Chapter 23: Lab, Experiment, and Field Reports Summary

Chapter 23: Lab, Experiment, and Field Reports Summary

            In this chapter we learn about how to properly document a scientific experiment or study. Accurately recording and thoughtfully interpreting the results of the study or experiment is a must. There are two methods in which this can be done. The first is the scientific method. You would start by observing something interesting and check whether scientists have explained this same observation before. Then you can summarize your observations and create a testable hypothesis. You want to be able to test your hypothesis, paying close attention to the variables and the controls. When you see the results of the experiment, you can accept, reject or modify your hypothesis. You may need to repeat a few of these steps in order to completely understand what you are observing and the results. The other format you can follow is the standard format. Following this format you would model scientific thinking, lab and field reports including an introduction that establishes the problem, details showing the procedure, results that provide the data and finally discussion that will interpret the data you found. No matter which of the two methods you choose, you need to understand and be able to distinguish the facts from possibilities and experiments from studies. Facts are the data that you have collected, while possibilities are interpretations of that data. And experiments test your hypothesis by manipulating the variables, while studies observe what is actually there by counting, measuring or sampling.

Chapter 32: Drafting a Paper with Documentation Research Summary

Chapter 32: Drafting a Paper with Documentation Research Summary

In this chapter you learn all about plagiarism. Plagiarism is using someone else’s words, ideas, or images as your own. There are many different ways you can plagiarize information, such as, submitted a paper you didn’t write yourself, pasting large chunks of a source into your paper, using summaries, paraphrases, or quotations without documentation, using exact phrasing of a source without quotation marks, and/ or mixing source material and your own ideas. Plagiarism is very serious due to academic dishonesty, theft from the academic community by taking an unfair advantage over your classmates or disrespecting your readers or other writers, and now and in the future you rob yourself of your education and integrity. In order to avoid plagiarism you need to resist temptation, play by the rules, take orderly, accurate notes, document all borrowed material – common knowledge being an exception, and working carefully with source material in your paper. Besides plagiarism you want to avoid using sources inaccurately, using source material out of context, overusing source material, relying heavily on one source failing to match in-text citations to bibliographic entries, and other academic offenses, such as double-dipping, falstaffing and copyright violations. You always want to organize and synthesize your findings by developing your ideas, and developing a structure for delivering research results. Then you can choose your drafting method by writing systematically and freely and then shape your first draft. Next you can integrate source material carefully by supporting your point with facts, statistics, and details, giving credibility with an expert’s supporting statement, and address counterarguments. You want to be sure you have smooth integration when using quotations too. And always be sure to effectively document your sources. You want to clearly identify where your source material begins and ends.

Chapter 31: Conducting Research on the Internet Summary

Chapter 31: Conducting Research on the Internet Summary

You learn a lot about the Internet in this chapter. Some benefits of doing research over the Internet are: it is always open, and it contains a wealth of current information in text, sound, and visual formats. There are some drawbacks though,, they are as follows: the large amount of information can be disorganized, finding relevant material could take careful digging and you should evaluate all sources. Also the Internet lacks quality control, information can be here today, gone or changed tomorrow, and all that info makes it easy for plagiarism. The Internet itself is a worldwide network of connected local computers and computer networks that allows computers to share information with one another. The World Wide Web provides access to much of the material on the Internet. A website is a group of related web pages post by the same sponsor or organization. A web browser allows you to search through a directory or search engine. The Internet address is a URL, Uniform Resource Locator which includes the website purpose in the ending, for example: .com, .edu, .gov,. or .org. You are able to save Internet information by a bookmark, printout, saving it or downloading it, and emailing it. Always on the web you need to try to find the reliable information. You can use your library’s website, URLs, or follow helpful links. And if you know exactly what you are looking for, you can use a search engine or metasearch tool. All of the information in this chapter helps you to perform research on the Internet without plagiarizing work.

