Hi everyone:

Okay, so I have seen some pretty weird questions in my time as a college professor but the one you see above takes the cake. [If you don’t know what that saying means, please ask your grandmother.]

Students were required to write a business report that contained a cover page, letter of transmittal, Table of Contents, Introduction, Body, Conclusion, Recommendations, References page, and appendix (if needed). Do you see more than one body there? I don’t.

The student in question wrote an outline that had two bodies: one was in the proper place and the other was under the conclusion. When I told her that her format was messed up, she asked “How many bodies do we need?” The only difference between her question and mine herein is that there was no capitalization and no punctuation in hers. She is a senior in college. Oh, my.

This leads me to question the dearth of common sense by some college students. The instructions, which were written by the chair of my department (a very smart man who has a gift for writing clear instructions), were excellent. I could read them upside down and still understand them.

So, my question for you is: How many bodies do you need in a typical assignment? I would love to get your count on this.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

Today, my students suggested more words for our “The Word’s the Thing” blog posting from yesterday.

They are fond of the misuse of the word “there.” Or is it “their?” Or “they’re?” The first incarnation means “over there, next to the really cute guy (or gal).” The second is possessive, like “their books.” The third is the contraction of “they are,” as in “they are going with us.”

One of my favorites is “our” and “are,” though “whether” and “weather” should not be neglected. And one must not forget “its” or “to.”

Here are examples for the recently-mentioned words:

First up,”our” and “are.” “It is our hometown.” In this case, you are saying that you and I have something, like a hometown. “Are you going to the movies with us?” You would not say “It is are hometown,” unless you were having a very bad day at word-smithing school.

“We are going whether or not you do” instead of “The weather is going to be bad tonight.” The first case indicates that they are going somewhere without you, while the second case is talking about the humidity, the chance of rain or snow, and the temperature.

Oh, my stars, “its” is next. “Its” is the possessive form of “it.” No possessive apostrophe is needed for this one word. “The lion put its paw into the cake batter.” If a lion is anywhere nearby, I am not checking its sex. It is an “it” no matter what circumstances may otherwise indicate. I am out of there!

If you write “it’s,” you mean “it is.” You wouldn’t say “The lion put “it is” paw in the cake batter,” so don’t write it.

Finally, the beloved “two,” “too,” or “to.” The word “two” means one more than one and one less than three. For example, “I have two oatmeal raisin cookies.” Yum! the word “too” means “too little” or “too much.” “I have had too much cake.” (It’s hard to have too much cake, in my opinion.) Finally, we have the word “to.” It is a preposition and can be used to indicate where you are going or direction: “I am going to the store” or “he gave it to her.”

I hope this helps. (I don’t mean to insult anyone, but I have seen these words misused by seniors in college.)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

So, just how important is it that you use the right word? For someone like me, very important. For students, they are also very important.

Here’s a sampling from this week:

A student finished off her letter, writing the following:

Respectively,

Sally Student

Huh? She meant “Respectfully” but didn’t quite make it. The word she meant is defined as “with deference and respect.”

“Respectively” means “separately or individually” and “refers back to something that has gone before,” such as “We will go to the store and then to the movies, in that order, respectively.” Oops. (And the girl is a senior in college.)

Something else that is gaining in popularity is the use of “verses” for “versus.” Again, there is a big difference. The word “verses” can refer to sentences in the Bible, such as “There are a lot of verses in the Scripture that I want to memorize.”

The word “versus” means “against.” For example, the Tennessee Titans will play a game versus the Liberty Flames. So, if a student writes about a team playing verses another one, it must mean that they are having a Bible quiz time because it certainly doesn’t mean that they are opposing the other team.

Another troublesome set of words is “effect” and “affect.” The word “effect” means “result,”while “affect” means “to influence.” So something can have an affect on you (it influences your decision, for example) but the final effect (result) may be to change your mind. Make sense?

What words do you struggle with?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

There are a few things that are difficult for students who are writing essays: what to do about numbers and how to cite multiple authors. This blog will shed some light on the topic, using the 6th edition of the APA Style Manual.

If you have a number (no matter how large) that begins a sentence, you MUST spell it out. For example, here is a sentence that begins with the number six:

1600 children are coming. (This is incorrect.)

Sixteen hundred children are coming. (This is right.)

If you have a number in the body of your paper (but that does not start a sentence) and it is less than ten, spell it out. For example:

We hope that six children will be in attendance.

If it is more than ten, use the number. For example:

We hope that 121 children will attend our party. (With that number, I’m glad the party isn’t at my house!)

Let’s move on to citing authors in your essay. If you have one or two authors, use both names every time you mention the authors in your paper. For example:

Beebe and Masterson (2019) state that…..

