Category Archives: Writing resources

Centre for Academic Communication welcomes graduate students

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, First year in graduate school, Focus strategies, Inspiration and motivation, Make writing social, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Time management, Tutoring, Writing groups, Writing resources

Whether this is your first week in a graduate program or you are a seasoned grad student, we welcome you.

The Centre for Academic Communication (CAC) offers a wide range of services to grad students: from one-to-one tutoring and coaching to workshops and English conversation café. However, in this brief post, I’ll focus on just two of the services we offer: our Brightspace self-enrolling resource hub, called CAC Online, and our weekly Grad Writing Room.

CAC Online in Brightspace

We’ve created an online version of the CAC that you can access 24/7. Our CAC Online Brightspace is self-enrolling—once you are signed into UVic Brightspace, go to “Discover” in the top menu and find “CAC online.” Once you are in the site, explore multimodal material about all types of academic communication plus resources just for graduate students on how read critically, write strategically, present effectively, and publish your work.

Grad Writing Room

 Writing can be a lonely enterprise. Would you like quiet companionship as you think and write? Sometimes, just sitting next to other students who are also on the graduate school journey can make you feel part of a community. Our weekly grad writing room makes the solitary act social. We’re all in this together!

On Wednesdays from 1 to 3 p.m., meet other grad students at the CAC grad writing room. Bring your laptop or pen and paper. We’ll work on our individual writing projects alone, but we’ll be together for solidarity. A CAC tutor will be available for consultation from 1 to 2 p.m. No registration required.

We’re located in the McPherson Library. Walk down the main hallway and turn right just after Classroom 130; we’re at the end of the Learning Commons. On the map you’ll see CAC staff members’ offices marked with hearts. Can’t wait to meet you!

Map of the CAC

Tip of the day: Did you know the CAC now offers appointments in time management? When making an appointment  (first, create an account), select the schedule, “Time Management + more.”

Three “how to” tips for a Thursday

Academic Writing, Dissertation writing, Editors and editing, Genre, Posts by Gillian, Posts by Madeline, Posts by Nancy, Research, Writing resources

Gillian, Nancy, and Madeline share one tip each. We hope you find them useful.

Google search field with "How do I write"
Google it

How to get started with a writing genre or assignment that’s new to you

Gillian

If you’ve been asked to write an “annotated bibliography,” “summary,” or “critical analysis,” and these types of assignments are unfamiliar, there are TONS of resources and samples online to guide you. Search “how do I write a…” and choose sites that end in “.edu” (American universities) or that belong to Canadian or UK universities. YouTube can also be a great “how to” resource. Another option is to ask an AI tool, like ChatGPT to show you what that type of assignment looks like. It can’t access a lot of the information and sources that you can, and doesn’t have any critical thinking skills, but it can serve as a good starting point and show you what kind of language is standard for the genre and type of assignment.

How to write the final sentence of your paper

Nancy

I struggle with writing the final sentence in the conclusion of a paper. Over time, I’ve learned a few strategies from observing other writers. Strategy #1: Make a prediction: Explain what might be gained or what might happen if your argument is heard or your solution is enacted. Strategy #2: Complete the circle. Return to the first sentence of your introduction and highlight the connection or show the impact of your discussion. If you began with a question, what is the answer? If you started with a gap in knowledge, what information has emerged? Strategy #3: Briefly comment on a broad implication or next step. Who could join the conversation? What small direction might the research take? Who knows? Maybe following these strategies will work for you, too.

How to ensure your language is inclusive, empowering, and respectful

Madeline

Language is constantly evolving. We are aware of how language can oppress and marginalize, and we are committed to writing in a way that is respective and inclusive. Pronoun identification, people-first language around disability, inclusive vocabulary to describe people experiencing homelessness (instead of “the homeless”): These are just a few language shifts we’ve seen in recent years. If you are writing a paper, thesis, article, or dissertation and want to check that you are writing in a conscious style, you may want to consult this guide: https://consciousstyleguide.com/

Use the search engine on the site to find a range of articles about your topic. During a short dive into the website, I found fascinating articles on health literacy and plain language, why we should avoid the term “substance abuse,” and 15 ways to bring more positive language into the classroom. Check it out!

Brand for Conscious Style Guide website

We have workshops!

