Hi, I've made a list of writing resources to help students who need to strengthen their writing. One of the obstacles some students encounter in our programme is a lack of sophistication in their writing. In previous posts, I've spoken about the need to make writing critical and how to use Bloom's Taxonomy. This is different from the sophistication of your sentence and paragraph structures and developing a good argument.
To begin with, I recommend a sophisticated grammar book. I suggest the following:
Hewings, Martin, 2005. Advanced Grammar in Use, 2nd ed. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Buy the edition with the answers and the CD Rom with the supplemental exercises if possible.
Additionally, every student should have a good dictionary and thesaurus. Oxford publishes both these tools. A thesaurus helps build vocabulary and word by suggesting different words with different shades of meaning. Accuracy in language use is very important as well. This is why you should use a good comprehensive dictionary with English spellings. After all, University of Leicester is an English university and English spelling is the standard here. I use the Oxford Concise which I find larger and more accurate than smaller, cheaper dictionaries.
In terms of writing, I suggest the following books as complete guides to proper essay and assignment writing:
Bailey, Stephen, 2006. Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students, 2nd ed. London : Routledge.
Jordan, R. R., 1999. Academic Writing Course: Study Skills in English, 3rd ed. Harlow : Pearson Educational Limited.
I hope these resources are useful to students with writing issues.
KB
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
How to Contact a Dissertation Tutor
To Post Queries on the Support Forum
Please go to Blackboard. Log into ‘Dissertation’ on the left hand side of the screen. You should see a grey menu bar select ‘Support Forums’. Click on ‘Access the Support Forums’. Select the relevant subject area from those listed (Management of Information Systems). Once there click on ‘Create a Thread’. You can then post your query and submit it.
To Book a Telephone Appointment with the Dissertation Tutor
Please go to Blackboard log into ‘Dissertation’. On the left hand side of the screen you should see a grey menu bar. Select ‘Book a Meeting’ click on 2011 Meetings. Now select a month that you wish to book the meeting complete and submit the form.
These are the standard instructions, given to me by the office, are the standard instructions for helping you find dissertation tutor information on blackboard.
KB
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sentences and full stops
What is a sentence? Many grammar writers, such as George Davidson (How to Punctuate, Penguin Bks) , define a sentence as a complete thought. For example:
Tuppence went to garden, selected a patch in the garden and dug up the tulips.
However, as Davidson points out a sentence like this one can be written as three thoughts.
Tuppence went to the garden. She selected a patch in the garden. She dug up the tulips.
The first sentence, about my dog Tuppence (who has not been digging up tulips in my garden), joins together several ideas using a comma and a coordinate conjunction "and". This makes reading this sentence smoother. However, there might be circumstances in which we might want to emphasize the repetition of an action for artistic effect. For example:
Tuppence went to the garden. She heard a black squirrel chatting in the pine trees. She barked again and again. When KB heard this, she rushed outside immediately.
This sentence (which Tuppence wants you to know is the truth) expresses the annoying and repetitive actions of Tuppence, the dog when she sees squirrels.
I define a sentence as a complete thought that use a subject and a verb. The subject, as you can see can be Tuppence (a noun) or she (a pronoun). Pronouns take the place of nouns in sentences when we already know the subject of the of the sentence. For example, if we repeated the subject "Tuppence" in all three sentences instead of the pronoun "she", the repetition would be very annoying.
A full stop or period exists at the end of complete thoughts to express complete ideas. A sentence with commas should join together ideas with the same subject.
Thus:
Tuppence went to the garden, heard a black squirrel chatting in the pine trees and barked again and again. When KB heard this, she rushed outside immediately.
Notice that I have joined only the first three sentences. All these sentences have the same subject, Tuppence.
Next week, I shall discuss semi colons and their use.
KB
Tuppence went to garden, selected a patch in the garden and dug up the tulips.
However, as Davidson points out a sentence like this one can be written as three thoughts.
Tuppence went to the garden. She selected a patch in the garden. She dug up the tulips.
The first sentence, about my dog Tuppence (who has not been digging up tulips in my garden), joins together several ideas using a comma and a coordinate conjunction "and". This makes reading this sentence smoother. However, there might be circumstances in which we might want to emphasize the repetition of an action for artistic effect. For example:
Tuppence went to the garden. She heard a black squirrel chatting in the pine trees. She barked again and again. When KB heard this, she rushed outside immediately.
