writing Archives - Page 4 of 5

Anthropomorphisms: When Not to Use Them

There is a really big word that students should know, but may not. That word is anthropomorphic. Technically it means to give human form or attributes to something that is not human. It is popularly used in children’s books. However, doctoral students often have their dissertations rejected for including anthropomorphisms.

Here are some examples of what an anthropomorphism looks like:

The study assumed that people would not be interested.
The computer program thinks that the results are accurate.

Both of these sentences should not be used. The reason is that a person can “assume” but a study cannot. Animate nouns are things like a person, a researcher or a participant. Animate nouns can make an assumption. An inanimate noun, like a research study, cannot. Just like an animate noun, a researcher can “think”, but an inanimate noun, a computer, cannot.

To put it more simply, think of it this way:

Person, Researcher, Participant = assume and think
Study, Computer, Inanimate Object ≠ assume and think

Bloggers and Social Media Junkies: 5 Tips to Improve Your Writing

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane: What are some things I can do to improve my blogging and writing skills?

The Internet has turned lot of people into writers. Bloggers and social media junkies may have great ideas to share but may lack some writing skills that could help improve the message they want to convey. I know I make a lot of mistakes when I write. I try not to, but when you blog as much as I do, it is inevitable. I never intended to be a writer. However, I found that I liked sharing information, so writing became a means to an end. When I write my books, I use a professional editor. Not all of us can be editing experts. It could be very expensive and inconvenient to have to use an editor for every blog and social media posting. However, there are some simple things that can help to improve writing skills.

1. Don’t End Sentences in Prepositions. The problem is that many people have no idea what a preposition is. Susan Thurman, author of The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need, claims there is a trick to helping recognize a preposition. “Look at the last eight letters of the word preposition; they spell position. A preposition sometimes tells the position of something: in, out, under, over, above and so forth.” My seventh grade teacher suggested we think about a box. For example: in the box, over the box, and so forth. The following are the most common prepositions according to Thurman. Try to avoid ending a sentence with any of these words:

About
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
At
Before
Behind
Below
Beneath
Beside
Between
Beyond
But
By
Concerning
Despite
Down
During
Except
For
From
In
Inside
Into
Like
Of
Off
On
Onto
Out
Outside
Over
Past
Since
Through
Throughout
To
Toward
Under
Underneath
Until
Up
Upon
With
Within
Without

2. Learn to Spell without Spell Check. If you rely too much on a spell checker, you may find that words you meant to write are replaced with words that have entirely different meanings. I can’t count how many times that a student has sent me a note saying to “please excuse the incontinence”. It is best if you take the time to learn to spell correctly so that you don’t have to rely on a device that may change your intended meaning. The following are fifty of the most commonly misspelled words according to author Gary Provost of 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing:

Acceptable
Apology
Appetite
Architect
Assassinate
Autumn
Calendar
Changeable
Conscious
Correspondence
Criticism
Deceive
Discernible
Embarrass
Eminent
Existence
Fascinate
Grateful
Hygiene
Imaginable
Immediately
Irrelevant
Jewelry
Judgment
Lovable
Miscellaneous
Mischievous
Mortgage
Necessarily
Occasionally
Occurrence
Omission
Orchestra
Potatoes
Professor
Pseudonym
Quarrelsome
Religious
Reservoir
Rhythmic
Scissors
Syllable
Tragedy
Umbrella
Vanilla
Vengeance
Weird
Wholesome
Youthful
Zealot

3. Vary your sentence length. Some of my students like to write in either really long run-on sentences or overly short monotonous sentences. Try to vary your sentence length. Notice how the first sentence in this paragraph was longer and more complex. That was followed by a shorter more succinct sentence. It makes your writing easier to read if you vary the sentence length and mix it up a bit.

4. Ask yourself some questions once you have finished your draft. Does the initial paragraph let the reader know what your paper, blog or article is going to contain? Do you have needless repetition of ideas? Is your tone and tense consistent? Does one paragraph advance to the next in a smooth fashion? Does each of your paragraphs contain a topic sentence that conveys the thought you have developed throughout that paragraph?

5. Work on expanding your vocabulary. Rather than learning overly complicated words to express what you want to say, try varying the way that you say things by using a thesaurus. If you are talking about a house, perhaps refer to that house as a dwelling or a building in the next sentence. If you find that you are using the same word over and over, check out some alternatives words in a thesaurus to add dimension to your writing.

I know I am guilty of making some of these mistakes. Through practice, we can all improve our skills.

Writing is a Challenge, not a Chore (blogs.sitepoint.com)
How to Respond Effectively in Online Discussions (drdianehamilton.wordpress.com)
7 Deadly Sins of Blogging (fathomseo.com)

What is the Difference Between a Citation and a Reference?

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane: What do professors mean when they say to include citations and references?

Students are often required to have both citations and references when creating their college assignments. There can be confusion as to what the difference is between a citation and a reference. Cornell explains, “a citation occurs when you use a specific source in your work and then follow up with the proper bibliographic information; plagiarism issues arise when you use a specific source, but fail to indicate what you have borrowed, and/or fail to provide proper bibliographic information a reference is the bibliographic information that guides readers to your source.”

