How to Write a quality

Research Paper in Sanskrit?

J.S.R.A. Prasad
Dept. of Sanskrit Studies
School of Humanities
University of Hyderabad
 Road Map
 Why to write?
 What if I write?
 Qualities of a good writer
 The structure of a paper
 कथं वा प्रायम्ब्?
 ...हे तस्
ु तदद्भ
ु वे
 Initiate the process this way
 MLA style
 Related glossary
 LaTeX publishing National Workshop on Manuscriptology &
Research Methodology, Sanskrit Academy,
9/2/2009 Hyderabad 2
Why to write?
Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers
on the mountains; God composes, why
shouldn't we? - Audra Foveo-Alba

The purpose of a writer is to keep

civilization from destroying itself – Albert
Camus

The difference between the right word and

the almost right word is the difference
between lightning and a lightning bug. - Mark
Twain
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What if I write?
 You are visible to the scholarly world
 You can contribute to the society
 You can be a torch bearer in your own
saastra
 You get exempted from minimum
eligibility conditions for your higher
degree in some Universities!

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Research Methodology, Sanskrit Academy,
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Qualities of a good writer
 Enthusiasm
 Knowledge of the subject
 Control over the language
 Logical presentation of the content

ग्रहणं धायणं चैव स्भयणं प्रततऩादनभ ् ।

ऊहाऩोहोऽथथववऻानं तत्त्वऻानं च धीगुणा् ।।
(ऩदमोजना 2.1.1)

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Qualities of a good writer
 Reader oriented style
 Knowledge of contemporary issues

शवितनथऩुणतारोकशास्त्रकाव्माद्यवेऺणात ् ।
काव्मऻतशऺमाभ्मास इतत हे तुस्तदद्भु वे ।।
(काव्मप्रकाश् 1.1)

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Research Methodology, Sanskrit Academy,
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 The structure of a paper
• उद्दे श्मकथनभ ् (why this topic should be focused on?)

उऩोद्घात् • ववषमऩरयचम् (motivation towards the content)

• अंशतो ववषमप्रततऩादनभ ् (classification of content in to parts)

ववषम
• तार्कथकऩद्धत्मा तनरूऩणभ ् (logical order maintained)
ववस्ताय्

• अवधेमांऽशा् (whether the paper is full in its extent?)

उऩसंहाय् • तनष्कषथ् (conclusion)

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कथं वा प्रायम्ब्?
 सवथस्म रेखस्म मुगऩदे व रेखनं भास्तु । सवथस्मादौ
शान्तत्मोऩववश्म मे च अंशा् स्भृततऩथभामान्न्तत,
तानंशान ् ऩत्रे तरखन्ततु । अनन्ततयं तेभ्मंऽशेभ्म्
आकृ ततकल्ऩनां कुवथन्ततु । मदा एते रेखनवफन्तदव्
(points) सञ्जामन्तते, तदा तान ् वफन्तदन
ू ् वववृण्वन्ततु ।

 र्दनद्वम-र्दनत्रमानन्ततयभेव तरन्खतं ववषमं

ऩरयशील्मताभ ् । एवं ऩत्रसभातिऩतथन्ततभ ् नैकवायभेष
क्रभो व्रज्म् ।

 अत्र रेखनवफन्तदतु ब् राब् एवं स्मात ् एते च संन्ऺप्त्मै

(abstract) अग्रे भहदऩु कायाम बववष्मन्न्तत ।
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 कथं वा प्रायम्ब्?
 प्रत्मेकन्स्भन ् वफन्तदौ मे शास्त्रववषमा् अस्भातबयवगन्ततव्मा् ते च
तत्तच्छास्त्रसम्फन्न्तधग्रन्तथेभ्म्, ऩवत्रकाभ्म्, ऩूवत थ नरेखेभ्म्
सङ्ग्ग्रहणीमा् । साम्प्रततककारे अन्ततजाथरस्म उऩमोग्
ववतनमोगश्च अत्मन्ततभुऩकायाम कल्ऩते । Use search engines
such as „Google‟ etc., to locate the required information.

