EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator - MLA, APA, Chicago citation styles Writing in the Disciplines: English - The Process of Writing an English Research Paper The Process of Writing An English Research Paper (printable version here) 1. Choosing an Area of Focus One of the most important steps in the process of writing a research paper for the English discipline is choosing an interesting, engaging topic. An instructor may offer students a range of topics from which to choose or allow students to choose their own areas of focus. Your choice of topic will influence both the effort you invest in your research and the degree to which you enjoy the process. 2. Before beginning in-depth research, consult your instructor. 3. This is perhaps the most important step in the research paper writing process. In order to avoid later confusion, begin each section by recording the author's name, book or article title, and page numbers (if relevant). 4. After rereading your notes and reflecting on the topic, formulate a tentative one-sentence thesis. An initial thesis should be tentative. 5. 6. 7. Is your thesis clear and precise?
MLA Formatting and Style Guide Coming Soon: A new look for our same great content! We're working hard this summer on a redesign of the Purdue OWL. Worry not! Our navigation menu and content will remain largely the same. Summary: MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. Contributors: Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. The following overview should help you better understand how to cite sources using MLA eighth edition, including the list of works cited and in-text citations. Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. Creating a Works Cited list using the eighth edition MLA is a style of documentation based on a general methodology that may be applied to many different types of writing. Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. Here is an overview of the process: Author Said, Edward W. Number
Social Constructivist Theories For a general intro to constructivism click: Overview of constructivism. Overview of Social Constructivism Another cognitive psychologist, Lev Vygotsky ( shared many of Piaget's ( assumptions about how children learn, but he placed more emphasis on the social context of learning. There is a great deal of overlap between cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky's social constructivist theory. Although Vygotsky died at the age of 38 in 1934, most of his publications did not appear in English until after 1960. We call Vygotsky's brand of constructivism social constructivism because he emphasized the critical importance of culture and the importance of the social context for cognitive development. There are thousands of books, articles, and papers on the theories of Vygotsky and the implications of those theories for teaching and learning. General Implications of Social Constructivism 1.
Plagiarism Tutorial: Test Your Knowledge Plagiarism is a serious academic offense! The University of Southern Mississippi's undergraduate and graduate bulletins both include statements about plagiarism: "When cheating is discovered, the faculty member may give the student an F on the work involved or in the course. If further disciplinary action is deemed appropriate, the undergraduate student should be reported to the Dean of Students. A graduate student should be reported to the Dean of the Graduate School." "In addition to being a violation of academic honesty, cheating violates the code of student conduct and may be grounds for probation, suspension, expulsion, or all three." When a student avoids plagiarizing someone else's work, she or he doesn't just avoid doing something wrong.
Constructivism in learning Constructivism is the label given to a set of theories about learning which fall somewhere between cognitive and humanistic views. If behaviourism treats the organism as a black box, cognitive theory recognises the importance of the mind in making sense of the material with which it is presented. Nevertheless, it still presupposes that the role of the learner is primarily to assimilate whatever the teacher presents. Constructivism — particularly in its "social" forms — suggests that the learner is much more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the teacher of creating ("constructing") new meanings. We can distinguish between "cognitive constructivism" which is about how the individual learner understands things, in terms of developmental stages and learning styles, and "social constructivism", which emphasises how meanings and understandings grow out of social encounters—see Vygotsky below. In this sense, conversational theories of learning fit into the constructivist framework.
Plagiarism What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important? In college courses, we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in texts, hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information. How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism? To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use another person’s idea, opinion, or theory; any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge; quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words. These guidelines are taken from the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct. How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases Here’s an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase that is plagiarism: What makes this passage plagiarism? 1. 2.
The 5 Elements Students Should Look For When Evaluating Web Content March , 2014 In a section in her wonderful book "Understanding The Social Lives of Networked Teens" Danah Boyd talked extensively about the concept of digital natives and argued that this nomenclature does not really capture the essence of what a digitally savvy teenager really means. Dana argued that the mere fact of being comfortable with a social media tool does not prove that the user has a digital fluency to allow them to better use it for educational purposes : Just because teens are comfortable using social media to hang out does not mean that they’re fluent in or with technology. Learning how to evaluate online content is an essential step in the process of developing digitally literate students. Watch this short introduction to CRAAP Currency: Is the information too old.
Research and Citation If you are having trouble locating a specific resource please visit the search page or the Site Map. Conducting Research These OWL resources will help you conduct research using primary source methods, such as interviews and observations, and secondary source methods, such as books, journals, and the Internet. Using Research These OWL resources will help you use the research you have conducted in your documents. APA Style These OWL resources will help you learn how to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation and format style. MLA Style These OWL resources will help you learn how to use the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation and format style. Chicago Manual of Style This section contains information on the Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. American Medical Association (AMA) Style
What Is Plagiarism? Please Don't Plagiarize! Show transcriptHide transcript Did you know that copying text from the Internet and posting it somewhere new without saying where you got it is a form of cheating? It's also called stealing. You also steal when you take an image that you find on the Internet and use it without permission. And How To Avoid It - A Guide For ESL Learners Do you plagiarize? Plagiarism is an illegal form of copying. Examples of plagiarism copying and pasting from the Internet and posting somewhere else without proper citationputting your name on another person's essay or projectcopying exact wording from another person's textusing another person's photo, diagram, sounds, or ideas without proper citationpresenting research in your own words without providing your referencespurchasing another person's text and using it as your ownpresenting ideas in the same format and order as your research sourcehaving a teacher, native speaker, or higher level student edit your paper to perfection
Academic and Professional Writing: Writing a Research Paper This page lists some of the stages involved in writing a library-based research paper. Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide. Discovering, Narrowing, and Focusing a Researchable Topic Try to find a topic that truly interests you Try writing your way to a topic Talk with your course instructor and classmates about your topic Pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem to be solved Finding, Selecting, and Reading Sources You will need to look at the following types of sources: library catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies, suggestions from your instructor primary vs. secondary sources journals, books, other documents Grouping, Sequencing, and Documenting Information The following systems will help keep you organized: Writing an Outline and a Prospectus for Yourself What is the topic?