 Welcome. My name is Lisa Bartle, and I am one of the reference librarians at the Fowl Library. This video covers writing academically, the mechanics and style of academic writing. In it I will discuss Microsoft Word settings, common errors in mechanics, style and diction, and differences between disciplines. Let's begin. In most academic writing, one inch margins for the sides, top and bottom of the pages are the norm. This is the default for Microsoft Word and for Google Docs, so it shouldn't be a problem for you. Spacing, however, is not as straightforward. You might know that double spacing is standard, but Microsoft Word thwarts us all by including additional spacing after each paragraph as a default. You can see it here, and even if you can't, your professor certainly can. Click the up and down arrows and look down. The default has two lines. One says add spacing before paragraph, while the one below it says remove space after paragraph. Click the one that says remove space after paragraph. A safe choice for academic writing is always a 12-point Times New Roman font. Recently, the American Psychological Association has expanded acceptable fonts to include Calibri 11, Aerial 11, Lucida Sands Unicode 10, Georgia 11, and Computer Modern 10, as well as Times New Roman 12. The Modern Language Association isn't as specific, but Times New Roman 12 is specifically mentioned as acceptable. Of course, always use the font preferred by your instructor, even if it differs from this video. Common Errors in Mechanics It's true. You will be judged by how you communicate. You will be judged by potential bosses on your resume. You will be judged by actual bosses and colleagues in your work life. You will be judged and graded by professors in school. In fact, you will be judged by anyone who has chance to see your writing from formal reports to casual emails. That's a bunch of good reasons to learn the mechanics of writing if you haven't yet. Other good reasons include avoiding misunderstandings, as well as winning or losing court cases. More on that later. Because I need us to share a vocabulary, I need to start with the independent clause. Don't worry, I'm not going to go too far into the weeds. Before you, stands an independent clause. Each part of the sentence below is an independent clause, and each can stand alone as its own sentence, if we choose to break them apart into their own sentences. A run-on sentence is when two independent clauses slam into each other. No lights, no signals, just smash. Let's look at the graphic. Hunters please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails. That's a scary sentence. And it's scary because of a lack of punctuation that would clarify the meaning. On the left are more actual run-on sentences from student papers I have read. I was fed formula my family members were breastfed. Schools are important in children's lives, it is important as a parent to be involved. This also applies it is healthy for parents to play. This must be limited, it is dangerous to commit. Some of these examples attempt to use a comma to signal the independent clause, but they are using the comma incorrectly. The first one doesn't even try, but they are all wrong. One of the jobs of the comma is to separate two independent clauses as long as you follow it with a conjunction. Here are some examples. Brent wants to play for UCLA he had trouble with the writing standards. No, that is absolutely wrong. Brent wants to play for UCLA. He had trouble with the writing standards. That is choppy, but it is correct. You've made two sentences from two independent clauses. Brent wants to play for UCLA, but he had trouble with the writing standards. Gama conjunction! That is correct and better writing. It takes two choppy sentences and blows them together as two independent clauses with a comma and a conjunction. Another example. Stacy chose to study at Panera the noise bothered her. No, no, definitely not. Stacy chose to study at Panera the noise bothered her. Again, choppy, but correct. Stacy chose to study at Panera, yet the noise bothered her. Gama conjunction! Yes, one of the jobs of the comma is to separate two independent clauses as long as you follow it with a conjunction. In the cartoon you see, let's eat grandma. And under it, let's eat grandma. Yes, the comma is the difference between an invitation to share a meal and an invitation to cannibalism. There we see a dependent clause, and below him the fragments of sentences. Each of them is a dependent clause and cannot stand as its own sentence. Another thing commas do is to separate an introductory dependent clause, word or phrase, before the main independent clause. Let's look at the examples. Since Brent wants to play for UCLA, he must meet the writing standards. Since Brent wants to play for UCLA is at the beginning, before the independent clause, and it cannot stand alone as a sentence. This means that it is an introductory dependent clause. Place a comma after it, then it is followed by an independent clause, something that can stand alone as a sentence. He must meet the writing standards. Another example. After Stacy went to Panera, the noise bothered her. After Stacy went to Panera cannot stand alone as a sentence. It is an introductory dependent clause before the independent clause. The noise bothered her. There must be a comma between them. However, she studied with