Bold Statement

• An opinion or view that may be extreme, perhaps even shocking. “Gambling in all forms should be completely banned!”

Strong Statistic

• A strong statistic is a fact from a reputable source. “In 2023, just over 31,000 Canadians are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer and it will kill more than 20,000 Canadians.”  Source: The Canadian Lung Association

Story

• A story is a great way to capture your audience’s imagination and get them to “project” themselves into your presentation. Powerful stories are often emotional. They could be about you or someone else, or may be allegorical. In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother’s house in Milwaukee, watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for best actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope and said five words that literally made history: “The winner is Sidney Poitier.” Up to the stage came the most elegant man I had ever seen. I remember his tie was white, and of course, his skin was black. I’d never seen a black man being celebrated like that. And I’ve tried many, many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl — a kid watching from the cheap seats, as my mom came through the door bone-tired from cleaning other people’s houses. … In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille Award right here at the Golden Globes, and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award! ~ Oprah Winfrey accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards

Question

• Questions can be powerful because they prompt the audience to think and interact. There are different types of questions:

• • Rhetorical: you ask a question without expecting an answer. For example: Have you ever wondered how electricity works?
  • Closed-ended: you ask the audience to respond. For example: Raise your hand if you’ve ever wondered how electricity works.
  • Open-ended: where you don’t give options to the audience and they can answer freely. For example: What’s your favourite candy?

• It’s important to consider that the audience might not respond exactly as you expect. So, prepare responses for what you’ll do based on a variety of responses.

Invitation to Imagine Something

• Similar to a story, an invitation to imagine something is powerful because it gets the audience to use their imaginations and can transport them “into” your presentation. You could ask the audience to imagine something extremely positive, or you could have them imagine something very negative. Example: “I want to invite you all to close your eyes and imagine that the term is over. You earned an A+ in 1500, Covid is over, and you’re on vacation on a lovely tropical beach. You can hear the soft ocean waves and feel the warm breeze as you sip an ice-cold drink. You’re in paradise, and think to yourself… I don’t have a care in the world… everything is perfect.”

Quote

• A quote is something that a famous person said. The person should be credible/well-known.

• Example: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon Example: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”  Wayne Gretzky

Proverb

• A proverb is a common saying. These can be somewhat cliché and less than exciting because we’ve heard them a lot. To keep things interesting, you could consider introducing a foreign proverb to the audience: Example: “the first pancake is always ruined” (Russian proverb conveying that things might not be perfect at first, but will improve as you continue to practice. Used in a presentation designed to convey that you should never give up)

• Alternatively, you could “twist” a common proverb and contradict it: Example: “I’m here to tell you that an apple a day doesn’t keep the doctor away!” (Used in a presentation on diabetes and being mindful of sugar intake)

Prop

• A prop is a physical item that you can show to the audience. Make sure the item is large enough to be easily seen. Example: Wearing a jersey and showing a basketball for a presentation on Michael Jordan

Media

• In presentations that include slides or other media, you can briefly show or play video, audio, or images. Make sure the media isn’t too long – remember the audience is here to see you speak. Example: A short drone video of beautiful Thai beaches for a presentation designed to convince people to visit Thailand.

Humour

• You can use humour or a joke as a grabber, but be sure it’s a joke that everyone will get and avoid jokes that may offend the audience.

Other Creative Ideas

• Some presenters have done other unexpected and creative things for their grabbers.

• • Example: Playing a guitar and singing (for a presentation on the mental health benefits of music).
  • Example: Beatboxing (for a presentation on the basics of beatboxing)
  • Example: Describing a lovely scene, then making a shocking noise (at the start of a presentation on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster)

Attributions

Use Pre-reading Strategies

Start by Reading and Considering the Title

• It could be written by a meteorologist, reporting on a year of observing cloud formations.
• It might be a biopic (a biographical story) about an eccentric salon that specializes in “big hair” dos, retro-style.
• Or perhaps it’s a set of guidelines for using poofy cotton balls to apply cosmetics.

• Look at the author’s name Have you heard of the author? Do you know anything about them? Sometimes you’ll find a short bio about the author at the beginning or end of a text. You can always Google them to look for more details. Ideally, the author should be an acknowledged expert on the subject or should have degrees, training, or credentials that make them an expert. (Learn more about the CRAAP method  for evaluating sources in Chapter 2)
• Skim through the article, looking for headings or “pull-outs” (content that is pulled off to one side or highlighted in a box). Headings, if present, will often give you clues as to the text’s content as well as showing you how the subject has been divided into sections.
• Look for any images: photographs, charts, graphs, maps, or other illustrations. Images—and their captions—will often give you valuable information about the topic.
• If working with an e-text, you may also find embedded web links. Follow these: they’ll often lead you to resources that will help you better understand the article.
• Here’s a seriously expert-level suggestion: most academic texts and essays follow a fairly similar structure, including beginning every paragraph with a strong, focused topic sentence—you can often get a quick summary or understanding of a written text by simply reading the first sentence in every paragraph. Some authors may use the second sentence as their topic sentence, and if you notice this pattern, reading all of the second sentences in each paragraph will help you follow the text.

Exploring the Structure of a Text

• How is the text organized? (Does it seem logical? Is it in time-related, chronological order? Does it skip around in time with flashbacks or flash-forwards? Does it follow a standardized academic structure?)
• Is it divided into obvious sections? Do the sections have headings, or are they just visually separated?
• What kind of writing style does the author use (narrative writing, descriptive writing, analytical/logical writing, persuasive writing)? How do they organize their supporting detail (comparison/contrast, cause and effect, or a process to present their ideas)?
• Is there a lot of detail and description in the text? Is the detail supported with citations, references or links?
• Does the author do anything unusual* or unexpected with the text?

Tone, Voice, and Point of View

What’s good? Hey, how you doin’? Hello, how are you today?

What is point of view, and how do I know which was used?

• I love watching the leaves change in the fall. (First person point of view)
• You will love watching the leaves change color. (Second person)
• The leaves in fall turn many vibrant colors. (Third person)

• First person uses the following pronouns: I, me, my, us, we, myself, our, ours … any words that include the speaker/writer turn the sentence into first person.
• Second person uses any form of the word “you,” which has the effect of addressing the reader.
• Third person uses pronouns like he, she, it, they, them … any words that direct the reader to a person or thing that is not the writer or reader turn the sentence into third person. Often this is the form of writing found in academics. Third person point of view texts are meant to be taken as object (outside the author and reader)

1. What point of view did the author use (first, second, or third person)?
2. What was the tone of the text? What kind of language did they use?

Considering Vocabulary

The artist's mercurial temperament made it difficult for her to maintain long-term collaborations, as her moods and creative visions shifted unpredictably.  Versus The historian expounded on the significance of the artifact.

It is always better to try and write your own sentence with a new vocabulary term as this can help you learn how to use the new vocabulary. The best strategy, though, for gaining new vocabulary is just to read as often as you can and in as many different genres or areas as you can!

Attributions

• They analyze the structure of the piece through pre-reading strategies. What kind of organization does it follow? Where is the thesis statement? (As we introduced in Chapter 1.1, a thesis is used throughout academic writing and particularly in essay writing to tell the reader the main point or idea of the essay.) What types of sentences and language are used? How are the paragraphs structured?
• They analyze the text itself, either exploring its content or its use of rhetoric, i.e., the ways the text uses language to make its message effective.
• They capture the text’s main points by summarizing its meaning.
• They critique the text, passing judgment on its effectiveness.
• They reach conclusions (make inferences) about the text.
• They combine their own ideas with the textual analysis to synthesize new ideas and insights.

Critiquing a Text

• When we [pb_glossary id="196"]summarize[/pb_glossary] a text, we capture its main points.
• When we [pb_glossary id="198"]analyze[/pb_glossary] a text, we consider how it has been put together—we dissect it, more or less, to see how it works

• How did you respond to the piece? Did you like it? Did it appeal to you? Could you identify with it?
• Do you agree with the main ideas in the text?
• Did you find any errors in reasoning? Any gaps in the discussion?
• Did the organization make sense?
• Was evidence used correctly, without manipulation? Has the writer used appropriate sources for support?
• Is the author objective? Biased? Reasonable? (Note that the author might just as easily be subjective, unbiased, and unreasonable! Every type of writing and tone can be used for a specific purpose. By identifying these techniques and considering why the author is using them, you begin to understand more about the text.)
• Has the author left anything out? If yes, was this accidental? Intentional?
• Are the text’s tone and language appropriate?
• Are all of the author’s statements clear? Is anything confusing?
• What worked well in the text? What was lacking or failed completely?
• What is the [pb_glossary id="202"]cultural context[/pb_glossary]* of the text?

Synthesizing

Attributions

Instead of just persuasion, rhetoric is the set of methods people use to identify with each other, to encourage each other to understand things from one another’s perspectives (see Burke, 1969, p. 25). From interpersonal relationships to international peace treaties, the capacity to understand or modify another’s perspective is one of the most vital abilities that humans have. Hence, understanding rhetoric in terms of “identification” helps us better communicate and evaluate all such situations. (Purdue OWL, n.d.)

Why Do I Need to Think Rhetorically?

A rhetorical analysis asks you to “examine the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience.” However, before you can begin the analysis, you must first understand the historical context of the text. To locate a text’s historical context, you must determine where in history the text is situated—was it written in the past five years? Ten? One hundred? You should think about how that might affect the information being delivered. Once you determine the background of the text, you should determine the rhetorical situation (i.e. who, what, when, where, why). Meaning can change based on when, where, and why a text was produced, and meaning can change depending on who reads the text. It may have been written for a specific audience, in a specific place, and during a specific time. An important part of the rhetorical situation is the audience, and since many of the articles were not written with you, a college student, in mind, the meaning you interpret or recognize might be different from the author’s original target audience. For example, if you read an article about higher education written in 2025, then you, the reader, are connected with and understand the context of the topic. However, if you were asked to read a text about higher education written in 1876, you would probably have a hard time understanding and connecting to it because you are not the target audience, and the text’s context (or rhetorical situation) has changed. Furthermore, the occasion for writing might be very different, too. Articles or scholarly works that are at least five years old may include out-of-date references and may not represent relevant or accurate information (e.g. think of the change in perspectives on same-sex marriage, from the 1990s, to when it was legally recognized nationwide in 2005, to the current day). Older works require that you investigate significant historical moments or changes that have occurred since the writing of text. Targeted audience, occasion, and the date, site, and medium of publication will all affect the way you, the reader, read a text. Therefore, it is your duty as a thoughtful reader to consider and/or research these aspects in order to fully understand and conceptualize the text’s rhetorical situation. Furthermore, even though you might not be a member of the target audience or perhaps not even alive during the production of a text, you can still recognize rhetorical moves within it.

