ENVS101
Writing Guidelines
Effective writing:
Great ideas are worth very little unless
they are effectively presented. In an expository essay, the first paragraph
should clearly and concisely establish a theme or thesis. Each subsequent paragraph
should support this thesis. Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence
and text within this paragraph should support that sentence. Assertions and
opinions must be explained and, where appropriate, supported with evidence.
The essay should end with a concluding paragraph that draws together ideas and
follows logically from arguments presented in the essay. Although letters and
reports may differ in style, the rules of effective writing are similar to
those that apply to an essay.
Write clearly and directly. Contemporary
writing favors the use of the active rather than passive voice; it is
preferable to write “I [or we] recommend that….” Rather than “It is recommended
that…”. Be certain that it is clear who is being represented in an argument.
If you write, “We need to consider…” be certain that it is absolutely clear to
the reader who is being included in this “we” (i.e., you and your group
members, citizens of the U.S. or citizens of the world).
Simple and concise writing
tends to be more effective than complex writing. Avoid use of hyperbolic terms
such as “horrifying”, “incredible”, etc.
Citing the ideas of others:
Your writing should be informed by the
readings that you have done for this class. I expect you to discuss these
ideas and to cite the authors whose ideas you are discussing. Neglecting to
cite ideas or quoted text that come from other sources is a violation of
academic ethics and of the Oberlin honor code. Unless the particular wording
that a reference uses is important, it is preferable to paraphrase text and
then cite the idea rather than to extensively quote text.
Preferred: Nations
are increasingly fighting over fresh water (Masteny and Cincotta, 2005).
Less good: Masteny
and Cincotta (2005) tell us that, “History shows us that nations pick fights
over fresh water”.
Citation format:
A fundamental tenant of academic writing is
that you need to provide sufficient information in a citation that someone else
could easily find the cited work. I give you two choices for citation format
for ENVS101. You can cite in footnotes or you can use in-text citations and
then include a literature cited section.
Footnotes: Use MSWord’s footnote feature. Place the curser at the
end of the sentence (before the period) in which you are citing an idea. From
the “Insert” menu, choose “Reference” and then choose “Footnote”. The default
settings of “bottom of the page” and “numbered” are appropriate, press the “Insert”
button. Within the footnote window use the reference format described below.
I use the footnote format for the case studies – these provide a reasonable
example.
In-text citations: In this case you place the author’s names and date of
publication in the text. You can either include the last names of the authors
in the sentence and then include the year of publication in parentheses, or you
can include the authors’ names in parentheses together with the year of
publication. If a work has two authors, include both last names. If a work
has more than two authors include the first and write “et al.” after the
first author’s last name (this is the abbreviation for et alii, which means
“and others” in Latin).
Here are some examples of various options
for correctly citing authors work:
>The German chemist Liebig was one of the
first to point out the connection between the loss of soil fertility on farms
and the sewage problem in cities (Foster & Magdoff, 1998)
>The German chemist Liebig was one of the
first to point out the connection between the loss of soil fertility on farms
and the sewage problem in cities.
>Thermodynamics provides a critical
context for understanding environmental problems (Ehrlich et al.., 1996).
>Ehrlich et al. (1996) argue that
thermodynamics provides a critical context for understanding environmental
problems.
>Ehrlich et al. (1996) write that, “The
essence of the accounting is embodied in two concepts known as the first and
second laws of thermodynamics”.
Whether you use footnotes or in-text
citations you need to include a complete reference to the cited work in either the
footnote or in a literature cited section at the end of the paper. In the
case of footnotes, you will have a separate footnote entry associated with each
use of a reference. In the case of a literature cited section, list the
references alphabetically by the first author’s last name. A literature cited
section includes every author cited and only those that are actually cited in
the text of the paper (don’t include reference information for papers that you
do not directly cite). Copy the format used in the example literature cited
section immediately below (author, date, title, pages, journal or book, volume,
publisher information). Note carefully how authors’ initials and edited books
are formatted.
Literature Cited:
>Ehrlich, P. R., A. H. Ehrlich and J. P.
Holdren. 1996. Availability, entropy, and the laws of thermodynamics. Pages
69-74 in H. E. Daly and K. N. Townsend, eds. Valuing the earth: Economics,
ecology and ethics. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
>Foster, J. B. and F. Magdoff. 1998.
Liebig, Marx, and the depletion of soil fertility: Relevance for today's
agriculture. Monthly Review 50:32-45.
>Wilson, E. O. 1992. Resolution (Chapter
14). Pages 311-342 in The diversity of life. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Grammar:
Please make an extra effort to use grammar and
punctuation appropriately. For example, semicolons should only be used in two
situations. First, they are used to link independent clauses. You know you
are using a semicolon correctly in this situation if you can replace it with a
period and end up with two complete sentences. Second, semicolons can be used
to punctuate a list of elements in which one or more of these elements contains
an internal comma. In this case, semicolons are used in place of commas.
Random use and abuse of the semicolon will be dealt with harshly in this course.
Writing assistance:
Everyone can improve their writing skills. At Oberlin you are fortunate to
have a “Rhetoric and composition program” which is dedicated to helping
students to improve their writing skills (http://www.oberlin.edu/rhetoric/info_students/campus.html).
Check out their web site for availability of trained peer tutors who can help
you out with assignments in ENVS101. In addition, the Writing Center (http://www.oberlin.edu/ptp/writing_center/),
located in the Mudd Academic Commons, offers peer tutors with drop-in hours who
can offer help in all stages of the writing process.