Academic Communication Resources

This resource offers tools, guidelines and advice to the members of the UPC who produce and publish technical and scientific texts in English and communicate ideas to a variety of audiences.

The tools and links we recommend will mention different types of articles and documents. Before starting to read advice, it's important to know the names and categories of the types of writing you're planning.

Before you start writing a text, it is important that you follow these three simple steps:

Step 1

Make a brief visit to the main menu of types of writing from the engineering department of Colorado State University in the USA. This list will suggest many basic document types.

Step 2

Look at the full range of writing for one engineering field by consulting Table 1 of the following research article. The table gives an excellent overview of different genres and their purposes in computer engineering. The ‘Dissemination’ and ‘Evaluation (Reviews)’ sections will be of most interest to publishing academics.

Orr T., "Genre in the field of computer science and computer engineering". IEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 1999;41(1);32-7

Step 3

Analyze your own field’s writing briefly

Pick up two of the most important journals in your field. Look at the tables of contents to form an idea of relevant article types.
Consult the Instructions (or guidelines) to authors of the same journals. They usually list the types of articles that can be submitted.