Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Monday, September 11, 2017

APA Documentation Style

Check out these link: Click here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Here’s an excerpt from Penn State University (second link):

General Guidelines
In-text references should immediately follow the title, word, or phrase to which they are directly relevant, rather than appearing at the end of long clauses or sentences. In-text references should always precede punctuation marks. Below are examples of using in-text citation.
Author's name in parentheses:
One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass & Varonis, 1984).
Author's name part of narrative:
Gass and Varonis (1984) found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic.
Group as author:
First citation: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2015)
Subsequent citation: (APA, 2015)
Multiple works: (separate each work with semi-colons)
Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Krech Thomas, 2004).
Direct quote: (include page number)
One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 85).
Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).
Note: For direct quotations of more than 40 words, display the quote as an indented block of text without quotation marks and include the authors’ names, year, and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote. For example:
This suggests that familiarity with nonnative speech in general, although it is clearly not as important a variable as topic familiarity, may indeed have some effect. That is, prior experience with nonnative speech, such as that gained by listening to the reading, facilitates comprehension. (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 77)
Works by Multiple Authors
APA style has specific rules for citing works by multiple authors. Use the following guidelines to determine how to correctly cite works by multiple authors in text.
Note: When using multiple authors' names as part of your narrative, rather than in parentheses, always spell out the word and. For multiple authors' names within a parenthetic citation, use &.
One author: (Field, 2005)
Two authors: (Gass & Varonis, 1984)
Three to five authors:
First citation: (Tremblay, Richer, Lachance, & Cote, 2010)
Subsequent citations: (Tremblay et al., 2010)
Six or more authors: (Norris-Shortle et al., 2006)
Citing Web Pages In Text
Cite web pages in text as you would any other source, using the author and date if known. If the author is not known, use the title and the date as the in-text citation (for long titles just use the first few words). Your in-text citation should lead your reader to the corresponding entry in the reference list. For sources with no date use n.d. (for no date) in place of the year: (Smith, n.d.). Below are examples of using in-text citation with web pages.

Web page with author:
In-text citation
Role-play can help children learn techniques for coping with bullying (Kraiser, 2011).
Reference entry
Kraizer, S. (2011). Preventing bullying. Retrieved from http://safechild.org/categoryparents/preventing-bullying/

Web page with no author:
In-text citation
The term Nittany Lion was coined by Penn State football player Joe Mason in 1904 (All things Nittany, 2006).
Reference entry
All things Nittany. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.psu.edu/ur/about/nittanymascot.html

Web page with no date:
In-text citation
Establishing regular routines, such as exercise, can help survivors of disasters recover from trauma (American Psychological Association [APA], n.d.).
Reference entry
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Recovering emotionally from disaster. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/recovering-disasters.aspx



The 7Cs and Reporting Verbs

Check out these links to learn about the 7Cs:

Click here, here and here.

This is a useful link on the use of Reporting Verbs:
Click here

Check out this link to better understand the difference between coherence and cohesion. 

Paraphrasing and Summarizing Examples

The following example on Paraphrasing is written by Jerry Plotnick, Director of the University College Writing Centre, University of Toronto:

