Academic Writing

Documenting Sources in APA Style: In-text Citation, Signal Phrases, and Reference list

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of in-text citations, signal phrases, and reference list in the article “Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University” (Dalvit, Murray & Terzoli, 2005). According the American Psychological Association (APA), certain rules must be followed in order to avoid plagiarism in academic writing. However, proper documentation of sources is not an easy task. Generally speaking, when citing in APA style it is compulsory to state the author’s surname and the source's year of publication. Nevertheless, different rules have to be considered depending on the documentation type needed.

In-text citations and signal phrases are two of the most used techniques in academic writing. Regarding in-text citation, it is necessary to note that there are different formats according to the way they are included within a text. In the article, Dalvit et al. (2005) cite the complete name of an institution and the year of publication (Department of Education and Department of Communication, 2001), (Council on Higher Education, 2001); one author only as in (Boughey, 2002), (Barkhuizen, 2001); and specific sources such as Webster’s online dictionary (2005). In the same way, signal phrases are also used to quote or paraphrase other people’s words. Although many signal phrases exist, Dalvit et al. (2005) present only two of them in their article. These are According to Halliday and Martin (1993), and Preliminary investigation shows that […] (Rhodes University – Information Technology Division, 2004).

Last but not least, when writing academically there must be a reference list at the end of a work where all the sources cited in-text should be included. This list must be written in a separate page and double spaced, labeled as ‘References’ and alphabetically ordered. The information included in the references will vary according to the type of source documented. Nonetheless, the basic information consists of author(s) surnames and names' initials, year of publication, title of the source, place of publication and publisher. Any other relevant data should be included so as to help retrieving the source, such as retrieved month, (day), year, from http://web address in the case of web pages. In the article written by Dalvit et al. (2005), the references are not double-spaced and they are not written on a separate page, though they follow APA style rules. Some examples are: Department of Education and Department of Communication. (2001). Strategy for Information and Communication Technology in Education. Pretoria: Government Printer; and Webster’s Online Dictionary - Rosetta edition. (2005). http://www.Wevsters-online-dictionary.org/definition/translation-english/.28 April

In sum, academic writers should be cautious when including someone else’s words in their work so as to avoid plagiarism. In the article analyzed, though some minor details, the authors show attachment to APA style documentation rules.

References 

- American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

- Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). In-text citations: author/authors. Retrieved fromhttp://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

- Dalvit, L., Murray, S. and Terzoli, A. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US-China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol. 2 (9)

Critique

Hello, everyone! This is a critique of Bailey's (2006) book "Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students" written by my EAP classmate, teacher Mariana Tucci, and me.

Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students – Critique

In his useful but restricted handbook titled “Academic Writing: A handbook for international students” Bailey (2006) presents the basic writing skills international students of English should manage when working on the academic writing field. It aims to ensure their writings meet the English writing standards. Bailey has taught English for Academic Purposes at different universities and it is through this text that he desires to make academic writing an easier task for students.

Academic writing is generally a challenge for international students of English. Due to that reason, the author considers that this practical book “allows students of all subjects and levels, from foundation to PhD, to practise those aspects of writing which are most important for their studies” (Bailey, 2006, p. vii). In that sense, not only does the author explain the different types of writings and its elements, but also provide careful considerations writers must manage during pre-writing analysis, such as register, purpose, titles, outlines, and documentation of sources. 

The book is divided into four parts: the writing process, elements of writing, accuracy in writing, and writing models. According to Bailey (2006), the writing process is divided into three steps which in the book are presented in three units. The first unit explains how to develop a piece of writing from the title to an outline. The second one presents the importance of pre-writing investigation and note taking. Last but not least, the last chapter gives the readers guidance in order to start writing: planning, organizing paragraphs, organizing the main body, the introduction and conclusion. Finally, there are also pictures and writing examples.

Although useful, it should be noted that teacher’s guidance will be an essential complement for high school or college students who follow Bailey’s (2006) explanations in their writing process. In other words, according to the level of English presented in the book, only advance students of English will be more likely to comprehend the process of writing without extra guidance. On the other hand, however, this handbook analyses the basic writing formats in English, such as letters, reports, articles, and essays, but not specific writing formats required in PhD courses where definite genres and English vocabulary for specific purposes are needed.

To sum up, Bailey’s (2006) handbook may have been practical if the intended audience had been reduced to either beginner students of English or PhD’s separately. Alternatively, particularly important could have been the fact that it presented more detailed explanations for beginner students and more specific genres for advance students.

