Citation Style: Use APA or MLA

As I said today in the class, you can either use APA or MLA citation style. I am not accepting any other citation format. I prefer APA but MLA is O.K., too.

Check you Foundations book. It has a great chapter on these two citation styles.

Alternatively, you can check out the internet. I find Cornell University’s webpage useful. For APA style guide click here, for MLA click here. Elma found a great source: Here is the link. And this is from OWL‘s website. These are equally good.

You are required to have a title page. All citation styles often have their own title page. Although I am asking for APA and MLA style for citations, you are not required to follow a specific format for the title page. As long as you write your name, title of your essay, my name and the tutorial information, and course information in the title page, that’s fine.

However, if you are interested, this is a good video on APA style cover page.

Plan (November 28, 2014)

Hi all,

Below is the plan for tomorrow. As indicated below, we will talk about the essay assignment. As you know, you need to find and use two secondary academic sources for this assignment. Bring your sources to the tutorial, if you are concerned that your sources may not be academic. I can help you.

Don’t forget: You are required to complete Spark module on academic integrity at http://www.yorku.ca/spark/academic_integrity/index.html

Plan // November 28, 2014

1. Housekeeping (10 – 15 min)  10 min

Attendance, reflection papers

2. Writing skills (30 – 45 min.) 70 min (See below for a detailed plan of this section.)

3. Essay Assignment (30 – 45 min)   20 min.

If have time, we will cover Williams and Conrad. Please come prepared.

Plan of November 28, 2014 Tutorial (part 2)

• How to Find Academic Resources
  • York University Library
  • Google Scholar
• Referencing
  • What is Plagiarism?
  • Humanities (MLA) Style    Study this in your own time
  • Social Sciences (APA) Style
• Planning and Pre-Writing Stage
  • Journey 1: From Gathering Data to an Outline
    1. Collect
    2. Process
    3. Organize
    4. Outline + Working thesis + “Shitty” Introduction
• Writing Stage
  • Journey 2: From an Outline to a Revised Paper
  • Waiting for Your Muse (or that famous writer’s block)
  • A suggestion: Split screen: Outline on the left, essay on the write
    • Use outline view in MS Word
  • Building paragraphs
    • Topic sentence
    • Paragraph development
      1. Definition, explanation, illustration
      2. Providing evidence
      3. Providing analysis
      4. Introductory and concluding paragraphs: V method and ^ method.
    • Quotations
  • Write and Revise!
  • Some techniques
    • Read only the first sentences of each paragraph. Does it make sense? Does it tell it a story. It should.
    • Repeat the same words? Use the Thesaurus. Ms Word has it.
    • Zero tolerance for tipos 🙂

Problems with response papers, your feedback, plagiarism, and YU writing centre

Hi all,

I have two running lists. The first one is about common problems with response papers. The second one is a summary of the valuable feedback that you provided last week. I will further develop the first one as I read more response papers. For the latter, your continuing feedback is required.

A student asked me that she is worried that she could accidentally plagiarize. Here is a great text that will help you to avoid plagiarism.

By the way, you know the York University Writing Centre, right? Here is a link to their website. Check it out. And below is from this website, explaining what Individual Writing Instruction is.

The Writing Centre offers individual instruction in all aspects of writing. A student must enrol to see a Writing Instructor. Normally a student is permitted one 50-minute session per week in which he or she works together with an instructor on course assignments. The goal of the instruction is to improve the student’s ability to write effectively in a range of academic situations. Some students meet with an instructor regularly through the year; other students find one or two sessions sufficient to meet their goals. It is not necessary to prepare a draft before making an appointment; rather, it is common that students come to their first appointment with only the instructions for the assignments they wish to complete. Students often seek assistance with interpreting assignments, organizing research notes, getting started at writing, learning proper documentation styles, and learning to edit their own work.

Don’t forget, the First Essay is due December 5th, 2014.

Tips to Improve Your Writing

We will watch this in class:

Watch this at home (not mandatory):

FreeMind: A Mind Mapping Software

In the past, I used this mind mapping software. Its user interface is not great but it gets the job done. I am sure that you can find better software or online resources.

http://freemind.en.softonic.com/

And check out this tutorial:

The Cornell Note-taking System

We covered the Cornell note-taking system on September 12.

• Follow this link to the Cornell University website, which explains this system.
• For MS Word users, this is a template for Cornell style.
• Mac Pages template
• Cornell Notes PDF Generator

and finally, a youtube video that explains this system.

Did you try this note-taking system out? Did you find them useful? What are your thoughts?