This sentence (which Tuppence wants you to know is the truth) expresses the annoying and repetitive actions of Tuppence, the dog when she sees squirrels.
I define a sentence as a complete thought that use a subject and a verb. The subject, as you can see can be Tuppence (a noun) or she (a pronoun). Pronouns take the place of nouns in sentences when we already know the subject of the of the sentence. For example, if we repeated the subject "Tuppence" in all three sentences instead of the pronoun "she", the repetition would be very annoying.
A full stop or period exists at the end of complete thoughts to express complete ideas. A sentence with commas should join together ideas with the same subject.
Thus:
Tuppence went to the garden, heard a black squirrel chatting in the pine trees and barked again and again. When KB heard this, she rushed outside immediately.
Notice that I have joined only the first three sentences. All these sentences have the same subject, Tuppence.
Next week, I shall discuss semi colons and their use.
KB
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Plagiarism vs. Poor Scholarship
Hi, this post comes around periodically because it is an ongoing problem for some students. I'm aware that many of the students do understand about plagiarism. For those students, please bear with me because these are issues that come up frequently. This is the reason for this posting.
This is is a link to University of Leicester's page on plagiarism:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/sd/ld/resources/study/plagiarism-tutorial
The following is a link to a useful site at the Indiana University Bloomington that has a useful questionnaire for students who are uncertain about plagiarism:
https://www.indiana.edu/~tedfrick/plagiarism/
To clarify, all students at the University of Leicester should be aware of the university's policy with regard to plagiarism. Once you have read and understood this policy, that may be enough information for some students. However, this is not the case for all students.
Which students are at the most risk of plagiarism or poor scholarship? I have created a list below of conditions that indicate a student is in danger of plagiarism and/or poor scholarship:
1. Students who are lost and use online sources, without clear references, such as this one to help yourself:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
This is a poor source to use if you want to understand Bloom's Taxonomy. Notice that there are advertisements here. Notice as well that the taxonomy itself is not labeled. There are many similar websites on, for example, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Research for your research papers should come from reliable textbooks, the University of Leicester's digital library and some online sources which are reliable. Sadly, Wikipedia cannot be numbered among these sources at the present time because it contains many mistakes and is not written by scholars.
Look at this source for doing research on the Civil War:
http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
Notice that this source points the way to reliable primary (first hand) and secondary sources on the Civil War. This source is updated regularly. Other such sources would include university webpages or webpages such as the Medline.
Students often don't realize good research takes time. You need to allow yourself to have this time to do the kind of research that is expected in quality work.
2. Students who have difficulty writing.
When students can't write properly, they often use the words of others. There are resources such as:
Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students by Stephen Bailey
to assist students who have difficulty in putting together a good logical argument. Additionally, the University of Leicester offers courses for students who have difficulties with English. Sometime, taking such a programme can make getting your degree easier and is a worthwhile investment.
Finally, I would add that students must understand that rephrasing the words of another author and not providing citations is a big problem. All ideas and concepts stemming from the work of others must be cited.
Students should be aware that if their work is found to be plagiarized, they won't get a second opportunity to submit it. This is why students who are told that their work has failed due to poor scholarship must be careful. They will be allowed to resubmit their work. However, their work will be scrutinized carefully for plagiarism. Additionally, module tutors/markers will expect that they have fixed this problem in the redraft of their assignment.
I hope that this is clear to all students.
KB
This is is a link to University of Leicester's page on plagiarism:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/sd/ld/resources/study/plagiarism-tutorial
The following is a link to a useful site at the Indiana University Bloomington that has a useful questionnaire for students who are uncertain about plagiarism:
https://www.indiana.edu/~tedfrick/plagiarism/
To clarify, all students at the University of Leicester should be aware of the university's policy with regard to plagiarism. Once you have read and understood this policy, that may be enough information for some students. However, this is not the case for all students.
Which students are at the most risk of plagiarism or poor scholarship? I have created a list below of conditions that indicate a student is in danger of plagiarism and/or poor scholarship:
1. Students who are lost and use online sources, without clear references, such as this one to help yourself:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
This is a poor source to use if you want to understand Bloom's Taxonomy. Notice that there are advertisements here. Notice as well that the taxonomy itself is not labeled. There are many similar websites on, for example, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Research for your research papers should come from reliable textbooks, the University of Leicester's digital library and some online sources which are reliable. Sadly, Wikipedia cannot be numbered among these sources at the present time because it contains many mistakes and is not written by scholars.
