• Remember as you’re writing to cite while you write.

• Constantly ask yourself “says who” and ensure you cite the author who said it!

• Allow time to review your work well before you submit it – if possible, write it, walk away, edit it, walk away again, edit again, and then submit. Your brain will find things it missed in the first edit if you give it a break!

Writing in all courses requires following standard academic guidelines, including:

• Writing in an academic tone

• Using formal and professional language

• Citing your work with scholarly sources

• Formatting and citing in APA format.

It’s not necessary to memorize every detail of APA formatting, but it is helpful to get the basics down to save yourself time.

Best resource: The Online Writing Lab (OWL) from Purdue University is a free resource that is full of accurate, helpful, easy-to-use APA help. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

The APA Style website is also great! https://apastyle.apa.org/

You can buy an APA handbook as well, but I think most students do just fine with the free resources.

APA Formatting: APA papers include a title page, an abstract, the body of the paper, and a reference page. Note that instructors may not require an abstract for very short papers (always check the assignment guidelines and ask your instructor if clarification is needed). Other papers, like a business plan, may require additional sections (always check the assignment guidelines and ask your instructor if clarification is needed). Here are some links for some of the most needed guidelines for writing in APA format:

• APA Style: https://apastyle.apa.org/

• Citation Basics: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html

• Sample paper: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

• APA Section Headings & Seriation: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_headings_and_seriation.html

• Quotes Longer than 40 words (Block Quotes): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html

• Appendix/Appendices: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/footnotes_appendices.html

• APA Reference List: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html

Plagiarism – whether intentional or unintentional – is the use of someone else’s work and words without proper attribution (citation).

Here are some sources to help you understand plagiarism and how to avoid it:

• 5 Minute Video on Citing Direct Quotes and Paraphrases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv9MsthTOaE

• The Owl at Purdue https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/avoiding_plagiarism/index.html  

• Preventing Plagiarism: https://www.plagiarism.org/article/preventing-plagiarism-when-writing

• Advice from UCLA: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/citing/plagiarism/avoid

• Tips from Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/5-most-effective-methods-for-avoiding-plagiarism/

• Quoting and Paraphrasing Help from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/quotingsources/ and https://writing.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/535/2018/07/Acknowledging_Sources.pdf

Tools like Grammarly can run plagiarism checks but they are not the authority on grading your work . If you feel stuck on this, reach out to your professor!

Before submitting your work, ensure you proofread and edit well. This includes such tasks as:

• Checking that words are spelled correctly (and used correctly)

• Verifying capitalization and punctuation

• Reviewing grammar

• Looking for areas where you have extra spaces between paragraphs and/or sentences

• Double-checking formatting

• Checking that all sources are on the reference list (and no sources are on the reference list that are not used in the paper)

Bonus Tip: It may feel silly but printing your paper and reading it out loud will help you catch errors that you will not catch by reading/skimming your work quickly.

Work that is not well-edited or proofread comes across as hastily and sloppily written. This impacts your credibility as a writer, and your grade as a student!

Here are some tips on proofing and editing your own work:

ttps://www.grammarly.com/blog/advice-on-editing/

https://www.wikihow.com/Edit-Your-Own-Writing

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

Scholarly Sources: All academic writing demands the use of scholarly sources. This means using academically focused books and peer-reviewed journal articles as sources to support your conclusions. Wikipedia, blogs, Ted Talks, and other such sources are not considered scholarly work and must be avoided.

If you are unsure of how to find scholarly sources, your school’s library can help!

Here are some more resources to help you with this task:

https://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/scholarly/

http://libanswers.phsc.edu/faq/81425

https://libguides.usc.edu/c.php?g=235208&p=1560699

https://libguides.lmu.edu/casa

Using Appropriate Language: Guide to using appropriate language in writing. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/using_appropriate_language/index.html

• Using Academic Tone: When writing for academic assignments, you need to stick to a formal, academic tone. You want to avoid writing in a way that is too casual or conversational.   https://semo.edu/pdf/Writing_HowToHaveAnAcademicTone.pdf

  https://www.strose.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Writing-in-an-Academic-Tone-pdf.pdf

  https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/academicwriting

• Avoiding Passive Voice: Part of academic writing is ensuring you use active voice, rather than passive voice.   https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/index.html

  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/active_versus_passive_voice.html

  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/more_about_passive_voice.html https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/documents/20141205103515_539.pdf

Consistently ask yourself, “says who?” and “so what? as you review your writing.

Academic writing demands that you do more than tell your professor your opinion. Rather, academic writing requires that in saying “X is true,” you prove that with the use of citations from scholarly sources.

Before you submit your work, make certain you have done this by asking yourself “says who?” for every claim you make as fact.

For example, I cannot state:

Dogs are the best pets for all humans.

Rather, I need to show how that is proven to be true through citations:

Dogs are the best pets for all humans (Smith, 2019).

Before you submit your work, also ask yourself “so what?” about each major piece of your writing, each quote, etc. The “so what” question means you evaluate if it’s necessary to include that sentence, paragraph, etc. Can you make the same point in less words? Are you being repetitive? Is this fact/quote/anecdote interesting but not really necessary? Solid work shows evidence of thorough self-editing (it gets easier with practice!).

Avoid submitting long strings of opinion or paragraphs full of information you learned without citation. The more advanced of a course you are in, the more I expect to see advanced writing. Rely more on paraphrasing and less on quoting!

Support for graduate-level writers found here directly from Dr. HD.

Other helpful resources:

• Writing Research Papers at the Graduate Level: https://juuanb.medium.com/writing-research-papers-at-the-graduate-level-an-8-step-routine-184a2a0af144

• Graduate Writing Overview: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/graduate_writing/introduction_graduate_writing/index.html

• Graduate-Level Writing Tips: https://online.purdue.edu/blog/communication/graduate-level-writing-tips

• Graduate-level writing: https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/writing-speaking-resources/graduate-level-writing