Analytic, Synthetic, and Interpretive Precis: Three Rhetorical Genres

While the precis format given above applies to all types of analysis, it may nonetheless be used for several other purposes, reflecting different purposes for the writer and reader.

An analytic precis aims at recreating the focus, strategy/goal (intent), and information of one particular text. You, as the writer, intrude only at the level of evaluation (in the implications). Your job is to present and assess the claims made by a particular text as text-generated criteria, and then to specify the (outside) contexts in which those claims are valid, dangerous, useful, etc.

A synthetic precis sets up a comparison/contrast between two (or more) texts. Its focus is the/an issue shared by the two texts. However, it is up to you, the writer, to specify (as the strategy/goal statement) on which grounds and to what end the comparison will be carried out. The information pattern will be drawn from the text; the implication is again provided by you, in terms of "why do this comparison."

An interpretive precis uses one text to read another (applies one systematic strategy to a text). That is, you pretend to be the writer of one text, and read another as s/he would; at the conclusion, you step out of the role-play, and evaluate the relation between the two points of view. It places a still higher burden on you as writer: you must specify the focus (the interpretive issue that the precis will address, and the strategy/goal of how you will explicate that issue – all before you start. The information pattern will often be arranged as an "issue/example" format, with the issues drawn systematically (i.e., in recognizeable form) from the strategy text and the examples also systematically drawn from the text to be interpreted. An interpretation will not be successful if either text is treated willfully (e.g., against the spirit of its internal organization). Your implication is, again, directed at explaining why you bothered to set up this interpretation this way – what it is good for.

[A creative precis exists, as well– usually as an outline for an original essay. The writer uses it as an organizer for rhetorical strategy and for information generally drawn from many sources, without particular address to the argumentation of those sources.]

How do I turn these into essays, and what kinds of essays are they?

An analytic precis turns into something like a good book review or proposal evaluation – the introduction introduces the central issue and the rhetorical tactic that the source text (issue, or party) uses, together with the writer's goal of bothering to explain these. The body of the paper fleshes out the execution of the text's logic, and presents interim evaluations that set up the big evaluation that is the conclusion of the piece.

A synthetic precis resolves a conflict in the favor of one party or another, or shows how the two positions are totally compatible (despite their seeming differences in terminology). The introduction for its essay version must state the basis for the comparison, and the strategy through which the comparison is stated. It will end with a hint as to why this comparison is illustrative or important. The body of the paper must contain a balanced presentation of comparable points (each comparison introduced in terms of the more general overview). The conclusion must decide which side wins – in terms of a stated set of outside needs/problems that the information addresses.

An interpretive precis applies a point of view to a text explicitly. The introduction to the essay version must state which systematic point of view will be applied to what issue (who you are playing, and why), why that point of view was chosen, how the point of view will be applied (strategy/goal of the evaluation), and hint at what the goal of the particular interpretation will be. The body of the paper must contain a running dialogue between the p.o.v. and the textual information – it must move stepwise through the p.o.v. and re-interpret the text's data through that lens – no matter your individual preferences as writer. You will therefore have two levels of critique in the paper: first, a decisive critique of one writer from the p.o.v. of the chosen role, and second, your suggestions about what bringing these two other voices together has achieved. You must interject a decisive critique of both p.o.v.'s as part of the work's final implications (only correctives can be hinted at as it goes along, or foreshadowings of a larger objection that will be dealt with in detail after the immediate analysis is concluded – don't subvert the voice you're playing at being until you're through).

[A creative precis will set up an op/ed piece or any literary essay, like Robert Benchley's – the writer is only responsible for the fictive universe set up by the precis, even in the implication. And the implications disappear – there is no outside, except in the mind of the readers.]

ANNOTATION

An annotation is an addition made to information in a book, document, online record, Youtube video, or other information. [8] Commonly this is used, for example, in draft documents, where another reader has written notes about the quality of a document at a certain point, "in the margin", or perhaps just underlined or highlighted passages. Annotated bibliographies, give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. Creating these comments, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.

Example

1) Computational biology:

Given that molecular biology and bioinformatics have known the need for DNA annotation since the 1980s, where a previously unknown sequence representation of genetic material is annotated with information relating position to intron-exon-boundaries, regulatory sequences, repeats, gene names and protein products,and so on, this annotation is usually stored in Mouse Genome Informatics, FlyBase, and WormBase. Educational materials on some aspects of biological annotation from this year's Gene Ontology annotation camp and similar events are available at the Gene Ontology website.