Analyzing Content and Rhetoric

When we talk about rhetoric, we’re talking about the ways we write and speak effectively and persuasively. We use rhetoric to explain, to describe, and to argue or persuade. In developing your reading and analysis skills, always think about what you’re reading, questioning the text—and your responses—as you read. Use the following questions to help analyze as you assess the text’s content and the ways it makes its points.

Many of these questions are similar to the ones we’ve listed above in reading critically.

Think of it as taking the text apart—dissecting it to see how it works:

• What is the author’s main point? Describe this in your own words. Do they make the point successfully? Is the point held consistently throughout the text, or does it wander at any point?
• What information does the author provide to support the central idea? Making a list of each point will help you analyze. Hint: each paragraph should address one key point, and all paragraphs should relate to the text’s central idea.
• What kind of evidence does the author use? Is it based more on fact or opinion, and do you feel those choices are effective? Where does this evidence come from? Are the sources authoritative and credible? (Learn more about the CRAAP method for evaluating sources in Chapter 2.5: Evaluating Sources.)
• What is the author’s main purpose? The author’s purpose refers to what they hope to accomplish. For example, a cookbook is assembled in order to share recipes and cooking methods, but perhaps, the author also wanted to include a group of treasured family recipes in hopes of sharing them with a wider cooking audience.
• Describe the tone in the piece. Is it friendly? Authoritative? Does it lecture? Is it biting or sarcastic? Does the author use simple language, or is it full of jargon? Does the language feel positive or negative? Point to aspects of the text that create the tone; spend some time examining these and considering how and why they work.
• Is the author objective, or does he/she try to convince you to have a certain opinion? Why does the author try to persuade you to adopt this viewpoint? If the author is biased, does this interfere with the way you read and understand the text?
• Do you feel like the author knows who you are? Does the text seem to be aimed at readers like you or at a different audience? What assumptions does the author make about their audience? Would most people find these reasonable, acceptable, or accurate?
• Does the text’s flow make sense? Is the line of reasoning logical? Are there any gaps? Are there any spots where you feel the reasoning is flawed in some way?
• Does the author try to appeal to your emotions? Does the author use any controversial words in the headline or the article? Do these affect your reading or your interest?
• Do you believe the author? Do you accept their thoughts and ideas? Why or why not?

 

Rhetorical Appeals: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos Defined

Logos: Appeal to Logic

• Comparison – a comparison between one thing (with regard to your topic) and another, similar thing to help support your claim. It is important that the comparison is fair and valid – the things being compared must share significant traits of similarity.
• Cause/effect thinking – you argue that X has caused Y, or that X is likely to cause Y, to help support your claim. Be careful with the latter – it can be difficult to predict that something “will” happen in the future.
• Deductive reasoning – starting with a broad, general claim/example and using it to support a more specific point or claim
• Inductive reasoning – using several specific examples or cases to make a broad generalization
• Exemplification – use of many examples or a variety of evidence to support a single point
• Elaboration – moving beyond just including a fact, but explaining the significance or relevance of that fact
• Coherent thought – maintaining a well-organized line of reasoning; not repeating ideas or jumping around

Academic writing is often written with the logos rhetorical approach in mind. Academic writing is meant to be written objectively based on facts. The goal is to present a non-biased explanation of your argument.

Pathos: Appeal to Emotions

• Expressive descriptions of people, places, or events that help the reader to feel or experience those events
• Vivid imagery of people, places or events that help the reader to feel like he or she is seeing those events
• Sharing personal stories that make the reader feel a connection to, or empathy for, the person being described
• Using emotion-laden vocabulary to put the reader into that specific emotional mindset (what is the author trying to make the audience feel? and how are they doing that?)
• Using any information that will evoke an emotional response from the audience. This could involve making the audience feel empathy or disgust for the person/group/event being discussed, or perhaps a connection to or rejection of the person/group/event being discussed.

Ethos: Appeal to Values/Trust

• referring either directly or indirectly to the values that matter to the intended audience (so that the audience will trust the speaker).
• using language, phrasing, imagery, or other writing styles common to people who hold those values, thereby “talking the talk” of people with those values (again, so that the audience is inclined to trust the speaker).
• referring to their experience and/or authority with the topic (and therefore demonstrating their credibility).
• referring to their own character, or making an effort to build their character in the text.

References

Burke, K. (1969). A rhetoric of motives. University of California Press.

Purdue OWL. (n.d.). Rhetorical situations. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue University.

Attributions

Attributions

Whenever you finish a bit of college reading, it’s worth your time to stop and reflect on it. This not only helps you think about the content and what it means to you, but it also helps cement it within your memory, allowing you to recall the key ideas later and to apply them in other reading and writing situations. Here are two ideas for post-reading reflection:

• Write in a personal reading journal.
• Angelo and Cross (1993) suggest writing a “minute paper.” To do this, take one minute to jot down a few sentences about something you learned or discovered while reading. Or ask yourself a question about the reading and write an answer.

Explore the Ways the Text Affects You

When you work with a text, you enter into a conversation with it, responding with your thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The way each of us responds to any text has a lot to do with who we are: our age, education, cultural background, religion, ethnicity, and so forth. As you explore a text, be aware of how you’re responding to it.

• Are you reading or exploring easily and fluidly, or are you finding it difficult to navigate the text? Why do you believe this is so?
• Do you find yourself responding with some sort of strong emotion? If so, why do you think that may be happening?
• Do formatting or structural issues (examples: unusual use of punctuation, use of dialect or jargon) affect your navigation of the text?
• Can you identify with the text’s central idea or the information it’s sharing?
• Have you had any experiences like those being described? Can you identify with the story?
• Are you able to identify the surface meaning?
• Have you explored the text’s deeper, hidden messages?
• Do you need to look up any words to do any quick research? If so, does this help you better understand the text?
• What questions do you have about the work?

What Is Self-Analysis?

How is reflective writing in the academic setting different from journaling or writing in a diary?

If you write in a diary or a journal, recording your thoughts and feelings about what has happened in your life, you are certainly engaging in the act of reflection. Many of us have some experience with this type of writing. In our diaries, journals, or other informal spaces for speaking – or writing- our mind, write to ourselves, for ourselves, in a space that will largely remain private. Your [pb_glossary id="226"]reflection[/pb_glossary] for college courses will contain some of those same features:

• The subject of the reflective work is you and your experiences
• You can generally use the first person in a reflective essay

Writing academic reflections is a bit different from journaling or keeping a diary (See Table 1.1).

What can be gained from activities that ask you to reflect on your learning and your performance as a writer?

One of the major goals in any First-Year Writing class is to encourage students’ growth as writers. No one is expected to be a perfect writer at the end of the semester. Your instructor’s hope, however, is that after completing coursework, you are more confident, capable, and aware of yourself as a writer than you were at the beginning of the semester. Reflecting on the process that you go through as you write – even if your writing is not perfect – can help you to identify the behaviours, strategies, and resources that have helped you to be successful, or that could support your future success. In short, reflecting on how you write (or how you have written during a particular semester) can be quite powerful in helping you to identify areas where you have grown and areas where you still have room for more growth.

How can I write a reflective piece?

As with any assignment, a reflection piece should come with its own assignment sheet. On that assignment sheet, you should be able to identify the purpose of the reflection and the needed scope of the reflection. Some key elements of the reflective piece that the assignment sheet should answer are:

• What, exactly, is the scope of the reflection? Are you reflecting on one lesson, one assignment, or the whole semester?
• Do you have detailed guidelines, resources, or reference documents that must be met for your reflections?
• Is there a particular structure for the reflection?
• Should the reflection include any outside resources?

If you are struggling to find the answers to these questions, ask your professor!

References

Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers, (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Attributions

“1.5: Reflection and Drawing Conclusions” remixes and revises Reflect and Explore the Ways the Text Affects You in The Word on College Reading and Writing, by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted; and 6.7 What is self analysis? by Emilie Zickel in A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing (The Interactive 2nd Edition) by Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. “Water reflection,” by Yuma Hori, on Wikimedia, licensed CC BY 2.0.

Having academic integrity means acting fairly and honestly when engaging in academic activities. This includes, but is not limited to, tests, assignments, work-integrated learning, and research. In other words, anything for which you receive a grade or a credit (Academic Integrity, n.d.).

Breaches of Academic Integrity

• Academic honesty or integrity
• Academic dishonesty or misconduct
• Plagiarism, cheating, impersonation, fabrication, falsification… and many more

References

Attributions

Paraphrasing and Plagiarizing

• Understand the passage
• Close the source
• Give yourself a short break
• Write the paraphrase
• Check it against the original

Quoting and Plagiarizing

Citing and Plagiarizing

Plagiarizing Sources Other Than Writing

See the APA @ Conestoga website for information on including visuals in your work.

Attributions

References

Hern, A. (2022, December 4). AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/04/ai-bot-chatgpt-stuns-academics-with-essay-writing-skills-and-usability

McLean, S. (2024, May 31). The environmental impact of ChatGPT. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/environmental-impact-chatgpt/

Attributions

• To participate in scholarly communication
• To give credit to our sources
• To avoid plagiarism

Reason 1: For Scholarly Communication

Reason 2: To Give Credit and Show Professionalism

Reason 3: To Avoid Plagiarism

Types of Sources

• Journal articles
• Trade publications
• Websites
• Books and eBooks

Attributions

Style Guide

Two Types of Citation

What Is a Reference List Citation?

