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Writing Tips
Always have someone else read your paper!!
- Make sure that your sentences flow smoothly and aren't disjointed
- Make sure that you use complete sentences!
- Make sure that your sentences make sense!
Consult the Academic Skills Center (M-325) for assistance!!
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Word problems that people frequently encounter:
- Affect vs. effect
- Affect describes how something acts on something else
- Effect describes the end result of the action
- For example:
Fleas affect animals in many ways. One effect
of fleas is allergic dermatitis.
- Note that you can substitute "acts on" and "end
result" for affect and effect and not change
the sentence
- It's vs. its
- It's is a contraction that means "it is"
- Its is the possessive (belonging to it)
- For example:
It's difficult to treat an infestation with
a flea powder. One of the characteristics of a powder is its tendancy
to not stay on the animal's fur.
- Scientific names
- Remember to underline or italisize
scientific names
- Remember that the species name is the scientific
name
- Remember to capitalize the generic name
but not the specific name
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Abbreviations:
- You must define an abbreviation before you use it in the text of a
paper
- Once the letters are defined, you can use the abbreviation without
the definition
- Example:
The clinical signs of flea-induced anemia include
lethargy, anorexia and depression (LAD). Be aware, however, that many
other diseases may present with similar signs, including LAD.
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Citations:
- Consult Writing
and Citing Using the CBE Method of Documentation
- Frequency of use-
- Do not make your paper a string or quotes or citations
- Two adjacent sentences should not be quotes or citations
- What needs to be cited?
- You do not need to cite if you find the same information
in three or more sources- it is common knowledge (for example: Polyplax
spinulosa is a permanent parasite.
All of your references will tell you that, and although you might
not have known it when you began your research, you don't need to
cite it).
- You will need to cite most numbers (especially if the numbers
are different in all of your sources).
- You will need to cite if the information is original thought
or not present in any other source.
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Periods:
- Periods belong at the end of sentences.
- If you are citing, the period goes after the citation:
The life cycle of Polyplax spinulosa is
28 days (Georgi 1998).
(for some reason, people tend
to put the period after days, but then that makes the reference
part of the next sentence)
Parts of an Essay:
- The text of a paper should consist of an introduction,
the body and the conclusion
- Introduction-
- General overview of what you're going to
discuss in your paper
- But don't start by saying: This
paper is going to discuss three parasites of rats.
- This is one of the most difficult parts
of a paper to write (only the conclusion is harder)
- It should introduce the subject: what it's
about, why it's important, etc.
- Here's a reference from Emory University
on Writing
Introductions
- Body-
- This the information that you were supposed
to find
- Make sure that you use complete sentences
- Make sure that you include all of the assigned
information
- A body can consist of one to many paragraphs.
Each paragraph should address a separate topic (if you were discussing
parasites of the rat, for example, you might write about lice and
mites in one paragraph, pinworms in the next paragraph and the
dwarf tapeworm in the last paragraph).
- Conclusions-
- This should wrap up your paper
- You should state your conclusions and supporting evidence based
on the body
- The summary should not include new information not discussed in
the body
- Here's a reference from Emory University on Writing
Conclusions
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