In text citation analysis of Iida ´s (2010) article

    In the article “Developing voices by composing haiku: A social-expressivist approach for teaching haiku writing in EFL contexts”  Iida (2010) attributes all the citations to the appropriate sources.

     The author uses a variety of in-text citations which are properly acknowledged in the reference list. He uses direct quotes such as: “the production of writer´ s voice reflecting cultural contexts” (para 6).

     He overuses the same paraphrasing quotes,  According to Ivanovic (1998, 97); According to Gradin (1995, 110). On the other hand, the use of parenthetical quotation  is evident in the following examples: (Fishman and McCarthy 1992; Newkirk 1997; Gradin 1995; Bishop 1999) where multiple authors are cited.(para 4).

     In conclusion, Iida (2010) uses a well-balanced set of in-text citation in accordance with APA rules throughout the text and avoids plagiarism by citing all the sources in the reference list. 

References

Iida, A. (2010). Developing voice by composing haiku: A social expressivist approach for teaching haiku writing in EFL contexts. English Teacher Forum. 1.

Teaching haiku to develop a voice in EFL contexts: A summary of Iida´s (2010) article

     In the article “Developing voice for composing haiku: A social-expressivist approach for teaching haiku writing in EFL contexts” Iida (2010) explores the advantages of teaching haiku, clarifies its structure, purpose and interpretation, and provides guidelines to teach haiku in EFL classrooms.  The author begins by stating the difficulties observed in university EFL students to apply previous knowledge of English into their classes and suggests a possible explanation.

     However, there are actions to be taken into the classrooms to reverse this tendency. Iida (2010) suggests teaching haiku as a means to enable students to develop a voice, to help improve their writing skills and to create an audience to present those poems to.   The author later provides background supporting the development of a voice and an audience in students.

     As for haiku itself, the author explains the structure all haikus should have as well as their purpose. He goes even further and provides a haiku he wrote himself and an interpretation of it.

     Furthermore, Iida (2010) offers guidelines to teach how to write haikus in EFL classrooms by dividing work into two moments: textual analysis and composing haikus. In the first part, students will focus on reading poems and answering guiding questions. In order to understand them better, he offers an interpretation of his own haiku and the reasons and context in which it was written.  In the second part, the author provides five steps to guide the composing of the haiku. He advices to review the concept of haiku, to collect material for it, to compose one, to read peers´ poems and to publish them.

     Iida (2010) concludes that “composing haiku in EFL university classrooms enables students to develop an identifiable voice with a high sense of writer-reader interaction” (p. 43).

References

Iida, A.(2010). Developing voice by composing haiku: A social-expressivist approach for teaching haiku writing in EFL contexts. English Teaching Forum.  1.

Evidence Supporting Swales (1990) ´ View on Discourse Communities

            In academic fields, the notion Discourse Communities has been object of numerous contributions from the most varied views.  Swales (1990) and Johns (1990)  stated: ¨A discourse community is composed of a minimum number of expert members and a  frequently larger number of apprentice members who operate on the basis of implicit and explicit public goals…their members develop and use systems of speech and writing that are sometimes quite specific to a particular community´s needs and goals. We often find participatory mechanisms used by community members to transmit information and feedback (e.g.meetings, publications, etc.)” (Swales (1990) and Johns (1990); in Teaching ESL Composition defines a discourse community)

            This paper will attempt to support Swales ´views through the analysis of articles which refer to Swales´ basic criteria for the existence of a discourse community.

            Swales (1990) states that a discourse community should achieve certain objectives and have specific interests. Kelly-Kleese (2001) points out “through community college scholarship, we can enhance the college´s reputation, to bring prestige to the campus and its faculty, and to reshape the image of the institution in the eyes of both the public and the educational community” (para. 1). These common goals will give the members a sense of belonging to a greater corpus where group work will result in better quality of education.

            Swales (1990) determined it was of vital importance to design participatory mechanisms to provide members with information and feedback. As Wenslaff and Weiseman (2004) state “The findings of this study suggest that a cohort-based graduate program that is personalized and responsive to teachers´ needs promotes meaningful learning and a sense of empowerment.” (para. 52) This exchange among teachers (members of the discourse community) will favour transmition of information. “For the learning to have long-standing impact, teachers need teachers to grow within a discourse community. A discourse community cannot exist in the absence of a collaborative culture and an environment that supports risk-taking and reflection.” Wenslaff and Weiseman (2004, para. 53).