Look at this source for doing research on the Civil War:
http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
Notice that this source points the way to reliable primary (first hand) and secondary sources on the Civil War. This source is updated regularly. Other such sources would include university webpages or webpages such as the Medline.
Students often don't realize good research takes time. You need to allow yourself to have this time to do the kind of research that is expected in quality work.
2. Students who have difficulty writing.
When students can't write properly, they often use the words of others. There are resources such as:
Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students by Stephen Bailey
to assist students who have difficulty in putting together a good logical argument. Additionally, the University of Leicester offers courses for students who have difficulties with English. Sometime, taking such a programme can make getting your degree easier and is a worthwhile investment.
Finally, I would add that students must understand that rephrasing the words of another author and not providing citations is a big problem. All ideas and concepts stemming from the work of others must be cited.
Students should be aware that if their work is found to be plagiarized, they won't get a second opportunity to submit it. This is why students who are told that their work has failed due to poor scholarship must be careful. They will be allowed to resubmit their work. However, their work will be scrutinized carefully for plagiarism. Additionally, module tutors/markers will expect that they have fixed this problem in the redraft of their assignment.
I hope that this is clear to all students.
KB
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thank you to all students
Dear Students:
I was very touched by the number of responses when I was forced to go off line for a while earlier this year. As you may have noticed, there have been a number of blog postings since then. The responses of my students has made me realize that this blog is being read. As we go into summer, I'm going to try and include blogs on grammar. I had considered dropping these blog postings but find that they are very useful for most students.
Thank you again. Every posting is appreciated.
KB
I was very touched by the number of responses when I was forced to go off line for a while earlier this year. As you may have noticed, there have been a number of blog postings since then. The responses of my students has made me realize that this blog is being read. As we go into summer, I'm going to try and include blogs on grammar. I had considered dropping these blog postings but find that they are very useful for most students.
Thank you again. Every posting is appreciated.
KB
Friday, April 29, 2011
Assignment Questions based on Quoted Sources
In the past month, I've noticed that some students have problems with assignments that use quoted sources on a given subject[Finance, Accounting, OB] to sponsor discussion. To help you learn to approach questions that use quotations, I want to begin with a simple example from literature.
Example Question:
Henry James argued in his forward to "The Aspern Papers" that he wanted "to do the complicated thing with a strong brevity and lucidity." (1888). Discuss.
What is implied here by "discuss"? As I've mentioned in previous posts, the objective of most academic work is to develop critical thinking. In the context of this question, critical thinking means discussion of this point. So, when you examine "The Aspern Papers", is the author brief and lucid. These words conveyed something different for 19th century readers than they do in the present. We, as the media constantly reminds us, live in the age of email and phone texts, blogs, Twitter and Facebook. The Aspern Papers, by comparison with these brief commications, is a book of endless emotional complications and complex language. It is roughly 100 pages of dense text. By our standards, this isn't brief. If you were writing about this question, for an assignment, the discussion would involve a lively exchange of information which would highlight both sides of the debate with fairness and clarity.
When longer quotations are involved, the first challenge facing the student is comprehension. What does the quotation mean? An example of a longer quotation, from Fredric Jameson, in Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Verso, 1991:
"The last few years have been marked by an inverted millenarianism in which premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, have been replaced by senses of the end of this or that (the end of ideology, art, or social class; the “crisis” of Leninism, social democracy, or the welfare state, etc., etc.); taken together, all of these perhaps constitute what is increasingly called postmodernism. The case for its existence depends on the hypothesis of some radical break or coupure, generally traced back to the end of the 1950s or the early 1960s."
Quotations such as these require more investigation. Before writing your paper, it's important when you're given lengthy and complicated quotations, that you spend time understanding them. Suggestions by the module tutor, to look at a particular source or writer to assist understanding, should be taken seriously and these other writers will probably be included in your assignment and bibliography. When you have a complex quotation, such as the one above, the temptation is to by-pass it and begin writing your paper without this analysis. This is a serious mistake. Quotations must be dissected and clearly understood before proceeding with discussion and debate. Thus, you can see, these long quotations are used as a method to inspire debate and discussion in your assignments. Understanding them is part and parcel of being a graduate student.
Until next time,
KB
Example Question:
Henry James argued in his forward to "The Aspern Papers" that he wanted "to do the complicated thing with a strong brevity and lucidity." (1888). Discuss.