2) Imaging:

In the digital imaging community the term annotation is commonly used for visible metadata superimposed on an image without changing the underlying raster image, such as sticky notes, virtual laser pointers, circles, arrows, and black-outs (cf. redaction).

3) Law:

In the United States, legal publishers such as Thomson West and Lexis Nexis publish annotated versions of statutes, providing information about court cases that have interpreted the statutes. Both the federal United States Code and state statutes are subject to interpretation by the courts, and the annotated statutes are valuable tools in legal research.

4) Linguistics:

In linguistics, morphological, syntactic, semantic, discourse and pragmatic annotations add information about the linguistic form. Other forms of annotation include comments and metadata; these non-transcriptional annotations are also non-linguistic. A collection of texts with linguistic annotations is known as a corpus (plural corpora). The Linguistic Annotation Wiki describes tools and formats for creating and managing linguistic annotations.

ARTICLE (PUBLISHING)

An article is a stand-alone section of a larger written work. These nonfictional prose compositions appear in magazines, newspapers, academic journals, the Internet or any other type of publication. [8]

Articles can be divided into two main categories: news and features. Straight news stories deal with the timeliness and immediacy of breaking news, while feature articles are news stories that deal with human-interest topics or which offer the opportunity for providing more breadth or depth, context of history or other explanatory background material.

Elements of an article:

1. Headline

2. Lead

3. Body

4. Conclusion

News Articles

A news article is an article published in a print or Internet news medium such as a newspaper, newsletter, news magazine or news-oriented website that discusses current or recent news of either general interest (i.e. daily newspapers) or on a specific topic (i.e. political or trade news magazines, club newsletters, or technology news websites).

A news article can include accounts of eyewitnesses to the happening event. It can contain photographs, accounts, statistics, graphs, recollections, interviews, polls, debates on the topic, etc. Headlines can be used to focus the reader’s attention on a particular (or main) part of the article. The writer can also give facts and detailed information following answers to general questions like who, what, when, where, why and how.

Quoted references can also be helpful. References to people can also be made through written accounts of interviews and debates confirming the factuality of the writer’s information and the reliability of his source. The writer can use redirection to ensure that the reader keeps reading the article and to draw her attention to other articles. For example, phrases like "Continued on page 3” redirect the reader to a page where the article is continued.

While a good conclusion is an important ingredient for newspaper articles, the immediacy of a deadline environment means that copy editing often takes the form of deleting everything past an arbitrary point in the story corresponding to the dictates of available space on a page. Therefore, newspaper reporters are trained to write in inverted pyramid style, with all the most important information in the first paragraph or two. If less vital details are pushed towards the end of the story, the potentially destructive impact of draconian copy editing will be minimized.

Feature Articles

Feature articles are nonfiction articles that intend to inform, teach or amuse the reader on a topic. The topic centers around human interests. Feature stories may include conventions found in fiction such as dialogue, plot and character. A feature article is an umbrella term that includes many literary structures: personality sketches, essays, how-to's, interviews and many others.

Examples

Column – A short newspaper or magazine piece that deals specifically with a particular field of interest, or broadly with an issue or circumstance of far-reaching scope. They appear with bylines on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc.). They may be written exclusively for one newspaper or magazine, they may be marketed by a syndicate, or they may be self-syndicated by the author.

Essay – A short, literary, nonfiction composition (usually prose), in which a writer develops a theme or expresses an idea.

Evergreen – A timeless article that editors can hold for months and publish when needed. They need little or no updating.

Exposé – These articles use in-depth reporting with heavy research and documentation. Used to expose corruption in business, politics or celebrities. Also called the investigative article.

Filler – Short non-fiction items, usually just under 300 words, used to fill in small spaces on a page of a magazine or newspaper page.

How-to – How-to articles help people to learn how to do something. They provide step-by-step information for the reader.

Human interest story – An article that involves local people and events and can be sold to daily and some weekly newspapers. Human interest elements, such as anecdotes or accounts of personal experiences, can support ideas in magazine articles as firmly as facts or statistics. Also called "true-life" stories.

