Dos & Don’ts

Please read this page very carefully, before you start drafting your assignments!

Dos

• Do search scholarly work. Please check out this link how to find scholarly work:
  • Advanced Research Techniques for Undergraduate Research Student Scholars
  • How do I know if an article or book is scholarly?
  • “How to Read a (Quantitative) Journal Article” by Greta Krippner

• Do cite properly. When you take someone else’s work and ideas, you must cite properly.
  • Please watch this video, Introduction to Citation Styles: APA 7th ed. 

• • Read this: APA Style Introduction by Purdue University 

• Do remember that I use a software program that detects plagiarism and directly see if you copied and pasted someone else’s work. If you do not properly cite them, it can be considered plagiarism. 

• Do read my feedback on your document in My Grade. You will have to click your paper to see that. Please navigate this page

Don’ts

• Do not cite Wikipedia or random blog posts. Wikipedia is NOT a reliable source for citations. 

• Do not make bullet points. You’re in my sociology class and your paper is not a report. It should be in an essay format.

• Do not use too many direct quotes. Avoid direct quotations within their writing as much as you can. I find some papers are filled with copied and pasted sentences. I am interested in your active voice, not heavily relying on sentences written by someone else. I will stop reading it if you have more than 50 words in direct quotations.
  • Read this: Quoting and Paraphrasing. 

• Do not just summarize any resources. I am much more interested in your findings and analysis, rather than reading summaries. Learn how to “synthesize” reading materials. 
  • Strategies for Paraphrase