Business Communication and

Reporting Techniques

2 - Academic Writing Rewind (1)

David Zaruk
0475 61 51 01
david.zaruk@odisee.be
Review exercises

Asking Questions
Getting information
Referencing
Summarising
Proofreading
Asking Questions

Learn how to assess, explore, brainstorm

Learn that this is essential for research
Learn that your biases are not intellectual strengths
Closed or open
Closed-ended questions seek only a yes or no answer:
“Are you a Belgian?”
Narrow, does not develop ideas, not for brainstorming
Open-ended questions open up ideas
Why, what, how, as questions, seek more than just
affirmation
Be open
Chat bar: Time to groove
Students are in a COVID-19 prison – their future is bleak

Brainstorm this statement – asking open questions

Light the chat-bar up
 Gathering and processing
When you gather information, keep asking
yourself questions –what, what else, who, who
else, what, so what, how, how come, where,
where else, why, why not, when?
Find a way to collect and structure information
Process it according to importance
Let ideas dance with each other, find friends and
learn from each other
What constitutes a
resource?
Is a newspaper article a legitimate source?
What about Wikipedia?
These are sources to find sources (doors, but not rooms)
Websites contain information but you need to ask if this
page is agenda driven
What is wrong with agendas? We all have them
Chat-bar time
Give me examples of agendas
Do you have an agenda?
Why is having an agenda wrong?
Good sources include:
Share your views in the chat-bar ->
Books from major publications
Peer-reviewed articles
Summary articles, reviews, of respected resource
materials
Interviews with well-known individuals
Less good sources include:
Share your views in the chat-bar ->
Tweets
Web articles from biased organisations
Campaign materials (with PR managers)
Articles with no references
Articles that reference the Daily Mail
The credibility sniff
How do I know my references are legitimate?
Before, libraries validated my resources
Now how do I know that Google sent me to the right
sources. Re-ask Google with different vocabulary
Just like a farmer’s market, we need to give our resource
materials a sniff.
Check who wrote it (Google the name), who published
it, who referenced it
Before the break
The Model UN
Is this organisation credible?
How do you know?

Semester 2 – we’ll interview and conduct surveys to

know if something is credible
Break

Is this an agenda?
Are they credible?
About your Groups
Do you have one?
Have you been given access?
Is your Group Captain here?
Did your captain send me a message (not via chatbar)?
What are House Points?
What is the point?
 The problems of plagiarism
 It is not like downloading music
 Academic integrity is important
 What is integrity?
 Are you cheating me or cheating yourself?
 How to learn to paraphrase

https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html
 Avoid plagiarism creep
 Don’t be lazy – can be interpreted as cheating
 Get away from copy-pasting materials
 Try to read, close window and rewrite (still source) – while
doing that, think on your own and add views (don’t just be a
follower … sheep!)
 Find the right time to write (multi-tasking clouds the brain –
turn off the other noise)
 What needs sourcing?
 Remarkable quotes from individuals, VIPs
 Numbers, dates, data
 Events recording in time

 Sourcing (referencing) is not a bad thing – on the contrary, you

are showing me you had done some research. Demonstrative!
Chat bar
What is the best way to paraphrase?
Can I use a paraphrasing app, Word or Google?
Are there times when I am using too many citations?
What is the difference between footnote, endnote
and in text citation? When do I use them?
Do I need to use full APA citations in footnotes?
When to use a quote?
When information is significant and well-written. Can
use “...” within quotation marks to shorten text
Quote needs to be introduced with a signal
If more than three lines, indent in block text
After quote, need to analyse the significance
How to paraphrase
Identify what is important, what is not
To paraphrase is to take a key message from text and put it in
bullet point form
DO NOT just trim some words or change vocabulary
Try to take ownership of information
Use your language (mould it into something you can understand) –
change the words
Add value to the information – find an example to help understand
https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/quotingsources/
Which style to reference?
See reference document:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/u
sing_research/citation_style_chart.html
for a clear breakdown of all referencing styles
APA is expected at Odisee
Best practices
Provide a proper full Bibliography
IT IS NOT CALLED REFERENCES OR SOURCES … Pulease!!!
Include all sources, not just those you referenced
Use key author name in the text (with page # if quoted)
with parentheses
Put parentheses next to the referenced material (not at the
end of paragraph or text)
Do this even if you allude to the author in your writing
 How to proof-read
 Little things make big differences
 Pay attention to the spell-check
 Give it time – not a quick scan but a deep read
 Ask yourself: Is this clear?
 Try to shorten text – often we are too wordy
 Get a friend to swap proofreading
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Proofreading.html
Thank you
See you next week

David Zaruk
0475 61 51 01
david.zaruk@odisee.be