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Week 22. Visual elements in academic writing.

Reflection using the Nguyen 5 component model.
Trigger
Most literature reviews I read are text only, this is visually unappealing and technically dense to read and understand.


Thoughts and actions
Very few contain diagrams, but those are the most memorable articles. I would like to model these articles. I have included 15 coloured figures in my literature review..


Attentive, critical, exploratory, iterative
My inclusion of diagrams is on the basis of clarity and concision.

Diagrams  enhance the quality of a manuscript by:

i. assisting explanation of unfamiliar abstract models and theories

ii. attracting readers to images

iii. figures provide a large amount of information in a shorter time span, always appealing to the time constrained

iv. the use of figure and text together (2 channels of information) is shown to be more effective than text alone (Mayer 2003). 

v. figures act as a hook to increase the chance of an article being read.

vi. I as the author want to use best practice multimedia (text + images) principles  to reduce cognitive load and increase learning (Mayer 2003)

vii. illustrations are a component of academic writing that is considered stylish by academic peers (Sword 2012)

Underlying conceptual frames
My assumption is that other readers, editors, markers will have a status quo expectation about visual elements in academic writing including literature reviews (that is, no or few images), and will thus need convincing of my viewpoint. This is why I have sought supporting evidence from others who are experts in the field of multimedia communication and publication to support my view.

View on Change

Perhaps in this topic, I am the innovator on the far left of the Diffusion of innovation curve. I am happy to lead the way here rather than follow others. Others, however, may be slow to adopt this viewpoint. This causes conflict with my position when the other person/s is in a position of power such as a marker, grader, assessor, peer reviewer or journal editor.
https://www.enablingchange.com.au/One_page_bell_curve.pdf


Self
I have experienced first hand rejection of visual elements from a journal editor for an invited ediorial  I submitted, and I was required to remove the images. I proffered  links to Supplementary material but this was not accepted. I know this journal editor is a Traditionalist, and may well be a late majority or laggard when it comes to innovations in publishing. It may also be partly due to a cultural difference (age and gender, values). However, I will persist with visual elements in my academic writing, because I see value in my position, but I should not feel devalued or demoralised because of the non acceptance of my position by those in positions of power who are in different phases of the adoption of innovation curve. Persistence, is, after all, a 21st century character skill that the World Economic Forum and Barbara Duckworth would agree with.



References
Mayer, Richard E., and Roxana Moreno. "Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning." Educational psychologist 38.1 (2003): 43-52.

Nguyen, Q. D. (2015). What is reflection? A conceptual analysis of major definitions and a proposal of a five-component definition and model. Nguyen, Q. D.
(2015). https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1866/13118/Nguyen_Quoc_Dinh_2015_memoire.pdf?sequence=
Sword, Helen. Stylish academic writing. Harvard University Press, 2012, p8 available from http://www.defendandpublish.com/bookreview-stylishacademicwriting/
Elsevier author services. Enrich your article. https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-services/enrichments

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