Instructor Availability AIM address: EleBranch Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. And by appointment
Week 7 Agenda 1. Review of APA rules 2. Creating Effective Introductions & Conclusions
APA formatting rules 10 or 12 point type Conservative font like Times New Roman Double spaced 1-inch margins on all sides Headers and Page Numbers on every page Title and Reference Pages In-text citations
APA text rules DO NOT use contractions. DO NOT use cliches. DO NOT use slang or other forms of colloquial language. DO NOT use biased or loaded language. DO NOT use exaggeration, humor, or sarcasm. DO NOT use 1st person (I, we, me mine, my, our, ours) or second person (you, yours, your).
Basic Citation Formats Reference citation Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star trek chronology: The history of the future. New York: Pocket Books. In-text citation (Okuda & Okuda, 1993, p. X)
Remember the 80/20 rule. Use signal phrases to introduce quotes. Use the sandwich approach to explain quotes. Quotes 40 word or longer should be blocked, i.e., indented one-half inch from the left. To condense a quoted passage, use the ellipses (...) to indicate that you have omitted words margin. Brackets [ ] allow you to explain a confusing reference or keep a sentence grammatically correct by inserting your own words. Using quotes
Introductions & Conclusions
What does an introduction do? 1. Hooks the audience 2. Establishes the significance of the subject 3. States the thesis
Strategies for the introduction 1. Ask a question 2. Tell a story 3. Use a quotation
More strategies State a surprising statistic, or fact 5. Outline the argument your thesis refutes
The funnel approach to intros (and body paragraphs, too!) General Specific Thesis
Americans are a clean people. They bathe or shower regularly and spend billions of dollars each year on soaps and deodorants to wash away or disguise dirt and odor. Yet cleanliness is a relatively recent habit. From the time of the Puritans until the turn of the twentieth century, bathing in the United States was rare and sometimes even illegal.
Openings to avoid... Do not start with “According to Webster's...” or a similar phrase leading to a dictionary definition. Do not start with the line, “The purpose of this essay is...” or ”In this essay, I will...” Do not reach back too far with vague generalizations or truths such as “Throughout human history...” or “In today's world...”
What does a conclusion do? 1. Restates the thesis 2. Summarizes the argument 3. Leaves the reader with something to think about
Strategies for closing paragraphs Recommend a course of action Use a quotation Make a prediction
More strategies... Strike a note of hope or despair Put your ideas in a wider perspective Raise further questions
Thus changed attitudes and advances in plumbing finally freed Americans to bathe whenever they want. Perhaps partly to make up for their forefathers' bad habits, Americans have transformed that freedom into a national obsession.