Writing resources, Writing workshops

We are offering several workshops on Zoom this semester to support your academic success: everything from time management to how to publish your paper. No registration required. We look forward to seeing you at one or more!

Workshop Wednesdays (all welcome!)

Time Management, 1 to 2pm, January 18; Zoom: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/85627506089 

This workshop will help students learn the importance of time management by providing students with time-management tips, practical techniques, and self-applied resources on key topics, such as allocating time for exam preparation. No registration required. Contact learningstrategist1@uvic.ca for more information.  

 

Setting up for a Successful Semester, 1 to 2pm, January 25; Zoom: https://uvic.zoom.us/s/82595447222 

Setting up for a successful semester starts with establishing your academic priorities and discovering campus resources. In this workshop, we will share tips to get your semester started and tour available CAC programs/services/bookings systems. Contact learningstrategist2@uvic.ca for more information. 

 

Basics of Academic Writing and Research, 1 to 2pm, February 1; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/92556345261 

This workshop reviews the main qualities of academic research and how those are translated into the main qualities of academic writing. This knowledge will help you have a better idea of common requirements and expectations in terms of research-based academic writing. We will also introduce and practice some fundamental skills and strategies to write in a way that follows these expectations. Contact Kaveh for more info.  

Effective Use of Quotations and Paraphrasing, 1 to 2pm, February 8; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/3097476265   

How many quotations is too many?! What does it mean to “put something into my own words?” Organizing a research paper or an argumentative essay and deciding how to use evidence can be tricky. This workshop reviews how to structure at the sentence, paragraph, and essay levels, and how to effectively integrate evidence in the forms of quotations and paraphrasing to support your arguments. Contact Gillian at eal1@uvic.ca for information.  

Flow like a river: Creating coherence and cohesion in your writing, 1 to 2pm, February 15; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/7451562018?pwd=MmdtRWlaei9kRnBCVjJLRWNqbkIvdz09 

In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to create flow in your writing by looking at global flow (cohesion) and local flow (coherence). We’ll review five effective approaches to creating coherence (organizational patterns and colour coding) and cohesion (known-to-new sequencing, transitional expressions, and getting to the verb). Everyone is welcome! Contact Madeline at caceal4@uvic.ca for information. 

Revising and submitting academic work for publication, 1 to 2pm, March 1; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/97389771497  

Are you aspiring to publish an academic paper, thesis, or dissertation? Participants in this hour-long workshop will learn how to select a reputable journal, compose an effective cover letter, create a captivating abstract, and polish their manuscript for submission. No registration required. Contact Emily at cacpc@uvic.ca for information. 

Resubmitting, proofing, and promoting published work, 1 to 2pm, March 8; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/97389771497 

Are you aspiring to publish an academic paper, thesis, or dissertation?  Participants in this hour-long workshop will learn how to navigate copyright permissions, how to address reviewer feedback, how to track submissions for publication, how to publish for an academic career, and how to promote published work to increase its impact and reach. No registration required. Contact Emily at cacpc@uvic.ca for information. 

The literature review: How to organize, cite, and position yourself, 1 to 2pm, March 15; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/7451562018?pwd=MmdtRWlaei9kRnBCVjJLRWNqbkIvdz09 

The lit review is a common genre in academic writing. An effective lit review shows your reader you know the literatures surrounding your research and you can position yourself within the field. By the end of this one-hour workshop, you will be able to 1) describe two ways to start organizing your sources: matrix & map, 2) identify three ways to organize a lit review, 3 )identify an integral and non-integral citation, and 4) describe one strategy for inserting your own “voice” in your literature review This workshop is intended for graduate students, but everyone is always welcome! Contact Madeline at caceal4@uvic.ca for information. 

Self-editing strategies, 1 to 2pm, March 22; https://uvic.zoom.us/j/83175390648  

Wondering how to strategically polish a final draft? Join us for information about prioritizing sentences and grammar issues when making changes. Discover approaches and tools to streamline the self-editing process. Contact Nancy at cacmgr@uvic.ca for information. 