It may seem easier to understand when given examples of each. Here is an example of a citation:

“Canadians can celebrate that smoking rates have dropped dramatically in Canada in the past three decades” (Reutter, 2001, p. 13).

You may also paraphrase what others have written. Here is an example of how to do this correctly:

According to the Canadian Lung Association (2008), most people who quit smoking use a combination of methods.

These should be included within the body of the document. They should not be confused with references. References should be included on the separate Reference Page.

An example of how to list references on a Reference Page is listed below. Keep in mind that formatting will not show up correctly on a blog. The first line of each reference should be at the left margin and each following line should be indented 1/2 inch. Here is an example without the indentations showing up:

References

Canadian Lung Association. (2008). How to quit. Retrieved May 26, 2008, from http://www.lung.ca/protect-protegez/tobacco-tabagisme/quitting-cesser/how-comment_e.php

Reutter, L. (2001). Health and wellness. In P. A. Potter, A. G. Perry, J. C. Ross-Kerr, & M. J. Wood (Eds.), Canadian fundamentals of nursing (2nd ed.) (pp. 2-30). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Harcourt Canada.

It is important to note that many students think they should just include references to show the sites they visited or read to complete the assignment. This is not correct. References should be listed to explain where the citation information was obtained. If a citation was not listed within the document, it doesn’t make sense to list a reference.

The Top 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes (drdianehamilton.wordpress.com)

2011 Top 10 Things You Should Not Put On Your Resume

image via google.com

In a tough economy, many people are trying to perfect their resumes. It is a very competitive market out there, with many competing for the few coveted jobs. It is important not to make the mistake of including inappropriate information in your resume or cover letter as this is the first thing that companies use to judge you.

I read an interesting article about whether you should include your MBTI and IQ results on your resume. AskaManager.com didn’t think this was a good idea explaining, “Resumes are for listing your accomplishments; they’re not for personal traits. Listing that you’re an “ESTJ” does give me some information about you, but it doesn’t tell me what you’ve achieved and experienced, which is what I’m looking for when I look at your resume.”

This made me think about all of the resumes I’ve screened that had inappropriate information listed on them. Here is my top list of things you should never include on your resume:

Age, weight, height, religion, race, political affiliation, pets, marital status and other personal information
Salary requirements
Inappropriate email names (example: Toosexy at blahblah.com)
Medical issues
High School Information, High School Memberships
Photograph
Personal negative feelings about a position or employer
Hobbies or activities that imply religious affiliation
IQ, EQ, Personality Results, Mensa, GPA
Overly large or busy fonts and colors on resume and cover page

Some career sites note that the objective and reference sections are not a good addition. I don’t personally think those are as much of a problem. In fact, I think an objective statement can help if a person’s past jobs aren’t in line with the job they are hoping to obtain. Including the phrase “References Available Upon Request” is still acceptable although not required. It is not correct to actually list the people being used as references unless they are requested.

Should You List Your Home Address on Your Resume? (chicagonow.com)
You Won’t Land A Job If You Can’t Follow Directions (blogs.forbes.com)
Are Employers Trying to Trick You In the Interview
Millennials Replacing Baby Boomer Workforce

The Top 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes

Ask Dr. Diane: What are the most common writing mistakes that your students make?

While it is not unusual to see spelling and grammar issues, I’ll assume that readers realize that they should check for such things and just list the top 10 most common other issues I see here. I hope this posting will give some insight into how to set up your papers so that you can avoid making these common mistakes.

Papers not set up with double-spacing – To set your paper to be double-spaced, be sure you are on the home tab in Word and go to the paragraph section of the tool bar. There is an up and down arrow icon that you can click on. When you do this, it will give you choices of how to set up your spacing. Pick 2.0 to set double-spacing.
Papers should not have an extra space between paragraphs – Remember that papers must be double-spaced throughout in APA. Word sometimes defaults with an extra space between paragraphs. To change this, click here.
Papers must have headers/numbers set up correctly through the header/number function in Word – To learn how to do this, click here.
Papers must be set up with an introduction/body/conclusion – Your introduction and conclusion need to be strong summaries of what the paper will or has included. For more about how to write an essay, click here.
Papers should not be written in first person – Remove the “I” or “Me” from your writing. For an explanation of the meaning of first person, click here.
Citing and References confusion – Citing is the act of quoting a source. For example: “Citing is the act of quoting a source.” (Hamilton, 2010) This is not to be confused with references. References are included on a separate page with the title References at the top. You must include references whenever you cite. The reference explains who deserves credit for the citation. Many students list references but no citations. That is not correct. You need both.
Paragraph length confusion – Students often either write in overly short or overly long paragraphs. A good size paragraph is at least 3-4 sentences but should not be so long that it takes up an entire page or more.
Papers should be left justified and not blocked – Students sometimes write in blocked format. That is not correct. Papers need to be left justified. The setting for this is on the home tab under the paragraph part of the toolbar.
Over citing – I see a lot of students who tend to write entire paragraphs of citing and forget to include their own writing in their work. Although citing is important, it is also important to have your own points and statements. Remember to make your point and then follow that up with citations to back up what you have written. As a professor, I am looking to see that you have learned the subject and are not simply restating what others have said.
Forgetting title page – Students often forget to include a title page. It is very important that all papers include a title page that is correctly formatted in APA format. For helpful examples of APA formatting, click here.