After successfully completing this week's Learning Module, you should:

• Review the assignment sheet and rubric to ensure that all parts of the essay assignment have been completed

• Better understand rules for signal phrases, quotation marks, and in-text citations as well as basic guidelines for titles

• Post a full draft of Essay #3 to the Canvas Discussions forum for peer review and then complete reply comments for two drafts by the deadline

• Apply techniques for effective revision, editing, and proofreading

• Turn in Essay #2 by sharing a document from Word or Google with "Can Edit"/"Editor" permissions and complete the Process Portfolio in Canvas by the due date using the Assignments tool

• Check to make sure you've completed any missing quizzes, activities, and essay assignments as late work

This week you'll do a quick review of a few problematic small errors for research-based writing like the information literacy essay. The hope is that by spending a little time thinking about these things you'll be able to improve your own draft and have some additional focus to help someone else with peer review. Of course, the most important thing you'll do this week is to post your draft and comment on two others closely following the calendar due dates. Someone else is counting on you for critical feedback using the assignment checklist, so don't let them down.               

If you're stuck or know you're behind because you didn't get much done in the past weeks, make sure you email or text your instructor right away. As I've said before, there's no judgment--just a desire to help you pass the class. I know you can do it.

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You can see a video walkthrough of this week's assignments and where to submit them here.

Review: Assignment Sheet, Checklist, and Scoring Rubric

I know you've looked at these things before, but I want to encourage you to always recheck the assignment sheet when you feel like you've completed an assignment. The goal there is to help you catch anything you might have missed the first time and adjust your work if it's needed. 

As you look at the assignment sheet specifically, make sure you pay special attention to the length range. You can be +/- 10% and not lose points, but anything below 900 words or above 1,650 words should be revised by adding/cutting. You can also see that you're required to include an MLA formatted Works Cited page and in-text citations for your quotations/paraphrases of outside sources. Your professor can help with this, and there's room to give it a shot and make improvements with feedback, but the key is to make sure your final draft is meeting the assignment expectations.

You should also take some time now to review the Essay #3 Checklist to see if you've missed anything and the Essay #3 Scoring Rubric to see how you can maximize points in each grading area.

Small Error Reminders

This week, because you're working on revising and editing your draft for Essay #3 before the due date, we're going to focus on some of the technical stuff that can cost you small points and keep you from getting the grade you want. Some of this might be review, so feel free to skim if you're confident you have these things under control in your own writing. 

Signal Phrases

Signal phrases introduce anything you borrow from outside and give attribution to the source. They're not hard to do, and remembering to do them is the best way to protect yourself from plagiarism. They also help you avoid a writing error called a dropped quotation. 

The basic formula to use as a starting point is: According to [author], "quotation" (Citation). 

But I also want you to think of signal phrases as how we communicate credibility in our writing. And since credibility is necessary for persuasion, it's worth remembering. So rather than giving a title in your signal phrase, something that only communicates credibility if the reader has heard of the source, I want you to tell readers the author's credentials. Credentials in a signal phrase can be a simple statement of where the person works and what they do:

According to Christopher Ferguson, Kimberlee Salmond, and Kamla Modi, university researchers who study child psychology, "the influence of reality television on adolescent behavior is complex" (1175). 

According to Deborah Bernnard et al., a group of professors and librarians who wrote a textbook on information literacy, "If you’re presenting your findings in a paper that only your teacher will ever see, you will focus exclusively on what that teacher has asked for. When you’re presenting for a less well-defined audience, however, you must imagine what they may already know (or not) about your topic, as well as what might interest them and what forms of presentation might be most appealing to them" (Bernnard et al.).

(Note: the use of "et al." after an author's name signals that there are more than three authors; the phrase translates to "and others" in Latin and is most commonly used in formal academic writing)

Even though this signal phrase is a bit vague in terms of the author's credentials, it's still better than giving a title of a book or website since it helps readers see these people as experts in this field. Note, too, that you only need to use the full name(s) and credentials the first time you use the source; after that, you would refer to them by last names only:

Bernnard et al. go on to say...

Quotation Marks

Using the exact words from an outside source, which is totally fine in this kind of writing, means putting "quotation marks" around everything that has been borrowed. Easy enough, but there are some additional rules (these and these) that might come into play when you do this in your paper. Here are the most important highlights:

• Make sure that if you end the sentence with a quotation that the punctuation moves inside the "quotation marks." I know that might seem weird, but it's a standard American writing convention. This is different, of course, if you have an in-text citation; in that case, there is just one period and it goes after the end parenthesis (like this). 

• Single quotation 'marks' have only very rare uses. The most common, and probably the only one you need to memorize, is that "a quote inside a longer quotation would use 'single marks.'"