Interview –This feature story type article includes the text of the conversation between two or more people, normally directed by the interviewer. Interviews are often edited for clarity. One common variation is the roundtable – the text of a less organized discussion, usually between three or more people.

Op-Ed – Articles that run opposite the editorial page. They are a response to current editorials and topical subjects. Political op-eds are the most common, but they don't have to be limited to politics. They should, however, reflect items that are current and newsworthy.

Personal experience – An article in which the writer recounts an ordeal, process or event he has undergone.

Personality Profile – A personal or professional portrait – sometimes both – of a particular individual.

Seasonal – An article written about a holiday, a season of the year or a timely observance. This kind of article will be submitted months in advance of the anticipated publication date.

Service Article – An article about a consumer product or service; it outlines the characteristics of several versions of the same type of commodity. The aim is to help a potential purchaser to make the best selection possible.

Sidebar – A short feature that accompanies a news story or magazine article. It elaborates on human interest aspects of the story, explains one important facet of the story in more depth or provides additional factual information – such as a list of names and addresses – that would read awkwardly in the body of the article. Can be found in a box, separated from the main article on the side or bottom of the page.

Travel literature – Travel articles inform and enlighten the reader through facts about a region's landscape, scenery, people, customs and atmosphere.

Other types of articles

Academic paper – is an academic article published in an academic journal. The status of academics is often dependent both on how many articles they have had published and on the number of times that their articles are cited by authors of other articles.

Blog – Some styles of blogging are more like articles. Other styles are written more like entries in a personal journal.

Encyclopedia article – In an encyclopedia or other reference work, an article is a primary division of content.

Marketing article – An often thin piece of content which is designed to draw the reader to a commercial website or product.

Usenet articles – are messages written in the style of e-mail and posted to an open moderated or unmoderated Usenet newsgroup.

Elements of an article

Headline

A headline is text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article. The headline catches the attention of the reader and relates well to the topic. Modern headlines are typically written in an abbreviated style omitting many elements of a complete sentence but almost always including a non-copula verb.

Lead

The lead (sometimes spelled lede) sentence captures the attention of the reader and sums up the focus of the story. The lead also establishes the subject, sets the tone and guides the reader into the article.

In a news story, the introductory paragraph tells the most important facts and answers the questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how. In a feature story, the author may choose to open in any number of ways, including the following:

an anecdote, a shocking or startling statement, a generalization, pure information, a description, a quote, a question, a comparison (narrative hook).

Body

For the news story, details and elaboration are evident in the body of the news story and flow smoothly from the lead.

Quotes are used to add interest and support to the story.

The inverted pyramid is used with most news stories.

A feature article will follow a format appropriate for its type. Structures for feature articles may include, but are not limited to:

chronological – the article may be a narrative of some sort.

cause and effect – the reasons and results of an event or process are examined.

classification – items in an article are grouped to help aid understanding

compare and contrast – two or more items are examined side-by-side to see their similarities and differences

list – a simple item-by-item run-down of pieces of information

question and answer – such as an interview with a celebrity or expert.

Conclusion

One difference between a news story and a feature article is the conclusion. Endings for a hard news article occur when all of the information has been presented according to the inverted pyramid form. By contrast, the feature article needs more definite closure. The conclusions for these articles may include, but are not limited to: a final quote, a descriptive scene, a play on the title or lead, a summary statement.

Characteristics of well-written articles:

1. The piece is a factual account of a newsworthy event.

2. The writer is objective and shows all sides to an issue.

3. The sources for this news story are identified and are reliable.

4. Show, don't tell.

Authorship

Publications obtain articles in a few different ways:

staff written – an article may be written by a person on the staff of the publication.

assigned – a freelance writer may be asked to write an article on a specific topic.

unsolicited – a publication may be open to receiving article manuscripts from freelance writers. (Slush pile)

How to Write Articles

Writing articles often requires a session of note taking and researchWhether it's for a magazine, newspaper, your teacher, or even wikiHow, writing an amazing article whittles down to one widely-adaptable technique. Here's how to use that technique to your advantage.

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Steps Determine your topic. Exactly what are you going to write about? Brainstorm for ideas if you have to. When writing for wikiHow, you may even wish to refer to requested topics for ideas.

