Hello everyone:

One of the most tiring things a professor can see on an essay is one really huge paragraph. It’s hard on the eyes and the mind. So what should you do? Divide it up.

Yes, folks, I have had graduate students who wrote one-paragraph essays of several thousand words. Groan. Those were the paragraphs from a place known for its warmth.

What are the topics you are covering? As you change from one topic to the next, that’s a great place to break up your paragraph. Here is a natural break for your paragraphs:

Introduction

Point One

Point Two

Point Three

Conclusion

Do not write one-sentence paragraphs, however.  At the start of each paragraph, give me a topic sentence, state your case, back it up with support from your research, and either emphasize the thought that you stated in the topic sentence or  state something of importance that you just covered. This makes the individual paragraph about five sentences in length. You can go a little bit longer than five sentences, if you wish, but don’t get carried away.

Don’t go off on a rabbit trail, no matter how cute you think the rabbit is. Don’t introduce new information in the last paragraph. Stick to the topic at hand, but do break up long paragraphs into more manageable chunks. Your professors will thank you for it.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

One thing I see frequently as a college professor is students who switch tenses. One moment, they are talking about something that has already happened and the next minute they are in the present and sometimes even go into the future. In the same sentence. Whoops!

Here’s the key: If you are reporting on something that has already happened, put it in the past tense. For example, let’s say that you are writing an essay about how your group did on a group project for the class. It has already happened, so it is in the past. Perhaps you might report “our team worked together quite well.” You would not say “our group is working together quite well” because it already happened. The first example says that you already did your group project, while the second sentence suggests that you are still working on the project.

If you will continue to work with the team but you have already done one project, you might write something such as “our team worked very well together on our first assignment. We will continue to collaborate in the second assignment.” This indicates past and future tenses, since you already did something and you will do something else in the future.

To say that you did something and you are doing something now, you might write “our team worked together very well on the first project and we are already collaborating on the second project.” This is past and present tense, since you did something and you are still doing it.

The person in this picture is walking from the past, is in the present, and is walking towards the future.

I hope this helps!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

 

Hello everyone:

Well, I saw something new today: fluff beyond belief. Wait till you read about it. The student had to take seven articles and discuss them in a synthesis essay.  Here is a sample of what he wrote:

In the article The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the authors Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young stated that “here is a direct quote that is shorter than the fluff that went before.” [Note: no page or paragraph number or year of publication were listed.] The article The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young  further says that here are five words that they said but that the student didn’t put in quotation marks. [Also note the lack of capitalization on the name of the article.] Therefore, I think that the article The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young was a really good article. [But what did it say????]

I think you get the point here. He kept going for four pages, dissecting the names of the articles and the authors’ names (he always had a multi-author article) but really saying very little.

So how should this have been handled? Mention the names of the authors once and then write  the following:

Crosby et al. (2018) contend “here is the quote” (p. 123).

If this is a synthesis, which the assignment called for, discuss the seven articles and then add your own take on each one and how that article will fit into your final assignment. Our assignments build on one another, so do the footwork ahead of time and you will have an easier time later on at crunch time.

As for fluff? Limit that to the top of pies.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

This morning I was reading one of my favorite decorating magazines (I was a decorator for 23 years), when I noticed the text underneath an absolutely stunning house. The author was writing about front porches, which I happen to love. What was unlovable was what he said.

He said, “This doors-flung-open, arms-spread-wide greeting dissolves me immediately.” What???? That dissolving business sounds painful. I mean, we are talking about front porches here, aren’t we? What was this fellow thinking? What was his editor thinking?

Tell you what, my friend, this dissolving business sounds very painful and we just had our road resurfaced. All of the houses on my street have front porches, so if you’re going to dissolve over them, please do so elsewhere. The new road cost us a lot of money.

This said, please tell me what you’re going to tell me and leave the flowery stuff behind. Far behind, if you please.

Sometimes students think that throwing in a big word or two is helpful to their overall scholarship and academic writing. (Kinda like this last sentence- I didn’t need to use the word “scholarship” – I just wanted to impress you with my use of big words.)

A favorite word of undergraduate students is “within.” For example, the student will write “Within this paper, I am going to …..” Nope. You are going to write “in” your paper, not from within it. (I once decorated a nine foot wreath- I was decorating from within, simply because I couldn’t reach across it.) Trust me, you are not jumping into your computer to write the paper from “within” anything.

Folks, keep it simple, keep it plain, and don’t dissolve into anything. If you absolutely must dissolve, please do it some place besides my street. Thanks.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

This is purely for fun. Enjoy! (Note: You will have to copy and paste it into your browser because it is being difficult today. Thanks!

https://videosift.com/video/If-English-were-Spoken-Phonetically-Consistent

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

I was walking in the mall yesterday when I saw a sign that read “leak diverter kit.”  What in the world was that? I also once knew a guy who said, “I have had eloquent sufficiency and any more would be detrimental to my internal capacity.” Come again?

Sometimes people have a lot of something and say they have a “dearth” of whatever it is.

We were going shopping yesterday and a sign read “something something seperate something.” On that one, spell check would have come in handy. I don’t remember the rest of the sign or what business it was on, but I do remember “seperate.”