her headphones on. Here, however, is an introductory word preceding the independent clause. She studied with her headphones on. An introductory word followed by a comma, then the independent clause. For the most part, I will have my child in after school activities. For the most part is an introductory dependent phrase. It cannot stand alone, so put a comma after it. Then the independent clause, I will have my child in after school activities. Commas can also be used to separate non-essential parenthetical words from the main sentence. That means that you could remove the comma and circle chunk, and the sentence would still stand clearly and completely. The examples. The students in the class, Humanities 350, like to participate in the discussions. You can see that we could pull Humanities 350 out of the sentence, then it would read, the students in the class like to participate in the discussions. Perfectly clear and correct sentence. That's how we know Humanities 350 needs to have commas on each side to indicate that it is a non-essential parenthetical phrase. Brent, I understand, wants to play for UCLA. I understand can be removed, and the sentence is still clear and correct. Brent wants to play for UCLA. Put commas on each side of the understand to show it is a non-essential parenthetical phrase. Stacey, so far as she is concerned, will never study at Panera again. Stacey will never study at Panera again is a complete sentence. The non-essential bits may add nuance, but they remain non-essential for the meaning of the sentence. So wrap commas around so far as she is concerned. To the side, you see a graphic of how punctuation changes the meaning of words. The first one, a woman without her man is nothing, uses commas to indicate non-essential parenthetical words separated from the main sentence. The meaning of the sentence is that woman is nothing. While the second woman, a woman without her man is nothing, uses a dependent clause acting as an introduction without her, ending with the independent clause and the meaning of the sentence, man is nothing. Two opposite meanings solely through punctuation. Commas can also separate a series of items in a list. That's called a serial comma. In the graphic, I like cooking my family and my pets. Another bloodbath due to lack of punctuation. It would be so much nicer if it read, I like cooking comma my family comma and my pets. Notice the difference in meaning in the following examples. I went dancing with your parents, Lady Gaga and Brendon Urie. That one has three people involved, the I, Lady Gaga and Brendon Urie. That's not a serial comma. But the second one, I went dancing with your parents, Lady Gaga and Brendon Urie. You see the serial comma here. And in this one, there are at least five people. The I, your parents, I'm guessing at least two, but there could be more parents, and Lady Gaga and Brendon Urie. Let's talk money. The one million was divided between Mary, John and Frank. In this one, Mary gets 50% of the million, and John and Frank get 50% of the million to split between them, or 25% each. Great deal for Mary. The one million was divided between Mary, John and Frank. Here, Mary only gets one third of the million, while John also receives one third, and Frank receives one third. Not so good for Mary, but better for John and Frank. Next example. We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin. Here, there are two strippers, and their names are JFK and Stalin. We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin. At least four people. Here, we don't know how many strippers there are, but since it's plural, there must be at least two. There could be 20. Who knows? Also, JFK and Stalin came. They are probably not strippers since they are distinct from the strippers in the series of people listed with the serial comma. I promised earlier that you can win or lose a court case based on punctuation. There was a real lawsuit with a dairy company in 2018. They were forced to settle because the agreement that was written up lacked the serial comma, also called the Oxford comma. The meaning of a labor contract was altered because of it. Five million dollars for want of a comma. We are finished with commas, but please don't imagine that's all there is to the comma. Take a look at a grammar book at the Fowl Library. Let's turn our eyes to the apostrophe. We will discuss the apostrophe for possession and for missing letters. The graphic reads, I can't believe I went out with an apostrophe. He was so possessive. In the first box on the left, you see the correct use of an apostrophe to signal possession. The hero's sword, which means the sword belongs to the hero. The DVD's case, where the case belongs to the DVD. And AD's music, where the music belongs to the AD's. In the next box, you see a contrast to possession, with the same words when they are simply plural. Many heroes just means there is more than one hero. Several DVD's means more than one DVD. And this is one you see incorrect all over the internet. The plural decade. You can see this is a simple plural of the 1980s, which means 1981, 1982, 1983, just a plural on the entire decade. Before you slap an apostrophe on a word, make sure it is signifying possession or belonging, not just more than one of the object. The box on the right is to show the use of the apostrophe with letters that are missing from a word or phrase. Its