Search results

1 – 10 of over 50000
Book part
Publication date: 28 September 2023

Arnaud Denis, Tatjana Volkova, Simon Grima, Graţiela Georgiana Noja and Mirela Cristea

Current research aims to investigate whether it would be possible to identify all information security policy (ISP) writing styles and how these would influence ISP compliance…

Abstract

Current research aims to investigate whether it would be possible to identify all information security policy (ISP) writing styles and how these would influence ISP compliance. Almost all businesses use ISPs to establish boundaries and require secure behaviour from their employees. Unfortunately, professional surveys and academic research demonstrate a high level of non-compliance with the ISP. While the justification for the employee’s behaviour has been discussed, very few research papers have investigated whether the ISP writing style impacted the intent to comply with ISP. The research methodology incorporates content analysis and a quantitative descriptive review of published papers on ISP and non-IS policy compliance. The theoretical research allowed the identification of five major ISP writing styles: belonging, deterrence, goal, motivation, and specialist, as well as writing style influencers such as timeliness and readability. To achieve a higher level of compliance with the ISP, it was suggested that the writing styles of belonging, goal, and motivation be used primarily. Deterrence is generally discouraged. The study enabled us to determine when ISP writing styles were mentioned and the type of influence on the intent to comply with ISP. It also allowed for comparison and possible differences in ISPs versus standard workplace policies. There are proposals on which writing styles to put forward, along with recommendations on creating an ISP.

Details

Digital Transformation, Strategic Resilience, Cyber Security and Risk Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-254-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 July 2022

Emer Emily Neenan

Language is a fundamental element of any community, and academia is no exception. The styles of language that are used and valued reflect the principles and purposes of research…

Abstract

Language is a fundamental element of any community, and academia is no exception. The styles of language that are used and valued reflect the principles and purposes of research and higher education. There is an established traditional ‘voice’ in academic writing, which aims to emphasise objectivity and accuracy, but at the expense of expressiveness and personal style. (I am writing this precis in this ‘voice’!) This chapter discusses how alternative and unusual styles of writing about research can be used to express different aspects of the research process, contextualise results and engage non-traditional demographics with research. The current formal academic writing style, typically utilising third-person and passive voice constructions, is intended to express accurate information objectively. Alternatives to the highly formal and technical style can be very effective and broaden the impact of the work. Literary techniques (narrative, fictionalisation, rhyme and meter) can be used to engage diverse audiences with research or express dimensions of research that may otherwise be lost, such as emotionality. This chapter discusses the why and how of creativity in academic writing.

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2001

Sarah Earl‐Novell

Focuses on the relative underachievement of First Class degrees by women in the UK compared to men. Cites problem areas as history, sociology, and english. Attempts to test a…

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Abstract

Focuses on the relative underachievement of First Class degrees by women in the UK compared to men. Cites problem areas as history, sociology, and english. Attempts to test a hypothesis that this is due to inequality in assessment with graduate writing styles labelled as “gendered”. Presents findings which suggest the above to be the case, with male academic styles tending to be bold, confident and risk‐taking and female styles perceived as cautious and conscientious. Argues that the effects are seen in “argument‐based” subjects rather than “fact based” subjects.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 21 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2001

Ralph Tench

Competence in written communication has been described as a fundamental underpinning of contemporary undergraduate education by both educational advisors and agencies. This…

1703

Abstract

Competence in written communication has been described as a fundamental underpinning of contemporary undergraduate education by both educational advisors and agencies. This article focuses on students’ perceptions of their own writing styles and skills. These opinions have been considered in the context of the desires and expectations of practitioners in public relations for high standards of grammar, variety in copywriting style and a high degree of accuracy in writing. Students’ perceptions of the learning environment for this vocational academic discipline also suggest a receptiveness to the integration of alternative pedagogues in the form of information technology.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 43 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

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Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Keren Dali

The purpose of this paper is to call into question the most longstanding pedagogical practices in academia while analyzing their potential to foster student creativity and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to call into question the most longstanding pedagogical practices in academia while analyzing their potential to foster student creativity and innovation in the classroom. While some suggestions advanced in this paper may not have the same importance in other fields and disciplines, they are highly relevant in the applied, interdisciplinary, and very fast moving field of Library and Information Science (LIS).

