*Photo “Social Media apps on iPhone” by Jason Howie

As digital discourse becomes more prevalent, it also becomes more relevant to our writing. Citation style  guides have, historically, been slow to produce standard citation forms for these emerging resources. This week, we want to share the best resources we’ve found for appropriately incorporating and citing emails, tweets, Facebook posts, and other forms of digital writing.

1. Teachbyte’s handy-dandy chart shows how to cite a blog post, YouTube video, Tweet, Facebook post, and email in both APA and MLA.
2. APA’s blog is always a great resource for citation information that may not have made it into the printed style guide yet. This post on Facebook and Twitter offers both examples and explanations.
3. The Clever Researcher has also collected links to resources on citing social media in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

Have you found useful resources of your own for citing digital writing? Share them with us in the comments!

1. The Writing Center’s APA Handout: Our APA handout aims to provide a quick reference of the key features of APA style and provides examples of the most common resources you may need cite.
2. The APA website’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page: Because it’s updated more  often than the style guide itself, this page offers the most up-to-date information about citation practices and APA style in general. This page also contains a set of easy-to-navigate examples of common references and includes information about citing Twitter, Facebook, and websites, even websites without authors.
3. The OWL @ Purdue’s APA Style Guide: Need a thorough explanation of all things APA? Then this is your best bet. The OWL provides information about and examples of everything from title pages to in-text citations to reference pages.

Check out our schedule: Study Smart Workshops fall 12

When you think of writing, what images come to mind?

How can written words inspire visual art?
What concepts, ideas, and people generally inspire positive writing experiences?

The purpose of this competition is to provide an opportunity for students to create artistic interpretations of what they believe writing is really about. Winners’ submissions will be displayed as décor in the Writing Center Gallery, located on the first floor of the main library.

When you think of writing, what images come to mind? How can written words inspire visual art? What concepts, ideas, and people generally inspire positive writing experiences? The purpose of this competition is to provide an opportunity for students to create artistic interpretations of what they believe writing is really about. Ten winning entries will be displayed as décor in the Writing Center Gallery, located on the first floor of the main library.

Contest Rules and Information

Eligibility
The contest is open to any currently enrolled USF undergraduate or graduate student.

Submission of Entries
The following information about your entry must be submitted via e-mail to the Writing Center by October 31, 2012 at writingcenterusf@gmail.com:

Entrant’s name
Email address
Telephone number
Title of work
Dimensions and materials used
Attached image file of the work being submitted1

Duration of Contest
The winners will be notified on November 13, 2012.

Guidelines

The maximum dimensions of the work are as follows:

2 x 3 feet minimum and 5 x 6 feet maximum

Art work should be appropriate and practical for a small, public space that is frequently used by USF students, faculty, and staff.

Selection
The winning art work will be selected by a committee of Writing Center coordinators and consultants.

Notes:

1. Image entry must be JPEG digital files and must be PC and Mac compatible. Review will be by digital image only. JPEGs should be no larger than 300 dpi at approximately 4 by 6 inches. All digital files must include the artist’s name and title of the submission (e.g. smithpainting5.jpg)

How do I start?
Before you jump into your first draft, take some time to pre-write. If you generate lots of ideas before you begin writing the essay itself, the actual writing process may be easier, and if you get stuck, you have a whole pool of resources to take from. Here are some questions to get you started: What unique experiences have helped you decide to pursue this degree? What makes you interesting, special? How has your academic career so far prepared you for this next step?
Ok, I have some ideas, now what?
Use the skills you use to write an essay or paper for class. Consider who is reading this and what he or she may be expecting (clear grammar, developed ideas, a controlling thought or thesis, etc.). Now write. Strong personal statements undergo a lot of revision and drafting. Don’t let that discourage you! You want to make a strong first impression, so put the time and effort in to show your best.

What are some tips for writing my personal statement?

• There are two things you do not want to do in a personal statement: don’t sound arrogant and don’t sound self-deprecating.
• Show the admissions committee who YOU are and what YOU will bring to their school or organization.
• Put yourself in the committee’s shoes and think about who you would want coming to your school or receiving your scholarship.
• Finally, follow the word or character count carefully. You don’t want to lose that awesome closing sentence because you didn’t check your word count. Many online applications will cut off the essay once it hits the limit and the committee won’t see what was lost.

