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Common Rules for Business Writing Standards All Correspondence Types

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Common Rules for Business Writing Standards All Correspondence Types

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General Guidelines - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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This resource provides writing guidance for administrative and clerical staff, including, audience awareness, conventions of particular genres, and general business writing tips such as concision and tone management.

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Parts of a Business Letter

This resource is organized in the order in which you should write a business letter, starting with the sender's address if the letter is not written on letterhead.

Sender's Address

The sender's address usually is included in letterhead. If you are not using letterhead, include the sender's address at the top of the letter one line above the date. Do not write the sender's name or title, as it is included in the letter's closing. Include only the street address, city, and zip code.

Date

The date line is used to indicate the date the letter was written. However, if your letter is completed over a number of days, use the date it was finished in the date line. When writing to companies within the United States, use the American date format. (The United States-based convention for formatting a date places the month before the day. For example: June 11, 2001. ) Write out the month, day and year two inches from the top of the page. Depending which format you are using for your letter, either left justify the date or tab to the center point and type the date. In the latter case, include the sender's address in letterhead, rather than left-justified.

Inside Address

The inside address is the recipient's address. It is always best to write to a specific individual at the firm to which you are writing. If you do not have the person's name, do some research by calling the company or speaking with employees from the company. Include a personal title such as Ms., Mrs., Mr., or Dr. Follow a woman's preference in being addressed as Miss, Mrs., or Ms. If you are unsure of a woman's preference in being addressed, use Ms. If there is a possibility that the person to whom you are writing is a Dr. or has some other title, use that title. Usually, people will not mind being addressed by a higher title than they actually possess. To write the address, use the U.S. Post Office Format. For international addresses, type the name of the country in all-capital letters on the last line. The inside address begins one line below the date. It should be left justified, no matter which format you are using.

Salutation

Use the same name as the inside address, including the personal title. If you know the person and typically address them by their first name, it is acceptable to use only the first name in the salutation (for example: Dear Lucy:). In all other cases, however, use the personal title and last/family name followed by a colon. Leave one line blank after the salutation.

If you don't know a reader's gender, use a nonsexist salutation, such as their job title followed by the receiver's name. It is also acceptable to use the full name in a salutation if you cannot determine gender. For example, you might write Dear Chris Harmon: if you were unsure of Chris's gender.

Body

For block and modified block formats, single space and left justify each paragraph within the body of the letter. Leave a blank line between each paragraph. When writing a business letter, be careful to remember that conciseness is very important. In the first paragraph, consider a friendly opening and then a statement of the main point. The next paragraph should begin justifying the importance of the main point. In the next few paragraphs, continue justification with background information and supporting details. The closing paragraph should restate the purpose of the letter and, in some cases, request some type of action.

Closing

The closing begins at the same vertical point as your date and one line after the last body paragraph. Capitalize the first word only (for example: Thank you) and leave four lines between the closing and the sender's name for a signature. If a colon follows the salutation, a comma should follow the closing; otherwise, there is no punctuation after the closing.

Enclosures

If you have enclosed any documents along with the letter, such as a resume, you indicate this simply by typing Enclosures below the closing. As an option, you may list the name of each document you are including in the envelope. For instance, if you have included many documents and need to ensure that the recipient is aware of each document, it may be a good idea to list the names.

Typist initials

Typist initials are used to indicate the person who typed the letter. If you typed the letter yourself, omit the typist initials.

A Note About Format and Font
Block Format
When writing business letters, you must pay special attention to the format and font used. The most common layout of a business letter is known as block format. Using this format, the entire letter is left justified and single spaced except for a double space between paragraphs.
Modified Block
Another widely utilized format is known as modified block format. In this type, the body of the letter and the sender's and recipient's addresses are left justified and single-spaced. However, for the date and closing, tab to the center point and begin to type.
Semi-Block
The final, and least used, style is semi-block. It is much like the modified block style except that each paragraph is indented instead of left justified.

Keep in mind that different organizations have different format requirements for their professional communication. While the examples provided by the OWL contain common elements for the basic business letter (genre expectations), the format of your business letter may need to be flexible to reflect variables like letterheads and templates. Our examples are merely guides.

If your computer is equipped with Microsoft Office 2000, the Letter Wizard can be used to take much of the guesswork out of formatting business letters. To access the Letter Wizard, click on the Tools menu and then choose Letter Wizard. The Wizard will present the three styles mentioned here and input the date, sender address and recipient address into the selected format. Letter Wizard should only be used if you have a basic understanding of how to write a business letter. Its templates are not applicable in every setting. Therefore, you should consult a business writing handbook if you have any questions or doubt the accuracy of the Letter Wizard.
Font
Another important factor in the readability of a letter is the font. The generally accepted font is Times New Roman, size 12, although other fonts such as Arial may be used. When choosing a font, always consider your audience. If you are writing to a conservative company, you may want to use Times New Roman. However, if you are writing to a more liberal company, you have a little more freedom when choosing fonts.
Punctuation
Punctuation after the salutation and closing - use a colon (:) after the salutation (never a comma) and a comma (,) after the closing. In some circumstances, you may also use a less common format, known as open punctuation. For this style, punctuation is excluded after the salutation and the closing.

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The Basic Business Letter - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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This resource is organized in the order in which you should write a business letter, starting with the sender's address if the letter is not written on letterhead. Sender's Address The sender's address usually is included in letterhead. If you are not using letterhead, include the sender's address at the top of the letter one line above the date.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The format of a memo follows the general guidelines of business writing. A memo is usually a page or two long, single spaced and left justified. Instead of using indentations to show new paragraphs, skip a line between sentences. Business materials should be concise and easy to read. Therefore it is beneficial to use headings and lists to help the reader pinpoint certain information.