Design/methodology/approach

Positioning creativity as a teachable skill and relying on the learner-centered pedagogy of Carl Rogers, the paper presents a model that can serve as a litmus test for the creative potential of graduate-level assignments in LIS programs. The model is called “Walls,” “Doors,” and “Fences” (WalDorF); these terms refer to specific statements in graduate assignment descriptions that are necessary (“Walls”); conducive to creative expression (“Doors”); or unjustifiably restrictive (“Fences”). The paper uses a sample assignment from a “Foundations of LIS” course to illustrate the model; it also provides several examples of the WalDorF model application in other LIS courses.

Findings

Using the WalDorF model, the paper revisits and challenges some of the most common pedagogical practices in graduate LIS teaching, including the prevalence of written papers as course assignments; the implications of equating “research” with an overview of secondary literature; the need for professors’ approvals of research topics; the meaning of the “quality of writing;” the imperative of “academic” writing as opposed to other types of writing; the word/page limit; the use of standardized reference styles; the class participation requirement; and the late assignment policies, among others.

Originality/value

The real change in education is foundational and goes beyond cosmetic improvements. If we want to develop learning experiences that tap into students’ creative potential, the very core of our approaches needs to be scrutinized and questioned, even the centuries-old staples of academic teaching. At the end of the day, we may decide that changing things is not in the best interests of learning. However, a complete critical analytical work must be done to convince and reassure ourselves that tried-and-true methods are the best way to go. The proposed WalDorF model presents one possible frame for critical revision.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 73 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 20 June 2016

Abbas Mehrabi Boshrabadi and Sepideh Bataghva Sarabi

Research has shown that the discursive patterns students use in their email interactions with their teachers are not linguistically and socio-culturally appropriate. Accordingly…

Abstract

Purpose

Research has shown that the discursive patterns students use in their email interactions with their teachers are not linguistically and socio-culturally appropriate. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to try to explore how socio-cultural conventions influence the Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ choices of discourse strategies in their email communications within an academic context. The study, then, investigates the impact of social distance and gender on the stylistic features of students’ email texts.

Design/methodology/approach

The email texts written by 180 university students majoring in Applied Linguistics were systematically analyzed based on such patterns as opening and closing moves, reduced forms, text connectives, symbolization and emoticons. Alternatively, three semi-structured interviews were conducted to gauge the participants’ motives underlying the selection of particular discourse features.

Findings

The findings revealed that students, despite many statements to the contrary, were aware of the socio-cultural conventions governing email writing style and could write status-appropriate email messages, which rightly reflected the etiquette of email communication within an academic context.

Practical implications

The findings may offer certain benefits to EFL teachers and students.

Originality/value

The paper highlights understanding of a specific social group in relation to their interaction with different status social groups in the context of a specific communication technology and to some extent the perceived effectiveness of such approaches by those invoking them.

Details

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-5659

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Article
Publication date: 5 August 2014

Shri Ram and John Paul Anbu K.

The purpose of this study is to have a closer look at the awareness of referencing utilities among the library professionals in India. In a research environment, referencing and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to have a closer look at the awareness of referencing utilities among the library professionals in India. In a research environment, referencing and bibliography play an important role in the dissemination of research findings through scholarly writings. Citing references while writing scholarly articles has become more eloquent mainly due to the availability of a range of bibliography management utilities. Currently, there are various types of Bibliography Management Software (BMS) available for the management of the citation, referencing and compiling bibliographies. Librarians have a crucial role to play in helping the faculty, students and research scholars in the process of writing their scholarly articles and theses, especially in the area of referencing.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted through an online survey with an aim to assess the perception, awareness and use of BMS by the Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals in India.

Findings

In the academic environment, published results of research findings are crucial for the advancement of knowledge. The published research findings are often supported and disputed using the citation of previous studies. There are a number of supporting technologies that are intended to help in procuring needed citations and streamlining them for better research output. The role of the librarian in this endeavor is undisputed. This study shows that there is a need for strengthening the awareness of BMS at the institutional level and also hands-on experience is needed for library professionals to help in the process of research writing and advocate for adopting correct referencing style (citation style) while writing scholarly articles.

