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Helen M. Hazi, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita, Educational Leadership Studies
College of Education and Human Services
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Writing Advice

In General 

  • Get into a cycle of writing and producing documents, editing a hard copy of your own work with a critical eye, seeking feedback on gaps and missing concepts, and revising based on feedback. You should be able to put a document down and then pick it up with the eyes of a stranger reading it for the first time. 
  • Your job is not to please me but to seek feedback and use me as a resource for: identifying conceptual gaps, locating relevant literature, and whether the document is communicating your messages in a clear, well-developed and organized manner. I am not a copy editor. 
  • Use APA 6th, a dictionary, thesaurus, and a grammar book. I do. 
  • Upon receipt I need 4 days to review a document at minimum. The longer the document, the more days needed. I will be juggling my work with that of others. When I receive it I will try to say you are “3rd” which means I’m backlogged with 2 others to read before yours. 
  • Documents will be returned unread at the first signs of Word, typo, grammar or APA errors. This is an indication of carelessness and means that you have not proofed, or developed a critical eye for your work. This disrespects my valuable time and dishonors your abilities. 
  • Learn to ebb and flow. When my ideas are flowing I enjoy writing, willing sit and write, may dream about it or wake up writing a sentence in my head and can go right to the computer to work. When I can get excited about what I am learning or thinking about, then the task of writing is effortless and hard to stop. 

Conversely when I’m unhappy, stressed about other matters such as work, exhausted, or not into writing, I cannot sit down and expect the day to be productive. You need to recognize your own ebb and flow and make wise decisions about productivity that is with a happy, guilt/resentment free heart. 

Writing issues 

Your writing can interfere with your message. I stop reading when the language and construction interfere with the “flow.” My job is to identify the conceptual gaps and the next steps. 

Tense: Chapter 2 generally is in the past; while 1 and 3 may have some elements of future tense, until the final document and they are converted to past. 

The 1960s have no apostrophe. 

Avoid rhetorical questions, unless you intend to answer them, and editorializing, e.g., “indeed,” “obviously.” 

References used only appear in list of references. Headings and their levels follow APA. Introduce quotes as per APA. 

Definition of Terms: is not for every major term in your study, but the major ones found in title, research questions, survey questions. The definition should similarly appear in your text. 

Appropriately use: the colon, semi-colon, hyphen, periods (inside of quotation marks), the article “the,” adverbs vs. connectors, commas with compound adjectives, and “that.” The i.e., and e.g., require commas after use. 

Once your prospectus has been approved, you will have to update references prior to final defense, making sure you have the most recent research. Avoid secondary source citation. Instead, get the original source. 

Advanced organizers: Each chapter needs an introduction to explain its sections, in the order in which they appear. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. 

Fewer words (not details) are better than more. 

Conceptual issues 

Consistency is your objective. Synonyms and abbreviations only obscure your message. Use the concept consistently. Use “panel” (what the literature uses) and not committee in subsequent sentences. 

Opinion vs. research: Scholars may hold the opinion about some topic, but do not assume it is research, unless the findings have been reported as a research study. Do not assume writings are research-based, when, in fact, they are merely opinions. 

Your opinion: Your opinion influences what information you share and the argument you create. You can judiciously give your opinion in appropriate place. After all, the prospectus is an “argument” for what you want to study, and you will defend it in meetings. 

Define important concepts when used for the first time. 

Research Justification: Every step of your research design should be justified with definitions of terms and reference to others who have done something similar (but not exactly like yours). If you have a survey, define what it is and why it is the preferred method, along with what is a mean and frequency distribution, and why this is the best method to tabulate the results. If you use chi-square you must be able to write and talk what it means. 

The research questions will dictate your design. If quantitative seek a WVU expert (from your committee or another) on statistics and design. Ask for a good stat or survey design book as a reference. If qualitative, I most likely will be your research design expert. Assume your reader knows nothing.