Add Headings: You can help your reader understand your memo better by using headings for the summary and the discussion segments that follow it. Write headings that are short but clarify the content of the segment. For example, instead of using "Summary" for your heading, try "New Advertising Recommendations," which is much more specific. The major headings you choose are the ones that should be incorporated in your purpose-statement in the opening paragraph.

Use Lists: For easy reading, put important points or details into lists rather than paragraphs when possible. This will draw the readers' attention to the section and help the audience remember the information better. Using lists will help you be concise when writing a memo.

Sections: The sections of the memo should be allocated in the following manner:

Header: 1/8 of the memo

Opening, Context and Task: 1/4 of the memo

Summary, Discussion Segment: 1/2 of the memo

Closing Segment, Necessary Attachments: 1/8 of the memo

This is a suggested distribution of the material to make writing memos easier. Not all memos will be the same, and the structure can change as you see necessary. Different organizations may have different formatting procedures, so be flexible in adapting your writing skills.

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This handout will help you solve your memo-writing problems by discussing what a memo is, describing the parts of memos, and providing examples and explanations that will make your memos more effective.

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Memos are meant to be brief, clarifying, single-subject documents. They may be delivered via email or sent through inter-office mail, but regardless of the form, the memorandum (aka "memo") will always follow a formal organizational pattern. Typically, memos are used for internal communications and business letters are used for contacts outside of the organization. Still, if you are working closely with outside clients for a length of time, a memo may be more appropriate.

Before breaking down the formatting expectations for a memo, let's consider some tips that will serve you well as you enter the business arena.

1. Know Your Audience Depending upon your audience, the tone of your memo can vary widely. For example, if you were writing a memo to your direct reports inviting them and their families to the company party to be held at the local zoo, you would want to use a more informal writing style. Using a highly formal writing style for such a memo might achieve quite the opposite and inadvertently suggest that the company party might feel like another day at the office.

2. Know Your Purpose Sometimes, a writer will send off a quick memo with competing topics and the recipient of the memo is left perplexed and wondering, which of these topics is most important? Commit to writing about a single subject/problem/goal in your memo rather than ask the reader to decide which topic is most important.

3. Get to the Point Business memos should be straightforward, accessible, and brief. They tend not to exceed one page, single-spaced, with size 11 or 12 Times New Roman font. Remember, the word "memorandum" is basically defined as succinct and noteworthy. Thus, keeping your message brief and relevant is important. If you send out several memos a day that do not really say much (for example, in a discussion of the office party, you send a memo about the flavor of cake that will be served), your colleagues will likely not bother to read your memos in the future.

Do not include addresses (return or mailing) as memos are meant for internal communication.

No need for the opening salutation, e.g. Dear Dr. Cooper, or a closing phrase, e.g. Best or Sincerely.

When crafting an email memo or hard copy for intra-office mail, include a concise and specific topic in the subject line.

You can either format the memo yourself (following our sample memo) or use one of Microsoft Office's templates.

View a Sample

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Memos are meant to be brief, clarifying, single-subject documents. They may be delivered via email or sent through inter-office mail, but regardless of the form, the memorandum (aka "memo") will always follow a formal organizational pattern. Typically, memos are used for internal communications and business letters are used for contacts outside of the organization.

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A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work or from your own previously published work. It is best to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.

Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing:

when reproducing an exact definition (see Section 6.22 of the Publication Manual),

when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or

when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said).

Instructors, programs, editors, and publishers may establish limits on the use of direct quotations. Consult your instructor or editor if you are concerned that you may have too much quoted material in your paper.

This page addresses how to format short quotations and block quotations. Additional information is available about how to:

Learn more

Quotations are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Sections 8.25 to 8.35 and the Concise Guide Sections 8.25 to 8.34

Short quotations (fewer than 40 words)

For quotations of fewer than 40 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text-there is no additional formatting needed. Do not insert an ellipsis at the beginning and/or end of a quotation unless the original source includes an ellipsis.

Effective teams can be difficult to describe because "high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another" (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

For a direct quotation, always include a full citation ( parenthetical or narrative) in the same sentence as the quotation, including the page number (or other location information, e.g., paragraph number).

Place a parenthetical citation either immediately after the quotation or at the end of the sentence.

For a narrative citation, include the author and year in the sentence and then place the page number or other location information in parentheses after the quotation.

If the quotation precedes the narrative citation, put the page number or location information after the year and a comma.

If the citation appears at the end of a sentence, put the end punctuation after the closing parenthesis for the citation.

If the quotation includes citations, see Section 8.32 of the Publication Manual.

If the quotation includes material already in quotation marks, see Section 8.33 of the Publication Manual.

Place periods and commas within closing single or double quotation marks. Place other punctuation marks inside quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material.

Block quotations (40 words or more)

Format quotations of 40 words or more as block quotations:

Do not use quotation marks to enclose a block quotation.

Start a block quotation on a new line and indent the whole block 0.5 in. from the left margin.

Double-space the entire block quotation.

Do not add extra space before or after it.

If there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an additional 0.5 in. See an example in Section 8.27 of the Publication Manual.

Either (a) cite the source in parentheses after the quotation's final punctuation or (b) cite the author and year in the narrative before the quotation and place only the page number in parentheses after the quotation's final punctuation.

Do not add a period after the closing parenthesis in either case.

Block quotation with parenthetical citation:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people's everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Block quotation with narrative citation:

Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:

Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)

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A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work or from your own previously published work.

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This is how to correctly source AI. I encourage you to use the appendix option in your writing. This will reinforce credibility of your work as the reader can see the source you used in the moment of time you used it as AI is a dynamic tool. Go above and beyond in this area to create trust with your readers is my advice.