Let’s look at examples of illegitimate and legitimate paraphrase, using the passage from Oliver Sacks’ essay “An Anthropologist on Mars” as follows:
The cause of autism has also been a matter of dispute. Its incidence is about one in a thousand, and it occurs throughout the world, its features remarkably consistent even in extremely different cultures. It is often not recognized in the first year of life, but tends to become obvious in the second or third year. Though Asperger regarded it as a biological defect of affective contact—innate, inborn, analogous to a physical or intellectual defect—Kanner tended to view it as a psychogenic disorder, a reflection of bad parenting, and most especially of a chillingly remote, often professional, "refrigerator mother." At this time, autism was often regarded as "defensive" in nature, or confused with childhood schizophrenia. A whole generation of parents—mothers, particularly—were made to feel guilty for the autism of their children.
What follows is an example of illegitimate paraphrase:
The cause of the condition autism has been disputed. It occurs in approximately one in a thousand children, and it exists in all parts of the world, its characteristics strikingly similar in vastly differing cultures. The condition is often not noticeable in the child’s first year, yet it becomes more apparent as the child reaches the age of two or three. Although Asperger saw the condition as a biological defect of the emotions that was inborn and therefore similar to a physical defect, Kanner saw it as psychological in origin, as reflecting poor parenting and particularly a frigidly distant mother. During this period, autism was often seen as a defence mechanism, or it was misdiagnosed as childhood schizophrenia. An entire generation of mothers and fathers (but especially mothers) were made to feel responsible for their offspring’s autism (Sacks 247-48).
Most of these sentences do little more than substitute one phrase for another. An additional problem with this passage is that the only citation occurs at the very end of the paragraph. The reader might be misled into thinking that the earlier sentences were not also based on Sacks.
The following represents a legitimate paraphrase of the original passage:
In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks lists some of the known facts about autism. We know, for example, that the condition occurs in roughly one out of every thousand children. We also know that the characteristics of autism do not vary from one culture to the next. And we know that the condition is difficult to diagnose until the child has entered the second or third year of life. As Sacks points out, often a child who goes on to develop autism will show no sign of the condition at the age of one (247).
Sacks observes, however, that researchers have had a hard time agreeing on the causes of autism. He sketches the diametrically opposed positions of Asperger and Kanner. On the one hand, Asperger saw the condition as representing a constitutional defect in the child's ability to make meaningful emotional contact with the external world. On the other hand, Kanner regarded autism as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices. For many years confusion about this condition reigned. One unfortunate consequence of this confusion, Sacks suggests, was the burden of guilt imposed on so many parents for their child's condition (247-48).
This paraphrase illustrates a few basic principles that can help you to paraphrase more effectively:
  • Refer explicitly to the author in your paraphrase. The passage above makes explicit right away that the ideas come from Sacks. Its indebtedness is signaled in a few strategic places. The single parenthetical note at the end of each paragraph is therefore all that is needed by way of citation. Referring to Sacks also strengthens the passage by clarifying the source of its ideas.
  • Don’t just paraphrase. Analyze. In the paraphrase of Sacks, the decision to split the original passage into two paragraphs adds an analytical dimension: the new passage doesn’t just reiterate his points but lays out the two-part structure of his argument.
  • Not all of the details from the original passage need to be included in the paraphrase.
  • You don't need to change every word. For the sake of clarity, keep essential terms the same (e.g., autismculture,children). However, avoid borrowing entire phrases (e.g., reflection of bad parenting) unless they are part of the discourse of your field (e.g., psychogenic disorder).
Here is a summary of the passage from "An Anthropologist on Mars":
In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks notes that although there is little disagreement on the chief characteristics of autism, researchers have differed considerably on its causes. As he points out, Asperger saw the condition as an innate defect in the child's ability to connect with the external world, whereas Kanner regarded it as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices (247-48).

You may also wish to try the following exercise from the Purdue Online Writing Lab: 

Paraphrasing Exercise
Answers to Exercise

Rules on Quoting Authors

Check out this link and this link

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Writing Effective Reflective Notes

Check out this link "Faculty of Public Health Tips onWriting Effective Reflective Notes" on writing effective reflective notes

Communicating through email

Check out this link of writing emails. I highly recommend this informative read.

Check out this link on Communicating through Email. It touches on the basics of emails writing.

You may also want to check out this link on the language used in formal, semi-formal, and informal emails.

"Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking" by Carol Rodgers

Please find the link to the article "Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking" by clicking here

Monday, September 4, 2017

7Cs in Writing

Hi Students,

Here are some examples/links that show you how you may write competently to meet your readers' needs by adhereing to the 7Cs.

Conciseness

If you can say "Now/then..." don't say "At this/that point in time..."
In other words, don't beat around the bush!

Click here

Eliminating redundant pairs, repetitive wordings, words you might do away with are some of the examples you will find in the article above.

Clarity

Writing with clarity = being clear, eliminating doubts, uniting ideas and using emphasis.
I found two good sites to share with all of you: Click here

Concreteness
Would saying this
"This will give us time to reach some meaningful conclusions"
be better than this
"This will give us enough time to determine our budget"

What about "Does Guerrilla Marketing create a positive impact?" compared to "Does Guerrilla Marketing increases revenue?"?

As best as you can, use facts, figures, statistics, details to support your writing.