Bedford Researcher-Chapter 17

Revising and editing are ongoing through the research paper process.  Revising is to assess and look at whether evidence is strong enough and the paper is well organized and appropriate to who will be reading it.  Editing is paying close to the mechanics of writing and word usage.

For revision you want to look at whether your purpose is effectively supported and do I look credible.  Are the sources selected fresh and reflect the beliefs and values of my audience?  Look at whether you are meeting the requirements and expectations of this assignment.  Have you used field opportunities and any other types of ways to access good information?  Review your thesis statement and look at each paragraph and see if it supports it effectively.  Do your argument and ideas make sense and will they be acceptable to your audience?

Pay attention to whether your document is easy to navigate through and if the design is appealing to your reader.
Be sure to save drafts along the way for reflection
You can highlight your main point, reasons and evidence in different colors
Challenge your paper as a devil's advocate.  Does it stand up to scrutiny?
Ask yourself why your readers should care about this topic and what you have to say about it.

Asking feedback from other people is helpful as they have fresh eyes and may notice something you don't.

For editing you should:
Check your facts and figures for accuracy
Check quotes and whether citations are correct
Check for correct spelling on names

Be sure to remove unnecessary words, modifiers, stock phrases in order to be concise.

Check for Consistency in concept presentation, the way you spell out numbers, deal with sources  and formatting.

Judge your style as to how you choose wording, sentence length and structure, use of transitions and avoiding sexist type language.

Lastly, check your grammar, spelling and punctuation for any errors. This is obvious and necessary.

Read carefully through your document.  Read it aloud and in reverse order.  Look at each individual sentence.

Highlight and mark through your document.

Do not rely on spell check or any other tool to do this for you.

Always ask for honest feedback.

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 14

Drafting is an important step to do before writing your document.  You must first write out an outline that will include the main points in the order you will put them in your paper along with the evidence to support each one of them.

You have to be clear on what your purpose is and whether you have enough evidence to represent both sides of your issue.  As you write you may find that you switch the previously planned order to accomplish whatever the goal you have set while being aware of the expectations of your audience.

By creating an informal outline it will provide you a list of bullets that you can create into topic sentences.  If you do a formal outline it will provide main topic ideas and supporting ideas for those.  This is a flexible skeleton for your paper that keeps you on track but allows you to change things as needed.

It should be obvious in each paragraph what the idea is from the start and it should be followed by evidence from a source or two and state the concluding fact.  Paragraphs should be arranged by chronology, cause/effect, pro/con, multiple views, comparison/contrast, strengths/weaknesses, costs/benefits, problem/solution, definition or description.  It must be a predictable pattern for your reader.

Details that are concrete and supported by evidence will create interest and clarity for your audience.  

Using sources effectively by paraphrasing, quoting or summarizing it will strengthen your point you are trying to bring across.  

Transitions are important.  They create flow and rhythm to your paper.  The lead the reader into introductions to new pieces of your topic.

Intros are key in engaging your reader and telling them why your paper is important to read.  Some strategies to use are:
Stating the topic
Establishing context
Stat your thesis
Define a problem
Surprising Statement
Ask a question 
Tell a story
Provide a historical account
Draw a contrast
Leading with a quotation

There are ways that you can make your paper easy for a reader to navigate through.  Some writers use a real obvious statements that tell the reader the topics being covered.  Many use headings and subheadings to mark the place.  Forecasts and cross references can be used to warn the reader of what is coming up next.  If it is digital, a menu may provided. Design principles are key in this process from the font chosen, possible bullet lists to headers and footers.

A conclusion needs to be strong.  You are to state your purpose one more time and share your thoughts. There are strategies for this:  
Offer additional analysis
Speculate about the future
Close with a question
Close with a story
Close with a quotation
Call to Action
Link it to your introduction

By using these intro and concluding strategies along with organized paragraphs and a flexible outline you will be able to create a well informed and easy to navigate research paper.   

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 18

First impressions are important not only for people but this saying can be applied to your research paper.  When designing your document, you need to pay attention to five important principles in regards to creating your document; they are balance, emphasis, placement, repetition and consistency.

Balance is deciding whether you will do a conservative symmetrical alignment of text and illustration.  if you decide to go with a more asymmetrical design it will create a feeling of movement.  Another design principle is emphasis.  This focuses on headings, subheadings, color or the type of font you will use.  Placement is organizing where you may put a photograph or other related illustrations.  Repetition includes page numbering, logos, web navigation menus and other ways to navigate through your document.  Consistency is important.  It gives the reader a feeling that you are knowledgeable, credible and take pride in your product.  Everything in your paper should match and take all elements into consideration.