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Cite This Webpage

McAdoo, T. (2024, February 23). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test, and we know our roles in a Turing test. And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we've spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT. We've also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we'll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you've used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT "chat" are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications, with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT's text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm's output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with "Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?" the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, "the notation that people can be characterized as 'left-brained' or 'right-brained' is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth" (OpenAI, 2023).
Reference
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of "What is a more accurate representation?" the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that "different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes" and "the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors" (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
Reference
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)

Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let's break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is "ChatGPT," so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using "ChatGPT" as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what's being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor "Large language model" in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a "large multimodal model," so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat. For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher's homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references-four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model's interpretation of them.

We've also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

Reference

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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This post outlines how to create references for large language model AI tools like ChatGPT and how to present AI-generated text in a paper.

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Don't let this be you...Retraction watch

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Don't let this be you...Retraction watch

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This website tracks scientific papers that have been retracted due to plagiarism and falsification. Hopefully, I don't see you featured on this list. These are career ending decisions and, in some cases, legal action has been pursued due to the harm to society.

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Researchers apparently don't need to be real to publish in scientific journals.

Take Nicholas Zafetti of Clemson University, in South Carolina, who has at least nine publications to his name. Or Giorgos Jimenez of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 12 papers under his belt.

Both identities seem to be bogus, according to Alexander Magazinov, a scientific sleuth and software engineer based in Kazakhstan. They add to a short but growing list of ostensibly fictitious researchers who appear as coauthors on real papers.

Continue reading What's in a name? Made-up authors are penning dozens of papers

A former PhD student at Auburn University in Alabama relabeled and reused images inappropriately in a grant application, published paper, and several presentations, a U.S. government watchdog has found.

The Office of Research Integrity says Sarah Elizabeth Martin "engaged in research misconduct by intentionally or knowingly falsifying and/or fabricating experimental data and results obtained under different experimental conditions," according to a case summary posted online.

The published paper, " The m6A landscape of polyadenylated nuclear (PAN) RNA and its related methylome in the context of KSHV replication," appeared online in advance of publication in RNA in June 2021. The journal retracted the article last year, with the following notice:

Continue reading Auburn PhD student faked data in grant application and published paper, feds say

A public health journal intends to retract an article that estimated how many unintentional pesticide poisonings happen each year worldwide, Retraction Watch has learned.

In response, the authors hired a lawyer to represent them in contesting the retraction, and maintain the journal's decision "undermines the integrity of the scientific process." This is the second time within a few months that the journal retracted an article through a process authors said was problematic.

Continue reading Authors hire lawyer as journal plans to retract their article on pesticide poisoning

Around Christmas last year, Preston Sowell received an unpleasant delivery.

An archaeologist who knew about Sowell's work in southeastern Peru sent him a paper about new findings in a particular part of the country Sowell, an independent environmental scientist, was familiar with. The paper, written by several of Sowell's former colleagues, contained a "shocking" surprise.

"I almost immediately recognized there were errors in the paper," Sowell said. "I recognised, literally with my first read, some of those artifacts."

Continue reading Archaeologists claimed old findings as their own, critic says

A large U.S. university press has stopped selling two scholarly books about the philosophers Slavoj Žižek and John Venn due to problems with how the authors cited - or didn't cite - source material.

In both cases, the University of Chicago Press stated on its website that the titles, released in 2023 and 2022, respectively, were "no longer available for sale." But only "John Venn: A Life in Logic" by Lukas M. Verburgt was " retracted," according to the publisher.

The author of the other publication - "How Slavoj Became Žižek: The Digital Making of a Public Intellectual" - told us he had been afforded a chance to fix his mistakes. These included " several insufficient, missing, or erroneous citations of source material upon which the author builds his argument," the University of Chicago Press stated.

"The publisher has given me the opportunity to correct the book and resubmit it for review," said Eliran Bar-El, a sociologist at the University of York, in England. "In light of it being an ongoing process, I cannot provide further details until there is a review outcome, which will be reflected appropriately in my publication list. At this time, I would like to genuinely thank the observant readers who have brought this to my attention."

Verburgt, whose work contains " numerous instances of insufficiently cited source material," does not appear to have been quite as lucky.

Continue reading Publisher pulls books about philosophers Žižek and Venn over citation issues

Posted on Categories philosophy

Posted on Categories weekend reads

A year after the authors of two papers contacted the marketing journal where they had been published requesting retraction, the journal has pulled one, but decided to issue a correction for the other.

In April, we reported that the Journal of Consumer Research was investigating " Super Size Me: Product Size as a Signal of Status," originally published in 2012, and " Dynamics of Communicator and Audience Power: The Persuasiveness of Competence versus Warmth," published in 2016.

The authors had asked to retract the papers in October 2022 after other researchers found inconsistencies in the statistical calculations of the "Super Size Me" paper and could not replicate the results. The article had been cited nearly 200 times, according to Clarivate's Web of Science. It attracted attention from The New York Times and NPR, among other outlets, which linked the findings to the rise in obesity in the United States. An analyst also found issues in the 2016 paper, which has been cited 71 times.

When we published our previous story, Carolyn Yoon, the chair of the journal's policy board and a professor of management and marketing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, told us the board was still waiting on a report from the special committee investigating the matter. "We hope to have a decision by the end of this month," she said in April 2023.

Continue reading 'Super Size Me': What happened when marketing researchers ordered a double retraction?

A business school in Pakistan has fired a marketing professor after finding he had "damaged the repute" of the university and its scholarly journal, Retraction Watch has learned.

In a LinkedIn post, Muhammad Mohsin Butt, the now-fired professor, shared a picture of the table of contents of a 2015 issue of Business Review, published by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), in Karachi. The contents listed seven case studies authored by two other professors at the school:

Continue reading Exclusive: Whistleblower fired after raising concerns about journal articles on LinkedIn

A radiology professor in France who plagiarized others' work in a review article has resigned from his role as deputy editor of a medical journal amid new concerns about his publications, Retraction Watch has learned.

