Progress report

Unit 1c Summaries & abstracts; source

evaluations; notes & outlines;

progress report; quotation

SUMMARIES & ABSTRACTS ............................................. 2

Summaries ..................................................................... 2

Abstracts ..................................................................... 4

informative abstracts ................................. 4

descriptive abstracts ................................. 4

EVALUATING YOUR SOURCES ................................. 6

NOTE TAKING & OUTLINING ................................. 10

Note taking ..................................................................... 10

Outlining ..................................................................... 13

PROGRESS REPORT ............................................. 16

Example ..................................................................... 19

APA QUOTATION ......................................................... 22

Short quotations ......................................................... 22

Long quotations ......................................................... 23

Changing the original words ................................. 24

Other changes ......................................................... 25

Academic & Professional Communication T132 2

The 214 Major Report: 1c: Summaries, evaluations, notes, outlines, progress report, quotation

SUMMARIES & ABSTRACTS Summaries

You will already be familiar with the idea of a summary from your English 102 course, in

which you had to summarize the articles you found for your term report. In addition,

summarizing can be an important part of note taking. (See pp. 10 to 12.)

To re-iterate, the essential purpose of a summary is to re-state concisely the main ideas of

an article, book, or report in order to save the reader the time and trouble of reading the

original full-length document. Summaries, in fact, can also be made for a variety of

media including PowerPoint presentations, business meetings, lab experiments, audio

files and TV programs. In the world of work, employees are often asked by managers to

produce summaries of lengthy reports that the manager himself does not have the time to

read.

The length of a summary varies according to the complexity of the original and the

specific needs of the audience, but, generally, they are between 5% and 20% of the length

of the original. Given the large amount of content to be omitted, it is important that

summarizers select all, and only, the significant information contained in the original.

Include:

 The overall idea or purpose of the original

 The essential main ideas of the original

 Any essential supporting details for the main ideas

 A reference for the original source

Exclude:

 New information not contained in the original

 Irrelevant information, such as the author’s biographical details

 The summarizer’s own opinions or knowledge about the topic

 “I” and “we”

 Footnotes

 Reference data such as an end-of-article bibliography

To summarize an article for a source evaluation, follow these steps:

1. In a first reading of the article, focus on its specific purpose, its organization and its

intended audience, and look also at any conclusions or recommendations. In this initial

run-through, you may be helped by headings and sub-headings, typographical clues such

as boldface and italics, lists, and informative side bars. Remember also that good articles

Academic & Professional Communication T132 3

and reports follow certain widely accepted formats. Knowing where the various parts of a

document can be found will help you to find and summarize them. However, not all

articles—for example those found on websites—will provide you with information that is

easily accessible.

As you proceed step by step through the whole process, you may find it helpful to work

with a hard copy—a photocopy or print-out—which you can annotate and mark with

underlining and highlighting.

2. Having obtained an overall idea of the article and its audience, read it again at least

twice more looking for the main ideas and any essential supporting detail. Well-

written articles will provide you with informative topic sentences and a logical, coherent

presentation of content. Also, pay particular attention to linking words that, for example,

enumerate (another, secondly), compare (similarly, both), contrast (however, whereas),

show importance (principally, crucial), and so on.

3. Gather your text annotations and notes into an outline to guide your writing.

Summaries are generally expected to follow the sequence of the original but, if the

original organization is weak or repetitive, your outline will show where deletions can be

made without altering the basic meaning of the original. If you are summarizing a report

rather than an article, you may find that the table of contents can be used as a substitute

for your own outline.

4. With a usable outline, write the first draft. Try to paraphrase and to be as concise as

possible. At this stage, it does not matter if the draft is wordy or contains some source

wording. A more important aspect is the accuracy and completeness of the content.

5. Finally, revise and edit your first draft to make an acceptable final version. Delete

irrelevant or repeated information to make your writing more concise; condense ideas and

combine sentences; paraphrase any source wording; make your writing coherent by

supplying logical links between ideas. Refer continually to the original article or report to

confirm that your summary is fair, complete and accurate. Finally, supply a reference for

the original document so your reader knows what text your summary is based on.

Your goal is to produce a summary that will tell your reader everything of importance

that he needs to know. If the task is done well, the reader can rely on your summary

without having to read the original document—the summary should be able to stand

alone without reference to the original document. In the world of work, such summaries

are often referred to as “executive summaries.” Typically, they aim to save the busy

manager time by summarizing the contents of a lengthy report and presenting him with a

list of recommendations to help him make an informed decision.

In English 214, your source evaluation summaries will help you to better understand your

source, and they will help your teacher by giving him the essential details of the original

article without his having to spend considerable time reading it himself.

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Abstracts See also Successful Writing at Work pp. 324-25, 339.

The terms “summary” and “abstract” are often used interchangeably but this is only

partly correct. There are in fact two types of abstract: an informative abstract and a

descriptive abstract. Only the informative abstract is comparable to a summary.

informative abstracts

The description of a summary given above broadly applies to informative abstracts as

well. The main difference between them is that informative abstracts tend to be shorter,

usually only a paragraph or two long, whereas summaries, especially executive

summaries, can stretch to a couple of pages. Like summaries, informative abstracts aim to

give readers a concise, accurate and complete re-statement of the original document by,

for example, describing what research was carried out, the conclusions that were arrived

at, and any recommendations for further action.

