Unit 4 Seminar: APA, Paraphrasing, and Quoting This week we will discuss APA, why we use it, and how to use it correctly.

What is APA style? A standard, agreed upon way of formatting an academic paper and documenting sources. An expectation of academic writers and of professionals in certain fields. A loyal friend who will make you look good and sound even more intelligent A somewhat boring, but not impossible task that you can learn by copying

What is the purpose of using and documenting sources? Sources are the ways writers obtain additional information for their papers. Sources may be primary: The writer becomes the researcher (e.g., observations, interviews, surveys, personal experience) The writer uses ‘raw data’ (e.g., the U.S. Census) that hasn’t been interpreted by others Sources may be secondary: Scholarly books, peer-reviewed articles, etc. Sources are part of the ongoing dialog within a field of study that will include you. Why document sources? Credit should be given for our work. ‘Intellectual property’ must not be stolen. Writers will be more credible in the view of their audience. [We want that in an academic or job-related context when faculty, supervisors, clients, etc. are evaluating our work, right?]

What’s in it for me? An opinion can’t be wrong, right? Doesn’t my professor/boss/co- worker/client, etc. want to hear what I think? Who’s going to care if I have the citations and references included? Isn’t this just another one of those “English teacher” things? I’m tempted to just not do it. I can’t get marked down outside of a Composition class, right?

What is plagiarism? What is plagiarism and how can it be avoided? Styles of citation- APA, MLA, ASA, AMA. We typically use APA at Kaplan University. Using a good reference for citation.

How are sources integrated into the paper? Introduce the source to your audience with an attributive tag the first time it is used: According to Michael Keathley (2010, September 17), Kaplan University faculty member, students love writing and look forward to the weekly CM 107 audio seminars. Use a mixture of paraphrases, summaries, and direct quotations. Use quotations sparingly and be sure to indicate them with “quotation marks” and page/paragraph numbers. Be sure to make it a smooth transition into and out of the source information.

Begin with the References page:

Use the References page to form the in-text citations: In-text citations always use what comes first on the References page entries This is always a name or the first 2-3 words of a title Add the copyright date and page/paragraph number if it is a direct quotation In-text citations are never URLs Make sure that all in-text citations have a complete listing on the References page; make sure that all References page listings have in-text citations Never cite yourself; you’re the author

Why is citation required in two places? Citation is required in two places– as in-text citation and references page citation. Some of the basics of in-text citation. What we need to include for references page citation. Let us get some citation practice.

Paraphrasing, summarizing, and direct quotation? What are paraphrasing and summarizing and why are they necessary? What is the correct way to paraphrase and summarize? Why should we use more paraphrasing and summarizing than direct quotes in our papers? When should we use direct quotation? How much of our paper should be directly quoted? Let us get some practice paraphrasing.

Example (from Purdue OWL) The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester, 1976, pp ).

Example cont. The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

Any remaining questions and concerns? Looking at this week’s work. Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2010, April 21). Paraphrase: Write it in your own words. Retrieved from owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/ 619/01/