The greatest happiness of life is creation, and the creation of knowledge is the most exciting. Bertrand Russell once said that three things supported his life: the pursuit of knowledge, the unstoppable sympathy for human beings and the great love. Wang Xiaobo, deeply influenced by Russell, once said that the human brain is used to feel the supreme happiness, which comes from the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. From this, we can understand why so many people in the world spend their best time in their life writing poems, painting, composing music, studying mathematical theorems, thinking about philosophical problems, and even devote their whole life to academic research, because these activities give infinite happiness to those who engage in these activities. Among them, academic research can bring people pleasure, but also has a special significance.
The accumulation of knowledge is the most important factor for people to become people. In other words, it is the accumulation of knowledge that makes people become "cultural" people, because the so-called "culture" is just the accumulation of knowledge, and it is precisely because human beings have the ability to accumulate knowledge that they can evolve to this day. Now, we all benefit from the preservation and innovation of human knowledge for thousands of years. After entering the modern society, knowledge is growing at an unprecedented rate, and one of the most important forms of this growth is the publication of tens of thousands of academic papers every year. Of course, since ancient times, all kinds of human practical activities have been the most fundamental source of knowledge production. Nevertheless, the paper and writing in the form of words is still a main form for people to inherit and innovate knowledge. In the world, the amount of knowledge is often expressed by the number of papers, which just illustrates the relationship between academic papers and knowledge production from another aspect.
Thesis writing, together with credit system, entrance examination system and degree system, plays an important role in modern higher education. On the one hand, the ultimate goal of thesis writing is knowledge innovation. On the other hand, modern higher education is training and cultivating talents of knowledge innovation through strict and effective thesis writing and evaluation. Even for master's thesis and doctoral thesis writing, academic training still plays a major role. Dissertations are the comprehensive embodiment and the most important symbol of the writer's ability in all aspects of academic research. But this does not mean that dissertations do not have the task and contribution of knowledge innovation. On the contrary, quite a number of master's dissertations and doctoral dissertations constitute an important part of the annual academic achievements, which strongly promotes the academic development. At the same time, the whole knowledge innovation has been integrated with the degree theory The latter is absolutely indispensable to the former. This is not to say that academic training is less important than knowledge innovation. On the contrary, cultivating academic talents is one of the main purposes of modern college education and dissertation writing.
It is at this point that entrance examination, credit system and other aspects of the degree system finally point to dissertation writing.
It is also in this sense that the writing of academic theses, especially master's and doctoral dissertations, is the first step in the training of academic norms and the result of "norms". On the surface, dissertations pursue innovation in content and follow norms in form; but on a deeper level, academic dissertations are "normative" not only in form but also in content. Only through such "norms" and "procedures" can knowledge become knowledge. On the one hand, the biggest "norm" is "innovation". On the other hand, "innovation" must be based on the "norm" at the technical level.
On March 17, 1999, Dr. Guo Yingjian published an article in Zhonghua Dushu Bao on the academic norms that were hotly discussed in the academic circles at that time, saying that "academic anomie is due to the lack of rules". A core problem in the current academic circles in China is the lack of one (or more) academic rules accepted by the vast majority of scholars, editors and publishers. As soon as the article was published, three publishing houses found the editor of Zhonghua Shudu Bao and wanted to contact Dr. Guo to translate the MLA academic paper writer's manual he mentioned in the article. Interestingly, these three publishing houses -- Peking University Press, Nankai University Press, and Shanghai Far East Press -- happen to be in the three municipalities directly under the central government, and two of them are university publishing houses, which just reflects the importance of this issue in the academic developed areas and universities.
So, will academic norms hinder academic innovation? "You may wonder if the set of rules laid down in the stylistic manual will conflict with originality, the central element of academic research. Will strictly following a set of complicated rules restrain or even stifle scholars' thoughts? " Herbert lindenberg also thought of this problem in his preface to the Handbook of style (i.e., MLA Handbook of style and academic publishing, Joseph giboldi, translated by Shen Hong and he Shu, Peking University Press, January 2002). He said: "on the contrary, constraints often bring opportunities. When you follow a standard manual, you don't have to reinvent a style, and your readers don't have to learn to understand a new system. The result of standardization is that you can focus on writing that really contributes to academia
I think this is a concise and powerful explanation of the relationship between academic norms and academic innovation.