There’s a motel chain called Super Eight but “suppurate” means “pus that comes from a wound.” The words are pronounced the same but, every time I see a Super Eight, I think “Oh, there’s the pus motel.”

Here’s the skinny on all of this. The “leak diverter kit,” which was misspelled by the way, was a bucket.

The fellow with the “eloquent sufficiency” was saying that he was “fluent or persuasive in speaking or writing” and that he apparently admitted he did it too much for our taste (how true!). Furthermore,he was saying that he was full of what he was speaking or writing (again, very true!). However, he thought he was saying that he was full of food and didn’t want any more to eat. What a shame! He’s been saying the wrong thing for years.

A “dearth” means you don’t have very many of something, instead of having too many.

The word “separate” is spelled like I just spelled it.

And, of course, we have our wonderful Pus Motel. I rest my case.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

I offer personal guidance to many of my students, to help them write more successful essays. There are a few things I suggest they do to make the  conferences more productive.

First, print off your essay so you can mark it up as we talk. I will be going over your document a line at a time and just looking at it on your computer isn’t going to help you remember what I say. I have a marked up copy of your work and you should, too. Mark up everything I suggest so that you can refer back to it on future assignments. No, you won’t remember what I say.

Next, try to have distractions at a minimum. We talk over the phone but please make sure that your children are otherwise entertained while we speak because it won’t help you a bit if you can’t hear me. If you know your infant is going to want to eat during our scheduled time, let’s change our chat to a different time.

Finally, actually do what I suggest in your future papers. It doesn’t do any good to spend an hour talking to me if you are going to ignore my advice. I don’t make a note that you spend one hour with me and count towards your next grade. You need to actually do what I’ve talked to you about.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

HI everyone:

Here are some quick tips for APA style formatting, taken from my research on the 6th edition of the APA Style Manual.

You need a Running head, which should look like this:

Running head: CAPITALIZE YOUR TITLE

The Running head belongs at the top of your page, flush left.

When you use an author’s name in the sentence, you don’t need it in the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence.  For example:

Rich (2018) states that “here is the quote” (p. 123).   Note: please notice that the 6th edition now places the period at the very end of the sentence, not after the direct quote. This is a change from earlier editions.

When you use two or more authors’ names, use the word “and” if you mention them in the sentence; use the “&” symbol if you only use them in the parenthetical citation. Here are two examples:

Rich and Jones (2018) argue that “here is your quote” (p. 234).

Scholars contend “here is your quote” (Rich & Jones, 2018, p. 234).

Note that I have not used the first initials of either author in the in-text citations. Use their initials  only in the reference page. Youl will also usse the “&” symbol on the reference page.

If you begin a sentence with a number, you must spell out that number. Here are a couple of examples:

50 of the boys came with us. (Incorrect.)

Fifty of the boys came with us. (Correct.)

This is just a quick start to help you out. What issues have you faced with APA formatting? I find two of the three colleges where I work now ask for APA formatting. Previously, we were told to teach MLA.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

Some things are good when repeated, like twins, for example. There’s nothing cuter than two identical little kids, even if they’re deer, like the ones pictured in this blog posting.

However, redundancy is not fun in your college essay. It is, quite frankly, boring and trite. I had a recent paper submitted by a student who wrote something like this:

This paper is about….This paper will cover…This writing is about….According to Smith (2016),….According to Smith (2016),… This paper will cover…This paper is about….This paper will cover….(You get the idea!)

And that was just the abstract. (For the uninitiated, an abstract is a 120 word summary that says what your paper will be on.) Don’t do it, people! This is the fastest way to set your professor’s teeth on edge. It will drive us to drink something stronger than iced tea (or wish we could).

A student in my communication class gave a five-minute speech. In that talk, he used the word “like” 54 times. That translates into almost 11 times per minute. Like you know like I like want like to talk about like how like to like makes like a peanut butter like and jelly like sandwich like.  Come again?

Redundant wording is saying the same thing over and over and over again, repeatedly. While you may think you have managed to stretch a one-page paper into two pages or a two-minute speech into five, your teacher is no fool. Your grade will suffer, so be aware and don’t do it.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

Every semester, I get at least one student who doesn’t need to proof read anything because, well, as the title tries unsuccessfully to say, his or her writing is perfect in his or her own eyes. Or not.

If only perfection happened on a regular basis, it would save me a tremendous amount of time. It would not be necessary for me to slave over every poorly-written word, every missing punctuation mark, every…well, you get the idea.  I could finish my grading in record time, and be on to other things…like my own writing.

So what’s a student to do? I suggest reading your document out loud. Print it off (don’t try reading it off of a computer screen or you will miss something) and grab a cup of tea and stand there and read it as if you were presenting it.  Don’t rush or you will add in something you left out. Our eyes are tricky that way.

I also suggest you use a red or other bright colored pen to mark up your document. If you use blue or black ink, you may miss it when you go back to the computer to fix the mistakes you are likely to find. Don’t be ashamed of the hemorrhaging of your paper. I have had documents that looked as if they had been in a train wreck when I got through with them. (They weren’t my own, of course, because I’m prefect….) 🙂 [Please note that I misspelled the word “perfect” on purpose here!]

Mark away, fix the document, and then read it again. Now, perhaps, you are ready to turn in your absolutely fabulous assignment.

Best,

Dr. Sheri