1. Sample term papers2. Interleave rules and data3. Nested section headings4. Should I include a recording?5. Use IPA, even if your reference source does not6. Stick (mostly) to the phonology7. Page limit8. Font size9. Pheatures Spreadsheet10. Second drafts11. Do we read first drafts?12. Submitting the paper13. Basis of gradingLinguistics 120A Fall 2010 Phonology I Hayes/Fowlie Guide to Writing the Term Paper 1. Sample term papers • Available at http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/120a/#samplepapers 2. Interleave rules and data In a phonology paper, clarity is maximized if you alternate back and forth between discussion and data. This works as follows: “For disyllabic words in Language X, such-and-such is generally true, as the examples below demonstrate. (data, data, data) However, when the word ends in a voiceless stop, things are slightly different. Here, such-and-such is true instead. (data, data, data)” What you don’t want to do is this: “Here are all the data: (data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data, data) and here are all the rules: (rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule, rule)” This produces a paper that is hard to read. One thing you can do that is often helpful is to use a redundant presentation of the data. What you do here is take specially selected parts of the data as illustrations, and intersperse them through the text. Then you can take all the data you collected, and put it after the main body of the paper as an Appendix. That way, the reader gets a clear presentation, but also can get an idea of how much data has been gathered in support of the analysis. Material suited for appendices:  Full list of words collected  Any text read by your consultant  The script you used for Wug-testing  Any other lengthy material relevant to your paper, which doesn’t fit well into an expositionLinguistics 120A Guide to Writing Up Your Term Paper p. 2 3. Nested section headings Up to a limit, you can really make a paper easier to follow if you use section headings, along the following lines: 1. Introduction (text) 2. A Major Topic (text) 2.1 A Subtopic of the Major Topic (text) 2.2 Another Subtopic of the Major Topic (text) 3. Another Major Topic (text) etc. Modern word processors will even number and format the section headings for you.1 4. Should I include a recording? Only if the transcription is not easy. If the transcription is a phonemic one and you know the language reasonably well, then I’m happy to trust your transcription. Recordings, if included, should be short and give just crucial examples. 5. Use IPA, even if your reference source does not Reference sources often use non-IPA symbols. Don’t imitate your source’s bad transcription practice; translate their symbols into IPA (come see us for help with this if you like). 6. Stick (mostly) to the phonology Reference sources often have piles of interesting material on dialects, historical change, spelling, and other non-phonological topics. A little of this stuff is fine, but remember that your goal is to write up the results of a quite specific phonological investigation, under a rather tight length limit. 7. Page limit This is 8 printed pages.2 You can go higher, but I would only do this if you think the material that is producing the extra length is truly interesting and worthwhile. The following do not count against the page limit:  title page (if any)  legitimate appendices (see above)  bibliography 1 In Word, select styles Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. 2 In 12 point type, single spaced.Linguistics 120A Guide to Writing Up Your Term Paper p. 3 There is no lower limit, but you will find (if you haven’t written many linguistics papers) that the task of presenting and explaining the facts is very space-consuming, so it’s the upper limit you have to worry about. 8. Font size I have trouble reading small print. Please don’t use a font smaller than 12 point. Double spacing is nice, too, and (obviously) if you double space, the page limit is doubled. 9. Pheatures Spreadsheet It is recommended that you check your rules using Pheatures Spreadsheet before writing the final version of the paper. 10. Second drafts They help. The most important thing to look for in doing a second draft is to avoid possible reader confusion, in the form of apparent (or even real) inconsistency. Other than that, second drafts often help for clarity, prose style, removal of redundancy, and so on. A couple standard techniques for second drafts are: (a) making a printout and doing your editing with pencil, and (b) reading the draft aloud to yourself. Often a good second draft is shorter than a first draft: one figures out ways to say it better by being terser. 11. Do we read first drafts? Not really. But you can bring a first draft to office hours and ask us specific questions about it. 12. Submitting the paper Please both give me a hard copy and email me an electronic copy. Fancy binders not required (or expected). 13. Basis of grading Grading a term paper is always a judgment call; there is no way to reduce it to a well-defined procedure. I will base the grades on the following:  Is the paper about phonology? Does it show you learned something in the course?  Is the writing well done? I.e. is it well organized and fully intelligible? Is the prose in standard academic English, free of distracting mechanical errors?  Does the analysis describe the data accurately? Is the analysis technically accurate?  Are enough data given to illustrate and back