CBAS210 Academic Writing PDF

CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS A. Conventions of Academic Writing Introduction Conventions of Academic Writing are basically rules that we follow when we are writing essays and paragraphs with a goal to produce writing that is clear, concise, formal, and objective with ideas th...

CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS A. Conventions of Academic Writing Introduction Conventions of Academic Writing are basically rules that we follow when we are writing essays and paragraphs with a goal to produce writing that is clear, concise, formal, and objective with ideas that are supported with evidence, simply explained and easy to understand. Your ideas may be complex, but the reader is able to interpret them without difficulty. First of all, you need to consider that writing is communicative. In all forms of communication there is a sender who transmits a message to a receiver. In academic writing that message will be a fact-based argument, and in order to successfully deliver this you need to know who you're writing for and what you can expect your target reader to already know. In other words, identifying your audience is crucial. Another central feature of academic writing is that it’s objective, which means you should avoid bias language and generalizations, and that you shouldn't bring in your personal preconceptions or opinions. An academic essay about, say, a fictional character, a political conflict, or a religious issue should present an argument that sheds light on the actual topic but mustn't be a subjective statement on the part of the writer. Academic writing is a formal genre, and you are expected to use a rather strict register and format. This can be a challenge, especially for non-native writers, as different levels of formality might be difficult to recognize in a second language. Remember the question of style and register in writing is not necessarily a difference between what is right or wrong language wise but rather specifies what is the preferred style for a specific occasion. In other words, what is right in one context may not be considered okay in CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS another. Just as you wouldn't wear flip-flops to a formal dinner, you don't use the informal style of text messages between friends in a job application or a university essay. But how do you go about finding the right level of formality for writing at university then? Well, one way is to study texts within your specific discipline. As a university student you have loads of helpful resources to help. You have access to your university library resources books, as well as journals, and perhaps also student papers, and degree projects written at your department. Read texts within your discipline to learn how scholars and experienced students write. Look for things like how they introduce arguments, how they define and use discipline specific terms, and how they make use of previous research within the field. The last thing I'd like to raise here is the fact that writing practices do vary from one academic discipline to the next. This means that you need to learn what is expected of you for the particular text that you are writing. An article in physics looks very different from one in history. For instance, if you transfer from one discipline to another, you'll notice that although the basics remain the same, the way that texts are written when it comes to referencing and text structure, for instance, may differ. B. Phrasing Tips for Essay Writing This short reading will introduce ways to phrase words in your essay. When referring to the author’s points in an essay, try to choose the most appropriate verb (rather than simply “Smith says…”). CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Smith argues that… (he builds a case) Smith maintains that… (he persistently states) Smith implies that… (he indirectly conveys the idea) Smith asserts that… (he strongly states) Smith suggests that… (he indirectly conveys the idea) Smith claims that… (this implies doubt on your part) Since your essay must contain interpretation and analysis of the writer’s ideas, it is suitable to make frequent use of phrases such as: This shows… This reveals… This means… This suggests… The author is implying that… This example proves that… etc., etc. Lead-in words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence can be useful to coordinate your essay and to make smooth, logical transitions between your points: On the other hand,… Meanwhile,… Similarly,… In contrast,… Moreover,… However,… Nevertheless,… To sum up,… Finally,… In conclusion,… etc., etc. Use the correct terms to refer to the writer and/or the narrator: CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS An essay: refer to the writer by surname, or use the terms writer, author, or essayist (The term narrator is not usually used in discussing an essay, since the writer is speaking as him/herself.) A short story: refer to the writer by surname, or use the terms writer or author (Remember that in fiction, the actual story-telling voice is not regarded as the voice of the author. Refer instead to the narrator or to the narrative voice of the story.) C. Academic Writing Traits Academic writing traits Introduction: Academic writing is not simply about recording ideas or proving learning, it's about creating ideas, creating learning. Writing isn't a product. Writing is a process. Writing a good piece of academic work requires consideration of a wide variety of factors. Also presenting such good work requires skills. Good academic writing depends on a variety of factors such as cohesion, coherence, clarity, reader-friendliness, and plagiarism. Let’s discuss each and every aspect of good academic writing in detail: Cohesion: Cohesion refers to connecting your ideas by using grammar. It is referred to at the sentence level. Using grammatical concepts like conjunctions, etc. leads to cohesion. Cohesion is an important aspect for good academic writing. Thorough knowledge on grammar is required to perform CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS cohesion. Without cohesion, your ideas cannot be structured for presentation. Lack of cohesion skills might result in the user's lack of comprehending your presentation. Cohesion suggests stability and a degree of predictability. To be cohesive, something should be uniformly, and /or operationally functional and strong. Where the individual parts fit together to make a whole. It is more of an aesthetic quality. Starting from introduction to final conclusion a structured format is required to create flow of ideas. Coherence: Coherence is the logical connection between your sentences. Apart from grammatical aspects, a new way of presenting information has to be made for readers to gain understanding over your work. This requires knowledge on what you are doing, what concepts have you discussed and how you are going to present. These aspects help you understand the flow. This is referred to at the logical level. Coherence refers to the intellectual quality, internal logic and rationality of the idea, notion, or whatever is being described. It is structural or logical quality. Have a pre planned flow of ideas. Experiment it and produce results. Clarity: Clarity is always an important aspect for good academic writing. Without thorough knowledge on the subject