When designing your document step outside of yourself and view it as if you are the reader.  Is it easy to locate information and ideas?  Headings and subheadings should be consistent and easy to identify.  Is it easy on your eyes to navigate and read?  The font should be simple and the line spacing should be the same.  Are the illustrations clear and helpful? You can insert photographs, digital images, charts and graphs.  You can add borders and shaded boxes to add additional information.  The possibilities are endless with technology and the programs we have available.

When inserting illustrations be sure that they have a function and a purpose for your topic.  You can add captions to them or put them at a relevant part of your paper.

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 15

This chapter covers ways to effectively use sources to your advantage in writing a research paper.  Sources are helpful in bringing ideas to the reader's attention, adding evidence and support to the ideas you are stating, give credence to your idea and set the tone towards your subject.  Sometimes sources can bring visual images that you can include or bring understanding to a complex subject.  Quotes or phrases can be inserted and so can statistics from a source.

The strategy of using a quotation, summary or parapharasing a point or the opposing side can be effective sparking the curiosity of the reader and luring him in to read your paper.  You can use sources this way to your advantage by either strengthening your side or creating awareness of what the opposing argument's stand is.

You can create conversation between your opposing sources by using partial quotes and then refuting it with another source.

Sources are key in strengthening your view by noting results of a study, words from an expert in the field and visual sources can help your reader understand what you are wanting to prove.

If there is an expert in the field of your topic you can add to your credibility by linking your similar views to someone that has recognition as a figure.  

Sometimes a borrowing a quote or an illustration from your source can create emotions or a mood for your reader.  

Examples you find in sources can give you a little meat for your paper and back up your view or the opposition's standpoint on your topic.

First, you have to identify the sources you will use. Annotate each one identifying what it is about and how it may be useful to you.  After that, you can organize them into subtopics or categories.  

Whenever a writer uses information from sources, it must clearly show the difference between their ideas and yours.  It is important that you use attributions and in text citations to make this obvious.  By making citations it allows readers to be able to look up and read up on additional information on the topic.  

Writers have to know the situation they are writing for so they can provide introductions to and context for the sources they are inserting into their paper.  Be sure to make clear why this quote or paraphrase is relevant and credible.

A writer must be selective on what quotations they use and judge what type of effect it will have on their reader.  For example, you could share a story or testimonial of someone affected by your issue in order to create emotion, urgency or assign importance to your subject.  Another example would be to write the results of a study done by an expert to support your case.

There are three types of quotations, partial, complete and block.  Partial is us using a single buzz word or phrase or part of a sentence.  Complete is using full sentences.  Block is using is using four or more typed lines that require indenting.  

You can modify a quote by using brackets around the word you are changing to make the quote more clear.  It is very important that you punctuate quotes accurately and pay attention to the rules of where quotation marks go.  Ellipsis should be used when words are omitted or dropped off.

Do not confuse paraphrasing with summarizing.  Paraphrasing states the same idea with different words, order and usually is as long as the sentence it is replacing.  A summary is when you pick out the main points of an article or source and briefly state what the point is.  It is factual and free of needless details.  You can do this with a source in order to use it for support.  You want to focus on the main idea and key points from your source.

Sometimes you can group many sources together that are in agreement and summarize them.  It is very important that all of them are cited.  

You can cite sources within the text of the document.  This helps you to give credit to the source and protects you from plagiarism.  It also creates a record of sources a reader can take advantage of and you are able to refer to it as well.

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 16

The style an author chooses to write in is important to consider as this will affect whether readers will engage in wanting to hear what the topic is about or the position that is being taken on the issue.  The first thing you should take into account is who is my audience.  Is it people who are familiar with my subject?  Is my issue current and well known in the mainstream?  Do I write conversationally or in a formal way to scholars?  Once you decide who your audience is, next there are some writing tips that are good to abide by when writing a research paper.

 One of the tips is to be clear and brief in your writing while keeping words to a minimum and eliminating modifiers, like very, really, great, etc.  Another tip is to eliminate introductory phrases and get to the point.  Stock phrases such as, as a matter of fact or in the event of and others like it are not necessary for this type of writing.  it just clutters the paper up with additional words.

A writer must decide whether they will be writing their paper in an active voice or a passive voice.  An active voice always states who is doing the action.  For example:  Iraq's army bombed the school full of children.
A passive voice would say, A school was damaged.  When writing in a passive voice it does not always say who or what did the action.

Staying with a consistent point of view is important in order for the reader to be able to follow what happened.  Pick whether you will speak in first, second, or third person and stick with it all of the way through the paper.