• Ellipses...which tell readers you've cut something from a quotation...are only used in the middle, not at the beginning or end, of a quote. 

• Only use quotation marks for things you read or heard; don't use them to add emphasis or refer to thoughts you had to yourself since it's confusing for readers in a research paper.

• Long quotations need special formatting called block format. For MLA that is anything over four lines and it looks like this. 

In-text Citations

In-text citations, sometimes called parenthetical citations (because they use parenthesis), are placed at the end of a sentence when there are borrowed words or ideas so readers can find the full source. Keep in mind, the period goes after the "in-text citation" (Breitenfeldt). 

But that's not the hard part. The hard part is knowing what goes inside the parenthesis. The best way to know, I think, is to remember that it will always be whatever is on the far left of the matching Works Cited page entry (an author's last name, a title in quotation marks, or rarely an organization name). That match is important so readers can connect one to the other. 

Don't forget, if the source does not have a page number you should not include one; however, if it does have a page number you'd add one after the name (Breitenfeldt 224). If you have named the source in your signal phrase you are not required to repeat the name for the in-text citation, but it is also not incorrect to do so.

You/Your

This is one that I've been pushing since the first essay, and it's not hard to catch. The underlying principle is that using you/your directly targets a reader. For example, if I was writing about spearfishing and say "When you jump in the water..." my reader will see that as an assumption that they spearfish and would or could jump in the water. Now this isn't a problem if I'm writing to someone I know--to someone I can safely assume would or could jump in the water. But when we write for an unknown audience, which is what we do most of the time in college writing, it's not a safe move. 

The risk is that, say, my grandmother is reading about spearfishing to buy me a new pair of fins for my birthday (thanks Nana!). As she reads and sees "When you jump in the water..." she feels like the writing wasn't intended for her--or at least that's the risk since she doesn't spearfish or spend much time in the ocean. It becomes a bit clearer if we use a more dramatic and real example from a previous semester. In an essay about community policing a student wrote "When you steal someone's car, the police usually begin by taking witness statements." As a reader, it didn't feel like I was who they had in mind, and that can turn someone away from your writing. 

As a quick side note, the reason why I'm using you/your here is because when we're giving instructions or directions, or when we know who we're writing to directly, it's safe to keep second person. And it honestly can help the writing feel more personal. 

Okay, whether you react any particular way to second person or not it's still important to remove you/your from this kind of writing (see more about second person in academic writing here). Because breaking the habit can take time, my suggestion is to search and replace inside your document. If you use Google to write it's as easy as holding ctrl+f for PCs or command+f for Macs; if you use Word or Pages there is a search box at the top of the page or you can use the same commands. Just type "you" in the search and it'll catch everything you need to replace with a generic replacement: "When a spearfisher jumps in the water..." or "When a car is stolen..."

Keep in mind, there were a handful of essays that were within 3 points--the deduction for using you/your--of the next highest letter grade. Don't let that happen to you...I mean, to a student who isn't proofreading carefully.  

Titles

We've talked about this a few times in past modules, but I want to remind you that titles for this type of writing (as opposed to creative works) have to do two things: 

1) they have to establish a clear subject, 

2) they have to help readers see what kind of writing this will be

For example, I can't have a title that says "Sick Days" for my essay about paid employee leave from work because that title could just as well be for a personal essay about when I faked being sick in middle school. So, let's imagine I give a more specific subject and use a title that says something like "Paid Employee Leave." The problem here, however, is that it could seem like a Wikipedia page or a dictionary entry rather than an essay where I take a position on a debatable issue. 

So how do we fix this? There are lots of different options, and you'll know you've done it correctly when you and your reviewers can see both of the required parts mentioned above. The simplest way to do this is to start with the subject and then use a colon to show the kind of writing:

Finding and Evaluating Sources: A Guide for College Students

The most important rule here is that you absolutely cannot just title your work "Essay #3" since your readers aren't confined to this class, and someone not in our class won't have any idea what "Essay #3" means.

While I'm speaking about title formatting, I'll give you the quick heads-up that MLA has rules about when a title should be in quotation marks and when a title should be in italics. You can see those here. 

Capitalization

Capitalization is a very common error in all student writing. It almost always comes down to that decision when writing where you say "Hmmmm, is it High School or high school?" While you might have it in your head that important words get capitalized, there are actually much more specific rules to guide your decisions. 

The last thing I'll say about capitalization is that it's always easy to check, especially if you train yourself to be suspicious of any capitalized word in the middle of a sentence. When you spot one while editing, take a second to Google it in with the word define (for example: define high school); that will give you a definition from the dictionary, and dictionaries tell you the correct capitalization. For example, above we were wondering if it should be "high school" or "High School." If we Google it, we see this definition:

So, the verdict is in: we would not capitalize high school. 