You will find an example of an informative abstract on page 339 of Successful Writing at

Work (and it is also re-printed on the next page). Like all abstracts, it is placed early in

the report—on or immediately after the cover page—and begins with the overall idea of

the original document that it is summarizing. Like a typical summary, it aims to give the

reader the substantive facts of the report so that the reader does not have to read the full

report himself. (One weakness of the abstract on page 339 is that the writer uses the

words “we” and “our” instead of the more objective third person. This could, however, be

defended on the grounds that the report and abstract are both meant as internal

communication only.)

descriptive abstracts

A descriptive abstract typically consists of only two or three sentences, perhaps fifty

words in total. Unlike an informative abstract, which can be regarded as a substitute for

the original document, the aim of a descriptive abstract is to help the reader decide if he

should read the original document or not. Descriptive abstracts, therefore, state what an

article contains without providing any specific detail. For example, while an informative

abstract will explicitly state any recommendations contained in the original document, a

descriptive abstract is more likely merely to mention that “the article contains a set of

recommendations.” If the reader wants to know what these recommendations are, he must

read the original document.

Descriptive abstracts are commonly found at the start of most journal articles and in

special books of abstracts (such as Chemical Abstracts and Information Science

Abstracts) which are indispensable to researchers all over the world. It should be pointed

out, however, that the distinctions between descriptive and informative abstracts are not

always maintained in these publications: often, an academic abstract in a journal article

will have the characteristics of both descriptive and informative abstracts.

You will write a descriptive abstract on the cover page of your English 214 major report.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 5

Compare the two abstracts below. They are both based on the model long report in

Successful Writing at Work (pp. 338 – 354), titled “Adapting the RPM Workplace for

Multinational Employees.”

Example of an informative abstract.

Abstract

This report investigates how U.S. businesses such as RPM must gain

a competitive advantage in today’s global marketplace by recruiting

and retaining a multinational workforce. The current wave of

immigrants is in great demand for their technical skills and economic ties

to their homeland. Yet many companies like ours still operate by policies

designed for native speakers of English. Instead, we need to adapt

RPM’s company policies and workplace environment to meet the

cultural, religious, social, and communication needs of these

multinational workers. To do this, we need to promote cultural sensitivity

training, both for multinationals and employees who are native speakers

of English. Additionally, as other U.S. firms have done, RPM should

adapt vacation schedules and daycare facilities for an increasing

multicultural workforce. Equally important, RPM needs to ensure,

either through translations or plain-English versions, that all documents

can be easily understood by multinational workers. RPM might also offer

non-native speakers of English in-house language instruction while

providing foreign language training for employees who are native

speakers of English. (197 words)

Example of a descriptive abstract.

Abstract

This report investigates how U.S. businesses such as RPM must gain

a competitive advantage in today’s global marketplace by recruiting

and retaining a multinational workforce. It states the current problem

and offers a solution. The report then sets out a number of

recommendations to achieve this solution. (47 words)

Begin the informative abstract with the

purpose (overall idea) of the original

document.

After the initial topic sentence, do not mention

“this report” or “this article” again. Rather, give

the information without further reference to the

original document.

The problem is stated.

The solution is stated.

Specific recommend-

ations are given.

This is not a composition; there is no

need for a conclusion.

Note the use of connectors

like “Instead,” “Yet,” “To

do this,” “also,” “Equally

important,” “Additionally.”

Like the other abstract, the descriptive

abstract begins with the overall idea of

the report or article.

A descriptive abstract can often be completed in about 50 words.

This type of abstract refers explicitly

to the original article or report.

It gives the main ideas of

the report, but without

specific details. This type

of abstract cannot stand

alone.

If the reader wants to know about the

solution or recommendations, he must

read the original report.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 6

EVALUATING YOUR SOURCES

Whenever you find a potential source, you must evaluate it before you can start using it

to write your report. Using effective search terms will increase your chances of finding

relevant sources but many of the sources you find which look useful at first glance may

turn out to be irrelevant after you have read them critically. The following points set out

the criteria that will help you evaluate your sources.

1. Does the source meet your teacher’s requirements?

There is no point in using a source if it does not meet the requirements laid

down by your teacher regarding length, newness, bibliographical

completeness, and so on. So always check this first.

2. Is the source relevant?

You cannot judge a source simply by its title; you have to read it first. For

example, an article titled “The Three Gorges Dam Electric Power Plant”

may look relevant to your topic about the environmental impacts of a dam

but it may turn out to be a highly technical description of the turbines with

little or no useful information for your report. Your chances of finding

relevant sources will increase if you use specific search terms related to your

focused topic. For example, using “Three Gorges dam environmental

impacts” is likely to yield more relevant sources than simply using “Three

Gorges dam.” In order to write your source evaluation, you will need to be

able to connect specific information in the source with the corresponding

topics in your evolving plan. If you can’t, then your source is not relevant.

3. Is the source written at an appropriate level?

Your search may turn up some sources that are too difficult to understand or

others that are too simplistic. For example, an experimental article in a

journal is likely to have been written on a very narrow aspect of the general

topic with high-level information appropriate for academics and specialists.

At the other extreme, plenty of websites are designed for high-school

students at lower and intermediary levels, where the tone is conversational

and informal and the ideas simplified and generalized for the benefit of the

target audience.

4. Is the article biased?

A biased article is written from one particular point of view and so does not

give a balanced or objective account of an issue. Often the bias is subtle and

hard to detect; at other times, it is explicit and unmissable. Articles in

reputable journals will typically be peer-reviewed and consequently reliable

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and objective. This is not the case for the vast amount of information

contained in websites, particularly business websites and single-issue

activist websites or blogs. Read carefully to see if opposing views are

included, and included fairly; check if the tone is formal, professional and

objective, or jokey and sarcastic; click on the “About us” link to find out

what you can about the purpose and motives of the website.

Apart from the actual content, the writer of an article is often an important

clue to bias. Take, for example, two articles entitled “Villagers evacuated to

make way for dam reservoir,” one appearing on an activist environmental

website and the other in an official Chinese government press release. How

would you expect bias—if any—to be expressed in both articles? If you

detect bias in an article, you may still be able to use the information in your

report but introduce such ideas as opinion rather than fact: for example, “the

environmental group claims that ... .”

