Webinar and Discussion: Writing Your Report

Participate in this week’s writing webinar and share your thoughts and questions about the writing process with your instructor and classmates. You will discuss strategies and challenges you faced while preparing your final project. If you are unable to participate in this week’s welcome webinar, watch it at the link provided by your instructor and answer the questions below.

Your instructor will share tips on ways to successfully complete your findings and recommendations report due in Milestone Three.

Thoroughly reread the Final Project Document, and review the capstone project video to remind yourself about the structure of the capstone project.

Capstone Video Transcript

To complete this assignment, review the Capstone Discussion Rubric document.

Class,

I will post the webinar link for this Friday morning tomorrow morning. Prior to the webinar of Friday, below are writing tips for you to review and discuss.

Thanks,

Dr. Alexander

WRITING TIPS

Below are some useful writing tips provided to me during my educational journey

1. Edits and re-writes. No one can produce a perfect paper in a first draft. You are paying a lot of money for your education; do not earn a lower grade for that investment just because you do not want to take a few minutes to review your work. If you do not review and edit drafts, you leave it up to your instructor to do so for you, and when an instructor finds errors they often come with a price. Excessive spelling and grammar errors not only fail to communicate your thoughts or points but become so distracting that often your message fails to be discernible at all.

1. Print Your Paper. You can do as many reviews and edits by reading your paper on your computer screen as you want, but always do at least one final edit on a hard copy. Psychological studies have been done proving that certain portions of the human brain shut down when viewing things on a lit screen. These are the same portions of the brain that shut down when people take certain drugs. This is why computer/video games are so addictive, and when people are playing them (or even watching television) they seem to be in another world, hypnotized and beyond communication. You can read your own work many times on a computer and will continue to miss errors in your writing that will be glaring the first time you read it in printed form. That is why I always print my students’ papers to read; as I do not want to miss or misinterpret anything that they have gone to the trouble to research and write. I have learned through personal experience that you can edit a manuscript even 20 times on a computer, yet the first time you look at it in printed form errors you have missed become obvious.

1. Read Your Papers Out Loud To Yourself. For those who do not feel that they are skilled writers, this one tool will fix most problems. You must read it out loud, slowly to yourself, just as you would read a book to a child. Every awkward phrase, incomplete sentence, and significant grammatical error will be quickly realized. Most people will not do this out of sheer laziness (or feeling silly), but when I correct papers and see mistakes that the writer would have realized and corrected if it had first been read out loud, I am far less inclined to simply ignore the errors.

1. Grammar and Syntax. I do not hold anyone to the standards of a true grammarian – nor could I – but if a grammar error is obvious to me, a mere lawyer in a profession notorious for inventing its own grammar rules, then it should not be in an academic paper. One way to avoid such obvious problems is – again – to read your paper out loud to yourself, slowly. When you do, problems such as unacceptable grammar, incomplete sentences, nonsensical sentences and the like will be quickly recognized. Most of you will not follow this advice, and your refusal will be obvious.

1. Complete Sentences. With the advent of email, texting, Twitter, Instagram, and even the use of PowerPoint’s, people have gotten into the habit of communicating in very short phrases that are not complete sentences at all. When writing a paper, ensure that you have written in actual sentences. Following the advice above, of reading your paper out loud to yourself, will tell you when something is not a complete sentence.

1. Clichés. Whenever possible avoid the use of clichés. If you are going to use a cliché, ensure that the reader understands you are employing it as an intentional literary device, and that it is not included just because you are incapable of uniquely expressing the very notion the cliché is recognized as standing for. For instance, people use “Catch 22” far too much, and most younger people do not even know what the reference is to. In more descriptive terms, the word “conundrum” could be substituted for instance. A way to employ the cliché acceptably would be: “Thus, efforts to locate the only 6 feet 7 inch man in Pakistan [bin Laden], a nation where the average adult male was only 5 feet 6 inches tall, even with our tremendous satellite imaging systems, became like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.” There are many clichés people use in both the spoken and written form. Another I see in student papers is simply expressed as “24/7” or “24/7/365”. Do not employ that cliché in your writing, ever. Phrases such as someone is “up a creek” are similarly unacceptable and somehow find their way into academic papers. These should never be used.

