Topic :Ethical issues in modern business management

Writing Your Graduate School Papers:

APA Compliance, Microsoft Word Settings, and Graduate-Level Writing Tips

Prepared By

Olin O. Oedekoven, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Business Management and Public Administration

Northcentral University

Microsoft Word Settings

The following explains how to set up Microsoft Word to produce professional, scholarly papers for graduate school-level writing.

Language Default.

· Set the language default to English by selecting “Tools,” then “Language,” then “Set Language.”

· Select US English.

· Do not check the box for “do not check grammar.”

· Do not check the box for “automatically detect language.

· The click on “default,” setting the default to US English.

Spelling and Grammar

Select “Tools,” then “Options,” then “Spelling and Grammar” tab.

Spelling:

· Check the box for "Check spelling as you type" and "Always suggest corrections." I suggest that you do not check the other boxes.

Grammar

· Check the box for "Check grammar as you type," "Check grammar with spelling," and "show readability statistics."

Writing Style

· Select "Grammar & Style."

· Select settings:

Require:

· Comma required before last item: always.

· Punctuation required with quotes: inside.

· Spaces required between sentences: 1. (When the world used typewriters, typing teachers taught students to press the space bar twice after each period. However, word processors control inter-character spacing, and text justification using complex algorithms. Adding extra space(s) after a period in your document will create unattractive “rivers” of white space in your document. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable with justified text. Therefore, always space once after a period.)

Grammar Rules:

· Capitalization

· Fragments and Run-ons

· Misused words

· Negation

· Noun phrases

· Possessives and plurals

· Punctuation

· Questions

· Relative clauses

· Subject-verb agreement

· Verb phrases

Style Rules:

· Clichés, Colloquialisms, and Jargon.

· Contractions

· Fragment - stylistic suggestions

· Hyphenated and compound words

· Misused words

· Numbers

· Passive sentences

· Possessives and plurals - stylistic suggestions

· Punctuation - stylistic suggestions

· Relative clauses - stylistic suggestions

· Sentence length (more than sixty words)

· Sentence structure

· Sentences beginning with And, But, and Hopefully

· Successive nouns (more than three)

· Successive prepositional phrases (more than three)

· Unclear phrasing

· Use of first person

· Very phrases - stylistic suggestions

· Wordiness

· Words in split infinitives (more than one)

Centering Text

Use the center paragraph command to center text, tables, etc. in Word. You can access this by F ormat, Paragraph, and on the “Indents and Spacing” tab, select center. You may also have an Icon to center the text.

Widows and Orphans

On the format paragraph “line and page breaks tab,” select “widows and orphans” control. This will prevent an automatic page break creating a one-line sentence.

· Select the paragraphs in which you want to control “widows and orphans.”

· On the Format menu, click Paragraph, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

· Select the Widow/Orphan control check box.

Manual Page Break

To control page breaks, such as after your title page, or the start of your reference page, use a manual page break. To insert a manual page break:

· Click where you want to start a new page.

· On the Insert menu, click Break.

· Click Page break.

· Chose Section Break if you need to change your header or footer for the new section. This is particular useful between the table of contents of your dissertation (where the page numbering uses Roman numerals) and the body of your dissertation (where the page numbering uses Arabic numerals).

Formatting The References Section

To format your APA references, select all of the reference entries, then select F ormat, then Paragraph, then select the “indents and spacing tab.” At the top of the panel, the General options, select Alignment: “left” and Outline level: “body text.” The next section is Indentation. For the References, select Left: “0”, Right: “0”, Special: “Hanging,” By “0.5.” The third section is Spacing. Select Before: “0”, After: “0”, Line Spacing: “Double”, and ignore the At: field.

Formatting Consistency

· On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Edit tab.

· Select or clear the Mark formatting inconsistencies check box.

Headers and Footers

Headers and footers are typically used in printed documents. You can create headers and footers that include text or graphics — for example, page numbers, the date, a company logo, the document's title or file name, or the author's name — that are usually printed at the top or bottom of each page in a document. A header is printed in the top margin; a footer is printed in the bottom margin.

You can use the same header and footer throughout a document or change the header and footer for part of the document. For example, use a unique header or footer on the first page, or leave the header or footer off the first page. You can also use different headers and footers on odd and even pages or for part of a document.

Setting up a header

First select View, then select Header and footer. You will see a small menu that allows you to insert the page number, number of pages, format the page number, insert the date, the time, set up the page, move between the header and the footer, and several more advanced features. For more details, select Help.

Markup

You will tend to find rather extensive comments in your case studies. I use MS Word's “markup” feature to insert comments, suggestions, and explain the overall grade. When you open your document, these “markups” should automatically appear as balloons in the right margin. If they do not, and if you only see a yellow highlight here or there -- the automatic feature in Word is not working and you must manually enable it. To enable this feature manually, select the View pull-down menu, and then select "markup."

Pagination Issues

Once upon a time, there were typewriters in the world. Typing teachers taught students to press the Return key at the end of the line. However, the typewriter is dead and gone, having been replaced by word processors.

Our standard word processor is Microsoft’s WORD. The use of a word processor is not identical to a typewriter, although both systems use a similar, not identical, keyboard.

The typewriter’s “RETURN” key and the word processor’s “ENTER” key are not identical, they are not interchangeable, and they have very different functions. On a typewriter, when you reach the end of a line, you must press the “RETURN” key in order to continue to type. The “RETURN” key indexes the platen so that you can type the next line of text on a sheet of paper.

Microsoft WORD is a WYSIWYG (pronounced whizzy wig) word processor. WHYSIWYGW is an acronym for “what you see is what you get.” Behind the WHYSIWYG of WORD, or any other word processor, is some form of text mark-up language, such as html. Thus, when you press the “ENTER” key while using your word processor, you are not indexing a platen, you are entering an “END OF PARAGRAPH” (EOP) symbol in your word processing file. The EOP symbol has two effects that are important to us in our preparation of a professional quality graduate manuscript.

First the EOP symbol ends a sentence, often without punctuation. When the grammar checker reads the line and encounters an EOP symbol without a period, it records a punctuation error on that line of text. It then expects the first letter of the next word to be capitalized, since it is interpreted as the first word of a sentence. Thus, a paragraph is composed of more than one sentence, and must end with one EOP mark.