Chapter 30: Conducting Primary and Library Research Summary

Chapter 30: Conducting Primary and Library Research Summary

This chapter is very useful to read through when you need to conduct some sort of research for a paper you are writing. You learn the difference between primary and secondary sources. A primary source is the original source, while a secondary source presents secondhand information. You can conduct primary research yourself by doing surveys, questionnaires, interviews, observations, inspections, filed research, experiments, and analysis of documents and artifacts. The upside to doing this research is it is specifically tailored to your research and gives you hands-on access to your topic, while the downside is that is may take a lot of time and you may need additional skills, like how to conduct a survey for example. In using the library, you should first become familiar with it and all it offers. You should know about the librarians, collections, research tools, and special services that are offered. Your library could have books, DVDs, CDs, reference materials, etc., as well as, photocopiers, CD burners, or the convenience of holding a book when it is already checked out. You should be familiar with the Library of Congress Call Numbers and the Dewey Decimal System to search for what you are looking for. When using books for reference, you want to know what information is supplied in what book. For example, in encyclopedias you will find facts and overviews for topics arranged alphabetically. In vocabulary resources, you will find information on languages. On bibliographical resources you will find information on people. In all the research you do, always be sure to make citations for all information you use. This chapter is very helpful in writing any paper in which you need to do research. I found it very helpful as an overview for how to use your library to the fullest

Chapter 29: Getting Started - From Planning Research to Evaluting Sources Summary

Chapter 29: Getting Started – From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources Summary

In this chapter you learn all about how to do your research for a paper and how to evaluate the sources you get your information from. You need to have a narrow manageable topic first. Then you can start brainstorming research questions. You need to have both simple and substantial questions, as well as, main and secondary questions. You also need to have a working thesis. The formula for a working thesis is: Working Thesis = Limited Topic + Tentative Claim, Statement, or Hypothesis. It is important to remember your thesis can change throughout your writing process. After this, you need to choose your research method. You can do background research, field or primary research, library research and/ or internet research. It all depends on your topic and where the relative information will be for you. You need to make sure to establish priorities when it comes to your research, like how much research will you need to do, what range of resources will give you quality, reliable information and what types of research does your project specify? You need to open to mind to explore all types of possible information resources and sites. Sites can be personal, reference works, books, government publications, people, libraries, mass media, testing, or the workplace. Make sure when doing your research that you choose your keywords carefully. You need to have some strategies for choosing your keywords. You need to engage your sources. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s better to skim the source before your read in-depth and read with an open-mind. Be aware of the rating of your source. You want to make sure it is reliable. You want your source to have current information, have a credible author, reliable publication, and you want your source to have quality writing and design. One of the most important things your working bibliography; this is very important. You need to make sure you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work. You need to tell when you are using information from a source. It is also important to develop a note-taking strategy. You need to take good notes and make sure to separate your source’s information from your own. You can also summarize and/or paraphrase your source’s information, but also make sure to tell where this information comes from. This is a great chapter in combination with other chapters to help you write a perfect research paper.

Chapter 34: APA Documentation Format Summary

Chapter 34: APA Documentation Format Summary

In this chapter we learned about how to write an APA formatted paper. The chapter listed guidelines for you to follow, such as, having a separate title page, placing references in the text, what the margins should be like, and page numbers. In an APA formatted paper, you should always have a separate title page and you should always include your references. You need to have a margin of at least one inch on all sides of the paper and have the page number in the top right hand margin. You also always need to have an abstract. And abstract is a 100- to 150-word paragraph summarizing your paper. Having an appendix in your APA paper is really up to the instructor, per this chapter. The chapter also gives several examples on how to document where you get your information, or the content of your paper from. There are proper ways to tell and show in-text citations and reference entries such as book and other documents, printed periodical articles, online sources, and other sources like primary, personal and multimedia. I really found that this chapter will be very helpful when we write a paper that needs to be in APA format. I’m sure I will be referring back to it a lot when writing my social sciences paper.