• WHO: The author(s) or creator(s) of the work
• WHEN: The date of publication of the work (year, month & day if needed)
• WHAT: The title of the article, webpage, or other work
• WHERE: The source location of the work (journal or newspaper name, book name, website name, etc.)

Creating Reference List Citations

1. Identify the type of source.
2. Identify the 4W’s of the work (Who, When, What, Where).
3. Write the reference citation using the 4W’s and guidance from a correct example.
4. Lastly, it’s also important to proofread your work.

Critical Thinking Exercises

Scholarly Journal Article

[caption id="attachment_66" align="aligncenter" width="485"] Source: Victorino, K. R. & Hinkle, M. S. (2019, February). The development of a self-efficacy measurement tool for counselling in speech-language pathology. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (AJSLP), 28(1), 108-120. [Screenshot used under Fair dealing.][/caption][h5p id="9"]

Scholarly Journal Article Exercise (Text version)

You want to write a reference citation for this scholarly journal article. Select all the pieces of information you need to gather in order to write the complete reference citation.

1. Name of the journal
2. Year of publication
3. Author name(s)
4. Author credentials
5. DOI
6. Abstract
7. Volume and issue numbers
8. Page range
9. Title of the article

Check your answer[footnote] a, b, c, e, g, h, & i are all required[/footnote]  

Book

[caption id="attachment_66" align="aligncenter" width="464"] Screenshot source: Jonathan Barnes, Applying cross-curricular approaches creatively. APA reference excluded due to nature of activity. [Screenshots created & used under Fair Dealing by NorQuest College Library,][/caption][h5p id="10"]

Book Exercise (Text version)

• https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315513614
• Applying cross-curricular approaches creatively.
• (2018).
• Barnes, J.
• Routledge.

Check your answer[footnote]Barnes, J. (2018). Applying cross-curricular approaches creatively. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315513614[/footnote]

What Is an In-Text Citation?

Parenthetical vs. Narrative Citations

Figure 2.1: Two types of in-text citations

• Parenthetical In-Text Citation: (Betoret, 2006, p. 10). This is a parenthetical in-text citation where the writer has paraphrased a common idea from two different works. It’s inserted after the paraphrased sentence and before the ending punctuation. The parenthetical citation format for a work is: the family name or group name of the author(s), a comma, the publication year, all in parentheses, a comma, and then the location information of the cited information.
• Narrative In-Text Citation: “Berkman and Glass (2000) define social support as having an individual or group of individuals who provide resources, abstract and/or tangible, to another (p. 13).” This sentence has a narrative in-text citation that is paraphrased. It is formatted with the author’s family name within the paper’s narrative, directly followed by the year in parentheses. Then, at the end of the paraphrase, it lists the location information of the material cited.
• Citing Multiple Sources of the same information: Each work is separated with a semicolon and ordered alphabetically, like in this example: (Betoret, 2006; Perrier et al., 2010).

Figure 2.1 example is a paraphrase, but these forms of in-text citations are also used for quotations.

Figure 2.2: Parenthetical and narrative citations

• Parentheses
• Author’s family name or group name
• Year

While there are many citation generators and guides available online, it is essential to ensure accuracy in your work as required by your program. Check in with your instructor to double-check the citation style guide to use. For Conestoga, most programs use APA@Conestoga. If you have permission to use a citation generator, ensure that you double-check its output to confirm it matches the APA@Conestoga rules.

Figure 2.3: Reference page entry vs. narrative in-text citation

Attributions

Image Descriptions

Figure 2.2: Parenthetical and narrative citations

1. Author’s family name and Year is included at the end of a sentence in parentheses.
   • Example: ...virtues of wit (Smith, 2010).

1. The author’s family name is included as part of a sentence followed by the Year in parentheses.
   • Example: Smith (2010) discusses how….
2. The Year may also be included as part of the narrative.
   • Example: In 2010, Smith noted that….

Figure 2.3: Reference page entry vs. narrative in-text citation

The CRAAP Test and Evaluating Resources

Consider the Source

Check the Evidence

Timeliness

The CRAAP/RADAR Test

 What Makes News “Fake”?

Conclusion: Be a Skeptic!

Popular vs. Scholarly Sources

Attributions

Understanding the academic writing situation when tackling assignments and tasks involves

• • • knowing your audience.
    • knowing the occasion or context.
    • conveying the message clearly.
    • understanding the formats and genres most applicable to the project at hand.

Common Academic Writing Myths

Myth #1: Paint By Numbers

Myth #2: All Figured Out

Myth #3: The First Draft Is the Final Draft

Myth #4: Writing Requires Natural Talent

Myth #5: Good Grammar Is Good Writing

References

Irvin, L.L. (2010). What is “academic” writing? In C. Lowe & P. Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing spaces: Readings on writing, Volume 1 (pp. 3–17). Parlor Press.

Attributions

Professional Opportunities

Comprehension and Academic Performance

References

Al-Alami, S. E. (2024). EFL learners’ attitudes towards utilizing ChatGPT for acquiring writing skills in higher education: A case study of computing students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 15(4), 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1504.01

Dahri, N. A., Yahaya, N., Al-Rahmi, W. M. (2024, November). Exploring the influence of ChatGPT on student academic success and career readiness. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13148-2

Hoff, M., & Zinkula, J. (2023, March 1). Writing your résumé with AI makes it easier to find a job, a study finds. But this edge could vanish once everybody’s doing it. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/using-ai-write-resume-chatgpt-job-search-cover-letter-2023-2

National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2015). Job outlook 2016: Attributes employers want to see on new college graduates’ resumes [PDF]. NACE. https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/career-development/documents/getting-started/job-search/NACE%20Job%20Outlook%202016.pdf

Wiles, E., Munyikwa, Z. T. & Horton, J.J. (2023). Algorithmic writing assistance on jobseekers’ resumes increases hires [PDF]. NBER Working Paper Series (No. 30886). https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30886/w30886.pdf

Attributions

Critical Thinking Exercise: Analyzing Persuasive Writing

Can you create a short 250 word persuasive essay on benefits of pet ownership. Please make sure the essay fits into the following: This essay should be created for a grade 12 U level. This essay should be written without grammar or mechanics errors. This essay should be an example of a poorly written persuasive essay. This essay should include 1-3 quoted or paraphrased passages. Before you provide this essay, please ask any clarification questions required to make your understanding of my prompt at 95 % or higher.

Chapter 5.3

Check Your Understanding: Thesis Statements

Can you please create two more thesis statements using this as a baseline: My paper will explain why [Insert Topic]. These thesis statements should be weak examples that use some of the common pitfalls in Grade 12 U level student writing. Please ask any follow-up questions you require in order to have 95 % or more understanding of the prompt.

Chapter 6.2

Can you develop a 8-10 sentence paragraph that illustrates this idea as an example: Another way to develop relationships between ideas is to provide an additional sentence where you elaborate on your supporting detail. This can help you show the reader how your supporting detail (paraphrase or quote) ties to your thesis or how it ties to the next point going forward. Note: please make sure sources are real. This example will be used in a grade 12 U level communication class Please ask any clarification questions required for you to understand this prompt at 95 % or higher.

Chapter 7.3

Critical Thinking Exercise: Revising Your Draft

Can you help me create a prompt example that I can show to students that follows these rules: You may use GenAI or Grammarlypremium for this exercise. Ask GenAI to only suggest possible ways to improve your organization. Do not allow GenAI to rewrite your work for you. It is important to build these skills on your own first. This technique is treating GenAI like an advisor who is just offering some feedback. Please ask any clarifying questions required to understand the request above to 95 % accuracy

Critical Thinking Exercise: Revising for Cohesion

Can you help me create a prompt example that I can show to students that follows these rules: You may use GenAI or Grammarlypremium for this exercise. Ask GenAI to only suggest possible ways to improve your organization. Do not allow GenAI to rewrite your work for you. It is important to build these skills on your own first. This technique is treating GenAI like an advisor who is just offering some feedback Please ask any clarifying questions required to understand the request above to 95 % accuracy.

You’ve got the PowerPoint slides from your classes, the information in your textbook, and the information on your course learning shell. Do you need to take notes as well? Despite the vast amount of information available in electronic formats, taking notes is an important learning strategy.

When you take notes in college, your instructors expect you to make connections between class lectures and reading assignments; they expect you to create an opinion about the material presented; they expect you to make connections between the material and life beyond school. Your notes are your road maps for these thoughts. Actively listening and note-taking are key strategies to ensure your academic success. Effective note-taking is important because it

• supports your listening efforts.
• allows you to test your understanding of the material.
• helps you remember the material better when you write key ideas down.
• gives you a sense of what the instructor thinks is important.
• creates your “ultimate study guide.”

After class, be sure to review your notes and then summarize the class in one or two short paragraphs using your own words. This summary will significantly affect your recall and will help you prepare for the next class.

Note-taking Methods

There are various forms of taking notes, and which one you choose depends on both your personal style and the instructor’s approach to the material. Each can be used in a notebook, index cards, or in a digital form on your laptop or tablet. No specific type is good for all students and all situations. We recommend that you develop your own style, but be ready to modify it to suit the needs of a specific class or instructor. To be effective, all of these methods require you to listen actively and to think; merely jotting down words the instructor is saying will be of little use to you. Table 3.1 summarizes four different note-taking methods. Each method is then illustrated with an example.

Example: The List Method

The list method is usually not the best choice because it is focused exclusively on capturing as much of what the instructor says as possible, not on processing the information. Most students who have not learned effective study skills use this method because it’s easy to think that this is what note-taking is all about. Even if you are skilled in some form of shorthand, you should probably also learn one of the other methods described here, because they are all better at helping you process and remember the material. You may want to take notes in class using the list method, but transcribe your notes to an outline or concept map method after class as a part of your review process. It is always important to review your notes as soon as possible after class and write a summary of the class in your own words.

Example: The Outline Method

The advantage of the outline method is that it allows you to prioritize the material. Key ideas are written to the left of the page, subordinate ideas are then indented, and details of the subordinate ideas can be indented further. To further organize your ideas, you can use the typical outlining numbering scheme (starting with roman numerals for key ideas, moving to capital letters on the first subordinate level, numbers for the next level, and lowercase letters following.) At first, you may have trouble identifying when the instructor moves from one idea to another. This takes practice and experience with each instructor, so don’t give up! In the early stages, you should use your syllabus to determine what key ideas the instructor plans to present. Your reading assignments before class can also give you guidance in identifying the key ideas.

