Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "What is a Text" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Highlighter Text by Hans is licensed under the Pixabay Licence.

Reading: What NOT to Do

•  DON'T treat all reading situations the same.
  • DO: first, understand what type of material you are reading, and for what purpose.
  • "Reading" a Science-based textbook to study the night before an exam is a completely different situation than reading the assigned chapter of the same textbook in preparation for the week's class on the material.  And both of those reading situations are completely different from reading a novel for your English course.
• DON'T pick up the text, turn directly to page one, and begin reading, aiming to go straight from beginning to end.
  • Why it's not a good idea: consider that Science textbook above—there is no way you are going to get through the whole text the night before the exam AND understand the information AND retain it, nor do you need to read every single word in order to study.
  • How about a novel? Yes, you should read an entire novel that is assigned to you, but you don't have to go into it blind and try to figure out what is going on word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page. Prereading techniques will set you up to get the most out of the novel as you read.
• DON'T try to read for just a few minutes at a time.
  • When we change from one task to another, we have a few minutes of lag time, or change-over time while we close our minds off from what we were doing before AND while we transfer our focus to the new task. If you plan to read in 5-minute time intervals, you only have about 2-3 minutes of reading time. But, you might be looking forward to the interval ending soon, so you will likely be less focused on your reading even then.
  •  DO set yourself a longer interval of reading time. I recommend to my students 20 minutes minimum and 40 minutes plus if you're really into it. Don't stop when you're on a roll even if your timer goes off!
    • Why it's a good idea: 1) you will spend so much more time actually reading once you've finished your lag time switching to this new task; 2) you will get into the rhythm of the material and will be able to read more quickly as each page passes; and 3) you will read enough to get a greater [pb_glossary id="225"]context[/pb_glossary] and better understand what is going on.
    • A good idea is to divide the total pages assigned by the number of available days, figuring out how many pages you’ll need to read each day to finish the assignment. Sometimes approaching the text in smaller pieces like this can make it feel more doable. Also, once you figure out how long it takes you to read, say, five pages, you can predict how much time it will take to read a larger section.
      • For the above tip, don't start reading so far in advance that you will forget what you read, or that you read in tiny tiny increments for many many days.
• DON'T look up words or do research as you are in the middle of a sentence or thought.
  • Why it's not a good idea: Think about the rhythm you got going by using the tip above—gone when you screech to a halt, pull out your phone and type into Google, or pull out a print dictionary to look something up.
  • Also, you undermine your confidence in being able to understand the material by using context clues or by your own previous knowledge or relatable experiences.
  • PLUS, do you think that one word holds the key to the entire thing you are reading? Probably not. There are hundreds and thousands and even hundreds of thousands of words in texts; you probably  don't need to know what every single one of them means.
  • DO make quick notes alongside the text to go back and clarify the areas that you found unclear AFTER you have finished your 20-40+ minute reading session.
• DON'T be stressed and stop reading altogether if you don't understand what is going on (related to above).
  • Why it's not a good idea: You might fool yourself into thinking that if you don't understand what you're reading, what the point in continuing?
  • First of all, you might not be misunderstanding as much as you think you are. The chances are very high that you are reading a text with the goal of using it for further learning. You can either check back on a lesson you had before this reading assignment, or wait for the follow-up lesson; then you can clarify what you still have concerns about.
  • You definitely will understand nothing if you read nothing, so... keep reading!
  • Make sure to talk with your teacher. Let them know you don’t understand the reading, and they should be able to help.
• DON'T let strong opinions about the material make you stop reading.
  • DO keep an open mind. The philosopher Aristotle was known for saying, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” As a college student, you must be ready to explore and examine a wide range of ideas, whether you agree with them or not. In approaching texts with an open and willing mind, you leave yourself ready to engage with a wide world of ideas—many of which you may not have encountered before. This is what college is all about.
• DON'T skip or brush off reading in subject areas that are not your chosen field of study.
  • Why it's not a good idea: all classes that you take in college will count towards your GPA, and that always matters; so don't cheat yourself out of the best possible overall transcript because a few of your classes are not "relevant" to your future goals.
  • It's good for you to read a wide variety of texts. You don’t just increase our knowledge base—you also make your mind work. This kind of “mental exercise” teaches the brain and prepares it to deal with all kinds of critical and innovative thinking. It also helps train us to different reading and writing tasks, even when they’re not familiar to us. And it builds healthy discipline.

How Do You Become an Effective Reader?

1. First, read every day. And vary the materials you read: a book, a magazine article, an online blog, even signs you see while taking transit or in shop windows. Try readings things that are a little challenging. In other words, don’t just vary the subject matter—vary the difficulty, too. Stretch!
2. Second, learn and practice the skills of effective reading (which are explained below in this section and in their own chapters).
3. Third, learn and practice the skill of reading critically. To learn more, see Reading Critically.
4. Fourth, keep reading. Yes, every day, putting your skills to work. (Practice makes perfect!)

Skills of Effective Reading

• Start by creating an optimal setting for reading: pick the best time, place, and conditions to create a reading environment that helps decrease distraction.
• Engage in pre-reading strategies before starting to read (see pre-reading strategies later in this section)
• Read material efficiently: pick up a piece of material, engage actively with it, and finish.
• Annotate written texts (in other words, they write directly on the texts) or take notes as they read. By doing this, you enter into a discussion with the text, interacting with it.
• Research or investigate content you don’t fully understand, but not until AFTER you have finished reading the portion you have set for yourself.
• Work to discover the central meaning of the piece. Ask yourself:
  • What is the author’s point?
  • What is the text trying to say?
  • How does the author create and build this meaning?
• Reflect on what the text means to you, internalizing the meaning:
  • How am I responding to this text?
  • Why am I responding that way?
  • What does the text make me think about?
  • What does this information mean to me?
  • What past experience can I anchor this text to in my brain to increase understanding and retention?

Text Attributions

• Text under "How Do You Become an Effective Reader" and "Skills of Effective Reading" were adapted from “Read Effectively” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• We Can Do It! by J. Howard Miller is in the public domain.

What is MLA Style?

The eighth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in 2016, rethinks documentation for an era of digital publication. The MLA now recommends a universal set of guidelines that writers can apply to any source and gives writers in all fields—from the sciences to the humanities—the tools to intuitively document sources (“What’s New”).

1. To format your documents using a consistent style. MLA style is the “outfit” of our written documents in the humanities. Much like a football player wears a helmet and pads or a soccer player wears shin guards, our documents “wear” a certain style of formatting. We’ll discuss that more below.
2. To identify and manage source materials when you use them in your own writing. This insures you use sources correctly in your own work and give credit to the person who owns and/or created the source material, both of which help you avoid plagiarism. It also allows others—who read and are interested in your work—to easily review and consult the sources you’ve used.

Using MLA to Format Your Documents

• Set side margins to 1” on left, right, top, and bottom.
• Set margins to 0.5” for header and footer.
• Use a standard[footnote]Examples of standard fonts include Times, Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, and others. Avoid non-standard Microsoft fonts like Calibri and Cambria, typewriter fonts (Courier), and overly-casual fonts (Comic Sans and Papyrus).[/footnote] 12-point font throughout the document.
• Double-space throughout the document.
• Use a straight left edge and a “ragged” right edge.
• Indent paragraphs ½” (1 tab).
• Centre a document title on page 1. Use plain 12-point font—do not bold, underline, or italicize.
• Create an upper left heading on page 1 only. This should include the following:
  • Your name (first and last name)
  • The instructor's name
  • The name of the class
  • The date, in MLA style[footnote]MLA date format is very specific: it includes, in this order, the day of month, month, and year. For example, the day February 11 in the year 2016 would look like this: 11 February 2016. Longer months can also be abbreviated, so it could also look like this: 11 Feb. 2016. Note that there are no commas in an MLA-style date.[/footnote]
• Create an upper right header for all pages. This should include the following:
  • Your last name
  • An automatic page number

A Four-Step Process for Working with Sources

1. Create a Works Cited page. When you bring a source into to your writing, create a Works Cited page and immediately add your source to the page, creating a complete, correct listing.
2. Use sources correctly. Bring written sources into your paper using quotation, paraphrase, or summary.
3. Cite/identify in-text sources. When you add a source to your paper, immediately cite or identify it where it occurs.
4. Proofread your work with sources.
   • Check and double-check to make sure every sentence containing a source has been properly cited or identified.
   • Make sure Works Cited listings and in-text citations “match.” If you mention a source in your paper, it must also appear on the Works Cited list. If you mention a source on your Works Cited list, it must also appear in the paper.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Resources for Working with MLA” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• Works Cited is located at the end of a paper. Always start it at the top of a new page.
• Title it Works Cited, even if there is only a single source listed.
• Centre the title at the topmost point on the page.
• The Works Cited page uses the same formatting as the rest of the paper: 12 point standard font, double spacing, 1” margins on all sides, etc.
• List sources alphabetically, according to whatever comes first in each citation. (Do not list them in the order they occur within the paper.)
• Use hanging indents. This means that the first line of each source begins at the left margin, while second and subsequent lines are indented by ½” (1 tab). This is the reverse of a regular paragraph. The hanging format makes it easily to visually scroll down the list and see each source. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can set hanging paragraphs by choosing the “hanging” setting in the “Paragraphs” menu.

