A Canadian Writer's Reference with APA 2020/MLA 2021 Update

C COMPOSING AND REVISING

C1 Planning
    a Assessing the writing situation
    b Exploring your subject
    c Drafting and revising a working thesis statement
    How to solve five common problems with thesis statements
    d Drafting a plan

C2 Drafting
    a Drafting an introduction
    b Drafting the body
    c Drafting a conclusion
    d Managing your files

C3 Reviewing, revising, and editing
    a Seeing revision as a social process
    b Using peer review: Revise with comments
    c Using peer review:  Give constructive comments
    How to write helpful peer review comments
    d Highlights of one student’s review process
    e Approaching global revision in cycles
    f Revising and editing sentences
    How to improve your writing with an editing log
    g Proofreading the final manuscript
    h Sample student revision: Literacy narrative
    Writing guide:  How to write a literacy narrative
    i Formatting the final manuscript

C4 Preparing a portfolio; reflecting on your writing
    a Understanding the benefits of reflection
    b Student writing: Reflective letter for a portfolio
    Writing guide: How to write a reflective letter

C5 Writing paragraphs
    a Focusing on a main point
    b Developing the main point
    c Choosing a suitable pattern of organization
    d Making paragraphs coherent
    e Adjusting paragraph length

A   ACADEMIC READING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING
A1 Reading and writing critically
    a. Read actively
    How to read like a writer
    b. Outline a text to identify main ideas
    c. Summarize to deepen your understanding
    d. Analyze to demonstrate your critical thinking
    How to draft an analytical thesis statement
    e. Sample student writing: Analysis of an article
    Writing guide: How to write an analytical essay

A2 Reading and writing about multimodal texts
    a. Read actively
    b. Outline to identify main ideas
    c. Summarize to deepen your understanding
    d. Analyze to demonstrate your critical reading
    e. Sample student writing:  Analysis of an advertisement

A3 Reading arguments
    a. Distinguish between reasonable and fallacious argumentative tactics
    b. Distinguish between legitimate and unfair emotional appeals
    c. Judge how fairly a writer handles opposing views

A4 Writing arguments
    a. Identify your purpose and context
    b. View your audience as a panel of jurors
    c. In your introduction, establish credibility and state your position
    How to draft a thesis statement for an argument
    d. Back up your thesis with persuasive lines of argument
    e. Support your claims with specific evidence
    f. Anticipate objections; counter opposing arguments
    g. Build common ground
    h. Sample student writing: Researched argument
    Writing guide:  How to write an argument

A5 Speaking confidently
    a. Identify your purpose, audience, and context
    b. Prepare a presentation
    How to deliver a speech
    c. Boost your confidence
    d. Remix an essay for presentation

A6 Writing in the disciplines
    a. Find commonalities across disciplines
    b. Recognize the questions writers in a discipline ask
    c. Understand the kinds of evidence writers in a discipline use
    d. Become familiar with a discipline’s language conventions
    e. Use a discipline’s preferred citation style

S SENTENCE STYLE
S1 Parallelism
    a With items in a series
    b With paired ideas
    c Repeated words
S2 Needed words
    a In compound structures
    b that
    c In comparisons
    d a, an, and the
S3 Problems with modifiers
    a Limiting modifiers such as only, even
    b Misplaced phrases and clauses
    c Awkwardly placed modifiers
    d Split infinitives
    e Dangling modifiers
S4 Shifts
    a Point of view
    b Verb tense
    c Verb mood and voice
    d Indirect to direct questions or quotations
S5 Mixed constructions
    a Mixed grammar
    b Illogical connections
    c is when, is where, reason . . . is because
S6 Sentence emphasis
    a Coordination and subordination
    b Choppy sentences
    c Ineffective coordination
    d Ineffective subordination
    e Excessive subordination
    f Special techniques
S7 Sentence variety
    a Sentence openings
    b Sentence structures
    c Inverted order
    d Question or quotation

WORD CHOICE
W1 Glossary of usage

W2 Wordy sentences
    a Redundancies
    b Unnecessary repetition
    c Empty or inflated phrases
    d Simplified structure
    e Reducing clauses to phrases, phrases to single words

W3 Active verbs
    a Active versus passive verbs
    b Active versus be verbs
    c Actor named in the subject

W4 Appropriate language
    a Jargon
    b Pretentious language, euphemisms, “doublespeak”
    c Obsolete or invented words
    d Slang, regionalisms, nonstandard English
    e Levels of formality
    f Sexist language
    g Offensive language