of discussion, one cannot present it in a seemingly better way. To achieve clarity, try to understand the subject and its aspects. Clarity and precision are two key factors for a good presentation. Achieving precision means accuracy, Clarity is having a broad understanding towards the idea. With these factors, a good piece of academic writing can be produced. Reading out aloud is an important step in achieving clarity. When starting a paragraph try providing the intended message in the beginning itself. Not having clarity can be reflected when it is read. Reader Friendliness: Readers community is the most important consideration for producing any piece of work. Without the readers it is impossible for your work to be endorsed. Always try to present the work with a reader in mind. A reader may be from any background. He may or may not have the required skills to understand your work. Producing a work that is reader friendly is as important as targeting audiences. Try to produce a work that is comprehendible in grammatical and logical aspects. Use CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS simple language etiquette. Don’t try proving your fluency over the language. Make your work universal. Have references if needed for them to gain insights from various sources. Plagiarism: One of the most important aspects of good academic writing traits is avoiding plagiarism. Plagiarism is the art of reproducing another person’s work or extracting from your own previous works. Using plagiarised content might lead to severe consequences depending upon your nature of work. Famous writers, poets, researchers have been accused of plagiarism and their works have been rejected/ terminated for a variety of reasons. Plagiarism must be avoided as much as possible. A piece of work with minimal plagiarised content is accepted worldwide and helps in building good writing practices. Try generating new ideas rather than stating someone’s effort as yours. Avoid extracting sources from the internet or any book that is copyrighted. Generate new ideas and create new pieces of work. This might produce good academic manuscripts with good accreditations. There are various forms of plagiarism like extracting from the internet, word for word extraction without acknowledgement, paraphrasing and so on. Internet has been the source for plagiarism as there is every information needed for any researcher or writer. Conclusion: Various aspects of good academic writing have been discussed along with their importance. Cohesion, coherence, clarity and reader friendliness are the key factors to good academic manuscripts. Apart from these, avoiding plagiarism is needed for achieving perfection in academic writing. There are a variety of other factors leading to good academic writing but these factors discussed play a pivotal role. D. The Writing Process Introduction The writing process includes strategies and activities that will allow you to organise your ideas, so you can write them down in a way that makes sense to your audience. Although each of us has our own way and process, it is helpful to follow a general method to assist us in CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS reaching a final product of a well written paragraph, essay or other type of written communication. This section will focus on learning how to write a strong structurally correct paragraph that includes developed ideas with a variety of sentences that express the intended meaning. Your paragraph will contain three strong balanced and distinct points with explanations and examples, as well as a clear and concise topic sentence and concluding sentence. Learning the skill of writing a good paragraph will allow you to move on to write a full essay with paragraphs that are connected and act as the building blocks for the essay structure. Invention and Prewriting When you're asked to create something out of the blue for a writing project, it can be a daunting task. However, there are a variety of techniques the writer can use to help them begin the process of creating or inventing ideas and material for her writing. First off, what is invention and what does it have to do with writing? Well, invention is what happens before we begin writing. We decide what we want to write based on the requirements of the rhetorical situation, and then we try to create or invent ideas that will become part. Already that seems to work when I get an assignment. I try to think about what I can write that fulfils that assignment. For example, if a teacher says he wants an essay about a current issue I find an issue such as teaching evolution in schools, and then I follow what the assignment asks. That seems easy enough, but what if I can't think of anything and just sit there staring blankly at the computer screen. Sure we've all felt that sense of frustration at being unable to come up with interesting ideas for an assignment, but there are a number of resources and practices at your fingertips, some of which may be unaware of that you can rely on to help you get over the hump when creating material for a project. But what if I'm not that creative of a person? I'm pretty boring, actually. Don't be too hard on yourself. All writers face similar creative challenges. It's important to remember to keep an open mind and realise that the process of invention isn't going to happen all at once. It's not CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS going to be a Eureka moment every time exactly. Invention is an ongoing process. It starts with questions, ideas that were ideas that don't work, and more questions. Okay, that , but how do I know what questions to ask? Well there are a number of activities you can do to help you create or invent such questions. What exactly are those types of activities? To begin with, you can ask the who, what, when, where and why questions, so what I am saying is: ask questions like who is this writing for, what is this writing about? What time period will the writing relate to? Or when will it appear; where will I submit it, or even as simple as why am I writing this in the first place? Yes, and for each question you can begin jotting down any and all answers that come to mind. This is the process referred to as brainstorming. In addition to taking notes in brainstorming you could also begin constructing an outline to help you organise your thoughts. Ultimately, your goal in beginning the invention process is to have a broad scope and then narrow it as your interest in a topic becomes more clear. Both of those suggestions are great ideas, and another very useful method for your invention is to reflect on your own life experiences and try to generate material or ideas from that. Sometimes people think that method, using stuff from your own life, is too obvious, but it's actually really helpful. Writers are experts when it comes to their own life experiences, and they should use them as much as possible. That's pretty good advice, so it seems like if I spend a lot of time at the beginning of a writing project trying to think of interesting things to say then I'll be okay. Well that's true, but remember that invention is an ongoing process don't stop thinking once you begin writing. Be open to making changes and adjustments as you write if something doesn't work like you expected. Great point, and remember that there is no one perfect way to do invention activities for writing. The most important skill may be to begin to learn how to ask questions about what the writing is designed to be doing, as well as how it will accomplish its goal. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Writing in the University The Importance of Writing in the Workplace Good writing skills are important for most jobs, professions and general responsibilities in everyday life. As our world moves to a more online way of doing things, we need our writing to be clear, concise and error free. In addition, several of the other valued skills are grounded in written communication. Critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills The ability to analyse and solve complex problems The ability to locate, organise, and evaluate information from multiple sources As you work your way through this course you will be sharpening these writing skills to carry you into your university level courses and into the workplace. Understanding the Assignment There are four kinds of analysis you need to do in order to fully understand an assignment: determining its purpose, understanding how to answer an assignment’s questions, recognizing implied questions in the assignment, and recognizing the expectations of the assignment, which vary depending on the discipline and subject matter. Always make sure you fully understand an assignment before you start writing! Determine the Purpose The wording of an assignment should suggest its purpose. Any of the following might be expected of you in a college/university writing assignment: Summarising information Analysing ideas and concepts CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Taking a position and defending it Combining ideas from several sources and creating your own original argument. Understand How to Respond College writing assignments will ask you to answer a how or why question – questions that can’t be answered with just facts. For example, the question “What are the names of the Prime Ministers of Canada in the last twenty years?” needs only a list of facts to be answered. The question “Who was the best Prime Minister of the last twenty years and why?” requires you to take a position and support that position with evidence. Sometimes, a list of prompts may appear with an assignment. Usually, your instructor will not expect you to answer all of the questions listed. They are simply offering you some ideas so that you can think of your own questions to ask. Recognize Implied Questions A prompt may not include a clear ‘how’ or ‘why’ question, though one is always implied by the language of the prompt. For example: “Discuss the possible effects of children returning to school during the Covid19 pandemic” is asking you to write how the Covid19 Pandemic may affect children in schools once they have returned. “Consider the recent rise of autism diagnoses” is asking you to write why the diagnoses of autism are on the rise. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS GETTING STARTED Before beginning the writing process, always establish the following: Is there an assigned topic or are you free to choose your own? What about your subject interests you? Why is your subject worth reading about? Double-check that your subject is not too broad – narrow it down if necessary. Determine the purpose of the work. Determine the readers of the work and their level of knowledge about the topic. Determine where your evidence will come from. Decide what kind of evidence would best serve your argument. Identify the required style (MLA, APA, etc.) of the paper. Be aware of length specifications. Consider if visuals might be helpful in your paper. Will someone be reviewing drafts of your paper? Who? Note your deadline and how much time you have for each stage of the writing process. Recognize Expectations Depending on the discipline in which you are writing, different features and formats of your writing may be expected. Always look closely at key terms and vocabulary in the writing assignment, and be sure to note what type of evidence and citations style your instructor expects. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS The Writing Process Have you ever received a writing assignment, thought “this won’t take long” and then stayed up all night writing the night before your assignment was due because it ended up taking a lot longer than you thought it would? If you have, you’re not alone. Many beginning writers struggle to plan well when it comes to a writing assignment, and this results in writing that is just not as good as it could be. When you wait until the last minute and fail to engage in every step of the writing process, you’re not doing your best work. Writing itself is a process through which you ask questions; create, develop, hone, and organise ideas; argue a point; search for evidence to support your ideas…and so on. The point here is that writing really involves creative and critical thinking processes. Like any creative process, it often starts in a jumble as you develop, sort, and sift through ideas. But it doesn’t need to stay in disarray. Your writing will gain direction as you start examining those ideas. It just doesn’t happen all at once. Writing is a process that happens over time. And like any process, there are certain steps or stages. Figure 1. Writing is a recursive process, meaning that you will work through most of these steps, but not necessarily in this exact order, and revisit most of them throughout the process. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS These are some of the major stages in a strong writing process: 1. Thinking about your assignment 2. Prewriting 3. Gathering information and evidence 4. Organising and drafting 5. Revising and editing The writing process is not linear, but recursive, meaning you will need to move forward through some steps and then circle back to redo previous steps. In other words, while we still think of writing as a process taking place in a series of steps, we now understand that good writers tend to switch frequently among the different steps as they work. An insight gained while editing one chapter might convince the writer that an additional chapter is needed; as a result, the writer might start another drafting phase—or even decide to divide one chapter into two or three, and begin reorganising and developing new drafts. In short, while it is very useful to think of writing as a process, the process is not a clear, always-the-same series of steps. Instead, it is a sometimes messy, forward-and-backward process in which you strive for simplicity but try to appeal to your audience, create but also organise, enjoy yourself, if possible, but also follow some rules, and eventually create a finished product that works. TRY IT - practice: purpose and process CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Writing Through Fear Writing is an activity that can cause occasional anxiety for anyone, even professional writers. Start early and use strategies, like those mentioned below, to help you work through the anxiety. WRITING ANXIETY The following essay about writing anxiety, by Hillary Wentworth, from the Walden Writing Center, offers insight about how to handle issues surrounding writer’s block: I suppose fall is the perfect time to discuss fear. The leaves are falling, the nights are getting longer, and the kids are preparing ghoulish costumes and tricks for Halloween. Figure 