Figure out who your audience is. Are you writing for a beginner, an intermediate, or an advanced audience? For example, if you are writing an article about "Creating PowerPoint Slides," are your readers new to PowerPoint, or business people looking for advanced tips?

Do your research. How well do you know the topic? Is it something you can write easily about with little or no preparation, or do you need more information from experts in the field?

Decide on the length of the article. Teachers, magazines, and newspapers will often give you a limit. wikiHow articles, on the other hand, are often "as long as they need to be and no longer."

Compile a list of possible sources for you to consult. This can include documents, internet research and people to talk to.

Write either an outline or a summary of your article. This will help bring the concept of the article into sharper focus.

Write the rough draft of the article as follows:

Tell your readers what you are going to tell them. This is your introduction. For example: This article explains how to create a PowerPoint slide presentation. It covers the following information: choosing a theme, creating a title slide, and creating topic slides. The information in this article is written for a beginner. The author assumes that you have never used PowerPoint.

Tell your readers what you promised to tell them. In this section you tell them how to choose a theme, create a title slide, and how to create topic slides.

Tell your readers what you just told them. For example: This article taught you how to create a PowerPoint slide presentation. You learned how to choose a template, how to create a title slide, and how to create topic slides.

Check over your piece for presentation.

Check for faulty information. Have you double-checked your facts?

Delete any unnecessary or contradictory information. The only time you should have information that doesn't support your topic is if you're doing a "point-counterpoint" piece.

Eliminate anything that is just taking up space. Don't fill your work with fluff. If you need to do more research, go ahead and do it.

Check for grammar and spelling errors.

Read it aloud to yourself to make sure the text flows smoothly.

Rewrite the article as often as it takes.

Turn in your completed article.

Tips

Neither the outline nor the summary for your article has to be in traditional I, II, III format. The point of formatting is to help you. If you feel you can find your focus by writing a list of incomplete sentences, then go for it. Later, if your teacher wants a formal outline, you can create one from the article itself.

By checking grammar and spelling errors last in the editing process, you won't waste any time by correcting those on something you may delete.

If you're writing for a newspaper or magazine and are new to professional writing, it's customary to introduce yourself and your story in a query or pitch letter. Find the name of the editor who will be handling your piece (i.e., if you're writing an article about cars for a newspaper, find the name of the car-section editor). This information can be found in the masthead, a box containing the names of the editors, usually found near the front or comment pages of a publication. Write a catchy but brief outline of what your story is about and why that publication's readership would be interested in it. Also include a few lines about your experience as a writer. The tone of this letter should be professional, but affable and friendly. It is not the place to make demands, or admit your shortcomings as a professional writer. Discussing wages and freelance fees should come after the editor has accepted your pitch.

If you have no experience as a professional writer, do not start off pitching columns (opinion pieces). Columns are generally reserved for people who have either been working at a publication for a very long time, or for people who have a particular expertise in a field. If you're new to writing, start small. Think obituaries, human-interest stories and simple news articles. It's generally easier to start with newspapers than with magazines. Try writing for life, fashion, arts, cars or travel sections before pitching stories to news. These sections tend to be understaffed and therefore have a greater budget for freelance writers.

If you're interested in pursuing a career as a writer, be realistic. People who make their living as writers generally start to build their portfolio of published work as early as high school. It generally takes even the most dedicated writer several years before he can make a living off of the trade. In other words, don't quit your day job. Ease into writing gradually, perhaps doing freelance pieces while maintaining a more stable job part-time.

Take some courses in both non-fiction and fiction writing. Not only will they help with your work, but also you can make contacts in the business by getting to know your professors and fellow writers. This will help you to be taken seriously when you start pitching articles for publication. Being a good freelance writer means knowing how to write and how to network.

Make sure your article answers five questions: why, where, when, what and how.

Warnings

When writing for a newspaper or magazine, do not do so for free. Ask what their freelance fee is beforehand. Your pay will usually be calculated on a per-word basis. Your work is valuable. Writing for free demeans the profession and makes making a living more difficult for those of us who depend on freelance fees to pay the bills. (But if you're just starting out, volunteering to do some articles for smaller community papers, student publications and trade magazines is a great way to build your portfolio. Be warned that these publications rarely have the money to pay freelancers anyway.)

Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to write the article. If you don't, then you'll be rushing at the last minute to create something that isn't representative of what you can truly do.