5. Is the author competent?

An author could be one or more individuals, a government department, an

organization, an online action group, and so on. Often, online sources and

even certain reputable magazines like The Economist publish anonymous

articles. We have seen above that authors can sometimes be biased; they can

also be incompetent, disorganised and unintentionally misleading. As a

general rule, it is always better to use reputable sources with named authors.

Sometimes, the source will include a short biography of the author which

will indicate his expertise and reliability; if it doesn’t, you may be able to

google the author yourself and uncover his background. Is he an expert in

the field or simply someone with an interest in it? Has he published before

in this field? How long has he worked in this field? Is he well known? These

are some of the questions that will help you determine if the author is

competent. If he is, the article is more likely to be credible and reliable.

6. Does the source deal in facts or opinions?

Facts are pieces of information that can be proved to be true. For example,

“the installed capacity of the Three Gorges Dam make it the biggest power

station in the world” is a fact that can be verified by government statistics

and academic research. On the other hand, opinions are ideas or beliefs

about a particular topic, such as “The Three Gorges Dam project is an

environmental disaster.” An opinion is not necessarily wrong but, to be

credible, it must always be supported by solid evidence. So read your

sources critically to see if the author is providing facts or opinions. If it’s the

latter, then he must also provide sufficient evidence to support his opinions

and make them credible.

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7. Currency

“Currency” refers to the relevance of information based on its date of

publication. Students sometimes find sources which contain apparently

useful information but which is already out of date. For example, a 2012

source might mention an international conference to be held the following

year to discuss the environmental impacts of the Three Gorges Dam. The

source sounds promising. However, since that conference has already taken

place—in 2013—it makes more sense to find a newer article from late 2013

or 2014 that deals with the actual outcome of that conference. Take care,

therefore, with older sources; always try to be current with your

information. If the article has no date, be suspicious.

Writing a source evaluation

You must use at least six sources to write your major report and you must write a source

evaluation for at least three of them. An example of a typical source evaluation is given

on the following page. Notice that it contains three parts:

 The source First, briefly explain how you found the source, including any search

terms, databases or search engines you used. Secondly, provide complete

bibliographical information in the form of an APA reference.

 Source summary Read the whole article and then write a summary of about 100 words. This

is a summary paraphrase so you must use your own words. Begin with the

overall idea of the source, followed by its main points.

 Source evaluation This is the most important section. Explain in about 100 words why you

chose the article. Address some of the criteria mentioned above. Try and

link the content of the article to the topics on your outline.

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ENGLISH 214 SOURCE EVALUATION # 1

NAME: Ali Al-Ali ID: 201112340 SEC/SN: 99 / 28

REPORT TITLE (Provisional): The Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

1. THE SOURCE

How long is your source? 3 pages. How did you find the source?: I typed in “Chernobyl nuclear disaster effects” into the Summon search

engine. This article was the third on the list.

Write a complete APA reference for your source:

Day, A. (2013, November 18) Cleaning up the Chernobyl mess.

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/123BD33

2. SUMMARY OF THE SOURCE In about100 words, summarize the main points of your source.

This article discusses the main effects of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion that

happened in Ukraine in 1986. It firstly explains the main cause of the disaster,

human error, and then discusses the main effects both in the local area and in

Europe as a whole. It gives statistics on the number of people who became ill

with cancer over the following 20 years and it describes how farming in Europe

was severely affected for several years. It concludes with the methods used to try

and clean up the radioactivity that had fallen in Europe.

3. EVALUATION: In about 100 words, explain why you chose this source for your report.

Relevance: connect relevant parts of the source with your outline.

Article: what level is it? How up-to-date is the information?

Publication / website / author: are they reputable, unbiased and knowledgeable?

I chose this article because it is relevant to the main parts of my report. First, it

contains information about the type of nuclear plant, which fits in my Background

Section and it has some brief information about the reasons for the explosion,

which belongs in the Causes section of my report. Most of the article, however, is

concerned with my main idea, which is the effects of the explosion and the problem

of cleaning up.

The BBC is a reliable website and the level of the article is aimed at the average

reader. The article is quite new, less than six months old, so it has the latest

information about the disaster. I googled the author, Agnes Day, and she has been

the BBC’s science editor for the past 15 years so is knowledgeable on this subject.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 10

NOTE TAKING

With a workable rough plan and a source that has passed a thorough evaluation, you are

ready to start taking notes. Note taking is simply a way to record the information you

have read so you won’t forget it. There are a number of ways to do this ranging from

short annotations in the margins of sources to large-scale copy & paste techniques on a

computer and the use of special note-taking applications such as Evernote and Google

Notes. Your teacher will instruct you in whichever method he prefers.

However, regardless of the method that is eventually used, all students are expected to be

familiar with one very common method of note-taking: note cards.

The advantage of using the card method is that it allows information to be manipulated

easily. As you obtain new information, you can add cards to the pack, remove cards from

it, or re-arrange the cards in a better order. To do this efficiently, every note card based

on a source must contain a reference to the topic of the note and to the author and source

page number.

The notes you make will mainly consist of information extracted from a source, which is

then summarized, paraphrased and condensed into its essential meaning using numbers,

symbols, abbreviations, and so on. This type of note is often referred to as a “condensed

extract.” Notes could also include quotations, statistics, simple illustrations, and

reminders to yourself of work that needs doing. For a report of 1500 words or more, a

student should have a minimum of 60 note cards.