Chapter 26: Writing for the Workplace Summary

Chapter 26: Writing for the Workplace Summary

This chapter can be very helpful to anyone who reads it. It is all about how to write properly for the workplace. It thoroughly goes through how you can write a business letter. The parts to a business letter are as follows: heading, inside address, salutation, body complimentary closing, signature, initials, enclosure, and copies. Everyone needs to know how to write a business letter at sometime or another in their life. For myself, I knew certain parts of the business letter format, but not all, so this was very useful for me to read. I had no idea about the proper way to address the reader in the letter. I did not know you should never assume and write Miss or Mrs., but that you should leave it as Mr. or Ms. I also did not know about putting initials on the bottom of the letter for the writer and the person who types the letter for the writer.

Also in this chapter you learn a bit about how to properly write a memo and an email. I knew a lot about this section of the chapter, but it was a great refresher. I think it is important to remember when writing a memo and/or an email you should keep it clear and to the point. This makes it easy for the reader to understand what you are trying to communicate and whether or not it is important for the reader to keep and/ or respond to.

I find the most important parts of this chapter to be the section regarding “applying for a job.” This section of the chapter goes over the application letter or cover letter, the recommendation request letter, the application essay and how to prepare a resume. Especially as a college student who will be soon looking for a new career, I found all this information very useful. Your cover letter is very important. It introduces you to the potential employer and highlights information you want to stand out from your resume. When asking an employer or instructor to write a recommendation letter for you, you must do it properly. It is best to follow this outline: a situation, explanation and an action. You want to remind the reader of your relationship and ask them to write a recommendation letter for you. It is important to then describe the work you did for the reader and the type of job in which you are applying for. Then you should include what he recommendation letter should include and where and when to send it.

You may be asked to write an application essay when applying for admission to a program, trying to gain a scholarship, or research a grant. Whatever the reason for writing, you want to understand what you are being asked to write and why and focus on the instructions given on how to write your letter. You always want to be honest with yourself and your reader. You want to think about your purpose and audience. You want to develop your essay with flowing organization in having an attention grabbing introduction, a body that develops your thesis and a conclusion that stresses a positive point, looking forward to participating in the program, internship, or position. You need to write personally, but professionally and always refine your work to make a flawless final draft. In preparing an essay, you need to include your personal data, such as, your name, address, phone numbers and email address. You want to have a job objective, list your skills summary, experience, education and other experiences, such as volunteer work, awards, achievements, licenses and certifications.

This is definitely a chapter to refer back to when I, or anyone, is searching a career and in need of writing a cover letter and resume and obtaining some recommendation letters.

Chatper 25: Taking Essay Tests Summary

Chapter 25: Taking Essay Tests Summary

I actually really found this chapter quite helpful for myself. This chapter talks all about how to take tests. You should do daily reviews after or before every class and weekly study sessions as well. The most important part of studying is repetition! The more you repeat, the more you will remember. Daily reviews help you to move information from your short-term memory to long-term memory. Your weekly study sessions really help to get you to remember new information for the long term as well. Some study tools you can use are mind maps, flash cards, review questions, explain or teach the subject to someone, create mnemonics and/or organize a study group. If you plan to study with a group, start off by setting up one study session first. See how that goes, then you can set up a second sessions. You want to be sure you mesh well with who you are studying with. In your group, you want to discuss your goals and make sure to stay on tract. You want to make sure to discuss any issues that may arise in your study group and exchange you contact information.

When taking an essay test, you want to be sure to evaluate, synthesize, predict, analyze and write a worth-while answer. There are many different approaches that can be taken. For example, analyze, classify, compare and contrast, define, explain, justify, prove, review, state, and trace, to name a few. You want to be sure to reread the question several times, rephrase the question into a topic sentence or thesis statement for your answer, outline the main points you plan to cover in your answer and then you can write your essay. For taking true/ false, matching or multiple choice tests, you want to be sure to read all the questions and answers completely before answering. I’d say that is the most important thing to remember. You need to take you time and pay attention to all the words in the question that is being asking. If you have anxiety before tests, there are many tips that can help you. You can make sure to study smart, review with others, prepare mentally and physically, get some exercise, take a shower, get to class early, relax, glance through the entire test, begin with questions you know the answer to and most importantly – don’t panic!!!! I think this chapter is extremely helpful because who doesn’t have a hard time at some point with test taking?! I think everyone has their moments when tests are extremely hard, overwhelming and when you have moments of anxiety. Everyone can get something out of reading this chapter.

