Follow-up ENGBG1

Dear students, thank you for all the good work in the ENGBG1 proficiency module! I have now read and enjoyed all the writing in all your blogs. My colleagues were right, you are an extraordinary group of extremely gifted students.

Most of you have completed all the coursework, however some of you have a little bit of catching up to do. (This does not apply to those of you who have not been able to give peer response comments because the person whose work you were supposed to comment on did not post their assignments. You may consider yourselves done with all the requirements.) I will inform those of you who have not completed all the coursework by e-mail.

Thanks again and good luck with your continued studies!
Best,
Anna

ENGBG1

ENGBG1

Proficiency

Topics for essay exam

 
 

Write a short essay on one of the following subjects:

 
 

1. Reasons for the ongoing global financial crisis (causal analysis)

2. Proposal to remedy the problem of unemployment (proposal)

3. We should/should not implement shorter working hours and "share" available jobs in order for more people to escape unemployment (argumentation, pick one side)

 
 

You will have four hours to write an essay of approximately 600 words on one of the suggested topics and submit it in an e-mail message to me (anna.linzie@kau.se) no later than 5 pm, April 13.

Although it is a very short essay, please bear in mind the conventions and reader expectations connected to the text type/genre of your choice. Structure your short essay like you would a longer one: an introduction, a number of paragraphs developing the argument, and a conclusion.

As usual, this is primarily a writing exercise. You are not expected to do research on the topic of your choice (you may if you want), and you do not have to be "serious" about the arguments that you present – as long as you produce an essay which adheres to certain academic writing conventions and qualifies as effective communication.

Save some time to proofread your text before you submit it, paying particular attention to subject-verb agreement, punctuation, spelling and so on. Key words: coherence, flow, clarity. Keep it simple!

Good luck!

Anna

Instructions for the essay exam are coming up shortly...

My apologies...

I am sorry - I told you guys to try to stick to deadlines but then when I said I was going to return your Christmas essays before Easter I failed to do so. Well, I finally managed to get back online by means of "mobile internet" at our cottage in the woods, and I am finishing up commenting on your (excellent) essays, so expect them back in the next couple of days!

Best,
Anna

I'm not really that relentless

OK folks I realize that Easter is coming up and I may have asked a little too much from you. Please see the deadlines for assignments 5 and 6 as friendly reminders that it would be a bad idea to save all the work until a couple of days before our next seminar. Since these are peer response assignments, you are welcome to take responsibility for completing them in a timely manner. Feel free to decide within your groups when to actually get the work done, as long as you leave enough time for everyone to read everyone's work and give feedback, for you to discuss your summaries and paraphrases etc as a group, and for you to prepare an informal presentation of the outcome of these discussions in our April seminar. OK?

Happy Easter!

Anna

Dear students,

I have now posted all the information you need for assignments 5 and 6. The information comes in reverse order - first my guide to quoting and referencing, then an article by Peter Barry which will be the basis for the final assignments and which we will discuss in our final seminar, and finally the actual instructions for the assignments.

These are the three groups in which you will cooperate for these two assignments:

GROUP ONE: Hanna, Emilia, Bobae, Niclas, Linn
GROUP TWO: Victor, Emma, Hannah, Mikael, Axel
GROUP THREE: Jenny, Stefan, Peter, Mårten, Rebecka

I am currently reading and commenting on your Christmas gift essays, will return them to you before Easter.

Best,
Anna

Assignment 5 and 6: Guide to quoting

ENGBG1
Anna Linzie
Spring 2010

Guide to quoting, paraphrasing and referencing (MLA style)

Summary, paraphrase and quotation

Summary
Use summary to convey only the essence of a source. Restate in your own words only the most relevant ideas in the source passage. A summary is always much shorter than its source.

Why summarize?
To present the main argument of a source in fewer words Paraphrase

Use paraphrase to "translate" a passage from a source into your own words and sentence patterns. Use introductory phrases and parenthetical reference to indicate to the reader that the ideas presented are not your own and restate most or all of the ideas in the source passage, but in new and clearer language. A paraphrase is often about the same length as the source passage, or even longer.

How different must your paraphrase be from the original? Not only is it unacceptable to plagiarize word-by-word, but you must also avoid mixing the original author's language and your own words, with none of the borrowed pieces in quotation marks. Even if you acknowledge the source of the material, the original wording will be implicitly presented as your own. At the same time, in every discipline some phrases are so specialized or conventional that paraphrasing them would be ridiculous and make them less familiar/readable to the audience.

Original, Longman page 154: In this case, autobiography is used to create controversy.
Paraphrase: Longman indicates the contentious function of this particular instance of writing about oneself in first person singular (154).

When repeating conventional phrases (in this case "autobiography"), you are not guilty of plagiarism, but rather using a common vocabulary shared by a community of scholars.

Why paraphrase? To use an idea from a source rather than the specific language used to express it

Quotation
Use quotation when the original is very concise or very striking and only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words, although it is accepted to quote more extensively from sources when writing humanities papers. Keep in mind though that your job as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Do not leave it to the reader to make connections between your argument and the quotations you include in your text.