References

- Bailey, S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for international students (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis e-library. Retrieved from http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf

Outline #2

Beyond Reflection: Teacher Learning as Praxis - Outline

Purpose: To provide a new vision of ‘Teacher Reflection’ as a tool for learning.

Thesis: Teacher reflection is an important skill for developing pedagogical-content knowledge about how to teach (Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles & Lopez Torres, 2003).

Audience: Class tutor, classmates, other teachers of English, and any other people interested in the subject matter.

I. Teacher practice.
     A. Reflection in school.
           1. Students as “problem posers” (Crawford et al., 1994, p. 174, qt. in Hoffman-Kipp et al., 2003)
           2. Meaningful praxis required, (i.e. “the dialectical union of reflection and action”) (Freire, 1972, p.96, qt. in Hoffman-Kipp et al., 2003).

II. Reflection and its limits.
      A. Initial teachers’ reflection: characteristics.
      B. Critical perspective on reflection: problems.

III. Critiques on teacher reflection.
      A. Phenomenological Discourse Community.
            1. Scope: The individual and her or his experiences.
      B. Critical Discourse Community.
            1. Scope: Sociopolitical contexts of teaching plus curricular and pedagogical concerns.
      C. Situated Learning Discourse Community.
            1. Scope: Social process embedded in everyday activities in school cultures.

IV. A cultural-historical view of teacher learning as practice.
       A. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT).
            1. Activity system: unit of analysis of how reflection is used by teachers.
                   a. Actors in a given situation, artifacts, and human behavior for productive and communicative purposes.
            2. Assistance practices.
                   a. Learning in social practice before being a psychological category.
            3. Mediators.
                   a. Culture, cognitive mechanisms, theories of learning, pedagogical models, spontaneous concepts, virtual environment.
            4. Artifacts: primary, secondary, and tertiary or prolepsis.
                   a. Proleptic practice: “the representation or assumption of a future act as if presently accomplished” (Cole, 1999, p. 89, qt. in Hoffman-Kipp et al., 2003).

V. Conclusion.

This new vision of reflection describes it as a metacognitive mechanism and a social practice where the professional is mindful of issues of learning, culture, power and social justice.

References:
-Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

My first outline

The following outline is meant to summarize a chapter in Jordan, R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes - A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge, UK: CUP. 

English for Academic Purposes - A guide and resource book for teachers - Outline

Purpose: To provide a general overview of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and study skills concepts following Jordan, R. (1997)

Thesis: EAP is concerned with communication skills in English required for study purposes in formal education systems (ETIC 1975). Those skills are called 'study skills'.

Audience: Teachers of English and any other people interested in the topic.

I. History of the EAP term

   A. First recorded use in 1974.

II. Settings

     A. Higher education studies.

     B. Pre-departure courses.

III. Courses

     A. Pre-sessional (before an academic course begins full time)

     B. In-sessional (during an academic term or semester – part time)

          1. Approaches

               a. Formal teaching programs

               b. Self-access situations

               c. Distance-learning material or CALL (computer-assisted language learning)

IV. Coverage

     A.TENOR or EGP (Teaching of English for No Obvious Reason or English for General Purposes)

     B. ESP (English for Specific Purposes)

          1. EOP (English for Occupational Purposes)

          2. EVP (English for Vocational Purposes)

          3. EPP (English for Professional Purposes)

          4. EAP (English for Academic Purposes)

              a. Common core/study skills (EGAP - English for General Academic Purposes)

             b. Subject-specific (ESAP - English for Specific Academic Purposes): language needed for a particular academic subject (language structure, vocabulary, particular skills needed for the subject and appropriate academic conventions).

V. Conclusions

   A. Study skills are abilities, techniques, and strategies used when reading, writing or listening English for Academic Purposes. (Richards, Platt and Platt, 1992).

Academic Summary & Vignette

Hi again! This is another academic summary of an article, but this time I also wrote a vignette telling an experience of mine related to that article.

ACADEMIC SUMMARY

Teaching English in Turkish Primary schools

           Although Turkey’s National Ministry of Education has provided schools with framed contents and suggested activities to improve the quality of English language teaching and learning in Primary schools, traditional classroom practices are still beyond a constructivist syllabus. In the article “A small-scale study of primary school English language teachers’ classroom activities and problems” Arda Arikan (2011) states that, according to a study of the situation, the introduction of updated teaching techniques in Turkish Primary schools is yet prevented by the traditional learners’ passive roles and teacher-centered activities.