A typical note card contains information on one topic only, is written on one side only,

and contains three pieces of information: the topic, the source and the note:

Topic Source

Habitat loss: deforestation (Jackson, 2013, p.11) 30% of Amaz r-forest lost in last 20 yrs. wood used for furniture exports

Note

Academic & Professional Communication T132 11

As a general rule, it is better to take more notes than you think you will need. It is only

through ongoing research that you sharpen your focus and cover your topic completely so

that notes that once seemed relevant may later become unimportant. So, take lots of

notes, but be prepared to discard many of them.

The topic

Each information card must contain a note on a single topic. Indicate this topic using two

or three words at the top left of the card. Ideally, these topic indicators should correspond

to your outline topics. In general, notes should only appear together on the same card if

they will appear together later in the same paragraph or section of your report. If it is

clear that two notes on the same general topic will be used in different parts of the report,

they should be written on different cards. A single note need not be restricted to the space

available on one card; if necessary, continue the note on another card.

When you have finished note taking, the topics you wrote top left will help you to

rearrange your cards according to your evolving outline. Later on in this note-taking

stage, you can also add some outline notation (e.g. II.B.1) to each topic, showing exactly

where each information card belongs in relation to your outline; however, this is only

advisable if you are working with the final version of your outline.

The source

Write a short bibliographical reference at the top right of each note card to indicate the

source of the information. Write the author's name or, if the article has no author, the first

couple of words of the title in quotation marks, together with the relevant page number,

section heading or paragraph number. If you enclose these source details in parentheses

(round brackets), and include the year of publication, then your card will already show

the documentation you will need when you expand the note later in the first draft, for

example (Jackson, 2013, p.4).

The note

You cannot rely on your memory when you have so many sources to read so note taking

will provide the essential link between reading and writing. As you summarize,

paraphrase and condense the original idea onto your card, take care to record the idea

accurately. If you are quoting, record the quotation and the accompanying bibliographical

information exactly.

Examples

When you select a useful piece of information from a source, try to formulate the

essential idea in your own mind. Summarize this—in your own words as far as

possible—in condensed form on your note card. Use indentations, spacing, numbers,

abbreviations and symbols to speed up the process, but be sure that the notes you take

will still be intelligible later when you come to write the first draft.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 12

Condensed extract

Solar ponds: basic principle (Sale, 2013, p. 127) Heated freshwater at bott. of pond ↑ then loses heat to atm. But, saline layer at bott. more dense than FW above so cannot rise remains at bottom, temp. ↑ to 100 deg.C This heat can be used for elect. prod.

Original source

Thanks to solar ponds, the salt in the

Colorado River could be put to

beneficial purposes. Normally, when

water at the bottom of a freshwater

pond is heated, it rises to the

surface, where it loses heat to the

atmosphere. However, a pond with a

layer of saline water at the bottom

works differently. It warms up and

attempts to rise, but cannot because

the salt is much denser than the

freshwater above. So, it remains

trapped and continues to heat up to

boiling point. The heat harnessed

from such ponds is able to generate

electricity.

Quotation

Occasionally, you may want to record a quotation on your note card but, first, find out

what restrictions your teacher has placed on the number and length of the quotations that

he will allow in your report. Select your quotations carefully: writers quote other writers

in order to support their ideas and the quotations used are often chosen because they

express an idea particularly succinctly or memorably. Never quote original wording

simply because you do not know how to paraphrase the idea.

In the example card below, notice how the quotation is enclosed in quotation marks and

the identity of the original speaker is given. If you need to change the original wording,

follow the rules outlined later in this unit.

Original

Geologists have direct evidence that sea-floor

spreading and plate tectonics have shaped the

Earth's surface for the past 200 million years.

Indirect evidence for plate tectonics goes

back a billion years, but the oldest continents

are much more ancient, 2.5 billion years old.

What forces shaped that ancient Earth?

Eldridge M. Moores, a geologist at the

University of California at Davis, suggests

that it may have been a different form of

plate tectonics, producing terrain that in

some ways resembles modern Venus

Topic Source Note

Form. of E's surface: PT (Erdmann, 2013, p.65) Eldridge M. Moores, geologist, U of C at Davis: Continents of ancient E (>2.5 bill. yrs) shaped by "a different form of plate tectonics, producing terrain that . . . resembles modern Venus."

Original speaker

context

quotation

source topic

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OUTLINING When you first start taking notes on your sources, you may have only a very basic outline

to guide you. The more you read, however, the more information you will obtain and so

you will gradually be able to modify that first rough outline. Parts of that outline may

need to be deleted while other parts can be retained with some minor adjustments.

Mainly, however, you should be able to expand and fill the gaps in that initial plan.

As your initial plan grows, the relationships between the parts will become more

numerous and complex and so it will become necessary to produce a more formal outline

using indentations and standard outline notation. During the research stage of report

writing—while you are finding sources, reading them and taking notes—your teacher

will require from you an evolving formal two-level topic outline.

The following points illustrate some general characteristics of outlines.

Informal and formal outlines

Outlines can be informal or formal. Those written for the writer alone can be quite

informal, with little attention paid to the various outlining conventions. Informal

outlines—also referred to as rough or scratch outlines—are typically the starting-point of

a piece of writing. However, outlines that are also written for other readers—like those

you write for your English teacher or those which are intended to form the plan for longer

pieces of writing such as reports—should follow certain accepted standards of formatting.

These are formal outlines.

Topic and sentence outlines

Formal outlines can be topic outlines or sentence outlines. As the names suggest, topic

outlines consist of “topics,” usually consisting of just a few words, while sentence

outlines convey the ideas in full sentences.

In this English 214 course, you will use only topic outlines. In a formal topic outline,

headings consist of single words, phrases or clauses, and they should begin with a capital

letter. Full sentences should not be included, except for the initial thesis statement that

precedes the outline. All headings on the same level should be grammatically parallel

with one another, that is, they should all be nouns or noun phrases, all verbs or verb

phrases, or all clauses.