Word choice should be carefully scrutinized.  Ask yourself if you are writing formal enough and if you are using the specialized language necessary for your topic in order to connect with your readers.  Pay attention to whether you are writing too technical for your audience as well.  Keep your language interesting and engaging.  Sentence structure should vary.  If you are beginning too many sentences with the same word and not using pronouns, that can become annoying for readers.  Short and choppy sentences can sound robotic and dull.  By mixing up different types of sentences it will add rhythm to your paper.

Good transitions move a paper along and are pleasing to the reader.  You can do this by using transitional words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs that move the reader to the next subtopic. I like to end some of my paragraphs with a sentence that refers to what was just read but leads to what is next.

This chapter also addressed the way we introduce sources or authors in our paper.  We need to be careful to stay neutral if that is our intent. If we are intending to persuade, the language we use can give credence to the sources that are supporting the stance we want to take.

Sexist language should never be used in a paper.  Common stereotypes should never be a part of the wording in your paper.  Readers will get a bad impression of you.

Reading often and a wide variety of all types of literature can only help improve how an author writes!

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 20

In Chapter 20 of The Bedford Researcher it talked about how important it is to assign credit to those sources that have helped you during the process of writing your paper.  It also provides a trail to help others to follow on that topic and protects you from plagiarism.  An honest writer follows these rules closely in order to be credible and fair to those in the academic community.

There are many documentation systems.  The one you choose to use will bear heavily on the field you are writing for.  Different rules are set up for various organizations of how they prefer to document and organize the huge amount of information that is shared worldwide.  The four most common formats are:

• MLA-Modern Language Association-It is used for the humanities
• APA-American Psychological Association- It is used for the social sciences.
• Chicago-Created by the University of Chicago Press-It is used in the humanities, history and journalism.
• CSE-Council of Science Editors-It is mainly used for physical and life sciences and mathematics

The format you choose is guides by this list or what your professor tells you they prefer.  For this essay we will be using the MLA format that we just did a lab on this past Thursday.

The Bedford Researcher has this list of information to include in a citation.

• Author or editor
• title
• publication date
• publisher or city of publication
• periodical name, volume, issue and page numbers
• URL and access date for online publications

I will be referring closely to my handouts from class and the handbook in order to get this right.

Bedford Researcher-Chapter 19

In chapter 19 of  The Bedford Researcher it addressed the decision you need to make on how you will design your document.  This is important as first impressions are important to a reader but of utmost importance to an instructor grading it.  Have you followed their guidelines?

You have to take into consideration the type of writing it is.  For example, a piece for a newspaper would look much different from a formal essay.  You have to decide on the font, where you will place images, look at the guidelines of expectations and how you will use headers and footers in it.  You will want to correctly cite your sources in the right format.

 In this chapter it went over the expectations of a multimedia essay.  This is very reliant on visual images and layout, rather than text.  I think of PowerPoint and Key note when I think of this.  Some tips are to keep transitions from being distracting, make slides look clean and font big enough to read.  Keep color scheme, fonts, lay out very consistent.  Bullets are best used and keeping wording concise.  If this presentation was to be designed to be orally presented you would rely heavily on bullets, minimal wording, visual engagement and your dynamic speaking skills.

This chapter also covered the design of articles.  You have to take into consideration your audience, key points, mood and the type of publication you are writing for.

Web site design can be instrumental to promote businesses, inform people. allow access to other sources related to the subject and are designed for a much broader audience than a research paper is.  You have to consider the diversity of the group you will be reaching and how you will organize and design your website to meet those needs.  Many of the tips are similar to what you would use in a PowerPoint as far as consistency in fonts and removing distracting features. With a website design I feel it is most important that it is easy to navigate a labeled well.

It talked about designing oral  essay presentations.  When doing this you are inserted as part of the selling feature of your idea.  It is important that you look presentable, your gestures are kept to a minimum, you are articulate and can make eye contact with your audience and you are able to connect through all of that and your choice of words.  When doing this you have to think of who you are speaking to so you are able to meet expectations. Evaluate their common knowledge on the topic and focus on what they may not know in order to narrow it down.  You cannot possibly cover every bit of evidence in your research without putting them to sleep.  Grab their attention, Establish your main point,  talk about key points with evidence to support it, walk them through it with good transitions and close it by restating your main point.  I always invite questions.

For speeches it is encouraged to use speaker's notes rather than formally writing it out.  It is a bullet point list for you to cover in your talk.  It allows for you to speak in your own voice with ad libs and not like a robot.

Poster presentations were covered in this as well and the take away was much similar to the rules for making a nice PowerPoint slide.  Focused, consistent in font, clear in purpose and a good representation  of what you intend to share with your audience is the most important points.