Second, some users will attempt to control pagination by repeatedly pressing the “ENTER” key, thus entering multiple EOP marks. WORD is very sensitive to the printer you use. Changing the printer on a WORD document in which the user attempted to control pagination with multiple EOP marks will often change the pagination. Changing printers will change the location of page breaks because each printer has slightly different print spacing characteristics.

For example, you have a Lexmark Model XYZ ink-jet printer as your default printer, and press the “ENTER” key six times on the title page to force a page break and allow you to begin your abstract. You complete your work, and post your file on your assignments page. I download the file and open it in WORD. However, I have a Brother Model ABC Laser printer, which has slightly different print spacing characteristics. Your six EOP marks on the title page no longer force a page break at the correct location, and the first line of your abstract now appears on the bottom of your title page!

This is why pagination must be controlled using WORD’s page break, and not the EOP.

The use of the “ENTER” key on your word processor as if it were the “RETURN” key on a typewriter introduces at least two errors into your document. First, it prevents the proper functioning of the spelling and grammar checker. Second, it causes erratic and unpredictable pagination.

Proofing

One of the most difficult writing tasks is to proof your own work. We are often too close to the author to be objective. Since the words are our work product, it is often difficult to see some errors, and we may see what we meant to write, or what we thought we wrote, instead of what we actually wrote.

A free software program called Ultra Hal that will read MS Word documents. There is a free version of the program available from Zabaware (www.zabaware.com). There are several voices available as well.

Using these settings in Word will prevent many of the common errors. It is still necessary to proof your work. I suggest reading it aloud. Read to your spouse, significant other, child, your cat, your dog, or have Hal read it aloud. You will find that by reading aloud, you catch most, if not all, grammatical and spelling errors.

Dissertation Writing Tips from Dr. Freda Turner

1. Titles of envisioned dissertations should not be a question but stated as a declarative.

2. Titles of dissertations should not exceed 10-12 words

3. All doctoral learners and faculty should conform to APA standards. Obtaining an editor is highly encouraged. Proposals and dissertations should not contain grammar or APA errors, as this is a published document of the highest academic standards and a reflection on the scholarship of the Learner and committee.

4. Abstracts are one of the most important components in the dissertation. Abstracts should contain specific information as required in APA, pages 12-14.

5. Quotes occurred in the past, therefore, should be stated in past tense. Example,

Branch publish ed…..or Garcia stat ed

6. Scholars should avoid using absolutes in research – someone will always debunk the new data in the future. Absolute expressions might be avoided by using terminology like this data might rather than this data will or can

7. Researcher bias is a show stopper within scholarly works. Adverbs and adjectives (without a citation) might create problems. Examples to be aware include: significantly, extremely, best, often.

8. Learners should be advised to use numbers to convince the readers the problem is significant for a doctoral dissertation. One way to do this is to use a number to support the argument. For example, suppose the topic relates to identity fraud. A cited quote such as identity fraud has grown by 79% from 2004-2005 (citation). The number and citation relate this is a societal problem of significance for a dissertation exploration.

9. Scholars should avoid personification to maintain a scholarly tone. For example, it is incorrect to report that systems demand but rather leaders of systems …...

10. Scholars should avoid words that do not add to scholarship might include: such as, therefore, secondly, nevertheless, thus.

Writing Tips

The following includes the most common writing errors found with NCU assignments. Each item is represented by the correct and incorrect writing approach. Please review the items to help you improve your writing.

Our goal is to assist you with eventually preparing your MBA and PhD assignments.

There is a number of writing guides, tips, and APA help files available on the Internet. Try a simple Google search on “APA Style” or “Scholarly Writing” to locate many excellent references and interactive website to help you with your NCU writing requirements.

Common Error #1: In-Text Citation Usage

The Error

Learners often mistakenly assume that by putting the reference citation at the end of the paragraph, the citation is meant to include the entire paragraph. Actually, the citation at the end of the paragraph only is referencing the last sentence of the paragraph. If information is used other than your own knowledge and thoughts, you must properly cite the information.

Additionally, learners incorrectly assume that they only have to insert a citation when they include a direct quote from the reference. Again, if outside material is used, then the material must be properly cited with an in-text citation.

Incorrect Example

Management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. Very few owners or managers had experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century. Significant production waste was produced because managers lacked formal management education, training, and had limited experience. Textile mangers frequently mistreated and mismanaged their factor workers. Neither the business owners nor their professional managers seemed to recognize the importance of recruiting, training, and motivating employees. The economic benefits from good human resource management were not recognized by the business owners (Wren, 2005).

Correct Example

Wren (2005) reported that management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. Wren attributed the problem to the fact that very few owners or managers had experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century. Significant production waste was produced because managers lacked formal management education, training, and had limited experience (Wren, 2005). Textile mangers frequently mistreated and mismanaged their factor workers (Wren, 2005). Neither the business owners nor their professional managers seemed to recognize the importance of recruiting, training, and motivating employees. Wren concluded that the economic benefits from good human resource management were not recognized by the business owners.

Common Error #2: Improper Pronoun Use

The Error

In professional writing, every sentence must be able to stand alone to convey the complete idea or thought. The reader should not have to refer back to a previous sentence or paragraph to understand what is being said in the sentence. Common pronouns (these, this, that, those, them, they, etc.) should not be used as the subject of a sentence were the antecedent is located in a previous sentence or paragraph.

Incorrect Example

Management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. They had little experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century. Significant production waste was produced because they lacked formal management education, training, and had limited experience. This impacted production significantly. Textile mangers frequently mistreated and mismanaged their factor workers. They did not recognize the importance of recruiting, training, and motivating employees. It was a major reason for future management change in the textile industry that occurred later in the Ninetieth Century (Wren, 2005).

Correct Example

Wren (2005) reported that management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. Wren attributed the problem to the fact that very few owners or managers had experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century. Significant production waste was produced because managers lacked formal management education, training, and had limited experience (Wren, 2005). Textile mangers frequently mistreated and mismanaged their factor workers (Wren, 2005). According to Wren (2005), the mistreatment of factor worker impacted textile production significantly. Neither the business owners nor their professional managers seemed to recognize the importance of recruiting, training, and motivating employees. Wren concluded that the economic benefits from good human resource management were not recognized by the business owners.