Creating Entries on the Works Cited Page

Author

• The first author's name is always reversed: Last Name, First Name.
• It is in plain font and (as you'll note in the template) is followed with a period.

Sebenius, Alyza.

Title of Source

• Capitalize all words in the title of source except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.
• If it is an article, essay, chapter, or any other "small" piece of material, it will be in quotation marks and plain font.
• If it is a book, film, periodical, or an entire web page, it will be in italic font with no quotation marks.
• The title of source is followed with a period—and when quotation marks are used, note that the period always goes inside the quotation marks (see below).

"The Importance of High School Mentors."

Title of Container

• The container is almost always in italic font and followed by a comma.[footnote]An example of a non-italicized container would be if you were citing an actual painting and the “container” was an art museum. The museum would be listed as the container but in plain font.[/footnote]
• Capitalize it fully.

The Atlantic,

theatlantic.com,

Other Contributors

• List them using plain, unabbreviated language, e.g., performed by, directed by, etc.
• Other contributors are listed in plain font and followed with a comma.

Version

• Version is written in plain font and followed by a comma.

Number

• Number is in plain font and followed by a comma.

Publisher

• Publishers for books, periodicals, and printed materials are usually written on one of the first pages.
• Web page publishers can usually be found at the page bottom. If you cannot find the publisher quickly, you might use Google to search for it, i.e., searching ‘New York Times Publisher.’
• Film and music publishers will usually be located on the material.
• Write out the complete publisher name; capitalize it fully and don't abbreviate or omit words.
• The publisher is in plain font and followed by a comma.

The Atlantic Monthly Group,

Publication date

• Use MLA date format: day month year
• Follow the date with a comma.
• With longer months, you may abbreviate the source; if you do, follow the abbreviation with a period.

13 January 2016,

13 Jan. 2016,

Location

• If using a book, the page number is the location.
  • For single pages, use this format: p. 6.
  • For two or more pages, list like this: pp. 62-4 or pp. 184-96.
  • If using two or more pages and they cross a “hundred” marker, list like this: pp. 456-502.
• With web pages, give the URL—but omit the http:// at the beginning.
• If a doi (digital object indicator) number is available, use that instead of a URL.
• You can break URLs or doi’s manually to try and fit them into your Works Cited, or just type them in and let your Word processor decide where to break them.
• If you have a different kind of source and believe you have a location with it, share it as best you can, following these guidelines.
• Locations are in plain font and followed by a period.

www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/mentorship-in-public-schools/423945/.

Put it all Together

• Use your word processor’s menus to set hanging paragraphs
• Don't break your lines manually: set hanging paragraphs and then keep typing, allowing the software to determine the line breaks.
• Your citation should always end with a period.

Sebenius, Alyza. "The Importance of High School Mentors." The Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly Group, 13 Jan. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/mentorship-in-public-schools/423945/.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Creating a Works Cited Page” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Cowan, Micki. "New Westminster Offers $4M Worth of Free Land for Affordable Housing." CBC.ca, 20 January 2020, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/new-westminster-free-land-affordable-housing.

"Employability Skills." Conference Board of Canada, www.conferenceboard.ca/edu/employability-skills.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres. "Read with Purpose: The SQ3R Strategy." University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed. BCcampus, 2019, http://bccampus.ca/University-101-Study-Strategize-and-Succeed.

Skye, Courtney. "Harry, Meghan And Me: What This Royal Moment Could Mean For Indigenous People." Chatelaine, 10 February 2020, www.chatelaine.com/living/culture-living/harry-meghan-indigenous-relationship.

Way, Dan. "Junk Miles: Are 'Easy' Runs Sabotaging Your Training?" Canadian Running, 8 August 2018, runningmagazine.ca/explains/why-your-easy-days-could-be-sabotaging-your-training.

• Consider your ideal spot for reading. Is it a favourite chair in your living room? Your bed? A coffee shop? The cool green grass in a local park?
• What’s your favourite time of day for reading?
• Do you read best in silence? Or do you like to have music playing, be around other people, or have some other sort of active distraction?
• Do you prefer print (hard copy) books, e-books, or audiobooks?

• Simple truth: not everyone reads most effectively at 2:00 am—or at 2:00 pm, for that matter. That’s not to say some people don’t do their best work late at night; the point is simply to really try and find when you study best—and then to make use of that.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Create an Optimal Setting for Reading" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Adirondack Day by MTSOfan is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Licence.

• Start by reading and considering the title. A good title will inform you about the text’s content. It’s always nice if titles are also interesting, catchy, or even clever, but the most important job of a title is to let the reader know what’s coming and what the text will be about.
  • For instance, imagine you’re looking at a magazine article entitled “Three Hundred Sixty-five Properly Poofy Days.” Do you have any idea what this article is going to be about?

• • • It could be written by a meteorologist, reporting on a year of observing cloud formations.
    • It might be a biopic (a biographical story) about an eccentric salon that specializes in big hairdos, retro-style.
    • Or perhaps it’s a set of guidelines for using poofy cotton balls to apply cosmetics.
    • What if it’s a story about a dog groomer who does show grooms for poodles, the poofiest of dogs?

• Look at the author’s name. Have you heard of the author? Do you know anything about them? Sometimes you’ll find a short bio about the author at the beginning or end of a text. You can always Google them to look for more details. Ideally, the author should be an acknowledged expert on the subject or should have degrees, training, or credentials that make them an expert.
  • Learn more about the CRAP method for evaluating sources in the information literacy section titled “Finding Quality Texts.”
• Skim through the article, looking for headings or “pull-outs.” (content that is pulled off to one side or highlighted in a box). Headings, if present, will often give you clues as to the text’s content as well as showing you how the subject has been divided into sections.
• Look for any images: photographs, charts, graphs, maps, or other illustrations. Images—and their captions—will often give you valuable information about the topic.
• If working with an e-text, you may also find embedded web links. Follow these: they’ll often lead you to resources that will help you better understand the article.
• Here’s a seriously expert-level suggestion: most academic texts and essays follow a fairly similar structure—including beginning every paragraph with a strong, focused topic sentence—you can often get a quick summary or understanding of a written text by simply reading the first sentence in every paragraph. Some authors may use the second sentence as their topic sentence, and if you notice this pattern, reading all of the second sentences in each paragraph will help you follow the text. You can also read the conclusion at the end of the entire text, the conclusion of each section, and the conclusion of each paragraph. I call this technique "bookending" when I teach it to my students.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Use Pre-reading Strategies” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Sherlock Holmes Statue by Juhanson is licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 Licence.

Important note: most academic institution bookstores approve of textual annotation and don’t think it decreases a textbook’s value. In other words, you can annotate a textbook and still sell it back to the bookstore later on if you choose to. Note that I say most—if you have questions about your own institution and plan to sell back any textbooks, be sure to ask at the bookstore before you annotate.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Annotate and Take Notes” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Words of Wisdom by AnneCN is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 Licence.

Creating Dialectic Notes

The Left Column

• What are the author’s main points in this section?
• What kind of support is the author using in this section?
• Other points of significant interest
• Note the source and page number, if any, so that you can find and document this source later

The Right Column

• Questions you want to ask in class
• Bigger-picture questions you might explore further in writing
• Connections to other texts you’ve read or viewed for this class
• Connections to your own personal experiences
• Connections to the world around you (issues in your community, stories on the news, or texts you’ve read or viewed outside of this class)

Bottom of the Page

• additional notes about this piece
• what your instructor teaches about it
• comments and questions your peers make during class discussion

• They can help you contribute to class discussion about this piece and the topics it addresses.
• Significant questions you encountered while reading are already written down and collected in one place so you don’t have to sift back through the reading to re-discover those questions.
• These notes provide a place where many of your observations and thoughts about the piece are already organized, which can help you see patterns and connections within those observations. Finding these connections can be a strong starting point for written assignments.
• If you are asked to respond to this piece in writing, these notes can serve as a reference point as you develop a draft. They can give you new ideas if you get stuck and help keep the original connections you saw when reading fresh in your mind as you respond more formally to that reading.
• They can be part of your Gathering Ideas step in the Writing Process.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Dialectic Note-taking” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• How is the text organized? (Does it seem logical? Is it in time-related, chronological order? Does it skip around in time with flashbacks or flash-forwards?)
• Is it divided into obvious sections? Do the sections have headings, or are they just visually separated?
• Does the author use comparison/contrast, explore cause and effect, or examine a process to present their ideas?
• Is there a lot of detail and description in the text?
• Does the author use dialogue?
• Does the author do anything unusual* or unexpected with the text?

In the example shown to the right here, you can see some of the unusual ways Danielewski has arranged text on two of the pages. His book contains all sorts of different textual [pb_glossary id="222"]anomalies[/pb_glossary]; if you want to see more of them, go to Google and search for ‘House of Leaves’ and then ‘images.’ Throughout the text, his creativity with the textual layout echoes and supports what is happening within the story.