One capitalization issue that's more specific to this essay has to do with capitalizing titles, whether that's the title of a source you mention in the essay or the title of your own assignment. The very short explanation says you should not capitalize unless they are the first word in a sentence or part of a proper noun:

• Articles, like "an," "a," or "the"

• Coordinating conjunctions, like "and," "or," "but"

• Prepositions, like "with," "upon," or "by"

Of course, knowing these--especially prepositions, which can be really frustrating to identify--is a lot to expect. So I want to show you a website that can make this less stressful:  http://capitalizemytitle.com/

If you use this, make sure you've chosen the option for MLA since there are different rules for APA format; while I'm on that topic, make sure your essay doesn't have in-text citations that look like this: (Smith, 2012). That is, again, for APA and shows you might have copy/pasted without making the correction to MLA format. 

Now that you've spent some time looking at ways to improve the grammar and mechanics in your writing, take the initiative to review and correct your own draft before peer review. 

Activity: Peer Review

Now that we've spent some time helping you improve your essay draft it's time to start the peer review process. Peer review is your opportunity to get feedback on your essay draft as well as see how other students approached the same task.

One of the biggest challenges when we write is that we don't know how readers will react or where they might get confused. The way we get around this--whether it's for a college class or a project at work--is to have someone else read and give us feedback. You've done this twice before, so we're just repeating that familiar process. 

Uploading Your Draft for Peer Comments

The first step, as you might expect, is to post your draft. This shouldn't be any harder than making a regular Discussions forum post, which is something you've already done for this class. The only difference is that when you make your post you need to attach a file for your essay. The big thing here is that you need to use a file type everyone can open--either .docx (Word) or PDF or a link shared from Word 365/Google Docs. I can help with this if you're not sure how to save/export (or see this tutorial for Google Docs or this one for Word 365). You can also (and probably should) use the text box for your post to tell readers what you're concerned about or point to anything where you'd like their opinion on the draft. 

To earn points for this assignment make sure you post your draft by Wednesday, November 20th. 

Finding a Draft to Comment on and Making Comments

Once you've posted your draft you can look for other drafts to comment on. Of course, the kind of feedback you give makes a huge difference. I think that sometimes bad comments, ones that are too demanding ("you did this wrong") or completely checked out ("good"), come from not having the right attitude about the paper you're reviewing. My suggestion is to think of it like it's your paper and use your understanding of the assignment to help the writer do better. In addition to those kinds of comments, the ones that make suggestions or point to areas that might need another look, spend some time just describing what you're thinking as a reader. I mean, tell them where you're confused or where you're not sure what something means. Finally, tell the writer when you really like something; just don't write "good" at the end and move on--be specific. And if you get stuck and don't know what to say, try using these questions or the essay checklist I provided earlier in this module to guide your input. 

Also, make sure when you take a draft to review that it doesn't already have two reviews posted and consider posting in the Discussions thread that you're working on comments for this essay so others know it's taken. When you get a draft to work on you'll want to either insert comments or type using a different color font (the person will need to be able to see your comments); or you could also type them in the forum post, but it can be harder to know where you're talking about something. Here's a tutorial for making comments Microsoft Word and one for Google Docs which is the best way to do this task. 

No matter what method you use, your comments need to be something the other person can include as part of their answer in the Process Portfolio assignment that's also due with your essay. When you're done--ideally a few comments per page, though the more you have the more you help--save the file with a new name so they know it's the version where you made your suggestions.  

Uploading the Draft with Your Comments

After you've saved the file containing your comments with a different name you need to go back to the Canvas Forum where you originally got the essay. Then you need to find the post with the original essay and reply by attaching the file with your comments. You can also type some notes to the author here if you want to offer other advice or encouragement. 

The entire process can be broken down like this:

1. Find a draft in the peer review discussion forum that doesn't already have two sets of comments from peers. Download the file or click the shared link.

2. Open the essay and make comments with suggestions using the insert comment feature or by typing in a different color. Save the essay with your comments using a different file name. Note: if you're working with a shared link do not change their text. 

3. Go back to the original location where you found the essay. Reply to the post and/or attach your file with comments. Repeat steps 2 and 3, meaning you'll reply to two drafts total.  

To earn points for this assignment make sure you post your two replies by Friday, November 22nd. 

This assignment can be challenging even if you did it back in Week 3 and Week 6, so be patient, ask questions, and know that it'll be even more familiar for the final essay.

Review: Editing and Revision, and Proofreading, Oh My! 

