Reputability

All information sources are not created equally. Sources can vary greatly in terms of how carefully they are researched, written, edited, and reviewed for accuracy

ask themselves two questions: “Is this source relevant to my purpose?” and “Is this source reliable?”

Mass-market publications, such as newspapers and popular magazines, differ from scholarly publications in their accessibility, audience, and purpose.

he text Successful Writing stresses that when you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened.

Once you have a list of potential topics, you will need to choose one as the focus of your essay. You will also need to narrow your topic. Most writers find that the topics listed during the brainstorming or idea mapping stage are broad

perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened.

e textbook Successful Writing explains that writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they will discuss in the body of their writing.

Proofreading is an important step in the writing process. One technique is to read your paper aloud, which will help you catch errors you might overlook when reading silently. Another strategy is to use spell check on your computer to correct any typos.

riters should note that revising, editing, and proofreading are considerably different processes

Begin by reading the assignment instructions. Your instructor will likely have clear goals for the peer review process, and following the instructions will help you provide significant and meaningful revision ideas for your peer. Read your peer’s essay from the beginning to the end without adding any comments. This first read allows you to grasp your peer’s intentions and focus. Complete a second reading of your peer’s draft and start looking for strengths and weaknesses. Make comments on the margins of your peer’s essay. Later, you can further expand on these comments when you complete the peer review form. Stop when you feel stuck and ask yourself, “If this were my paper, how would I revise it?” Set aside time to review the organization of your peer’s essay. Read their thesis statement and make sure their body paragraphs have topic sentences that connect to their thesis statement. If there isn’t a clear connection, consider helping your peer revise their topic sentence so the connection between the thesis and body paragraph is easy to understand. Be honest. Your peers want to earn the best grade they can, and your advice during peer review will help them achieve this goal. Think of every piece of advice as constructive criticism. Your advice will help them to create a stronger, more focused writing sample.

The purpose of peer feedback is to receive constructive criticism of your essay. Your peer reviewer is your first real audience, and you have the opportunity to learn what confuses and delights a reader so that you can improve your work before sharing the final draft with a wider audience (or your intended audience).

Although you might think editing and proofreading aren’t necessary since you were fairly careful when you were writing, the truth is that even the brightest people and best writers make mistakes when they write

A paragraph’s concluding sentence also offers an excellent opportunity to begin the transition to the next paragraph—to wrap up one idea and hint at the next.

P = Point. This is the point of the paragraph, or the topic sentence. I = Illustration. This is where you illustrate your point with evidence E = Explanation. This is where you explain how that evidence supports your point. This is y

book Successful Writing explains that writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they will discuss in the body of their writing. A thesis statement is an argumentative central claim in a paper; the entire paper is focused on demonstrating that claim as a valid perspective.

while, however, nevertheless, but, and similarly, as well as phrases like on the other hand and for example, can serve as transitions between sentences and ideas.

Paragraphs should be used to develop one idea at a time

When you support your thesis, you are revealing evidence

Successful Writing explains how to support your thesis statement within your body paragraphs. Without primary support, your argument may not be convincing. Primary support can be described as the major points you choose to expand on as you prove your thesis.

Be detailed

Be specific

planning. This involves pre-reading, managing your time, and setting a clear purpose for your reading.

present the main concepts

These paragraphs often sum up the main ideas presented

planning. This involves pre-reading, managing your time, and setting a clear purpose for your reading.

the ways that genres perform social actions in discourse communities can help you better understand where your college teachers are coming from in their writing assignments and also help you understand why there are different writing expectations and genres for different classes in different f

a social group that communicates at least in part via written texts and shares common goals, values, and writing standards, a specialized vocabulary and specialized genres.” Just as discourse communities have specialized vocabularies and standards, different discourse communities pursue different kinds of questions.

ix key criteria that define a discourse community, including shared goals, communication mechanisms, participatory feedback, genre utilization, specialized vocabulary, and a level of expertise among members.