2. Don’t let fears get in the way of your writing assignment—there are tips and tools that can help! So here’s my scary story: A few weeks ago, I sat down at my computer to revise an essay draft for an upcoming deadline. This is old hat for me; it’s what I do in my personal life as a creative writer, and it’s what I do in my professional life as a Walden Writing Center instructor. As I was skimming through it, though, a feeling of dread settled in my stomach, I began to sweat, and my pulse raced. I was having full-on panic. About my writing. This had never happened to me before. Sure, I have been disappointed in my writing, frustrated that I couldn’t get an idea perfectly on paper, but not completely fear-stricken. I Xed out of the Word document and watched Orange Is the New Black on Netflix because I couldn’t look at the essay anymore. My mind was too clouded for anything productive to happen. The experience got me thinking about the role that fear plays in the writing process. Sometimes fear can be a great motivator. It might make us read many more articles than are truly necessary, just so we feel prepared enough to articulate a concept. It might make us stay up into the wee hours to proofread an assignment. But sometimes fear can lead to paralysis. Perhaps your anxiety doesn’t CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS manifest itself as panic at the computer; it could be that you worry about the assignment many days—or even weeks—before it is due. Here are some tips to help: 1. Interrogate your fear. Ask yourself why you are afraid. Is it because you fear failure, success, or judgment? Has it been a while since you’ve written academically, and so this new style of writing is mysterious to you? 2. Write through it. We all know the best way to work through a problem is to confront it. So sit at your desk, look at the screen, and write. You might not even write your assignment at first. Type anything—a reflection on your day, why writing gives you anxiety, your favorite foods. Sitting there and typing will help you become more comfortable with the prospect of more. 3. Give it a rest. This was my approach. After realizing that I was having an adverse reaction, I called it quits for the day, which ultimately helped reset my brain. 4. Find comfort in ritual and reward. Getting comfortable with writing might involve establishing a ritual (a time of day, a place, a song, a warm-up activity, or even food or drink) to get yourself into the writing zone. If you accomplish a goal or write for a set amount of time, reward yourself. 5. Remember that knowledge is power. Sometimes the only way to assuage our fear is to know more. Perhaps you want to learn about the writing process to make it less intimidating. You can look through the course resources or look at writing centers on the internet. You can also always ask your instructor questions about the assignment. Break it down. If you feel overwhelmed about the amount of pages or the vastness of the assignment, break it up into small chunks. For example, write one little section of the paper at a time. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS The Writing Process – Brainstorming In order to write a well structured paragraph, follow the process of Brainstorm, Outline, Draft and Edit. This means that before you start writing the first draft of your paragraph, you will brainstorm for ideas. After you’ve narrowed down your ideas to your three most important points, you will write out a detailed outline of the whole paragraph. Next, you will write your first draft, and then you will edit the draft for errors. 1. Brainstorming To get you started on your paragraph, you need to come up with ideas around the topic you will write on and begin to focus on what is important to say. Below are 5 methods for brainstorming: a) Free writing Set yourself a limited time for free writing, for example, ten minutes for a paragraph. Just write without worrying about grammar, spelling, sentences, structure or anything else. If new ideas don’t come, let your mind relax and continue writing even if your ideas don’t seem brilliant. Do not self correct along the way! Here is an example of Freewriting: CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Topic: School Uniforms Some parents love the idea of their children wearing a school uniform because it makes the parents’ life easier. They don’t have to buy so many clothes for their children and the kids don’t take so much time getting dressed for school in the morning. Especially with daughters, the parents probably don’t have to do so much laundry either as school uniforms are usually made up of just a shirt, skirt, and sweater. There are no extras like a variety of shoes, sweaters, tops, and pants. Also their children aren’t being so judged by other kids whose parents may have more money to buy their children expensive brand name clothes. b) Listing Write down any ideas that come to mind about your topic in a list. Here is an example of Listing: Topic: High School Students should be required to wear School Uniforms - Students behave better in public as everyone can recognize what school the students goes to - Students feel proud of the school they go to - Students look equal wearing the same clothes - Parents spend less money on their children’s clothing - Students spend less time getting ready for school in the morning c) Mindmapping Draw a circle and write the title of your paragraph in the centre. Then use lines like sunbeams coming out of the circle for your points. At this stage, don’t worry about how relevant the points are, or the order in which you will write them out. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Here is an example of Mindmapping: High School students should not be required to wear a uniform to school d) Ask Questions Answer the following questions – the 5WH - to activate your brain and come up with ideas: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Example: Students should have to wear a uniform to school Who – students What – wear a uniform When – during school hours Where – to school Why – Students behave better in public as everyone can recognize what school the students go to. Students feel proud of the school they go to. Students look equal wearing the same clothes. Parents spend less money on their children’s clothing. Students spend less time getting ready for school in the morning. How – (no answer) CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS E. How to do Research The Research Process Introduction Much of the writing you will be doing at the college level will include some sort of research. At this level of learning it is imperative that you develop a research process so you can find good sources that will support your argument. In this section, you will learn how to choose and research your topic. During your research process, be sure to access your college library. Your library will give you access to search engines that will supply a great deal of information and resources that will meet your needs. Using the web can be overwhelming when you may be directed to resources that are not credible. Knowing how to use your college library will make researching accurate and straightforward. How to do Research The Research Process CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Figure 1. Although there is a suggested and maybe even logical sequence of steps in the Research Process, don’t feel the need to completely finish one step before moving on to the next. As you gain more experience and practice, these steps will become more fluid and flexible. The research process is not a linear process in which you must complete step one before moving on to step two or three. You don’t need to put off writing your paper until you’ve gathered all of your sources, in fact, you may want to start writing as soon as possible and adjust your search, thesis statement, and writing as you continue to work through the research process. For that reason, consider the following research process as a guideline to follow as your work through your paper. You can (and should!) revisit the steps as many times as needed to create a finished product. 