Our team’s favourite writing resources

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, Dissertation writing, EAL graduate students, First year in graduate school, Grammar and punctuation, Literature review, Transition, Tutoring, Writing resources

September 14, 2022

By the CAC Team

Hello, returning and new graduate students. We know that graduate school involves lots of reading, writing, listening, and presentations. We offer one-to-one assistance with your academic writing challenges in three modes: Zoom appointments, in-person appointments at the Centre (in the Mearns Centre for Learning) and in the form of same-day written feedback. Create an account and make an appointment here: https://uvic.mywconline.com

As you embark on your courses and start researching and writing assignments, theses, and dissertations, we’d like to share our team members’ favourite writing resources. Perhaps one or more of these resources will provide knowledge or perspective that makes a difference to you.

Please leave a comment for us, letting us know your own favourites. We wish you well as you embark on your studies.

Emily’s favourite links 

For graduate student writers 

University of Minnesota “Graduate Student Writers” Resources:  

The Center for Writing at the University of Minnesota boasts numerous “quick tips” resources for graduate student writers, including how to write thesis/dissertation/conference proposals, as well as how to organize, write, and present a thesis/dissertation, with specific emphasis on compositional cohesion and self-editing strategies:

http://writing.umn.edu/sws/quickhelp/graduate.html 

For undergraduate student writers and for everyone 

 “EAL Learner Agency” WordPress Blog: 

 Below is a link to the WordPress blog I co-created with Jing Mao’s thoughtful input. The blog contains helpful information for EAL students on how to exercise greater learner agency by leveraging available academic supports as well as concrete tips for communicating effectively with course instructors and peers:

https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/eallearneragency 

University of Minnesota “Student Resources” Site: 

The University of Minnesota has produced a high-quality repository of resources for EAL learners including practical tips for improving speaking, listening, confidence, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar:

https://ccaps.umn.edu/esl-resources/students 

  

Kaveh’s favourite links 

For graduate student writers

Writing Resources for Graduate Students (Yale University) 

Yale University’s Graduate Writing Lab has a series of writing resources for graduate students  on topics such as “Dissertation Writing” to “Prospectus Writing” that can help guide new graduate students navigate various forms of academic writing. 

DoctoralWritingSIG Blog 

From their own site: “DoctoralWritingSIG is a forum where people who are interested in doctoral writing can come together to share information, resources, ideas, dreams (perhaps even nightmares!) in a spirit of building knowledge and skills around higher degree research writing.”

https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/  

For everyone

Purdue Owl 

There are few students who do not know about this huge repository of information on general writing and grammar support. This is exactly why I make sure those few students also know about the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.  

Writing Advice (U of T) 

A great collection of writing advice on fundamental questions about academic writing such as “how to overcome a writer’s block?” or “how to write an abstract?” These “advice files” are created by writing instructors at U of T based on the most common questions students have asked over the years and so cover a wide range of writing issues. The site is organized in a few categories, such as “Planning,” “Researching,” “Using Sources,” and so on.  

 

Gillian’s favourite links

For graduate student writers

Carlton University’s Online Writing Resources for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Carlton University’s graduate writing resources page is home to a comprehensive repository of resources for writing, from guides on work-life balance and common problems in thesis and dissertation writing to video workshops and blogs like The Thesis Whisperer, Three Month Thesis, and more.

https://carleton.ca/gradpd/writing/humanities-and-social-sciences/

For undergraduate student writers and for everyone

English Use for Academic Purposes (EUFAP)

EUFAP is a long-time favourite, despite its somewhat basic and outdated appearance. It’s a site dedicated to everything related to English for Academic purposes (EAP), which is typically an area of instruction for English language learners, but this site really has information that can benefit writers of all backgrounds and skill levels. It addresses the “four skills”: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

http://www.uefap.com/

The University of Manchester’s Academic Phrasebank

The Academic Phrasebank provides the “nuts and bolts” of writing a research paper, organized by function. It’s a great resource for when you need to make a connection between ideas or argue a point and you’re at a loss for words.

https://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Madeline’s favourite links

For graduate student writers 

The thesis whisperer – salty language, tells it like it is, great information for students in the middle of a graduate degree.

 https://thesiswhisperer.com 

Helen Sword hosts writing retreats and workshops that focus on enjoying academic writing, being productive, and writing with style. Her books are helpful as well, particularly, The Writer’s Diet and Stylish Academic Writing. 

