Instructor AvailabilityE-mail:ebranch@kaplan.edu

AIM address: EleBranchOffice Hours:

Mondays and Thursdays 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

And by appointment

Week 7 Agenda

1. Review of APA rules

2. Creating Effective Introductions

& Conclusions

APA formatting rules

10 or 12 point type Conservative font like Times New

Roman Double spaced

1-inch margins on all sides Headers and Page Numbers on every

page Title and Reference Pages

In-text citations

APA text rules

DO NOT use contractions.

DO NOT use cliches.

DO NOT use slang or other forms of colloquial

language.

DO NOT use biased or loaded language.

DO NOT use exaggeration, humor, or

sarcasm.

DO NOT use 1st person (I, we, me mine, my,

our, ours) or second person (you, yours,

your).

Basic Citation Formats

Reference citation Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star trek

chronology: The history of the future. New York:

Pocket Books.

In-text citation (Okuda & Okuda, 1993, p. X)

Remember the 80/20 rule.

Use signal phrases to introduce quotes.

Use the sandwich approach to explain quotes.

Quotes 40 word or longer should be blocked, i.e.,

indented one-half inch from the left.

To condense a quoted passage, use the ellipses (.

. .) to indicate that you have omitted words

margin.

Brackets [ ] allow you to explain a confusing

reference or keep a sentence grammatically

correct by inserting your own words.

Using quotes

Introductions &

Conclusions

What does an introduction do?1. Hooks the audience

2. Establishes the significance of the subject

3. States the thesis

Strategies for the introduction

1. Ask a question

2. Tell a story

3. Use a quotation

More strategies...

4. State a surprising statistic, or fact

5. Outline the argument your thesis refutes

The funnel approach to intros (and body paragraphs, too!)General

Specific

Thesis

Americans are a clean people. They bathe or shower regularly

and spend billions of dollars each year on soaps and deodorants to wash away or disguise dirt and

odor. Yet cleanliness is a relatively recent habit. From the

time of the Puritans until the turn of the twentieth century, bathing in the United States was rare and

sometimes even illegal.

Openings to avoid... Do not start with “According to

Webster's...” or a similar phrase leading to a dictionary definition.

Do not start with the line, “The purpose of this essay is...” or ”In this essay, I will...”

Do not reach back too far with vague generalizations or truths such as “Throughout human history...” or “In today's world...”

What does a conclusion do?

1. Restates the thesis

2. Summarizes the argument

3. Leaves the reader with something to think about

Strategies for closing paragraphs

Recommend a course of action

Use a quotation

Make a prediction

More strategies...

Strike a note of hope or despair

Put your ideas in a wider perspective

Raise further questions

Thus changed attitudes and advances in plumbing finally

freed Americans to bathe whenever they want. Perhaps

partly to make up for their forefathers' bad habits,

Americans have transformed that freedom into a national

obsession.