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Summer Break

During the summer, writing foo is on break. Instead, I'll be posting on nHumanities, so please give it a visit at http://nhumanities.blogspot.com/.

Chicago Manual of Style - Q&A

Worried about what I mean by the serial comma* or other such terms? Begone, confusion! The Chicago Manual of Style web site has a nice reference tool in the form of a Q&A page. The page has an alphabetical index down the left side and a search tool.

*The serial comma is the comma just before the conjunction in a series. Modern American usage requires its use. Example: Planes, trains, and automobiles.

Idea. Collect. Focus. Draft. Clarify.

Late last month, Roy Peter Clark filled up his writer's toolbox with Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process.

Clark credits journalist and writing teacher Donald M. Murray with changing his life with five words: Idea. Collect. Focus. Draft. Clarify.

Until he heard Murray, Clark believed great writing was unattainable to him. After he heard Murray, Clark learned that writing is a step of rational steps--steps we all can use:

In other words, the writer conceives a story idea, collects things to support it, discovers what the story is really about, attempts a first draft, and revises in the quest for greater clarity. . . . Finished writing may seem magical to the reader, but it is the product of an invisible process, a series of rational steps, a set of tools. (Clark)

Clark played with Murray's basic model for over 20 years and presents his own version (with explanation) in Writing Tool #50:

1. Sniff around.
2. Explore ideas.
3. Collect evidence.
4. Find a focus.
5. Select the best stuff.
6. Recognize an order.
7. Write a draft.
8. Revise and clarify.

Sniff. Explore. Collect. Focus. Select. Order. Draft. Revise. These are words for a writer to live by.

Noah Webster & Americanisms

According to the 14Apr05 email from Today in Literature,

On this day in 1828 Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language, thereby authorizing "color," "theater," traveler" and a host of other Americanisms. But not all of them took: such words as "soop," "hed," "tung" and "tuf wimmen" were rejected as going too far. The 1828 edition is back in print today, heavily promoted by groups who prefer its Christian approach and moral tone.

New Source of Information on HIV/AIDS

Poynter.org columnist Sree Sreenivasan highlighted an excellent online source for medical information in his weekly post today: GlobalHealthReporting.org, a web site supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation with major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GlobalHealthReporting.org focuses upon HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and health journalism, so those of you students working on the HIV paper may find it a valuable resource.

Common MLA Models

It's open season on research-based writing for college classes. The secret to writing correct bibliographic entries is to use a reference book such as Diane Hacker's A Writer's Reference (5th ed., with 2003 MLA update) or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Joseph Gibaldi, 6th ed.) and find the appropriate model or models (sometimes you must combine a couple of models) for the source you are using.

It might be useful to review the four MLA bibliographic citations that cover the sources most students use in their research papers: the scholarly article accessed via a database, the document from a government web site, the webpage from a larger web site, and a short work from an anthology.

Scholarly Article Accessed Via a Database

If you are using Hacker's A Writer's Reference as your guide, then you will wish to follow model no. 31 (360). To write this citation, you provide all the information that's available for the print version of the article, and then you add the necessary information about how you accessed it online. Example:

Koumans, Emilia H., et al. "Sexually Transmitted Disease Services at US Colleges and Universities." Journal of American College Health 53.5 (2005): 211-217. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. Hinckley Lib., Northwest Col., Powell, WY. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.epnet.com›.

Within the body of your paper, you would use the following intext citation: (Koumans et al. 212).

Document from a Government Web Site

When a webpage comes from a government-sponsored web site--such as the CDC--then you need to identify the government as the "corporate author" of the document. You would use Hacker's model at the top of page 366, the second example for no. 49. Example:

United States. National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV and Its Transmission. 22 Sep. 2003. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm›.

The intext citation for this source would be (United States); for subsequent citations, you could use an abbreviation (US). If you had more than one document from this same web site, then you need to add more information so readers can find the citation easily in your Works Cited list: (United States, HIV).

Webpage from a Larger Web Site

The model for a webpage (or a short work) from a larger web site is no. 28 in Hacker (358). Here's an example for a webpage without an author:

"HIV/AIDS: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)." World Health Organization. 2005. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/arv/en/›.

The appropriate intext citation for this webpage would be ("HIV/AIDS").

A Chapter or Section or Short Work from a Book/Anthology

The model for a work in an anthology is no. 10 in Hacker (352). Here's an example for a short story from an anthology:

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 73-79.

The appropriate intext citation for this webpage would be (Faulkner 74).

Remember: When in doubt, contact your professor for guidance.