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Before starting to write on any project (essay, report, poster, website) it is important to decide what to include and what to exclude. After all you can’t write about life, the universe and everything! Decide on the scope of your project and the level of detail required. Having decided these you can start to make a note of the concepts/topics that will form your project. At this stage write down all ideas on a scrap of paper regardless of whether they will be included in the final piece of writing. Only after you have spend five or ten minutes noting down concepts can you begin to review the practicality of including each item.

Concept maps are graphical overviews of various areas. For example, the concept map below shows a very simple map of ‘computer’. A concept map is a good device to use after brainstorming so that you can clearly see the relationships between various concepts. To begin, write the name of the topic you are going to write about in a box in the center of a blank sheet of paper. Next write the names of sub-topics that comprise the main topic. In the case of the concept map below three sub-topics have been included: hardware, software and categories. In turn these sub-topics can be broken down into further detail. Software, for example, can be split into operating system and applications. Break each concept down on all sides of the map until you feel that you have reached a sufficient level of detail.

A completed concept map can be used to generate a table of contents for an essay or report. The centre of the map represents the title or topic of the project, the neighbouring boxes form the chapters, moving further out still and sections and sub-sections can be identified. An example, table of contents from the above concept map could look like:

• Perform literature review (textbooks, library, bibliographic databases, Internet)
• Draft out a rough structure of your essay (brainstorming/concept maps)
• Flesh each section out (1st draft)
• Review structure - should contain:
• Title
• Introduction
• Chapters/Sections
• . . .
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendicies (optional)
• Spellcheck
• Read through and develop 2nd draft (use a Thesaurus if necessary)
• Spellcheck again
• Keep developing drafts and reviewing ideas until you are happy with your document
• Submit

• Inline Spellchecking
  If you are weak at spelling you may find it useful to activate the ‘Check spelling as you type’ option in Tools/Options... With this option selected Word will underline all misspelt words in red. To correct such a mistake right click the mouse and then choose from one of the alternatives in the popup menu (see below).
   
  
  

• Styles
  Styles provide a useful format management system. Having completed a large report or thesis and your supervisor says that it needs to be 12pt text and not 11pt you only need to alter one style in a single place to alter the whole document. Headings too can easily be changed and made consistent instead of going through each one manually and setting it to Arial, bold, 18pt.
  

  Use one style for each type of heading (e.g. Chapter, Section and Sub-Section), one style for your regular body text and possibly one or two additional styles. To use a style first highlight the heading or paragraph of text with the mouse by moving into the left hand margin and clicking when you see the following pointer With the text highlighted click on the ’style’ drop-down list on the formatting toolbar:

  

  Select the style that you wish to use. You could use ‘Heading 1’ for chapter titles, ‘Heading 2’ for section titles and so on. The ‘Normal’ style can be used with regular body text for the main part of your document. At this stage you are probably thinking that you don’t want your chapter headings to be 14pt, you need 18pt. To make a change to a style, and most importantly changing all text that uses the style, select the paragraph of the style you wish to change by moving into the margin again and then click when you see the pointer. Next select ‘Style...’ from the Format pulldown menu. Click on the ‘Modify...’ button and then on the ‘Format’ list button and select ‘Font...’. After you have set the font, style and size that you require, click ‘OK’ to close the font dialog box, click ‘OK’ to close the Modify Style dialog box and ‘Apply’ to close the Style dialog box and make the changes. The useful thing about working with styles is that having altered the properties of the style, all text that relies on this style will automatically update instantly. A little extra time spent assigning styles when writing a document will lead to large time savings at the end when performing global format changes.

• Macros
  Macros are user defined sequences of commands that can be recorded and then played back with a single click. They are useful if you find yourself repeating the same block of commands many times. To make a new macro select ‘Record New Macro...’ from ‘Macro’ on the ‘Tools’ pulldown menu. From the dialog box shown below enter a meaningful name and click ‘OK’.
   
  
  

  The cursor will change to a pointer with a cassette tape underneath it. Select all the commands you wish to record in the same order and manner in which you normally use them. At the end of the sequence click on the square stop button in the window below:

  

  To run your newly created macro select ‘Macros...’ from ‘Macro’ on the ‘Tools’ pulldown menu. A dialog box will display a list of all recorded macros; select the one you wish to run and click ‘Run’.

  Note: Do not use macros to setup formatting sequences such as making a word bold, italic and 16pt in one action - it is much more efficient to use styles that are discussed above.

• Customising Toolbars
  When installed Word presents ‘standard’ and ‘formatting’ toolbars just under the pulldown menu. These toolbars contain a number of icons that can be used to launch common commands and functions. However, there are a few valuable omissions. To add your own icons to these toolbars select Tools/Customize... and then click on the ‘Commands’ tab of the dialog box. By clicking on the ‘Categories’ items you will see different commands available on the right. To add one of these commands, click and hold over the command and drag it up and onto the toolbar that you want to hold it. Two useful commands, superscript and subscript , can be found in the ‘Format’ category.

Harvard Reference system

• Adding references to the text
  The Harvard reference system uses the surname of the author of a reference plus its publication year in brackets when inserted into the body of an essay or thesis:
   
  Nielsen (2000) argues that resolution-independent web design should...

• Listing in the References section
  A reference list should be created at the back of a document listing cited works alphabetically by authors surname:
  

  Carter, R. (1995) Working with Computer Type. RotoVision SA, Switzerland.

  Nielsen, J. (2000) Designing Web Usability. New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis.

  Williams, R. (1994) The Non-Designers Design Book. Peachpit Press, California.

  If you need to cite two or more documents written by the same author(s) in the same year then add an alphabetic prefix to the year:

Student Support & Guidance