Writing Guides for IPUP Interns and
Research Associates
This page gives guidelines for IPUP Interns and Research Associates.
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Discussion Articles
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Review Articles
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Citation Guidelines
Discussion Articles
Some Thoughts on Structure, or, an idiot’s guide to writing essays.
Before you begin
Constructing the framework of a piece should take up a good proportion of the writing time, and the
key to this is to first know what it is you want to say, to know why you are writing the piece.
Marshall your research/thoughts/experience and think through the logical steps of what you’re
going to say and why it’s important. Once you have a coherent plan of your line of thought or
argument, then you can go about communicating it to your reader.
Introduction
Writing an introduction can be the hardest part, because it sets the tone for the piece, and also
should act as a reminder to you and your reader of what you’re doing. It’s important to get
this right, but it’s not important to get it right first time. Write and rewrite until you are happy
with it. A good introduction will do two things: set out the broad argument and scope of the
following piece, and grab the reader’s attention and draw them in.
Body
The paragraph is, of course, the basic unit of an article or essay, and should contain and carry across
one discrete piece of the argument. This has been variously presented using a number of jaunty
acronyms such as PEE: Point, Evidence, Explanation; or PEP: Point, Explanation, Proof, and though
these are a bit twee, the basic point remains the same. A paragraph should set out its point clearly,
provide support and elaboration of that point, and link it in to the wider argument and the
surrounding paragraphs in a way that is clear to the reader.
Conclusion
The conclusion needs to bring together all the threads of your discussion or argument. It should
follow naturally and be built from what you have said in the main body of the piece, and should
present a clear and powerful summary of the overall argument
Re-drafting
Unless you’re one of the lucky few who are able to write well first time out, you’ll need to redraft what you’ve written to some degree, not least because the writing process is often organic
to the thinking process, and new ideas and directions will present themselves as you write, as well as
gaps and weak spots.
Further help
There are plenty of guides on essay writing the internet for undergraduates, and some of these
might be worth looking at for more ideas on the basics. Leeds University provides a reasonably clear
and helpful essay-writing guide (in PDF format).
Otherwise, one of the most helpful things to do can be to read what other people have written.
Length
Discussion articles should be between 5,000 (ten pages) and 8,000 words (sixteen pages)
Review Articles
IPUP’s Review Articles are a little different from those that you might find in an academic journal.
Our reviews aim to describe a work in order to let others in to a field, whether they be from other
disciplines or from outside the academic world. Rather than focusing on critique, therefore, our
reviews give greater emphasis to the descriptive outline. The aim is to introduce an interested
outsider to a field and a work.
The basic shape for review articles should be as follows:
Overview
An interoduction to the work, where it sits within the field, its argument and (if relevant) its
reception and wider significance.
Outline
A schematic description of contents and the framework to help the reader then to grasp the outline
of the book or article.
Analysis
Contextualize and unpick the main arguments of the book or article.
Length
Review articles should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words.
Citations
The web as a medium is not particularly suited to the use of footnotes or endnotes: they are
cumbersome to access without interrupting the flow of reading, and can be difficult to implement
technically. After some experimentation, IPUP has therefore decided to adopt the conventions laid
of the Chicago Manual of Style author-date format. This uses in-text parenthetical references
accompanied by a final alphabetised bibliography, as described below.
In-Text Referencing Conventions
In-text references for both books and journals follow the format (Colley 1992, 34-45). Full references
to these are given in the bibliography, as below.
Newspaper article references can be given informally within your text, including a hyperlink if
available:
An article published in The Observer on September 19th (‘Students prepare to earn and learn’)
highlighted an increasing trend for students to fund their studies with part-time jobs.
Unless a newspaper article constitutes a substantial portion of the documentation, it should not be
listed in the bibilography.
Bibliography
This should include only works cited. Anything else should be included under a section headed
‘Further Reading’.
Full references to items cited in text should be given as follows:
Colley, Linda. 1992. Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837. Yale University Press, New Haven and
London.
Journal Articles should be references as follows:
Pincus, Steven. 1995. “Review: Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 by Linda Colley―, The
Journal of Modern History 67 (no.1): 132-136.
Further examples, including electronic resources, can be found on the Chicago Manual of Style Quick
Guide, under the Author-Date tab.