Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts

July 24, 2009

Turabian citation style

Turabian citation style can be used with any college subject. Arrange each item alphabetically by author's name. In case no author is given, start with the title and then the date.

Citing a book in Turabian bibliography

Author last name, first name, and Last2 First2. (Year). Title of the book. Place of publication: publisher.

Citing a journal article in Turabian citation style

Last name, first name. Year. Title of the article. Title of periodical volume (Month): page-page.

Citing a web-site in Turabian citation style

Last name, first name. Year. Title of article [online]. Name of website; available from http://www.website.info/directory/page.ext; Internet; accessed Month day, Year.

Sample Turabian citation style

Priestley, Sean and Neely, Adaline. 2008. Turabian Bibliography Sample. [online]. New Wave Essays custom essay writing service; available from http://newavessays.com/tutorials/bibliography-formats/turabian/; Internet; accessed September 13, 2008.

May 07, 2009

Academic essays do's & dont's

The key to success lies in focusing in each academic essay on a few illustrative incidents as opposed to giving a superficial overview. Remember that detail, specificity, and concrete examples will make your academic essay distinctive and interesting. Generalities and platitudes that could apply to every other business school applicant will bore. If you use the latter, you will just blend into the crowd.

Following Ten Do's and Don'ts for your academic essay will help you write compelling, focused academic essays that will transform you from a collection of numbers and classes into an interesting human being.

The do's of academic essays

  • Unite your essay and give it direction with a theme or thesis. The thesis is the main point you want to communicate. Make sure in answers the question.
  • Before you begin writing, choose what you want to discuss and the order in which you want to discuss it.
  • Use concrete examples from your life experience to support your thesis and distinguish yourself from other applicants.
  • Write about what interests you, excites you. That's what the admissions staff wants to read.
  • Start your essay with an attention-grabbing lead: an anecdote, quote, surprising statement, question, or engaging description of a scene.
  • End your essay with a conclusion that refers back to the lead and restates your thesis.
  • Revise your essay at least three times.
  • In addition to your editing, ask someone else to critique your personal statement for you.
  • Proofread your essays by reading them out loud or reading it into a tape recorder and playing back the tape.
  • Write clearly, succinctly.

The don'ts of academic essays

  • Don't include information that doesn't support your thesis.
  • Don't start your academic essay with "I was born in...," or "My parents came from..."
  • Don't write an autobiography, itinerary, or resume in prose.
  • Don't try to be a clown (but gentle humor is OK).
  • Don't be afraid to start over if the essay just isn't working or doesn't answer the essay question.
  • Don't try to impress your reader with your vocabulary.
  • Don't rely exclusively on your computer to check your spelling.
  • Don't provide a collection of generic statements and platitudes.
  • Don't give mealy-mouthed, weak excuses for your GPA or test scores.
  • Don't make things up.

April 26, 2009

Revision: importance in academic writing

When writers revise a rough draft, they literally "resee" their subject — and then modify the draft to fit the new vision. Revision is more than just tinkering with a word here and there; revision leads to larger changes — new examples or details, a different organization, or a new perspective. You accomplish these changes by adding, deleting, substituting, or reordering words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Although revision begins the moment you get your first idea, most revisions are based on the reactions or anticipated reactions of the audience to your draft. You often play the role of audience yourself by putting the draft aside and rereading it later when you have some distance from your writing. Wherever you feel readers might not get your point, you revise to make it clearer. You may also get feedback from readers in a class workshop, suggesting that you collect more or different information, alter the shape of your draft to improve the flow of ideas, or clarify your terminology.

As a result of your rereading and your readers' suggestions, you may change your thesis or write for an entirely different audience. Revising also includes editing to improve word choice, grammar, usage, or punctuation and proofreading for typos and other surface errors.

March 31, 2009

Thesis statement

Thesis statement is that sentence (maximum two sentences) that tells the readers exactly what the essay is about. It contains the focus of your essay, therefore the entire text should be neither narrower nor broader than what is stated in the thesis statement. It is also sometimes refferred to as the "umbrella" of the essay, and the essay itself represents things under it. So the text should fill all the space under the umbrella, but watch not to get too big so that nothing gets wet.

Where to put the thesis statement

Thesis statement should be somewhere in the first paragraph of the essay, or somewhere close to the beginning. The classic spot to put thesis statement into is the last sentence of the first paragraph.

  • Example of poor thesis statement: A town is a populated area with buildings and cars.
  • Example of strong thesis statement: A town is a settlement with population of minimum 12 thousand dwellers, in which industry outweights agriculture.

It is very simple; just ask yourself, "what is the main idea I want to tell my readers about?"

It is believed that every essay must have a thesis statement, however the truth is that there are several types of compositions that do not need thesis statements. For example, a lot of narrative essays do not contain a thesis statement at all. Biographies and fiction do not have thesis statements either.

March 23, 2009

Writing circumstances and rituals for effective writing

As you feel you have to start writing some assignment, either academic for your school or a business note for your work, you have to settle the writing environment right. Your writing environment must assist and help your writing process, rather than disturb you; common sense. But for ones, that calming, relaxing and ideas-generating environment is a quite cozy bedroom with a laptop on knees, and for others it might be smoky small office, keypad in ashes, and a pile or empty coffee cups interfering free motion of cmputer mouse. Regardless of what are your writing rituals, you must discover them and follow your writing rituals as you prepare to write.

The goal of the right writing atmoshpere

In order to determine what are your bet writing rutials that enable you uncover your writing potential, you must pay close attention and discover under what circumtance your writing flows by itself. What are the settings arround you and in the comptur that let you concentrate only on writing? The purpose of your writing rituals and correct writing circumstance is to cause no obstacles between the flow-generating mind and the text-document being filled up through your fingers. Once you notice you write smoothly and naturally, take a minute and memorize the setting so that you understand what makes your writing calm and natural.

The writing setting

Sounds, freshness or air, temperature, interior -- all of these any many other factors influence your mind as you write. Personally I love to swing on a chair lightly while writing, and I love to have my keypad lit very heavily with an desk lamp, even at bright days. You might figure you write best at your campus library, or in your dorm at night with your headphones on, or any other setting. There is no universal setting; you must find one that suits you best.

There are, however, general rules that most of the times help everyone. The room in which you write must be:

  • quiet
  • not too big
  • well lit
  • related to the subject of your writing

While the first 3 points are obvious, the 4-th one might sound weird. Let me explain: if you are writing for your business class, you better write in the business classroom. If you are writing a literature review, write it in that literature classroom. If you are writing for your boss, write at your workplace or in that conference room in your office. In other words, make the interior create the feeling of the subject of your writing. Studies have shown essay writing in the environment relative to the subject of your writing does help the ultimate writing.

Computer environment for free writing

I hate when that MS Word does not show me the entire page on the screen. And I cannot go on to actual writing if the margins, widow/orphan control and line spacing is not set to my preferences. I believe you also have your requirements to your word procesing application.

Take advantage of Macros to set up your word processor working environment.

Conclusion

Find the circumstances at which your writing goes smoothly and naturally, remember those circumstanes and turn them to your writing rituals.