It’s ridiculously cool, and if you’re curious about it, I recommend reading it. It’s a weird but worthwhile reading experience, and it brings home the idea of textual structure like nothing else can.

Text Attributions

Media Attributions

• "Pages from Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Lesson 3: Patterns and Context Clues" in How to Learn Like a Pro! by Phyllis Nissila, which is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon. Licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

Media Attributions

• Texture by ZIPNON is licensed under a Pixabay Licence.

• Consider the characters or people featured in the text, their dialogue, and how they interact.
• Be aware of the plot’s movement (in a fictional story) or the topic development (in a nonfiction article or essay) and the moments of excitement or conflict as the action rises and falls.
• Look for changes in time—flashbacks, flash-forwards, and dream sequences.
• Watch for themes (ideas that occur, reappear, and carry meaning or a message throughout the piece) or symbols (objects or ideas that stand for or mean something else; these carry meaning that we often understand quickly without thinking about it too much).

Examples of themes: coming of age, redemption, the nature of honesty, conflict, sacrifice.

Examples of symbols: full moon (typically suggests mystery), dark forest (danger or the possibility of being lost), white flag (surrender), a path or road (journey).

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Discover What a Text is Saying” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Hidden Meanings" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

• Write in a personal reading journal.
• Angelo and Cross suggest writing a “minute paper.” To do this, take one minute to jot down a few sentences about something you learned or discovered while reading. Or ask yourself a question about the reading and write an answer.

• Are you reading or exploring easily and fluidly, or are you finding it difficult to navigate the text? Why do you think this is happening?
• Do you find yourself responding with some sort of strong emotion? If so, why do you think that may be feeling this way?
• Do formatting or structural issues (examples: unusual use of punctuation, use of dialect or jargon) affect your navigation of the text?
• Can you identify with the text’s central idea or the information it’s sharing?
• Have you had any experiences like those being described? Can you identify with the story?
• Are you able to identify the surface meaning?
• Have you explored the text’s deeper, hidden messages?
• Do you need to look up any words to do any quick research? If so, does this help you better understand the text?
• What questions do you have about the work?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Reflect” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Water Reflection" by Yuma Hori is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 Licence.

1. Prepare for reading by scanning the assignment and developing questions for which you want to discover answers through your reading.
2. Read the material and discover the answers to your questions.
3. Capture the information by highlighting and annotating the text as well as by taking effective notes.
4. Review the reading by studying your notes, by integrating them with your class notes, and by discussing the reading with classmates.

Special Texts and Situations

• Do all the exercises in math textbooks; apply the formulas to real-world situations.
• Practice “reading” the illustrations. Each type of graphic material has its own strength or purpose.
• Look for statements of hypotheses and experimental design when reading science texts.
• History, economics, and political science texts are heavily influenced by interpretation. Think critically about what you are reading.
• Working with foreign language texts requires more time and more frequent breaks. Don’t rely on word-for-word translations.
• If you need to read with children around, don’t put off your reading until you have a large block of time; learn to read in short periods as available.
• When reading on the Internet, be extra diligent to evaluate the source of the material to decide how reliable that source may be.
• If English is your second language, seek out resources that may be offered on campus or at your institution. In any case, be patient with the process of mastering advanced-level English. And always remember this: what feels like a disadvantage in one situation can be a great gift in another situation.

Vocabulary

• Reading and vocabulary development are closely linked. A stronger vocabulary makes reading easier and more fun; the best way to build a vocabulary is to read.
• Look for new words everywhere, not just in class.

• When you encounter a new word, follow these steps:

  1. Write it down and write down the sentence in which it was used.
  2. Infer its meaning based on the context and word roots.
  3. Look it up in a dictionary.
  4. Write your own sentence using the word.
  5. Say the word, its definition, and your sentence out loud.
  6. Find an opportunity to use the word within two days.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Chapter Activities" in College Success by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution (and republished by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing), which is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Submission

• How will you deliver this assignment?
• Is it a presentation, a webpage design, a written essay submitted on paper?

Purpose

• What kind of writing is the assignment asking you to do? Is this a review? A summary? An argumentative piece?
• Will you need to do research and cite sources? If this is the case, you can probably set aside ideas that will be difficult to do research for, such as a story about a personal experience. These might be better suited to a different assignment.
• Is there a specific length requirement? You will want to look through your ideas to make sure you’re focusing on ones that you will be able to have an in-depth and well-supported conversation about in this amount of space. If the assignment length is short, you won’t have space to clarify a complex relationship between two ideas, and if the assignment is a longer one, you will need a topic that allows for that length of conversation without repeating yourself or focusing on just one support.
• How much time do you have? If the assignment is due soon, you may want to work with a topic you already know something about, rather than try to learn a new-to-you set of ideas from scratch in a hurry.
• Make sure any ideas you are considering focusing on for this work match the goals of the assignment.

Audience

• Who is going to be "receiving" this assignment?
• Are you writing a blog to a general audience?
• Are you creating a personal piece for yourself to include in a portfolio?
• Is the audience your instructor or marker?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Organizing Your Ideas and Looking for Connections” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

What is the Difference between an Audience and a Reader?

Isn’t My Instructor Always My Audience?

• What do I know about my audience? (age, gender, interests, biases, or concerns; Do they have an opinion already? Do they have a stake in the topic?)
• What do they know about my topic? (What does this audience not know about the topic? What do they need to know?)
• What details might affect the way this audience thinks about my topic? (How will facts, statistics, personal stories, examples, definitions, or other types of evidence affect this audience? What kind of effect are you going for?)

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Audience” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “Theater audience wearing 3-d glasses” by Burns Library, Boston College is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence.

Yourself

Your Instructor

• You have read any assigned material before writing. What do you need to write to show your instructor you have read this material?
• You have understood the assignment given: Ground Zero of the Writing Process. To show this, pay particular attention to the verbs in the assignment. Are you doing the actions required? If the assignment says “analyze X,” have you done so? Do you understand what it means to analyze?
• If assigned, you have done research for your topic. To show your research, you will want to use summaries, paraphrasing, and quotations from your sources, using appropriate citation.
  • For help see summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting, and see the "Crediting and Citing Your Sources."
• You will use the assigned academic format, such as MLA (see the appendix titled "Resources for Working with MLA”). You will follow the instructions. Re-read the assignment to make sure you are following each step.
• You will work hard on your assignment and spend time making it as good as possible, including spending considerable time proofreading and editing. Taking these steps shows that you are serious about your work, and that it is important enough for others to read.

Other Students

The “General” Reader

• What would a general reader know about your topic? What wouldn’t they know?
• What kinds of evidence and reasons are acceptable to an audience that does not share the same background and beliefs as you?
• What kinds of evidence and reason are acceptable in an academic community? Have you used academic sources? Are your sources credible?

A Target Audience

The Opposing Viewpoint

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Imagining Your Audience's Needs” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• TEDxAlsaceSalon #1 by TEDxAlsace is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence.

• I need to write a letter to my landlord explaining why my rent is late so she won’t be upset. (Audience = landlord; Purpose = explaining/keeping her happy)
• I want to write a proposal for my work team to persuade them to change our schedule. (Audience = work team; Purpose = persuading/to get the schedule changed)
• I have to write a research paper for my environmental science instructor comparing solar to wind power. (Audience = instructor; Purpose = analyzing/showing that you understand these two power sources)

How Do I Know What My Purpose Is?

• Persuade/inspire them to act or think about an issue from your point of view.
• Challenge them/make them question their thinking or behaviour.
• Argue for or against something they believe or do; change their minds or behaviour.
• Inform/teach them about a topic they don’t know much about.
• Connect with them emotionally/help them feel understood.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Purpose" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "The purpose of argument" by jon collier is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence.

[caption id="attachment_1130" align="alignnone" width="749"] The rhetorical triangle. [Image description][/caption]

Pathos

Logos

Ethos

Image Descriptions

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Appealing to Your Audience” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Aristotle by Jastrow is in the public domain.
• "Logos, Pathos, Ethos Triangle" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

Video Attributions

• "Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle" video by Sigfried Abuel. Licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Licence.
• "Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle" video transcript was adapted from the original video by BCcampus. Licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Licence.

What is Point of View, and How Do I Know Which One to Use?

• I love watching the leaves change in the fall. (First person point of view)
• You will love watching the leaves change colour. (Second person)
• The leaves in fall turn many vibrant colours. (Third person)

• First person uses the following pronouns: I, me, my, us, we, myself, our, ours... any words that include the speaker/writer turn the sentence into first person.
• Second person uses any form of the word “you,” which has the effect of addressing the reader.
• Third person uses pronouns like he, she, it, they, or nouns... any words that direct the reader to a person or thing that is not the writer or reader turn the sentence into third person.[caption id="attachment_842" align="alignnone" width="782"] [Image description][/caption]

When is it Okay to Use Each of These Points of View?