            Through the participation in discourse communities, teachers develop a higher level of expertise, as Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles and Lopez-Torrres (2003) mention: ”Teacher reflection is an important contribution to the scholarship on teacher education and development.” (para. 26)  “ This kind of inquiry can lead to a more thoughtful , qualitative understanding of the community college. It may also provide faculty and administrators with a greater understanding of the need for scholarship that has been generated from within the community college discourse community”, states  Kelly-Kleese (2001, para 15).

            By means of exchanging knowledge, either by writing or speaking, and conducting research, members of the discourse communities employ highly specialized terminology through the use of abbreviations and acronyms. Wenslaff and Wieseman (2004) use NCATE to refer to university education standards and Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles and Lopez-Torres (2003) describe types of schools as K-12.

            The members of these communities use specific genres to communicate information through articles, published in journals, either online or paper format.

            In conclusion, the members of discourse communities benefit from the exchange with other members, increase their levels of expertise and share a clear common goal that will result in a sense of belonging to a group bound by professional and personal  connections.

References

Wenslaff, T., Weiseman, K. (Spring 2004).  Teachers need teachers to grow. Teacher education quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A., Lopez-Torres, L. (Summer 2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrivied  October 2007,from http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (Summer 2001). Editor´s choice: an open memo to community college faculty and administrators. Community college review. Retrieved October 2007, from http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (Summer 2004). UCLA community college review: community

college scholarship and discourse. Community College review. Retrieved on October 2007, from http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_mHCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Introduction to Academic Writing in Wikipedia:

 A Summary of Tardy

     The article written by Tardy (2010) presents the challenges students of English as a second language may experience in using their literary skills to write an article in  Wikipedia. She also explores the different steps students should follow in order to write pieces that could be published.

     The author suggests that students should first be acquainted with Wikipedia itself and learn about its aim and style by analysing some published articles. The next steps are to gather the relevant information to support the chosen topic and to create an outline as well as to include the sources. Subsequently, writing the first draft in a coherent and cohesive way is encouraged.

      Tardy (2010) suggests that the next step to follow is peer review of the work done so far. In order to avoid plagiarism, the author proposes to pay attention to how sources are cited, respecting Wikipedia´s documentation style, MLA (Modern Language Association) or Chicago. Then, proofreading and polishing the text are recommended to avoid spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation mistakes. Wikilinks should be identified so that readers can check other existing articles. Finally, students submit their final versions to be published.

     Tardy (2010) concludes that producing pieces for Wikipedia helped her students to improve their academic literary skills and that they “gained a sense of real audience and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing their work published” (p.18).

References

Tardy C., (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to academic

writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp.12-19, 27.

 

American Psychological Association (APA) Rules in Academic Writing

     The purpose of this paper is to analyze in depth the use of the American Psychological Association (APA,2010) rules for academic writing in a particular piece by Dalvit et al (2005) and to state if the APA conventions were applied to this text.

     Most of the citations the authors included in the mentioned piece follow the same in-text citation structure, that is, author´ s surname and year of publication between parentheses. Signal phrases could have been used more often to balance the reading and to provide a smoother, less rigid format.

     The reference list should be separated from the body of the text, in a new page. A number of mistakes regarding capitalization, use of italics, punctuation, etc. can be found. Let us begin from the top: the word Reference is not centrally aligned but to the left. It should not be followed by a colon, either. The authors wrote the sources in alphabetical order but they numbered them. Double spacing was not used or in any part of the text. No hanging indentation was used, what makes it more difficult to consult sources if a reader wishes to. According to Purdue OWL, (2013), all lines after the first line of each entry in the reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin.

     The names of the titles are title-cased and italicized. “Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals [is advised].” (Purdue OWL, 2013). The same source states, “The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning that only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized.”  The names of the books or journals where the articles were taken from are not italicized, which are obvious mistakes when using APA rules.                     

       The electronic sources lack the authors´ name. Furthermore, they should have included the words retrieved from or available at before the link.  The year and the date are separated, and therefore, it is not clear when it was accessed. The two online dictionaries cited in the reference section, should have the entry word in the first position since the authors´ names are not usually included when citing dictionaries.

     When two authors are cited in the reference list, the use of the ampersand is required. The authors used the word and both in the in-text citation, where it is correct, and in the reference list.

     To sum up, after a thorough analysis and contrast with the APA guidelines, it is  concluded that the authors of this piece used some APA style conventions successfully but made a number of mistakes and omissions as well, particularly in the reference section.

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American                 Psychological Association (6^th edition). Washington, DC.

Dalvit, L., Murray, S., Terzoli, A., Zhao, X., Rhodes University, South Africa, Mini, B., &     University Fort Hare, South Africa. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US- China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol 2(9).

Purdue OWL (2013). Reference List: Basic Rules. Retrieved October 2013, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/.