Do not be a diva. Your work will go through several editors, copy-editors and fact checkers before being published. It will be changed. Pulling a temper tantrum is a surefire way to not be invited to work for that publication again.

Your reputation as a writer is almost as important as the work you submit, do not make errors or plagiarize. Copying something without attribution is the quickest way to get blacklisted as a writer. Keep your notes and source lists handy so that your editors can verify your work. If you do make a mistake, come clean immediately and apologize profusely.

Don't miss deadlines. Generally speaking, a late article is worse than a mediocre one.

Literary circles are small and gossipy. Don't say anything bad about a fellow writer or editor, ever. You never know who's married to whom.

Things

You'll Need Something to write with: computer, pen and paper, etc.

An email account to pitch and submit stories. (Something vaguely professional, no one will take [e-mail] seriously.)

Research materials. Either go to your bookshelf, the library or find an expert on the topic.

Access to a database like Lexus Nexus or factiva. Be sure to see what others have already written on the topic.

Academic publishing

Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. Much, though not all, academic publishing relies on some form of peer review or editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication. [8]

Most established academic disciplines have their own journals and other outlets for publication, though many academic journals are somewhat interdisciplinary, and publish work from several distinct fields or subfields. The kinds of publications that are accepted as contributions of knowledge or research vary greatly between fields, as do review and publication processes.

Academic publishing is undergoing major changes, emerging from the transition from the print to the electronic format. Business models are different in the electronic environment. Since the early 1990s, licensing of electronic resources, particularly journals, has been very common. Currently, a major trend, particularly with respect to scholarly journals, is open access via the Internet. There are two main forms of open access: open access publishing, in which the articles or the whole journal is freely available from the time of publication; and self-archiving, where authors make a copy of their own work freely available on the web.

History

Among the earliest research journals was the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in the 17th century. At that time, the act of publishing academic inquiry was controversial, and widely ridiculed. It was not at all unusual for a new discovery to be announced as an anagram, reserving priority for the discoverer, but indecipherable for anyone not in on the secret: both Isaac Newton and Leibniz used this approach. However, this method did not work well. Robert K. Merton, a sociologist, found that 92% of cases of simultaneous discovery in the 17th century ended in dispute. The number of disputes dropped to 72% in the 18th century, 59% by the latter half of the 19th century, and 33% by the first half of the 20th century. The decline in contested claims for priority in research discoveries can be credited to the increasing acceptance of the publication of papers in modern academic journals.

The Royal Society was steadfast in its not yet popular belief that science could only move forward through a transparent and open exchange of ideas backed by experimental evidence.

Scholarly paper

In academic publishing, a paper is an academic work that is usually published in an academic journal. It contains original research results or reviews existing results. Such a paper, also called an article, will only be considered valid if it undergoes a process of peer review by one or more referees (who are academics in the same field) in order to check that the content of the paper is suitable for publication in the journal. A paper may undergo a series of reviews, edits and re-submissions before finally being accepted or rejected for publication. This process typically takes several months. Next there is often a delay of many months (or in some subjects, over a year) before publication, particularly for the most popular journals where the number of acceptable articles outnumbers the space for printing. Due to this, many academics offer a 'pre-print' copy of their paper for free download from their personal or institutional website.

Some journals, particularly newer ones, are now published in electronic form only. Paper journals are now generally made available in electronic form as well, both to individual subscribers, and to libraries. Almost always these electronic versions are available to subscribers immediately upon publication of the paper version, or even before; sometimes they are also made available to non-subscribers after an embargo of two to twenty-four months, in order to protect against loss of subscriptions. Journals having this delayed availability are generally called delayed open access journals.

Peer review

Peer review is a central concept for most academic publishing; other scholars in a field must find a work sufficiently high in quality for it to merit publication. The process also guards against plagiarism. Failures in peer review, while they are probably common, are sometimes scandalous (the Sokal Affair is arguably one example, though this controversy also involved many other issues).

Publishing process

The process of academic publishing is divided into two distinct phases. The process of peer review is organized by the journal editor and is complete when the content of the article, together with any associated images or figures, are accepted for publication. The peer review process is increasingly managed online, through the use of proprietary systems, or commercial software packages such as ScholarOne ManuscriptCentral, Aries Editorial Manager, and EJournalPress.