The authors of our textbook state that “here is your direct quote” (Beebe & Masterson, 2019, p. 123). [Note that the “and” changes into an “&” when you move the names into the parenthetical citation.]

Please note that you do NOT use the first initials of the authors in your in-text citation unless you have more than one author with the same last name.

If you have three to five authors, use all of the names the first time you mention the authors. After that, use the first name of the first author and the words et al. following the first in-text citation. For example:

Smith, Jones, Brown, and Dean (2005) argue that……

Smith et al. (2005) argue that…..

If you have six or more authors, you may just write Smith et al. (2005)….

When you are writing your References page, you need to spell out all of the authors, if there are less than seven. To stay in line with APA formatting, you will also include their initials. For example:

Smith, E.T., Jones, D.B., Brown, W.T., Dean, S.D., Hannity, S., & Limbaugh, D.

(2019). and finish the citation

Hope this helps! Please post a comment if you have any questions or comments.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

It happens all the time: Students wait until the night before an assignment is due and then they panic over the instructions. There may have been hundreds of other students who have successfully understood the assignment but now, suddenly, the teacher is an idiot who wrote bad instructions. This happened simply because the student waited until five hours before the deadline to start working.

Next thing you know, I get an email asking for additional instructions and an extension of the deadline. It kinda reminds me of the time I got hit by a drunk driver. She failed every single part of the sobriety test and then told the police officer, “No one could have passed that test. It’s way too hard.”

Sure it was, lady, but only if you’re drunk.

Sure the instructions are written in a foreign language, but only if you now have four hours and fifty minutes to finish the ten-page paper that you haven’t started yet. Research? Who has time for that? Just start writing and hope for the best, right? Wrong.

It may be too late to help you with this paper, but here’s what you do: Admit to the instructor that you really messed up and email to tell him or her that your paper will be late but that you will, indeed, turn something in. Apologize for messing up. Don’t expect any favors, but do let us know what’s happening. You probably won’t get an extension but your instructor will be much happier to see your tardy submission than to have you blow off the entire assignment.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

It’s amazing. Students think that they can sit down and write an assignment without doing any research. Folks, that’s a good way to end up with writer’s block. If you haven’t seen what scholars have said about your topic, you can only write so much, especially if you don’t know anything about the topic.

Please don’t “fake it till you make it.” This is especially important if you are writing about something that your professor is an expert on. Whoa, that’s a bad idea and I have seen it done. Things do not go well when you try that. Even today, if I were writing about Aristotle, I would start by looking at what one of my former professors wrote about it. He is an expert on Aristotle and literally wrote a book about it (and countless articles that completely fill his desktop). Note: Do not misquote the author at any time, especially if you are citing the professor.

So how do you do decent research? Start with your school library, if you have a hint of what’s available in the way of topics. If, and only if, I knew absolutely nothing about something, I would google it. (Before your jaw drops too completely, this is only a start.) I would look over what google said and then immediately move to scholarly articles on whatever I found.

The challenge is when students stop at google. Then they think that google is “common knowledge” and they don’t cite anything they find there. That’s still plagiarism, even if the sources aren’t too reliable. I can find a googled source in seconds, and that’s the end of your paper.

Do not consider that you have done research if you check out paper mills, where you are guaranteed a certain grade if you pay a certain price. That’s not research. It’s cheating. I can find those papers, as well. That’s the end of your reputation, depending on which college you are attending.

Many colleges offer classes (or at least part of a course) on how to navigate their library system. Take the class. Immediately. It will save you hours and improve your grades if you know how to find things in their library. Use the library often, and your papers will have good foundations.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

Every semester, I offer free feedback to students. They can come into my office and sit down with a hard copy of their assignment and I will look at it, prior to the day it is due.

I will mark it up for format, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and quality. They can then take the paper back and fix it before submission.

Amazingly enough, most students don’t use this wonderful feature of my classes. To me, this is tantamount to ignoring your spell check or grammar check on your computer. Who needs those pesky little underlines, anyway? Right?

Yes, this is humble pie time. Yes, my comments can make your paper look like it is hemorrhaging. But, if you take my advice, you can make a HUGE difference in the grade you will receive AND you can learn something that will make your future grades better in every writing-intensive class you take.

What do you have to lose? This past week, my classes had papers to turn in. Out of those classes, how many students came into my office to chat about their essays? Three. From my online classes, how many students posted a rough draft for me to look over? Half the class. (This class has mandatory rough drafts and half the class still didn’t so it. Amazing.)

So, your take-away for today is this: If you are offered free feedback, take it. When you get it, take it to heart.

Best,

Dr. Sheri