English 202: Writing introductions, citation practices

Agenda

Research Article sectionsLooking at different research articlesHow to write an IntroductionWorkshop on IntroductionsPlagiarism and citation practices

What sections do you normally see in a research article?Class Ideas:TITLEABSTRACT—SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE ARTICLE INTRODUCTION—OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE,

STATISTIC INFORMATIONBODY:METHODDATA ANALYSIS RESULT

Breaking the Code: Analyzing Research Writing SamplesSkim through the research article with your group-mates. Do some active reading.

(Read with a pen/highlighter in your hand). In your groups, address to the following questions;

What are the main sections of this research paper?

What is the research question? What is this article about? (Introduction, abstract)

What do you think the goal is in each section?

Who are the participants of this study?

What steps are followed to answer the research question(s) and study the participants? What is the methodology used in this research paper? (Methodology)

What are the findings? (Discussion /Findings/Results)

Agenda, Feb 11th 2009

Working on your introductionsDiscussing issues of plagiarismCitation practices in academic writingNo class on Monday—

UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE-Get a voucher for attendance.

Introduction Include your thesis statement and research questions. Indicate the significance of this study. Who should care about your

research? Tell your readers what the purpose of your research study is . Open your paragraph with an attention grabber. It could be some

statistical information, a question, quote or an anecdote. This will make your reader interested in your research and will make them want to read your paper.

Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Remember the audience issue we discussed last week. What background information do you think your readers need to know to understand your research?

In your introduction you can also include some of your literature.

Thinking about your Intros

Starting a paper is often the most difficult part of the research papers. It is crucial to ask these tow questions:

1.What is the purpose of this research?2.Who cares about this? What is the

significance?3.Who is my audience?

Peer Group Activity

Please review your one of your classmates’ introduction and answer the questions on the peer review handout.

Plagiarism

Recognizing Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?—Describe the definition of plagiarism to one of your classmates.

What are some of the plagiarism mistakes that you do (unintentionally)?

What do you do to aviod plagiarism?

Plagiarism

Using others ideas or words as if they were your own.

Failing to acknowledge sources.Using the exact language or expression of

a source and not indicating that in quotation marks.

Good writers have their own ways of saying things: Avoiding PlagiarismUse citation guidelines (APA, MLA, Chicago style etc.)Signal that you have borrowed words/phrase with

quotation marks.Make sure that you tell the readers who is the source of

the idea/data/fact etc.Use active verbs to signal the source: Tannen writes..

Tanen suggests, Tannen argues, Tannes states.No need to cite common knowledge if it’s a widely known

fact or a common saying.Use quotation marks if you are citing a source.TIP: YOUR RESEARCH PAPER SHOULD CONTAIN NO

MORE THAN 20 PERCENT QUOTED MATERIAL.

Annotated Bibliography

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "references" or "works cited" depending on the style format you are using.

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a

summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following:

Your annotated Bibliographies should include:Summary: What are the main arguments? What is the

point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

Reflection: Once you've summarized a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

See samples of annotated bibliography from Fall 2008 class blog:http://lisyaseloni.wordpress.com/

How to paraphrase?

Exercise 3.2.In your notebook, rewrite Deborah Tannen’s

paragraph in your own words.Exchange your rewrite with a partner.

How to summarize?

Execise 3.4.

Quoting

Remember: your paper shouldn’t invclude more than 20 percet of the quoted materia.

When you found a good quote relevant to your research jot it down. To do justice to what exactly been said jot it down in quotation marks.

AssignmentsTwo Blog Assignments—Annotated Bibliography1) Find two resources that are relevant to your research projects.2) Post a short annotated bibliography. Make sure that you cite them properly

(use APA style of citation)Summary: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or

article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

Reflection: Once you’ve summarized a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

UNDERGRADUATE FORUM ON MONDAY—Blog Entry

February 18th

Agenda February 18th

Submit your vouchersTalking about the undergraduate

conferenceSchedule for the next week Talking about your evolving introductionsLiterature Review and More on citation

practices

What needs to be cited

Common knowledge is cited if you are using someone else’s original sequence of wording.

Original words Ideas that you summarize Ideas the you paraphrase Isolated facts Unique words or terms Advertisement Photograph Ideas from an interview Map or a chart Interesting phrase

Why cite?

SEE PAGE 125—A TREE KNOWLEDGE READ PAGE 132—THE UNENDING

CONVERSATION

Reminders and Changes in the syllabusAssignment for Feb. 25th: Literature

Review due.Book/article discussions will start in a

week. Sign up for Book Discussions on Monday.

Keep up with the blog postings.

Your favorite mistakes

Not including your main research question/topic in your intro.

Not being focused/norrow enough with your research area.

Leaving quotes alone (orphan quotes)Use of intensifiers in your statementsAffirmative action is an extremely important

topic

Your favorite mistakes

Don’t need to include the research process in your intro, instead tell the readers what they will see in your paper/research.

“I choose to do my topic in Abortion…I will have a lot of background information that I plan to provide…”

“I will collect data on…”****This research paper focuses on the topic of abortion.

More specifically, it will examine how….(narrow it down) “This is an important topic…”show rather than tell. Instead of asking yes/no questions ask how/who/why“Does gender in fact plan a role in relationship commitment”?

What is a Literature Review?

Literature review is a collection of materials on a topic.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis.

A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information

Why do we write literature reviews?

Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic.

Literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone in your research.

Comprehensive knowledge on the topic is necessary as you write your research papers.

Writing Literature Reviews

You should give a quick idea of the topic of your literature review, such as the central theme.

You should discuss your sources. You can organize your sources either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically.

Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed? How will your own research help us understand more about this topic? Where does your research fit in this scholarly discussion?

Sample Literature Reviews

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20070515025950_667.pdf

Tips to write lit reviews

Use quotes sparingly Remember to summarize and synthesizeKeep your own voiceBe careful when paraphrasing a source.Revise, revise, revise…

Assignment

Keep reading for your research. You will need to collect at least 6 sources for your literature reviews.

Read CR—169-202