The professor, Romaric Loffroy of CHU Dijon Bourgogne, was first and corresponding author of the offending review, which included large amounts of text from two earlier papers without appropriate citation, as we reported last month.

When confronted with evidence of the plagiarism, Loffroy put the blame on an alleged undisclosed ghostwriter, then proceeded to tone down the offense, saying he wouldn't mind it if his own work had been plagiarized.

Continue reading Exclusive: Editor caught plagiarizing resigns as more concerns emerge

Posted on Categories france

"These findings are unjustified."

That's how a biologist at the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago described the conclusions of a federal investigation that found she had faked images and inflated sample sizes in published papers and a grant application. The biologist, Hee-Jeong Im Sampen, has been banned from conducting VA research.

Sampen, also a research professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said that "any errors that occurred involved discrete erroneously-placed figures or images" that "in no way undermine our basic conclusions and findings."

Calling the episode a "long and hard battle for me," Sampen sent us these comments:

Continue reading 'A travesty': A researcher found guilty of misconduct by federal U.S. government responds

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Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process

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Plagiarism is a common and misunderstood problem that is often a result of a lack of knowledge and skills. This site supports the education community to help students write with integrity. 

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Plagiarism is a common and misunderstood problem that is often a result of a lack of knowledge and skills. This site supports the education community to help students write with integrity. 

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Plagiarism is a common (and often misunderstood) problem that is often the result of a lack of knowledge and skills. Our mission is to support the education community with a comprehensive set of resources to help students write with integrity.

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Generally, if a string of unattributed language is more than 7-10 words in one sentence, it considered plagiarism.

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Explains what patchwriting is and how to avoid it. Patchwriting is a form of plagiarism. Get familiar with it and avoid it.

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"Copying from a source text and then deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for-one synonym-substitutes."

Howard, Rebecca Moore. "A Plagiarism Pentimento." Journal of Teaching Writing vol. 11, no. 2, Jan.1992, pp. 233-45. http://www.citationproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Howard-Plagiarism-Pentimento.pdf

Patchwriting is an attempt to put a source into your own words, but still fails to be a synthesis of the original. While it appears to put things in your own words, it's still too close to the original.

*Patching over the original source with substitutions or deletions.

*Reflecting the original structure or organization by not producing a fully independent claim.

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LibGuides: Plagiarism for Students: Understanding and Avoiding: Patchwriting

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LibGuides: Plagiarism for Students: Understanding and Avoiding: Patchwriting

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Excessive aggregation is when an assignment is nearly a total rewrite of someone else's work, its not plagiarism, but it's still a form of theft---even when the original source is credited. Stick to the 10 percent word count rule for the number of direct quotations in your writing. This can have serious consequences professionally, so I recommend practicing and mastering your paraphrasing skills while you are in school.

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A general guideline is no more than 10 percent of your word count should be direct quotes in your assignment. This will ensure you avoid a form of plagiarism called patchwriting.

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Avoiding Plagiarism-Paraphrasing, what is paraphrasing, examples and how to avoid patchwriting through acceptable paraphrasing.

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Avoiding Plagiarism - Paraphrasing | Academic Integrity at MIT

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Because of their unique perspective, Americans fear globalization less than anyone else, and as a consequence they think about it less than anyone else. When Americans do think about globalization, they think of the global economy as an enlarged version of the American economy.

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Six steps to Effective Paraphrasing

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Subject & Course Guides: Academic Integrity: Paraphrasing

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Subject & Course Guides: Academic Integrity: Paraphrasing

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How to make APA compliant bulleted lists in your writing. 

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How to make APA compliant bulleted lists in your writing. 

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To draw visual attention to items in a list without implying that items go in a certain order (e.g., chronology, importance, priority), use a bulleted list.

Use a numbered list if you want to display items in a numbered series. Use a lettered list if you want to emphasize separate parallel items within a sentence.

To create a bulleted list, use the bulleted list function of your word-processing program. This will automatically indent the list as well. Symbols such as small circles, squares, dashes, and so forth may be used for the bullets.

This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition.

Items that are complete sentences

If bulleted items are complete sentences, begin each item with a capital letter and finish it with a period or other appropriate punctuation. The following example demonstrates this format as well as how to include a citation for the information in the bulleted list.

Infants often display prosocial behavior -that is, behavior intended to help others-when interacting with their parents, as demonstrated in the following examples (Hammond & Drummond, 2019):

Infants are happy to participate in normal household chores, such as cleaning up.

Infants often display positive emotions when following parents' behavioral requests, such as not touching the stove.

Infants will try to help others who seem like they need help with simple tasks, such as carrying multiple objects.

Items that are words or phrases

If bulleted items are words or phrases (but not complete sentences), begin each item with a lowercase letter ( except words such as proper nouns).

There are two options for the punctuation of bulleted lists when the items are words or phrases. The following examples demonstrate both options as well as how to integrate in-text citations into bulleted lists.

The first option is to use no punctuation after the bulleted items (including the final one), which may be better when the items are shorter and simpler.

Poor sleep quality has been linked with the following symptoms:

higher levels of negative mood

physical symptoms such as insomnia

stress

use of medications

persistent psychological distress (Glozier et al., 2010; Lund et al., 2010)

The second option is to insert punctuation after the bulleted items as though the bullets were not there, which may be better when the items are longer or more complex.

Young adults have many motivations for texting on their smartphones:

social connection, in which people text as a way to connect with others;

escapism, in which people text to get away from dull or uncomfortable situations such as waiting in line;

distraction, in which people text to distract themselves while having a conversation with someone or being in a meeting;

audacity, in which people text to get a response from someone, such as to break up with them or ask them on a date;

nurturing, in which people text to foster relationships by saying things like "good morning" or "I love you"; and

driving, in which people text while in their vehicle (Schroeder & Sims, 2018).