https://www.helensword.com

I also recommend her short video on nominalization – it’s fun and educational:

https://youtu.be/dNlkHtMgcPQ

Pat Thompson’s website has fresh posts coming all the time about timely topics for grad students: how to write the literature review, how to start a doctorate, how to manage your time effectively, and much more.  

https://patthomson.net

Wendy Belcher is another writer on academic writing for grad students and faculty. Her writing advice webpage has links to some valuable material, such as how to write a journal article (she wrote the book on it!), how to write a book review, and how to read journals.  

https://wendybelcher.com/writing-advice/ 

For undergraduate student writers and for everyone 

I don’t know, maybe it’s the silly video with the guy playing a guitar and singing about transitions? Or maybe it’s because this is where I learned about “adversative transitions.” In any case, this is my go-to for transition information and suggestions. 

https://blog.wordvice.com/common-transition-terms-used-in-academic-papers/  

For overall grammar instruction, I refer students to Grammar Bytes because it’s light and fun. Additionally, the quizzes help to consolidate skills.  

https://chompchomp.com/menu.htm

I like using our own CAC-created flowchart for article problems:

https://www.uvic.ca/learningandteaching/cac/assets/docs/cac-articles.pdf 

Nancy’s favourite links

For everyone

Writing a location statement (positionality statement)

This 6-minute video provides a very helpful overview of what to include in a location statement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcIVzGYhVs&ab_channel=meganleanne44

Writing a literature review

Monash University offers some very helpful tips relating to literature review writing (if you’re OK navigating the “cookie” pop-up on your screen):

https://www.monash.edu/learnhq/write-like-a-pro/how-to-write…/literature-review

University of Sydney’s “The Write Site”

For a fantastic review of writing fundamentals, check out the nifty modules developed by the University of Sydney:

https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/12076

Happy writing this semester!

A beam of light, a mirror, or an axe: Writing as self-discovery

Cognition and writing, Cognitive process and writing, Creative writing, Dissertation writing, Inspiration and motivation, Motivation, Posts by Emily, Reading, Writers writing about writing, Writing resources

By Emily Arvay

Image credit: North News & Pictures Ltd. Creative Commons Licence.

“The well of inspiration is a hole that leads downwards” (Atwood, 176).

Margaret Atwood and Hélène Cixous suggest that all writing is motivated by a compulsion to explore the deepest parts of ourselves. Both authors argue that writing serves to illuminate “an underworld” to draw unacknowledged or unexamined insights back into the light (Atwood, xxiv). Whereas Cixous compares writing to plunging deep into the earth or ocean (5), Atwood compares writing to entering a dark labyrinth or cave with no opening:

“Obstruction, obscurity, emptiness, disorientation, often combined with a struggle or path or journey – an inability to see one’s way forward but a feeling that there [is] a way forward, and that the act of going forward eventually [brings] about the conditions for vision.” (xxii-xxiii)

For Atwood, writing is midwifed in darkness through which inspiration appears as a flash of light (176). Simply put, writers who enter this underworld serve to illuminate that which is already present but unseen.

For Atwood and Cixous, the process of reading shares many of the same properties as writing: a reader enters a text from a place of darkness, unsure of where that text may take them, and temporarily loses then regains their sense of self in the process. As Cixous describes, to be a reader is “to lose a world and to discover that there is more than one world, and that the world isn’t what we think” (10). Ultimately, both authors acknowledge that writing-as-self-discovery is not an easy process – that any attempt to write with integrity is “an exercise that requires us to be stronger than ourselves” (Cixous, 42). It is perhaps for this reason that Kafka once compared writing to “an axe” to break “the frozen sea inside us” (as cited in Cixous, 17). Whether understood as a beam of light, a mirror, or an axe, Atwood, Cixous, and Kafka teach us that the process of writing, however imperfect, may gift the writer with the means to ascend towards a more luminous, expansive, or magnanimous awareness of self.

Works Referenced

Atwood, Margaret. Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Cixous, Hélène. Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

About the author:

Emily Arvay completed her PhD at the University of Victoria in 2019 with her thesis “Climate Change, the Ruined Island, and British Metamodernism.”  Since then, she has worked as a Learning Strategist and EAL Specialist at the University of Victoria. She is currently conducting further research on the intersections between literary metamodernism and contemporary climate fictions.