Most Common: Third Person

Occasional: First Person

Least Common: Second Person

Image Descriptions

• First person uses the pronouns I, me, us, we, my, ours, and mine, and conveys a personal tone for writing focused on the writer.
• Second person includes you, your, and yours, and conveys a direct tone used when the writer knows the reader well and is writing to them.
• Third person includes she, he, it, they, them, their, and theirs and conveys a more formal and universal tone for writing focused on events, issues, or people outside the reader and writer.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Tone, Voice, and Point of View" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Point of View Circle" by BCcampus is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Licence. Based on an image by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Professional Opportunities” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• Help Wanted by Brenda Gottsabend is licensed under a CC BY-NC 2.0 Licence.

Media Attributions

• "Person Writing on a Notepad" by Calum MacAulay is licensed under an Unsplash Licence.

• An oral presentation
• Paragraphs
• Essays
• A review of a literature-based text
• On-demand paragraphs and essays
• A research assignment

• Summary
• Compare and contrast
• Classification
• Definition
• Persuasion
• Exposition
• Review
• Synthesis

What is Writing Anxiety and How Do You Know if You Have It?

What Causes Writing Anxiety?

• Inexperience with the type of writing task
• Previous negative experiences with writing (e.g., someone, maybe a teacher, has given you negative feedback or said negative things about your writing)
• Negative feelings bout writing (e.g., "I'm not a good writer"; "I hate writing.")
• Immediate deadline
• Distant deadline
• Lack of interest in the topic
• Personal problems or life events

Strategies for Overcoming or Managing Writing Anxiety

Just Start Writing

Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and from those surprises will come some of my best writing. Writing badly is also a convenient alternative to staring off into space and waiting for inspiration.

Create Smaller Tasks and Short-Term Goals

Collaborate

Embrace Reality

• Focus on what you do best rather than fretting about your perceived weaknesses.
• Acknowledge that writing can be difficult and that all you need to do is do your best.
• Recognize what might be new or unfamiliar about the type of writing that you’re doing.
• Understand that confusion and frustration is a natural part of experiencing new things, and it’s okay; it’s part of the learning process.
• Remember that you’re a student and that you’re supposed to be experiencing things that are new and unfamiliar (new formats, new audiences, new subject matter, new processes, new approaches, etc.).
• Repeat the mantra, “It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be DONE.”

Seek Out Experts

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Overcoming Writing Anxiety and Writer's Block” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “Overcoming Obstacles” by the U.S. Army is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Licence.
• "Unsculpted Pottery Clay" is in the public domain.

Revise, Revise, Revise

Take Risks

Be Patient and Be Willing to Learn

Consider Environmental Factors

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Good Writing Habits” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

How to Use Procrastination

• Bribe friends to listen and/or scribe. If you have more trouble with getting the words on the page, but like to talk over your ideas, invite a friend out for coffee or lunch in exchange for helping you out by writing down what you say about your assignment.
• Use dictation software. Dictation software allows you to speak your ideas while the software captures your words onto the page. You may have dictation software already available on your own computer; it may be provided by your school; or you may find a free mobile application.
• Use downtime to freewrite. If your problem is that you don’t have enough big chunks of time, use the time you do have for some freewriting. That means keeping a notebook or electronic device handy so that you can fit in a quick bit of writing while you are riding the bus, stuck waiting at an appointment, or in between classes. Some authors write entire articles and even books by writing in small chunks throughout the day. Try using your phone or other device to leave yourself a voice message, or use an app that records and makes a written transcript of your voice.
• Set a limit to procrastination. Limiting procrastination may be necessary if you find that you just waste time, or you may need to ask someone else for help.
• Use a time limit/timer. If you find yourself procrastinating with social media or some other distraction, set a time limit on that activity and use an alarm to let you know when that time is up. There are even apps that will do this for you! You may also find that setting a time limit on your writing makes the writing feel less burdensome. After a certain amount of time, you might even give yourself a reward.
• Set aside writing time. If you find time to do everything but work on your assignment, then you may need to set appointments with yourself to ensure that you have enough time set aside to write your paper.
• Get an accountability partner. Some people find that they accomplish more by working with another person or a group that they feel accountable to. Having a regular meeting or a scheduled check-in where you have to show your work can ensure that you get it done. Here are some potential resources for finding an accountability partner:
  • Join a writing group—even a group of classmates.
  • Ask a friend to check in with you.
  • Make use of your instructor’s office hour or visit your school’s Writing Center.
• Ask your instructor for an extension. If you are writing a class assignment, your instructor may be willing to give you an extension. Be aware that the instructor may say no to your request. You have the best chance of receiving an extension if you have been participating and turning in assignments on time before the request, make your request before the actual deadline, are able to explain how you will use the additional time, and can show the instructor a draft or an outline so that she or he can see that an extension would result in completion of your assignment.

How to Fix Procrastination

• 4-5 pm: Review assignment and materials you need to refer to in your writing; make an outline or a list of the topics you need to include.
• 5-6 pm: Freewrite in 10 minute timed bursts, starting with an item on your list or outline. Whenever the timer goes off, review what you’ve written and decide to either continue on the same topic or move to another topic.
• 6-7 pm: Eat dinner and take a walk (or whatever you do to recharge that also allows your brain to continue working in the background. For some people, this means solitude; for others, this involves other people.) You may be tempted to skip steps like this due to your worry about completing the assignment. Don’t skip steps!  if you want to work until midnight or later, you will need to take care of your body and brain to keep going. You will often find that when you return to your work, you have fresh ideas and perspectives.
• 7-10 pm: Continue timed free writing until you have written about as many of the topics as you can in this time period. Take a short break every hour, and make sure that you move, drink water, and perhaps have a healthy snack. Set an alarm or timer to ensure that you get back to your work as planned. Save one chunk of time to make a Works Cited page; use one chunk of time to insert any missing quotations and/or citations. Resist the urge to constantly reread the first part to revise it to perfection. That will keep you from finishing your draft. Remember the goal is to FINISH, not to write a perfect introduction.
• 10-11 pm: Complete the draft, making it into complete sentences and paragraphs. Write an introduction and conclusion if you don’t yet have these pieces.
• 11 pm-12 am: Review your work. (Suggestion: use the reverse outline method, discussed in the "Revising" section of this text.) Make sure, as best you can, that all required parts of your outline are included. Review the assignment and compare it to your draft.
• 12-7 or 8 am: Sleep. NOT KIDDING. Your body and brain need this time away from your work. When you get up, you will be better prepared to finish your paper by the deadline.
• 8-9 am: Proofread and edit your paper. Do the best you can, knowing that you will not have time to catch everything or make the paper perfect.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Procrastination” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Brainstorming

Clustering

1. To make a cluster, start with a big concept. Write this in the centre of a page or screen and circle it.
2. Think of ideas that connect to the big concept. Write these around the big concept and draw connecting lines to the big concept.
3. As you think of ideas that relate to any of the others, create more connections by writing those ideas around the one idea that connects them and draw connecting lines.

Listing

Freewriting

• Write as much as you can, as quickly as you can.
• Don’t edit or cross anything out. (Note: if you must edit as you go, just write the correction and keep moving along. Don’t go for the perfect word, just get the idea on the page.)
• Keep your pen, pencil, or fingers on the keyboard moving.
• You don’t need to stay on topic or write in any order. Feel free to follow tangents.
• If you get stuck, write a repeating phrase until your brain gets tired and gives you something else to write. (Variation: I like to complain at this point, so I write about the fact that I’m stuck, I really hate having to do this, why isn’t it lunch-time already, etc.)
• Freewriting can be used just to get your mind working so that you can write an actual draft. In this case, you can write about whatever you want. Freewriting to generate ideas usually works best when you start with a prompt—an idea or question that gets you started. An example of a writing prompt might be “What do I already know about this topic?” Or “What is the first idea I have about my topic?” If you started with a list or an outline, you can freewrite about each item.

Looping

1. To begin, start with a freewrite on a topic. Set a timer and write for 5-15 minutes (whatever you think will be enough time to get going but not so much that you will want to stop).
2. When the time period ends, read over what you’ve written and circle anything that needs to be expanded on or that branches into new ideas. Select one of these for your next loop.
3. Freewrite again for another time period, using the idea you selected from the first freewrite.
4. Repeat until you feel you have covered the topic or you are out of time.

Asking Questions

• Problem/solution: What is the problem that your writing is trying to solve? Who or what is part of the problem? What solutions can you think of? How would each solution be accomplished?
• Cause/effect: What is the reason behind your topic? Why is it an issue? Conversely, what is the effect of your topic? Who will be affected by it?
• The set of journalist’s questions is probably the most familiar for writers. Using the journalist’s questions, sometimes called the five W’s (plus How), is an effective way to write about the basic information about your topic. Here are the questions:
  • Who: Who is doing this? Who is affected?
  • What: What is happening? What will happen? What should happen?
  • Where: Where is it happening?
  • When: When is it happening?
  • Why: Why is this happening?
  • How: How is it happening?