Traditional and numerical outlines

Formal topic outlines require a consistent system of outline notation. Your teacher will

ask you to use either the traditional (“alphanumeric”) method or the numerical

(“decimal”) method.

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Formal outline notation, together with consistent indentation, explicitly shows the

relationships between the ideas in your outline. Ideas are organized by levels. With the

traditional outline method, main (first-level) headings are indicated by capital Roman

numerals (I, II, III, IV), second-level headings are indented and indicated by capital

letters (A, B, C, etc.), and third-level headings are indented still further and are indicated

by numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.). Logically, every subdivided topic must have at least two

headings: if there is I, there must be II; if there is A, there must be B, and so on. Outline

notation is not used for introductions or conclusions.

With the numerical method of notation, main headings are shown by numbers (1, 2, 3,

etc.); second-level headings add a further number after a decimal point (1.1, 1.2, 1.3,

etc.); and third-level headings have a third number after a second period (1.1.1, 1.1.2,

1.1.3, etc.). As with the traditional method, indentations help clarify the relationships

between ideas.

In this English 214 course, you may use either system of outline notation though we

recommend the traditional method.

Outline Levels

EXAMPLE 1: Traditional topic outline

Thesis

Introduction

I. First-level heading

A. Second-level heading

B. Second-level heading

1. Third-level heading

2. Third-level heading

II. First-level heading

A. Second-level heading

B. Second-level heading

1. Third-level heading

2. Third-level heading

Conclusion

Thesis: Man influences the water cycle in two ways.

Introduction

I. Diversion of runoff

A. Cause: man-made canals and dams

B. Effects

1. Water flow blocked

2. Water removed from cycle

II. Reduction of water held in soil

A. Cause: destruction of vegetation

B. Effects

1. Flooding from increased runoff

2. Insufficient minerals for plants

Conclusion

Academic & Professional Communication T132 15

EXAMPLE 2: Numerical topic outline

Thesis

Introduction

1. First-level heading

1.1 Second-level heading

1.2 Second-level heading

1.2.1 Third-level heading

1.2.2 Third-level heading

2. First-level heading

2.1 Second-level heading

2.2 Second-level heading

2.2.1 Third-level heading

2.2.2 Third-level heading

Conclusion

Thesis: Man influences the water cycle in two ways.

Introduction

1. Diversion of runoff

1.1 Cause: man-made canals and dams

1.2 Effects

1.2.1 Water flow blocked

1.2.2 Water removed from cycle

2. Reduction of water held in soil

2.1 Cause: destruction of vegetation

2.2 Effects

2.2.1 Flooding from increased runoff

2.2.2 Insufficient minerals for plants

Conclusion

After you reach the end of the note-taking stage and just before you start the first draft of

the report, your teacher will ask to see a clear, coherent three-level topic outline

showing the range and sequence of information in your report.

At this stage, you also need to rearrange your note cards—if you have been using this

method—to make them correspond to your revised outline. As you look through your

note cards, throw away those that you no longer need. At the same time, look carefully to

see if there are information gaps that might require further online or Library research.

When you are sure that your outline is complete, that you have all the information you

need, and you have sequenced your note cards according to the outline, you will be ready

to start writing the first draft. (See Unit 1d for information on drafting, revising and

editing.)

Academic & Professional Communication T132 16

THE PROGRESS REPORT

The purpose of a progress report is to inform the reader of the current status of a

particular project. This type of report is common in both study and work environments

and may take many forms, for example a short informal telephone call, a letter or email,

an internal memorandum or a lengthy report. The readers of such reports are managers,

company clients, work supervisors and course instructors. In all cases, they are especially

interested in knowing the following:

 how much progress has been made so far on the project;

 what problems have been encountered and how those problems were solved;

 how much work remains to be completed together with a schedule for completing it.

In English 214, you submit a progress report for your major report at about the half-way

stage of your research project. It is written as a memorandum addressed to your teacher

and consists of the following four sections:

I. Introduction

II. Work Completed

III. Problems & Solutions

IV. Work to be Completed

At the top of your memorandum page, write the identification details: the recipient’s

name and title; your name, major, ID number, section number and serial number; the

subject of the memorandum; and, finally, the provisional title of the report. If you are

sure that you will not modify this title, you can omit the word ‘provisional.’

I. Introduction

Your introduction should be between 100 and 150 words. Here, you start with the

specific purpose statement that informs the reader why you are writing the report. Most

likely, your purpose will be to discuss a problem in which you focus on the causes,

effects or possible solutions. Your purpose could also be to present an argument or to

make a detailed comparison. It is a requirement that, like your provisional title, your

purpose statement (a) shows a narrowed, focused topic and (b) clearly links your major

with the theme of the semester.

The introduction is also the place to provide your reader with some background about

your topic such as any necessary definitions or historical and theoretical description. You

should also explain why your topic is an important one specifying, for example, who

would most benefit from your research—individuals (eg personal health strategies),

companies and other organizations (eg the protection of sensitive commercial data),

Academic & Professional Communication T132 17

countries (eg fighting inflationary pressures) or perhaps even the world in general for

topics of global significance like pandemics or climate change.

II. Work Completed

The Work Completed section of your progress report informs the reader what you have

accomplished so far in the major tasks of your project. The reader wants to know that you

are on schedule to complete the assignment within the prescribed time limits. Your

progress report provides him with a written record of your achievements to date. The

research tasks basically involve your sources and your outline. Explain how many

sources you have found so far and how you found them; mention the source evaluations

you have written for them, and the notes you have taken.

Supply proof of your claim by writing a working bibliography of the sources found so

far. At this mid-point stage in the research project, your teacher will expect to see three or

four sources on your list (though you may not necessarily have read, taken notes on, or

evaluated all of them).

