Almost Halfway Through and Midterm Paper is Due
We are almost halfway through the semester of Exploring Your Digital Portfolio and we have absorbed a significant amount of information. But, there is always room for more learning. This week's lesson centered around writing an APA style paper which I was not familiar with at all. I have written MLA style papers in previous courses. We were sent a link to a You Tube video curated by Tom Kluxen , one of the head tutors of the Writing Center at Stockton University
APA is an acronym for the American Psychological Association. This style of paper is used in research papers in the social science fields. Research in these fields is constantly changing and updating so the information available does as well.
The two key components of this paper according to Tom are format and citations.
The first key component of your paper is format.
Formatting can be done easily by typing "APA Style" in the search bar in Google Docs. It will give you a template that should include the title page, abstract, body and references. If you have charts, tables or graphs you can add those as well.
The basic format of the paper should be as follows:
1) The typeface guidelines are Serif/Sans Serif with 12 point font.
2) The paper should be double spaced with 1 inch margins.
3) There should be a running head (shortened version of your title written in all capital letters) on the left and page number on the right.
The first part of your paper is the title page which should include your running head and page number at the top. Halfway down the page should be the title of your work, your name and the institution it was written for. The bottom of the page should have the author's note which is one single sentence that says why the paper was written (i.e. This paper was written for (insert name of course) taught by (insert name of professor, name of course and term).
The second part of your paper is the abstract. This section summarizes the entire paper. It should be approximately 250-400 words and include keywords that were used throughout the paper. It should be very broad and should not include any statistics or data. Although it is the second part, it should be written last.
The third part of your paper is the body. You should create an outline to organize your ideas and information. Your information should be the most recent, relevant to your topic, and peer reviewed if possible. The data you use should be straight from the source to avoid bias. If using information from websites you should be conscious of the author/sponsor and any updates that may be available. the most reputable sources are academic journals and scholarly sources. When searching for sources you can use a Boolean search which allows you to omit and add words in quotations to narrow down the results. You use AND/OR to add and not to omit. (i.e. "mass incarceration rates" AND "America"). You can also use advances search filters to omit databases, sources and authors.
The second key component of your paper is citations. This is a very important part of your research. Plagiarism is serious business.
For in-text citations you always need three pieces of information.
1) The year of publication
2) Author's last name
3) If it's a type of source with a page number, you will need that as well.
Tom states that you should avoid online citation generators like Citation Machine and BibMe because they are not accurate. He recommends using the most current edition of A Writer's Reference or Rules for Writers.
The final section of your paper should be the references page and should be as follows:
1) The word "References" centered at the top of the page.
2) References should be alphabetized by author's last name or organization (ignore the words A, AN and THE in organization names)
3) Use a hanging dent (indent everything but the first line)
4) Capitalize only the first word of titles, subtitles and proper nouns. If it is a two part title, capitalize the first word of the second part as well.
Tom concludes the video with helpful tips such as, pay close attention to the assignment, re-read as many times as you can, revise what you write paying attention to grammar, punctuation, organization and flow. The final tip is DON'T wait until the last minute so that you have time to re-read, get feedback and revise.
The video was very informative and will prove to be essential for our midterm research project.
For my midterm paper on social media etiquette, my chosen subject is New Jersey Deputy Mayor Rick Blood. He shared a post on Facebook that was offensive to many of his constituents and resulted in backlash along with other negative consequences effecting his public service career. I will discuss the contents of the post, the effect it had, the consequences suffered as a result along with what could or should be done to avoid such undesirable occurrences in the future.
For this week our reading was Chapter 6 of the book LOL...OMG by Matt Ivester. The title of the chapter is Becoming a Conscious Creator of Content. In it he says we should consider not only the personal consequences of digital decisions, but their effect on others. We need to understand the range of places where content may end up, all of the people who might see it and the variety of ways in which they may react. Although we may not take the time to consider these factors every time we post something online we should ask ourselves 4 questions.
Why are you doing this? The time of posting should also be considered (real time vs. posting later).