Example: The Outline Method

[caption id="attachment_85" align="aligncenter" width="334"] A concept map illustrating the key points from the lecture.[/caption]

This is a very graphic method of note-taking that is especially good at capturing the relationships among ideas. Concept maps harness your visual sense to understand complex material “at a glance.” They also give you the flexibility to move from one idea to another and back easily (so they are helpful if your instructor moves freely through the material). To develop a concept map, start by selecting an overarching idea (high-level or abstract) from the instructor’s lecture and place it in a circle in the middle of the page. Then, create branches off that circle to record more detailed information, creating additional limbs as needed. Arrange the branches with others that connect closely. When a new high-level idea is presented, create a new circle with its own branches. Link together circles or concepts that are related. Use arrows and symbols to capture the relationship between the ideas. For example, an arrow may be used to illustrate cause or effect, a double-pointed arrow to illustrate dependence, or a dotted arrow to illustrate impact or effect.

Example: The Cornell Method

[caption id="attachment_86" align="aligncenter" width="335"] A sample of Cornell notes recording the key points from the lecture.[/caption]

The Cornell method follows a very specific format that consists of four boxes: a header, two columns, and a footer. The Cornell method was developed in the 1950s by Professor Walter Pauk at Cornell University (Pauk & Ownes, 2013). Many schools recommend this method because of its usefulness and flexibility. This method is simple to use for capturing notes, is helpful for defining priorities, and is a very helpful study tool. This method can be done on paper, or it can be done in Word using the table function. The header is a small box across the top of the page. In it, you write identification information like the course name and the date of the class. Underneath the header are two columns: a narrow one on the left (no more than one-third of the page) and a wide one on the right. The wide column, called the “notes” column, takes up most of the page and is used to capture your notes using any of the methods outlined earlier. The left column, known as the “cue” or “recall” column, is used to jot down main ideas, keywords, questions, clarifications, and other notes. It should be used both during the class and when reviewing your notes after class. Finally, use the box in the footer to write a summary of the class in your own words. This will help you make sense of your notes in the future and is a valuable tool to aid with recall and studying.

All note-taking methods end with the same step: reviewing your notes as soon as possible after class. Any review of your notes is helpful (reading them, copying them into your computer, or even recasting them using another note-taking method). But THINK! Make your review of notes a thoughtful activity, not a mindless process. When you review your notes: Think about questions you still have and determine how you will get the answers. (From the next class? Studying with a friend? Looking up material in your text or online?)

• Examine how the material applies to the course
• Make connections with notes from other class sessions, with material in your text, and with concepts covered in class discussions.
• How the material in your notes applies to real life or your career goals.

General Tips on Note-Taking

Regardless of what note-taking method you choose, there are some note-taking habits you should get into for all circumstances and all courses:

• Be prepared.
  • Make sure you have the tools you need to do the job. If you are using a notebook, be sure you have it with you and that you have enough paper. Also, be sure to have your pen (as well as a spare) and perhaps a pen with different-coloured ink to use for emphasis. If you are taking notes on your laptop, make sure the battery is charged! Select the application that lends itself best to your style of note-taking.
• Write on only one side of the paper.
  • This will allow you to integrate your reading notes with your class notes.
• Label, number, and date all notes at the top of each page.
  • You might also want to add other details that will help you identify the notes later. For notes on reading, you might want to add details on WHAT you are taking notes on (author name, title of source, etc.). For lecture notes, you may want to add the class name, the professor's name, and the unit or week you are in. This will help you keep organized.
• Don’t try to capture everything that is said or what you read.
  • Listen for the big ideas and write them down. Make sure you can recognize the instructor’s emphasis cues and write down all ideas and keywords the instructor emphasizes. Listen for clues like “the four causes were…” or “to sum up.…” For notes on reading, look back at some of the key ideas we covered in Chapter 1!
• Leave space between ideas.
  • This allows you to add additional notes later, such as connections to other work or further notes as you learn more.
• Use some method for identifying your own thoughts and questions to keep them separate from what the instructor or text author is saying.
  • Some students use different coloured ink; others box or underline their own thoughts. Do whatever works for you.
• Review your notes as soon after class as possible (the same day is best).
  • This is the secret to making your notes work. Fill in any gaps in your notes and clean up or redraw hastily drawn diagrams.
• Write a summary of the main ideas of the class or text in your own words.
  • This process is a great aid to recall. Be sure to include any conclusions from the lecture or discussion.
• Use notes when preparing for a test or doing an assignment.
  • Your notes usually have a summary of the most important points and are useful for making sure you incorporate important concepts in your assignments and for focusing on the main concepts when studying for tests and exams.

References

Pauk, W. & Owens, R.J.Q. (2013). How to study in college. Wadsworth.

Attributions

“3.2: The Importance of Note-taking and Different Methods of Note-taking” remixes and revises 2.2 – Note-Taking in Communication Essentials for College by Jen Booth, Emily Cramer & Amanda Quibell, Georgian College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted; the box titled “Two Purposes for Taking Notes” originates from “Take Notes from Lectures – That You’ll Actually Use” in University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed by Kwantlen Polytechnic University, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. “Annotating and Note-taking for Reading Texts” remixes and revises Annotating and Note-Taking in Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students [Revised Edition] by Patricia Lynne, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. “Critical Thinking Exercise: Annotation” is adapted from Annotate and Take Notes in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. "The Outline Method" is reused from 2.2 – Note-Taking in Communication Essentials for College Copyright © 2022 by Jen Booth, Emily Cramer & Amanda Quibell, Georgian College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. "The Cornell Method" is reused from 2.2 – Note-Taking in Communication Essentials for College Copyright © 2022 by Jen Booth, Emily Cramer & Amanda Quibell, Georgian College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.  

• Some writers like to get their ideas out on paper or screen quickly, collapsing prewriting into writing and revising.
• Some writers like to think long and hard about what they are going to write before ever touching the keyboard.
• Some writers like to write the perfect introduction before they do anything else.
• Some like to skip the introduction until the end of the first draft.
• Some want to read everything they will write about first; some want to read as they go.

Some writers like to wait until the last minute, cramming all of the stages into one draft done quickly, declaring, “I do my best work under pressure!” This is called [pb_glossary id="262"]procrastination[/pb_glossary]. Here’s a secret: If this describes you, consider changing your habits. One-night wonders (the results of such procrastination) may be enough to get by, but they will never be your best work. Particularly in your chosen area of study, you want your best work to shine.

Attributions

Prewriting is the stage of the writing process during which you transfer your [pb_glossary id="264"]abstract thoughts[/pb_glossary] into more [pb_glossary id="266"]concrete ideas[/pb_glossary] in ink on paper (or in type on a computer screen). Although prewriting techniques can be helpful in all stages of the writing process, the following five strategies are best used when initially getting started on a project.

• Identifying the purpose and the audience of your writing task
• Brainstorming and/or idea mapping
• Reading and researching
• Freewriting
• Asking questions

Identifying Purpose and Audience of Writing

The first important step in any project is for you to tell yourself why you are writing (to inform, to explain, to summarize, to reflect or some other purpose) and for whom you are writing. For the purpose, be specific; it cannot just be to write a paper for my teacher. Consider what the paper is supposed to accomplish. For the audience, write down who will read this work and then consider the following: “What tone should I use, what knowledge do they have already, and what point of view should I use?”

Look for the learning objective tied to the project or the unit. This will often tell you the overall purpose of an assignment.

Brainstorming and Idea Mapping

Brainstorming is similar to list-making. Start with a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer document) and write your general topic or assignment details across the top. Underneath this, make a list of more specific ideas. Think of your general topic/assignment goal as a broad category and the list items as things that fit in that category. Often, you will find that one item can lead to the next, creating a flow of ideas that can help you narrow your focus to a more specific topic or a more specific structure for your assignment. Idea mapping allows you to visualize your ideas on paper using circles, lines, and arrows. This technique is also known as clustering because ideas are broken down and clustered, or grouped together. Many writers like this method because the shapes show how the ideas relate or connect, and writers can find a focused topic from the connections mapped. To create an idea map, start with your general topic in a circle in the center of a blank sheet of paper. Then write specific ideas around it and use lines or arrows to connect them together. Add and cluster as many ideas as you can think of.

Reading and Researching

Reading plays a vital role in all the stages of the writing process, but it first figures in the development of ideas. This is particularly useful if you are asked to choose a topic to write on. For instance, if you’ve been asked to build an essay or a research report, you may have to choose a topic. Researching and reading beforehand can spark your interest in a topic, which will help you choose a topic of interest. It can also help you narrow down your [pb_glossary id="268"]scope[/pb_glossary], as you can know what research/reading has already been done about a topic.

Longer papers require more reading and planning than shorter papers do. Most writers discover that the more they know about a topic, the more they can write about it with intelligence and interest.

Freewriting

Freewriting is an exercise in which you write freely about your project for a set amount of time (usually three to five minutes). During the time limit, you may jot down any thoughts that come to your mind. Try not to worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Instead, write as quickly as you can without stopping. If you get stuck, just copy the same word or phrase over and over until you come up with a new thought. Quickly recording your thoughts on paper will help you discover what you have to say about a topic. When writing quickly, try not to doubt or question your ideas. Allow yourself to write freely and unselfconsciously. Once you start writing with few limitations, you may find you have more to say than you first realized. Freewriting may even lead you to discover another topic that excites you even more. Look at Mariah’s example. The instructor allowed the members of the class to choose their own topics, and Mariah thought about her experiences as a communications major. She used this freewriting exercise to help her generate more concrete ideas from her own experience.

Asking Questions

As you begin on a project, asking and answering questions can help you revisit the ideas you already have and generate new ways to think about your project. You may also discover aspects of the project that are unfamiliar to you and that you would like to learn more about. You may also discover that you don’t quite understand what is being asked of you, and now can reach out to your teacher for support with specific questions.

