WHO GIVES AN APA?

Here are my notes for a presentation I give on citing sources in college writing.
WHO GIVES AN APA?
Son of Citation Machine, Easy Bib and More Web and Old-school Tools for Citing Your Work
WHY IS CITING A BIG DEAL?
-Academic discourse and research
-Current cultural climate of plagiarism
WHY DOES CITING HAVE TO BE SO HARD?
-Changeover from printed texts with physical locations to disembodied etexts
-Competing interests between academic disciplines
-However, it doesn’t need to be so hard anymore! Use one of the systems on page 2 below to make your life easier.
THREE MAIN ELEMENTS IN DOCUMENTING SOURCES FOR ACADEMIC WRITING
1. Clearly mark in your writing the beginning of any words, ideas, or sequence of ideas that you borrow from someone else; use signal phrases and quotation marks
2. Mark the end of borrowed language/ideas with an in-text citation (APA or MLA) or footnote (CMS), which briefly identifies the source, and when appropriate closing quotation marks
3. Put a list of references at the end of the paper that tells the reader everything they need to know to find your sources.
Use a particular style of format and stick to it through the paper: APA, CMS, MLA, or another
APA American Psychological Assn In-text citations include author’s last name and year, and the page number for quotes: At least one writer (Mendham, 2010) has complained that APA style “makes her brain hurt” (p. 1)
CMS Chicago Manual of Style Raised (superscript) numbers to refer to footnotes or endnotes. Tracy Mendham says “Chicago is the mob boss of documentation systems.”2
MLA Modern Lang. Assn In-text citations include author’s last name and the page number. At least one writing specialist claims that “MLA style rocks” (Mendham 3).

TOOLS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER
-Easy Bib: http://library.franklinpierce.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.easybib.com/ for FPU free account or http://www.easybib.com for MLA-only
-Microsoft Word 2007 and later: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-bibliography-HA010067492.aspx
-Zotero: http://www.zotero.org
-Son of Citation Machine: http://citationmachine.net/
EASY BIB (FREE THROUGH FRANKLIN PIERCE LIBRARY)
I always show students how to use Easy Bib if they’re struggling with sources. You can paste in a website to autocite or enter info manually. Easy Bib can will save your references—if you find out you have to write about the same book again, or use a different format style, Easy Bib
http://library.franklinpierce.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.easybib.com/ or http://www.easybib.com/
Son of Citation Machine is similar and popular with some students: http://citationmachine.net/
MICROSOFT WORD 2010 ($35)
This will make your life so much easier it should be worth the $35 the student edition will cost from IT and the time it will take to learn to use it.
A short YouTube tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3T6y2vU7nM
ZOTERO (FREE, ADD-ON FOR FIREFOX ONLY)
Zotero needs to be downloaded and added to your Firefox browser, but it is plain awesome for collecting sources when you are working on more than one computer and it will “grab” information off Amazon web pages about book info and journal info from online databases. It will also automatically add items by ISBN or DOI.
Here’s a demo video: http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-basics-getting-stuff-into-zotero/
“OLD SCHOOL”
The Cite feature in EBSCOhost and the good old Diana Hacker Writer’s Reference. I mark the pages I use most and now it’s faster than a website for tasks I do most often.
DON’T BE A STRANGER!
Come to the Center for Academic Excellence or use the Wensberg Writing Center for more help with writing or to learn to use the tools in this handout.
The Center for Academic Excellence
DiPietro Library, 1st floor
academicexcellence@franklinpierce.edu,

http://www.facebook.com/academicservices

Course concerns at Franklin Pierce, the College at Rindge

From "Nadbasher" on Flickr

Rindge students, if you received an email about “course concerns” today, read it and then speak to your instructor within the coming week.

The Coordinator of Academic Advising and the Academic Services Center ask professors of 100- and 200- level classes to let us know if they have concerns about a student during the first four weeks of classes.  Concerns can be anything from missing one or two classes, not having the books, not doing well on a quiz, or just being really homesick.   We can make suggestions to help students or try to connect the student with resources on campus that can help them.  Students may not know about all the people and offices on campus who can assist them academically.  The course concern emails (also known as Early Alerts or ESI’s) help connect the dots.

So if you have an email like that, talk to your professor (even if you think you know why you received the alert).  Your instructor can tell you what you need to do to succeed in their course.

Writers write: 750 Words

750 Words is a neat and simple website to help writers (including profs and students) to make daily progress on their writing projects. This is from a Chronicle article, Writer’s Boot Camp:

Here at ProfHacker, we have written many posts detailing ways we can make the writing process smoother, faster, easier. Or doable. We strive to make writing doable. And we share our ideas. Writing hints that work for me might work for you. Your hints to produce usable writing might help others, and we hope you’ll share those hints. Some hints are simple; others are more difficult. But we share, nonetheless. The “butt in chair” method of producing written text, a hint that is shared by many, is probably the best way to accomplish a writing goal. Just do it. Today, however, we offer a different tool that might help you produce words.

Andrew Mara (Twitter’s @docmara) at North Dakota State University alerted me to 750words.com, a website that provides space for writing. But unlike an average word processor, what most of use in writing, 750words.com is very simple. It doesn’t provide textual manipulation tools (bolding, italicizing, etc.), as those tools can be distracting. The free online site encourages you to write, to produce 750 words of text a day. It does this by counting your words as you type and by providing small incentives to keep you going. It’s a very simple, but brilliant, idea.

Drop-in help for research papers and projects tonight from 7-8 pm (Tuesday 4/20/2010)

Pen and Paper by Kristian D. on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristiand/3223920178/

Final papers and research projects to complete? We’ve got you covered. Tonight featuring the fabulous Moe Baptiste, language skills specialist (and yoga teacher) extraordinaire!
Staff from the DiPietro Library and the Center for Academic Excellence are hosting drop-in hours on Tuesday evenings 7-8 pm for the rest of the semester (April 20, 27, and May 4) to help students with library research and to provide support for students at all stages of the writing process. If you’re stuck or just want help making a good paper great, come on by and let us help you. The Peer Tutor for Foundations of Math will also be available to assist students with their final written projects.
For those that can’t attend in person, the reference librarian remains available during other regular reference desk hours by IM, email, and phone. Visit http://library.franklinpierce.edu/research/askalib.html for more information. For students at CGPS campuses, the Wensberg Writing Center is available by email.
Drop-in hours are just one of several collaborative programs that the Center for Academic Excellence is developing with the DiPietro Library and other groups on campus to promote student success.

Go, Lady Ravens!

FITCHBURG, Mass. (March 15, 2010) — Senior forward Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England) scored 34 points, surpassing 3,000 for her career, and added eight rebounds on Monday night to lead the No. 2 nationally ranked and top-seeded Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team to an 82-79, overtime victory over second-seeded Holy Family in the final round of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball East Regional, hosted by Franklin Pierce at the Fitchburg State College Recreation Center.

via Franklin Pierce University : No. 2 Women’s Basketball Captures NCAA East Regional Championship With 82-79, Overtime Victory Over Holy Family.