Quotes must be true to their context and copied verbatim from the original text, including mistakes (which can be indicated by inserting [sic] directly after the apparent mistake to indicate that the mistake is not yours).
There are two modifications allowed in quotations: Three spaced full stops … indicating the omission of superfluous material (ellipsis)

A square bracket [ ] indicating the addition of information from you to the reader
If the quote is short (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse), you incorporate it into your sentence, setting it off by double quotation marks.
If the quote is long, it is set off by indentation and spacing, in which case no quotation marks are used. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin. Only indent the first line of the quotation by a half inch if you are citing multiple paragraphs. The parenthetical citation comes after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks.
Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page.

Why quote?
To show that an authority supports your argument
To present a position or argument to critique or comment on
To present a passage which does not lend itself to paraphrase or summary

Punctuation
With short quotations, place parenthetical citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon).
It has been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy" (Longman 154).
Commas and periods are placed inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows.
Longman argues that autobiography was used "to create controversy," but also mentions other reasons (154).
Semicolons and colons are placed outside of closing quotation marks (or after a parenthetical citation).
It has been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy" (Longman 154); at the same time, it is possible to imagine the opposite.
Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
It has been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy: Here I am, flaws and all!" (Longman 154).
It has even been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy" (Longman 154)! Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes.
It has been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy in the 'ivory tower'" (Longman 154).

MLA style
One basic research convention is the accurate documenting of the use of primary and secondary sources. Citation conventions serve practical purposes, ensuring that other people can find your sources. There is also an ethical dimension, because citation conventions help you distinguish your own ideas from the ideas of others in your writing. If you fail to acknowledge your sources, you will be accused of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material by other writers.
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is prevalent within the liberal arts and humanities. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers specifies writing and formatting guidelines and provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages. This referencing system enables writers to manifest accountability to their source material and protect them from accusations of plagiarism.

(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/)

Always use the latest (at present: 7th) edition of the MLA Handbook, because the style guidelines change over time. Examples of 2009 news:
No More URLs. While website entries will still include authors, article names, and website names, when available, MLA no longer requires URLs. Writers are, however, encouraged to provide a URL if the citation information does not lead readers to easily find the source.
Publication Medium. Every entry receives a medium of publication marker. Most entries will be listed as Print or Web, but other possibilities include Performance, DVD, or TV. Most of these markers will appear at the end of entries; however, markers for Web sources are followed by the date of access.
New Abbreviations. Many web source entries now require a publisher name, a date of publication, and/or page numbers. When no publisher name appears on the website, write N.p. for no publisher given. When sites omit a date of publication, write n.d. for no date. For online journals that appear only online (no print version) or on databases that do not provide pagination, write n. pag. for no pagination.
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/15/)

Using sources

Use sources to show that others have interpreted the literature correctly or incorrectly, to argue that something needs to be added to previous criticism, or to indicate that no one has written about your subject before. The idea is to summarize, synthesize and evaluate. You summarize to understand and remember the main argument of a source. You synthesize information to recognize and formulate the major relationship between a source and other sources as well as between a source and your own ideas. You evaluate your sources to assess the quality of their relationship to your own work: Are they convincing? Are they up-to-date? Are they reliable?

References

All research papers have a section that gathers all the documentation under one heading. This section, called References or Works Cited, is placed at the end of the paper and contains all the material that you have cited in your paper. The references are listed in alphabetical order by surnames of authors or editors. Sometimes (mainly in books) the reference section can be supplemented by a section called Bibliography, which also mentions other works relevant to the topic apart from those directly cited in the text.

A complete reference for a book: Name of author, title (+subtitle), place of publication, publisher, date of publication, medium of publication. Do not indent the first line of an entry, indent succeeding lines.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.

A complete reference for an article: Name of author, title of article, name of journal, volume number, issue number, date of publication, page numbers of article, medium of publication. Do not indent the first line of an entry, only indent succeeding lines.

Foucault, Michel. "What Is an Author?" The Foucault Reader. Ed. Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. 101-120. Print.

Citing sources from the internet

For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser's print preview function.
Unless you must list the website name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out

http://www.cnn.com or

http://www.forbes.com.
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/)

Parenthetical references

The list of Works Cited names your sources, but exactly what you used from each one of them must be indicated in the paper itself. Facts that are available in any encyclopaedia or dictionary are common knowledge and need not be documented. For everything else, document each idea, paraphrase and quotation by indicating the author and the page reference in parentheses. Only the page reference is needed if the author is mentioned in the text.

This particular controversial use of autobiography has been described before (Longman 154).
It has been argued that autobiography was used "to create controversy" (Longman 154).
Longman argues that autobiography was used "to create controversy" (154).

If two authors in your sources have the same last name, give first names in your references (Bill Longman 154). If two or more works by the same author are listed in Works Cited, indicate which one you are referring to by giving a short title: (Longman, Autobiography 154). (The full title listed in Words Cited might be Autobiography and Subjectivity: Writing the Self.)

1.