Prewriting is very purpose-driven; it does not follow a set of hard-and-fast rules. The purpose of prewriting is to find and explore ideas so that you will be prepared to write. A prewriting technique like asking questions can help you both find a topic and explore it. Freewriting may not seem to fit your thinking process, but keep an open mind. It may work better than you think. Perhaps brainstorming a list of topics might fit your personal style.

Outlining and Organizing

Your prewriting activities and research have helped you gather information for your assignment. The more you sort through the pieces of information you found, the more you will begin to see the connections between them. Patterns and gaps may begin to stand out. But only when you start to organize your ideas will you be able to translate your raw insights into a form that will communicate meaning to your audience. An outline is a point-form list of your ideas. When you write, you need to organize your ideas in an order that makes sense, as this helps you accurately show the purpose of your writing. For instance, a well-organized research essay that clearly informs the reader on a topic will likely score better marks than one that is disorganized. Order refers to your choice of what to present first, second, third, and so on in your writing. The order you pick closely relates to your purpose for writing that particular assignment. In longer pieces of writing, you may organize different parts in different ways so that your purpose stands out clearly and all parts of the paper work together to consistently develop your main point. The structure of your outline will vary depending on what kind of writing you do. We will look at different forms of outlining for different writing assignments as we get into later units. Please see one example of an essay outline below, remembering that outlines can take different forms and do not need match this one.

Sample Outline

References

Baron, N.S. (2015). Words onscreen: The fate of reading in a digital world. Oxford University Press.

Hall, P. & Waniata, R. (2025, July 30). How to choose the right TV. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-buy-the-right-tv/

It takes a camera. (2011). Consumer reports, 76(8), 38-47.

Drafting

Drafting is the stage of the writing process in which you develop a complete first version of a piece of writing. Even professional writers admit that an empty page scares them because they feel they need to come up with something fresh and original every time they open a blank document on their computers. Because you have completed the first two steps in the writing process, you have already recovered from empty page syndrome. You have prewriting and planning already done. You know what will go on that blank page: what you wrote in your outline. What makes the writing process so beneficial to writers is that it encourages alternatives to standard practices while motivating you to develop your best ideas. For instance, the following approaches, done alone or in combination with others, may improve your writing and help you move forward in the writing process:

1. 1. • Begin writing with the part you know the most about. You can start with the third paragraph in your outline if ideas come easily to mind. You can start with the second paragraph or the first paragraph, too. Although paragraphs may vary in length, keep in mind that short paragraphs may contain insufficient support. Readers may also think the writing is abrupt. Long paragraphs may be wordy and may lose your reader’s interest. As a guideline, try to write paragraphs shorter than the length of an entire double-spaced page.
      • Write one paragraph at a time and then stop. As long as you complete the assignment on time, you may choose how many paragraphs you complete in one sitting. Pace yourself. On the other hand, try not to procrastinate. Writers should always meet their deadlines. One helpful technique is to set a word count, such as "write 100 words." Then once you get there, you can stop. Once you do get there, though, you'll likely find you can continue to at least finish whatever thought you are on and may even finish a full paragraph.
      • Take short breaks to refresh your mind. This tip might be most useful if you are writing a multipage report or essay. Still, if you are antsy or cannot concentrate, take a break to let your mind rest. But do not let breaks extend too long. If you spend too much time away from your essay, you may have trouble starting again. You may forget key points or lose momentum.
      • Be reasonable with your goals. If you decide to take ten-minute breaks, try to stick to that goal. If you told yourself that you need more facts, then commit to finding them. Holding yourself to your own goals will create successful writing assignments.
      • Keep your audience and purpose in mind as you write. These aspects of writing are just as important when you are writing a single paragraph for your essay as when you are considering the direction of the entire essay.

Of all of these considerations, keeping your purpose and your audience at the front of your mind is the most important key to writing success. If your purpose is to persuade, for example, you will want to present your facts and details in the most logical and convincing way you can. Your purpose will guide your mind as you compose your sentences. Your audience will guide word choice. Are you writing for experts, for a general audience, for other college students, or for people who know very little about your topic? Keep asking yourself what your readers, with their background and experience, need to be told in order to understand your ideas. How can you best express your ideas so that they are totally clear, and your communication is effective? When you are in the drafting stage, you will often produce multiple drafts. A draft is a complete version of a piece of writing, but it is not the final version. The step in the writing process after drafting, as you may remember, is revising. During revising, you will have the opportunity to make changes to your first draft before you put the finishing touches on it during the editing and proofreading stage. A first draft gives you a working version that you can later improve.

When submitting assignments, it can be important to have evidence of the work you did so you are not accused of plagiarism. Make sure you save your multiple drafts, your notes, and outlines, so you can refer back to them when needed. Another strategy is to use version history in Word or Google Docs to show how your work evolved.

Reflection

Before you begin drafting your reflection piece to submit to your instructor. Reflect on the drafting strategies listed above. Consider which ones will be most useful to you to keep in mind. Write this down in your notes, so you can refer back to it as needed.

Revising and Editing

Revising and editing are the two tasks you undertake to significantly improve your writing/assignments. Both are very important elements of the writing process. You may think that a completed first draft means little improvement is needed. However, even experienced writers need to improve their drafts during revising and editing. Revising and editing allow you to examine two important aspects of your writing separately, so that you can give each task your undivided attention.

1. 1. • When you revise, you take a second look at your ideas. You might add, cut, move, or change information in order to make your ideas clearer, more accurate, more interesting, or more convincing.
      • When you edit, you take a second look at how you expressed your ideas. You add or change words. You fix any problems in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You improve your writing style. You make your essay into a polished, mature piece of writing, the end product of your best efforts.

How do you get the best out of your revisions and editing? Here are some strategies that writers have developed to look at their first drafts from a fresh perspective. Try them over the course of this semester; then keep using the ones that bring results.

• Take a break. You are proud of what you wrote, but you might be too close to it to make changes. Set aside your writing for a few hours or even a day until you can look at it objectively.
• Ask someone you trust for feedback and constructive criticism.
• Pretend you are one of your readers. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied? Why?
• Use the resources that your college provides. Find out where your school’s writing support is located and use the assistance they provide online and in person.

You will be using this writing process framework to help you in the later units as we start tackling various forms of writing.

Attributions

“3.3.1 Stages of the Writing Process” remixes and revises and 3.2 – Apply Prewriting Models, 3.3 – Outlining, 3.4 – Drafting, and 3.5 – Revising and Editing in Communication Essentials for College by Jen Booth, Emily Cramer & Amanda Quibell, Georgian College, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

• A summary can show your understanding of the main points of an assigned reading or viewing, so your instructor might ask you to summarize in order to know that you’ve understood the material.
• You might summarize a section from a source, or even the whole source, when the ideas in that source are critical to an assignment you are working on and you feel they need to be included, but they would take up too much space in their original form.
• Summarizing is also an excellent way to double-check that you understand a text. If you can summarize the ideas in it, you likely have a good grasp of the information it is presenting. This can be helpful for school-related work, such as studying for an exam or researching a topic for a paper, but it is also useful in daily life when you encounter texts on topics that are personally or professionally interesting to you.

What Makes Something a Summary?

• use your own words.
• significantly condense the original text.
• provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarize.
• avoid personal opinion.

Focusing on just the ideas that best support a point we want to make or ignoring ideas that don’t support that point can be tempting. This approach has two significant problems, though: First, it no longer correctly represents the original text, so it misleads your reader about the ideas presented in that text. A summary should give your reader an accurate idea of what they can expect if they pick up the original article to read. Second, it undermines your own credibility as an author to not represent this information accurately. If readers cannot trust an author to accurately represent source information, they may not be as likely to trust that author to thoroughly and accurately present a reasonable point.

Attributions

Introducing a Summary

• Introduce the name of the author whose work you are summarizing.
• Introduce the title of the text being summarized.
• Introduce where this text was presented. (If it’s an art installation, where is it being shown? If it’s an article, where was that article published? Not all texts will have this component—for example, when summarizing a book written by one author, the title of the book and name of that author are sufficient information for your readers to easily locate the work you are summarizing.)
• Introduce when the text was presented or published.
• State the main ideas of the text you are summarizing—just the big-picture components.
• Give context when necessary. Is this text responding to a current event? That might be important to know. Does this author have specific qualifications that make them an expert on this topic? This might also be relevant information.

Depending on the length of your summary, this introduction may be just one sentence (in a summary paragraph) or it might be a full, short introductory paragraph (in a multi-paragraph summary).

In his July 2017 article in The Atlantic, “Beyond the Five Senses,” Matthew Hutson explores ways in which potential technologies might expand our sensory perception of the world, paying particular attention to accessing sensory perception outside of the five senses. This would be used for a summary paragraph assignment. In his July 2017 article in The Atlantic, “Beyond the Five Senses,” Matthew Hutson explores ways in which potential technologies might expand our sensory perception of the world. He notes that some technologies, such as cochlear implants, are already accomplishing a version of this for people who do not have full access to one of the five senses. In much of the article, though, he seems more interested in how technology might expand the ways in which we sense things. Some of these technologies are based in senses that can be seen in nature, such as echolocation, and others seem more deeply rooted in science fiction. However, all of the examples he gives consider how adding new senses to the ones we already experience might change how we perceive the world around us. This would be used for a multi-paragraph summary assignment.

• Name the author.
• Name the text being summarized.
• State just the relevant context, if there is any (maybe the author has a specific credential that makes their work on this topic carry more weight than it would otherwise, or maybe the study they generated is now being used as a benchmark for additional research).
• Introduce the author’s full name (first and last names) the first time you summarize part of their text. If you summarize pieces of the same text more than once in a work you are writing, each time you use their text after the initial introduction of the source, you will only use the author’s last name as you introduce that next summary component.
  • This summarized material will just be nestled within your other writing to add supporting detail to a point in a paragraph or essay. Here is an example:

Fibre intake can also support physical health. The article, “Benefits of Fibre,” written by Dr. Madeupguy, describes various health benefits of increasing fibre intake. One such finding detailed there was an increase in metabolic health when participants increased their fibre intake to 40 g per day (p. 5).

Presenting the “Meat” (or Body) of a Summary

In academic writing, when we are using an author’s name, we use the full name the first time it appears in writing, but then any subsequent mention of that author should just include the author’s last name.