Let me take a quick second to once again review some terminology you'll need for this class and for other classes you take; knowing these terms also means you'll separate the different tasks and do each one rather than lumping them all together. 

Editing

As the UNC Writing Center explains, "Editing is what you begin doing as soon as you finish your first draft. You reread your draft to see, for example, whether the paper is well-organized, the transitions between paragraphs are smooth, and your evidence really backs up your argument." That means you're looking at big stuff, including decisions to add, move, or cut to make the essay more effective. 

Revision

In contrast, the UNC Writing Center states that revision "literally means to 'see again,' to look at something from a fresh, critical perspective. It is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering your arguments, reviewing your evidence, refining your purpose, reorganizing your presentation, reviving stale prose. As they explain it, this means asking a) whether what you're saying is necessary, b) whether it says what you really meant to say, and c) whether a reader will understand you. This has some overlap with editing, but it happens later in the process--closer to when the assignment is due.

Proofreading

The UNC Writing Center explains that the last stage, the one after you've finished editing and revision, is proofreading. They state that this means "focusing on surface errors such as misspellings and mistakes in grammar and punctuation." The reason this comes last is because it's not as important as getting the argument in good shape. Also, it's a bit of a waste to focus on fixing the small grammar stuff if there are other big issues that still need to be worked out. 

The bottom line: make sure you're doing all three of these and spreading them across the writing process to be sure you submit your best work. 

To review and learn more about how to do each task well, consider reviewing these handouts:

"Revising Drafts" from the UNC Writing Center

"Editing and Proofreading" from the UNC Writing Center

Finally, if you haven't done it already consider using a tool like Grammarly to help catch grammar errors. If you don't use Grammarly, the second best tool is the Editor feature built into Word online. This tool is more effective than the default spell check in Google Docs and it can save you lots of time when it comes time to proofread. Finally, if you're using generative AI like ChatGPT you can copy a paragraph into the chat and ask specifically for help proofreading. My suggestion here is to also ask for an explanation of any corrections it suggests.  

Essay #3 and Process Portfolio Submission

Remember, there are two assignments due by midnight on Sunday, November 24th--though late work can still be submitted until the December 15th last chance deadline.  

Essay #3

When you've finished working on your information literacy essay and are ready to turn it in, follow these steps (also shown in this week's walkthrough video at the top of the page):

1. Find your essay in Word or Google Docs. 

2. Click the "Share" button at the top-right of your screen. Enter your professor's email address (jbreitenfeldt@rcc.mass.edu) and change the permissions to "Can Edit" or "Editor" to make sure I'm able to offer comments.  

3. Your professor will reply within 24-48 hours to let you know your essay has been received; if you don't receive confirmation make sure you follow up to get the assignment submitted. Note: if no assignment is received you'll also be able to see a 0 in the Canvas gradebook; just know that late work is still accepted until the last day of class. 

If you have a problem sharing your essay you should email your professor to talk about how you can submit the assignment. 

When the essay gets graded (usually 1-3 weeks) you'll get an email to let you know your work has been returned. This will also let you see the essay with my very detailed comments and the scoring rubric with specific points and additional notes to explain scores.  I recommend reviewing both so that you can have personalized advice for improving your writing before the next essay is due.

Process Portfolio III

Hopefully you kept track of the Process Portfolio assignment (something introduced in Week 2 and in the course syllabus). It requires you to answer questions about your writing process for this essay using a textbox in Canvas.

This might all sound like a lot on top of completing your essay, but it should be mostly explaining the things you're already doing with enough detail. Moreover, it's designed to help your grade. For each of the four required questions you get 6.25 points just for a complete and thoughtful answer; giving some time and attention to all four parts would be 25/25 (100%) for this assignment, and there aren't many assignments where 100% can be expected. And on top of that, you're not graded here for your grammar or anything else; it's just how much you say to answer the question. We'll do this for all four essay assignments and together they're worth 10% of your total course grade. So do your best for this round and make sure you keep track of the process again on the next essay. 

Finally, remember that late work will be accepted until the last day of class. As the syllabus explains, there is no late work deduction. The key is to remember that missing an assignment due date does not mean you should stop working; your goal should just be to submit the assignment as soon as possible so you don't fall further behind. Your professor can help. 

Essay #3 Materials

Essay #3 Assignment Sheet

Essay #3 Scoring Rubric

Essay #3 Checklist

Process Portfolio Assignment Sheet

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Essay #3 Student Sample

Essay #3 Sample with Outline

MLA Quick Guide from Appalachian State University

"MLA Overview and Workshop" from the Purdue OWL

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide" from the Purdue OWL

"The Information Literacy User’s Guide" from SUNY Open Textbooks