Provide your reader next with a logical, coherent two-level topic outline that sets out the

main sections of your report. This outline is still evolving. As you find and read

additional sources, and gather more information, your outline will change accordingly.

Your outline must also of course agree exactly with the purpose statement and topic

description you gave in the introduction and with the provisional title you gave in the

subject line of the memorandum.

III. Problems & Solutions

In the third section, Problems & Solutions, explain the difficulties you have encountered

so far in your research and, equally importantly, explain how you overcame them. Your

ability to resolve the many problems that occur in such projects will give your reader a

strong indication about your ability to complete the project on time.

Keeping a record of your research activities from the start of the project will help you

with this section but you need not mention every problem, only the most important ones.

Problems are likely to involve, initially, the finding of a suitable focus that combines your

major with the theme of the semester. Many problems are linked to sources, in particular

your ability to find up-to-date impartial articles written at an appropriate level by authors

with expertise in the field. You may have several false starts in which promising articles

turn out to be of little relevance to your topic. Changing search engines and key search

terms can sometimes resolve the problems that arise with poor sources.

IV. Work to be Completed

The fourth, and last, section of your progress report is Work to be Completed. Begin with

a paragraph that explains what the remaining research tasks are. These are likely to

involve finding, reading and taking notes on one or two more sources and perhaps writing

Academic & Professional Communication T132 18

additional source evaluations for them. While six sources are the minimum number for

this report, you need write only three source evaluations. In addition, your teacher will

expect you to develop the two-level outline given in your progress report to a three- or

four-level outline by the start of the first draft in Week 9.

However, naming the remaining tasks to be completed is only half your task in this final

section of the progress report. You must also specify your timetable for completing them.

Your research project has a fixed deadline that was set at the beginning, namely the date

that your final report will be submitted. (In Term 132, this is likely to be at the start of

Week 12, Sunday, 20 April 2014.) You have therefore several weeks (including a

vacation) between the submission dates of your progress report and your major report.

In the second part of this section, you must set out a schedule that specifies by when each

of the remaining tasks will be finished. These can be grouped under four main headings:

 the completion of the research element (sources, notes, final outline);

 the writing of the first draft;

 the report revision and final editing;

 the submission of the final draft along with all the materials used to write it (ie, sources, evaluations, notes, outlines and drafts). You must supply your teacher

with hard and soft copies, and must upload the final report to Turnitin.

This progress report is not simply about the 5% grade it carries. It is about your

efficiency, organization, and determination over a period of several weeks to successfully

complete a difficult research task.

Refer to the example on the following pages:

Academic & Professional Communication T132 19

MEMORANDUM

TO: Mr. John Smith, instructor, English 214

FROM: Ali Al-Abdulhadi (CHEM) 201012340, English 214-99/15 AA DATE: 27 February 2014 (class 15)

SUBJECT: Progress Report for library research project:

Provisional title: “Solving the Adverse Environmental Effects of

Agriculture”

I. INTRODUCTION

The specific purpose of my report is to investigate possible solutions to the

environmental effects caused by agricultural activities, specifically by livestock farming

and crop production. Agriculture is an ancient economic activity on which the world still

depends for its food and in many cases for its livelihoods. It involves the cultivation of

plants and animals not only for food but also for fuels, fibers, raw materials and other

necessities that are vital for life. However, these same agricultural practices have had

many negative effects on the environment causing considerable damage to ecological

systems across the globe. For example, crop production has led to water pollution

through the use of agrochemicals while the farming of animals has brought about land

degradation and in some parts of the world serious desertification. The need for solutions

is urgent. Several will be discussed in my report including conservation tillage and

improvements to irrigation systems.

II. WORK COMPLETED

A. Sources

I have found five potential sources so far and have read three of them. (See the working

bibliography below.) I have written source evaluations for two of the listed sources, and

have made 18 note cards for them. Two of the sources below are full-text PDF articles

found using the Library’s Summon search engine; two were found on the Internet using

Google Scholar and Magportal, respectively; and one was found in the Library’s print

collection of current journals.

Fedoroff, N. V., Battisti, D. S., Cooper, P. J., Hodges, C. N., Beachy, R. N., Fischoff,

D. A., . . . Zhu, J. K. (2010). Radically rethinking agriculture for the 21st century.

Science, 327(5297), 833-834. doi: 10.1126/science.1186834

Academic & Professional Communication T132 20

Ali Al-Abdulhadi 2 27 February 2014

Gomiero, T., Pimentel, D., & Paoletti, M. G. (2011). Is there a need for a more

sustainable agriculture? Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 30(3), 6-23.

Parris, K. (2011). Impact of agriculture on water pollution in OECD countries.

Water Resources Development, 27(1), 33-52. doi: 10.1080/07900627.2010.531898

Scheierling, S. M., Loomis, J. B., & Young, R. A. (2006). Irrigation water demand: A meta-

analysis of price elasticities. Water Resources Research, 42, Retrieved from

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006/2005WR004009.shtml

Trager, R. (n.d.). California under fire for approving controversial pesticide. Retrieved

from http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/January/10011101.asp

B. Preliminary outline

I have developed my initial rough plan into the following two-level topic outline:

INTRODUCTION

I. Environmental effects of crop production

A. Pollution by agrochemicals

B. Soil erosion

II. Environmental effects of livestock farming

A. Air and water pollution

B. Land degradation

III. Possible solutions

A. Conservation tillage

B. Economic measures

C. Irrigation system improvements

D. Restriction of livestock movement

CONCLUSION

Academic & Professional Communication T132 21

Ali Al-Abdulhadi 3 27 February 2014

III. PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS

I arranged an interview with Dr. Fahad Al-Suwaiyan, a professor who teaches the

chemistry of the environment (CHEM 431) to discuss fertilizers, pesticides and other

contaminants. The interview had to be cancelled but it has now been re-arranged for

Sunday, 2 March. I hope that the transcript of this interview will provide me with another

source. My initial search for sources on the Internet produced a number of low-quality,

sometimes biased, articles written by various environmentalist groups. This problem was

solved by using the Library’s Summon search engine. This gave me access to the

electronic databases which provided much more reliable information, though it was

sometimes of a very technical nature. Secondly, by doing a biographical search of authors

and choosing only those with an expert background in the field, I have been able to find

Internet sources which should be as reliable as those in the Library databases.

