APA writing Tips

Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average person, you are just not cut out for positions at the top. Founder, JC Penney

APA writing Tips

• Economy of expression: state your idea or intent with as few words as possible

• Construct short, concise sentences• Don’t begin sentences with a gerund [increases risk

of passive voice and lack of clarity]• “Align your paper” • Memorize the citation rules• Memorize the use of numbers rules

Passive Voice• Active voice: subject clearly performs the action: “The boy

must have eaten the hamburgers” thus the boy [subject] is doing the eating [verb] of the hamburger [DO]

• Passive voice: the subject-verb relationship changes, often putting the subject into the position of the DO and creates awkward sentences: “The hamburgers must have been eaten by the boy” thus hamburgers cannot sustain the action of eating, since only the boy can eat the hamburgers

• PV: Eating hamburgers is a poor health choice. AV: A poor health choice is to eat hamburgers.

Important Regions of the Brain

Ventral striatum; rich in dopamine receptors

Responds to motivation demands

Facilitates memory & recall

Region of cognition

event 1 event 2 event 3

Building cognition; ONE FOLDER AT A TIME [2-8 YEARS]

Adult / teacher guidance moves children from event to event, otherwise fairly random movement occurs between events

event 1 event 2 event 3 event 1 event 1 event 1 event 2 event 2

Building cognition; MULTIPLE FOLDERS AT A TIME (CONCRETE) [8-12 YEARS, PERHAPS OLDER DEPENDING ON THE TASK]

Adult / teacher guidance moves children from event to event, otherwise fairly random movement occurs between events

As cognition develops, mature, older children and adultscan move across this time line in continuous fashion, without prompting or directions from others.

Past events Events Future Events [consequences]

Advanced cognitive maturity allows the individual to connect experiences, learning, and other interactions from the past, present, and future.

Parental & environmental influences

Achievement = interest + motivation + persistence + ability

Developmental and psychological variables

Innate compliance factors during childhood

Why do we go to school and learn stuff?

Young Brain and folders

How much content do you really remember, or is early schooling learning about something else?

This is why…Academic content is the vehicle for developing cognitive folders in the brain – “mental pushups”

These folders equip the child for lifelong functioning and learning

Insight and cognition– ‘brother and sister’

Insight andcognition

“Insight or cognitive awareness is the ability to reflect on events past, present, and future; to hold those events in one’s mind long enough to make meaningful evaluations; and to be able to guide oneself into a new set of thoughts and behaviors based on those evaluations.”

Back

Notes: Blue = less gray matter

Pruning replaces gray matter with white matter for more efficient brain functioning

When making cognitive decisions an older child & adolescent use the . . .

Amygdala [ventral striatum organelle]

Reactive Gut responses

Egocentric Why adolescent still cognitively

immature and emotional

Adult Brain vs. Child/Adolescent Brain:

The “mature” adult uses the:

Frontal Cortex“Executive” of the brainControls impulsesInvolved in organizing, planning, and reflectionMediates attentionWorking memory housed hereCalled “the area of insight and cognition”