Discussing

Journals or "Minute Papers"

Dialectic Note-taking

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Strategies for Getting Started” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “Danger” by Parhamr is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence.
• “Making Walks Better” by Sacha Chua is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence.

Looking for Connections

Rough Outline

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Organizing Your Ideas and Looking for Connections” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “No one is perfect” by becca.peterson26 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 Licence.
• Mona Lisa Connect the Dots by Thomas Pravitte, photo by James Robert Smith is licensed under a CC BY NC-SA 2.0 Licence.

Traditional Outline

1. Main Point
   1. Subtopic
      1. Detail/Evidence/Support
      2. Support/Example/Detail
   2. Supporting Idea
      1. Evidence/Support/Example
      2. Detail/Evidence/Support
      3. Example/Support/Evidence

Outlining an Essay

Step 1: Create a thesis statement

Step 2: Identify the main ideas that relate to your thesis statement

Step 3: Identify the supporting points and evidence for each major idea

Step 4: Create your outline

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Strategies for Getting Started” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.
• Text under "Outlining an Essay" was adapted from "Create an Outline" in University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed by Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres, which is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Anatomy of an Outline" by Graeme Robinson-Clogg is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence.

1. Now take the pie out of the oven and let it cool on the stovetop.
2. Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients.
3. Set the pie crust aside while you make the filling.

General to Specific or Specific to General

Many people consider Vancouver, British Columbia, to be a relaxed place to live. They would be shocked to know how bad the traffic is traveling major arteries into the city and even driving around the city itself.

Transit is crowded, parking is expensive, and vehicles stop and go through the main streets of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and that is just once travelers brave the crowded arteries to enter the city; Vancouver's traffic problem does not lend itself to the relaxed atmosphere many believe the city to have.

Does the Triangle Mean the Essay Keeps Getting More Specific or More Broad until the Very End?

Are There Other Ways to Think about Organizing My Ideas?

• Most important information first (consider what you want readers to focus on first)
• Chronological order (the order in time that events take place)
• Compare and contrast (ideas are organized together because of their relationship to each other)

Methods of Development

Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)

Problem-Solution

• Describe the problem, followed by the solution.
• Propose the solution first and then describe the problems that motivated it.
• Or a problem may be followed by several solutions, one of which is selected as the best.

Chronology or Narrative

Comparison and Contrast

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Peach and lavender pie" by Heather Joan is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence.
• "General to Specific vs. Specific to General Triangles" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

What Is a Working Thesis?

• Ultimately, The Hunger Games is a film about facing fears.
• In the 2012 film The Hunger Games, the main character’s fear of losing her sister drives her to face a different set of dangers.
• Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games, creates as much danger for herself as she faces from others over the course of the film.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Finding the Thesis” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

1. Begin with just writing. I like to call this "writing hot." Just go! It doesn't matter how messy it is. You already have at least one focusing idea. Start there. What do you want to say about it? What connections can you make with it? If you have a working thesis, what points might you make that support that thesis?
2. Fill in your outline. Your outline has your topic or thesis at the beginning and then what points you might make that will expand on that topic or support that thesis. These didn't have to be detailed when you first wrote them, but now is the time to turn them in to complete sentences.
3. Insert your research. If this is an assignment that asks you to do research to support your points or to learn more about your topic, doing that research is an important early step (see the section on "Finding Quality Texts" in the "Information Literacy" section). This might include a range of things, such as conducting an interview, creating and administering a survey, or locating articles on the Internet and in library databases.
   • Research is a great early step because learning what information is available from credible sources about your topic can sometimes lead to shifting your thesis. Saving the research for a later step in the drafting process can mean making this change after already committing sometimes significant amounts of work to a thesis that existing credible research doesn’t support. Research is also useful because learning what information is available about your topic can help you flesh out what you might want to say about it.
   • If you begin with research, remember that you MUST immediately note down where you take any material from. If you take it directly from the source, put quotation marks around the quote instantly.
   • If you start with research, you will fill in the rest of your paragraphs with all of your own ideas. Don't fill the paper up with other source material and leave no room for your own words.

Essay Structure

Pros

• It helps get your thoughts organized.
• It is a good introduction to a simple way of structuring an essay that lets students focus on content rather than wrestling with a more complex structure.
• It familiarizes students with the general shape and components of many essays—a broader introductory conversation giving readers context for this discussion, followed by a more detailed supporting discussion in the body of the essay, and ending with a sense of wrapping up the discussion and refocusing on the main idea.
• It is an effective structure for in-class essays or timed written exams.

Cons

• It can be formulaic—essays structured this way sound a lot alike.
• It isn’t very flexible—often, topics don’t lend themselves easily to this structure.
• It doesn’t encourage research and discussion at the depth college-level work tends to ask for. Quite often, a paragraph is simply not enough space to have a conversation on paper that is thorough enough to support a stance presented in your thesis.

Things to Keep in Mind about Structure in Academic Writing

Using the Three-Point Structure

"Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games, creates as much danger for herself as she faces from others over the course of the film."

"Katniss embodies the human emotions of fear—fear for the safety of our loved ones, fear of failure, and fear of the unknown—making The Hunger Games a profoundly moving film for any audience."

There's No "Right" Number of Supporting Points

There's More than One Good Spot for a Thesis

Writing Beginnings

• They establish the tone and primary audience of your text—is it casual? Academic? Geared toward a professional audience already versed in the topic? An interested audience that doesn’t know much about this topic yet?
• They introduce your audience to your topic.
• They give you an opportunity to provide context around that topic—what current conversations are happening around it? Why is it important? If it’s a topic your audience isn’t likely to know much about, you may find you need to define what the topic itself is.
• They let you show your audience what piece of that bigger topic you are going to be working with in this text and how you will be working with it.
• They might introduce a narrative, if appropriate, or a related story that provides an example of the topic being discussed.

Writing Middles

• If you state a thesis early in the paper, the middle of the paper will likely provide support for that thesis.
• The middle might explore multiple sides of an issue.
• It might look at opposing views—ones other than the one you are supporting—and discuss why those don’t address the issue as well as the view you are supporting does.

Writing Endings

• Reconnect to the main idea/thesis. However, note that this is different than a simple copy/paste of the thesis from earlier in the text. We’ve likely had a whole conversation in the text since we first encountered that thesis. Simply repeating it, or even replacing a few key words with synonyms, doesn’t acknowledge that bigger conversation. Instead, try pointing us back to the main idea in a new way.
• Tie up loose ends. If you opened the text with the beginning of a story to demonstrate how the topic applies to average daily life, the end of your text is a good time to share the end of that story with readers. If several ideas in the text tie together in a relevant way that didn’t fit neatly into the original discussion of those ideas, the end may be the place to do that.
• Keep the focus clear—this is your last chance to leave an impression on the reader. What do you want them to leave this text thinking about? What action do you want them to take? It’s often a good idea to be direct about this in the ending paragraph(s).

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Writing a First Draft” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Image Attributions

• "Writing Challenge" by Gene Wilburn is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence.

Why are Transitions Important?

When Is the Right Time to Build in Transitions?

Sentence-Level Transitions

To Show Similarity

Other connecting words that show similarity include also, similarly, and likewise.

To Show Contrast

Other connecting words that show contrast include in spite of, on the other hand, in contrast, and yet.

To Exemplify

Other connecting words that show example include for instance, specifically, and to illustrate.

To Show Cause and Effect

Other connecting words that show cause and effect include therefore, so, and thus.

To Show Additional Support

Other connecting words that show additional support include also, besides, equally important, and in addition.

A Word of Caution

WEAK Too Many Transitions: The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, and for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. In spite of this fact, many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible this movement in art to take place. Then, In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. To illustrate the importance of this invention, pigments previously had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. For example, the mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. In addition, when working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Thus, Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

STRONG Subtle Transitions that Aid Reader Understanding: The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. However, many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible for this movement in art to take place. In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. Before this invention, pigments had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. The mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. When working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

Transitions between Paragraphs and Sections

Use Signposts

Use Forward-Looking Sentences at the End of Paragraphs

Use Backward-Looking Sentences at the Beginning of Paragraphs

Evaluate Transitions for Predictability or Conspicuousness

Image Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Developing Relationships Between Ideas” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “Under Fremont Bridge in Portland” by Robert Ashworth is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Licence.

What Is a Paragraph?

Topic Sentences

Placement of Topic Sentences

Topic Sentence-Details-Topic Sentence

Topic Sentence-Details

Details-Topic Sentence-Details

Implied Topic Sentences

My pigeons moved next door where an elderly couple feed them bird seed and have the time and willingness to clean up after their new charges; so it seems, in this case, things have worked out for everyone. But the large flocks still haunt the piazzas in Florence and Venice, the squares in London, and similar places in nearly every city across the globe. Despite their ability to distinguish between a Van Gogh and a Chagall, pigeons still deposit droppings that deface the great marble statues and facades—the works of art and architecture that are part of our human heritage—and yet people still buy bags of seed for about a dollar and pose for photographs, drenched in doves. Meanwhile, officials in these cities continue, sometimes quietly, to wage war against the birds ("Introduction").