 

 

 

Summer bummer and working to white noise

Academic Writing, Deadlines, Distractions, Environment, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Inspiration and motivation, Posts by Emily, procrastination, Procrastination, Productivity, Time management, Writing resources

By Emily Arvay

© University of Victoria

As the weather warms, it can be increasingly tempting to cast off thesis or dissertation work in favour of a strawberry gelato, or pick-up baseball, or a fluffy beach book. Ironically, it is often during the summer months that graduate students find themselves bogged down with preparing for major field exams, thesis or dissertation writing, or condensed language-requirement courses. For many, the intensity of graduate work during the summer months might mean having to forgo that picnic in the park or rousing beach bonfire. One tactic for warding off such tempting distractions is to pretend, at least temporarily, that summer doesn’t exist. To drown out the squeals of children leaping through sprinklers, you might try losing yourself to the quiet din of a busy library, steady rainfall of a winter storm, or smoothing balm of furniture music. Rather than bemoaning those mint mojitos you’re missing out on, you might try embracing your newfound status as a den-dwelling troglodyte by closing those curtains, silencing those devices, and riding out that tsunami of graduate schoolwork with this ten-hour loop of rainy-day jazz. Although it won’t be easy, you might approach your thesis or dissertation project as you would a sandy band-aid: by pushing through the short-term pain of getting those drafted chapters off to your supervisory committee as quickly as possible. Then, once sent, you can treat yourself to a much-deserved break. Long-awaited, that beach-side lemonade will taste all-the-sweeter.

About the author:

Emily Arvay completed her PhD at the University of Victoria in 2019 with her thesis “Climate Change, the Ruined Island, and British Metamodernism.”  Since then she has worked as a Learning Strategist and EAL Specialist at the University of Victoria. She is currently conducting further research on the intersections between literary metamodernism and contemporary climate fictions.

Enliven your writing in 2021

Academic Writing, Blogs and blogging, Posts by Madeline, Writing resources

Welcome back. I hope you had a good break. We all needed a rest after an exhausting and challenging semester in the midst of a pandemic.  Would you like to join me in starting 2021 with a resolution to exhume “zombie nouns” from your writing? In this humorous video, Helen Sword contends that when we turn other parts of speech (verbs, adjectives) into nouns by adding a suffix, we create “zombie nouns” or nominalizations that suck the life out of our writing, making it more abstract and difficult to read.

I’ll take Sword’s example: “The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency towards pomposity and abstraction” contains seven nominalizations and doesn’t leave us with a clear idea of who is doing what. Several of the bolded words started as lively verbs (proliferate, form, indicate, tend) and others started as adjectives (pompous, abstract), but they life drained from each of them with the added suffixes, which added unnecessary complexity.

Reanimated, this sentence becomes “Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizations tend to sound pompous and abstract.” Note that a human (the writer) was added for clarity. So much better!

Sword also created The Writer’s Diet, a tool that measures words and constructions that weaken writing, for example be-verbs and zombie nouns. I tested a paragraph of a recently published article*, and zombie nouns were off the chart! Academics tend to use many nominalizations. Indeed, you may think of nominalizations as a required feature of  formal writing, and perhaps you’ve even added nominalizations to make your writing sound more “academic.” But as Sword says, nominalizations obscure meaning, and you want to communicate important ideas and research as transparently as possible. I invite you to join me in analyzing your writing this year to see if you can enliven and clarify your sentences by reducing nominalizations.

screen shot of the writers diet website testing an excerpt of flabby prose

Resources:

Sword’s tool and video are a good place to start. You can add the Writer’s Diet app to your Microsoft Word program for free. Another resource on this topic is  OWL’s page on nominalizations.

Write for us! 

Would you like to write for the blog?  We welcome ideas and blog posts from graduate students, staff members, and instructors. Please send your query or post to Madeline Walker, Editor, at cacpc@uvic.ca

Before you write, please consider the following:

We love content relevant to academic communication (reading, writing, presenting) and graduate students. We value

    • a unique point of view,
    • posts reflecting the diversity of UVic students,
    • stories that illustrate difficulties and vulnerabilities,
    • posts with practical tips and ideas,
    • fresh topics,
    • humour,
    • content specific to UVic,
    • and motivating and inspirational themes.

