essay nearing achieved

[beccaelizabeth]

I fixed the introduction to the essay and moved the paragraphs around and trimmed bits out and now I think I have an essay shaped essay. If I'm correct in remembering that quotes over 40 words (a) get indented on their own (*checks* yep) and (b) don't count towards the word limit (*checks* ... can't find the rule... aha, finds from email in 2009, yes I remember right) then I'm even in the right number of words. More or less. Taking into account the thing where the teacher told us to go over.
... I do not wish to go over the word limit, but I do not see how to make it any shorter without taking an entire idea out, and he did said.

There's one paragraph I'm poking at because I'm not sure I'm doing the referencing thing right. I wish to get it right. At least once in my college career. I'm not quoting any one particular person or summarising one argument, I'm smushing four together and making them say what I think in my words. But I'm not the first person to think it. Do I need to put names on, when I can't point at one person and say I got that bit from them? We're doing Harvard referencing or I'd just put a number and make a note. Everyone is in the bibliography all neat and proper. That's probably sufficient. I hope.

I couldn't upload the file as it stands because things are color coded, but if I make it all be the same font, size, and color, and unhighlight everything, I think there's only one sentence that's nagging me for a rewrite still. Because it started life in an entirely different paragraph and is a bit abrupt plonked in the first paragraph on its own. I could just take it out but I don't want to.


... nobody cares about my essays, why I tell the whole internet?

well because I'm not panic any more, just blurry eyed and nearly ready.
and I only have to upload it on monday.

Comments

[sashajwolf]

... nobody cares about my essays, why I tell the whole internet?

Because some of us know stuff? :-) I used to teach at university level, and I'd have wanted my students to include the references in the sort of paragraph you describe. I'd do it something like this:

The slithy tove can be described as gimbling (see e.g. Carroll, 1872; Tenniel, 1865; Liddell, 1858) and only appears when conditions are brillig (Gilliam, 1977).

[beccaelizabeth]

thanks, this is usefuls


I think I need to add a sentence on the start, something like

The use and effect of the mouse metaphor has been widely debated [see x y z and a].

then I can go on to debate it too.

[sashajwolf]

That sounds good, yes :-)

[ceruleancat]

That's precisely what I was going to suggest. And yes, multi-reference is needed, not just from a teaching perspective. Think about it from the readers' pov. Paragraphs summarising multiple studies all meshed together are perfectly appropriate, but if the readers want to go into it more, they need to know which specific authors/approaches were meshed into this. So, one makes a general introductory statement with multiple references in parentheses (citing all if it's a manageable number, if more, leading ones and 'e.g.,/inter alia./among others' and/or one reference of an overview with 'and references therein').

[beccaelizabeth]

That's a good point.
I know only the two teachers are ever going to read it, but thinking that's not a good habit to get into.