1. Improper Use of Cliches. The use of clichés is bad enough, but utilizing improper clichés is intolerable. The American vernacular (our peculiar version of the English language) is peppered with them. Perhaps the most ubiquitous and annoying is what has devolved into the phrase: “I could care less.” Originally, that cliché was “I couldn’t care less,” which was logical as it expressed the fact that one’s level of antipathy could not possibly be greater. Over time it metamorphosed into “I could care less,” which people used in spoken form all the time. Although it attempts to communicate the same notion, the latter phrase actually implies that one does care as he could, possibly, care less than he does. As bad as that is in the spoken language, it is now seen in magazines, journals and even published books. Another phrase that people employ in an effort to say that someone else reversed his opinion or decision on a matter, is to state: “He did a 360.” Obviously, it implies circumferential degrees. The original cliché was “He did a 180,” which created the visual impression that he went from one point on the circumference (circle) to the opposite point: a complete reversal. Somehow, in an effort to state it in more extreme or superlative terms (something Americans are culturally obsessed with), it became a 360, which means that he was in the same position as he started and no change was made at all. This, too, creeps into professional writing all the time and is to be avoided.

1. Literally. Another peculiar American idiom is to say that something “literally” happened, when it could not possibly have. The word “literally” means that something actually, realistically happened and is not subject to hyperbole or exaggeration. As with others, above, this began in our spoken language and then crept into written communication and now even professional papers and books. For instance, someone might say, “I was literally embarrassed to death,” by way of articulating a level of humiliation that was so great some form of life-ending affliction struck, which not only stretches credulity in any instance, but is defied by the fact that the speaker is obviously not dead. Do not say something “literally” happened if it is impossible for that to be the case.

1. Slang. Never use slang in formal papers (what are often called common vernacular or colloquialisms). Today, many do not even realize that certain words are not words at all. For instance, one I see commonly is “morph.” That is an abbreviation of the word metamorphose, and rather than even use that word, “evolve”, “evolution”, “change” or “transition” could be substituted, among others.

1. Homonyms and Homophones. If there is one problem I see consistently in students’ work, it is not differentiating between – mostly – different sets of words that sound the same but are spelled differently. You must know the differences between the following sets of words, especially:

-there, their and they’re

-too, two and to

-than and then

– its and it’s

I see the greatest errors occur with “its” and “it’s” and “than” and “then.” Than is a comparison of quality (Joe writes better than Sarah), while then is a temporal comparison (First I’m going to research the topic, then I’m going to do an outline.) Some can be especially difficult, such as “affect” and “effect” (addressed below). In most instances with students’ work, however, the confusion over these is not so much a matter of ignorance of the words, but a lack of proofreading, which includes the need to print your papers out for that purpose. This identifies another problem with only doing edits on a computer, as spellcheck will not alert you to either homonyms or homophones, as they are all spelled correctly but used incorrectly. Often grammar check systems will not recognize them either.

1. Contractions. Never, ever use contractions in formal academic papers of any kind or at any level. Avoiding them will also prevent a common confusion on students’ parts between it’s (which is a contraction of “it is”) and its (which is possessive). If you ever have an apostrophe in use with a word, and it is not being used in its possessive form, it should not be in the paper at all. Its is an exception to the general rule of words in possessive case, as there no apostrophe used. The same is seen with whose and who’s. The former is possessive while the latter is a contraction of “who is”.

1. Possessive Case. Many students, even at the master’s and doctoral levels, do not understand the use of the possessive case. When you are referring to an individual having ownership of something, use an apostrophe followed by an “s”. For instance: “One student’s paper was very well written.” When referring to two or more in the possessive case it is “s” then an apostrophe: “All of the students’ papers were excellent.”

1. Quotations. Traditionally, in American literature and writing, if you were quoting something directly you used full quotation marks, and at the end of the sentence there was a period then the close quotation mark. For instance: Per Conrad, “… defining terrorism can be a daunting task.” If the source you were quoting actually quoted someone else in the article, then that quotation within a quotation is put in apostrophes. For instance:

Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, in citing Hoffman, wrote, “The need to define terrorism ‘while subject to the confusions and inconsistencies of history’ remains a high priority for the entire Western world today.” The traditional rule was: Never put full quotation marks inside of other full quotation marks.

