SELF EDITING AND PROOF

READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

Front Matters
☐ 1. Title words number does not exceed the maximum words permitted (neither too long
nor too short). It is usually limited to 10 to 15 substantive words.
☐ 2. Title:
☐ a. The title has been written in Title Case or as its format applied.
☐ b. The title has capitalized the first word of the title and the first word of any subtitle
(after a colon, dash, etc.).
☐ c. The title has capitalized all major words in the title (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, pronouns, and words of four letters or more).
☐ d. The title has capitalized the second part of hyphenated major words (e.g., “Self-
Report”).
☐ e. The title has lowercase minor short words (i.e., conjunctions of three letters or
fewer; prepositions of three letters or fewer; and articles “a,” “an,” and “the”)
☐ f. The title has capitalized “is” and “be” (because they are verbs) and “with”
(because it has four letters)’
☐ g. The title has described accurately the study.
☐ h. The title has no abbreviations.
☐ i. The title has identified key variables, both dependent and independent.
☐ j. The title has suggested a relationship between variables which supports the
major hypothesis.
☐ 3. Author(s):
☐ a. Author(s)’writing has included the full names of all authors; use the form first
name, middle initial, last name (e.g., Muhammad W. Sharif).
☐ b. If two authors, separate with the word “and” (e.g., Marwan Abdullah and
Setyawan K. Widyarto).

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ c. If three or more authors, separate each name with a comma and write the word
“and” before the last author (e.g., Ruqayya S. Adiba, Musa M. Karim, and Aida
T. Zubair).
☐ d. For names with suffixes, separate the suffix from the rest of the name with a
space, not a comma (e.g., Felicien L. Cooke Jr.)
☐ 4. Affiliation:
☐ a. It is usually the university the author(s) attended.
☐ b. It includes the name of the department or division, followed by the name of the
university, separated by a comma (e.g., Department of Computing, University of
Nebraska)
☐ 5. The Subtitle:
Subtitles are quite common in social science research papers. Examples of why you
may include a subtitle:
☐ a. Explains or provides additional context, e.g., "Linguistic Ethnography and the
Study of Welfare Institutions as a Flow of Social Practices: The Case of Myamar
Democracy."
☐ b. Adds substance to a literary, provocative, or imaginative title, e.g., "Listen to
What I Say, Not How I Vote: Electoral Support for the President in Jakarta
Campaign."
☐ c. Qualifies the geographic scope of the research, e.g., "The Geopolitics of the
ASEAN Border: The Case of Malacca Strait."
☐ d. Qualifies the temporal scope of the research, e.g., "A Comparison of the Pre and
Post Pandemic Years: Societal Influences on Predictions of the Future of the
Mobility."
☐ e. Focuses on investigating the ideas, theories, or work of a particular individual,
e.g., "A Deliberative Conception of Politics: How Democratic Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle Related Anarchy and Democracy."
☐ 6. Abstracts:
☐ a. It is usually written in one paragraph or separated lines based on contents.
☐ b. Abstracts does not exceed the maximum words permitted. It is usually limited to
500 words.
☐ c. It gets to the point quickly, rephrase the title would be recommended as the
beginning sentence.
☐ d. Take key phrases from each section and put them in a sequence that
summarizes the paper.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ e. Add connecting phrases or words between section to make it cohesive and

clear.
☐ f. The information in the abstract completely agrees with what you have written in
the paper or thesis or other manuscripts.
☐ g. The overall purpose of the study and the research problem(s) you investigated
have been included.
☐ h. The basic design or method of the study has been included.
☐ i. The major findings or trends found as a result of your analysis have been
included.
☐ j. Brief interpretations and conclusions have been included then allow readers who
may be interested to read the whole paper will quickly decide whether it is
relevant to their purposes.
☐ k. Abstracts should not be lengthy background information.
☐ l. You are reporting on research that has been completed and the past tense is
used.
☐ m. Abstracts should not be written something like, "current research shows that..."
or "studies have indicated..."].
☐ n. Abstracts should not have abbreviations, jargon, or terms that may be confusing
to the reader.
☐ o. If it is not required, the abstracts should not have any sort of images,
illustrations, figures, or tables, or references to them.