Posts should be between 250-750 words and may be edited for clarity, grammar, and punctuation.

If your post is accepted for publication, please provide a good-quality jpeg photo of yourself (not a selfie) and a short (2-3 sentence) biography.

* This is the recently published article where I obtained the excerpt: Nils Dahl, Alex Ross & Paul Ong (2020) Self-Neglect in Older Populations: A Description and Analysis of Current Approaches, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 32:6, 537-558, DOI: 10.1080/08959420.2018.1500858

 

Let’s write together this fall

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, Dissertation writing, Distance students, EAL graduate students, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Inspiration and motivation, International graduate students, Make writing social, Mental health, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Procrastination, Productivity, Time management, Web-based writing groups, Writing groups, Writing resources

Welcome new graduate students and welcome back returning students!

Writing is a big part of your work as a graduate student. Frequently we write alone, and that can feel isolating. Now that we are keeping our physical distance from one another, this sense of isolation can be profound. A great way to break out of isolation and kick-start your writing is to connect with your peers and write together and/or share your writing. Wendy Belcher, editor, teacher, and the author of Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks, is a proponent of making your writing social, whether through involvement in a writing group or with a writing partner. Writing with others can allay writer’s block and other forms of anxiety, make you more productive, and help you feel connected to others.

If you’d like to start your own writing group, The Thesis Whisperer has some tips on how to start your own “Shut up and write” group (you can modify to create online or socially distanced meetings).  Another resource—this one developed here at UVic—is The Thesis Writing Starter Kit, which can also be modified for online meetings.

If starting a writing group isn’t your thing, or if you simply want a pre-made writing group, why not join our virtual writing room on Wednesday afternoons? It’s a great way to set and accomplish small goals while writing in the (virtual) company of others. No registration required, just drop in on Wednesday afternoons between 2 and 4 p.m. (September 9-December 4). You can come in for all or part of the session. A tutor from the Centre for Academic Communication will be there to answer any questions and facilitate.

 Zoom link: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/91672624091 

We look forward to seeing you!

Getting Excited about APA Style is not an oxymoron

Academic Writing, APA, Citations, Dissertation writing, Grammar and punctuation, Posts by Madeline, Style guides, Writing resources

By Madeline Walker

Are you a graduate student in Business or the Social Sciences, such as Psychology, Linguistics, Sociology, or Economics? Have you bought your new edition of the APA Style Manual? No? Well, to be honest, neither have I. Officially published earlier this year, the entrance of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association’s Seventh Edition was overshadowed by the chaos accompanying the Covid-19 pandemic. I have just had a chance to review the changes from the sixth to the seventh edition, summarized in this document, and I’d like to tell you about five changes that stood out for me. I’m sure you’ll have your own favourites.

photos of the new edition
Image from https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition/

First, The 7th edition acknowledges the difference between preparing a professional paper for publication and a student paper for a course. In Chapter 2, they provide a sample professional paper and a sample student paper (p. 1). In 2.18, they note different page header elements for the professional paper and the student paper (professionals: page number and running head; students: page number only). (Yay! Finally, we’re getting real—no running heads for student papers!) In 2.3, they describe a title page for a student paper v. a professional paper—also reflecting the reality of the classroom (why do you need an author’s note for your unpublished class assignment?). These changes come as a relief to many instructors who have spent years struggling to modify the professional guidelines to suit the classroom: Finally, it’s been done for you!

Second, I was thrilled to see in Chapter 4, on writing style and grammar, that APA has endorsed the singular use of “they,” explained in this blog post on the APA style blog. You can safely banish the awkward “he or she” and the dreaded “s/he” from your writing. With APA’s blessing, you can use “they” in those instances, as this pronoun is inclusive of all people and helps to avoid making assumptions about gender. When to use “they” as a singular pronoun? Chelsea Lee (2019) explains that “Writers should use the singular “they” in two main cases: (a) when referring to a generic person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context and (b) when referring to a specific, known person who uses “they” as their pronoun.”

Third, all of the old-school “two spaces after a period” folks who started their typing life on typewriters (including me) can embrace the new rule: “Use one space after a period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence” (p. 4) (from Chapter 6, Mechanics of Style).