W5 Exact language
    a Connotations
    b Concrete nouns
    c Misused words
    d Standard idioms
    e Clichés
    f Figures of speech

GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES
G1 Subject-verb agreement
love or loves? have or has? do or does? is or are?
    a Standard subject-verb combinations
    b Words between subject and verb
    c Subjects with and
    d Subjects with or, nor
    e Indefinite pronouns such as someone, each
    f Collective nouns such as jury, class
    g Subject after verb
    h Subject complement
    i who, which, that
    j Plural form, singular meaning
    k Titles, company names, words as words, gerund phrases

G2 Verb forms, tenses, and moods
    a Irregular verbs
    b lie and lay
    c -s endings
    d -ed endings
    e Omitted verbs
    f Tense
    g Subjunctive mood

G3 Pronouns
    a Pronoun-antecedent agreement
    b Pronoun reference
    c Pronoun case (I vs. me etc.)
    d who and whom

G4 Adjectives and adverbs
    a Adjectives
    b Adverbs
    c good and well; bad and badly
    d Comparatives and superlatives
    e Double negatives

G5 Sentence fragments
    a Subordinate clauses
    b Phrases
    c Other word groups
    d Acceptable fragments

G6 Run-on sentences
    a Revision with coordinating conjunction
    b Revision with semicolon
    c Revision by separating sentences
    d Revision by restructuring

MULTILINGUAL WRITERS AND ESL TOPICS
M1 Verbs
    a Appropriate form and tense
    b Passive voice
    c Base form after a modal
    d Negative verb forms
    e Verbs in conditional sentences
    f Verbs followed by gerunds or infinitives

M2 Articles
    a Articles and other noun markers
    b When to use the
    c When to use a or an
    d When not to use a or an
    e No articles with general nouns
    f Articles with proper nouns

M3 Sentence structure
    a Linking verb between a subject and its complement
    b A subject in every sentence
    c Repeated nouns or pronouns with the same grammatical function
    d Repeated subjects, objects, adverbs in adjective clauses
    e Mixed constructions with although or because
    f Placement of adverbs

M4 Using adjectives
    a Present participles and past participles
    b Order of cumulative adjectives

M5 Prepositions and idiomatic expressions
    a Prepositions showing time and place
    b Noun (including -ing form) after a preposition
    c Common adjective + preposition combinations
    d Common verb + preposition combinations

M6 Paraphrasing sources effectively
    a Avoiding replacing a source’s words with synonyms
    b Determining the meaning of the original source
    c Presenting the author’s meaning in your own words

PUNCTUATION AND MECHANICS
P1 The comma
    a Clauses with and, but, etc.
    b Introductory elements
    c Items in a series
    d Coordinate adjectives
    e Nonrestrictive elements
    f Transitions, parenthetical expressions, etc.
    g Direct address, yes/no, interrogative tags, interjections
    h He said etc.
    i Dates, addresses, titles, numbers

P2 Unnecessary commas
    a Compound elements
    b Between verb and subject or object
    c Before or after a series
    d Cumulative adjectives
    e Restrictive elements
    f Concluding clauses
    g Inverted sentence
    h Other misuses

P3 The semicolon and the colon
    a Semicolon with independent clauses
    b Semicolon with series
    c Misuses of the semicolon
    d Colon with list, appositive, quotation, summary
    e Conventional uses of the colon
    f Misuses of the colon

P4 The apostrophe
    a Possessive nouns, indefinite pronouns
    b Contractions
    c Plurals of numbers, letters, etc.
    d Misuses

P5 Quotation marks
    a Direct quotations
    b Quotation within quotation
    c Titles
    d Words as words
    e With other punctuation
    f Misuses

P6 Other punctuation marks
    a End punctuation
    b Dash, parentheses, brackets
    c Ellipsis mark
    d Slash

P7 Spelling and hyphenation
    a Spelling rules
    b Words that sound alike
    c Common misspellings
    d Compound words
    e Hyphenated adjectives
    f Fractions and numbers
    g Prefixes and suffixes
    h To avoid ambiguity
    i Word division

P8 Capitalization
    a Proper versus common nouns
    b Titles with names
    c Titles of works
    d First word of sentence
    e First word of a quoted sentence
    f After colon

P9 Abbreviations and numbers
    a Titles with names
    b Familiar abbreviations
    c Conventional abbreviations
    d Units of measurement
    e Latin abbreviations
    f Plural of abbreviations
    g Inappropriate abbreviations
    h Spelling out numbers
    i Using numerals