Attributions

Read more

Just like chapters in a novel, informative and other nonfiction texts are often made up of sections. A section of a text has a point of its own. You can think of sections in a text like building blocks, each adding to the structure and content of the whole. In this fashion, each section should contribute at least one key idea to the main point. Keep in mind that it often takes several paragraphs to work through the explanation of a single point. A section might be as short as a single paragraph, but it also might be much longer—six, eight, ten paragraphs long.

You can treat each section as its own little mini-text and work to find the main point of that section. If you understand the point of each section, you can often piece together the main point by combining the points of the sections.

It is usually helpful to try to summarize each section of text in one or two sentences. When you read those sentences together, you can often more easily see the main point. This approach can also get you started on a full summary of the text.

Texts with Obvious Section Breaks

Sometimes sections will be obvious because they will be labelled with headings. You’ll see this in textbooks, for example. These headings work like titles in that they can give you clues about the contents of that section. For example, in scholarly research essays in many fields, headings such as “[pb_glossary id="438"]method[/pb_glossary],” “[pb_glossary id="440"]results[/pb_glossary],” and “[pb_glossary id="444"]discussion[/pb_glossary]” tell an experienced reader what kind of information to expect in each of those sections. those sections.

Texts Without Obvious Section Breaks

Sometimes, there are no headings or spacing to guide you in dividing up a text. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t sections. You just have to look harder for them. Look first for changes in topics. In some texts, authors will talk about a series of topics that are related but are clearly distinct from one another. For example, a text that describes harms caused by climate change might discuss different kinds of harm—harm to plants, harm to animals, and harm to people—and each of those could be considered a different section. Other times, however, the changes in topics aren’t obvious. In these cases, your best approach is to look at the opening sentences of paragraphs for the transitions:

• Transitions that show similarity (e.g., “also,” “likewise”) or example (e.g., “for instance,” “specifically”) usually do not indicate a section change. These signal that the author is continuing the same point.
• Transitions that show contrast (e.g., “however,” “on the other hand”) or sequence (e.g., “first,” “second,” “next”) frequently do indicate a section change. These signal a change in perspective or topic.

Other types of transitions, such as those dealing with time (e.g., “before,” “recently”) or consequence (e.g., “therefore,” “accordingly”), may or may not signal a section change. You’ll have to read further or look for other clues. Transitions are not always just single words, so you may have to look at the structure and meaning of those opening sentences to see how they are setting up the topic of the current paragraph. Once you have identified sections, you can start working on understanding the point in each one and how that point contributes to the main point of the text.

Example: Transitional Ideas

Let’s take the following sentence and assume that it appears at the beginning of a paragraph: “While some may agree with Jones, others disagree.” Technically, there is no transition word in that sentence, but there is a transition idea. The first part of the sentence (“Some may agree with Jones”) gestures backward to what has already been discussed (Jones’s ideas). The second part (“others disagree”) signals that disagreement with Jones will be the subject of at least this paragraph, and maybe more.

Focus on the Ending and the Beginning

Follow the Topic Sentences

Eliminate the Examples

Identify Who Is Talking

Critical Thinking Exercise: Summary Notes

Now it's time to bring it all together and create strong notes for a summary. Article: Transition Experiences of Mature Students at Ontario Colleges [PDF]. Use the information above to create notes that will help you build a summary. As a reminder, notes should typically be in YOUR words. If you have put any quotations in your notes from the text, please make sure to identify that for yourself!

In the next section, we are going to be learning about paraphrasing as summaries are typically just paraphrasing details from the original text rather than quoting. It is important to know in your notes when you have already rewritten the information or if you still need to paraphrase the quoted detail.

Your summary notes should make sure you include the following:

• Identify the main ideas
  • The main idea of the text (thesis statement)
  • The supporting main ideas—what are the section breaks, and do the topic sentences tell you some of the main arguments of the text
• Remember, you don’t want to include the examples
• Identify supporting and opposing voices

Share your notes with your instructor. Keep in mind your notes should be made FOR you at this stage; don’t worry about grammar/mechanics. Just get the ideas down on paper, so you can refer to them later. Note: We will be using these notes to build a practice summary after section 4.3.

Concluding a Summary

Attributions

How to Paraphrase Using a Two-Part Process

• Alter the vocabulary. To alter the vocabulary, you need to use different words to describe the author’s point, except where the specific words are necessary. Specific words to hang onto would mostly be technical language: the word itself is the most appropriate word because it is the most accurate.
• Change the sentence structure. Ultimately, your sentence should not look like the original, even when you are using some of the technical language. If your reader were to read the two sentences side-by-side, they should be able to see the same idea, but not the same way of phrasing that idea.

AI tools can be useful for building paraphrases, but they should only be used as a tool. Do not just blindly trust what any generative AI tool produces. You must check it closely to make sure the output accurately represents the author and the text. You should also revise the paraphrase to add YOUR voice to the writing. AI tools produce text without grammar and [pb_glossary id="446"]mechanics[/pb_glossary] errors, but the tone and style lack personality, and the details included may not match your audience or purpose. You must always check with your instructor to determine what is permissible.

References

Halek, M. (2025, August 18). Replanting forests after wildfires comes with complex challenges, but there are opportunities in the ashes. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/trees-forest-wildfires-planting-seeds-1.7606076

Jafar, F. (2022). Transition experiences of mature students at Ontario Colleges [PDF]. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 52(4). https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/cjhe/2022-v52-n4-cjhe08358/1102555ar.pdf

Lester, J. D. (1976). Writing research papers: A complete guide (2nd ed.). University of Michigan.

Shetty, A. (2025, September 10). Senator for Waterloo region wants to ban sports betting ads that lead to "addictive behaviour" in youth. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/sports-betting-marty-deacon-1.7629047

Union of Concerned Scientists. (2017, December 20). Barriers to renewable energy technologies. http://www.ucsusa.org/resources/barriers-renewable-energy-technologies

Attributions

Hearing the Text: Strategies for Good Ears

• You can try reading out loud to yourself— This is helpful if you are good at reading out loud exactly what you have written, mistakes and all. This can help you ‘hear’ the mistakes, and then you can make corrections as you go, or leave marks (highlighting, underlines, circles) to make corrections later.
• You can ask a friend to read your text out loud to you—This will work best with someone who hasn’t worked with you on other revisions, so they don’t know in advance what you mean. This time, you want to mark places where your reader stumbles or has to back up to read a sentence, as well as places where one or the other of you sees errors. This strategy often works best with two hard copies, one for you and one for your partner.
• You can have your computer read the text out loud to you—Keep in mind that a computer won’t stumble or back up. It also won’t stop until you tell it to. You’ll need to be ready to use some quick-marking techniques if you use this strategy.

Seeing the Text: Strategies for Good Eyes

• Change the size or typeface of the font you are using. Changing font types and sizes changes where the beginnings and endings of lines appear, which means that you’re more likely to see errors.
  • Most word processors default to using a sans serif font; try a serif font or a different typeface.
  • Make the entire text 18-point or even larger.
• Shrink your window size so that you can only see a few lines at a time. This can help you focus on the words in those lines instead of the flow of the paragraph.
• Make every sentence into a separate paragraph (see the activity below).
  • This approach can work well in conjunction with shrinking your window size, since each sentence will be separated from the ones around it.
  • For an added bonus, this approach can also help you see when you have sentences that begin the same way or too many sentences of the same length in a row.
  • It can also help you find [pb_glossary id="450"]dropped quotations[/pb_glossary] (quotations that stand alone without any of your writing to introduce them).

Example: Changing Font Size

Compare these two versions: [caption id="attachment_107" align="aligncenter" width="577"] The first sample is in Calibri, 14 point. The second sample is 20-point Comic Sans, which makes the error more obvious.[/caption]

Moving Strategies

• Pace. Get a clipboard, print out your paper, and walk around while you read. Make notes or marks for later changes as you go.
• Print out your paper and cut it up so that you only have one paragraph to work with at a time. Tape together paragraphs that bridge pages. Then pick a paragraph, and start marking it up. For some added benefit, choose paragraphs at random so that the ideas are always moving around, too.

Checking Details

Attributions

Attributions

Evaluating Arguments

Factual Correctness

Logical Strength

When building arguments, you want to leave space for the ‘grey’ or the other side of an argument. Try not to use terms that are absolute. Instead, use what we like to call qualifier words that take your argument from something you have to prove 100% to something you just have to prove COULD be true. Qualifier terms include words like can, may, might, could, etc. Example: Dogs make the best pets. Vs. Dogs can be a great pet for many people. On one side, you have to prove without 100% doubt that dogs are the best pets. On the other, you just have to prove that they are good pets for many people.

Sometimes, based on your knowledge level, you may not be in a good position to say something one way or the other if an argument is sound or unsound. That is okay and, in fact, shows you are a critical reader. When this happens, you can only step back, admit you don’t know, and seek more information.

Attributions

Structuring a Persuasive Essay

• Introduction paragraph(s) including thesis statement
• Body paragraphs
  • Opposing and qualifying ideas
  • Strong evidence in support of claim
• A compelling conclusion paragraph(s)

Developing a Strong, Clear Introduction and Thesis Statement

Elements of a Thesis Statement

• Specificity. A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic rather than a broad topic. For example, health care is a broad topic, but a proper thesis statement would focus on a specific area of that topic, such as options for individuals without health care coverage.
• Precision. A strong thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and to remain focused on the topic. If the specific topic is individuals without employment benefits, then your precise thesis statement must make an exact claim about it, such as that all employers should be obligated to provide certain benefits.
• Ability to be argued. A thesis statement must present a relevant and specific argument. A factual statement often is not considered arguable. Be sure your thesis statement contains a point of view that can be supported with evidence.
• Ability to be demonstrated. For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and examples for your opinion. You can rely on personal observations in order to do this, or you can consult outside sources to demonstrate that what you assert is valid. A worthy argument is backed by examples and details.
• Forcefulness. A thesis statement that is forceful shows readers that you are, in fact, making an argument. The tone is assertive and takes a stance that others might oppose.