Further information about bulleted lists is available in the Publication Manual, including how to format lists of definitions in a glossary.

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To draw visual attention to items in a list without implying that items go in a certain order (e.g., chronology, importance, priority), use a bulleted list. Use a numbered list if you want to display items in a numbered series. Use a lettered list if you want to emphasize separate parallel items within a sentence.

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APA Style YouTube Channel is a great reference to help with your citations.

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"apa style" "apa format" apa7 "bias-free language" citations references "publication manual" "apa style format" "apa formatting" apa "apa tips" "apa help" "a...

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Write with clarity, precision, and inclusion. APA Style seventh edition publications: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) Concise Guide to APA Style (7th ed.) Mastering APA Style Student Workbook (7th ed.)

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RasGuides: APA 7th Edition Guide: eTextbooks and Course Materials

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This guide provides an overview of the APA citation style and provides students with basic information to begin learning and applying this style in their academic writing.

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RasGuides: APA 7th Edition Guide: eTextbooks and Course Materials

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This guide provides an overview of the APA citation style and provides students with basic information to begin learning and applying this style in their academic writing.

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RasGuides: APA 7th Edition Guide: eTextbooks and Course Materials

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This guide provides an overview of the APA citation style and provides students with basic information to begin learning and applying this style in their academic writing.

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APA Style Guide from APA. Great checklists and resources related to APA.

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The authority on APA Style and the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual. Find tutorials, the APA Style Blog, how to format papers in APA Style, and other resources to help you improve your writing, master APA Style, and learn the conventions of scholarly publishing.

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APA How to Relate your Evidence to your discussion and original ideas on a topic guide

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APA How to Relate your Evidence to your discussion and original ideas on a topic guide

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Understanding the different types of plagiarism will help you understand why you are using in-text citations and how to use in-text citations correctly.

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APA Style Guide In Text Citation Checklist

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APA Style Guide In Text Citation Checklist

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Proofread to check your in-text citation list with this checklist.

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This checklist tells you exactly where to go in the APA style manual to find the instructions for formatting your Student Papers in APA style for 7th edition.

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Here is the explanation of the heading levels for a student APA paper.

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MEAL Plan Writing Guide with an Example 

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MEAL Plan Writing Guide with an Example 

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Use this tool to structure your paragraphs to support your thesis/argument when writing. You can use this to help shape your outline in pre-writing as well.

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Writing a Paragraph using the MEAL plan approach. 

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Writing a Paragraph using the MEAL plan approach. 

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Composing a clear paragraph is a foundational skill in academic writing. In high school, you may have been taught that a paragraph requires a certain number of sentences - maybe three, maybe five. But paragraphs come in different lengths, and rather than follow strict rules about word count or a requisite number of sentences, it's important to keep in mind what a good paragraph should do: deliver an idea, support it with evidence, and remind the reader (not always explicitly!) how this particular paragraph operates in the service of a larger argumentative claim. With this general guideline, students can write paragraphs that are as long or as short as they'd like.

(M) Main Idea:

The main idea of the paragraph is the paragraph's argumentative claim. The main idea is sometimes found in the first sentence, which is often called the "topic sentence," but it could also come in following sentences if the first sentence of the paragraph is doing transitional work. Typically, though, the main idea is located in the early part of the paragraph.

If you're having a hard time coming up with your main idea or topic sentence, or if you're in the process of revising your paragraph, start by asking yourself: "What is this paragraph about?" You can answer yourself in a flat-footed manner: "This paragraph is about ____." From there, finish the sentence. As you rephrase the sentence, delete the words "This paragraph is about" and revise the rest.

If you're new to writing academic essays, try to limit yourself to writing about one main idea per paragraph. Your reader should be able to identify your main idea without re-reading your paragraph multiple times.

(E) Evidence:

You'll need some kind of proof or textual support to demonstrate your argument. The evidence and analysis are often connected, without one necessarily coming before the other. This would be the place to bring in external information. If you're writing an English paper, for example, here is where you would introduce a quote from the poem or the novel that you are examining. If you're writing a history paper, you might include a quote, statistic, or data point from the textbook, monograph, or article that you are using in your research.

(A) Analysis:

The analysis is intertwined with the evidence. How can you explain or break down your evidence to make it more clear and applicable to your argument? If you are writing an English paper, the quote from the novel or poem you've supplied as the evidence should be explained at this point. You might to a close reading of the quote, paying attention to the rhythm of the language or the repetition of certain words. Close attention to the quote you've selected as evidence is necessary, no matter the subject or discipline of your essay.

(L) Link:

Link back to the larger claim: As you approach the end of your paragraph, you should be able to easily pinpoint the paragraph's overall message. How does this message contribute to the argument of the paper at large? The reader should be able to understand, without much difficulty, why you've written this paragraph. The link ought not to be an explicitly belabored point; the best examples of this link will be implicit or subtle. If you are struggling with wrapping up the paragraph, ask yourself about the link in a schematic way: "What is the connection between this paragraph that I've just completed and the major thesis claim of my paper?" Answer your question in a flatfooted way ("This paragraph is important because ________) before revising it to fit more seamlessly with the rest of the paragraph.

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How to organize a paragraph: the MEAL plan

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Composing a clear paragraph is a foundational skill in academic writing. In high school, you may have been taught that a paragraph requires a certain number of sentences - maybe three, maybe five.

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How to make superscripts and subscripts in MS Word/Powerpoint

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How to make superscripts and subscripts in MS Word/Powerpoint

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Keyboard shortcuts: Apply superscript or subscript

To make text appear slightly above (superscript) or below (subscript) your regular text, you can use keyboard shortcuts.

1. Select the character that you want to format.

2. For superscript, press Ctrl, Shift, and the Plus sign (+) at the same time.

For subscript, press Ctrl and the Equal sign (=) at the same time.