Contents or Body Texts

☐ 1. The texts consist of an organization from Introduction, Literature Review,
Methodology, Discussion of results, analysis, finding and Closing with conclusion,
recommendation, future works.
☐ 2. Introduction:
☐ a. The introduction should lead the reader from a general subject area to a
particular topic of your research.
☐ b. The introduction establishes the context of the research being conducted by
summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic.
☐ c. The introduction states the purpose of the work in the form of the hypothesis,
question, or research problem.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ d. The introduction briefly explains your rationale, methodological approach,

highlighting the expected findings.
☐ e. The introduction describes the remaining structure of the paper or manuscripts.
☐ 3. Research Problem Statement:
☐ a. I have written outlines in at least two sentences the negative points of the current
situation and explain why problem matters. You might look for: A phenomenon
or context that has not been closely studied. A contradiction between two or
more perspectives.
☐ b. The research problem sentences have stated a phenomenon or context that has
not been closely studied. A contradiction between two or more perspectives.
☐ c. The research problem sentences have stated a contradiction between two or
more perspectives.
☐ d. I have put the problem in context based on what I already knew.
☐ e. I have described the precise issue that the research will address or what I need
to know.
☐ f. I have showed the relevance of the problem, clear stated why I need to know it.
☐ g. I have stated what I will do to find out or will address but I do not offer a solution.
☐ 4. Research Questions:
☐ a. You have written research questions that are set out to answer based on
element of quantitative or qualitative research or else.
☐ b. Your research questions are grounded in previous research and can fill
"knowledge gaps" in the empirical literature.
☐ c. Your research questions serve as the basis by which meaningful contributions
will be found to a given body of knowledge.
☐ d. Research designs can be chosen to answer the research questions.
☐ e. Statistics will be used to answer the research questions.
☐ f. Variables will be chosen and collected to answer the research questions.
☐ g. The sampling design or population, intervention, comparator, and outcome
(PICO) will be defined to answer the research questions.
☐ h. Epidemiological (scientific, systematic, and data-driven) calculations will be used
to answer the research questions.
☐ i. Datasets will be structured, maintained, and managed based on the research
questions.
☐ j. Surveys will be created to answer research questions.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ 5. Research Objectives:
☐ a. You have set research objectives describe concisely to achieve.
☐ b. Your research objectives have provided direction to your study.
☐ c. Your research objectives have been presented in logical sequence.
☐ d. Your research objectives have used action verbs that are 'SMART' (specific,
measurable, achievable/attainable, realistic/relevant and time-bound/timely).
☐ e. The objectives have matched with research questions.
☐ f. The objectives have matched with the hypothesis of the study.
☐ g. The objectives have placed in numbered list to be clearly identified.
☐ h. The objectives have specifically identified variables being investigated.
☐ 6. Hypotheses:
☐ a. My study is classified as quantitative method and has hypotheses.
☐ b. I have formulated the hypotheses based on previous studies.
☐ c. I have explained the hypotheses what I expect to happen.
☐ d. The hypotheses are claims or ideas about a group or population.
☐ e. I have explained the hypotheses clear and understandable.
☐ f. The hypotheses contain independent and dependent variables.
☐ g. The hypotheses are statements about a property of a population.
☐ h. The hypotheses have converted claims into null and alternative hypotheses.
☐ i. The null hypotheses have stated that the values of population parameters equal
to claimed values (no difference between a parameter and a specific value or no
difference between two parameters).
☐ j. The alternative hypotheses have stated that the values of population parameters
differ from the null hypotheses (the existence of a difference between a
parameter and a specific value or there is a difference between two parameters).
☐ 7. Literature Review:
☐ a. In my literature review I have demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the
academic literature on a specific research topic placed in my context.
☐ b. I have included a critical evaluation and arguments of the material.
☐ c. I have clearly differentiated existing research has already been done and
identified arguments what is still unknown within my topic.
☐ d. I have clearly highlighted significant themes of my subject/topic.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ e. I have clearly established themes of my subject/topic.