Once peer review has been completed, the original author(s) of the article will modify their submission in line with the reviewers' comments, and this is repeated until the editor is satisfied.

The production process, controlled by a production editor or publisher, then takes an article through copy editing, typesetting, inclusion in a specific issue of a journal, and then printing and online publication. Copy editing seeks to ensure that an article conforms to the journal's house style, that all of the referencing and labelling is correct, and that there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Typesetting deals with the appearance of the article – layouts, fonts, headings etc., both for print and online publication. Historically, these activities were all carried out in-house in a publisher, but increasingly are subject to outsourcing. The majority of typesetting is probably now done in India and China, and copy editing is frequently done by local freelancers, or by staff at the typesetters in India or China. Even printing and distribution are now tending to move overseas to lower-cost areas of the world, such as Singapore.

In much of the 20th century, such articles were photographed for printing into proceedings and journals, and this stage were known as "camera ready" copy. With modern digital submission in formats such as PDF, this photographing step is no longer necessary, though the term is still sometimes used.

The author will review and correct proofs at one or more stages in the production process. The proof correction cycle has historically been labour-intensive as handwritten comments by authors and editors are manually transcribed by a proof reader onto a clean version of the proof. In recent years, this process has been streamlined by the introduction of e-annotations in Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and other programs, but it still remains a time-consuming and error-prone process.

Citations

Academic authors cite sources they have used. This gives credit to authors whose work they use and avoids plagiarism. It also provides support for their assertions and arguments and helps readers to find more information on the subject.

Each scholarly journal uses a specific format for citations (also known as references). Among the most common formats used in research papers are the APA, CMS, and MLA styles.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is often used in the social sciences. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is used in business, communications, economics, and history. The CMS style uses footnotes at the bottom of page to help readers easy to locate the sources. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style is widely used in the humanities.

Publishing by discipline

Sciences

Most scientific research is initially published in scientific journals and considered to be a primary source; see that article for details. Technical reports, for minor research results and engineering and design work (including computer software) round out the primary literature. Secondary sources in the sciences include articles in review journals (which provide a synthesis of research articles on a topic to highlight advances and new lines of research), and books for large projects, broad arguments, or compilations of articles. Tertiary sources might include encyclopedias and similar works intended for broad public consumption.

A partial exception to scientific publication practices is in many fields of applied science, particularly that of U.S. computer science research. An equally prestigious site of publication within U.S. computer science are some academic conferences. Reasons for this departure include a large number of such conferences, the quick pace of research progress due to Moore's Law, and computer science professional society support for the distribution and archiving of conference proceedings.

Social sciences

Publishing in the social sciences is very different in different fields. Some fields, like economics, may have very "hard" or highly quantitative standards for publication, much like the natural sciences. Others, like anthropology or sociology, emphasize field work and reporting on first-hand observation as well as quantitative work. Some social science fields, such as public health or demographics, have significant shared interests with professions like law and medicine, and scholars in these fields often also publish in professional magazines.

Humanities

Publishing in the humanities is in principle similar to publishing elsewhere in the academy; a range of journals, from general to extremely specialized, are available, and university presses print many new humanities books every year.

Scholarly publishing requirements in the humanities (as well as some social sciences) are currently a subject of significant controversy within the academy. The following describes the situation in the United States. In many fields, such as literature and history, several published articles are typically required for a first tenure-track job, and a published or forthcoming book is now often required before tenure. Some critics complain that this de facto system has emerged without thought to its consequences; they claim that the predictable result is the publication of much shoddy work, as well as unreasonable demands on the already limited research time of young scholars. To make matters worse, the circulation of many humanities journals in the 1990s declined to almost untenable levels, as many libraries cancelled subscriptions, leaving fewer and fewer peer-reviewed outlets for publication; and many humanities professors' first books sell only a few hundred copies, which often does not pay for the cost of their printing. Some scholars have called for a publication subvention of a few thousand dollars to be associated with each graduate student fellowship or new tenure-track hire, in order to alleviate the financial pressure on journals.

Open access journals

An alternative to the subscription model of journal publishing is the open access journal model, also known as "author-pays" or "paid on behalf of the author", where a publication charge is paid by the author, his university, or the agency which provides his research grant. The online distribution of individual articles and academic journals then takes place without charge to readers and libraries. Committing to the open access community means dispensing with the financial, technical, and legal barriers that have been designed to limit access to academic materials to paying customers. The Public Library of Science and BioMed Central are prominent and successful examples of this model.