owner versus it's the owner is a tricky one I admit. The first seems to mean possession, and it does. But we can't use the apostrophe here. Why? Because contraction trumps possession. Contraction is saying it's rather than it is. We smash it is together and place an apostrophe to signal missing letters. That's why we can't use the apostrophe for it's, even though it's possession. Yes, it's a bit of a trick question, but it's something that is often seen in student writing. Were versus we're is one I saw in papers more than I'd like. Were is the past tense of the verb to be. I was, you were, we were. Were is the contraction of we are. We push them together and use the apostrophe to signal there are missing letters. Till is a word we use orally quite a bit, but we don't write it very much, as it isn't correct for academic writing. It signifies until the u and n are missing, so you put the apostrophe and use till. O'clock, however, has been in use so long most people don't even know the contraction was invented because of clocks. O'clock used to be said as of the clock. Now we have the O apostrophe and clock. To sum up, apostrophes are not plural. They signal possession and missing letters. Here is an example that some might even wonder what's wrong with it. When you aren't sure if a phrase is correct, put it in an entire sentence. In the graphic we see employees only. But if it were a sentence it might read employees only may enter here. When we turn it into a sentence, we can see that the use of the apostrophe to show possession is completely wrong. Employees here is simply a plural. Finally, please know the most common homophones. Two, two, and two are different words. There, there, and there are different words too. Loose and lose are different words. It's and it's are different words too. Your and your are different words. And while these are not strictly homophones, are and our are not the same word. And a particular bugaboo of mine. Please remember this sentence. In regard to good manners, please send your regards. Student often use in regard to, but they make it plural. It isn't plural when used in that way. It is singular. It is only plural when you send your regards, your best wishes, your kind thoughts. Please, it's in regard to. If you don't know the difference between these words, please use Google to look them up. Let's talk redundancy. Here are some examples from student papers in red with my corrections in black. In the first example, as a child grows more even more questions arise. My correction is, as a child grows, dependent introductory phrase, more questions arise. The duplication of more and the use of even isn't necessary. Concise and clear is what you want in academic writing. In the second example, the second step is schooling or where the child will get its education. My correction is, the second step is deciding where the child will attend school. Be clear in your statement the first time. You'll notice I also elevated the diction using the verb to attend. Clear and concise. The next example, professors have first priority. This might not seem incorrect to you, but if you aren't explicitly discussing distinct levels of priority, putting first before prior is redundant. The word prior itself means first or before, stemming from prior. Professors have priority is the correction. The final example on the slide. I was taught as a child and know now not to spill things. All those extra little words. Clear and concise. My correction is, I was taught as a child not to spill things. Let's move on to style and diction. Diction involves tone and word choice. Is your tone conversational, as you might speak with another student in a casual conversation, or is it the tone of an educated individual in academia? Over time with practice you will learn to adopt a more scholarly tone in your writing. Word choice is another aspect of diction and it can also convey the tone you should strive for. Be concise is what I've been saying, especially with regard to redundancy. However, when students make their first attempts at scholarly diction, they tend to get way too wordy. You can see in the two examples below that the language is trying too hard and becomes bloated. The first example reads, at this point in time we can't ascertain the reason as to why the screen door was left open. Yes, ascertain and as to why are elevated language, but we are talking about a screen door. You see how the context is not scholarly? So, ascertain is inappropriate as to why is just wordy. We don't know why the screen door was left open. In the second example, basically, in light of the fact that Congressman Fuentes was totally exhausted by his last campaign, there was an expectation on the part of the voters that he would not reduplicate his effort to achieve office in government again. We have language that isn't entirely inappropriate in tone, but like Winnie the Pooh, my correction eliminates the bloat while maintaining the tone through appropriate diction. Because Congressman Fuentes was exhausted by his last campaign, voters expected he would not seek reelection. This third example also has bloat. It reads, my sister, who is employed as a nutritionist at the University of Michigan, recommends the daily intake of megadoses of vitamin C. And my correction reads, my sister, a nutritionist at the University of Michigan, recommends daily megadoses