☐ f. I have clearly referred my subject/topic from reliable sources.
☐ g. I have paraphrased the recent developments of my subject/topic from reliable
sources.
☐ h. I have been able to decide the appropriate methods for my research.
☐ i. I have been able to present the strengths of the themes of my chosen topic.
☐ j. I have been able to find evidence that supports my topic.
☐ k. I have been able to find the gaps or weak areas in the literature.
☐ l. I have been able to further elaborate the gaps I found.
☐ m. I have been able to search controversy in the literature.
☐ n. I have mentioned my ideas based on my review.
☐ o. I have explained reasons behind of my ideas.
☐ p. I have linked my research question link into these ideas.
☐ q. I have explicitly stated the importance of my topics need to be undertaken.
☐ r. I have structured literature review in such an order that matched with the scope
of my project/dissertation.
☐ s. I have eliminated unimportant literatures are irrelevant with the planning stages.
☐ t. I have followed the principles of proper citation and reference list.
☐ u. I used reference management software.
☐ v. I have ensured that readers understand cited sources’ contribution in the context
of the existing literature.
☐ 8. Methodology:
☐ a. I have presented the strategies in the collection of data or evidence for analysis.
☐ b. I have presented the strategies in the collection of data or evidence for analysis.
☐ c. I have presented the techniques utilized in the collection of data or evidence for
analysis.
☐ d. I have been able to identify types of research methods used.
☐ e. I have explained my data collection mechanisms so clear that any repeating
process can be made by other researchers.
☐ f. I have been able to identify the most suitable tools for data collection.
☐ g. My research is under Qualitative Research.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ h. I have gathered data about lived experiences, emotions or behaviours, and the
meanings individuals attach to them. Data collection tools
☐ i. I have used qualitative techniques/data collection tools of interviews, focus
groups, observations, document analysis or oral history or life stories.
☐ j. My research is under Quantitative Research.
☐ k. I have gathered data about numerical data which can be ranked, measured or
categorised through statistical analysis.
☐ l. I have used quantitative techniques/data collection tools of surveys or
questionnaires, observation, document screening and experiments.
☐ m. My research is under Mixed Methods Research.
☐ n. I have integrated both Qualitative and Quantitative Research and provided a
holistic approach combining and analysing the statistical data with deeper
contextualised insights.
☐ o. I have correctly applied one of the following probability sampling methods:
simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling and clustered
sampling.
☐ p. I have correctly applied one of the following non-probability sampling methods:
convenience sampling, quota sampling, judgement (or purposive) sampling and
snowball sampling. Analysis Software for your business
☐ 9. Discussion and Analysis:
☐ a. I have used analysis software or programming languages for my research (eg.
SPSS, NVivo, Python etc.): ……………..
☐ b. I have visualized selected data in one or more of the following: charts, tables,
graphs, maps, infographics, dashboards or others.
☐ c. I have explained very clearly the included data (graphs, charts or tables in my
writing) in the texts. analysis.
☐ d. I have explained very clearly why those data is relevant to my writing inclusion.
☐ e. I have stated the study’s major findings.
☐ f. I have explained the meaning and importance of the findings.
☐ g. I have considered alternative explanation of the findings.
☐ h. I have related the findings to problem statements, research questions, objectives
and to those of similar studies.
☐ i. My results differ from my expectations and I have explained why that could have
happened.

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SELF EDITING AND PROOF READING (DRAFT 1)
Writing Checklist

☐ j. My results agree with my expectations and I have described the theory or

philosophy that the evidence supported.
☐ k. I used present tense for referring to generally accepted facts and principles.
☐ l. I used past tense for referring to work done by specific individuals (including self-
citation, in normal case no self-citations).
☐ m. I have used different suitable verb tenses to distinguish between my own studies
and published information from other researchers.
☐ n. I am always abstain from either presenting a superficial interpretation or
restating a result.
☐ o. I avoid discussions appearing arrogant, condescending or patraonzing.
☐ 10. Conclusion:
☐ a. I only made conclusions that are supported by the data.
☐ b. I restated my main points and did not repeat them.
☐ c. I acknowledge the study’s limitations.
☐ d. I have suggested for further research.
☐ e. No new cited information included in the conclusion.
☐ f. The final sentence is really meaningful and the ultimate payoff for all of the setup
given up to this point.
☐ 11. References:
☐ a. I have checked all sources are valid.
☐ b. I have been granted permission from the owner of the sources if needed.
☐ c. I have checked all citations are listed in the reference.
☐ d. I used a recommended reference management software.

© Copyrights: Dr. Setyawan Widyarto - ICF 8