       Arikan (2011) divided her investigation into three main research topics. Frequent language learning activities is the first one. A study carried out in 2009 claims that teachers restrict their scope of teaching practices to writing activities, drama and songs where focus is only on acquiring correct English grammar rules (Arikan, 2011). This study is supported by Arikan’s investigation where drilling exercises, memorizing isolated words, reading aloud and filling in the blanks ranked first (Arikan, 2011).

       The remaining two issues reported in the investigation are teachers’ self-reported needs and teachers’ assumptions regarding learners’ needs. While teachers assume that learners’ main needs are the acquisition of vocabulary, speaking, pronunciation and reading abilities, a study conducted by the Ministry of Education found out that teachers see themselves insecure in speaking and listening (Arikan, 2011). However, teachers acknowledge that they need to be trained in new teaching methods and to have access to new technologies (Arikan 2011).

         To conclude, although Arikan’s findings are noteworthy, she asserts that more research is still needed (Arikan, 2011). Nevertheless, she agrees with the fact that courses for developing effective teachers should be strengthened and updated providing them with new teaching resources taking into account that contexts vary and that “young learners do not learn like adult learners of English” (Arikan, 2011, p. 2).

References

- Arikan, A. (2011). A small-scale study of primary school English language teachers’ classroom activities and problems. Department of Western Languages and Literatures, Division of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters, Akdeniz University.

VIGNETTE

First-time teacher 

            It was the first day of my professional career as a teacher of English in a private school of English in a big city. It was March, 2014 and I saw six little six-year-olds sat in front of me. I was really nervous because I hadn't been trained to teach kids. Senior teachers guided me, however I felt lost at the beginning. During the first classes I stick to the book activities so, like teachers in Turkey, I focused my classes on speaking and memorizing vocabulary. Later on, I realized that kids are like sponges and that they learn surprisingly fast. I knew I could take advantage of that but I did not know how. I needed some training, similar to Turkish teachers. On that purpose, I attended some workshops to acquire alternative techniques for teaching kids, like story-telling, songs and games. I needed some guide on how to teach young learners because it is not the same as teaching adults, as Arda Arikan commented on her report. After the workshop, I started to apply those techniques and little by little and I could observe a huge change. Also, I started using the interactive board that was always behind me waiting for me to use it. Technology is a great teaching resource too.

Academic Summary

Hello, everyone! The following entry is an academic summary based on an article which explains how to develop a project for publishing in Wikipedia.

ACADEMIC SUMMARY                                                                                           1

Literacy Skills Development through Wikipedia Writing Project

            In her article “Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing” Christine Tardy (2010) presents the steps for writing an article for the Wikipedia website to develop academic literacy skills. Not only does she describe those steps, but she also asserts academic writing is usually a challenging issue for second language (L2) students because they are not often used to it. Writing academically means taking the position of expert in a certain subject matter as well as applying literacy skills such as conducting research, following genre conventions, citing sources, paraphrasing and summarizing in order to avoid plagiarism (Tardy, 2010).

            According to the author, Wikipedia is a worldwide famous multi-language encyclopedia which can be edited by any person throughout the world so long as they respect its writing genre. A series of eight manageable steps are described so as to produce a Wikipedia article. They include exhaustive examination of the website, topic selection and research, article outline and first writing draft. Once the draft is ready, the article must be revised by a peer who provides feedback so as the necessary changes can be implemented. The final step is publishing the article on the website but not before having been revised by Wikipedia editors.

            Paraphrases and summaries play important roles and must be appropriately documented in academic writing. Documentation in Wikipedia is firstly realized in what the author calls a “fact sheet” (Tardy, 2010, p. 15) which is finally turned into footnotes or general references. In addition, wikilinks should be included in a Wikipedia article. A wikilink, explains Tardy (2010), is a word or phrase in the article that appears in a different color -blue in Wikipedia- where the reader can click on it and they are redirected to a new article regarding the clicked word.

            In conclusion, academic writing is usually not an easy task to be carried out by students of a second or foreign language. Nevertheless, practice instances can contribute positively in acquiring writing skills. The Wikipedia-writing project “introduces students to many skills of academic writing in a manageable and interesting way”, affirms Tardy (2010, p. 18) at the end of her article.

References

- Tardy (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp. 12-19, 27.