1. Decide on the topic, or carefully consider the topic that has been assigned. 2. Narrow the topic in order to narrow search parameters. When you go to a professional sports event, concert, or event at a large venue, your ticket has three items on it: the section, the row, and the seat number. You go in that specific order to pinpoint where you are supposed to sit. Similarly, when you decide on a topic, you often start large and must narrow the focus; you move from a general subject, to a more limited topic, to a specific focus or issue. The reader does not want a cursory look at the topic; they want to walk away with some newfound knowledge and deeper understanding of the issue. For that, details are essential. For example, suppose you want to explore the topic of autism. You might move from: o General topic: special needs in a classroom o Limited topic: autistic students in a classroom setting o Specific focus: how technology can enhance learning for autistic students 3. Do background research, or pre-research. Begin by figuring out what you know about the topic, and then fill in any gaps you may have on the basics by looking at more general sources. This is a place where general Google searches, Wikipedia, or another CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS encyclopaedia-style source will be most useful. Once you know the basics of the topic, start investigating that basic information for potential sources of conflict. Does there seem to be disagreement about particular aspects of the topic? For instance, if you’re looking at a Civil War battle, are there any parts of the battle that historians seem to argue about? Perhaps some point to one figure’s failing as a reason for a loss, and some point instead to another figure’s spectacular success as a reason his side won? 4. Create a research question. Once you have narrowed your topic so that it is manageable, it is time to generate research questions about your topic. Create thought-provoking, open-ended questions, ones that encourage debate. Decide which question addresses the issue that concerns you—that will be your main research question. Secondary questions will address the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the issue. As an example: o Main question: Does the media stereotype women in such a way that women do not believe they can be leaders? o Secondary questions: How can more women get involved in politics? Why aren’t more women involved in politics? What role does media play in discouraging women from being involved? How many women are involved in politics at a state or national level? How long do they typically stay in politics, and for what reasons do they leave? 5. Next, “answer” the main research question to create a working thesis statement. The thesis statement is a single sentence that identifies the topic and shows the direction of the paper while simultaneously allowing the reader to glean the writer’s stance on that topic. A working thesis performs four main functions: 1. Narrows the subject to the single point that readers should understand 2. Names the topic and makes a significant assertion about that topic 3. Conveys the purpose 4. Provides a preview of how the essay will be arranged (usually). 2. Determine what kind of sources are best for your argument. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS o How many sources will you need? How long should your paper be? Will you need primary or secondary sources? Where will you find the best information? 2. Create a bibliography as you gather and reference sources. Make sure you are using credible and relevant sources. It’s always a good idea to utilize reference management programs like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote so you can keep track of your research and citations while you are working and searching, instead of waiting until the end. 3. Write and edit your paper! Finally, you’ll incorporate the research into your own writing and properly cite your sources. Finding Quality Texts In the world of academia, our gold standard for texts requires them to be created by people with substantial education, advanced degrees, and life expertise, making them experts in their fields. If I’m reading a cookbook, I want it to be by someone who really knows their way around a kitchen—not someone who’s a mediocre cook but decided it would be fun to collect the family favourites into a self-published book. You’re a college student. Without a doubt, the best place for you to find quality information is the college library—and you can do this by walking into the library or searching it via the Web. Many college libraries have adopted a new set of guidelines for helping students find good materials. It’s called CRAP. Yes, really! CRAP stands for currency, reliability, authority, and purpose/point of view. Let’s look further at those words (CRAP): Note: some libraries use CRAAP instead of CRAP, adding a second “A” for “accuracy.” The simple CRAP method, below, incorporates “accuracy” into the “reliable” category. Besides, using CRAP is more fun. C: Currency CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Is this the most recent material you can find? Is the material recent enough to accurately represent your topic? Has it been updated recently? For electronic sites, does the site appear modern and up to date? R: Reliability Is the material objective? Can you detect any obvious bias or loaded language? Are sources available to back up the piece? Is it well written and free of errors? A: Authority Does the author have degrees, experience, or other expertise in the topic area? Is the host source reliable, i.e., a respected newspaper versus an individual blog? Is the publisher reputable and well known? Do you have a sense of trust for the author? P: Purpose and Point of View What is the material’s creator trying to accomplish? Are they trying to inform? Persuade? Push their own agenda? Convince you to buy something? Does the site include advertising or click-bait? Does the article seem aimed at a specific audience? Keeping the metaphor going, your college library is a gold mine for students. Your college library CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Gives you access to a world of source materials that have already been reviewed and approved by the librarian staff. Allows you free database access that would be extremely expensive if purchased as a non-student. Provides current, constantly updated sources. Gives you access to librarians—the library’s greatest resource. Where a library database can give you thousands of results in response to a search, the librarian can help you figure out where