Common Error #3: Incorrect Format for Figure and Table Headings

The Error

Learners may have learned other ways that a table or figure heading is written. The APA manual uses a very specific style for figure and table headings.

Incorrect Table Example

The number of farms by state within the upper Missouri River region is shown in the following table.

Number of farms by state.

State	Number of Farms
North Dakota	23,546
South Dakota	18,672
Montana	9,823

Correct Table Example

The number of farms by state within the upper Missouri River region is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Number of Farms by State (Smith, 2001)

State	Number of farms
North Dakota	23,546
South Dakota	18,672
Montana	9,823

Incorrect Figure Example

An example of a South Dakota farm during the depression is shown in the following figure.

South Dakota farm in the depression

Correct Figure Example

An example of a South Dakota farm during the depression is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A South Dakota Farm during the depression (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/images/050614_drought2.jpg).

Common Error #4: Capitalization within the Title of a Reference and/or the Author’s First Name Abbreviation

The Error

Learners frequently capitalize all the words of a reference’s title and or use the first name of the author. Only the first word of a title, proper nouns, and the first word following a hyphen or colon should be capitalized. The first name and middle name of the author should be abbreviated.

Incorrect Example

Looman, Mary Deloris (2003). Reflective Leadership: Strategic Planning from the Heart and Soul. Consulting Psychology Journal, 55(4), 215-221.

Correct Example

Looman, M.D. (2003). Reflective leadership: Strategic planning from the heart and soul. Consulting Psychology Journal, 55(4), 215-221.

Common Error #5: Incorrect Format for Headings and Subheadings

The Error

Learners often do not use the correct APA format for the headings and subheadings in their papers. The APA manual lists specific formats for five levels of headings. Most papers will typically have three or two levels of headings.

Incorrect Example

Rural Business Challenges

Overview

Purpose

The purpose of the project was to identify and define the various issues associated with establishing and maintaining a small agricultural business within a predominately rural setting.

Correct Example

RURAL BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Overview

Purpose

The purpose of the project was to identify and define the various issues associated with establishing and maintaining a small agricultural business within a predominately rural setting.

Common Error #6: Verb tense when reporting from the literature

The Error

Typically when reporting facts and findings from the literature, you should use a paste tense verb, not the present tense. There are, of course, expectations; however, in most instances you should write in the past tense.

Incorrect Example

Wren (2005) reports that management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. Wren attributes the problem to the fact that very few owners or managers had experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century.

Correct Example

Wren (2005) reported that management was ill prepared to face the demands of the factory form of production and the sudden increase in demand for experienced managers could not be filled. Wren attributed the problem to the fact that very few owners or managers had experience running textile operations in the early Ninetieth Century.

Common Error #7: Writing a story rather than a scholarly article

The Error

NCU assignments should be written in the style of a scholarly article rather than as your own personal essay on a subject. Avoid writing in the first person (using “I” or “we” in your writing style. Your writing should be similar to that of peer-reviewed journal articles rather than that of web-based information pages.

Incorrect Example

First, how about some background - What was the Industrial Revolution and what does it refer to? It’s no secret that this refers to modifications, changes, inventions and innovations in both Great Britain and the United States, taking an agricultural and hand made civilization and transforming it into a society of machines, factory manufacturing and people management. When we consider the nature of the Industrial Revolution, it was really a means to an end, fueling the rapid development of cities as people moved from rural into urban areas, searching for better opportunities and a brighter tomorrow.

Correct Example

As Wren (2005) reported, the Industrial Revolution refers to modifications, changes, inventions, and innovations in both Europe and the United States which took an agricultural and handicraft civilization and transformed it into a society of machines, factory manufacturing, and people management. When historians consider the nature of the Industrial Revolution, it was really a means to an end: the Industrial Revolution fueled the rapid development of cities as people moved from rural into urban areas, searching for better work-life opportunities (Wren, 2005).

Common APA Format Errors as Noted by NCU Mentors

NCU mentors were contacted to offer their insights to the more common APA format errors found when reviewing assignments and dissertation documents. The following are the more common errors. Please use this list of common APA format errors to help you learn the correct APA format requirements.

1. Failing to italicize volume numbers of journals and/or incorrectly italicizing the issue numbers.

2. Failing to capitalize just the first words of book titles and subtitles

3. Using "p. / pp. " in citing page numbers in the reference section. [Only the page numbers should be listed.]

4. Failing to use the APA formatting for Figures titles. (Figure Number Italicized - Period - Title Not Italicized with only first word of Title Capitalized with a period at the end of the caption) and labeling the Figures at the top [Also See APA Pocket Guide page 33]

5. Failing to use the APA formatting for Tables (Table number -- double space-Title Italicized with all major words in caps) [ Also see APA Pocket Guide page 32.]

6. Failing to capitalize just the first words of Tables' column and row headings. [See page 32 of APA Pocket Guide.]

7. Putting the period at the end of the sentence rather than after the in-text citation.

8. Using in-text citations at the end of a paragraph to imply that the citation covers everything mentioned within the paragraph. Actually, this only means you are citing the last sentence.

9. Including only a URL as the reference without the rest of the required APA information. A URL alone does not make for a complete reference

10. Using footnotes and/or endnotes rather than in-text citation format.

11. Not using the “&” symbol instead of “and” when citing two authors (e. g. it should be “Brown & White, 2005”, not “Brown and White, 2005”).

12. Using the wrong format for headings and subheadings.

13. Using the wrong font size (all should be 12pt) and/or changing fonts within the assignment (all should stay the same font type and size throughout the assignment).