What is implied here by "discuss"? As I've mentioned in previous posts, the objective of most academic work is to develop critical thinking. In the context of this question, critical thinking means discussion of this point. So, when you examine "The Aspern Papers", is the author brief and lucid. These words conveyed something different for 19th century readers than they do in the present. We, as the media constantly reminds us, live in the age of email and phone texts, blogs, Twitter and Facebook. The Aspern Papers, by comparison with these brief commications, is a book of endless emotional complications and complex language. It is roughly 100 pages of dense text. By our standards, this isn't brief. If you were writing about this question, for an assignment, the discussion would involve a lively exchange of information which would highlight both sides of the debate with fairness and clarity.
When longer quotations are involved, the first challenge facing the student is comprehension. What does the quotation mean? An example of a longer quotation, from Fredric Jameson, in Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Verso, 1991:
"The last few years have been marked by an inverted millenarianism in which premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, have been replaced by senses of the end of this or that (the end of ideology, art, or social class; the “crisis” of Leninism, social democracy, or the welfare state, etc., etc.); taken together, all of these perhaps constitute what is increasingly called postmodernism. The case for its existence depends on the hypothesis of some radical break or coupure, generally traced back to the end of the 1950s or the early 1960s."
Quotations such as these require more investigation. Before writing your paper, it's important when you're given lengthy and complicated quotations, that you spend time understanding them. Suggestions by the module tutor, to look at a particular source or writer to assist understanding, should be taken seriously and these other writers will probably be included in your assignment and bibliography. When you have a complex quotation, such as the one above, the temptation is to by-pass it and begin writing your paper without this analysis. This is a serious mistake. Quotations must be dissected and clearly understood before proceeding with discussion and debate. Thus, you can see, these long quotations are used as a method to inspire debate and discussion in your assignments. Understanding them is part and parcel of being a graduate student.
Until next time,
KB
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Saving time at the Beginning of Assignments
A student asked me how he could save time in doing his assignments. This the advice I gave for the first stages of work on an assignment topic.
"The first thing most students don't understand is the first stage in doing an assignment isn't information gathering. In the first stage of an assignment, you reflect on what you are being asked to do and the materials you already have at hand to do the assignment. Consider this:
1. The tutor will expect that you have read the information in the module text on the assigned topic. It will also help you later if you go over the module text. Good marks on your final exams is a result of going over study information several times. (SQ3R)
2. You should understand all the terminology the tutor uses any given assignment. You should look up terms you don't understand in your module text. The module text was chosen for a reason. The focus and definitions in a text usually fit with the way the tutor also defines any terminology in a given assignment.
3. Read your module text can help you to understand the question, first. Do not go online and read a lot of information on the internet that may or may not be correct.
4. If you spend your time wisely at the beginning of an assignment, defining the perimeters of the question you can save time later by not going off topic later.
5. Discussion on Blackboard is also important here.
Okay, so before writing a word, understand what is really required of you. To do this, you can use a variety of tools:
1. Your mind and your imagination.
2. Your module text.
3. Map minds or other mapping tools.
4. Blackboard (bb)
You need to look at the subject of an assignment clearly and understand what it means.
KB
"The first thing most students don't understand is the first stage in doing an assignment isn't information gathering. In the first stage of an assignment, you reflect on what you are being asked to do and the materials you already have at hand to do the assignment. Consider this:
1. The tutor will expect that you have read the information in the module text on the assigned topic. It will also help you later if you go over the module text. Good marks on your final exams is a result of going over study information several times. (SQ3R)
2. You should understand all the terminology the tutor uses any given assignment. You should look up terms you don't understand in your module text. The module text was chosen for a reason. The focus and definitions in a text usually fit with the way the tutor also defines any terminology in a given assignment.
3. Read your module text can help you to understand the question, first. Do not go online and read a lot of information on the internet that may or may not be correct.
4. If you spend your time wisely at the beginning of an assignment, defining the perimeters of the question you can save time later by not going off topic later.
5. Discussion on Blackboard is also important here.
Okay, so before writing a word, understand what is really required of you. To do this, you can use a variety of tools:
1. Your mind and your imagination.
2. Your module text.
3. Map minds or other mapping tools.
4. Blackboard (bb)
You need to look at the subject of an assignment clearly and understand what it means.
KB
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