LibGuides: Engineering: Information: Need Help?

Proofreading. editing and copywriting

Wits Language School
Wits Language School offers high quality confidential editing, proofreading, formatting, and writing services for business reports, technical reports, training manuals and marketing material, as well as academic dissertations. Wits Language School can assist you with all facets of editing, including grammar, structure, layout, academic referencing and style.

STYLE GUIDE FOR THESES AND DISSERTATION: ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

CONTENTS:

- Structure and Form of Theses

- Headings and Numbering

- Style and Punctuation

- Extra Linguistic Material

- Production of the Thesis

- Editing and Revising

- Laws and Regulation

THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE INCLUDED:

- Title Page

- Contents Pages

- List of Figures

- List of Symbols

- Page Layout

STYLE GUIDE: ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Zotero

The library offers hands-on classes on Zotero. It is a free, open-source, and easy-to-use citation and bibliography management program that lets you capture reference data from online journals, web pages, online catalogue searches, and many other sources. It allows you to cite while you write and export bibliographies in many citation formats. It functions primarily as an add-on for the Firefox Internet browser, and you can add plugins to access your references from MS Word or Open Office.

Upcoming workshops for Zotero will be announced.

Literature Reviews

Overview of the Literature Review.

Video

The Importance of the Literature Review
Available with permission from Prof. E.S. Grossman, Postgraduate Project Office, University of the Witwatersrand.

Department of Higher Education and Training Accredited Publications

Department of Higher Education and Training, Research Output Policy. Communiqué 2 of 2015.
This is a 2015 revision of a previous policy (2003). It is effective January, 1, 2016 and therefore applicable to the 2016 research outputs that will be evaluated in 2017 and onwards. The purpose is to explain the key amendments incorporated in the revised policy and their implications thereof.
2024 Consolidated Accredited Journals List
Consolidated list of the following accredited journals:
Web of Science (Clarivate)
Scopus
IBSS
Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET) List
Scielo SA
DOAJ
Norwegian list

The Department of Education defines an accredited/approved journal as follows:
Journals refer to peer-reviewed periodical publications devoted to disseminating original research and new developments within specific disciplines, sub-disciplines or field of study. These include original articles, research letters, research papers, and review articles. However, only approved journals are subsidised.

Harvard Reference Style Guide

Cite them right

Cite them right.

Section A provides an overview of what referencing is and how to avoid plagiarism.

Sections B and C introduce the conventions for citing information sources in your writing and in the reference list or bibliography that you are expected to provide at the end of each piece of work.

Section D is a comprehensive list of sources of information with examples of how to cite these in the text of your work and in a reference list or bibliography. You are not expected to read Cite them right from cover to cover. Use the contents and index pages to identify where in the book you will find advice on referencing each type of source.

Most of the examples in Cite them right are given in an author-date referencing style commonly known as Harvard style.

For Interest: Books on Writing and Presenting your Research

A guide to writing as an Engineer by Beer, D.F.
Call Number: Engineering Library: T 11 BEE
Engineers and writing -- Some guidelines for good engineering writing -- Eliminating intermittent noise in writing -- Writing letters, memoranda, and Email -- Writing common engineering documents -- Writing an engineering report -- Constructing tables and graphics -- Accessing engineering information -- Engineering your presentations -- Writing to get an engineering job -- Documentation and ethics in engineering writing.

FIND MORE BOOKS ON WRITING AND PRESENTING YOUR RESEARCH IN THE EWITS CATALOGUE.

Assignment and thesis writing by Anderson, J.
Now in its fourth edition, this book has been a classic in its genre as a writing guide for students and professionals for more than thirty years. This edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the impact of information technology on writing and research. Other new sections have also been included.
The essential guide: research writing across the disciplines. by Lester, J.D.
Call Number: Management Library LB 2369 LES
Designed to be a guide for writing research papers both in first-year composition courses and in upper-level courses in all disciplines, the text features advice on the judicious handling of research materials as well as extensive coverage of electronic research. It remains rooted in the fundamentals of thorough library research but encourages and equips students to use the Internet as well as field research where appropriate. Numerous student samples and excerpts model different types of research papers from across the disciplines. Comprehensive coverage of the four most common documentation systems increases the text’s usability beyond the composition classroom.

Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data. By compiling articles' cited references, JCR Web helps to measure research influence and impact at the journal and category levels, and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals. Available in Science and Social Sciences editions.

Proposal writing

Engineering your research: a view on research and proposals
Presented by Prof I Hofsajer, School of Electrical and Information Engineering.
Proposal writing
Compiled by Anne Fitchett, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Why Should you Cite your Sources?

Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people's work without plagiarizing. But there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:

Citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your ideas and where they came from.
Not all sources are good or right -- your own ideas may often be more accurate or interesting than those of your sources. Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap for someone else's bad ideas.
Citing sources shows the amount of research you've done.
Citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.

From Plagiarismdotorg

Electronic Books

Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing by Perelman, L.J.
The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing offers the ideal combination of comprehensive coverage, accessibility, and convenience. It supplies grammatical and stylistic information, provides the key format elements of common technical documents along with illustrative examples, guides authors in the effective use of visual information, and helps writers revise and edit their own work as well as review that of others.
The New Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors. by Martin, E.A
Available Online:
This dictionary provides scientists, science writers, and all who work in scientific publishing with a clear style guide for the presentation of scientific information.

Submitting your Thesis

The General Rules of the University requires every post-graduate student to submit two final, corrected copies of the dissertation or research report or thesis in a printed format as well as a final, corrected copy in electronic format.

For more information, go to the library's Electronic Theses and Dissertations webpage.