A General Guide to More Effective Use of the Internet for Scholarly Research

General Reference Sources

Almanacs

http://www.libraryspot.com/almanacs.htm - Library Spot Almanac

http://www.infoplease.com/ - Information Please Almanac

http://dmoz.org/Reference/Almanacs/ - Open Directory Almanac

American History

http://www.bartleby.com/43/ - American Historical Documents

Associations

http://www.ipl.org/div/aon/ - Associations on the Net

http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ - Directory of Associations

Biographies

http://www.biography.com/ Biography.com

http://ipl.si.umich.edu/div/subject/browse/ref15.00.00/ - The Internet Public Library, Biographies

Calculators and Conversions

http://www.xe.net/ucc/ - Universal Currency Converter

http://www.financenter.com/ - Personal Finance and Calculators

Calendars and Clocks

http://www.calendarzone.com/ - The Calendar Zone

http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/ - Multi-Cultural Calendar

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ - World Clock

http://www2.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html - Timelines

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_CI.aspx - World Time Server

Geography and Maps

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer - U.S. Gazetteer

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html - CIA World Factbook

http://www.emulateme.com/ - e-Conflict World Encyclopedia

http://www.bartleby.com/69/ - The Columbia Gazetteer of North America

http://www.indo.com/distance/ - How Far Is It?

http://www.mapquest.com/ - MapQuest

Quotations

http://www.famous-quotations.com/ - Famous Quotations Network

http://www.bartleby.com/66/ - The Columbia World of Quotations

http://www.bartleby.com/100/ - Familiar Quotations, 10th Edition

http://www.quoteland.com/ - Quoteland

People Locators

http://www.anywho.com/ - AT&T AnyWho

http://www.theultimates.com/white/ - The Ultimate White Pages

Postal Codes

http://www.usps.com/welcome.htm - U.S. Postal Codes

http://www.execulink.com/~louisew/postal-links.htm - World Postal Codes

Ready References

http://bubl.ac.uk/ - Selected Internet resources covering all academic subject areas

http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/index.htm - The Lookup Directory

http://www.bartleby.com/151/ - The World Factbook

http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ - Ask-a-Librarian, the Library of Congress

http://www.ipl.org/ Internet Public Library Reference Center

http://lii.org/ - Librarians’ Index to the Internet

http://www.libraryspot.com/ - Library Spot Subject Director

http://vlib.org/ - Virtual Electronic Library

http://www.bloomsburymagazine.com/ARC/Arc_home.asp - Research Center Online Database of Reference Books

Translators

http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn - AltaVista Translator

Weather

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ U.S. Weather

http://www.weather.com/ ? - Weather.com

http://www.wunderground.com/ World and U.S. Weather Information

Search Engines

http://www.google.com/ - Google only returns web pages that contain all the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered. Your new query will return a smaller subset of the pages Google found.

http://www.searchedu.com/ - A subset of Google that targets education sites.

http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/ - A collection of freely available, difficult-to-access, academically-oriented digital resources.

http://www.yousearched.com/ - Search engine designed for accessibility.

http://scholar.google.com/ - Google search engine that provides the ability to search for scholarly literature across the web

Subject Directories

http://infomine.ucr.edu/ - "INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists,

http://www.looksmart.com/r?l&web=1&pre - LookSmart's search technology makes use of textual analysis of hyperlinks, Web page popularity, user feedback, and editorial input to provide search results. Human-compiled directory of web sites.

http://lii.org/ - Searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 14,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated for their usefulness by librarians. Searches the "invisible" Web.

Meta-Search Engines

http://ez2find.com/ - Ez2Find searches AlltheWeb, Teoma, Google, Yahoo!, Wisenut, ODP, and MSN, removes the duplicates, include links to relevant directory categories and to clustered results.

http://find.com/(idojat55gvd2pa45nzmgq1fd)/matchpoint.aspx - Find.com searches major search engines and combines them with results from more than 3,000 free, business-specific Web sites.

http://vivisimo.com/ Searches Netscape, MSN, Lycos, and LookSmart. Clusters results. Good for current events and complex topics. Easy to use.

http://www.profusion.com/index.htm - Brings back listings from several major search engines as well as "invisible" Web

http://www.infonetware.com/ - It submits your query to a traditional Internet search engine and then sorts the results into topics. Allows you to email your "shortlist".

http://iboogie.com/ - Clusters groupings of similar objects from a given set of inputs. In the context of search engines, it will put documents with similar content or with related topics into the same cluster (group).

http://www.ithaki.net/indexu.htm - Ithaki is probably the most "global" of all meta search engines, available in 14 languages. Ithaki offers country specific search, querying only local search engines rather than the regional versions of the major search engines.

Content Specific Search Engines

http://www.firstgov.gov/index.shtml - First Government, Government Documents

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html - GPO Public Access to Government Documents and Information

http://www.allacademic.com/index.html?javascript=yes – All Academic Sources

http://www.findarticles.com/ - Find Articles

http://www.lycos.com/ - Lycos Search Engine

http://www.northernlight.com/ Northern Light Search Engine

http://roger.ucsd.edu/ - Roger, UCSD Library Search Engine

http://www.searchedu.com/ Search Education

Search Engine Basics

(Adapted From: http://www.searchengines.com/)

A search engine is a database of resources extracted from the Internet through an automated "crawling" process. This database is searchable through user queries.

How does a search engine work?

Words or phrases you enter in the search box are matched to resources in the search engine's database that contain your terms. These are then automatically sorted by their probable relevance and presented with the most "relevant" sites appearing first.

How search results are organized

Once a search engine has used your search terms to gather "hits" from its database, it lists or "ranks" the resulting sites in order of its own estimation of their relevance. The procedures and factors used to create this ranking are often company secrets, so understanding exactly why one hit is listed higher than another is difficult.

The following is a survey of some of the factors search engines use to automatically sort web sites for presentation to the user.

Relevance Prediction

Currently, search engines predict relevance based on two sets of factors: those based on a site's content and those external to the site.

Factors based on a web site's content

· Word frequency (How often search terms occur in a page in relationship to other text)

· Location of search terms in the document (Are they in the title? Are they near the top of the page?)

· Relational clustering (How many pages in the site contain the search terms?)

· The site's design (Does it use frames? How fast does it load?)

Factors external to the site

· Link popularity -- Sites with more links pointing to them are prioritized

· Click popularity -- Sites visited more often are prioritized

· "Sector" popularity -- Sites visited by certain demographic or social groups are prioritized (Note: This system requires user-provided information)

· Business alliances among services -- Results from a partner search service are ranked higher

· Pay-for-placement rankings -- Site owners pay for high rankings

Internet Search Tips, Strings, and Language

Searching for a phrase

Enclose any phrase of 2 words or more within quotation marks to limit the search to that exact sequence of words.

Examples:

"food and drug administration" "New York Times"

If the search engine you're using doesn't specify phrase searching, it will usually provide sites that contain your search terms anywhere and in any order.

Searching by word stem (truncation)

Some engines allow you to search for all variants of a word by entering the word stem followed by a truncation indicator.

