To our dear ASI students,

Practical Academic Tips is a new fortnightly research service from the Asian Social Institute’s Research Office.This service is intended primarily to assist ASI graduate students in honing their research capabilities and writing skills. The idea for this research service sprang from the challenges faced by first year graduate students who do not have yet the experience or background in research writing. Since research methodology and thesis writing subjects are taught in higher years, Practical Academic Tips will serve as a bridging tool. Researchers who might find something useful in this service are welcome of course to use it.

As its name suggests, Practical Academic Tips will offer practical advice on research subjects that will include inter alia academic writing, paraphrasing and referencing, using foreign phrases and symbols, identifying research topics, using referencing tools (e.g., EndNote, Zotero, and Microsoft Word’s own citation program) and the different referencing styles used in social science research, and Internet research. For its maiden issue, Practical Academic Tips explains the concept Evidence-based arguments. As in any service, we hope to get your feedback and suggestions to make it even more relevant to your needs.

Warm regards,

Alice B. Acejas,
Research Director