Two exercises I have students do:
1. I have my students do in order to become aware of Works Cited formats is
to give them a copy of a Works Cited section of about 20 items from a PMLA.
I have them retype all the entries.
In doing so, they become aware of all the spacing, punctuation, and
information that's included.
Papers are exchanged in class for a review of common errors.
I know it seems like busy work but I believe it has greatly improved the
care they take with assembling a Works Cited section.
2. I take in a stack of magazines and academic journals and have them point
out to me how the two types of publications differ. They come to see that
journals have information that is more substantial.
I then have them create in class several Works Cited entries in the MLA
format using both types of publications.
Christine Gray
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-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Haussamen, Brock
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 8:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Research papers
Some in our community college English Department have come to use
the phrase "researched essays" in place of "research papers"; we try to
include some research in most of the writing assignments for most
English courses after students have gotten through the about the first
half of Comp 1. The researched papers run about 5 pages, but most
students taking the two required comp courses plus one or two electives
will do several of them. We like the trend, since students have so much
difficulty using all the information that is out there effectively.
Like Nancy, I don't force the dotting of every documentary i. I
do find I have to push to get students to master the basic
alphabetization and coordination between the parenthetical citations and
the works cited, since most of them have some degree of difficulty with
this. An effective exercise with their drafts or even final papers is
for them to draw a circle around the first letter of each item in their
works cited list. After they have checked for alphabetization, I ask
them to go through their paper and circle the first letter in each
parenthetical citation. They can then check to see if citations match
up properly with the works list. They have often written down an author
in the citation but a title at the start of the Works Cited entry, for
example.
In the intro to linguistics course that I am just finishing,
students have handed in their researched essays on a colloquial word or
phrase, such as "stupid," "gay," "chill," "no problem," "wicked,"
"dude," etc. The minimum requirements are a discussion of the Oxford
English Dictionary history of the term and a dozen examples of the use
of the term that they have heard or read. They try to apply what we
have studied about language change, semantic change, functional shift,
and they try to trace the evolution from the traditional usages to the
new ones. My best student traced "wannabe" back beyond the Madonna
craze to African-American usage in the 1960s when it was a common term
for Blacks who wanted to act white; she consulted a linguist on her own
and interviewed two older African-American women. But even the lesser
papers in this assignment are productive, giving students some sense
that even their most casual lingo has history and linguistic richness to
it.
Brock
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nancy Patterson
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 1:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Research papers
I think I read once that social sciences and education are more
concerned with the timeliness of a document, so the placement of the
date and the use of the date in the in-text citation is important. When
writing for the humanities, context is more important, so if someone
wanted to look at the context of a particular citation, he or she wants
a page number.
And here is my blasphemy. I couldn't care less about citation style. I
want to now where statements, research, etc. comes from, but I really
don't care if there is a comma between the author's name and the date or
a period or a flying fig. We can get so bogged down in the minute
details that we forget to pay attention to the more important stuff.
And lest you think you can't get published if you don't pay attention to
those minute details, I am breathing proof that you can. I publish all
the time in peer reviewed journals. Just got an acceptance yesterday for
an article I co-wrote. And I did the works cited stuff for the article.
I wouldn't stake my life on whether it strictly adheres to MLA style. Do
you put a comma or a period after the author's name. And do you use the
author's full name or just the last name and initials?? Egad. If the
editor is worried about it, she/he can fix my fluffs.
I was adamant that my middle school students cite their references, but
I really didn't care about style. I wanted them to get in the habit of
citing their references and that was a challenge. Author, title, larger
work, if that was appropriate, date, and page number.
And, of course, I dearly love End Notes. I just have to remember to
enter the references into the data base. Sigh.
Nancy G. Patterson, Assistant Professor
Literacy Studies Program Coordinator
School of Education
Grand Valley State University
Chair, Assembly on Computers in English
[log in to unmask]
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna
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