Just the Facts: How to Successfully Incorporate Relevant Research into your Academic Writing Writing Specialist Jamie Patterson and Dissertation Editor.

Just the Facts: How to Successfully Incorporate

Relevant Research into your Academic Writing

Writing Specialist Jamie Patterson and Dissertation Editor Martha King

Present:

Game Plan• Introductions (sharing topics)• Quick research review• Why research is important• Appropriate research• Use of signal phrases• Text citations• Formatting• Paraphrasing• Very brief reference list overview• Nitpickery

Introductions

• Name

• Where you are in your studies

• Research topic or interests

Research Resources

• Walden Library

– Contact [email protected]://library.waldenu.edu/ 

Ask a Librarian

APA 2.11 (References)

• All citations in the manuscript must appear in the reference list, and all references must be cited in text.

• Choose references judiciously and cite them accurately.

• Whenever possible, support your statements by citing empirical work.

Critically Analyzing Information Sources: A Brief Overview

• Who is the author and what are their credentials?

• When was the source published?

• Who is the publisher?

• Is this a scholarly or popular journal?

• Objective and impartial?

Appropriate Research

• Reference materials

• Wikipedia

• Unbiased sources

• Peer reviewed material

Reference Materials

• Wikipedia

• Encylopedia

• Google searches

Use reference materials as a starting point for research but not as a source!

Wiki

What exactly is a Wiki and why is it so wicked?

Wikis are collaborative Web pages that allow for all users to participate in their creation and revision. This includes Wikipedia, a site that Walden discourages student use of as a resource. Rather than a Wiki, Walden suggests students use peer reviewed resources.

Unbiased Resources

• Newspapers – Be careful with this one because some

newspapers are sponsored by political or interest groups.

• Academic journals

• Books

• Academic websites

Peer Reviewed

• Journals that publish research.

• Any submitted papers or articles that are submitted are reviewed by a number of experts in the field.

• Library has tools to identify peer-reviewed journals.

Questions?

Use of Signal Phrases

• Signal phrases alert or signal to the reader that a piece of evidence is about to be presented.

• They are important because they properly introduce the evidence to the reader.

• Examples: According to, Smith stated, etc.

The Quote Dropper

• Dropping a quote in your paper means you use evidence without a signal phrase.

• This can be problematic because

1. Your reader is not informed about your source.

2. Your stylistic flow is interrupted.

The Block Quote Abuser

• According to APA (2010), a block quote is a direct quotation of 40 or more words in a freestanding block of typewritten lines without quotation marks (p. 171).

• Overusing block quotes can 1. Disrupt the stylistic flow of your paper.

2. Make your reader less confident of your understanding of the material by relying too heavily on the literature to assert your opinions.

In Text Citations

How to Show You’re in the Know

In-Text Citations

• APA Chapter 6

Document your study throughout the text by citing by author and date of the works you used in your research. This style of citation briefly identifies the source for readers and enables them to locate the source of information in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper.

In-Text Citations Combinations

• (Author, year)

• (Matthey-Biernat, 2008)

• According to Matthey-Biernat, babies are a lot of work (2008).

• According to Matthey-Biernat (2008), babies are a lot of work.

• As stated by Matthey-Biernat (2008), “babies are a lot of work” (p. 2).

Formatting

• Block quotations

• Walden vs. APA

• Quotes within quotes

• A few extras

Block Quotations

• Any quote 40 words or more.

• Double spaced, one half inch indented on the left, no quotation marks, punctuation comes before the citation.

Block quotes will be introduced, and then you’ll format the quote:

Just the one half inch indent on the left is all your reader needs to

understand that you’re setting this text aside especially for

them. Kind of fun once you get used to it! (Patterson, 2010, p. 2)

And that’s all there is to it! Easy enough, right?

Quotes Within Quotes

APA p. 92

Use double quotation marks to enclose quotations in text. Use single quotation marks within double quotation marks to set off material that in the original source was enclosed in double quotation marks.

Extras

• Omitting material: use three ellipsis points (…) within a sentence to indicate you’ve omitted material. Use four ellipsis points (….) for any omission between two sentences (APA pp. 172-173).

• Do not use ellipsis at the start or end of a quotation (APA pp. 172-173).

• Use [brackets] to insert material (APA p. 173).

Paraphrasing

• According to the APA (2010), when you paraphrase, you “summarize a passage or rearrange the order of the sentence and change some of the words” (p. 15).

• If you paraphrase, you must cite it with author and year. If you do not, you are plagiarizing.

Knowing When To Cite

• The best rule of thumb is if in doubt, cite!

But…

• Cite if it is a direct quote.

• Cite if you are paraphrasing

• Cite if the idea is not yours.

Establishing Common Knowledge

• Reliable authors refer to it without citing its source.

• Most people in the field accept it as fact.

• Few experts would dispute it.

• It is reported in most introductory textbooks or basic reference books.

If in doubt, cite your source.

Information found at www.writing.ku.edu

Questions?

Bringing It All Together

• The reference list

• What’s the point?

• Basic format

• How it’s meant to work

Reference List

• Double-spaced entries with double space between entries.

• One half inch hanging indent.

• Sentence case for titles.

• Alphabetical order.

Reference List

Author, A. (2003). Title of book in italics. Minneapolis, MN: Publisher’s

name.

Best Seller, B. (2005). Title of article. Title of Journal in Italics, 1(2), 3-4.

Writer, Z. (2008). Title of book. La Jolla, CA: That Printer Down the

Street.

Nitpickery

• Avoid ending a section with a citation.– Why? Instructors want to see your original

thought. It’s appropriate to wrap up a paper with your own summary.

• Amount of quotations (10%).– Keep in mind that quotations should be

sprinkled throughout your argument. They shouldn’t make up the bulk of your argument!

Resources

• www.writing.ku.edu

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu

• http://www.apastyle.org

• [email protected]

Questions?

[email protected]