Example:

"fem*" retrieves female, females, feminine, feminist, feminists, feminism

Using truncation may greatly increase the number of results to your searches. Only use it when it's particularly necessary.

Using Boolean expressions

Boolean expressions allow you to require, combine and exclude words or phrases in your results. Using them well can make your searches much more focused and successful.

To REQUIRE a term to be present in your results, put a plus (+) immediately before it or use the Boolean operator "and."

Examples:

+Scotland +golf Scotland AND golf

To search for documents containing ANY of your search terms, you can either simply list them or put the Boolean operator "or" between each one.

Examples:

jazz swing jazz OR swing

To EXCLUDE a term from your search results, put a minus immediately before it or use the Boolean operator "not."

Examples:

sharks -card sharks NOT card

Narrowing your search

This will help focus your results more accurately on what you want. Most search engines now allow you to refine your searching in many ways. (Check the Help or FAQ areas of your search engine for details).

Here are some tips that can make your searches more productive:

Avoid common words

Search for "used car prices," not "cars"

Use Boolean expressions to focus your results

· To REQUIRE a term to be present in all documents, put a plus (+) immediately before it: +economy +China

· To EXCLUDE a term from search results put a minus (-) immediately before it: -local -games

Upper or Lower case?

Enter terms in all lower case unless searching for an individual. Example: +astrophysics +Eisenhower

Sequence your phrases

Enclose any phrase of 2 words or more within quotation marks to limit the search to that exact sequence of words.

If your results are too numerous or irrelevant:

Limit results by date

Some engines allow you to limit your search results to a date or range of dates. This can be especially useful if you are looking for the latest news or developments in an area.

CAUTION: The "date" on a web document can mean one of several things:

· The date it was created

· The date it was put on a Web server

· The last time it was modified

· The date it was added to the search engine's database

Limit results by language

Some search engines allow you to limit your search results to documents in a certain language. The languages available vary and can include Latin and non-Latin character sets, many of which require special software to read and/or print.

Limit search to relevant fields

Some engines allow you to specify where you want your term or terms to be located in the documents you retrieve. Restricting your search to documents that contain your term(s) in their titles, for instance, can give you a more focused, relevant set of search results.

The possible locations (or fields) in a document that can be searched include the following:

· URL Title

· Domain/country

· Web server (host)

· Link Image

Search engines vary in how they allow you to conduct field searches, so check Help and FAQ screens carefully.

Limit results to specific domains

Some engines allow you to limit your results by searching within a particular type of domain -- .com, .gov, or .edu, for example.

Boolean Logic Illustrated

	Overlapping area represents the smaller area of hits received by searching for weather AND monsoons
Weather AND Monsoons
			Using these search terms separated by "OR", you would receive many more hits.
Weather OR Monsoons
			These terms would eliminate any hits containing the word monsoons. The NOT negates the term from the search.
Weather NOT Monsoons
INCLUDEPICTURE "http://learners.ncu.edu/elrc/images/boolean_gold.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET	Using these search terms, the words weather and monsoons would appear close together in the document.
Weather NEAR Monsoons

Paper Presentation and Scholarly Writing Tips

Adapted From:

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/1150/writing.html

By John H. Bickford, Jr.

Use complex sentence structure. Incorporate complex sentences into your writing, and vary the structure. Scholarly writing demands complex structure. Get a style manual and study the use of colons, semicolons, commas, parentheses, and dashes. Look very carefully at the examples, and become very familiar with situations when each of these punctuation marks is appropriate. Practice using them to create richer, more complex sentences. Be sure you are doing it correctly, though; while a scholarly paper filled with short, choppy sentences looks bad, just a couple of improperly used semicolons looks much worse.

Learn about the apostrophe. A common mistake is sticking an apostrophe before the final "s" in a plural noun. Apostrophes are never required merely to form a plural; they function only to indicate possession ( This is John 's book ) or to replace letters removed in the formation of a contraction (can't, doesn't, he's). Learn how an apostrophe is used to indicate possession with nouns ending in s and learn where the apostrophe is placed to indicate possession with plural nouns. The words its and it's are most commonly problematic, and will be discussed below.

Abbreviations. Don't use them. Always write out everything fully, even common abbreviations. Mon., mtn., St. (for street), lbs., Feb., FBI, USA, FDA, Ave., eve., and so on are all inappropriate . Furthermore, common Latin abbreviations such as i.e., e.g., or etc. are also inappropriate . Instead of these use that is, for example, and and so on. Abbreviations appear lazy and hinder clarity. Only certain abbreviations are acceptable, mainly am, pm, Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., Jr., Sr., and St. (for Saint, as in a proper name). You may use an acronym for a long phrase used repeatedly in your paper only if you spell out the phrase the first time it is used, and follow it immediately by the acronym in parentheses. For example, According to sources at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), . . . . Don't assume that a common acronym is commonly understood. Always write out United States.

Ellipses. These are the sets of three or four dots ( . . . ) that are used to indicate a gap in quoted text. These are never (in scholarly writing) used to finish a sentence. Some people use ellipses to finish sentences for dramatic effect or to indicate a lost thought, or even as an attempt to soften an abrupt transition. Ellipses have only one use: to indicate a gap in quoted text. A three-dot ellipsis ( . . . ) is used when only a word or phrase is omitted, and the quote picks up again within the same sentence. A four-dot ellipsis ( . . . . ) is used when the quote skips from one sentence in the original text to another. The fourth dot is actually the period at the end of the first sentence in the original text. Notice that in either case, the dots in the ellipsis are separated from each other and from the surrounding text by spaces, except the first dot in the four-dot ellipsis. Ellipses are not usually needed at the beginning or end of a quote.

Overly complex sentences. This is less common than not using enough complex sentence structure, but it happens. It usually manifests itself as run-on sentences. If you find that more than two commas appear in your sentence without some other form of punctuation (such as a semicolon) intervening, then check carefully that the structure of the sentence is correct. It is best to avoid too many commas (except in certain situations, such as when giving a list), even when technically correct. It just reads poorly. Either break up the sentence, rewrite it, or find a way to use stronger punctuation (semicolons, dashes, and so on).