IV. WORK TO BE COMPLETED

I must first take notes on my third source and write a source evaluation for it. I must then

read my fourth and fifth sources and decide if they are useful. If they are, I will take

notes; if they aren’t, I will return to the Library to find alternatives. In addition, after

conducting the interview, I must make a transcript of it and take notes. Finally, I need to

develop my outline to make it three-level. All this has to be completed before starting to

write the first draft. To achieve these targets, I intend to follow this schedule of work:

Schedule of remaining work:

1. Researching

Sunday, 2 March: Interview with Dr Al-Suwaiyan. Transcribe interview (source 6?).

Tuesday, 4 March: Take notes on source 3 and write an evaluation for it.

Review the corrected progress report and make necessary changes.

Thursday, 6 Mar.: Submit SE3 (class 18).

7 – 20 March.: Read and take notes on sources 4, 5 and 6. Refine my outline.

Submit the final 3-level outline on 16 March (class 22).

All note taking completed by 20 March (class 24).

21 – 29 March: Vacation: Prepare for the 1st draft: final checking of notes, sources and outline.

2. Drafting

Sunday, 30 March: Start the first draft (class 25).

Thursday, 10 April: Complete the first draft (class 30).

3. Revising & editing

11 – 19 April: Complete the revision; finish editing; prepare the final typed document.

4. Report submission

Sunday, 20 April: Submit the hard copy of the report (+ sources, notes, outlines, drafts).

Submit the soft copy, and upload it to Turnitin.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 22

APA QUOTATION

When a writer quotes, he takes a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph from a text and

uses it—unchanged—in his own composition or report. To show that he is using someone

else’s exact words, he places the quoted material inside double quotation marks (“…”).

To avoid plagiarism, he documents the source of the quotation with the name of the

author, the year of publication, and (when possible) the page number. In your English

214 major report, your teacher may allow you to make two short quotations and/or one

long quotation. A short quotation consists of fewer than forty words; a long (or block)

quotation consists of forty or more words.

Writers quote other writers in order, firstly, to strengthen and support their own ideas.

Quotations are also selected because they express an idea well and because the inclusion

of “another voice" in one’s writing can make the writing more interesting. However,

quoting other writers simply because it is too difficult to paraphrase their ideas is not a

good reason for quoting.

There are restrictions on the number and length of quotations you may use in your major

report (see above). Having more than three quotations in your report is discouraged since

your teacher is interested in your writing—particularly your ability to paraphrase—not in

someone else’s language ability. Quotations, in fact, are quite rare in writing that is based

in science and technology.

Here you will be shown how to write short and long quotations using the APA style. You

will also be taught how to change the original wording in your quotation if the need

arises.

Short quotations

A quotation is sometimes introduced by a signal phrase, like according to …, which

indicates the originator of the idea. Certain verbs are also commonly used, such as claim,

state, say, explain, assert and observe. When introductory punctuation is required, the

colon and comma are most common. The text you quote must fit grammatically and it

must make sense within the rest of your sentence. Note also in the fourth example below

that if the original text you wish to quote also contains a quotation, you indicate this

‘quotation-within-a-quotation’ by the use of single quotation marks (‘…’).

All quotations must be documented in the usual way with the author, date, and page

number(s), or, in the case of unpaginated electronic sources, with a section heading

and/or paragraph number. Quotation marks are placed immediately after the quotation,

followed by the documentation and the sentence punctuation:

Academic & Professional Communication T132 23

Climate affects the culture of a country. For example, according to MIT

anthropologist, Dr James Scott (2011), “Tropical lifestyles are less strenuous

and more casual than those in temperate climates” (Discussion section, para. 4).

In their study of cyber-crime, Peterson and Smith (2010) called for “the urgent

transfer of powers to national governments” (p. 22) in order to police the “more

troublesome parts” (p. 23) of the Internet.

Any free time used to improve one’s mind or body has been described as

“constructive leisure” (Jackson, 2012, p. 9).

Cole et al. (2010) found that “‘the placebo effect’ exerted a far stronger

influence” (para. 3) on the test population than the test drugs themselves.

Long quotations

Long quotations are quite rare in scientific and technical writing and you will require

your teacher’s permission before including one in your report. As mentioned above, in

the APA style, a long quotation consists of forty words or more. It is often introduced by

a colon but there may be no punctuation if the long quotation is a grammatical

continuation of the sentence that introduces it.

It always starts on a new line and is not enclosed by quotation marks. The whole block is

indented one half inch (just over one centimeter) on the left and is double-spaced like the

rest of your report. The parenthetical citation is placed after the end punctuation.

Despite the assurances of food producers that our food is indeed becoming healthier as

consumers become more selective and health-conscious, Thomas Gentry (2012), President of

the American Heart Foundation, is not totally convinced:

I think it has become abundantly clear to my organization over the past few years

that the consumer will only be able to heed the call for lower consumption of fat, salt

and calories when food producers clearly label their products to show the purchaser

what they contain. (p. 136)

Finally, note that in a long quotation any quoted text in the original wording will appear

in double quotation marks in your long quotation. (Compare this with the use of single

quotation marks for quoted text within short quotations. See page 22.)