Are you highly likely to be scrutinized? What should be private or public?
When considering these 4 things, you will reduce your risk of negative consequences.
Here is my synopsis of the video.
The video is about 40 minutes in length and provides key guidelines for writing an APA style paper.APA is an acronym for the American Psychological Association. This style of paper is used in research papers in the social science fields. Research in these fields is constantly changing and updating so the information available does as well.
The two key components of this paper according to Tom are format and citations.
The first key component of your paper is format.
Formatting can be done easily by typing "APA Style" in the search bar in Google Docs. It will give you a template that should include the title page, abstract, body and references. If you have charts, tables or graphs you can add those as well.
The basic format of the paper should be as follows:
1) The typeface guidelines are Serif/Sans Serif with 12 point font.
2) The paper should be double spaced with 1 inch margins.
3) There should be a running head (shortened version of your title written in all capital letters) on the left and page number on the right.
The first part of your paper is the title page which should include your running head and page number at the top. Halfway down the page should be the title of your work, your name and the institution it was written for. The bottom of the page should have the author's note which is one single sentence that says why the paper was written (i.e. This paper was written for (insert name of course) taught by (insert name of professor, name of course and term).
The second part of your paper is the abstract. This section summarizes the entire paper. It should be approximately 250-400 words and include keywords that were used throughout the paper. It should be very broad and should not include any statistics or data. Although it is the second part, it should be written last.
The third part of your paper is the body. You should create an outline to organize your ideas and information. Your information should be the most recent, relevant to your topic, and peer reviewed if possible. The data you use should be straight from the source to avoid bias. If using information from websites you should be conscious of the author/sponsor and any updates that may be available. the most reputable sources are academic journals and scholarly sources. When searching for sources you can use a Boolean search which allows you to omit and add words in quotations to narrow down the results. You use AND/OR to add and not to omit. (i.e. "mass incarceration rates" AND "America"). You can also use advances search filters to omit databases, sources and authors.
The second key component of your paper is citations. This is a very important part of your research. Plagiarism is serious business.
For in-text citations you always need three pieces of information.
1) The year of publication
2) Author's last name
3) If it's a type of source with a page number, you will need that as well.
Tom states that you should avoid online citation generators like Citation Machine and BibMe because they are not accurate. He recommends using the most current edition of A Writer's Reference or Rules for Writers.
The final section of your paper should be the references page and should be as follows:
1) The word "References" centered at the top of the page.
2) References should be alphabetized by author's last name or organization (ignore the words A, AN and THE in organization names)
3) Use a hanging dent (indent everything but the first line)
4) Capitalize only the first word of titles, subtitles and proper nouns. If it is a two part title, capitalize the first word of the second part as well.
Tom concludes the video with helpful tips such as, pay close attention to the assignment, re-read as many times as you can, revise what you write paying attention to grammar, punctuation, organization and flow. The final tip is DON'T wait until the last minute so that you have time to re-read, get feedback and revise.
The video was very informative and will prove to be essential for our midterm research project.
For my midterm paper on social media etiquette, my chosen subject is New Jersey Deputy Mayor Rick Blood. He shared a post on Facebook that was offensive to many of his constituents and resulted in backlash along with other negative consequences effecting his public service career. I will discuss the contents of the post, the effect it had, the consequences suffered as a result along with what could or should be done to avoid such undesirable occurrences in the future.
For this week our reading was Chapter 6 of the book LOL...OMG by Matt Ivester. The title of the chapter is Becoming a Conscious Creator of Content. In it he says we should consider not only the personal consequences of digital decisions, but their effect on others. We need to understand the range of places where content may end up, all of the people who might see it and the variety of ways in which they may react. Although we may not take the time to consider these factors every time we post something online we should ask ourselves 4 questions.
Why are you doing this? The time of posting should also be considered (real time vs. posting later).
Are you highly likely to be scrutinized? What should be private or public?
When considering these 4 things, you will reduce your risk of negative consequences.
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