of vitamin C. And did you notice parenthetical commas used with a nutritionist at the University of Michigan? Just a little review to help. As a part of diction, do not use slang or idioms. For example, don't use kid. For academic writing, use child or adolescent. You see an example from a student paper with the sentence, I will keep weird friends out of the house. First, the tone isn't academic. The word weird is slang, so tonally it's inappropriate. But it's also unclear. After all, what is weird? My idea of weird might be different from your idea of weird, so the word choice doesn't work on at least two levels. I can't even correct this because I don't know what it means, but it's wrong for academic writing. Here's a little comment you might have seen from professors before. In my opinion, most professors would say, Of course it's your opinion, it's your paper. For most academic papers, you state your possession with an authoritative tone, then you prove it. In my opinion, sounds wishy-washy and redundant. And while the use of I can be a bit split in academia, most would still say to avoid it. It can be a crutch and can lack the objective analytical tone most professors want you to learn. But it certainly can depend on the type of paper you're writing for your professor. Proofreading. I used to hate proofreading when I was a college student. I think it might be because I, like you now, didn't know the rules. So how can you proofread without the knowledge? You need to work at gaining the knowledge through reading, writing, and listening to feedback. But don't let the fear of proofreading make you procrastinate. Write your first draft to get your ideas on the page. Edit to the best of your ability with corrected punctuation, spelling, grammar, and diction. That's what proofreading is for. Even the best of us can appear lazy, sloppy, or uneducated without proofreading. Here are some actual examples from student papers. Some might be typos, but it doesn't matter. We have incorrect words, as in, when they are at little, remove at, making if black masculinities. If should be of. Fowl language. Is a chicken not talking here? Maybe a duck? Should be fowl. Next, there are examples of incorrect capitalization, such as I, and not capitalizing the next sentence after a period, or the lack of a capital P, as in, Professor Bartle. Looking at incorrect punctuation placement, many people put the comma and period outside quotation marks. While there are times to do that, your default should be to place them inside. Americans generally place punctuation inside quotation marks. Use that as your go-to choice, so you will be correct more often than you are incorrect. Don't forget your subject-verb agreement. If the subject is plural, then the verb is plural. A group is a singular object, so it would take a singular verb, as in, a social group is often associated. And you can see I have added for emphasis the earlier diction examples, including the word kid and the word weird. After your final draft, check with someone who knows. Check with your professor to make sure you understand what she or he wants from the paper if you don't understand. Check with librarians if you don't know a grammar point. Though we do not proofread, we do answer questions. And go to the writing centers on campus. There are several. Let them to help you move the final draft into the final paper. And listen and learn from their feedback. Let them help you. Finally, if you have a friend who is a better writer than you are, let them take a look. They cannot rewrite it, as that is academic dishonesty, but they can tell you if you're being unclear, they can tell you if your logic is flawed and doesn't prove your point, they can tell you if your writing is awkward. Then you can make changes or talk to a tutor at the writing center based on their feedback. Let's turn this ship a bit and talk about plagiarism, which if your friend from above rewrites your paper, you are doing. Meet Phillip Muson. He had his dream job. He worked for IGN, playing video games, and reviewing video games. But in August 2018, he was caught plagiarizing. He stole words and he stole the structure of other people's reviews. He thought he wouldn't get caught, but he was caught, fired, and made a laughing stock and a pariah of the game industry. He will never get the same gig again. Plagiarism is like a drug, and once you start, you may not stop. And there is no excuse. It can get you flunked, it can get you expelled, and it can get you fired. So let Phillip be a cautionary tale for you. Just so we all know what plagiarism is. Using the exact words of another writer and not using quotation marks and citing it. Using your own previous work without permission from all instructors involved. Submitting a paper written by someone else, such as a friend or an internet site. Using too much of other works, even when cited, so that the paper isn't your writing, but a patchwork of other writings. Copying sentence or paragraph structure while changing some words. Using another's ideas without citing. All of these things are plagiarism. There may be some I've missed. Just because I didn't spell it out doesn't mean it isn't plagiarism. Ask if you have any doubts. There's often a point in a student's writing where they become worried about what isn't plagiarism. What doesn't need citing? Ideas or facts which are common