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Book: Writing Better Essays

Chapter: Submitting Your Final Essays

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.44817

Blurb:

Chapter 10 gives students tips to help them with their research, which they should initiate before they undertake stage 2 in the book’s process, the research generated writing stage, and continue to conduct as needed throughout their revision stages. Its tips for research include advice on using libraries, including interlibrary loan systems, and accurately recording the complete information about each reference and determining which resources are likely to be most pertinent. As with punctuation and initial insertion of bridging devices, advice to students on referencing sources in their essays involves a safe-rather-than-sorry approach. It assures them that citing sources will not weaken their arguments. Nor will crediting authorities make them seem unduly dependent on others or suggest that they have not been thinking critically for themselves. Plagiarism, even if inadvertent, is much, much worse. The chapter then explains a range of general conventions students should know concerning their essays, including conventions for formatting quotations of various lengths and for referencing, references, and works cited. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of the overall process in the book as well as a complete list of all of the stages with brief descriptions of each one, some maxims to remember, and a brief quiz designed to refresh their memory of key points in the book.

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