished and eloquent. If, on the other hand, you are writing a historical study, you will probably need to combine a scholarly narrative with the factual evidence that supports it, and this can prove a challenging task that requires both subtlety and precision. In either case, your prose will need to be absolutely clear and make use of grammatical and syntactical structures as well as spelling and punctuation that are not only correct, but also contextually appropriate.
Advanced research in the humanities tends to be qualitative research that involves the author in determining what is significant and meaningful in the data collected and then establishing important themes, patterns and categories. These processes, no matter how complex or convoluted, must be fully explained and logically justified for readers. Theoretical approaches are often adopted and combined, which can involve a great deal of specialised and potentially obscure terminology that will require clear definitions and careful use. Analysis, interpretation and argumentation are obviously central, necessitating a sophisticated written style and an effective organisational structure that represents the progression as well as the subtle twists and turns of an author’s thoughts. In some cases, allusion, word play and metaphorical implication are also important features in scholarly writing in the humanities, but these can be disastrous instead of pleasing if they are not executed with finesse, so thoughtful care and the utmost precision in producing such elements are necessary.
Writing in the humanities is also known for its extensive use of resources such as primary documents, original works of art and scholarly studies of both. References to sources can number in the hundreds within a single document, yet every one of them must be thorough and accurate and usually follow specific guidelines as well. Quotations tend to be frequent, and each one must be faithfully reproduced from its source, appropriately acknowledged and clearly introduced and discussed in your text so that readers understand why you are quoting the passage and feel the full effect of its contribution to the development of your argument. Figures can enhance your discussion and the comprehension of readers, but every figure that appears in an academic document must be properly numbered, labelled and mentioned at appropriate places in the main text to enable readers to see in your illustrations what is necessary for following your discussion and finding your arguments persuasive. Finally, careful proofreading are essential to ensure that all aspects of a document are polished to perfection.
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If you are in the process of preparing an article for an academic or scientific journal, or planning one for the near future, you may well be interested in a new book, Guide to Journal Publication, which is available on our Tips and Advice on Publishing Research in Journals website.
