 How
to Improve Your Writing
SESSION 10
This
free Online Course
Developed by: Melissa Fry, M.Ed. English. To obtain college level instructional support
for this course contact
Melissa Fry melissa.fry@kctcs.edu.
Content:
Journal
Throughout this course,
you will be asked to generate journal entries. The purpose of these entries is to get your brain warmed up
and your creative juices flowing. You
may or may not end up using your journal for writing later in the course;
however, the main focus on this exercise is to get you writing.
Journal entries should be ˝ to 1 page in length.
You should not worry about proofreading at this point.
Simply let your words flow. A
journal topic will be posted daily; however, if you do not like the topic simply
free-write on your own topic of choice.
Journal # 9
Do you believe in miracles? Why
or why not?
Homework:
In
Assignment # 8, you were asked to review the uses of ellipses, italics,
parentheses, brackets, and dashes.
1.
Ellipses – Three dots in a row . . .
Indicates
you have omitted material from a quotation
“Three
dots indicate . . . omitted material . . . . A fourth dot indicates the period .
. .
2. Italics
In typing or longhand, italics are indicated by
underlining. On a computer,
use the italic print for: titles of books, periodicals, films, newspapers,
plays; for the names of ships; for scientific words or foregin names; for
emphasizing a word and for indicating the special use of a word.
She reads The
New York Times every Sunday.
3.
Parentheses – ( )
Encloses material that defines or explains the material
that precedes it
This new computer
(made by IBM) is designed for the younger user.
4. Brackets
– [ ]
Used in a quotation to set off material that is not in the
original quotation but is needed for clarification
“He [James] would
be an excellent addition to our company.”
5. Dashes ( - )
Can be very effective if not overused.
Dashes emphasize material.
Have a good summer
– but be sure to finish your reading list.
After completing this assignment, you should have a good idea on how to
use these tools correctly and effectively in your writing.
CHECK HOMEWORK ANSWERS
1.
Writing is a deliberate process of deliberate decisions (about a
writer’s purpose, audience, and message).
2.
Have fun – but be careful.
3.
She worked hard summers at three jobs (actually to earn money for
agricultural school).
4.
To achieve peace and contentment – that is the meaning of success.
5.
Fido (a loyal pet) saved my life during a fire.
Chapter 21, Documenting Your
Sources
Chapter 20
begins on page 347 and starts out with the sentence, “documenting
research means acknowledging
one’s debt to each information source.”
(Lannon). It is your ethical
duty as a writer not to plagiarize (submit as your own) another author’s work.
Plagiarism can seriously undermine your credibility both in the classroom
and in the workplace and can be grounds for more serious action.
To avoid plagarism, simply make sure that everything you use that is not
your creation is credited back to its original source.
If you are using an exact quote, make sure the quote is in quotation
marks and immediately credited to the author in your writing.
If you are paraphrasing (using another author’s ideas phrased in your
own words) you must still give credit where credit is due.
Example: Author Stephanie Roth
acknowledges that some things never change in the medical profession. (While
you are putting Roth’s ideas into your own words, you must still acknowledge
that the ideas are hers and hers alone).
Your
informational essay will utilize MLA documentation.
MLA is an acronym for Modern Language Association.
MLA is explained in detail beginning on page 349.
Basically MLA involves internal documentation. Instead of waiting for the bibliography to figure who said
what, MLA provides instantaneous information to the reader:
EXAMPLE:
Recent data provided by 796 colleges indicate that violent crime on
campus is increasing (Lederman 31).
{parenthetical
reference in text}
These sources are then lasted
at the end of the writing in an alphabetical format called Works Cited.
WORKS CITED
Lederman, Douglas.
“Colleges report Rise in Violent Crime.”
Chronicle of Higher
Education
February 3, 1995, sec. A:
31-32. {full
citation at paper’s end}
The
following example might make this process a little clearer:
LOOKING AHEAD TO DOCUMENTATION:
Your information essay will use the MLA (internal) style of documentation
Documenting sources within the report:
In 1996, there was 500 cases of E-Coli poisoning in Harrisburg alone
(James, 23). One wonders if this
high number could be the result of family farms, such as in the Amish community,
not being subject to the health regulations that industry meat packers are
subject to. Center for Disease
Control Health Inspector, Roger Fielding believes that family farms are slipping
beneath the health inspection cracks. 60%
of the E-Coli cases in Harrisburg could be tracked back to meat bought directly
form family farms. (Fielding
18-19). Fielding states: "If
the government does not begin full scale regulations of family farms, the
possibility for an epidemic of deadly E-Coli is staggering (16).
**At end of research paper, have separate page listing all
sources directly quoted
in alphabetical order.
WORK CITED
Anderson, Tina. "E-Coli:
The Hidden Tiger". Time
Magazine. Dec. 1997: 96-
110.
Fielding, Roger. The
Coming Plague. New York: McGraw
Hill, Inc., 1998.
James, Arnold. Bacterial
Toxins. New York: International
Thompson Publishing,
1997.
Chapter 21 has sample entries for MLA Works-Cited list beginning on page
351. To add to you reference
toolbox, you might also want to print out the following list of MLA format.
In addition to reviewing the MLA format list and Chapter 21, please watch
the video: Crediting Your Sources to
make sure that you can correctly and successfully use MLA documentation to
credit information from other sources in your writing.
Please complete Assignment # 9 which will review the use of correct
mechanics (abbreviations, hyphens, capitalization, numbers, and spelling)
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