Mff720 s3 Sentence Outline CAA

The Writing Process:

Sentence Outlinesand APA

Carlow University Center for Academic Achievement

Grace Library 427 – 412.578.6146 – [email protected]

Learning Objectives

• Understand the Writing Process and its constitutive steps:– Pre-writing– Drafting– Revising

• Review APA style concepts

The Writing Process: 3 Steps

Prewriting• Listing• Brainstorming• Notetaking• Focused free

writing• Thinking about

purpose and audience

• Discussing with others

Drafting• Outlining• Clustering• Creating

“Working Thesis”• Paragraphs• Topic Sentences• Transitions• Ordering Sources

Revising• Editing• Proofreading

First Step: Prewiting

• Writing takes time!• Writing = thinking! Invest in your project• A prewriting exercise: simply write,

without stopping, for ten minutes. This may reduce the confusion in your head about the topic and may help you formulate a “working thesis.”

• If you are doing research, it is in the prewriting stage that your research begins to fit together.

First step: Prewriting

• Keep an organized bibliography (quotes, summarized or paraphrased notes), and stop occasionally to free write about where you think the paper is heading—re-work thesis

• This will help your confidence about the paper’s shape and focus & make the final stages in the editing process easier.

• It will also help you rely less on lots of quotes and more on your own writing.

Second Step: Drafting

• Write your “working thesis” at the top of your page to keep you on track.

• List the things you need to cover in the order which seems most logical to you — consider options for organizing & arranging the ideas.

• If your outline goes in another direction from what you had planned, change the thesis accordingly.

Drafting: ClusteringSome writers prefer to make a visual. It can contain any notes you need and gets you thinking about organizing and ordering.

Working Thesis

Paragraph 2-3: Recent

Discoveries

Paragraph 4: Controversy

about This Topic

Paragraph 5-6:Results of My

Own Research Paragraph 7: Conclusion

Paragraph 1: Introduction/Background Information

Reasons to Make an Outline:

• You can see your paper in a logical form;

• You can see relationships between parts of your sources as evidence;

• You get a mini-view of the finished paper;

• You may feel more in control of all the research you’ve done or all the ideas you are trying to harness;

• You need a map to keep you on track!

Full Sentence Outline Format

• A full sentence outline is a formal, complex structure which forces you to think carefully about how your ideas fit together.

• If they don’t fit, or if you don’t have thorough support, these problems may be revealed in the outline—giving you the opportunity to rework!

Template for a sentence outlineThesis:----------------

I. --------------------- (Roman numeral)A. ------------- (Capital letter)

1.--------------- (Arabic numerals)2.---------------

a. ______ (lower case letters)

Use a complete sentence for each point

NO: Benefits of family dinnersNO: Family dinners

Sample Sentence Outline (1 of 2)

Thesis: Because eating meals together offers so many social and emotional benefits, parents need to restore family dinner as a top priority in their homes.

I. Contemporary American families eat meals together much less frequently than previous generations did.

A. Most families in the 1960s and 1970s ate dinner and breakfast together.

1. Dad’s Sunday night spaghetti dinners were a tradition in my family.

2. Popular TV shows from these decades feature family meals.

Adapted from The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers, 6th ed.

Sample sentence outline (2 of 2)

B. However, today families’ schedules are so complicated that family members often eat separately.

1. Nearly one third of families are headed by a single working parent and more than 60 percent of mothers now work outside the home.

2. Children participate in more extracurricular activities, so they spend less time at home.

Standard Outline FormatI. Introduction

A. Hook

B. Introductory Material

C. Thesis1. First Main Point

2. Second Main Point List Main Points in the order they

3. Third Main Point will appear in your paper.

4. Etc.

II. First Main PointA. First Subpoint of This Main Point

1. First Smaller Point about This Subpointa. First Tiny Detail about This Smaller Point

b. Second Tiny Detail

2. Second Smaller Point

B. Second Subpoint

III. Second Main PointRepeat previous paragraph /page formatting

IV. Third main PointRepeat previous paragraph/page formatting

V. Conclusion Restate the thesis, tie loose ends together, suggest further research

Parts of the paper:

Conclusion

Subject Headings: Body Paragraphs

Introduction (contains thesis at the end)

Framing Quotations

Set

up

• Topic Sentence: signals change to new paragraph, makes a transition to new idea or new facet of overall topic

Quote

• Introduce quote: According to …, In her article…--OR-- Author X argues that…

• Use proper parenthetical citation (author, year, page number)

Link it!

• Analyze quote: comment on its relation to the topic of the paragraph and to your thesis.

Third Step: Revising• “Re-seeing” – view your paper with

fresh eyes. You are not looking simply for grammar mistakes or mistakes in documentation format.

• Look at logic, clarity, how the parts of the paper fit together.

• Leave time between the drafting & revising stages to gain some objectivity about your rough draft.

APA Style: Two Parts

• Reference Page • Parenthetical Citations

Purdue University Writing Lab

When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations (in-text citations)?

• When quoting • When

paraphrasing• When summarizing


Reference Page• A list of every source

that you make reference to in your essay.

• Provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source cited in your essay

• Each retrievable source cited in the essay must appear on the reference page, and vice versa — cross-referencing!


A Sample Reference Page


Running Head: SHELL SHOCK AND WOMEN 36

References

Marcus, J. (1989). Women, war, and madness. In H. A. Veeser (Ed.), The New

Historicism (pp. 132-151). New York: Routledge. SECTION OF BOOK

Paulus, H. (2000). Staying Healthy (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.psychology and women.org WEBSITE

Sanders, F. & Brooks, J. (2002). Effects of wartime violence on women soldiers.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 132-137.

doi: 10.10574/h00021243 JOURNAL ARTICLE WITH DOI

Showalter, E. (1997). Hystories: Hysterical epidemics and modern media. New

York: Columbia UP. BOOK

Young, R. (1993). Effects of traumatic stress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78,

443-452. Retrieved from PsycARTICLES database. DATABASE, NO DOI

Zander, K. (2001, September 13). Military women and post traumatic stress disorder. The New York Times. Retrieved from http:/www.nytimes.com NEWS ONLINE

Further Resources

• Various websites (e.g. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/) and handbooks

• Blackboard (Enroll in “CAA Resources”)

• Center for Academic Achievement Writing/ Research Specialists

• Your course instructor• Grace library website & staff

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

We Can Help You!

Center for Academic AchievementGrace Library 427

[email protected]

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Mff720 s3 Sentence Outline CAA