Corporate interests often criticize the principle of open access on quality grounds, as the desire to obtain publishing fees would cause the journal to relax the standard of peer review. It is often criticized on financial grounds as well, because the necessary publication fees have proven to be higher than originally estimated. Open access advocates generally reply that because open access is as much based on peer reviewing as traditional publishing, the quality should be the same (recognizing that both traditional and open access journals have a range of quality). It has been argued that good science done by academic institutions who cannot afford to pay for open access might not get published at all, but most open access journals permit the waiver of the fee for financial hardship or authors in underdeveloped countries. By October 2006, it has become clear that open access journals are feasible in at least some situations, and some can be financially viable without outside funding. It remains unclear whether this is applicable to all – or even most – journals.

A variant of this model, hybrid open access publishing, has developed since 2004. In this system, those articles that have a fee paid are given open access immediately; the others are either made available after a delay, or remain available only by subscription. During 2004, many of the traditional publishers (including Blackwell Publishing, Oxford University Press, Springer Science+Business Media and Wharton School Publishing) introduced such models, and others are following. Proponents of open access suggest that such moves by corporate publishers illustrate that open access, or a mix of open access and traditional publishing, can be financially viable, and evidence to that effect is emerging. It remains unclear whether this is practical in fields outside the sciences, where there is much less availability of outside funding. In 2006, several funding agencies, including the Wellcome Trust and several divisions of the Research Councils in the UK announced the availability of extra funding to their grantees for such publication fees.

Методичні рекомендації щодо виконання
й оформлення контрольної роботи

Ці методичні вказівки мають за мету допомогти студенту заочної форми навчання в його самостійній роботі над розвитком практичних навичок читання, перекладу та опрацювання науково-популярної літератури на англійській мові з фаху «Журналістика» з урахуванням основних граматичних норм англійської мови.

Матеріал контрольної роботи підібрано з урахуванням мети і завдання вивчення англійської мови студентами спеціальності «Журналістика» заочного відділення. Студенти повинні вміти прочитати, перекласти та опрацювати англомовні тексти з фаху. Щоб виконати завдання, пов’язані з опрацюванням нових лексичних одиниць, студенти можуть використовувати двомовні, тлумачні англомовні словники або довідкові сторінки Інтернету.

Контрольна робота – один із ступенів підготовки студентів до заліку. Контрольну роботу потрібно виконувати у послідовності її завдань З метою навчити студентів розуміти загальний зміст тексту, в кожному варіанті контрольної роботи у тексті виділяється один чи два параграфи для перевірки вміння читати без словника, розуміти основну думку цього параграфа. Після тексту наводяться контрольні запитання, за допомогою яких перевіряється точність цього розуміння.

Перед написанням анотацій та рефератів до запропонованих у контрольній роботі текстів необхідно ознайомитися з рекомендаціями науковців та викладачів з англомовних країн, які викладено у методичному посібнику для студентів-магістрантів спеціальності «Журналістика», та порівняти їх думку із уже знайомими положеннями українських фахівців.

Контрольна робота включає 5 варіантів. Студент виконує один варіант у роздрукованому вигляді. При написанні роботи слід залишати широкі поля для нотаток і методичних вказівок викладача.

Матеріал контрольної роботи подається у порядку запропонованих завдань. Студент обов’язково надати оригінальний варіант тексту англійською мовою із наступним перекладом на українську.

Виконану контрольну роботу треба подавати на перевірку і рецензування в певні терміни, встановлені навчальним закладом, а саме: за один місяць до сесії, але не пізніше ніж за два тижні до її початку.

Після одержання перевіреної контрольної роботи необхідно уважно ознайомитися з рецензією і проаналізувати помилки. Враховуючи зауваження викладача, треба опрацювати ще раз навчальний матеріал.

Під час заліку перевіряється засвоєння матеріалу, який увійшов до контрольної роботи.

Якщо у студента виникли запитання щодо виконання завдань контрольної роботи, він звертається до викладача у години, виділені для консультацій по курсу.

Варіанти контрольних робіт

Варіант 1