Practical implications

The increased use of information and communication technology in the process of scholarly writing, especially in the search and retrieval of relevant articles and the availability of electronic journals and books, have resulted in an increased number of research articles being written by research scholars. The downside to this overflow of scholarly and creative writing is the incorrect way of using referencing style in the dissemination of research and the possibilities of malpractice and plagiarism. This study will help in creating awareness of the utility of citation and BMS in content writing, especially among library and information professionals, as they play an important role in facilitating research.

Social implications

This study will be beneficial for the LIS professionals in understanding the effectiveness of their services when complemented by the use of technology-powered tools. Creating awareness of the use of BMS in content development in scholarly communication promises to create a flawless scholarly output as library professionals will help researchers in guiding research writings with correct referencing and citation.

Originality/value

Use of BMS helps in the development of content in an organized, methodical and scientific way. The role of library and information professionals working with different researchers and scholars in advocating and practicing the use of BMS will go a long way in creating more streamlined content.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 42 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 June 2008

Susan A. Lynn and Thomas E. Vermeer

Over the last twenty years, many studies have examined the impact of structured writing programs on improving accounting students’ writing skills. In this chapter, we extend this…

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, many studies have examined the impact of structured writing programs on improving accounting students’ writing skills. In this chapter, we extend this research by using writing assignments that are representative of the workplace writing experiences that students encounter in their professional careers, by developing an evaluation instrument to assess the effectiveness of structured writing programs, and by using business advisory board members to evaluate improvement in students’ writing. Our results suggest that our new approach to designing writing assignments representative of workplace writing helps students improve their writing skills. Our business advisory board members’ ratings indicate that the overall quality of the students’ writing improved over two semesters of completing a series of workplace writing assignments. Specifically, our structured writing program improved students’ business writing skills in the areas of organization (paragraph unity, layout, and conclusion) and style and tone (conciseness and word choice). Students also improved in their ability to explain technical aspects of accounting work and in certain aspects of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The results and tools provided in this study should assist other programs in either implementing or improving a structured writing program.

Details

Advances in Accounting Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-519-2

Article
Publication date: 10 November 2014

Charl de Villiers and John Dumay

This article aims to focus on areas that can potentially improve a manuscript’s chances of success, i.e. acceptance for publication. In particular, we deal with topic selection…

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Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to focus on areas that can potentially improve a manuscript’s chances of success, i.e. acceptance for publication. In particular, we deal with topic selection, as well as aspects that can improve the manuscript during the writing phase, including the style of prose and citations.

Design/methodology/approach

Recommendations are based on a review of the literature and our own experience. To demonstrate the practical application of the issues that need to be dealt with, examples have been provided from research articles published during 2010 in Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ).

Findings

There are some common reasons for rejection that can be avoided, but one of the most important issues is to ensure that the research question is novel and that this novelty is made explicit in the introduction to the manuscript. The novelty–rigour curve (or NR curve) is introduced and the relationship between novelty and rigour, as it relates to a manuscript’s likelihood of acceptance for publication, is explained. The assessment of the prose used in published articles reveals that there are no set rules.

Research limitations/implications

This article does not reveal guaranteed recipes for success, except that careful consideration and motivation of the novelty and rigour of the research undertaken are important. The authors suggest research into reviewer behavioural aspects as a possible avenue for future research.

Originality/value

The novelty-rigour curve that depicts and explains the requirements of, and relationship between, these two research attributes is introduced. This article is novel because the prose of research articles published in AOS and AAAJ is critically examine in an attempt to assist both early career researchers to break into the top tier of accounting journals and established academics to enhance their chances of success. As such, the article has practical value for accounting academics and may also stimulate discussion among reviewers, editorial board members and editors, thereby playing a role in developing the field of accounting academic publishing.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2021

Wan Nur Fazni Wan Mohamad Nazarie and Russell Williams

The study aims to explore language style and gender match as a key part of initial trust among potential donors and how this leads to funding success based on the similarity…

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to explore language style and gender match as a key part of initial trust among potential donors and how this leads to funding success based on the similarity attraction and homophily theories. Empirical analyses of 160 respondents revealed that people are more concerned about “how it is written” (language style) than “who has written it” (gender).

