Guide to Publishing: Tips on writing

Keep the reader in mind!

In all writing, the process should start by deciding who is the primary reader of the text and to whom the text is intended. Ask yourself:

- What does the reader want know above all?
- What is the reader interested in? What are the things about the topic that perhaps interest myself but not necessarily the reader?
- What is the goal of the text? What do I want to accomplish with it?

Keeping the reader in mind can help, for example, defining the subject and the structure of the text: does the text include the things that the reader wants to know and are they in the order in which the reader wants to know them?

To make it easier for the authors to work, it is important to present a preliminary content plan. The plan tells the writers, among other things, about the content of the publication, its structure, and the topics of the other articles.

Furthermore, the editor(s) can give additional individual instructions to each author. This can help, for example, when trying to avoid repetition. In this context, exchanging ideas among authors is also advisable.

In addition, it is recommendable to set some kind of scope for the articles. For example, a minimum and maximum number of pages can be set so that the author knows the extent to which the topic in question should be handled.

The objective of a scientific text is to be unambiguous, accurate, clear and understandable. The structure often follows a standard formula (IMRaD - Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion), but different fields have different conventions.

Consider these things when writing a scientific text:
- The logic of the text: Are the issues discussed related? Are the assumptions made been justified and the justification clearly stated?
- Is the text unambiguous, accurate, illustrative, and linguistically correct?
- Have the key concepts been defined and the terms explained and justified?
- Are the views of the authors and references clearly separated?
- Are the references used essential to the text?

Regarding references, consistency is of the utmost importance. There are several reference conventions. Haaga-Helia´s own Guidelines for writing reports are available on Haaga-Helia´s website.

Mendeley is a handy tool for managing references. Assistance in using Mendeley is available at the Haaga-Helia library. Information on future Mendeley training is available on Haaga-Helia's library webpage.

- Office Word is the preferred format.

- Automated functions, formatting, indentations, capitals and tables should be avoided.

-  Hierarchical numbering should be used to indicate header levels (<1>, <2>).

- Space is only to be used between paragraphs and after titles. Forced spacing should be avoided.

- Templates and implementation instructions of possible graphs such as figures, tables and images should be included in the manuscript. Graphs should also be clearly identified and their locations implied in text as follows <figure: "name of the file">.