P10 Italics
    a Titles of works
    b Other terms

BASIC GRAMMAR
B1 Parts of speech
    a Nouns
    b Pronouns
    c Verbs
    d Adjectives
    e Adverbs
    f Prepositions
    g Conjunctions
    h Interjections

B2 Sentence patterns
    a Subjects
    b Verbs, objects, and complements

B3 Subordinate word groups
    a Prepositional phrases
    b Verbal phrases
    c Appositive phrases
    d Absolute phrases
    e Subordinate clauses

B4 Sentence types
    a Sentence structures
    b Sentence purposes

R RESEARCHING
R1 Thinking like a researcher; gathering sources
    a  Managing the project
    b  Posing questions worth exploring
    How to enter a research conversation
    c  Mapping out a search strategy
    d  Searching efficiently; mastering a few shortcuts to finding good sources
    How to go beyond a Google search
    e  Conducting field research
    f  Writing a research proposal

R2 Managing information; taking notes responsibly
    a  Maintaining a working bibliography
    b  Keeping track of source materials
    c  Taking notes carefully to avoid unintentional plagiarism
How to avoid plagiarizing from the Web

R3 Evaluating sources
    a  Thinking about how sources might contribute to your writing
    b  Selecting sources worth your time and attention
    c  Reading with an open mind and a critical eye
    d  Assessing Web sources with special care
    e  Constructing an annotated bibliography
Writing guide: How to write an annotated bibliography

MLA Papers
MLA-1 Supporting a thesis
    a  Forming a working thesis
    b  Organizing your ideas
    c  Using sources to inform and support your argument

MLA-2 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
    a  Understanding how the MLA system works
    b  Understanding what plagiarism is
    c  Using quotation marks around borrowed language
    d Putting summaries and paraphrases in your own words
How to be a responsible researcher

MLA-3 Integrating sources
    a  Summarizing and paraphrasing effectively
    b  Using quotations effectively
    c  Using signal phrases to integrate sources
    d Synthesizing sources

MLA-4 Documenting sources
    a  MLA in-text citation
    b  MLA list of works cited
    c  MLA information notes

MLA-5 Manuscript format; sample paper
    a  MLA manuscript format
    b  Sample MLA research paper

APA Papers
APA-1 Supporting a thesis
    a  Forming a working thesis
    b  Organizing your ideas
    c  Using sources to inform and support your argument
APA-2 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
    a  Understanding how the APA system works
    b  Understanding what plagiarism is
    c  Using quotation marks around borrowed language
    d  Putting summaries and paraphrases in your own words
APA-3 Integrating sources
    a  Summarizing and paraphrasing effectively
    b  Using quotations effectively
    c  Using signal phrases to integrate sources
    d  Synthesizing sources
APA-4 Documenting sources
    a  APA in-text citations
    b  APA list of references
APA-5 Manuscript format; sample research paper
    a  APA manuscript format
    b  Sample research paper

CMS (Chicago) Papers
CMS -1 Supporting a thesis
    a  Forming a working thesis
    b  Organizing your ideas
    c  Using sources to inform and support your argument
CMS -2 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
    a  Using the CMS system for citing sources
    b  Understanding what plagiarism is
    c  Using quotation marks around borrowed language
   d  Putting summaries and paraphrases in your own words
CMS -3 Integrating sources
    a  Using quotations appropriately
    b  Using signal phrases to integrate sources
CMS -4 Documenting sources
    a  First and later notes
    b  Bibliography
    c  Model notes and bibliography entries
CMS -5 Manuscript format; sample research paper
    a  CMS manuscript format
    b  Sample CMS pages

L TAB: WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
L1 Reading to form an interpretation
    a  Get involved in the work; be an active reader.
    b  Form an interpretation.
L2 Planning the paper
    a  Draft a thesis.
    b Sketch an outline

L3 Writing the paper
    a Draft an introduction that announces your interpretation.
    b Support your interpretation with evidence from the work; avoid simple plot summary.
L4 Observing the conventions of literature papers
    a Refer to authors, titles, and characters according to convention.
    b Use the present tense to describe fictional events.
    c Use MLA style to format passages quoted from the work.
L5 Integrating quotations from the text
    a Do not confuse the work’s author with a narrator, speaker, or character.
    b Provide context for quotations.
    c As you integrate quotations, avoid shifts in tense.
    d To indicate changes in a quotation, use brackets and the ellipsis mark.
    e Enclose embedded quotations in single quotation marks.
    f Use MLA style to cite passages from the work.
L6 Using secondary sources
    a Use MLA style to document secondary sources.
    b Avoid plagiarism.
L7 Sample papers