Avoid forming a thesis based on a negative claim. For example, “The hourly minimum wage is not high enough.” This is probably a true statement, but persuasive arguments should make a positive case. That is, the thesis statement should focus on how the hourly minimum wage is low or insufficient: “The hourly minimum wage is insufficient for the average worker to live on.”

Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements

1. Educating newcomers to Canada about historical Indigenous treaties is an important way to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action.
2. Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet spoils the outcome for the audience and weakens the plot.
3. Compared to an absolute divorce, no-fault divorce is less expensive, promotes fairer settlements, and reflects a more realistic view of the causes for marital breakdown.

• A thesis is weak when it is simply a declaration of your subject or a description of what you will discuss in your essay.
  • Weak thesis statement: My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge.
• A thesis is weak when it makes an unreasonable or outrageous claim or insults the opposing side.
  • Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across Canada are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.
• A thesis is weak when it contains an obvious fact or something that no one can disagree with, or provides a dead end.
  • Weak thesis statement: Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.
• A thesis is weak when the statement is too broad or vague.
  • Weak thesis statement: The life of Sir John A. Macdonald was long and challenging.

Writing Body Paragraphs

Acknowledging Opposing Ideas and Limits to Your Argument

Although adopting a vegan diet can present nutritional deficiencies, these can be overcome with meal planning and nutritional supplements, and the practice comes with its own health benefits.

Building Supporting Detail

Fact and Opinion

Globalization has shifted the economy into what is known as a “knowledge economy.” Due to globalization, corporations can now move to any country to avoid tax cost, increase production through automation, and/or reduce labour cost (Unger, 2019, p. 10). Within this economic structure, one area that can promote economic growth is the strength of a country’s workforce. By increasing human capital through education and training, a country can cause economic growth: “conventional wisdom has emerged wherein ‘better’ education or training is assumed to lead automatically to improved economic performance” (Ashton & Green, 1996, p. 11).[footnote]This example uses APA @ Conestoga style, which recommends the use of page numbers for all citations, not just direct quotations.[/footnote]

The word prove is frequently used in the discussion of persuasive writing. Writers may claim that one piece of evidence or another proves the argument, but proving an argument is often not possible. No evidence proves a debatable topic one way or the other; that is why the topic is debatable. Facts can be proved, but opinions can only be supported, explained, and persuaded.

References

Ashton, D. N., & Green, F. (1996). Education, training and the global economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.

McAlister, K. L., Beatty, C. C., Smith-Caswell, J. E., Yourell, J. L., & Huberty, J. L. (2024). Social media use in adolescents: Bans, benefits, and emotion regulation behaviors. JMIR Mental Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.2196/64626

Unger, R. M. (2019). The knowledge economy. Verso.

Attributions

• 10.2 The Structure of a Persuasive Essay in Writing for Success - 1st Canadian H5P Edition by Tara Horkoff, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
• 10.9 Persuasion – Writing for Success  Writing for Success by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
• 4.1 Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement and 4.2 – Writing Body Paragraphs in Communication Essentials for College, by Jen Booth, Emily Cramer & Amanda Quibell, Georgian College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
• Persuasion and Argument Techniques in English for Degree Entrance (EDE) by Carrie Molinski and Sue Slessor, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

• Paraphrasing text: representing the source’s ideas in your own words (without quotation marks). This was discussed in both Chapter 2 and Chapter 4.
• Summarizing text: representing the source’s main ideas in your own words (without quotation marks). This was discussed in Chapter 2 and Chapter 4.
• Quoting text: copying the source’s exact words and marking them off with quotation marks. This is what we will be focusing on in this chapter, but it has also been discussed in Chapter 2.

Rules Around Quoting

Quote Exactly

Quote Minimally

Connect Quotations to Your Own Sentences

Smith claims that “[insert quotation here].” As Jones makes clear, “[insert quotation here].” Even better, though, would be to paraphrase and include a minimal quotation if at all possible: Smith claims that all students would do better in school if “[insert quotation here].” As Jones makes clear, students who “[insert quotation here]” do far better academically than those who don’t.

Choosing Between Quotations and Paraphrases

The Dangers of Too Much Quotation

Quoting for a Reason

Memorable Language

Technical Language

Authoritative Language

Language for Analysis

Paraphrasing Instead

Attributions

Attributions

Research Writing as Conversation

Research Writing and the Academic Paper

Steps of the Research Writing Process

1. Choose a topic and develop a research question.
2. Plan and schedule time to research and write notes.
3. Conduct research.
4. Organize research and ideas.
5. Draft your paper.
6. Revise and edit your paper.

Attributions

Brainstorming a Research Topic

Creating a Research Question

Research Question Guidelines

• Your research question meets the assignment requirements
• Your research question is based on a topic that genuinely interests you. Try to choose a topic that fits within the subject of your course or within your career goal.
• Your question is not a simple “yes/no” question
• Your research question does not have an easy, obvious answer (a quick Google check of your research question should reveal whether there is an easy, obvious answer. If so, this means that you need to revise and refine your question)
• The research question asks “how?” or “in what ways,” or “what”?
• The research question is focused, specific, and narrow (enough)
• The research question is researchable. It is not asking about the future or about areas of faith, where we cannot find hard evidence about what is.
• Your research question has credible sources/evidence on this topic. Make sure to check the sources using the C.R.A.A.P. test (See Chapter 2.5).

Often when narrowing your research question, you will want to do some early research to see what is already said about this topic, and to see that your question is researchable. When doing some early research, you don’t have to read all of it; instead, use your scanning/skimming reading skills to identify credible sources. You can also save these to read later on in the research writing process.

Bringing It All Together and Developing a Research Question

Attributions

Coming Up With Research Strategies

• What data or information do you need?
• What can different kinds of sources – popular or academic, primary/secondary/tertiary – offer you?
• Whose perspectives could help you to answer your research question?
• What kinds of professionals/scholars will be able to give you the information you seek?
• What kinds of keywords should you be using to get the information that you want?

Where should I look?

• Scientists/researchers who have conducted their own research studies on your topic
• Scholars/thinkers/writers who have also looked at your topic and offered their own analyses of it
• Journalists who are reporting on what they have observed
• Journalists/newspaper or magazine authors who are providing their educated opinions on your topic
• Critics, commentators or others who offer opinions on your topic
• Tertiary sources/fact books that offer statistics or data (usually without analysis)
• Personal stories of individuals who have lived through an event
• Bloggers/YouTubers/other social media personalities

Can I use Wikipedia? 

• Do you fully understand the history of your topic?
• Do you understand the current situation/most recent information on your topic?

Wikipedia can be a great place to get ideas for a research strategy. It may also be a great source for a research paper, but check with your instructor to confirm that it is acceptable.

Common Errors When Finding Research

As you dive into research, make sure to keep yourself organized. We will discuss this more in 6.5, but here are some basic guidelines to help get you started:

• Save your sources by bookmarking them and/or writing them down in your notes Note: If you are using a source from an academic database, make sure to copy the permalink or DOI.
• Choose a notetaking strategy that works for you. Cornell note-taking is a great strategy to use.
• When taking notes, make sure to be specific and structured. If you are writing a note in your own words from a source, write down the source and the page or paragraph number it comes from. If you are writing a quotation down, make sure to add quotation marks, and write down the source and the page or paragraph number from which it comes. This will help you when you have to WRITE your paper later and include in-text citations.

Basic Guidelines for Research in Academic Databases and Google Scholar

How Can You Use an Academic Research Database Effectively?

• Avoid typing your whole research question into the search field. Use only keywords, in various combinations.
• Use several keywords at once, and be willing to change each word for a synonym if you hit a dead end with one set of words.
• Use “AND” or “OR” to retrieve more results or to limit your results.
• Use the database’s own Subject Terms to help you refine your searches within that database.

• Watch Tracking Down Articles (3 mins)
• Watch Part 1: Research and Referencing Skills (NURS8015) Intro and Keywords (4 mins)
• Watch Preparing: Getting Started Searching (3 min)
• Watch Advanced Searching: Searching with Phrases (1 min)
• Watch Refining Your Results Using Search Filters (3 min)

Attributions

Social media has significantly impacted how young people form and maintain relationships. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center study, 81% of teens said that social media makes them feel more connected to their friends and what is going on in their lives (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Therefore, digital platforms can enhance social bonds, especially among adolescents who rely on constant communication.[footnote]Example generated using Copilot, licensed CC 0.[/footnote]

References

Anderson, M. & Jiang, J. (2018, November 28). Teens and their experiences on social media. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/11/28/teens-and-their-experiences-on-social-media/

Attributions

Always keep a working digital reference list of the sources that you are considering or using.

• Create a Word file to keep track of the sources that you want to read. Copy and paste the full citation (many academic databases create a Works Cited reference for you) and copy and paste the permalink or the DOI hyperlink from the source. If you are using a source that you found via Google, copy and paste the URL of the source (it will need to be cited properly by author name, article title, source, etc., if you use it in a paper, so you may want to include that information right away).
• If you are searching in the library’s academic database, create a “Folder” to save the articles that look interesting. Note: If you are using this strategy, make sure to LOGIN to your student account first.
• Emailing hyperlinks of web sources to yourself often seems like the easiest idea. However, be aware that if you email URLs of articles that you find in the library’s research databases, they will not open if you are not logged in to the library. Instead, email the citation (with article title, author name and permalink) to yourself so that you can go back and find the article later.

Keeping Track of Source Information Using Notes

• Make sure to document where the information is coming from by including the reference or link before you include your notes.
• As you take notes, document where this information is coming from (page or paragraph detail). This will make referencing easier.
• Keep track of what you’ve paraphrased and what you are quoting. You can do this by changing the font colour or adding quotation marks. This will help you when you are writing.
• Add your own opinion and ideas as you go. This can help you synthesize later. NOTE: make sure to make it clear to yourself when it is YOUR idea/opinion versus what you’ve read.

• An introduction section includes the thesis statement
• A body section that includes multiple paragraphs
  • Should include supporting detail and evidence from research
  • Depending on length, you may include a literature review of research that has come before. Note: this is not necessary for the scope of this project.
• A conclusion section that repeats the thesis and closes out your paper.

