Class notes 11/23/10

Here are the notes I wrote on the board today about your final research paper. Please remember that it’s due next Tuesday, November 30th. I’m looking forward to reading your papers!

Have a good Thanksgiving!
Prof Smale

Class notes 11/18/10

Today we discussed documentation of processes or products, and you demonstrated the documentation sources you found for your homework.

We also discussed your research paper draft, and some issues that appeared frequently in your drafts.

More details are available in today’s slides.

Also, here’s the formatting example for your final research paper that I handed out in class today.

There’s no reading or homework this weekend other than revising your paper. Your final paper is due on November 30th! Detailed guidelines are available on the Assignments page.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a good weekend,
Prof Smale

Homework for 11/16/10

READ Badke Ch. 9 & Purdue OWL APA Style
(don’t worry about reading about MLA Style, we will discuss it in class)

WRITE your research paper draft

BRING a printout of your research paper draft to class
(so we can peer review during class)

BRING an electronic copy of your research paper draft to class
(so we can work on your citations during class)

I’m looking forward to reading all of your papers next week! Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions (the sooner, the better!).

Best,
Prof Smale

Class notes 11/9/10

Here’s the powerpoint from class today, in case you’d like to review it for strategies for writing your research paper: LIB1201_1109.

Also, here’s the Avoiding Plagiarism handout that I passed out in class today: http://library.citytech.cuny.edu/instruction/pdf/plagiarismtips.pdf.

Here are the websites we discussed in class today:

Citation Machine (http://citationmachine.net/): You can use this website to help format your References list in APA style. Also, remember that many of the library databases allow you to email citations and articles to yourself, so you can cut and paste them into your References list.

Writing Summaries (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/write/handouts/summary.html): A guide to writing summaries from Columbia University. Remember that summaries are recommended over paraphrasing for your research paper.

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/): The Purdue Online Writing Lab’s guide.

Omit Needless Words (http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html#13): This advice from the classic writing guide is almost 100 years old and still relevant. Writing in a formal, academic style doesn’t have to mean using complex terms. Try to write as clearly and simply as you can, and don’t forget to proofread your work (reading your paper aloud may be helpful).

We also looked at two sample papers written using APA Style, to get a feel for what APA style looks and sounds like:
Sample Paper #1: http://my.ilstu.edu/~jhkahn/APAsample.pdf
Sample Paper #2: http://www.dianahacker.com/pdfs/hacker-shaw-apa.pdf

Homework for 11/9/10

Please do the reading in Badke (see syllabus for details) and write one blog post of at least 100 words on the following:

You’ve now written your research proposal and annotated bibliography – the next step will be to write the first draft of your research paper.

– What strategies will you use when writing your first draft?

– What’s worked well for you when you’ve written other research papers?

– Do you feel uncertain or have any questions about writing the research paper?