Chapter 27: Writing and Designing for the Web Summary

Chapter 27: Writing and Designing for the Web Summary

This chapter walks you through how to write and design a website. You need look at the following seven web page elements – a heading, body text, preformatted text, lists, images, background color and tables. You need to look at each element and figure out what is best for your site. You need to remember that simple is best different computers display things differently and the user is king or queen. The user needs to be able to change how your site is displayed on their screen. You also need to understand some functions you can have on your page. You need to know about and understand hyperlinks, menus and forms. I believe every website should always have a menu – a table of contents in other words. That way the user can easily navigate throughout your site. Hyperlinks and forms may or may not apply to your site. You would need to make that decision as you build your site. In order to get started in creating a web site, you need to think about the purpose of your website, the site’s audience be and the site’s central topic. When establishing you site’s central message, you should write out the main idea or the “mission statement.” As your site develops, you need to keep this mission statement in mind, sticking to it and/or add secondary goals for your site. After you have your mission statement, you need to realize that no one will read your entire site, your site may have many small audiences, websites are not linear and you may need to build your site in phases. You can have a single home page and then pages that branch out from it. You can study similar sites to get some ideas, look at organization, what the voice of the site(s) are, what words are being used, is it understandable, what are the sentences used, are they correct, and look at the design. You then can gather and prioritize your content, gather all your supporting materials and then design and develop individual pages. Make sure when drafting your site you identify the site, provide clear links, introduce and title each page, keep all your pages uncluttered, and save your webpage as HTML. You need to get feedback on your website just like you do when you write an essay. You can check over your site yourself, get peer review, and check all the text and graphics, provide a feedback link, post the site to the web, check for universality, announce your site, monitor your site and then make adjustments and updates as needed. Building a website seems a lot like writing an essay; it is just a bigger project. There is a lot of the same guidelines you have to follow for both a website and essay. You need to gather and organize you thoughts, write or deliver them in a clear and complete way, keep in mind who your audience is, get peer review and then post and share your work.

Chapter 21 - Observation Report Summary

Chapter 21: Observation Report Summary

This chapter is all about observation – how to observe, where to observe, what to see how to see it, and how to portray it. I love how the first sentence in this chapter states that “observant people are insightful people.” I have never looked at it like that, but it is so true. When you are writing an observation report, you want to be sure to share your observations by appealing to all the senses. When choosing an observation site, you have many choices. You can choose a natural site, such as a state park or zoo. You can choose a site full of people such as a sports arena or market. You can choose an unfamiliar site like a different neighborhood or an ethnic spot. You can choose a serene spot like a quiet park or an empty building. You can choose a coursework-related site too. If you are taking a course in early childhood education, you can choose to visit a day care center. Or you can choose a border site, such as the lines between city and suburb or land and water.

After you select your site, you want to be sure you consider your purpose and think of your readers. You need to be sure you are prepared to observe by understanding your goal and what you have to look for, by doing background research, and by requesting permission is necessary to observe. You also need to make sure your timing is right, that you have enough time and that you make multiple visits if necessary. You need to have all equipment or supplies needed with you and have proper transportation and clothing. As you sit and observe you need to make sure you pay close attention to what you see, hear, smell, and what you feel and taste. You can also explore your sixth sense – thoughts, feelings and associations. If you need to, take photos, record sounds and collect samples. 

Next of course, you organize your thoughts, making sure to have enough details and you need to develop a theme. When writing your observation report, it should explode with vivid detail and your title should hint to your theme. And as always, with any report or essay, you need to get feedback, revise your draft, edit and proofread it, and then share your final essay.