Lists. When writing out a list (of more than two items) in a sentence ( Mary brought popcorn, peanuts, and pretzels to the party), you must place a comma before the last item in the list--even though that word is preceded by the word "and." Contrary to some teachings, this is not really optional; omitting the comma creates ambiguity in certain contexts. The comma makes it clear that the last item (after the and) and the second-to-last item (before the and) are separate individual items in the list, not a single compound item. For example, look at this sentence: At the tea party, I served a fine dessert, biscuits and strawberries. Was biscuits and strawberries the fine dessert? Or was a fine dessert served in addition to strawberries, and biscuits? The grammar of this sentence implies the former, regardless of what the author meant.

Assumed understanding of common knowledge. Don't assume your reader is aware of common knowledge. Theoretically, scholarly writing is appropriate for publication in an archival journal; it should be clear even if someone were to read it fifty years in the future, in Thailand. All references to people, places, events, and so on should be clarified as to their identity, as if you were talking to someone who just today appeared on planet Earth. This is one reason you can't just use even very common acronyms such as FBI or CIA without spelling them out the first time, or use common parlance. Put your writing to the alien test: all references should be clear enough that even an alien visitor from another planet would understand your meaning.

Anthropomorphisms. Watch that you don't attribute human qualities to nonhuman objects. While this might be a useful, artful technique in fiction writing, it is mostly inappropriate in scholarly writing. The effect may be unintended humor, or worse. The most common instance of this is attributing intent to the paper itself ( This paper demonstrates . . . This study will attempt to show . . . ).

Watch your tone. Use an even, dispassionate tone. Don't use sarcasm, harsh criticism, mockery, satire, snide commentary, quips, asides, or exclamation points. Give both sides of any issue. Remain objective and analytical. Don't get on a soap-box. Scholarly writing is just not the place for preaching or zealotry. Obviously, then, you should avoid all bias.

Colloquialisms. Never use slang, jargon, cliches, or any other colloquial (informal, common to spoken language only) expressions. These, by definition, are appropriate only in casual conversation and have no place in scholarly writing. Use only formal language. Just to give you an idea, colloquial terms include any of the following: ticked off, upshot, head out, didn't do squat, ain't, get out of here, nope, what's up, crappy, stuck up, put up with, stick your neck out, swamped with work, buzz off (in fact, just about any phrase that ends with "off," including piss off, and so on), and many more. Also, any "common terms" (such as puke or throw up) that have more formal names ( vomit) should be replaced with the formal name. Like so much else, this is a judgment call at times. Many people go overboard with substituting obscure terms for common words; it's not necessary to change use to utilize or do to implement.

Vulgarity. Believe it or not, I've seen several papers containing vulgarities ( pissed off, damn, shit, and so on). It's an extreme case of excessive casualness. You cannot write a paper in the same voice you use to speak to your best buddy. The only time a vulgarity may be used is in a quote, and then only if the use of the vulgarity by the source you are quoting is somehow relevant. This will be an extremely rare situation. If your source uses vulgarities that are not relevant, either paraphrase or omit the vulgarity.

"Omit needless words!" This advice from Strunk and White's Elements of Style deserves repeating. It's difficult to spot those needless words in your own writing, but you must make the effort. I confess to making repeated transgressions of this rule myself--I'm prone to wordiness. It's amazing how unnecessary many modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) can be--especially adverbs. Look for ways to tighten up your writing. If a word or phrase can be dropped without a change in meaning, drop it. If it adds irrelevant information (adverbs such as rather, quite, somewhat, truly, honestly, and very are usually irrelevant), omit it. If a rephrasing will eliminate several words, use the shorter phrasing. Look for such alternate phrasings.

Distinguish its from it's . These are very commonly confused. Take the time to learn the distinction so well that you never confuse them again. It 's (WITH apostrophe) is ONLY a contraction for it is; if you can replace the it's with the words it is, then use the apostrophe. If you want to indicate possession with the pronoun it, as in "The college cares about its students," use NO apostrophe.

Distinguish your from you're. This is similar to the it's/its question. Your is always possessive: This is your book; I'm your friend. You're is always the contraction for you are: You're going to the store? You're a jerk.

Distinguish their from they're. Same as above. Their is possessive: This is their house; I'm not their teacher. They're is always the contraction for they are: They're so stupid; they're going to lose all their money.

Could of . There is no such construction in standard written English. The word you want is the contraction could've. Still, even the proper term could've is arguably too informal for a scholarly paper. Never write could of or would of.

Myself. This word is used only in specific contexts. It is the object of a reflexive verb (a verb that reflects its action back upon its own subject; that is, the subject is also the object). For example, I hurt myself; I sent the letter to myself; I love myself; I'm going to kill myself. It is also used as an intensifier, to emphasize that the speaker is the subject of the verb. For example, I'll do it myself; I myself have done that; I go there myself; I've seen it myself. Myself is never used in place of the subject pronoun I or the object pronoun me. Constructions such as Sandra, Jim and myself all went to the store; It was for myself; That's the wrong size for myself; and As for myself, I wouldn't take the chance are all incorrect. In each case, I or me should be substituted for myself.

Due to the fact that. Don't use this phrase; it's needlessly wordy. It can always be replaced with a simple because.

And/or. This construction is awkward. Use just the or, then follow up with or both. For example, To vent the room, you may open the door or the window or both.

Effect and affect. These are commonly confused. The problem is that either word may be used as either a verb or a noun, but they are not interchangeable. Your choice of effect or affect will affect the meaning you convey. Following are the meanings of these words as nouns and as verbs, with examples of proper use.

As verbs

Affect as a verb means to influence or to change something. If you are using affect/effect as a verb, it is far more likely that this is the meaning you have in mind and therefore affect is the proper choice. Examples: Will this affect my grade? The temperature is affected by climactic conditions. The audience affected his performance. Loud noise will affect worker productivity.

Effect as a verb means to cause or to bring about something, much like engender. This is a much less commonly used verb than affect, it has limited applications, and it is not likely that this is the meaning you are trying to convey. If you use effect as a verb, be very certain that this is the meaning you want. Examples: His enthusiasm effected a change of attitude in the whole group. The controversial nature of the subject effected a lengthy and heated debate. This news could effect a widespread panic. Notice that when effect is used properly as a verb, the verb to cause usually may be substituted.

