Report Writing

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Report Writing

• Part I Research, Citations, and References

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Report

• An essay in which you
• Research a topic
• present your findings
• Used in university and business
• You will have to write many reports
• But first, well learn about research, citations,
  and references

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Definitions

• Research is how you find out the information you
  need to write your report.
• Many sources of info, including books,
  newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and the
  internet
• We will only use the internet this year
• Citations and References are how you tell your
  readers where your information came from.

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Research
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Three types of sources

• Primary
• original material such as letters, lab notes,
  diaries, etc.
• Secondary
• magazine and newspaper articles, books, etc.,
  that get their info largely from primary sources.
• Tertiary
• wikis, encyclopedias, textbooks, etc., that
  collect and distill information from primary and
  secondary sources.
• - adapted from Primary, Secondary, and
  Tertiary Sources http//www.lib.umd.edu/guides/p
  rimary-sources.html

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ExamplesComparing Source Levels

• History
• Letters by Mao Zedong
• Books about Mao Zedongs writings
• Wikipedia article on Mao Zedong
• Psychology
• Notes taken by a clinical psychologist
• Magazine article about a psychological condition
• Textbook on clinical psychology

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Your research will be

• Secondary sources
• Taken from the internet
• Websites that get their information from primary
  sources

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For example, you may use online

• Newspapers
• China Daily
• New York Times
• Financial Times
• Magazines
• Time
• Beijing Review
• Business Week

• TV websites
• CCTV
• BBC
• NPR
• Government websites
• Reputable company websites
• Academic journals

All sources must be in English!
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You may not use

• Wikis
• Wikipedia
• Wikihealth
• tustclass2010.
• Blogs
• Forums
• Email lists

• Tertiary sources
• Encyclopedias
• Textbooks
• Search engines
• Google
• Baidu
• etc.

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Why cant you use wikis?

• Wikis have two problems
• They are community-based
• They are tertiary sources

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Community-based Sources

• Wikis, blogs, forums, email lists, etc., are
  community-based.
• That means anybody can write anything and present
  it as fact.
• Its like our tustclass2010 wiki anybody can
  write anything!

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Tertiary Sources Dont use them in your report

• Too far removed from the primary sources
• They are not necessarily reliable (yes, your
  textbooks can have errors!)
• But you can use them to help your research

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Tertiary Sources How to use

• Cant use them in your report
• But, you can use wikis, textbooks, encyclopedias,
  etc., to
• Find primary and secondary sources
• Give an overview of the topic
• Help organize your paper

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Why You May Not Cite Search Engines

• Search engines, such as Google and Baidu, are not
  sources. They just help you find sources.
• Search engines
• have no information of their own
• have no opinion on the info theyve found for you
• Primary, secondary or tertiary?
• Reliable or unreliable?
• You must determine the level and reliability

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Secondary sources

• You must use them, but
• Be careful, they may have bad information
• Ask yourself
• Is the source reliable?
• Who is writing and why?
• Stick with well-known, trusted web sites

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Citations andreferences
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Citation Referencing Methods

• There are several different systems for doing
  citations and references
• The program you are in at Southern Cross
  University uses the Harvard system, so thats
  what well learn.
• Other courses or programs may use other systems,
  so if in doubt, find out before you write your
  papers.

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Citations
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What are citations?

• They are the words in parentheses after a
  quotation or paraphrase telling what reference
  you got your information from.
• For example
• Children and adults rarely eat together now, and
  thus get less opportunity to talk. (Knott 2008)

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Citations are simple

• For internet sources, its just the surname of
  the author and the year from you List of
  References in parentheses (Knott 2008)
• If there is no date, you just put n.d. for the
  date (Smith n.d.)
• If there is no author, you just put the
  sponsoring organization, etc (Northwestern
  University 2006)

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Citations are Not Simple

• Well, citations are not always that simple.
• They get more complicated when there are several
  authors, etc., but
• For right now, well just do this much

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Why Cite Sources?

• Required in academic writing
• Gives your writing credibility it means that the
  reader can trust you
• Lets readers evaluate your credibility
• Not citing sources is plagiarism.