Chapter 24 - Writing About Literature and the Arts Summary

Summary of Chapter 24: Writing About Literature and the Arts

This chapter talks about how you can write or review poems, short stories, plays, films, concerts, music and many more forms of literature and the arts. The chapter also gives four different examples given on how to analyze and write about different forms of literature and art. There is one example on a literary analysis, one of writing about a poem, writing about a performance, and one on writing about a film. One great point made in this chapter is that it is wise to experience the work at least two or three times if possible. I think this is so important because when dealing with literature and the arts, there can be so many meanings and so many things you can miss. It is truly best to view or listen at least a few times to whatever you are trying to write about. I also really liked how this chapter advised you to form your own opinions and insights before reading what someone else has to say about it. If you read others’ opinions first, it very well might sway your opinion. It is best when dealing with the arts to start with a clean slate of your thoughts. Go into the experience of reading some literature and/ or experiencing some form of art with an open mind. The guidelines for writing an essay about literature and the arts have almost the same steps as does any other essay. I’d say one of the most important things when writing about literature and the arts is to understand the work. You need to examine the plot, setting, characters, diction, theme, lyrics, lighting, symbolism, irony, figures of speech and so on. You really need to dig deep into the work and really analyze every aspect of it. You need to gather all the information, organize it, and write a first draft with am opening, middle and conclusion. Then you need to review and revise your work making sure you understand the work you are analyzing. You should then always get feedback, edit and proofread your essay, making it clear and complete, and then your essay will be ready to publish.

Chapter 8: One Writer's Process Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 8 – One Writer’s Process – Summary


This chapter is a kind of overview of the past seven chapters. You see the process of writing an essay in motion. The example given in this chapter is an essay written by a student named Angela Franco. Angela receives her assignment, examines it, makes a cluster of ideas, as well as does some freewriting. This is to narrow her assignment to a more specific focus. She goes through the process of planning for her essay. This entails answering some questions like who, what, when, why, where and how. She also does research on her topic making sure to record all sources. Angela picks a way to organize her essay and writes her first draft. She then makes some revisions based on ideas, organization and voice. After reviewing her corrections, she gives her paper to a peer for review. These two revisions lead her write an edited draft. At this point, the chapter point out that Angela has now done her first draft, two revisions, an edited draft and a proofread draft. She is now ready to complete her finished essay, which she does. So this chapter gives an example of how to write an essay.

Chapter 7: Submitting Writing and Creating Portfolios Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 7: Submitting Writing and Creating Portfolios – Summary


This is a very short and to the point chapter about the ways to submit your essays. It goes over the proper formatting, typography, spacing and graphical devices for your essays. You need to make sure that all your papers are easy to read, uncluttered, have proper spacing and margins as well as proper use of lists and charts. You can choose a number of different audiences to submit your paper to. You can submit it to peers, your instructor, family and friends or even on a blog. You can submit your papers either on a physical medium, such as paper or by electronic submission. In this class, we submit all of our written assignments via email and a blogging website. I think that is a great idea for many reasons, but the most important being that we are not wasting paper.

Chapter 6: Editing and Proofreading Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 6 Editing and Proofreading – Summary


In chapter 6, titled, “Editing and proofreading,” you learn that once you have a revised copy of your essay, the next step it to look it over again. This time you are editing for words, phrases, and sentences that are unclear or that do not look right. You are also looking for any spelling errors, mechanics, usage, and grammar errors. You want to make sure that your reader can completely understand what you are writing about. You do not want to include any jargon or redundancy. You want to write in a way in which you are using fair language with no biased words. You want to make sure to choose nouns and verbs with energy and vividness. When you have someone reading your paper, you want to be sure you have their full attend. This chapter teaches you how to achieve that goal through editing your sentence structure, word choice and punctuation. When you are writing essays, I think this will be a great chapter to refer back to in order to improve your paper.