As nouns

Effect as a noun means, among other things, result or outcome. If you are using affect/effect as a noun, this is almost certainly the meaning you have in mind, and therefore you should use effect. Examples: What are the long-term effects of using this drug? Did my efforts have any effect? This bad situation was a direct effect of his influence.

Affect as a noun has a very limited and specialized meaning. It is a psychological term that means the experience or expression of feeling or emotion. This is unlikely to be the meaning you intend to convey when using affect/effect as a noun. Indeed, affect as a noun is even pronounced differently, with the accent on the first syllable. Examples: The patient displayed incoherent speech, delusional thinking, and blunted affect. A state of negative affect can color a person's perceptions. SAT scores don't just indicate scholastic aptitude; even the student's affect at the time of the test will have some bearing on the score.

Notice that if you are choosing between affect and effect to use as a verb, you probably want affect. On the other hand, for use as a noun, you probably want effect.

Comprise. To comprise means to consist of, to include. Many people gets this backward, using to comprise as to compose. Examples of proper use are: T he committee comprises all the senior members of the club ( not The committee is comprised of . . .); The anthology comprises the best known works of many major contemporary authors.

Other grammar rules by which to live. Most of those rules you learned in high school still apply in formal scholarly writing, even though they may be ignored in more casual prose. Avoid splitting an infinitive. Try not to end a sentence with a preposition. Be sure any antecedents to a pronoun (the noun that the pronoun replaces) are crystal clear; otherwise, repeat the noun. Avoid beginning a new sentence with a conjunction (and, but, or). Avoid passive voice. If you don't know what any of these terms mean or you don't recall the rules, look them up in a good style and usage manual.

Putting it Together

Thesauruses. It's a good idea to infuse a little variety into your writing. Finding synonyms for words you use repeatedly will make your writing more fresh and readable. So will finding the exactly correct word, that one term with just the right shade of meaning, using its subtle nuances to communicate more effectively and succinctly. These are all good reasons to use a thesaurus.

Unfortunately, there are certain pitfalls to avoid. One is overuse. You should not just replace common words with "big" words indiscriminately and for no good reason. This is a transparent attempt to make pedestrian writing seem more grand than it is. When a "big" word doesn't add anything to your meaning over a common word, choose the common word. Your writing will remain simple and fresh, and that will allow your ideas to take center stage. It's acceptable to use more specific words now and then, particularly if you do so naturally. Unnatural use comes from efforts with a thesaurus; usually this results in a "forced" feeling to the higher level of vocabulary. The unnaturalness shows.

An extreme example of this occurs when a writer chooses ridiculously bombastic language to convey plain ideas. Hence your discourse is obfuscated by abstruse, recondite grandiloquence.

It's very easy to use words incorrectly. Thesauruses give you a variety of synonyms for common words but don't differentiate among them. Often some of these synonyms will have only limited applicability, or are synonymous with only a specific definition of the common word. Very commonly the different synonyms convey very different shades of meaning, while certain words are used only in certain contexts and are awkward in others. Therefore, when you use a thesaurus to replace a word in your writing, be certain that you understand the synonym fully. Be careful that you are not changing your meaning or implying something unintentionally. Always consult a dictionary to verify the precise meaning of the synonym. Better still, when in doubt, don't use the word.

Another pitfall is replacing words that should not be replaced. Sometimes you should just use the same word repeatedly even if it sounds awkward to do so. This is especially true in technical and scientific writing. Changing the word you use can create confusion as to whether you are still talking about the same concept or a different one. For example, in common parlance aggression and hostility are practically synonymous and interchangeable. If I'm writing a psychological study on the concept of aggression, though, I shouldn't interchange aggression with hostility for variety. In this case, the two words have a very subtle difference in meaning which would create confusion. Even if they didn't differ in meaning, it wouldn't be clear whether I were using them to describe different personal constructs.

Spell check. There should be no spelling errors in your final draft. The proliferation of computer word processors with spell-check features should preclude such errors. However, the counterpoint to this is that spell-checking should not supplant proofreading.

Proofread. It's boring. It's a pain. You just finished a long-winded discourse on some topic of purely academic interest, and you're just glad to have it done. The last thing you want to do now is reread the thing! Yes, I know. I feel that way, too. Everyone does. Truth is, proofreading at this time--right after you finish a draft--is not even very effective. The secret is to finish assignments well ahead of time so you can put away your draft for a few days, then come back to it with a fresh, clear mind. Often a sentence that made perfect sense when you wrote it--and would have continued making sense immediately afterward--now sounds awkward when you've had a chance to step back from the writing. Small errors start to pop out at you, and you might even wonder what in the world you were thinking when you wrote certain things. This is why you need to proofread, and why you need to do so only after taking a break from the writing.

Furthermore, as wonderful as spell-checkers are, they don't proofread. They don't pick out words that are spelled correctly but used wrong (such as the its/it's, effect/affect, your/you're problems mentioned elsewhere). They don't pick out stylistic problems, awkward transitions, sexist language, bias, harsh tone, wordiness, and other such problems. Papers that were not proofread stick out as such. I've even seen student papers with pages out of order and others with an entire paragraph repeated. Obviously the student made no attempt to read through his or her paper before submitting it. It makes a bad impression.

Length. Stick to the guidelines for length, as arbitrary as they may be. These are usually a bit flexible--a page or so over or under should not matter, particularly if you do a good job on the paper. Grossly inadequate length or (less commonly) excessive length may hurt you. It's better by far to be a page short than to use artificial means to stretch your text to fit a length requirement. Don't increase the type size, increase the margins, or triple space between paragraphs. Professors know these tricks well and can spot them immediately. Paradoxically, they are much less likely to notice you are a page shy of the required length if you make no attempt to cover it up.

Title. Give your paper a title, always. It orients the reader. Even a boring and obvious title is better than nothing at all.

Don't rush. Haste is born of procrastination, and in turn bears sloppiness. I've seen several papers that were obviously written at the last minute. Sometimes the student was a good student who knew what he or she was saying, but didn't have time to say it properly. Sometimes a paper starts out wonderful and deteriorates. The student either was rushed at the end or wrote the whole thing under the gun, getting too tired to care by the end. Do yourself a favor: start early, and give yourself plenty of time. You can do your best only when you have the leisure time.

