Essay

1
Essay

• You have to write a 1500-2000 word essay
• The length must be within these limits
• You must write it alone
• Each students report must be completely unique
  no sharing or copying is allowed
• You can use books from the library and websites
  to help you
• But you must not just copy from the books and
  websites
• The essay is due on the last day of class

2
Essay planning

• You need to look at some essay writing advice
  websites this week.
• One recommendation is http//www.edgehill.ac.uk/tl
  d/student/7steps/essay.htm (look at planning now)
• Ignore websites that offer to write your essay
  for money.

3
Use a search engine to find information on the web

• But you must not ONLY use the Internet for your
  research
• You can use the library for
• Books
• Academic online databases (more information next
  week)
• When searching, try
• xyz article
• xyz siteedu (in Google)
• xyz bibliography
• books about xyz
• Search www.wikipedia.org and www.amazon.com

4
Starting your essay research

• You must go to the library!
• You can search the library website
• It may be easier to find things by searching
  Amazon
• Books
• Further reading in Yule
• Fromkin (some copies in the library)
• Further reading in Fromkin!
• Other linguistics books
• Books on morphology, syntax etc.
• Newspapers, journals
• Web
• Search engines
• Wikipedia (but not only Wikipedia!)
• Keep a record of
• Book title, author, date, publisher, publication
  city
• Website name, URL, author, date visited
• Newspaper/journal name, author, article title
  etc.
• You need this information for your bibliography,
  so dont lose it!

5
Format of your essay

• You can use MLA style
• Or any other format which looks good
• For your references, also use MLA style
• For in-text citation
• And for your list of references at the end of the
  essay
• Or, you can use the Harvard system for in-text
  citation and the reference list
• On the next slide is a reference list in Harvard
  format

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7
Journals

• A lot of journals are available in room F603
• Both in Chinese and English
• Some are kept on the library shelves
• Others can be accessed from the computers in
  F603, or any campus PC
• Or you can set up your computer from home

8
Your homework

• Make a draft reference list for your essay (hand
  it in next week)
• Dont just copy a bibliography from the web, or
  from a teacher
• When you write the reference list for your essay
• Only list the books and other publications that
  you actually use and cite in your essay
• Dont use too many websites as references
• Dont just give links to homepages
• Give the link that has the information
• I want to see
• Books
• Articles from journals (from the library),
  newspapers or magazines
• If you want, you can cite radio TV, even videos

9
Essay researching

• You need to start the research for your essay
  this week.
• You can find some helpful hints on these websites
• http//www.aucegypt.edu/academic/writers/researchi
  ng_faq.htm

10
Quotations

• Indirect quotations
• Jones (1999123) believes claims, says that
  most Taiwanese students
• Direct quotations
• According to Jones (1999123), most Taiwanese
  students
• Jones (1999) writes most Taiwanese students

11
Chinese

• You can cite works in any language (as long as
  you understand it!)
• In your reference section, give the English name
  if the publication has one
• If not, give it in Chinese and translate the name
  yourself
• Give indirect quotations in English
• Give direct quotations in Chinese, and provide an
  English translation.

12
Your own work

• If you use someone elses work, you must show it
  is not your idea
• You must cite the work
• Direct quotations (English or Chinese)
• Maximum one sentence
• DO NOT take something from the web and copy it
• DO NOT translate a whole paragraph from Chinese
  (not even if you are the author)

13
Your own ideas

• You can use quotations from other people to
  support your arguments
• You must think of your own ideas too
• Give the two sides of your question
• Use your own ideas AND other peoples ideas to
  reach YOUR conclusion about your topic

14
References for your essay

• Harvard style with a Chinese example
• http//www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p03_
  2.htm
• Everything has an author, a title, a date
• The authors name goes first (family name first)
• Websites have a URL and a title
• Articles have a title and a newpaper or journal
  title
• Everything (except a website) has a publisher and
  city

15
Planning your essay

• There should be three main sections
• What are they?
• What should you say in the Introduction to your
  essay (in general terms)?
• You might like to check this out