to start looking, or what search terms to use. They can answer any and all of your questions relating to research. Can You Also Find Good Material on the World Wide Web? Of course. But doing so can be tricky. Think for a moment. If you’ve found a website or resource you feel might be useful, how do you convince yourself that it follows the CRAP approach? Keep in mind that your college work is different from your day to day activities. For instance, we may surf the Web for a number of different reasons, perhaps for pleasure, perhaps out of boredom, or maybe chasing links. We can search and read as we like; nothing is at stake, so to speak. But in your college work, there’s plenty at stake. Part of doing solid work at the college level has to do with finding strong source materials and using them correctly and effectively. So, how do you find good material on the Web? CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Finding good materials on the Internet takes a bit of detective work. You can use your CRAP detective skills, but it also helps to know a little something about how to navigate and use Web materials. Let’s explore! Authors In many cases, it’s easy to find an author’s name on an online site. Evaluate the author fully—don’t just assume they know what they’re doing. For example, Do they have the right academic credentials or professional experience to back up their authority? For instance, someone who’s spent their life as a short-order cook wouldn’t be considered an authority on astronomy, nor would a PhD-level astronomer be considered an expert on the art of donut making. Have they published work in the field? Does a quick review of the topic or field suggest that they’re a known expert in that area? Evaluating Information Why is it important to evaluate your sources before using them in an essay? What problems may arise if you do not evaluate your sources for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose? When you search for information, you're going to find plenty...but is it accurate and reliable? You will have to determine this for yourself, and the CRAAP Test can help. The CRAAP Test is a list of questions to help determine if the information you find is good quality. Your information source may not meet every criterion on this list; different criteria will be more or less important depending on your situation or need. So why guess? Is your source giving you truly credible and useful information, or just a lot of...?! CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Currency: The timeliness of the information When was the information published or posted? Has the information been revised or updated? Is the information current or too out-of-date for my topic? For web links, are all the links functional or are there dead links? Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs Does the information relate to my topic or answer my question? Who is the intended audience? Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too simple or advanced) for my needs? Did I look at a variety of sources before deciding to use this one? Would I be comfortable using this source for my college research paper? Authority: The source of the information Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Are the author's credentials or organisational affiliations given? What are the author's credentials or organisational affiliations? What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? Examples:.com.edu.gov.org.net Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information Where does the information come from? Is the information supported by evidence? Has the information been reviewed by anyone else? Can I verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Does the language or tone seem biassed? Or is it free of emotion? Are there spelling, grammar, typographical, or other errors? Purpose: The reason the information exists What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? F. Reading and Summarising Introduction Post secondary students like yourself will spend much of their studies reading. In order to become an effective and proficient reader, you will be active in your reading process, allowing you to engage in learning. When you are reading academic materials, you will learn to be conscious of your reading process in order to connect with the text and understand concepts, opinions, research and facts within your readings and then apply what you read to your studies. In this section you will look at: Effective Reading Strategies Reading is the active process of understanding print and graphic texts. Reading is a thinking process. Effective readers know that when they read, what they read is supposed to make sense. They monitor their understanding, and when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously select and use a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will help them reconnect with the CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS meaning of the text. Reading skills and strategies can be taught explicitly while students are learning subject-specific content through authentic reading tasks. Activating Background Knowledge, Predicting, Making Connections - Three Stages of Reading When you read any kind of text you are taking part in many actions and activities all at once. You are engaging with the text, reflecting on the purpose you are reading the text, bringing forth your prior knowledge and experience to what you are reading and adding your knowledge of your language and what you know about reading, as well as your cultural and social language community. These actions and activities are metacognitive (the process of thinking about thinking and being aware of what you know). With all of this combined you draw meaning from the text. How to Summarise your Sources This reading offers strategies for summarising articles. Effective Reading Strategies Reading is the active process of understanding print and graphic texts. Reading is a thinking process. Effective readers know that when they read, what they read is supposed to make sense. They monitor their understanding, and when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously select and use a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will help them reconnect with the meaning of the text. Reading skills and strategies can be taught explicitly while students are learning subject-specific content through authentic reading tasks. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Effective readers use strategies to understand what they read before, during, and after reading. Before reading: use prior knowledge to think about the topic. make predictions about the probable meaning of the text. preview the text by skimming and scanning to get a sense of the overall meaning. During reading: monitor understanding by questioning, thinking about, and reflecting on the ideas and information in the text. After reading: reflect upon the ideas and information in the text. relate what they have read to their own experiences and knowledge. clarify their understanding of the text. extend their understanding in critical and creative ways. Activating Background Knowledge, Predicting, Making Connections - Three Stages of Reading When you read any kind of text you are taking part in many actions and activities all at once. You are engaging with the text, reflecting on the purpose you are reading the text, bringing forth your prior knowledge and experience to what you are reading and adding your knowledge of your language and what you know about reading, as well as your cultural and social language community. These actions and activities are metacognitive (the process of thinking about thinking and being aware of what you know). With all of this combined you draw meaning from the text. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS The reading process can be explained in three parts: pre-reading, active reading, and post-reading. Experienced readers are aware of the actions that they are taking part in as they read and they are constantly summarising what they have just read and asking questions to make connections with their prior experience. Being aware of your metacognitive activities will deepen your critical thinking and comprehension skills. The following activities are designed to heighten your expectations of your reading. STAGE THEORY / TERMS STRATEGIES Schemata is a term used to describe the Preview organised pattern of thought or Activate schemata behaviour you have in your mind. It can Set purpose for reading. also be described as a mental structure Pre-reading What do I know? of preconceived ideas, a framework What do I want to know? representing some aspect of the world, Why am I reading this? or a system of organising and perceiving How does this fit in with my world view? new information. Influence of Schemata on: Construct meaning Comprehension: the level of Evaluate comprehension understanding of a text Metacognition: Employ fix-up strategies as needed knowing about knowing. One’s own Summarise Active Reading thinking process such as study skills, What is the meaning of what I just read? memory capabilities, and the ability to Am I understanding? monitor learning. If not, what should I do about it? Am I fulfilling my purpose? Review Reflection: the ability to exercise Evaluate understanding introspection and the willingness to Evaluate reading process Post-reading learn more about one’s fundamental What have I learned? nature, purpose and essence. What changes/improvements are needed in my reading habits/skills? CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS How to Summarise your Sources Writing Summaries A summary is a short overview of the main points of a text. The purpose of a summary is to quickly give the reader or listener an idea of what this material is saying. You may find it helpful to create summaries of your own work, but more often, you will create summaries of material by other authors, such as articles, plays, films, lectures, stories, or presentations. Why Summarise? At some point in your classes, you will likely be given an assignment to summarise a specific text, an assignment in which summary is the sole intent. You will also use summaries in more holistic ways, though, incorporating them along with paraphrase, quotation, and your own opinions into more complex pieces of writing. You might summarise for several reasons, both in your time as a student and in your life outside of education. Here are some common ones: A summary can show your understanding of the main points of an assigned reading or viewing, so your instructor might ask you to summarise in order to know that you’ve understood the material. You might summarise a section from a source, or even the whole source, when the ideas in that source are critical to an assignment you are working on and you feel they need to be included, but they would take up too much space in their original form. You might also summarise when the general ideas from a source are important to include in your work, but the details included in the same section as those main ideas aren’t needed for you to make your point. For example, technical documents or in-depth studies might go into much, much more detail than you are likely to CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS need to support a point you are making for a general audience. These are situations in which a summary might be a good option. Summarising is also an excellent way to double-check that you understand a text–if you can summarise the ideas in it, you likely have a good grasp on the information it is presenting. This can be helpful for school-related work, such as studying for an exam or researching a topic for a paper, but is also useful in daily life when you encounter texts on topics that are personally or professionally interesting to you. What Makes Something a Summary? When you ask yourself, after reading an article (and maybe even reading it two or three times), “What was that article about?” and you end up jotting down–from memory, without returning to the original article to use its language or phrases–three things that stood out as the author’s main points, you are summarising. Summaries have several key characteristics. You’re summarising well when you Use your own words. Significantly condense the original text. Provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarise. Avoid personal opinion. Summaries are much shorter than the original material—a general rule is that they should be no more than 10% to 15% the length of the original, and they are often even shorter than this. It can be easy and feel natural, when summarising an article, to include our own opinions. We may agree or disagree strongly with what this author is saying, or we may want to compare their information with the information presented in another source, or we may want to share CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS our own opinion on the topic. Often, our opinions slip into summaries even when we work diligently to keep them separate. These opinions are not the job of a summary, though. A summary should only highlight the main points of the article. Focusing on just the ideas that best support a point we want to make or ignoring ideas that don’t support that point can be tempting. This approach has two significant problems, though: First, it no longer correctly represents the original text, so it misleads your reader about the ideas presented in that text. A summary should give your reader an accurate idea of what they can expect if we pick up the original article to read. Second, it undermines your own credibility as an author to not represent this information accurately. If readers cannot trust an author to accurately represent source information, they may not be as likely to trust that author to thoroughly and accurately present a reasonable point. How Should I Organise a Summary? Like traditional essays, summaries have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. What these components look like will vary some based on the purpose of the summary you’re writing. The introduction, body, and conclusion of work focused specifically around summarizing something is going to be a little different than in work where summary is not the primary goal. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Introducing a Summary One of the trickier parts of creating a summary is making it clear that this is a summary of someone else’s work; these ideas are not your original ideas. You will almost always begin a summary with an introduction to the author, article, and publication so the reader knows what we are about to read. This information will appear again in your bibliography, but is also useful here so the reader can follow the conversation happening in your paper. You will want to provide it in both places. In summary-focused work, this introduction should accomplish a few things: Introduce the name of the author whose work you are summarising. Introduce the title of the text being summarised. Introduce where this text was presented (if it’s an art installation, where is it being shown? If it’s an article, where was that article published? Not all texts will have this component–for example, when summarising a book written by one author, the title of the book and name of that author are sufficient information for your readers to easily locate the work you are summarising). State the main ideas of the text you are summarising—just the big-picture components. Give context when necessary. Is this text responding to a current event? That might be important to know. Does this author have specific qualifications that make them an expert on this topic? This might also be relevant information. So, for example, if you were to get an assignment asking you to summarise Matthew Hutson’s Atlantic article, “Beyond the Five Senses” (found at www.theatlantic.com) an introduction for that summary might look something like this: CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS In his July 2017 article in The Atlantic, “Beyond the Five Senses,” Matthew Hutson explores ways in which potential technologies might expand our sensory perception of the world. He notes that some technologies, such as cochlear implants, are already accomplishing a version of this for people who do not have full access to one of the five senses. In much of the article, though, he seems more interested in how technology might expand the ways in which we sense things. Some of these technologies are based in senses that can be seen in nature, such as echolocation, and others seem more deeply rooted in science fiction. However, all of the examples he gives consider how adding new senses to the ones we already experience might change how we perceive the world around us. However, you will probably find yourself more frequently using summary as just one component of work with a wide range of goals (not just a goal to “summarise X”). Summary introductions in these situations still generally need to Name the author. Name the text being summarised. State just the relevant context, if there is any (maybe the author has a specific credential that makes their work on this topic carry more weight than it would otherwise, or maybe the study they generated is now being used as a benchmark for additional research). Introduce the author’s full name (first and last names) the first time you summarise part of their text. If you summarise pieces of the same text more than once in a work you are writing, each time you use their text after that initial introduction of the source, you will only use the author’s last name as you introduce that next summary component. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS Presenting the “Meat” (or Body) of a Summary Again, this will look a little different depending on the purpose of the summary work you are doing. Regardless of how you are using summary, you will introduce the main ideas throughout your text with transitional phrasing, such as “One of [Author’s] biggest points is…,” or “[Author’s] primary concern about this solution is….” If you are responding to a “write a summary of X” assignment, the body of that summary will expand on the main ideas you stated in the introduction of the summary, although this will all still be very condensed compared to the original. What are the key points the author makes about each of those big-picture main ideas? Depending on the kind of text you are summarising, you may want to note how the main ideas are supported (although, again, be careful to avoid making your own opinion about those supporting sources known). When you are summarising with an end goal that is broader than just a summary, the body of your summary will still present the idea from the original text that is relevant to the point you are making (condensed and in your own words). Since it is much more common to summarise just a single idea or point from a text in this type of summarising (rather than all of its main points), it is important to make sure you understand the larger points of the original text. For example, you might find that an article provides an example that opposes its main point in order to demonstrate the range of conversations happening on the topic it covers. This opposing point, though, isn’t the main point of the article, so just summarising this one opposing example would not be an accurate representation of the ideas and points in that text. Concluding a Summary For writing in which summary is the sole purpose, here are some ideas for your conclusion. Now that we’ve gotten a little more information about the main ideas of this piece, are there any connections or loose ends to tie up that will help your reader fully understand the points being made in this text? This is the place to put those. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS This is also a good place to state (or restate) the things that are most important for your readers to remember after reading your summary. When your writing has a primary goal other than summary, your conclusion should Include an in-text citation, if appropriate. Discuss the summary you’ve just presented. How does it support, illustrate, or give new information about the point you are making in your writing? Connect it to your own main point for that paragraph so readers understand clearly why it deserves the space it takes up in your work. (Note that this is still not giving your opinion on the material you’ve summarised, just making connections between it and your own main points.) Writing a Summary Summarising consists of two important skills: 1. identifying the important material in the text, and 2. restating the text in your own words. Since writing a summary consists of omitting minor information, it will always be shorter than the original text. Here are some tips for writing a summary. A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main thesis or subject. A summary contains the main thesis (or main point of the text), restated in your own words. A summary is written in your own words. It contains few or no quotes. CBAS210 - Academic Writing Lecture Handout, PBS A summary is always shorter than the original text, often about 1/3 as long as the original. It is the ultimate “fat-free” writing. An article or paper may be summarised in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. A book may be summarised in an article or a short paper. A very large book may be summarised in a smaller book. A summary should contain all the major points of the original text, but should ignore most of the fine details, examples, illustrations or explanations. The backbone of any summary is formed by critical information (key names, dates, places, ideas, events, words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities. If you quote anything from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase, you need to put whatever you quote in quotation marks (“”). A summary must contain only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary. A summary, like any other writing, has to have a specific audience and purpose, and you must carefully write it to serve that audience and fulfil that specific purpose.