Characteristics of a Good Topic Sentence

• Signals the topic and also the more focused ideas of the paragraph
• Presents an idea or ideas that are clear and easy to understand
• Provides unity to the paragraph (so it’s clear how all supporting ideas relate)
• Omits supporting details
• Engages the reader

Image Description

{Additional state budget funding must be allocated} to subsidise (affordable housing initiatives.)

(The amazing sweater you knitted me) is {going to look especially great with my rainbow unicorn socks.} [Return to Figure 6.1]

1. Topic sentence, details, topic sentence
2. Topic sentence, details
3. Details, topic sentence
4. Details, topic sentence, details [Return to Figure 6.2]

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Writing Paragraphs” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Examples of focusing an idea" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.
• "Possible paragraph structures" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

What is the Purpose of an Introduction?

• Catch readers’ attention.
• Introduce the focus and purpose of your writing.

Formula

Methods

Example: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 68% of prison inmates do not have a high school diploma.

Example: Today, Michael Ondaatje is a celebrated Canadian poet, but he was born in Sri Lanka and lived in England before emigrating to Canada.

Example: Can prisons rehabilitate prisoners so they’re able to return to their communities, find jobs, and contribute in positive ways?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Writing Introductions" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "iPhone 6 Hello" by Microsiervos is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 Licence.

• Reasons
• Facts
• Statistics
• Quotations
• Examples

Strong vs. Weak Support

Breaking, Combining, or Beginning New Paragraphs

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "The Paragraph Body: Supporting Your Ideas" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• Leave readers with something to think about.
  • Clarify why your topic matters to them and the larger community (whether that be the class, their neighborhood or the whole wide world).
  • Suggestions for further study.
• Remind readers of what you have written.

Techniques to Keep Readers Thinking about the Topic at the End of a Piece

Formula

Methods

Example: Citizens who agree that music education should be a part of all public schools in the United States can make a difference by writing their representatives, going to a school board meeting, and when a ballot initiative comes around, voting to fund music education.

Example: Should schools in the U.S. be concerned with the kind of emotional and cognitive development that music education prompts? If we’re interested in educating the whole child, not just the most academic parts of the brain, then the answer is yes, and we have to reconsider our priorities when it comes to school funding.

Example: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, says that arts education saved his life. He went to an elementary school where the sixth grade put on a famous play every year—everything from Fiddler on the Roof to The Wizard of Oz—but by the time Miranda’s class was in sixth grade, the teachers had run out of plays appropriate for children, so they had the sixth graders write their own musicals in addition to performing all the musicals from the previous years. That four-hour-long musical extravaganza was Miranda’s first experience of writing and acting in his own production (Raskauskas). The opportunity that his teachers provided him turned into a lifelong passion. All students should have that same opportunity to connect with the arts in meaningful ways.

Example: As Oliver Sacks notes in his book Musicophilia, “Rhythm and its entrainment of movement (and often emotion), its power to ‘move’ people, in both senses of the word, may well have had a crucial cultural and economic function in human evolution, bringing people together, producing a sense of collectivity and community” (268). Our schools aim to foster that same sense of community, which is why music must be part of a well rounded education.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Writing Conclusions" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• Have I met the purpose and requirements?
• Does my draft say what I mean?
• Have I changed my thinking through writing or researching?
• Are there parts that do not belong here? (For more help with this, see “Reverse Outlining” later in this  text.)
• Are there pieces missing?
• Are there places where the writing does not make sense?
• Is the tone right for my reader?
• Are my sources the right kind for my purpose and reader?
• Are all the pieces in the right place?
• Are sources documented?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Higher vs. Lower Order Concerns" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

1. It happens later in the process, after a draft is completed rather than before.
2. It gives you an opportunity to review and assess the ideas and connections that are actually present in the completed draft. This is almost an opposite approach from traditional outlining, as the traditional pre-writing outline considers an initial set of ideas, which might shift as the draft is actually being written and new ideas are added or existing ones are moved, changed, or removed entirely.

How to Create a Reverse Outline

1. At the top of a fresh sheet of paper, write your primary thesis or claim for the text you want to outline. This should be the thesis exactly as it appears in your draft, not the thesis you know you intended. If you can’t find the actual words, write down that you can’t find them in this draft of the paper—it’s an important note to make!
2. Draw a line down the middle of the page, creating two columns below your thesis.
3. Read, preferably out loud, the first body paragraph of your draft.
4. In the left column, write the single main idea of that paragraph (again, this should be using only the words that are actually on the page, not the ones you want to be on the page). If you find more than one main idea in a paragraph, write down all of them. If you can’t find a main idea, write that down, too.
5. In the right column, state how the main idea of that paragraph supports the thesis.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each body paragraph of the draft.

Working with the Results of Your Reverse Outline

Do Multiple Paragraphs Share the Same Main Idea?

Do Any Paragraphs Have Multiple Main Ideas?

Do Any Paragraphs Lack a Clear Main Idea?

Do Any Main Ideas Not Connect Clearly and Directly Back to the Thesis?

Do Ideas Flow from Paragraph to Paragraph? Are There Gaps in Reasoning?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Reverse Outlining" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Falling Upside Down" by Doctor-A is licensed under a Pixabay Licence.

Proofreading

Using a System

• Circle, highlight, underline: Select one method to mark all the corrections you want to make. You might choose to circle, underline, or highlight all errors you find. Check off each circle, highlight, or underline when you make the correction in the electronic document.
• Check marks and checkboxes: Some writers make a check mark in the margin for every error they find in a line of typing, then put a slash through the check mark once it is corrected. You can also make checkboxes and then check the box once the correction is made.
• Using editor’s marks: You may have certain marks that you have learned to make for some kinds of errors, either from an instructor or from professional editing marks. If so, feel free to use those. For an extensive list of editing marks, consult the proofreading page at the Chicago Manual of Style online (at chicagomanualofstyle.org).

Using Technology to Edit

• Find and Replace: If you know that you frequently make the same spelling or punctuation error, use the Find and Replace function in your word processor (in most, pressing and holding the "CTRL" key and then simultaneous pressing the "F" key will get you to the Find and Replace function). For example, if you know that you often type “though” instead of “through,” you can search for all instances of “though” and replace them, one by one, with “through,” checking each item to be sure you are making the right choice.
• Spell checkers: Always use spell check. Do understand that spell check cannot find misspellings that are actual words. Spell check should mark “tge” as an error, but if you typed “accept” when you meant “except,” spell check will not help you. (See "Find and Replace" in the previous paragraph.)
• Grammar checkers: Grammar checkers are sometimes correct, sometimes not. If you use a grammar checker and disagree with a suggested correction, use other resources such as dictionaries, grammar handbooks, or websites like Purdue OWL to determine what is correct. If you find that you often make a certain kind of mistake, it’s worthwhile to study up on the topic and perhaps keep an editing checklist to help you remember to check for that type of error. Whatever you do, don’t start randomly changing things just to make the grammar marks go away!
• Screen readers: Sometimes it helps to hear your words aloud. Using a screen reader can do that for you, and it will definitely read a mistake as a mistake, without correcting it. Many word processing programs have a screen reader built in. There are also apps you can purchase, and some schools provide applications to students for free.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Higher vs. Lower Order Concerns," "Document Format, Documentation Style, and Proofreading," and "Editing" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Giving Peer Feedback

• First, listen to the writer and follow the feedback assignment instructions. What kind of feedback are they asking for? Do they want to know if their thesis is clear? Do they have questions about citing sources? Make a note about what kind of feedback the writer has requested and keep that in mind as you respond. Also, make sure that you completely fulfill what the instructor has asked you to do for the other student's assignment.
• Be respectful. When you are receiving criticism, isn’t it easier to hear if the person giving the criticism is respectful to you? Do the same for your peer.
• Comment on the higher order concerns first. That means asking questions about anything that confuses you, checking to see if the writing did what the assignment called for, and considering if the order of the paper makes sense. Sometimes your instructor will give you specific things they want you to comment on; if so, be sure you do so.
• Use “I” statements to help stay focused on your reaction to the writing. For example, instead of saying, “You aren’t clear in this paragraph,” try saying, “I’m confused in this paragraph. Did you mean X or Y?”
• Be specific. Never say “I liked it” or “It was good” unless you follow up with an explanation of exactly what you liked or thought was good. The same goes for criticism; say exactly what confused you or what was missing.
• Ask questions. Use questions to clarify what the writer means, what the resources given are saying, and what the writer is trying to do.
• Offer advice based on your own experience. For example, you could say “if this were my paper, the two things I would do next are A and B.” Provide options such as, “If you wanted to expand this, you could do A, B, or C.”
• Don’t try to make the writer sound like you. If a word is the wrong word, note that, but if you just think of a word you like better, that’s just a matter of style and voice. In fact...
• Don’t edit your peer’s writing for them. Only comment on editing when the writing is a final draft or when your instructor has included checking for errors in the instructions for peer review. It’s okay to remind the writer to run spell check and grammar check if you notice minor errors. Otherwise, only ask about editing errors if you have trouble understanding the sentence because of the mistakes. If your instructor does want you to comment on editing, be sure to follow the instructions. Remember that the responsibility for correcting the errors lies with the writer, not with you.

