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181 ESSAY WRITING
4.3 Affricate
4.4 Nasal
4.5 Approximant
4.5.1 Median
4.5.2 Lateral
4.6 Tap and Trill (or roll)
5. Conclusion
Notice the structure evident here. Subheadings have been indicated in (4) by
being indented, but that is unnecessary: the number shows the level of subordination.
The longer the number, the greater the notional indentation is, and
this implies the less important the section heading is. The use of three levels of
heading (as illustrated here) is fairly normal. If you can manage with just two,
that is good. In very complex documents (such as theses) you might need four.
You should never exceed four if you can possibly help it (though you may have
bullet points or numbered lists within a fourth-level discussion). Never use any
level of subheading if there are not at least two equivalently numbered paragraphs
(if you have 2.1 it implies there will be at least a 2.2; if you have a 4.5.1,
it implies there will be at least a 4.5.2).
Use and mention
For discussion of use and mention, see section 31. What this amounts to for
present purposes is that when you are referring to morphs, words (specifically
word forms) or phrases in the middle of your own text, these should be marked
as being mentioned by the use of italics (underlining in typescript or manuscript).
Alternatively, where it is relevant, the forms may be transcribed (and
thus in […] or /…/ brackets as appropriate; see section 16).
Occasionally you will see elements which are being mentioned enclosed in
single quotation marks rather than being italicised – and in newspapers it may
be a struggle to gain even this small amount of marking. Since single quotation
marks are used in linguistics to show meanings or glosses (as in (5)), this alternative
is definitely a less favoured choice.
Data
(5) The -s plural occurs rarely with the lexeme louse, giving louses
/laυsiz/ (it does not rhyme with houses), but it always means ‘unpleasant
person’ rather than ‘type of insect’ under such circumstances.
Where you are producing an analysis of data as part of your essay, there are
certain conventions you should observe.