You can also format text as superscript or subscript by selecting options in the Font dialog box, as described in the next procedure.

Apply superscript or subscript formatting to text

1. Select the character that you want to format as superscript or subscript.

2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, pick the Font Dialog Box Launcher.

3. On the Font tab, under Effects, select the Superscript or Subscript check box.

Tip: You can make text superscript or subscript without changing the font size. For superscript, enter a higher percentage in the Offset box. For subscript, enter a lower percentage in the Offset box.

Undo superscript or subscript formatting

To undo superscript or subscript formatting, select your text and press Ctrl+Spacebar.

Insert a superscript or subscript symbol

1. On the slide, click where you want to add the symbol.

2. On the Insert tab, click Symbol.

3. In the Symbol box, in the Font drop-down list, select (normal text) if it isn't already selected.

4. In the Symbol box, in the Subset drop-down list, select Superscripts and Subscripts.

5. In the Symbol box, select the symbol you want, press Insert, and then pick Close.

See Also

Turn off superscripting of ordinal numbers

Keyboard shortcuts: Apply superscript or subscript

To make text appear slightly above (superscript) or below (subscript) your regular text, you can use keyboard shortcuts.

1. Select the character that you want to format.

2. For superscript, press Control, Shift, and the Plus sign (+) at the same time.

For subscript, press Control and the Equal sign (=) at the same time. (Do not press Shift.)

Tip: You can also format text as superscript or subscript by selecting options in the Font dialog box, as described in the next procedure.

Apply superscript or subscript formatting to text

1. Select the character that you want to format as superscript or subscript.

2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Superscript or Subscript .

Undo superscript or subscript formatting

To undo superscript or subscript formatting, select your text and press Ctrl+Spacebar.

Insert a superscript symbol

For certain symbols that are almost always superscript, such as ® and ™, simply insert the symbol and it will automatically be formatted as superscript.

1. On the Insert tab, click Symbol.

2. Click or scroll to Letterlike Symbols, and click the symbol you want to insert.

See Also

Turn off superscripting of ordinal numbers

1. Select the character that you want to adjust.

2. On the Home tab, select the More Font Options ellipsis button:

3. Then select Subscript or Superscript from the menu.

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To make text appear slightly above (superscript) or below (subscript) your regular text, you can use keyboard shortcuts. Select the character that you want to format. For superscript, press Ctrl, Shift, and the Plus sign (+) at the same time. For subscript, press Ctrl and the Equal sign (=) at the same time.

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When you are creating the body of your paper, you should try to incorporate literature to support and counterargue your topic. This table is a great start to organize your information. It looks intimidating, but its a great approach to organize your throughts and drop them into your paper.

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I used my T Chart for nearly every academic paper I have ever written when I had to compare and contrast information for a paper or argue a thesis.

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My dissertation would not have happened without EndNote. I would recommend this for graduate level academic work or major research projects.

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Back to school sale: 20% off all EndNote 21 single-user licenses for a limited time.

EndNote is a reference manager that helps you save time formatting citations, so you can focus on your research.

EndNote 21 is here!

The best reference management software is getting even better. The all new EndNote 21 and EndNote Web help you manage and format citations like never before with bold new features.

With EndNote 21 you stay organized using features like tags that enhance productivity. You can enjoy peace of mind with data restoration functions that protect your work and improve your writing workflow with integrated document creation tools for Google Docs.

EndNote 21 key features

Protect your references

Take a deep breath. If the unthinkable happens, EndNote 21 can recover your library from the cloud and get you back where you belong.

In EndNote 21, you can restore your library and library structure with our new data restoration function, ensuring your research is not lost. With single reference restoration you can also compare and restore previous versions of individual references.

Organize personal references

Tags are customizable labels that let you organize your references however you'd like. You can add tags to references and customize the color and name of the tags.

You can add multiple tags to a reference and anyone who you share your library with can view a tag, making tags a great way to quickly and intuitively organize your references.

Write faster

Our best-in-class Cite While You Write (CWYW) tool makes it easy to insert your EndNote references into Microsoft Word™, Apple Pages™ and Google Docs™. CWYW automatically creates in-text citations and reference lists and easily changes the format of your in-text citations and reference lists.

Work from anywhere with EndNote Web

With EndNote you can access your research anytime, anywhere online. Move seamlessly between online and the desktop and iPad applications in the cloud.

Say hello to the brand-new EndNote Web, available only to EndNote 21 customers for three years from activation date. Securely sync your entire library including PDF's, notes, and annotations across all your devices.

Hear what makes EndNote the best reference management software

Need an EndNote Site License for your institution?

Help your students and faculty accelerate their research by providing an institutional site license for EndNote 21.

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EndNote is a reference manager that helps you save time formatting citations, so you can focus on your research

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Academic Writer-Manage your APA References

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Academic Writer-Manage your APA References

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This is a pretty decent tool to manage a reference library for a paper or reserach project. It has some limitations, but its a good start to learn how to get organized with APA reference organization.

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Login to your Academic Writer account to access and manage resources for learning, teaching, and applying Academic Writer.

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Rasmussen access to NoodleTools to assist you with generating APA references.

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2. Navigate to the NoodleTools log-in page. Select "Register".

3. Follow the prompts to complete account registration.

NOTE: If you are not already authenticated to the Rasmussen resources via Blackboard, the Student Portal, or a library database, you will need to follow these steps:

1. After you clicked on "Register" (in step 2 above), on the next page, e nsure this option is selected: "An account linked to a school/library subscription or trial".

2. Ensure that rasmussen is listed in the first box to the right.

3. Enter the School/Library password - You will find the password in this FAQ:
https://rasmussen.libanswers.com/restricted/faq/355442. Use your Rasmussen email address and password to access this restricted information.
TIP: When setting up your personal username/ID and password, we suggest using your current log in information for Rasmussen (see below for example): Have questions? Check out our NoodleTools FAQ!