Under the newer-used APA system, this is different. Quotation marks go inside a period, and if you are quoting inside another quote, you do put them together followed by a period. For eg., “ Gunaratna said, ‘That tactic was a new one to terrorism’”.

In the APA 6th edition, it shows that there is a close quotation mark, page info etc., and then the period.

Short quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by “p.”). Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author’s last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses. For example:

According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time” (p. 199).

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

Just as important is the rule regarding lengthier quotes. While generally in academic writing you want to put things in your words as much as possible, sometimes it is not the best way to present the information. If you have a quote that will be four lines or more, then that quote should be put in a separate paragraph, double-indented (i.e., indented on the left and right margins) on both sides, but no quotation marks are then used. If you’re double spacing your paper, then the quoted passage, set out as a separate paragraph should be single spaced.

1. Proper Pronoun References. It has become a problem with American cultural communication to confuse plural with singular, and mix pronoun references for individuals and groups. I regularly see students refer to a government agency like the FBI or any identified group, followed by the reference to “they”. The FBI, US government and any other recognized entity is referred to as “it” not “they”. As well, we have all fallen into the literary trap where, lacking an official gender neutral pronoun in the English language, we use “they” where a singular non-gender-specific reference is appropriate. This usually leads to changing tenses in the middle of a sentence, which is never acceptable. For instance, we now say: “For any one student who is having trouble, they should contact the Help Center.” Clearly the “one student” is not “they.” It remains the proper grammar rule in English that all such non-specific references take the masculine form “he”. So, the sentence would be: “For any student who is having trouble, he should contact….” In order to avoid the awkward use of “they,” institutions more concerned with political correctness use the phrase “he or she” (which is also awkward) or make an effort to interchange the use of the masculine with the feminine, sometimes referring to “she” and other times “he”. While not formally accepted as an official rule of grammar, either of those is acceptable and a better practice than the inappropriate use of “they”.

1. The Affect vs. Effect Conundrum. This is one that is often so confusing I wonder why the gods of grammar haven’t declared them interchangeable. It’s similar to the U.S. Supreme Court a few decades ago when it was confronted with a case involving the ages-old, English property law called the Rule Against Perpetuities, which had been adopted as part of American Common Law. It simply threw up its hands and said that it was so confusing that no lawyer could be expected to understand it. Nevertheless, for this particular grammar challenge there are some simple guidelines.

As a general rule, Affect with an A is used as a verb. For example, “Too much studying affects my ability to concentrate.” Or “All that noise affects my ability to concentrate.”

Effect with an E is usually used as a noun. Some examples: “The effect of all these Writing Tips is that the students have become more confused,” and “What has been the overall effect of the new grading standards?”

Effect as a verb. Effect can be used as a verb, almost exclusively in the context of something bringing about some type of change. “In the face of the terror threats, the government effected a change in its policy.” Or, “We must effect changes in the way we administer social benefits programs.”

Use of the word with suffix “ive” as an adverb and adjective. If you use the suffix “ive” – particularly in business and academic writing – it is always with effect, as in effective, never affect. The word is always effective. The word “affective” pretty much only exists in psychology and psychiatry, in terms of “affective disorders.”

REMEMBER:

• A is for Action and = Affect (verb)
• E is for Existence and = Effect (noun, in the sense that nouns are objects that all exist, but don’t act)
• E for effect as a verb – only when causing a change. Think in terms of the use of old fashioned mail having been changed by Email. E as a verb is only for change.

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY WRITING!!!!!

Peer post 1

This is a very useful piece on writing a report. Writing is one of the most significant skills one needs in academic career. The milestone writing becomes very challenging when all the research work has to be jotted down in an organized paper. I have faced this problem in the recent milestone. After reading this, I can relate to much of the work and mistakes I happen to male. First of all, reading your paper out loud to yourself is a great tip in this regard. Once doing it, it becomes obvious the mistakes you have made yourself. The more you read the paper the more one is able to identify the errors in it. This is very useful for effective writing.

The mention of “effect” and “affect” is also very relevant issue. I must admit that I often get confused in using these words. To relate, it can be said that practice matters. With each milestone, I realize that my writing skills are improving. I deem that is the way of doing something: Keep doing and doing often!