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When to Cite Sources

• Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or
  otherwise refer to the work of another, you are
  required to cite its source
• http//library.duke.edu/research/citing/
• Whenever you present something as fact
• 81.25 of the people in China
• economic growth in China is projected to slow
  to about 6.5 percent this year.
• The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.

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references
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References

• These are the words at the end of your report
  that give exact details about your sources
• Knott, C 2008 Turning Meal Time into Family Time,
  Obesity Treatment, viewed 23 April 2011,
  http//www.obesity-treatment.com/feature/turning-
  meal-time-family-time?page2

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So

• (Knott 2008)
• Links to
• Knott, C 2008 Turning Meal Time into Family Time,
  Obesity Treatment, viewed 23 April 2011,
  http//www.obesity-treatment.com/feature/turning-
  meal-time-family-time?page2
• Which links to

Citation
Reference
Sources on the internet
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Reference List

• The reference list is at the end of your report.
• In alphabetical order
• Each source you cite must appear in your
  reference list.
• Each entry in the reference list must be cited in
  the text at least once.
• List of ReferencesKnott, C 2008, Turning Meal
  Time into Family Time, Obesity Treatment, viewed
  23 April 2011, http//www.obesity-treatment.com/fe
  ature/turning-meal-time-family-time?page2
• Northwestern University 2006, Obesity In Middle
  Age Raises Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk In Older
  Age, ScienceDaily, viewed April 23, 2011,
  http//www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/06011
  2022352.htm

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Dates

• first date year of publication 2008
• n.d. no publication date
  n.d.
• viewed the date you saw the article on the
  internet viewed April
  23, 2011

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Citing a Website

• List as much of the following information as
  possible
• Author/editor or compiler Year of the most recent
  version, Title, version number (if applicable),
  description of document (if applicable), name and
  place of the sponsor of the source, viewed Day
  Month Year, ltURL either full location details or
  just the main site detailsgt
• Knott, C 2008, Turning Meal Time into Family
  Time, Obesity Treatment, viewed 23 April 2011,
  http//www.obesity-treatment.com/feature/turning-m
  eal-time-family-time?page2

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Website with No Author

• Use the organization as author
• If there is no date write n.d.
• Note If there is no author, no organization and
  no date be very careful about using this
  information!
• Northwestern University 2006, Obesity In Middle
  Age Raises Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk In Older
  Age, ScienceDaily, viewed April 23, 2011,
  http//www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/06011
  2022352.htm

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Basic Rules

• Authors' names are inverted (family name first)
  give the family name and initials for all authors
  of a particular work.
• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by
  the last name of the first author.

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assignment
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Assigment

• Write one paragraph with two quotes or
  paraphrases from different sources.
• (You can take a paragraph from your Cause and
  Effect essay and add citations and references.)
• Make a citation for each quote, paraphrase or
  fact
• and a List of References at the end.

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Paragraph Rubric

• Deadly Sins (-10 pts. each)
• Spelling, capitalization, etc. ___
• TUST standards errors ___
• Late -10 for each day ___
• Email accepted paragraph ___
• Content (20 pts.)
• Statements logical and relevant ___
• Citations (10 pts. each)
• Citation 1 ___
• Citation 2 ___
• References (25 pts. each)
• Reference 1 ___
• Reference 2 ___
• Mechanics (10 pts.)
• Grammar, usage, punctuation ___

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Due Dates

• Your first lesson of next week, after the
  holiday
• Tuesday classes 41 and 43
• Wednesday classes 42 and 44

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ImportantAccepting the final draft

• I will check your paragraph before you turn it in
• If I see errors I will not accept it.
• You must fix them and submit the next day along
  with the version(s) that were rejected.
• It will be counted late
• (Better 1-2 days late than lose many points for
  errors)
• If I dont see any errors, I will accept your
  paragraph. Then, and only then, should you email
  it to me.

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Email accepted paragraph

• Email accepted paragraph as a Microsoft Word
  document attached to an email.
• The subject line of your email must bePara
  Class English Name
• Example Para 43 Joe
• Email to bob.tust_at_gmail.com