Chapter 5: Revising Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 5 – Revising Summary


This chapter on revising I would say is about just that. This chapter shows you how to take your written first draft and revise it into possibly your final draft. It will differ person to person or paper to paper. You may need to write more than just one rough draft. You may need a couple before you finally have your final paper completed. You need to know how to look at your first draft and address all the issues it may contain. This requires you to ask yourself a lot of questions. Maybe you can make the title more appealing. Maybe your “voice” is not very honest in your writing. Maybe you are not staying organized within the essay. Basically you need to look at the draft as a whole and then paragraph by paragraph to determine what can be changed, what details need to be added, what parts don’t really relate to the topic after all. I think one of the most important teachings of this chapter is to remember the basics! Remember to be organized, support and explore your topic, have lots of detail, ask and answer questions, summarize the main point and make the essay as a whole functional.

Chapter 4: Drafting Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 4 – Drafting – Summary


The chapter outlines how to write a rough draft of your essay. Like the previous chapter, you again learn how to re-look at your topic, think about your audience, purpose and your subject. In every essay you need to have a beginning, middle and end. You need to grab your reader’s attentions, tell them your thesis, ask enticing questions, and show your organization or what direction you are taking the reader. You also need to deepen your issue by providing supporting information for your thesis, test your ideas, have structure and have lots of detail. I think you should share some personal interest in your topic, again, ask and answer questions, and really just get to the point. This chapter goes over many different ways you can structure your details in your essay, such as, analogical, cause and effect, chronological order, classification, compare and contrast, and so on. In ending your essay, you should always reassert the main point and try to urge your reader to look ahead at the possibilities and also accept what you have said.

Chapter 3: Planning Summary

“The College Writer” : Chapter 3 – Planning – Summary


In this chapter it describes the steps in which you plan out the essay you are going to write. You must be able to state your thesis as well as develop an organizational pattern that you are going to follow throughout your essay. In this chapter you learn that you have to take a second look at your topic and do further research on it. You also need to take your general subject or topic and make it into a more specific focus. Throughout the planning process you need to ask yourself questions to make sure your thesis reflects the topic, the details/ research support your thesis, and if there will be a pattern of organization to your essay. In reading this chapter, I have learned there are different ways you can plan your essay. You can use, basic lists, topic outlines, sentence outlines, or graphical organizers. I think this chapter can be a good reference tool in how to prepare for your essay.

Chapter 2: Beginning The Writing Process Summary

“The College Writer”: Chapter 2 – Beginning the Writing Process - Summary


In this chapter, “Beginning the Writing Process,” gives a full explanation of the steps you must take before and during you begin writing a paper. You first must have an understanding of your subject/ assignment and the options and restrictions of the assignment. You also need to know your audience and the purpose or benefit of writing the assignment. In this chapter you get many tips for helping you select a subject to write about. You need to meet all requirements laid out for the assignment and then you can begin your search for the perfect idea. There are many different places you can look for an idea, such as the library, class notes, websites, etc. Just make sure you pick a topic that genuinely interests you. Once you have selected a topic to write about, you can begin collecting information. It’s best to start with what you know and then move on to other sources. Great sources for your research are the Internet, libraries, interviews, surveys and many more sources. Writing can be a messy task while you are thinking, evaluating, collaborating all the information for your topic. Just keep in mind that all writing assignments come with some challenges. Work through them, and you’ll end up with a great final draft.

Chapter 1: Critical Thinking Through Reading, Viewing, and Writing Summary

“The College Writer”: Chapter 1 Summary


This chapter on “Critical Thinking through Reading, Viewing and Writing” has basically given an outline for how to read, view and write better. The chapter covers SQ3R, which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. This technique enables you to focus more, go deeper into your work, and absorb the information you are given more easily. When you are reading, you need to be active in that process. You need to be sure and pace yourself, take notes or map your reading material, evaluate the information, have a response to the text as well as summarize it. You also need to learn how to use critical thinking for viewing and analyzing images and how to apply critical thinking into your writing. Basically when you are reading, viewing and writing you need to open your mind, ask questions, and be an active participant in the task you are completing. You need to be able to pull apart the text or image and put it back together again in your own words.