 ववषम-शास्त्रसम्फद्ध ऩुस्तकानां, ऩवत्रकानां नैयन्ततमथ ऩठनं पराम

कल्ऩते
 क्रतभकऩद्धत्मा उद्धत ृ ववषमाणाभ ् अङ्ग्कनं कामथभ ् । तेनैव
तत्तद्ग्ग्रन्तथनाभेत्मार्दकं आकयग्रन्तथसूची तनभाथणाथं यन्ऺतव्मभ ्
 ववषमसङ्ग्गहणे भधुभन्ऺकान्तमाम् आश्रमणीम्
 Take notes as you read something or listen to someone
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...हे तस्
ु तदद्भ
ु वे

शोधकामथ
प्रफन्तध्
अनुफन्तधचतुष्टम, स्रोतांतस
सङ्ग्गत्मार्दतब् शास्त्रग्रन्तथा्, ऩवत्रका्,
सङ्ग्गोष्ठीरेखा इत्मादम्

नूतनशोध
रेखप्रक्रभ्
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 Initiate the Process This Way
 बावमुिं शीषथकं तचन्तवन्ततु । शीषथकतभदं र्कन्ञ्चत ्
„सूत्रभ‟् इव स्मात ् । (title of the paper)
 रेखकस्म नाभ, सङ्ग्केतार्दकभ ् (address, email etc.)
 संन्ऺति् (abstract) - not more than 200/250 words.
Economy of words be maintained and relevant to
the content
 कुन्ञ्चकाऩदातन (key words) – a few, unknown
 ववषमप्रस्तुतत् – उऩोद्घात् – not more than two
pages and the length of the entire paper (body text)
depends on the guidelines
 उऩसंहाय् (conclusion) – describe the
method/material used
 Use preferably Unicode fonts in computer
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 MLA - General Style
Specific editorial requirements for submission of a manuscript will always
supercede instructions in these general guidelines.

To make a paper readable:

 Print or type using a 12 point standard font, such as Times,
Geneva, Bookman, Helvetica, etc. मर्द संस्सृते तरख्मते तर्हथ
„Gargi, Mangal, Sanskrit 2003, Xdevnag‟ इत्मादमो ऩरयशीरनीमा् ।
 Text should be double spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper with 1 inch
margins, single sided
 Number pages consecutively
 Start each new section on a new page
 Adhere to recommended page limits
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 MLA - General Style
 Use normal prose including articles ("a", "the," etc.)
 Stay focused on the research topic of the paper
 Use paragraphs to separate each important point
(except for the abstract)
 Indent the first line of each paragraph
 Present your points in logical order
 Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader
directly, and don't use jargon, slang terms, or
superlatives
 Avoid use of superfluous pictures - include only those
figures necessary to presenting ideas
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 Avoid mistakes
 Placing a heading at the bottom of a page
with the following text on the next page
(insert a page break!)
 Dividing a table or figure - confine each
figure/table to a single page
 Submitting a paper with pages out of order
(Source: Wikipedia)
 Don‟t use several fonts with various
attributes
 Don‟t mention anonymous quotes
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 Avoid mistakes
 Proof read the draft – spellings, cases,
tenses, incomplete sentences
 Beating around the bush? Don‟t waste the
time of the reader
 Avoid fictitious writing
 अथं फुद्ग््वा शब्दयचना – „Changing
temperature had the following affect on
the subject‟ (affect = verb; effect = noun)
What happened to the subject was an effect.
The temperature change affected the subject.
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 Related Glossary
 Op. cit. (Latin, short for "opus citatum"/"opere
citato“)
 meaning "the work cited/from the cited work") is
the term used to provide an endnote or footnote
citation to refer the reader to an earlier citation. To
find the Op. cit. source, one has to look at the
previous footnotes or general references section to
find the relevant author. This repeats the previous title
for a given author.

