Exercise 1: What are reviewers and editors looking for in a paper?

• Significance• Originality• Rigour

So, will you recommend to accept, reject or resubmit these papers?

A. This paper describes how various tools have been used with the virtual learning environment to save time and improve learning in a third year professional capstone course. Evaluation concludes it has been well received by students.

B. A case study of students’ expectations of a three aspects of an entrepreneurial curriculum. This is a preliminary study of an intervention, arising from the author’s fellowship project which aimed to redesign the current curriculum. Fourteen students were interviewed and the results taxonomised under four headings.

C. A three year study of the use of podcasting by 79 students. The origin of the study was student feedback which showed a problem accessing learning resources. Feedback now suggests this problem is beginning to be addressed. The paper discusses the challenges of this approach and makes recommendations for teaching large introductory courses.

D. A paper which outlines appropriate ways of teaching international students based on a review of the literature from the UK over the last five years. The author’s political stance is that international students are exploited in current higher education and makes a case for encouraging them to stay at home and become transnational students.

E. This paper presents data arising from the author’s master’s course, using an ethnographic method with a single key informant. The single case study highlights the lived experience of this student and gives deep insights into being a participant on a work based learning course.

Exercise 2: Planning a paper (Robert Brown’s Eight Questions)

1. Working Title of Paper (20 words)

2. Authors (in order of appearance)

3. Anticipated journal/s

4. Intended readersName 4 to 6 potential readers – give their names and why they should be interested

5a. What is the central question that your paper will pose? 30 words

5b. What is the answer it will provide? 30 words

6. If your readers had only one sentence to summarize your article, what should it be? 25 words.Focus on the outcomes from the work, not the inputs.

7a. Why did you do the work? 70 wordsBriefly outline the problem you are tackling and why it is important.

7b. What did you do? 70 wordsBriefly outline the methods you used to gather evidence.

7c. What happened? 100 wordsBriefly outline the key results. Focus on outcomes.

7d. What can you add to the theory? 70 wordsA research paper has to add to broader understanding. What will yours contribute? Think about how your results and conclusions will change how people see the world.

7e. What can you add to practice? 70 wordsSuperior research also has practical consequences. What are the consequences of your work? Think about how your results and conclusions might change what people do.

8. What remains unresolved?This is more for your own benefit, but will provide some guidance for your audience and some of it may be useful in your discussion.

ResourcesList the most important published sources that you will be drawing on and provide one or two sentences for each to explain its relevance to your article. Provide full citations

Exercise 3: What makes a good abstract?

A good abstract (courtesy of Robert Brown) should contain:

• What was done (methods)

• What was the main result (results)

• Why the work was done

• What the work adds to theory

• What the work adds to practice

Example 1The paper measures the relative significance of factors affecting prospective undergraduates in their choice of university and course. The paper also examines the relative importance of different sources of information in making this choice. Based on factors identified by undergraduate students, the paper centres on the results of a questionnaire distributed to first year undergraduate law students at two universities. The results are looked at in the light of a recent national survey, and conclusions are drawn which should be of interest to those involved in student recruitment across all disciplines.

Example 2This article describes the development of a research method used to investigate how students make sense of their own learning in Foundation Degrees taught both online and on campus. This method uses ‘nested narratives’ to capture the students’ own voices (both literally and metaphorically), as they make sense of their learning experience and strategies, within the gestalt of their own stories. The main aim of the research is to provide rich empirical descriptions of what students regard as important as they become practitioners in their professional field. The process of story telling is itself also a learning process.

Example 3The multicultural language-learning classroom, with its wide range of mother tongues, cultural backgrounds, motivations, expectations, prior knowledge, learning styles, attitudes to participation and learner autonomy, potentially offers an ideal forum for promoting internationalisation. This article reviews the scope for interaction, and the nature of interaction, in multilingual language-learning classrooms. It explores the extent to which students are expected to engage effectively in the classroom and presents student views based on data gathered through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It concludes that languages staff and students see language classes as offering a more even playing field for classroom interaction between home and international students than other modules. On the one hand it points out the need to constantly adapt provision to meet changing demand, and on the other that the strategies used in language classes could well be of interest to other disciplines.

Example 4: Your abstract