I found this undated document in some of dad’s papers. I fixed a couple of typos but made no substantive changes.
GUIDELINES FOR SCHOLARLY ARTICLES
1. Establish a focus. An article should pose one or more questions, advance an argument, or otherwise have a purpose.
2. Exhibit the focus in the title. A title should excite interest in the article and begin to introduce the reader to its argument.
3. An article should have a clearly demarcated introduction, body, and conclusion.
4. Introduction. The opening paragraph should be crisp, compact, and arresting, linking the message in the title to a more detailed statement of the purpose of the article. In the following paragraphs say why that purpose is worth accomplishing, tell what evidence will be presented, and outline the structure of the article. Be sure to inform the reader about both the specific analysis that is to follow and the larger intellectual context in which you are situating it. Don’t leave the theoretical issues until late in the article.
5. Body.
(1) The body should present the author’s argument and findings in a logical, section-by-section order, building toward the conclusion. Typically, the initial sections will situate the article, reviewing literature, providing intellectual context, and setting forth the author’s methodology in the case of a data The later sections will present evidence, doing so in a cumulative sequence. If tables are used, they should be clear and should themselves tell a story. They also should be discussed in the text rather than left for the reader to interpret.
(2) The entire article (and each section of it) should have a “story line.” Use subheads to mark the major divisions of the article–the steps in the story, wording them so that they become part of the overall narrative. Good subheads convey a continuous message independent of the text. There should be transitions between sections.[1] The sections themselves should be miniature essays, with initial framing statements, an unfolding narrative and concluding passages that tie the section together and provide a transition to the following section.
6. Summary and conclusions. Begin by summarizing. Move on to conclusions, explicitly addressing the questions raised in the introduction. Conclude with a paragraph that gives the reader a sense of closure. The conclusion should provide a resolution to the issues raised in the introduction. It may also discuss further implications, but it is trite to end by saying there is a need for more research. There always is.
7. Footnotes. Footnotes are more convenient for the reader than endnotes. They are not just for quotations; they should inform the reader of the sources you are drawing on, even if you are not quoting explicitly from them. They also are useful for making statements that would be digressive in the text.
7. Documentation. A bibliography provides the reader with an overview of your sources and is simply one more guide to the intellectual context of your article. If the article winds up in a journal that confines references to footnotes or endnotes, the bibliography then can be deleted. If it winds up in a journal that uses the embedded citation system, it will be part of the final publication.
8. Like all formulas, this one should be ignored if it interferes with effective presentation. It also may be used as a scaffolding while the article is being written and be removed when the it is finished. The end product will have more coherence than it would if it never had its structural props.
[1] The beginning of a section should pick up the thought in the subhead, and the final statement should lead the reader on to the next subhead and section.