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2. Navigate to the NoodleTools log-in page. Select "Register". 3. Follow the prompts to complete account registration. NOTE: If you are not already authenticated to the Rasmussen resources via Blackboard, the Student Portal, or a library database, you will need to follow these steps: 1.

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Highly recommend checking out Purdue OWL APA Guide. It's very comprehensive, free and easy to use.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

These OWL resources will help you learn how to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation and format style. This section contains resources on in-text citation and the References page, as well as APA sample papers, slide presentations, and the APA classroom poster.

This workshop provides an overview of APA (American Psychological Association) style and where to find help with different APA resources. It provides an annotated list of links to all of our APA materials and an APA overview. It is an excellent place to start to learn about APA format.

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 7 th edition of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (7 th ed.).

This poster summarizes APA style in a visual format. For more detailed information, please review the formatting and style guide linked above.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.

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How to Use the APA 7th Edition Template 

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How to Use the APA 7th Edition Template 

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Organizational tool on how to setup an effective paragraph. You can also take this a step back and use it to setup the structure of your essay.

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This is a great video on how to structure your paragraphs.

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Loading...

This Course

Video Transcript

Course 2: Getting Started with Essay Writing This is the second course in the Academic English: Writing specialization. By introducing you to three types of academic essays, this course will especially help prepare you for work in college classes, but anyone who wants to improve his or her writing skills can benefit from this course. After completing this course, you will be able to: - create effective thesis statements for your essays - plan and write compare/contrast, cause/effect, and argument essays - write well-developed body paragraphs Note: The lectures and practice activities are available for free, but you must upgrade to the pay version in order to take the quizzes and get feedback on writing assignments.

View Syllabus

Reviews

Filled Star Filled Star Filled Star Filled Star Half-Filled Star

TR

Oct 26, 2021

It is actually quite a simple course, easy to attend as it does not require a long time each week. However it did improve my writing skills, I'm considering to attend the next advanced writing course.

Helpful?

EB

Dec 4, 2015

I am only on the second week an have done my essay and feel very powerful. English is not my first language but the instructor made it easy for me by detailing every aspect of essay writing. Thank you

Helpful?

From the lesson

Essay Writing

In this module, you'll start learning about essay structure and some other important tools for good writing. There's a lot of information in this module, but it's all necessary for writing well. Make sure you take notes so you will remember these tools when you write your essays. Note to learners: this course is designed for learners of English with intermediate English writing skills. The sample essays in this course are aimed at that level. However, the principles discussed in the lessons are practical for writers of any level. If you're at a lower level, do the best you can. If you are a more advanced writer, feel free to write more developed and complex essays than the ones in the examples. Just make sure you follow the structures introduced.

Taught By

Tamy Chapman

Instructor, International Programs

Transcript

In this lecture we're going to talk about body paragraphs. These are some of the types of academic essays that you'll write in a college class. Illustration gives examples to show something. Argument gives reasons to argue a position. Classification describes types of something. Compare and contrast give either similarities, or differences between things. And cause and effect gives either the causes, or the effects of something. These five types of essays follow similar structures, and that includes the structure of the body paragraphs. The body paragraphs in those types of essays will all have this structure. They'll start with a topic sentence, and they should have between two and four supporting ideas. Here, you're seeing three supporting ideas, that's rather standard. And then you'll have a couple of details or examples for each of the supporting ideas. And then you'll end to the each body paragraph with a conclusion sentence or transition sentence that helps the paragraph flow to the next paragraph. Each supporting idea supports the topic sentence, so it has to relate back to that idea. Each detail and example have to support the supporting idea. The details and examples are the most specific sentences in the paragraph. The purpose of the supporting ideas is to show what you mean by the topic sentence, and the purpose of the details is to show what you mean by the supports. That's why they get more specific as you go because you're showing the reader more specifically, what you're trying to say. The topic sentences in your body paragraphs should have two parts, the topic and controlling idea. That should sound familiar to you cuz that's what a thesis also has. A topic sentence is similar to a thesis, but the topic sentence controls that paragraph. Each topic sentence also must support the thesis statement, and you do this by using keywords from the thesis statement. Remember, your thesis statement must be specific, and you use nouns instead of pronouns so that it is specific. And those nouns from your thesis statement become keywords that you'll repeat in your topic sentence. This will help your reader to follow along with your point, you also should use transitions on your topic sentences. And because we're using keywords, you're going to avoid pronouns in your topic sentences. Let's look at a sample thesis statement. Every citizen should learn to speak a second language. This is the point that the writer wants to make, and the writer will need at least three body paragraphs to support this thesis. For the first topic sentence, the student decides to say, first, speaking another language broadens a person's view of the world. So that's the first point he's going to make to support that thesis. For the second topic sentence, he says, another reason is that learning a second language opens job opportunities. And for the third topic sentence, finally, learning a new language improves mental function. These are the three reasons that the writer thinks every citizen should learn to speak a second language. Each of these topic sentences will start a body paragraph in the essay. Now, in each of those body paragraphs, we have to have support. Each one has to relate back to the topic sentence, everything in the body paragraphs has to relate to that topic sentence. Let's look at an example. Here's our first topic sentences again, and here are three ideas that the writer has that will support that topic sentence. The thing that we're trying to support is that, speaking another language broadens a person's view of the world. They become aware of different cultures. They think about subjects they've never thought about. They learn about different countries. Those are three things that support the topic sentence that says, speaking another language broadens a person's view of the world. And then we need details for each of those supports. So, this is the first support, they've become aware of different cultures. The writer gives a detail that many people never leave their hometowns. That helps to explain why they become familiar with different cultures when they learn a second language. And then there's another detail about not even having friends from other cultures. So again, that's a detail explaining why learning a language would help people to become aware of different cultures. Here's the second supporting idea, they think about subjects they've never thought about before. And here the writer gives a detail, new vocabulary gives insight into the country that speaks that language that helps to explain that supporting idea. And then the writer gives an example. A language spoken only in hot climates may not even have a word for snow. So that's a very specific example that shows something new that a person would think about if they learned another language. And then we have another example. The vocabulary also teaches the learner about new foods of the related culture. So, those three details there help to explain that supporting idea. Here's the full essay. You can see the introduction in black, and the last sentence is the thesis statement.. And then we have the three topic sentences in purple, they start each of the body paragraphs. And in each of those body paragraphs we have three supporting ideas, those are in green. Also in each body paragraph we have details and examples to help support the supporting ideas. Remember, the details are the most specific sentences in the paragraphs. And then we have a transition or conclusion sentence at the end of each body paragraph. Another thing we need to talk about in essay is coherence. Coherence means the smoothness between sentences and paragraphs. Coherence helps to make your writing logical, and the way we do this is to use transition words and phrases. In this essay, we already have a transition word at the beginning of each paragraph. Our topic sentences all started with a transition word. First, another reason, and finally are all transitions. These help to make the paragraphs flow smoothly from one to the next. And when the reader gets to a new paragraph, he knows how it relates to the thesis statement. Now that's really good, but we also want to have transitions in our body paragraphs, so that there is smoothness between the sentences. Here's the essay after I made some changes to help me revise for coherence. All of the yellow here are the ways that we make coherence. You see, I added a few words to my thesis statement to make it a little more complex, and to make it flow better. In the first body paragraph, I added the transitions also, for example, and furthermore. I also added a dependent clause, because many people never leave their own hometowns. And then I joined that with an independent clause, they sometimes don't think about the world. I made a complex sentence, instead of that simple sentence that I had before. This adds to the coherence, it makes it flow better. Now, I did not add any coherence to the second, and third paragraphs. I'm going to leave that for you to practice. Later in the course you'll see this essay. You can download it, and print it if you want, and practice adding coherence. To do that, you'll add some transitions, and you might join a couple of the sentences to make them flow better. This is something you'll always want to do before you turn in one of your essays.