This style may look familiar to you as it is very similar to ideas we covered in Chapter 5, but with some minor changes. In general, any academic essay should have the three key elements of introduction + thesis, body section + supporting evidence, and a conclusion + closing thoughts/restatement of thesis. We just adjust from this base structure depending on the PURPOSE of writing. With persuasive writing, we add some opposing claims in the body section to refute, and with a more extensive research report, we may add a literature review of what’s come before in the body section.

Attributions

• Choose a topic.
• Planned and scheduled time to research and write.
• Conducted research.
• Organized research and ideas.

• Draft your report
• Revise and edit your report

As you become more comfortable in the process of writing and research, you may be able to adjust your writing process and complete some tasks together. For example, you may have to go back and forth more between reading and writing, and the order in which you do your work may be even less linear. This is a skill to build towards, but it is not something to do right away, as this process can make the task feel overwhelming.  In the following sections, we will take a look at how to break down the last two steps in this process into more manageable steps.

Attributions

• An introduction section includes the thesis statement
• A body section that includes multiple paragraphs
  • Should include supporting detail and evidence from research
  • Depending on length, you may include a literature review of research that has come before (note this is not necessary for the scope of this project).
• A conclusion section that repeats the thesis and closes out your report.

Keep in mind that a rough draft is the first go at writing. It does not have to be perfect! In fact, when building a rough draft, it is better to get the ideas out in writing than worry too much about grammar/mechanics. Once you have built a rough draft, you would then go back to revise and edit your report, which we will cover in Chapter 7.3.

Writing Your Introduction

• A surprising fact
• A thought-provoking question
• An attention-getting quote
• A brief anecdote that illustrates a larger concept
• A connection between your topic and your readers’ experiences

Writers often work out of sequence when writing a research report. If you find yourself struggling to write an engaging introduction, you may wish to write the body of your report first (though you will want to have a thesis statement, so you know the report’s direction). Writing the body sections first will help you clarify your main points. Writing the introduction should then be easier. You may have a better sense of how to introduce the report after you have drafted some or all of the body.

Jorge’s Introduction

When you can’t think of a word, think of the best word you can and then put question marks around it so you can revisit it later. Don't let not being able to think of the right word keep you from getting your other thoughts down.[footnote]The content of this box is licensed CC BY-SA; see attribution.[/footnote]

Writing Your Conclusion

Jorge’s Conclusion

Writing Your Body Sections

• Topic sentence which tells the reader what your paragraph will cover.
• Main point sentences which tell the reader what YOUR point is.
• Supporting detail through paraphrasing, quoting or summarizing.
• Optional clarification sentence that helps connect the supporting detail and main point to the thesis idea.
• Conclusion sentence where you wrap up the ideas covered in the paragraph.

One of Jorge's Body Paragraphs

Summarizing Sources

A summary restates ideas in your own words—but for specialized or clinical terms, you may need to use terms that appear in the original source. For instance, Jorge used the term obese in his summary because related words such as heavy or overweight have a different clinical meaning.

Paraphrasing Sources

Quoting Sources Directly

Attribution

• How to evaluate and improve the overall organization and cohesion
• How to maintain an appropriate style and tone
• How to use checklists to identify and correct any errors in language, citations, and formatting

Revising Your Report: Organization and Cohesion

Revise to Improve Organization

Jorge’s Draft Paragraph

Writers choose transitions carefully to show the relationships between ideas; for instance, to make a comparison or elaborate on a point with examples. Make sure your transitions suit your purpose and avoid overusing the same ones.

Revise to Improve Cohesion

Jorge’s Paragraph with Source Integration & Revisions

Revise for Style

Checklist: Revising for Style

• My report avoids excessive wordiness.
• My sentences are varied in length and structure.
• I have avoided using first-person pronouns such as I and we.
• I have defined specialized terms that might be unfamiliar to readers.
• I have used clear, straightforward language whenever possible and avoided unnecessary jargon.
• My report states my point of view using a balanced tone—neither too indecisive nor too forceful.

Jorge’s First Paragraph with Academic Style Revisions

Each stage has its own revision process. If you try to focus on more than one, you will inevitably miss things. It is best to break revision down into multiple stages.

Proofreading Your Report

• Errors in grammar, mechanics, usage, and spelling
• Errors in citing and formatting sources

Please proofread the following text for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and mechanical errors only. Do not suggest changes to tone, sentence structure, word choice, or style. I want to preserve the original voice and phrasing.

Checklist: Citations and Formatting

• Within the body of my report, each fact or idea taken from a source is credited to the correct source. This includes paraphrases and quotes.
• Each in-text citation includes the source author’s name (or, where applicable, the organization name or source title) and year of publication. I have used the correct format of in-text and parenthetical citations.
• Each source cited in the body of my report has a corresponding entry in the references section of my report.
• My references section includes a heading and double-spaced, alphabetized entries.
• Each entry in my references section is indented on the second line and all subsequent lines. This is called a [pb_glossary id="483"]hanging indent[/pb_glossary].
• Each entry in my references section includes all the necessary information for that source type in the correct sequence and format.
• My report includes a title page.
• The margins of my report are set at one inch. Text is double-spaced and set in a standard 12-point font.

Attributions

• Communicating clearly with others
• Increased self-esteem and confidence
• Managing stress
• Improved polish and professionalism
• Being able to “think on your feet”

Attributions

1. Choose a topic and develop a research question.
2. Plan and schedule time to research and write notes.
3. Conduct research.
4. Organize research and ideas.
5. Draft your notes for your presentation and draft your PowerPoint.
6. Revise, edit and practice your presentation.

1. Determine your thesis and write this as a full sentence.
2. Determine your key main points.
3. Add key supporting points for each of your main points which includes your researched evidence.
4. Complete the other parts – introduction and attention grabber, conclusion and call to action, etc.

Break down your outline by timing. The introduction and conclusion should be shorter than the main points section. Make sure to break down the main points by timing as well. Then it is important to practice this once you have your slide deck ready to make sure your estimated timing on your outline matches with the assignment parameters. If it doesn’t, then you would want to make changes to your outline.

Drafting Your Slide Deck

1. Grabber/hook: A very brief and interesting statement or question that grabs the audience’s attention
2. Self-introduction, including full name & credentials: Who you are and why you’re qualified to present this content
3. Thesis: What you’re going to speak about
4. Overview of main points
5. Key point 1
6. Key point 2
7. Key point 3
8. Conclusion: Restate the thesis
9. Summary of main points: Restate the overview
10. Call to action: What you want the audience to do
11. Reference list (you don’t typically talk about this in your presentation, but you should have reference list slide.

Beginning

• Grabber/hook: (Goes before or after the self-introduction) A very brief and interesting statement or question that grabs the audience’s attention. See Grabber Types in the appendix for more details.

A presentation can be more informal, so you can use a personal anecdote or more informal language as you speak. This can be a great way to hook the audience.

• Self-introduction: (Goes before or after the grabber) Tell the audience your name and credentials. For example: I’m Minh and I’ve been a professional presenter for 10 years.
• Thesis: The main point or argument of your presentation. Be brief and precise, not general or vague. For example: I’m going to show you how practicing your presentation 10 times will improve your grade by 20%.
• Overview of main points:  Briefly outline the main points that you’ll cover in your presentation. To help your audience, list these in the same order that you’ll deliver them later on. For example: First, we’ll talk about what makes presentations great, then I’ll share some data on how practice affects your confidence and performance, and finally, we’ll look at how to practice.

Body

• Key point 1: A major point that supports your thesis and may have supporting sub-points
• Key point 2: Another major point that supports your thesis and may have supporting sub-points
• Key point 3: The final major point that supports your thesis and may have supporting sub-points

Ending

• Summary of main points (Can be merged with your conclusion): Clearly restate your main points in the same order you delivered them. It’s the same as your overview, but in the past tense. First, I described what makes presentations great, then I shared data on how practice affects confidence and performance, and finally, we looked at how to practice.
• Conclusion: Restate your thesis in the past tense. For example: I showed you that practicing your presentation 10 times will improve your grade by 20%.
• Call to action: Give your audience clear, active, and compelling direction, based on what you told them. For example: Practice your presentations ten times and start collecting those A-plusses!

General Guidelines for Creating Slides

Content and Organization

• Use the outline you built and the structure we discussed above to develop the content of your slides.
• Your slide deck should match the order from your outline (see above).

Titles and Text

• Be Consistent: Throughout your slide deck, titles and text should be consistent in title & text size, shape, placement, bullet & heading hierarchy, and formatting.
• Be Brief: Your slides are not a script. If you include too much information on them, your audience will be reading, not listening to you. Slides should reinforce your key points, highlighting only the most important information. Share the rest verbally – anecdotes, smaller details, and extra information.

There are two great ways to help you keep slides brief: The 1-6-6 Method recommends that each slide have a maximum of 1 idea, 6 bullet points, and 6 words per bullet. The 1-3-5 Method is similar: it suggests 1 idea, 3 bullet points and 5 words per bullet, per slide.

• Font Type, Size, and Colour Matter: Your audience might have less than perfect vision or a small device, so make type easy to read. Make sure to use a sans-serif font. Use high-contrast colours for text, such as black on white, or white on navy blue. If you’re placing text on an image, use a solid background colour in the text box. Try to use at least size 24 or larger for your body text and size 32 for titles. If you’re using a font size smaller than 32, test your slides to make sure text is visible from the back of the room or on a small device.

Animations and Transitions

• Limit the number of animations you use and avoid whimsical or unnecessary ones – they can make your slides annoying and unprofessional. Animations are useful when you want to gradually reveal information.
• You can use transitions, like fade-in or fade-out, when you’re moving from one slide to the next. To avoid distracting your audience, don’t use too many different types of transitions, and avoid overly dramatic transitions. Just like animations, a little goes a long way.

Visual Design

• All slides should have a consistent design as though they were created by one person, not cobbled together from multiple sources. If any of this does change, it should be an intentional design choice that reflects the presentation.
• Human brains love images! Include images in your slides to add interest and explain key points. Charts and graphs are fantastic ways to show data, describe relationships, and help your audience understand a key point.
• There are copyright and citation rules around using images in your work. We will cover this in 8.4.

Attributions