Make the Most of Peer Feedback

Meeting with a Writing Tutor

Preparing to Meet with a Tutor

What about Getting Help from a Friend or Family Member?

Meeting with Your Instructor

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Giving and Receiving Feedback" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "WOCinTech (Microsoft) - 57" by WOCinTech Chat is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 Licence.

Document Format

• To learn more about MLA essay format and, see the Purdue OWL article on their website, "MLA Formatting and Style Guide."
• To learn more about APA essay format, see the Purdue OWL website article, "APA Formatting and Style Guide."
• Go to the Appendix "Resources for Working with MLA" to see formatting.

Documentation Style

• Also, see the "Four-Step Process for Working with Sources" portion of the "Resources for Working with MLA" appendix of this text

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Document Format, Documentation Style, and Proofreading" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Why is Information Literacy Important" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It

1. Do your own work. In other words, always start by writing what you know about a subject, turning to sources only when you need to support your own ideas with authoritative backing, when there’s a knowledge gap you cannot fill on your own, or to satisfy requirements that you use a certain number of sources in an assignment.
2. Cite the work immediately. If you add source material to your work, mark it or identify it in such a way that you will know it’s from a source and add it to your works cited list. It doesn't matter as much if your citations are correct as long as they are present.

• Mention the source’s author/creator (or anything that you can use to identify it) in your written work right at the point where the source is used.
• Create a list of all of the sources you used in your assignment; you’ll do this by arranging them in a works cited list at the end of your essay.
• Make sure sources on the works cited page are actually cited in your essay. If you read some source materials to learn more about your topic but do not mention them in your paper, you do not need to list them in the works cited list. But if you later end up using those sources in your paper, then you’ll need to add them to your works cited.

Copyright

• If you’re a student, your institution's librarians can help you navigate copyright issues. They may also be able to get you copyrighted material through Interlibrary Loan.
• As a student or faculty member, you may be able to access copyrighted material through the practice of “fair dealing” (below).
• You might find copyrighted materials in your institution's library.
• You may be able to find similar materials in Open Educational Resources (OERs), like the one you’re reading now!

Fair Dealing for Academic Purposes

• You will use them for a limited purpose. For example, you’ll use them to complete an assignment and then will return or release them. Specifically, you won’t retain the material to use at a later date.
• You will not post them on the Web, make them available publicly, or share them with anyone else.
• You will not make permanent copies of the material.
• You will only use a small portion of the “whole” material. For example, using two or three chapters of a twenty-chapter book is a fine example of fair use; using twenty-four of twenty-five chapters without paying for them would not be considered fair use.
• You will not benefit, monetarily, in any way from the material.

Creative Commons

Open Educational Resources

Wiki Sources

Torrent and BitTorrent Sites

Reverse Image Search

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Learning About Plagiarism and Guidelines for Using Information" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• Gives you access to a world of source materials that have already been reviewed and approved by the librarian staff.
• Allows you free database access that would be extremely expensive if purchased as a non-student. For example, accessing an EBSCO online database (one of the best college research standards) can cost $40-50 per article! Fortunately, the same article would be free through your college library.
• Provides current, constantly updated sources.
• Allows you to obtain materials that your library may not have through interlibrary loan, where your library will contact other libraries to get you the materials you need.
• Provides study spaces, tutoring, research assistance, and other aids.
• Gives you access to librarians—the library’s greatest resource. Where a library database can give you thousands of results in response to a search, the librarian can help you figure out where to start looking, or what search terms to use. They can answer any and all of your questions relating to research.

CRAP Test

C: Currency

• Is this the most recent material you can find?
• Is the material recent enough to accurately represent your topic?
• Has it been updated recently?
• For electronic sites, does the site appear modern and up to date?

R: Reliability

• Is the material objective?
• Can you detect any obvious bias or loaded language?
• Are sources available to back up the piece?
• Is it well written and free of errors?

A: Authority

• Does the author have degrees, experience, or other expertise in the topic area?
• Is the host source reliable, i.e., a respected newspaper versus an individual blog?
• Is the publisher reputable and well known?
• Do you have a sense of trust for the author?

P: Purpose and Point of View

• What is the material’s creator trying to accomplish? Are they trying to inform? Persuade? Push their own agenda? Convince you to buy something?
• Does the site include advertising or click-bait?
• Does the article seemed aimed at a specific audience?

If the material you are researching can not answer these questions satisfactorily, it is CRAP, and you shouldn't use it.

Can You Also Find Good Material on the Internet?

Domain name endings

Example of a Web address: www.cnn.com

Example of a domain name ending: .com

• .ca/.com: may be commercial or personal sites. These may be considered less academically reliable sources because anyone can create one; they may used for private blogs, web pages, and other personal uses or for commercial purposes and sales. .ca can refer to a Canadian-specific site with these criteria, while .com is international. **.ca sites can also be reputable sites within Canada that can fall under any of the following criteria:**
• .org: these used to belong solely to non-profit sites, such as The American Cancer Society. But these days, anyone can purchase and use a .org site for any purpose. Thus the content on a .org site may vary widely in terms of its authority.
• .edu: educational sites, usually maintained by colleges and universities but sometimes by high schools as well. These sites are considered to be very reliable.
• .gov and .mil: government and military sites, maintained by the governments and the military. These sites are considered to be very reliable.

• C: Is it current? Yes, it is. He is continually adding new materials and updating the site.
• R: Is it reliable? Yes. Brazier has many endorsements of his material and reviews on his website.
• A: Is it authoritative? Yes. Brazier's About page is full of references to his education, experience, and authority in his field. He is a highly respected nutritionist and athlete.
• P: What is its purpose? Brazier's website's purpose is to provide a portal for information about himself, his books, and his magazine; to book him for a speaking engagement; and to learn about his nutrition philosophy.
• Result? This website only provides a small amount of information on nutrition. Although it passes the first three points of the CRAP Test, its purpose is not designed for academic research.

• C: Is it current? Although the date at the bottom looks recent, an exploration of the site will show a reliance on articles that are outdated or lead to broken links. This is a problem, because a topic that changes as quickly as one like technology must rely on current and constantly updated materials. No—we cannot say this is current.
• R: Is it reliable? The site does not provide a list of authors. Clicking “About” at the bottom of the page leads to a set of names that do not click through to the actual organizations—a bad sign. Further, it says it was “created by the National Consumer Advocacy Commission.” But a Google search reveals that this organization doesn’t exist! So we’ll give “reliable” a big NO.
• A: Is it authoritative? Again, this is a no. The materials used are not current, and many lead to broken links. The comments tend to use biased language and seem more focused on persuasion (or even manipulation) toward a certain view than on presenting facts.
• P: What is its purpose? The purpose seems to be to convince readers that there are no dangers or hazards associated with cell phone use. We know that’s untrue, and so again, this fails the test.
• Result? fails the CRAP Test.

Authors

• Do they have the right academic credentials or professional experience to back up their authority? For instance, someone who’s spent their life as a short-order cook wouldn’t be considered an authority on astronomy, nor would a PhD-level astronomer be considered an expert on the art of donut making.
• Have they published work in the field?
• Does a quick review of the topic or field suggest that they’re a known expert in that area?

Information/Page Date

Other Points to Check

• Does it look modern or dated (as if someone hasn’t updated it in years)?
• Are there lots of advertisements or direct attempts to sell products?
• Are there pop-ups that interfere with navigating or reading the page?

• Are the articles or content well written and carefully proofread? Do they “sound” authoritative and feel reliable?
• Do articles include links to other materials or links to credible and/or reliable source materials?  Has content been carefully edited, or can you detect lots of errors?
• Is the language intelligent and objective? Or does it include biased language, slang, rude, or negative words?
  • For example, let’s imagine you were researching a question of why people buy beverages in single-use plastic bottles.
  • An objective, fact-based statement: Studies show that many people buy beverages in single-use plastic bottles because the bottles are convenient, easy to carry, and available just about anywhere.
  • A biased, non-factual statement: Let’s face it—most people who buy single-use plastic bottles are just too lazy to carry reusable bottles. Or they just don’t care if they single-handedly destroy the environment.