 Loc. cit. (location cited)

 refers to the last cited source is rarely used. This
repeats the title and page number for a given
author. National Workshop on Manuscriptology &
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Related Glossary
 Ibid. (Latin, short for ibidem, "the same place")
is the term used to provide an endnote or
footnote citation or reference for a source that
was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote. It
is similar in meaning to idem (meaning something
that has been mentioned previously; the same)
abbreviated “id.," which is commonly used in legal
citation
Example
 4. E. Vijh, Latin for dummies (New York: Academic,
1997), p.23.
 5. Ibid.
 6. Ibid., p.29.
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Related Glossary
 Super script – numerical reference
 Foot notes – normally at the bottom of
page
 End notes – normally at the end of the
paper
 Bibliography – complete publication
details
 Acknowledgements (optional)

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 laTeX is originated from the TeX, a low level
programming language- in 1982
 LaTeX is a macro package based on TeX. Its
purpose is to simplify TeX typesetting, especially
for documents containing mathematical formulae.
Many later authors have contributed extensions,
called packages or styles, to LaTeX. Some of these
are bundled with most TeX/LaTeX software
distributions; more can be found in the
Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN)
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 Since LaTeX comprises a group of TeX commands,
LaTeX document processing is essentially
programming. You create a text file in LaTeX markup.
The LaTeX macro reads this to produce the final
document.
 Clearly this has disadvantages in comparison with a
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program
such as Openoffice.org Writer or Microsoft Word

Some disadvantages (ignorable):

 You can't see the final result straight away.
 You need to know the necessary commands for
LaTeX markup.
 It can sometimes be difficult to National
obtain a
Workshopcertain 'look'.
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On the other hand, there are certain advantages to the
markup language approach:
 The layout, fonts, tables and so on are consistent throughout.
 Mathematical formulae can be easily typeset.
 Indexes, footnotes and references are generated easily.
 You are forced to correctly structure your documents.
 The LaTeX-like approach can be called WYSIWYMi.e. What You
See Is What You Mean: you can't see what the final version will
look like while typing. Instead you see the logical structure of the
document. LaTeX takes care of the formatting for you.
 The LaTeX document is a plain text file containing the content of
the document, with additional markup. When the source file is
processed by the macro package, it can produce documents in
several formats. LaTeX natively supports DVI and PDF, but by
using other software you can easily create PostScript, PNG, JPG,
etc. National Workshop on Manuscriptology &
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Where to Publish?
 Journals of Sanskrit Academies – SA, Hyderabad
etc.
 Journals of Oriental Research Institutes –Tirupati,
Chennai, Adyar, Trivandrum etc.
 International journals – Journal of Indian
Philosophy, Journal of Indian council of
Philosophical Research, Journal of Linguistics
 Journals of Sanskrit Universities – Tirupati, Jaipur
etc.
 Magazines of Sanskrit voluntary organizations –
Samskrita Bharati etc.
 Open Access Journals
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 Publish or Perish!
Robert A. Day in his book "How to Write and
Publish a Scientific Paper” says at the end:
 "What I have said in this book is this: Scientific
research is not complete until the results have been
published. Therefore, a scientific paper is an
essential part of the research process. Therefore, the
writing of an accurate, understandable paper is just
as important as the research itself. Therefore, the
words in the paper should be weighed as carefully
as the reagents in the laboratory. Therefore, the
scientist must know how to use words. Therefore,
the education of a scientist is not complete until the
ability to publish has been established.”
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Copy Cat?
 Don‟t be a plagiarist

(Plagiarism is the practice of using or

copying someone else's idea or work and
pretending that you thought of it or
created it – Collins Dictionary)

 Be honest!! Cite original author

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Web References
 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Introd
uction
 http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/landrec/pu
blish.htm
 http://www.publishnotperish.org/module3
/literature_search.htm
 http://www.doaj.org
 http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral
/fx_files/19920/3/latex.GIF
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कुतो वा नूतनं वस्तु वमभुत्प्रेन्ऺतुं ऺभा् ।
वचोववन्तमासवैतचत्रभात्रभत्रावधामथताभ ् ।।
(न्तमा.भं.)

धन्तमवाद्
jsraprasad@gmail.com

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