Fourth, Chapter 8 has some guidance about how to cite recorded or unrecorded Traditional Knowledge and Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples (see Section 8.9). This guidance is a much needed addition to the style guide, as post-secondary libraries decolonize and researchers draw on Indigenous knowledge.  Also in this chapter is new guidance on how to format quotations from research participants (see Section 8.36).   I’ve worked with so many students doing qualitative research using some form of narrative inquiry—now there are guidelines about how to work with the rich data from their participants’ voices.

And finally, I am delighted to see that the font-mantra—”you must use Times New Roman 12”—has been relaxed with this edition, with an emphasis on accessibility rather than homogeneity: “Font guidelines are more flexible. This revised section notes that ‘APA Style papers should be written in a font that is accessible to all users.’ Section 2.19 provides the following font recommendations: a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode or a serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the latter is the default font for LaTeX)” (p. 2). According to Wikipedia (I know, not a definitive source), for the first time, APA Style’s team worked with accessibility experts to ensure accessibility in APA writing/reading (shortened in-text citations are another change).

These are just a few of the exciting transformations the APA Style Manual has undergone to keep pace with our rapidly changing world. I am looking forward to owning my own copy of the 7th edition. (And no, I’m not kidding.)

Finally, if you don’t have a copy of the manual yet or don’t plan on buying one, the APA style blog continues to be a great resource for answering your APA questions:

Archived sixth edition blog

Current blog

References

Lee, Chelsea. (2019, October 31). “Welcome, singular ‘they.’” [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/singular-they

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write for the blog: Be part of the Graduate Student Writers’ Community

Blogs and blogging, Centre for Academic Communication, Environment, Graduate student writers, Inspiration and motivation, Make writing social, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Writing resources

By Madeline Walker, Editor

Hello. Coming back to the Centre for Academic Communication (CAC) after a year away feels strange. Rather than stepping back into the familiar, welcoming halls of  the library and sharing laughs with students and tutors, I navigate through the disorienting cyber-space of Zoom meetings and online communication. It’s hard to get my footing here. I feel like an astronaut floating far away from the mother ship. I miss you. But it’s great to be back, and I hope to see you in person soon.

Call for blog posts

Please write a post for the blog! This is your community, and we want to hear your voice, your opinions, and your ideas. You can write on anything to do with the experience of graduate student research and writing. Perhaps you could share how graduate research and writing has changed for you since the onset of the pandemic. How have you coped? What do you miss most? Have you discovered any unexpected treasures? Or perhaps you’d like to voice some thoughts on developing an academic identity, writing for publication, or attending conferences.  Maybe you’d like to review a useful book that helped you with your writing or research. Please browse previous posts to get an idea of the range of writing.

Blog posts should be between 250 and 750 words. Use plain English—make your post accessible. I encourage you to

  • provide hyperlinks to resources
  • include a catchy title
  • check out this template (yes, it’s from a marketing perspective, but the guidelines are sound)
  • read  “Write for Us” for further information.

Please send your inquiries and posts to me at cacpc@uvic.ca.

Start your own blog

Writing a guest post for the Graduate Student Writers’ Community blog might stimulate you to start your own blog.

Pat Thomson, academic blogger extraordinaire, claims that blogging has many benefits for the graduate student researcher/writer. Writing blog posts can help you set a regular writing routine, develop authoritative voice in your writing, and practise writing in a conversational style (Thomson & Kamler, Detox your writing, p. 120). She writes that blogging is a “productive way of performing your research for a wider public” (p. 118). If you would like to start your own blog, UVic’s instance of WordPress, the Online Academic Community,  is free for UVic students. Attend a how-to workshop and start blogging!

New Online Resources for Graduate Students at the CAC

The capable team at the CAC have been developing many online resources in the past four months, including CAC Online, a self-enrolling CourseSpaces site  (You must be loggged into UVic to access the link). In particular, I draw your attention to the valuable resources for grad students housed there, including videos by Emily and Kaveh about reading, writing, and publishing your research.

P.S. Pat Thomson and Barbara Kamler’s excellent book on doctoral research and writing, Detox your writing: Strategies for doctoral researchers,  is available from our library as an e-book.