Even the strongest writers find personal statements difficult. Don’t let that get you down. Talk it through, brainstorm, and write write write.

From John Strasser, Spring 2012:

“I want to thank you for all that you and the writing center have done for me. As I have stated over and over again to both you and anyone that will listen at USF, the Writing Center is the most important resource on the entire campus; the majority of academic successes that I have experienced have come as a result of the Center’s help.

I am proud to tell you that I was offered admission to The South Asia Institute within The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Columbia University to pursue a master’s degree this past week. I worked on my CV and Statement of Purpose at the Writing Center.

Additionally, on the same day that I received the formal offer of admission from Columbia, I won the Golden Bull Award, one of the highest honors bestowed on a student at USF. Out of a pool of 110 qualified candidates, only 20 students were chosen. This honor, too, is a direct result of the skills I learned and the grades I earned as a result of attending Writing Center appointments.”

Thanks for the feedback, John! We’re so excited for your achievements and look forward to hearing about the great things you’ll continue to do!

When we conduct research, we need to cite our work to show where we found information. This gives credit to the original writer of the text you are using to support your points. It also, however, shows your reader that you conducted research and know what information is out there about your topic. Demonstrating this gives you credibility with your reader and he or she will consider you more reliable. Your reader will be more likely to trust your analysis, opinions, and ideas.

Citations also give the reader an insight into the kind of research you are conducting, how prevalent an idea is, and sometimes even how recently a text was published. An APA in-text citation, for example, provides the reader with the year a work was published, letting the reader know the age of your research (it may be useful to be very current, you may be demonstrating long-term historical impacts, or comparing old and new texts). An MLA citation, may show how frequently in a work an idea is used. For example, you may directly quote similar ideas from ten different pages in a book, showing the reader each time how frequently that idea pops up in that work.

Another reason we cite is to share our research with each other. Many readers will peruse an article’s bibliography or reference list to see if there are any books, articles or website they want to read for their own writing. Doing this creates a community in your field as people share with each other what they’re reading.

Citations may seem labor-intensive, frustrating and overwhelming, but there is a purpose behind them. By making sure each citation follows the exact same format, readers can follow you better, understand your material and look the works up themselves. When you’re finalizing your paper and trying to make sense of all the citation rules, remember that there is more there than just not cheating. You are building a paper that you can be proud to share, that shows everyone how much effort you’ve dedicated to your writing process.

“Guys and girls! Everyone look here!”

“I have to take my kid sister to school, then we can hang out.

Slang is everywhere.  When we use it in everyday life to communicate with friends informally, it’s usually fine. In fact, sounding too formal around our friends is kinda weird.  Slang, or colloquial language – to use the formal term – is not appropriate in academic writing and many professional communication situations.

There are a few steps you can take to avoid using colloquial language in your writing. First, you need to recognize what terms are informal and learn their formal counterparts. Here are a few common examples:

• Kids = Children
• Guys = Men
• Cops =  Police Officers

While these terms, and others like them, may be colorful and add variety to your writing, they may also alienate your audience. Your reader may not be able to understand what you are saying. Take these terms for example:

• Wicked
• Sheila
• Bloke

You may recognize these words (great, woman, man) if you watch a lot of BBC. These terms are commonly used in the UK and Australia, but not in the United States, so many American readers would find them confusing.

Another way to avoid being too informal as you write is to be careful when using exclamation points. Most academic writing doesn’t need them at all, but if you do like to exclaim, use them VERY sparingly!!! And never more than one at a time.

Writing in a formal tone isn’t meant to stifle your voice and stop your creativity. Use this as an opportunity to expand your vocabulary and find great ways to say what you’re thinking.

If you’re interested in seeing what is considered “slang,” or colloquial language, check out some of these sites:

• Common American Slang Terms
• American Slang
• Historical Dictionary of American Slang

But why should we bother when we took all that time to learn those long words?

Unnecessary words can make us sound like we lack confidence in our writing. Redundant words, for example, give the same idea twice. Here are some examples: Twelve noon (noon is always at twelve); Summarize briefly (summaries are brief by nature); Exactly the same (the same is the same, right?).

Use your words carefully and purposefully. There’s a reason the cliché “short and sweet” has stuck around for so long!

Here’s a great video on using simple words to express big ideas:  “The Power of Simple Words”