Supporting Evidence

Don't discuss opinion as fact. This is a big one. Don't provide "armchair analysis." When you make an assertion, you should have an outside source to support it. Don't rely on intuitive conclusions or impressionistic evidence to make a point. You may not even want to assert seemingly obvious points; often these are less obvious and more controversial than you thought. It's best to refer to an outside source. You can then present outside viewpoints and perhaps synthesize a conclusion from them, or juxtapose them for contrast and express your own interpretation, or you could extrapolate, or do many other things to express your own take on the topic. But start with outside references. That way, you have someone else to point to when your reader asks, "How do you know that?" It should be obvious that you must scrupulously cite all these sources, or you not only defeat your purpose but also commit plagiarism.

Don't use anecdotal evidence. This is another big one. If I assert that all football players are rapists because I can name two football players I knew who were convicted of rape, the absurdity of such anecdotal evidence is obvious. You can (and should) give examples to support a point, but they should just be representative of many other possible examples. It just doesn't work the other way: you can't take an example and draw a sweeping conclusion from it.

Cite sources scrupulously. Anything that did not come from your own mind is someone else's idea. If you picked up an idea only after reading a book or article, or watching a television show, or hearing a lecture, it's not yours. Cite the source, whatever it is. This precludes plagiarism, but also it helps you. If the idea turns out to be wrong, the heat is taken off you. If you are using another writer's words, quote the writer. Otherwise, use your own words.

Inappropriate sources. Never cite People magazine as a source. Don't laugh--I've seen it several times. Popular magazines are not a source for anything but entertainment (if that). Your sources should be scholarly writings themselves. Monographs (books) and archival journals are the most useful sources. Also appropriate are a few newspapers, papers presented at meetings, lectures, and other scholarly sources. But not usually textbooks. Textbooks are secondary sources. They condense and paraphrase original sources. Like encyclopedias, textbooks are best used for guiding your research. Turn to your textbook first. Get some ideas. It will almost certainly refer you to the best, most relevant, and classic sources. Use the textbook as a guidepost to find where the ideas came from, and go to the original sources. Read those, then quote from them. This is far more appropriate and impressive than quoting the textbook. You may well find that the textbook presents the information from the original source in a highly skewed or simplified manner. The original may bring up new points that you may want to consider. It may point you in new directions. (There are times when citing a textbook is appropriate; however, this is something students do excessively and needlessly. I'm exaggerating a bit to make a point.)

Don't just drop in strings of quotes. Some people never get to any analysis in their papers. They just drop in endless quotes from outside sources, and provide enough original text only to tie together the quotes. This is just repeating, not research. You have to give some evidence that you actually understood and thought about your sources' points. Only use quotes when you just can't reword something and make it clear, or when there is a specific reason why the original words are important. If you can summarize and paraphrase, do so. This forces you to think and to demonstrate understanding and integration.

Academic Dishonesty

Don't submit a paper for credit more than once. This means taking a paper you wrote for one course and submitting it for another, even with modification. You can't get credit twice for the same work. It's usually considered cheating.

Many people (some quite indignant) have written to ask me why multiple submissions are dishonest. "After all," these people asserted, "I did write the paper myself." Here's why:

1) Every new assignment has a purpose. The purpose is to provide you with an opportunity to learn something new, practice a new skill, or just to practice your writing. Every time you write a new paper, your writing improves in subtle ways, especially if you actually read the feedback. If you just submit an old paper for a new assignment, you're defeating the purpose. You're missing out on the learning opportunity. Learning is the whole reason you're going to college in the first place. Do the work. You--and possibly your parents--are sacrificing so that you can avail yourself of such learning opportunities. Why would you want to defeat them?

2) It's unfair to the other students. They all have to write a paper to get the full credit for the course. You, on the other hand, are just submitting an old paper and doing no work. Everyone else is doing more work to get the same credits as you. More importantly, you have the unfair advantage of having already gotten a grade and feedback on your old paper. You know what the paper's weaknesses were, and you got suggestions on how to improve it from an expert evaluator (your previous professor). No one else got such consultation on their papers.

3) The topic is probably not quite appropriate for the assignment. Different courses will have different goals. The brilliant paper you wrote on the American Revolution for Composition 101 may not be well received in your American History 201 course, where the focus will be on content over style.

4) You don't really believe that you can coast through more advanced courses with the papers you wrote as a freshman, do you? When I look back at papers I wrote just last year, I catch many things I would do differently now. The fact is that you are learning very rapidly as you progress through college, and a paper you wrote just two semesters ago may not be adequate for your current level of sophistication. It may well be good enough for the particular course, but again, you would be missing the opportunity to practice crafting a new paper that does proper justice to your current level of skill and knowledge. This is why I can't just resubmit my Master's thesis as my Doctoral dissertation. I wrote the thesis, right? So why not? It should be obvious why not. Same reasoning applies to your undergraduate term papers.

5) How will you ever sharpen your writing skills if you don't write? Effective writing is the single most important skill you will learn in college, by far. Your writing ability will determine how intelligent you are perceived to be. It will help determine your career and how far you can go in it. It will make the difference in whether you are taken seriously or scoffed at-- regardless of your true knowledge. Writing is so important that you should be welcoming any opportunity to practice this skill and get expert feedback on it.

Finally, it is possible to make a multiple submission without being dishonest. You would have to 1) verify that your college or university does not expressly forbid all multiple submissions, 2) get the permission of the professor for whom you originally wrote the paper, and 3) get the permission of the professor for whom you want to make the second submission. Only if you have the permissions of your college/university and the two professors involved can you make a second submission honestly. (That still doesn't mean it's a good idea, however, and one or both of your professors is very likely to insist on revision, expansion, or even a partial or full rewrite)

Never plagiarize. This includes all the technical errors that can be called plagiarism, such as failing to cite sources properly. It also includes submitting a paper for credit that someone else wrote.

Conclusion

In sum, the unifying principle is to have respect for scholarly writing. Treat it as a serious and important pursuit, not an annoyance or a chore. It is the product of your talent, skill, knowledge, intelligence, and effort. It is your academic performance, the equivalent of an athlete's big game or an actor's opening night. It will exist as the tangible evidence of your academic and intellectual prowess. Scholarly writing is not just created on the spot, extemporaneously; you have time to work on it--to nurture, develop, and polish it. What you finally turn in for a grade is a reflection of yourself, your academic "child." With it you are saying "this represents my best intellectual potential." Be sure that it does.