Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Garcete Marisol

Flanagan, J.(1954). The critical incident technique (CIT). Psychological Bulletin.  Vol. 54 (4) 1-33.

Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/cit-article.pdf

Describes the development of the critical incident technique and methodology in order to collect information about human behavior to find solutions to practical problems and develop psychological principles based on those findings. It includes a clear cut explanation of is meant by critical and incident. It reflects upon the fact that many observations have been made to people but highlights the importance of complementing such activities with further analyses and synthesis. It is sub-divided in several sections to providing relevant information to the research, for instance: Background and Early Developments, Developmental Studies at the American Institute for Research, and Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Moreover, it further analyses the procedure as consisting of: General Aims, Plans and Specifications, Collection of Data, Data Analysis, and Data Interpretation and Report. 

References

Flanagan, J. (1954). The critical incident technique (CIT). Psychological Bulletin.  Vol. 54 (4) 1-33.

Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/cit-article.pdf

Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students – A Critique

Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students – A Critique

Garcete Marisol

Ciampichini Carolina

According to Bailey (2006) “those students who are not native speakers often find the written demands of their courses very challenging” (p. vii). In his book, the author aims to provide students with plenty of practice in certain genres that could help them to self-acquire competence in academic writing skills to be part of an academic writing community and also, to assist teachers who are concerned about their students’ writing progress.  

            Teachers in charge of students at beginner levels in Academic writing may find the book extremely useful. Not only has the author presented the information in a clear way,  but he also has provided new and valuable information for students who have to start writing academically. The book is comprehensibly organized in four parts each of which deals with certain writing skills.   For instance, “part 1: The Writing Process” (p. 3-60) tackles the issue of plagiarism and logical development and organization in essays. In “Part 2: Elements of writing” (p.65-114) the author approaches the need to use an argument style of writing, the use of paraphrasing and referencing. “Part 3: Accuracy in writing” (p. 119-182) provides practice on inaccuracies of verbs and vocabulary. Finally, “Part 4: Writing models” (p. 185-199) offers some models on certain basic writings. 

However, although the book would be suitable for secondary students or higher education beginners, it might fail to fulfill the requirements of teachers and students in the last years of college. The handbook would have been more useful at advanced levels if it had contained more complex genre writings and samples to be analyzed. All the above mentioned topics are comprehensibly introduced but they are vaguely delved into in the book. There is a considerable amount of practice but there are few references. In the “Avoiding Plagiarism” section (p.7) for example, the author should have included a clear guide with strategies for plagiarism avoidance so that students can use it when writing their own productions. They may also find it difficult to correct mistaken exercises because, although answers are provided in the book (p. 204-258) there are no clear explanations. The same may happen when students are doing the tests in the “Writing Tests” section (p. 201-203). 

Bailey’s book would have been more accurate if it had targeted a smaller range of audience. The author argues that the book “is a flexible course that allows students of all subjects and levels, from foundation to PhD, to practice those aspects of writing which are most important for their studies” (p. 6). However, different disciplines often have different writing requirements and this entails a more complex degree of knowledge and handling of writing skills that comprises a wide range of academic genres. 

             All in all, it can be stated that the handbook should be considered as a useful tool for students and teachers who are interested in polishing their academic writing performance at the beginning of higher education. However, a student that is in the last years of university would not find this book useful because it vaguely delves into practical writing skills and common difficulties in writing. 

 References

Bailey, S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for international students (2nd ed.). Retrieved November 2013 from

 http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf 

Academic literacy skills in Wikipedia writing project – A summary

Academic literacy skills in Wikipedia writing project – A summary

Garcete Marisol

Ciampichini Carolina

     In the article ‘Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing’, Tardy (2010) describes  the process of composing an article for the website Wikipedia as an approach to introduce the literacy skills that students must master in formal academic writing. Among such skills, the author states “They [students] must conduct research, summarize and paraphrase, cite sources, adopt genre conventions that meet audience expectations, and select words and grammatical patterns” (p.12). Not only, does Tardy highlight the fact that such requirements can represent a challenge to novice writers at the beginning, but also affirms that classrooms are the main source of knowledge and practice students can have. Therefore, the article also delineates the steps for carrying out a Wikipedia writing project. 

     The author explains that the origin of the name Wikipedia lies on fact that it is a wiki in which any person can write about a certain topic and another person may edit that content. It is the most popular online encyclopedia with numerous contributors and administrators who check the content. In order to write an article in Wikipedia, a  contributor does not need previous experience but the article needs to comply with certain requirements such as: be clear, supported by reliable sources,  footnotes and general references and it has to follow Wikipedia's guidelines.

     Tardy (2010) lists eight steps in the project she designed to guide students through the process of composing an article for Wikipedia. The first step is to examine Wikipedia and understand how it works and the guidelines it has. Then, students are encouraged to research a topic which has not been approached in the Wikipedia English version yet and in the third step they organize that information and create a detailed outline. Steps four and are devoted to drafting and revising. After that, students have to format sources and then polish all their work. Eventually, students publish the article. 

     The Wikipedia-writing project introduces students to many skills of academic research writing in an appealing approach. Almost everyone recognizes Wikipedia nowadays and a lot of people use it as the main source of information. Therefore, students obtain a very realistic access to the audience and enjoy having their work published in a great source of information.

References

Tardy, C. M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp. 12-19, 27.