basic guidelines introduction should have grabber – why is this interesting? should have a claim,...

Basic Guidelines

• Introduction should have grabber – why is this interesting? Should have a claim, idea, or argument that you are going to explain, and any key terms that you are going to use. “Adolf Hitler was a master craftsman, who had only begun to create the German Empire that all German citizens had longed for.”

• Body should be argumentative (making an argument for your point of view) – explaining parts of your claim, using research as evidence to back you up. Cite the sources you are using to help your argument.

• Conclusion is restating your main idea and explaining why it is important, significant, interesting. “If Hitler had lived longer, the European continent would be entirely German, living in peace under the glory of the Nazi flag.”

Basic Styles

• Your writing can be persuasive:– Using favorable evidence to appeal to emotions and

using your own style to persuade readers• Your writing can be argumentative:– Using logic involving claims, evidence, warrants,

backing, and rebuttals• Your writing can also be informative:– Using your research to document an action or event,

still using your own voice to tell your story, using evidence as facts and citing your sources

Summary vs. Paraphrase: What’s the difference?

Summary

Summary strategy: reread the original, to be sure you understand it, then put it aside and write

what you remember/think it says without looking at the original

ParaphrasingThe original passage:

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse

quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should

appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact

transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

A plagiarized version:Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of

them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy

should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source

material copied while taking notes.

A legitimate paraphrase:In research papers students often quote

excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem

usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded

verbatim (Lester, 1976, pp. 46-47).

In-text Citations: one authorCritser (2003) noted that despite growing numbers of overweight

Americans, many health care providers still “remain either in ignorance or

outright denial about the health danger to the poor and the young” (p. 5).

If the author is not named in the signal phrase, place the author’s name, the

year, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation:

(Critser, 2003, p. 5).

Example: two authorsName both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...

OR(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

Example: unknown authorIf the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase

or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports

are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in

quotation marks.

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers

("Using APA," 2001).

APA in-text citations: To support a quote or paraphrase

(author WITH page numbers)

John Howard Griffin states (1977) “the South’s racial situation was a blot on the whole

country…” (p. 2).

OR

“…the South’s racial situation was a blot on the whole country…” (Griffin, 1977, p.2).

APA in-text citations: To support a quote or paraphrase (author WITHOUT page numbers)

People need to cheat “because of the intense competition to get into graduate school” (Rimer,

2003).

OR

According to Rimer (2003) people need to cheat “because of the intense competition to get into

graduate school.”


(TWO or more authors)

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...

OR

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)


(NO author)

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers

("Using APA," 2001).

DON’T FORGET! Support your quotes:1:interpret in your words

2:your opinion3:connect to life/world/history

Cite the quote in APA.”Blah blah” (Jones, 2011, p.5).

“’I love him!’ she yelled” (Jones, 2011, p. 20).

basic guidelines introduction should have grabber – why is this interesting? should have a claim,...

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