Evolution of Digital Media Technologies: Content Industries

Kathy E. Gill

4 November 2003

Overview

Papers Communication Department Poster

Session Content : Newspapers Content : Television

Papers – Overview

Everyone seemed to have trouble with citations – so that’s the focus of this short presentation

This is a learning experience! The goal should be to improve on paper two and improve again with paper three

Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation

Use the tools built-into your word processor!

General rule: punctuation is “inside” quotation marks (exception, semi-colon)

If you don’t know how to spell-check or grammar-check, please see me after class

Colloquial Language Avoid it! Examples:

nowadays (colloquial/slang) – use today, now, presently, currently

stats (an abbreviation/slang) – use statistics

It’s been a long time since … (not concrete) – give dates

Not exhaustive list, just common examples

Citations (1/2)

Why do we include citations in academic papers? (discuss)

Citations (2/2)

Document sources, for credit (ie, not plagarized)

Allow other scholars who follow you to replicate your work

Thus, citations must be specific

Notes, types

1. Cite authority for statements in the text: facts, opinions or direct quotations

2. Make cross-references

3. Comment on discussion

4. Make acknowledgements

Notes, how

Numerical order, beginning with 1 Arabic numbers Superscript No embellishments (quotation marks,

parens, etc.)

Notes, required

You may use end notes or footnotes but you must use notes. From the syllabus: “Each of the three papers must be typed and

must include endnotes or footnotes as well as a bibliography.”

Remember that notes can be content or reference

End Notes

Follow the text on a separate page (precedes bibliography)

Titled Notes Chronological order May be single-spaced

Footnotes

Must begin on the page where cited, but long notes may be continued

May be single-spaced Readers of scholarly works usually

prefer footnotes for ease of reference

Bibliography

Alphabetical list by author (may be organized by type, but this is less common)

Includes all references, even those not specifically cited

Citations – Format (1/3)

Bibliographic form is less specific than notes: author, title, publication data Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don’t

Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Morrow, 1990. (Chicago)

Citations – Format (2/3)

Note form: author, title, publication data, pageDeborah Tannen, You Just Don’t

Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (New York: Morrow, 1990) 51. (Chicago)

Content notes – check grammar, spelling

Citations – Format (3/3)

Inline form – MLA (APA differs but still has page cite) (Tannen 1990 51) or … as Tannen (1990 51) showed …

If you use this form for references, you will still need content notes

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (1/3)

Media is a plural noun; medium is singular.

Ditto data (datum). It’s not 1990’s or 90’s or 90s … it’s

1990s (see Chicago Manual of Style) Spell out numbers smaller than 10

(newspaper style) or 100 (academic style)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (2/3)

Don’t start sentences with a number; re-write

Active tense is preferred over passive

Use notes for detail, definitions, explanations

Explain why (tie opinions, explanations to theory)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (3/3)

Web sources should be reasonably authoritative (ie, named author or established publisher)

Cite should include the date visited Follow standard format for journals,

magazine articles and add the URL

Secondary Research

These papers are primarily examples of secondary research (some of you are conducting surveys and interviews that would qualify as primary research, but it is not required)

Synthesis

Content should be more than a mere collection of citations

Instead, the writing should reflect a synthesis of what you have learned from the sources

Recommended from Jessica

Assembling a List of Works Cited In Your Paper, http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/works_cited

Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian Citing Sources Within Your Paper,

http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/within.htm Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian

Citation Style Guides for Internet and Electronic Sources, http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/citation/index.cfm

Recommended from Kathy

General guides The Elements of Style (Strunk & White) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and

Dissertations (Turabian)

Specific guides (pick one) The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,

6th ed (MLA, Gibaldi) Publication Manual of the American Psychological

Association, 5th ed (APA) Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed (for the detail-

oriented, includes MLA)

Papers – Requirements

Remember - the three papers must include at least 15 citations from scholarly books or journals

Papers are evaluated on quality of analysis, focus, and clarity of presentation

All work must be original You must reference theory (explain “why”)

Questions?

I’m still reviewing papers – expect to get them back to you Thursday night at the start of T.Y’s class

I need a mailing address (by e-mail!) if you will not be here Thursday

Adjourn to COM126

Poster Session Return here by 7.25, please, so we

can start at 7.30 with our first speaker

We’ll take a brief break at 8.30 PS – I need a volunteer (or two) to

introduce speakers