Design/methodology/approach

Crowdfunding (CF) is an internet-based method of funding employed by project founders, allowing individuals to raise funds from the crowd to support their projects. It is important for project founders to attract the crowd’s interest as potential funders commonly have limited information about projects. One of the early cues about a project that can be picked up by the crowd in CF projects is the text description of the proposal. This text description is crucial for giving the crowd an understanding of the project and for promoting the crowd’s trust in the founder, encouraging them to fund the CF project. Based on the similarity attraction and homophily theories, this study sets out to explore language style and gender match as key elements of initial trust among potential donors and how they lead to funding success. A 2 × 2 factorial experimental design (e.g. subject, male and female, × male language style and female language style) was used for the study. To determine the sample size of the experiment, this study applied power and sample size estimations to measure how many respondents were needed for the experiment. Based on the power table of effect size, 128 respondents were considered to be a sufficient number for this experiment to ensure sufficient statistical power of 0.8 and a significance level of 0.05. This study fulfilled the requirement by recruiting 160 respondents, which corresponded to 40 subjects per group based on a 2 × 2 factorial design (the respondents’ gender, male and female, and text language style, male and female). The empirical analysis of 160 respondents revealed that people are more concerned about “how it is written” (language style) than “who has written it” (gender).

Findings

This paper contributes to project founders’ understanding and knowledge of the importance of linguistic style, which can determine the success of a CF project. One of the important results of this study is that the crowd can identify the author’s gender based on their writing style. Through an experiment applying factorial analysis (2 × 2), it was found that people are more concerned about “how it is written” (language style) than with “who it is written by” (gender). This means that the project founder, if they know who their audience is, should know how to write the project proposal so that it fits the audience’s preferences. More specifically, the success rate of CF projects can be increased by integrating suitable word dimensions in promotions of projects on CF platforms. Therefore, it can be argued that linguistic style is a powerful agent for building a connection with a target audience. The findings of this study can be used as theoretical guidance, and eventually, the potential antecedents of funding intention can be further explored.

Research limitations/implications

This study is subject to several limitations. The result is limited to donation-based CF. As this study focuses on the language style of project founders when they describe their CF projects, donation-based CF was the most appropriate platform for this research. In donation-based CF, the style words are more emotion-based, compared to other CF platforms. The experiment, however, could also be replicated for other CF types such as reward-based CF. One important part of CF projects is persuading the crowd to fund them. It is worth mentioning that reward-based CF involves individuals pledging to a business in exchange for a reward. Yet, even though reward-based CF offers rewards, it is generally considered a subset of donation-based CF because there is no financial return to the backer. Therefore, it is suggested that future research should also consider case studies in reward-based CF. Second, from the persuading perspective, this study focusses on narrative language style only, as it facilitates the crowd’s understanding of a CF project. Future study can further focus on other information content such as videos in the project proposal. Prior research has found that providing a video in a CF project increases the crowd’s confidence in funding (Mitra, 2012). The study is also supported by previous studies that suggest producing a higher quality of video in the project proposal positively related to the success of CF projects (Mollick (2014)).

Practical implications

The result of this study empirically confirmed that the crowd’s willingness to fund a project proposal and their trust are dependent on the text description of the project proposal. The project founders need to know how to describe the content of a project so that it signals the quality of the project, especially in early start-ups. In other words, the way that a project is created and published through a CF platform will send a valuable signal to the potential donors about the project, and they will either find it acceptable or reject it. If the project appears to lack demand among potential donors, it is easier for project founders to quickly identify that the project will fail, without the need to invest additional capital.

Social implications

The findings of this study have important social implications that provide guidelines for project founders on establishing a strategy to help the crowd understand their projects. At the same time, the findings can help the crowd to make their funding decisions. First, the text language used in the CF project by the project founder plays an important role in presenting the campaign and all the ideas need to be presented in a clear way so that the crowd understands the project. In CF projects, pitch is everything (Varsamis, 2018). The pitch refers to the text or video that is provided by the project founder to show their project proposal to the crowd. Compared with traditional funding channels (such as venture capital, i.e. banks), CF is more convenient for raising funds. This is because the project founders need to show their ideas in a creative way to the crowd online, rather than preparing a complex plan and racking their brains on how they can persuade investors to participate (Wang and Yang (2019)). This research intends to help project founders understand how they can influence the crowd by improving the text language used in their CF projects.

Originality/value

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how the linguistic style of the project founder would lead to the success rate of crowdfunding projects.

Details

Review of International Business and Strategy, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-6014

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1 – 10 of over 50000