Michael_Academic Writing_W2012

Dear all,

welcome back to my blog! This week we had to draft a sentence outline for our paper and I have to admit that I never did something like that. But it really helped me with fixing some parts of my work as I now know where to use which articles and what should be included in the different parts of the paper. Furthermore we had to revise our thesis statement. This was really helpful because I am now aware of the purpose of my paper. Now there is a clear goal and I already have an idea how the different parts of my paper should be written. 

At the moment I have some troubles with citing as I have never cited conference papers or master's thesis before. I really hope that I could manage to cite them correctly but there are still some problems which should be discussed as soon as possible. Maybe one of you shares this problem with me? 

See you in class,

Michael

Hi, Michael

I agree with you regarding the sentence outline. I have the same feeling, that now I somehow see, what and in which particular part should I write. Also, writing sentence outline has helped me to brainstorm better and to link all my ideas. Now I hope my paper is structured, but probably after next meeting I will find out something  and definetely will have to revise it. 

About citing: when you support your idea, you prove it using a fact from a reliable resource and then put the number of the reference. Here is an example:

On the one hand, it is a result of the increasing problems surrounding the multicultural society in the host countries, combined with a fear of invasion: Today immigrants appear as threatening outsiders, knocking at the gates, or crashing the gates, or sneaking through the gates into societies richer than those from which the immigrants came [1].

[1] - is the number of the reference from the list of references at the end, for example:

References and Notes

1. Sassen, S. Guests and Aliens; The New Press: New York, NY, USA, 1999.

2. World Bank. Migration and Remittances Fact book 2011, 2nd ed.; The World Bank: Washington, DC, USA, 2011

3. de Haas, H. Migration and Development in Southern Morocco: The Disparate Socio-Economic Impacts of Out-Migration on the Todgha Oasis Valley; Optima: Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2003.

I hope you understand what I mean :) But I'm still not sure absolutely, if it so. Probably you should ask the professor.

Good luck, Zhuldyz