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Body Paragraphs Video Lecture - Essay Writing | Coursera

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Loading... This Course Video Transcript Course 2: Getting Started with Essay Writing This is the second course in the Academic English: Writing specialization. By introducing you to three types of academic essays, this course will especially help prepare you for work in college classes, but anyone who wants to improve his or her writing skills can benefit from this course.

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All your go to resources from the Rasmussen University Writing Lab.

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Instructions on how to use the Rasmussen University Writing Lab.

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Rasmussen University Library & Learning Services

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How to Construct a Thesis Statement.

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Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue-that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources. Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation-that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem-which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction. A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments. Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument-it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention.

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

While Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances in the 1988 election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay-a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

Copyright 1999, Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University

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Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you.

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A Thesis is arguable.

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a good thesis is arguable! #fyp #writing #writingtips #harvard #college #collegetips

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@harvardwritingcenter
a good thesis is arguable! #fyp #writing #writingtips #harvard #college #collegetips
♬ Say So (Instrumental Version) [Originally Performed by Doja Cat] - Elliot Van Coup

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This is an effective guide on how to write a powerful comparative analysis paper.

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Throughout your academic career, you’ll be asked to write papers in which you compare and contrast two things: two texts, two theories, two historical figures, two scientific processes, and so on. “Classic” compare-and-contrast papers, in which you weight A and B equally, may be about two similar th…

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This is another go-to to help me format digital presentations, emails, and team communication rules in our hybrid environments of today.

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Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance

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Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance [Dhawan, Erica] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance

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This is another one of my go-to resources for data heavy presentation structures.

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DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story

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DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story [Duarte, Nancy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story

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This is my go-to for creating high-impact presentations. It might be one of my favorite resource guides.

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Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

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Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences [Duarte, Nancy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

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This is a great guide on choosing the type of presentation format you need.

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Some people just seem to nail their presentations and they make it look easy! Here's a secret, one of the first steps to delivering an outstanding presentation is to determine what format is going to serve your audience best and let you make a connection.

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It's important to know the communication medium you need for your topic. There are times I choose a "slidedoc" versus a "slideshow" to communicate effectively at work.

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Slidedocs® are designed for the way we communicate today: quickly and asynchronously. A Slidedoc™ is a visual document intended to be read and referenced instead of projected and presented. Slidedocs® work for a variety of communication scenarios, like meeting pre-reads and leave-behinds.

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This structure is a great start to any persuasive presentation.

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Nancy Duarte: The secret structure of great talks

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From the "I have a dream" speech to Steve Jobs' iPhone launch, many great talks have a common structure that helps their message resonate with listeners. In this talk, presentation expert Nancy Duarte shares practical lessons on how to make a powerful call-to-action.

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This was my go-to when I was a student. If you are trying to take your writing to the next level, check this out. When a rubric is requiring you to make recommendations, you should be in the synthesis and evaluation phase of this chart. To setup the foundation of a topic you should be in knowledge, comprehension, and application areas of the chart. Your examples fall in the application/analysis area of the chart.

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You can use this template to organize your APA papers or PowerPoint at a high level and then again at a paragraph level. Your rubric for your deliverables should be "automatically" filling out the high-level structure of a paragraph or the shell of the paper. You will need to fill in the foundational content, examples, and recommendations based on your argument.

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All of your papers should have these writing elements. Use this to proofread your papers before turning them in.

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This is the suggested guideline for powerpoints with APA citations by Rasmussen. Please see my alternative option and preferred method. However, you may use either option.

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APA 7th Edition Writing Template