Look in the Right Places

What About Finding Good Materials in print periodicals?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Finding Quality Texts" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• What is the author's main point? Describe this in your own words. Do they make the point successfully? Is the point held consistently throughout the text, or does it wander at any point?
• What information does the author provide to support the central idea? Making a list of each point will help you analyze. Hint: each paragraph should address one key point, and all paragraphs should relate to the text’s central idea.
• What kind of evidence does the author use? Is it based more on fact or opinion, and do you feel those choices are effective? Where does this evidence come from? Are the sources authoritative and credible?
• What is the author’s main purpose? Note that this is different that the text’s main idea. The text’s main idea (above) refers to the central claim or thesis embedded in the text. The author’s purpose, however, refers to what they hope to accomplish. For example, a cookbook is assembled in order to share recipes and cooking methods. But perhaps the author also wanted to include a group of treasured family recipes in hopes of sharing them with a wider cooking audience. The text has one purpose, while the author has an additional aim for the work.
• Describe the tone in the piece. Is it friendly? Authoritative? Does it lecture? Is it biting or sarcastic? Does the author use simple language, or is it full of jargon? Does the language feel positive or negative? Point to aspects of the text that create the tone; spend some time examining these and considering how and why they work.
• Is the author objective, or does he/she try to convince you to have a certain opinion? Why does the author try to persuade you to adopt this viewpoint? If the author is biased, does this interfere with the way you read and understand the text?
• Do you feel like the author knows who you are? Does the text seem to be aimed at readers like you or at a different audience? What assumptions does the author make about their audience? Would most people find these reasonable, acceptable, or accurate?
• Does the text’s flow make sense? Is the line of reasoning logical? Are there any gaps? Are there any spots where you feel the reasoning is flawed in some way?
• Does the author try to appeal to your emotions? Does the author use any controversial words in the headline or the article? Do these affect your reading or your interest?
• Do you believe the author? Do you accept their thoughts and ideas? Why or why not?

Jargon

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Analyzing Content and Rhetoric" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Our reliance on single-use plastic water bottles is more than simply wasteful; it is bad for our environment because of the composition of the bottles themselves and the chemicals they release as they break down in our landfills.Single-use plastic water bottles cause dangerous substances to “leach” into the soil and water (Macklin). The bottles typically don’t begin to break down for one hundred years, or even longer. Their decomposition may be speeded up by extreme weather conditions, e.g., very hot or very cold temperatures. As they break down, they release dangerous chemicals like bisphenol-A into the soil. Bisphenol-A is an endocrine disruptor, i.e., it can affect the levels of hormones within the human body, creating disease. In addition, BPA is known to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in humans. As these chemicals accumulate in the soil, they eventually sink into the water table, contaminating the water  (O'Connor). Making the environmental threats of single-use water bottles even more frightening is the fact that there is currently no known technology for removing BPA and other leachates from the soil and water once they’re there.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Paragraph Analysis" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

• A summary can show your understanding of the main points of an assigned reading or viewing, so your instructor might ask you to summarize in order to know that you’ve understood the material.
• You might summarize a section from a source, or even the whole source, when the ideas in that source are critical to an assignment you are working on and you feel they need to be included, but they would take up too much space in their original form.
• You might also summarize when the general ideas from a source are important to include in your work, but the details included in the same section as those main ideas aren’t needed for you to make your point. For example, technical documents or in-depth studies might go into much, much more detail than you are likely to need to support a point you are making for a general audience. These are situations in which a summary might be a good option.
• Summarizing is also an excellent way to double-check that you understand a text—if you can summarize the ideas in it, you likely have a good grasp on the information it is presenting. This can be helpful for school-related work, such as studying for an exam or researching a topic for a paper, but is also useful in daily life when you encounter texts on topics that are personally or professionally interesting to you.

What Makes Something a Summary?

• Use your own words.
• Significantly condense the original text.
• Provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarize.
• Avoid personal opinion.

How Should I Organize a Summary?

Introducing a Summary

• Introduce the name of the author whose work you are summarizing.
• Introduce the title of the text being summarized.
• Introduce where this text was presented (if it’s an art installation, where is it being shown? If it’s an article, where was that article published? Not all texts will have this component—for example, when summarizing a book written by one author, the title of the book and name of that author are sufficient information for your readers to easily locate the work you are summarizing).
• State the thesis.

Summary within Your Essay

• Name the author.
• Name the text being summarized.
• State just the relevant context, if there is any (maybe the author has a specific credential that makes their work on this topic carry more weight than it would otherwise, or maybe the study they generated is now being used as a benchmark for additional research).
• Introduce the author's full name (first and last names) the first time you summarize part of their text. If you summarize pieces of the same text more than once in a work you are writing, each time you use their text after that initial introduction of the source, you will only use the author’s last name as you introduce that next summary component.

Presenting the Body of a Summary

Concluding a Summary

• Include an in-text citation, if appropriate. (To learn how to do this correctly, see the discussion of in-text citation in "Crediting and Citing Your Sources," part of the "Using Sources Correctly" section of this text.)
• Discuss the summary you’ve just presented. How does it support, illustrate, or give new information about the point you are making in your writing? Connect it to your own main point for that paragraph so readers understand clearly why it deserves the space it takes up in your work. (Note that this is still not giving your opinion on the material you’ve summarized, just making connections between it and your own main points.)

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Writing Summaries” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Why Paraphrase?

To Demonstrate Understanding

To Provide Support

“Scientists that study human odors and genetics have previously suggested scent cues associated with genetics are likely controlled via the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes”

“Those genes appear to play a role in odor production and also in mammals’ mating choices—because humans and mice alike appear to prefer mates that smell less similar to themselves, which scientists have theorized may be a natural control against inbreeding.”

These same genes that might be attracting mosquitoes more to some of us than to others could also be helping us choose partners that we aren’t likely to be related to.

What Makes Something a Paraphrase?

• Is in your own words.
• Is not condensed.
• Avoids personal opinion.
• Is completely rephrased from the original.

How Should I Organize a Paraphrase?

• Introduce the author and original text, just as you would for a summary.
• If there is relevant context, mention that as well.
• Then, restate the part of the original text that you want to use into your own original language and sentence structures.
• Include a parenthetical citation (if appropriate) at the end of the paraphrased material. (To learn how to do this correctly, see the discussion of in-text citation in “Crediting and Citing Your Sources,” part of the “Using Sources Correctly” section of this text.)
• After delivering and citing the paraphrased material, reconnect that information to your own topic and point.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Paraphrasing" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "Stay Relaxed" by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence.

• To retain the powerful, specialized, or unique language of the original
• To demonstrate authority
• To present an opposing view
• For variety in your use of the source material

Why It’s Important to Limit Quotes

How Should I Organize a Quote?

Introduce/Frame

Deliver

Cite

Reconnect/Integrate

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from "Quoting" in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Ideas to Consider when Critiquing a Text

• How did you respond to the piece? Did you like it? Did it appeal to you? Could you identify with it?
• Do you agree with the main ideas in the text?
• Did you find any errors in reasoning? Any gaps in the discussion?
• Did the organization make sense?
• Was evidence used correctly, without manipulation? Has the writer used appropriate sources for support?
• Is the author objective? Biased? Reasonable? (Note that the author might just as easily be subjective, unbiased, and unreasonable! Every type of writing and tone can be used for a specific purpose. By identifying these techniques and considering why the author is using them, you begin to understand more about the text.)
• Has the author left anything out? If yes, was this accidental? Intentional?
• Are the text’s tone and language text appropriate?
• Are all of the author’s statements clear? Is anything confusing?
• What worked well in the text? What was lacking or failed completely?
• What is the cultural context[footnote]Cultural context is way of asking who is affected by the ideas and who stands to lose or gain if the ideas take place. When you think about this, think of all kinds of social and cultural variables, including age, gender, occupation, education, race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, and so forth.[/footnote] of the text?

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Critiquing a Text” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “Drawing Conclusions, Synthesizing, and Reflecting” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• "J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye photo" by Andy Field is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Licence.

1. It adds to your own credibility as an author by showing you have done appropriate research on your topic and approached your work ethically.
2. It gives credit to the original author and their work for the ideas you found to be useful, and in giving them credit it helps you avoid unintentionally plagiarizing their work.
3. It gives your readers additional resources (already curated by you in your research process) that they can go to if they want to read further your topic.

Credit/Cite Your Sources

In-Text Citation/Parenthetical Citation

• For example, an article written by Lisa Smith is in a physical magazine and spans pages 38-42. If, on page 41, she says, “While most studies have shown that Expo dry erase markers have superior lasting power, erasability, and colour saturation than other brands on the market, their higher cost is a concern for some consumers,” I might incorporate that into a paper like this:
  • By most measurable standards, Expo markers are clearly the favored option (Smith 41).

• If I introduced the source material in the sentence above a little differently, introducing the author before delivering the material, I wouldn’t need to repeat the author’s name in that same sentence in the parenthetical citation. In that case, my sentence would look something like this:
  • According to Lisa Smith, Expo markers are clearly the favored option by most measurable standards (41).

Three Ways to Cite or Identify Written Source Materials

1. Introduce the Author and/or the Title of the Source—Framing

In the article, “Grooming Poodles for Fun and Profit,” Jonas Fogbottom explains, “Poodle grooming is a labour of love. It takes years of practice to be good at it, but once learned, it’s a fun and worthwhile career.”

In the article, “Grooming Poodles for Fun and Profit,” Jonas Fogbottom says that although it takes a long time to become a skilled poodle groomer, it’s well worth the effort and leads to a good career.

2. Use Linking or Attributive Language—Signal Phrases

1. The author also explains . . .
2. Fogbottom continues . . .
3. The article states next that . . .
4. The data set also demonstrates . . .