The text of the report and the long

quotation are both typically double-

spaced.

A colon introduces the long quotation if it

is not a grammatical continuation of the

sentence that introduces it.

Indent the long quotation

0.5 inches on the left.

Double-space the long

quotation.

Write the in-text citation after

the full stop.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 24

Changing the original words

As a general rule when writing, you should not alter the original words of another writer

in any way. However, in the interests of clarity, conciseness and grammaticality, it is

permissible to omit some of the original wording, to alter it, and even to insert wording

of your own into it. This applies to both long and short quotations.

Omissions are indicated by ellipses; alterations and insertions are indicated by brackets.

Omitting quoted text

If you leave out parts of the original wording, you must indicate the location of the

omissions in your quotation by inserting three spaced dots (. . .) known as ellipses or

ellipsis points. To indicate an omission that comes at the end of a sentence or that

consists of more than one sentence, use four dots (a period and three ellipses). If you use

ellipsis, be sure that the quoted text is still grammatical and well integrated with your

own sentences, and that it still faithfully reflects the sense of the original wording.

Compare the short quotation below with the long quoted passage above.

Thomas Gentry (2012), President of the American Heart Association, believes that "it has

become abundantly clear . . . that the consumer will only be able to heed the call for lower

consumption of fat, salt and calories when food producers clearly label their products" (p.

136).

Inserting and altering text in a quotation

Square brackets […] are used to show that insertions or alterations have been made to the

original wording. Words can be inserted into a quotation to clarify a particular word or

phrase. For example, [Dr. Tom King] could be inserted to clarify "that person" in the

original words, or the word [diode] could be inserted to replace the word “it” if the reader

would otherwise not know what “it” referred to. Similarly, to achieve a grammatical fit

with the rest of the sentence, a present tense could be altered to a past tense, as in the

example below. Again, as with omissions using ellipses, any changes you make must

remain grammatical and must not distort the sense of the original words.

Compare the short quotation below (showing both ellipses and brackets) with the full

quoted passage above.

The ellipses here indicate that original wording

has been omitted. Check the long quotation

above to find out what has been left out. Note

how the sentence is still grammatical and still

makes sense even without the missing words.

Academic & Professional Communication T132 25

Thomas Gentry (2012), a leading campaigner in the USA for healthier food, said that it had

become obvious "to [his] organization [the American Heart Association] . . . that the

consumer [would] only be able to heed the call for lower consumption of fat, salt and

calories when food producers clearly label[ed] their products" (p. 136).

While accuracy and grammaticality are important, it is also important not to overdo the

omissions, insertions and alterations. The quotation above, for example, comes very close

to having too many changes to the original wording. The quotation is difficult to read.

When excessive changes like these produce an awkward quotation, think of other ways to

convey the idea in your writing, especially the use of paraphrase.

Other changes

Finally, there are two other changes that a writer is allowed to make to the original

wording.

First, using italics, it is possible to add your own emphasis to a word or phrase in the

quotation in order to draw its importance to the attention of your reader. In this case,

italicize the word or phrase you want to highlight and place [emphasis added] after it:

A spokesman for the oil company played down the environmental effects of the spill, but

marine biologist, Martin O’Connell (2011), asserted that “the impact on the Gulf food chain

[would] be felt for a decade at least [emphasis added]” (“Dead Zone,” para. 4).

Second, you will occasionally encounter writing—especially on Internet web sites—

which has grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. If you want to quote text that contains

such errors, and if you feel the mistake could confuse the reader, you can insert the Latin

word sic italicized and in square brackets [sic] immediately after the error. (The word sic

means “thus” or “so.”) This shows the reader that the error is in the original text and is

therefore not your mistake.

The production problem was described as a “miner [sic] setback” that would not delay the

project (Jones, 2012, p. 3).

Exercise 1 Inserting [sic] Insert the word [sic] at the appropriate place in the sentences below.

1. Stevens (2012) described his position as a “matter of principal” (p. 11) and said he

would not change his mind.

2. In his final report on staff morale, Smith (2011) concluded that “the company’s most

serious personal problems” (p. 15) all involved employee motivation.

3. Petromin’s latest oil discovery was described as “the biggest dessert find in a

generation” by the head of petroleum research (Al-Ali, 2009, para. 3).

4. According to the report, the economic crisis would have “absolutely no affect” on the

company’s ability to invest in its future development (“The Future of,” 2012, p. 8).

Academic & Professional Communication T132 26

Exercise 2 Identifying weak quotations Study the original wording in the box below; then evaluate the correctness

of the quotations that follow. Which one is correct?

Next, read Unit 1d: Drafting, revising, editing; the model report

ORIGINAL TEXT

Siberia is the fuel bunker of the Soviet Union. With almost three-quarters of that

country's known energy resources, it probably accounts for half the world's

accessible coal reserves, while its forests represent one fifth of the world's

lumber. And just two of its 50,000 rivers, the Yenisei and the Lena, have greater

energy potential than all the rivers of the US combined.

Quotation 1:

To give the reader an idea of the vast latent power of the rivers Yenisei and

Lena, they are estimated "to have an energy potential greater than all the rivers

in the United States combined."

Quotation 2:

There can be no doubt that Siberia has enormous energy-producing potential.

According to The World Economic Atlas, for example, "its 50,000 rivers . . .

have greater energy potential than all the rivers of the US combined."

Quotation 3:

With about 50% of the world's accessible coal reserves and hydroelectric

potential far vaster than the USA's, it is hardly surprising that Siberia is known

as the "fuel bunker of the Soviet Union."

Quotation 4:

It has been reliably estimated that Siberia has "almost three-quarters of [the

Soviet Union's] known energy resources, it probably accounts for half of the

world's accessible coal reserves."