knowledge. Proverbs or well-known quotations. Your ideas and your personal opinions. If you are unclear about what common knowledge is, check with your instructor, a librarian, or a tutor at one of the writing centers on campus. You've made it to the last bullet! Good for you! Differences between disciplines. Even though you are writing nonfiction in an academic paper, you still have a narrative. You are walking someone through your experiment or your argument and proof. But the form of that narrative can vary based on the discipline. This usually isn't something you need to worry about too much until you are an upper division student or a graduate student. In the last few slides, I will address some of the differences in writing academically for the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. The humanities. The humanities deals with the interpretation of texts, whether in words, still images, or moving pictures. The structure of these papers is to a certain opinion, then support textual evidence, often a brief quotation, then discuss the significance of that quotation. Sentences are longer and more complex, though varying in size now and then is good style. Titles can be clever or playful. Paragraph transition to other paragraphs elegantly and smoothly. The writing itself is the main part of the research. There are often many brief quotations smoothly written into the narrative. That means you want to blend the quotation within your own sentence structure. Citation style is almost always MLA, but it might use AP. Here is an example of humanities paper. There are two different titles on the left and a snapshot of a part of the paper on the right. Notice the titles. The titles can be brief or playful, while the subtitle provides a more scholarly explanation of what the title means. Typical humanities. In the sample of the paper, you can see a couple of very long quotations, but you can also see a single word here. Large, small, and medium, the humanities love their direct quotations. But make sure your paper isn't an overloaded collection of quotations. Each one should have a purpose in the paper. Otherwise, yep, it's a kind of plagiarism. The sciences. The sciences tend to disseminate the results of performed experiments. Perhaps you will be asked to imitate the writing of a scholarly article describing an experiment. If this is the case, the type of paper follows, though is not limited to the structure of introduction and literature review, methodology for the purposes of duplication, results, discussion, or what the results mean, and conclusion, what direction to go now. The writing is much more concise, not playful or flowery. Rather than smooth transitions from paragraph to paragraph, the headings do the work. There is still a logical narrative, both clear and precise, but lacking the elegance or metaphor of humanities writing. It has its own scientific diction. Citation style can vary considerably based on discipline, such as AMA, CSE, ACS, AIP, IEEE, APA. If you don't know all of these abbreviated citation styles, don't worry about it. Just know that there are many, and your professor will tell you which one to use. Here is an example of a science paper with two examples of titles, as before. The title is factual and specific. Often it is unintelligible to those not in the field. That's because it's written for other people that are equally knowledgeable rather than undergraduate students or the general public. Notice the headings, the lack of quotations, and the emphasis on data. The social sciences. The social sciences tend to walk the space between the humanities and the sciences. When publishing an experiment, it may follow the same structure as science, with introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. Headers here, too, often do the work of transitions. The writing is clear and precise, but not always as sparse as the pure sciences. Paraphrasing is used more often than direct quotations. In fact, the APA 7th edition actively encourages paraphrasing rather than direct quotation, unless the quotation is a definition or particularly well-phrased. Citation style is often APA, but could be AAA, ASA, or others. Again, don't worry if you don't know these. Your professor should tell you what style to use. Just know several exist. Here is an example of titles and the first page of an article. When it comes to a specific writing style within your discipline, you will want to refer to its style guide. It provides instructions for how that discipline writes. I've listed the most common on the slide. Elements of style isn't a specific style, but it is a delightful, brief book. The others are specific style guides. Sometimes, these style guides will disagree on small points. That's OK. Even some of my advice might disagree with one of them. I've sought the majority opinion for this video rather than a specific style. Don't be afraid of it taking time to learn your academic vocabulary. But don't let that be an excuse for not striving toward it. Read in your discipline. Write in your discipline. Discuss in your discipline. Ask about your discipline's vocabulary. Ask a professor or a librarian. Look up your discipline's vocabulary in a subject dictionary. A librarian can help here, too. I hope this video has been helpful for improving your academic writing. Please consult a FAO Library Librarian if you have any questions.