FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg Department Geschichte Professur für Alte Geschichte

FAU Erlangen-NürnbergDepartment GeschichteProfessur für Alte Geschichte

Academic Writing


Revision:What makes a good academic paper?

verifiable resultscomprehensiblemeaningful overall topicindependent achievement (giving your own analysis

and interpretation of sources and media)works with current research literature

Uses grammatically correct and stylistically appropriate language (e.g. no short forms such as “isn’t” or “don’t”)Is clear in terminology, structure and argumentationEvidence and sources support the main argumentEvidence and sources are verifiable



1.) The Structure of an Academic Paper 1.1 Criteria for a Good Structure and Outline

1.2 Functions and Contents of an Introduction1.3 The Structure of your Argumentation1.4 Your Conclusion


1.1 Criteria for a Good Structure and Outline of your Paper

restricted topicworking on a specific problemIt shows that the writer can handle and reflect

scientific problems It is NOT just a summary of what you have read but

includes critical consideration, review, evaluation and assessment


Your outline should be:

Clear Expressive Informative Complete Consistent


1.2 Functions and Contents of the introduction

- Defines the interest of the paper (Which issues are you looking at? What is it you want to find out?)

- Makes clear why your topic is important (Why is it worth considering?)

- States your main thesis (What do you want to convey to your readers?)

- Gives an overview of your methods and main sources

- Outlines the overall structure of your paper


Potential aspects to begin with (for example):

Relevance of your topic for public life

Cultural/Historical significance of your topic

Academic debate about your topic

Suitable quotation


1.3 The Structure of your Argumentation in the Main Body

An overview over recent research literature and scientific findings

A theoretical framework for the topic you work with

Chapters where you actually work with texts, theories, statistics,…and apply them to your topic


Revision: What you should do

•As far as possible, include primary sources (statistics, letters, diaries,…)

• Work with the latest research literature (magazine articles, research articles, monographs)

•Be critical not everything in print is beyond reproach!

•Use your own words as far as possible


•Only include information that you can prove

•Distinguish clearly between your ideas and the ideas of others

•Select your sources and arguments according to the interest of your paper


What you should avoid:

•Overlong quotes

•stringing together quotes

•generalizations, platitudes, stereotypes, subjective opinions that are not proven by the argumentation (do not include phrases such as “Personally, I think the text is boring” or “Americans love weapons”)

•Excessive use of metatext (“Now I will discuss…” etc. readers will be able to follow the structure of a good paper through the flow of argumentation without it being hinted explicitly)


1.4 Your Conclusion

•Should relate to your thesis stated in the introduction•Summarizes the results/ main points of your work•No new information must be added•What was the main insight of your work?•What problems did you encounter?•Are there any unresolved questions?•Which further work could your topic require?


I. How to use citations correctly


1. Essentials• If you copy another author’s passage or use an another author’s idea, you have to

name your source

• All citations must be relevant to your argument

• Do not include random citations

• Footnotes are used for explanatory notes and translations (not for reference)

• The full bibliographical entry is in your bibliography, in the text shortened

references are used


2. Direct citation• Correspond exactly to the original text

• Use quotation marks: “”

• Omissions marked as: […]

• Errors are not corrected, but followed by [sic]

• Foreign language citations must be reproduced in the original (translation in footnote)

• Citations longer than 3 lines:

• must be set apart from the rest of the text (without quotation marks)

• slightly indented

• single spaced

• smaller font size


2. Direct citation

o Author named in text: In his latest statements, J.R. Killjoy regretted “the never-ending Festschrift craze“ (120).

o Author named in reference: In his latest statements, he regretted “the never-ending Festschrift craze” (Killjoy 120).

o Author cited from indirect source: (Killjoy in Smartalleck 25)


2. Direct citation

o Citing two or more texts by the same author:

o(Killjoy 1995, 13).

o Citing two or more texts by the same author and with

the same year:

o(Iser 1988a, 123).


2. Direct citation

o Texts by two or three authors:All must be named

o Texts by more than three authors:Name the first author and use the

abbreviation et al.


2. Direct citation longer than 3 lines


3. Paraphrase of an author’s ideas

• Do not use quotation marks

• Clearly indicate where paraphrase begins and ends

• Use the following form: (cf. Bellamy 9)


IV. Exercises on compiling bibliographical entries & citations


Group I – Solutions:

KNIGHT, Stephen. “Enter the Detective: Early Patterns of Crime Fiction.” The Art of Murder. New Essays on Detective Fiction. Eds. H.Gustav KLAUS and Stephen KNIGHT. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 1998. 10-25.

RUSSELL, Sharon A.. “Mystery and Horror and the Problems of Adaptation in Angel Heart and Falling Angel.” It’s a Print! Detective Fiction from Page to Screen. Eds. William REYNOLDS and Elizabeth A. TREMBLEY. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994. 159-173.



MC CAW, Neil. Adapting Detective Fiction. Crime, Englishness and the TV Detectives. London and New York: Continuum, 2011.

PRIESTMAN, Martin. Crime Fiction from Poe to the Present. Plymouth: Northcote, 1998.

MUNT, Sally R. Murder by the Book? Feminism and the Crime Novel. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.

DUNNETT, Jane. “Crime and the Critics. On the Appraisal of Detective Novels in 1930s Italy.” The Modern Language Review 106 (2011): 745-764.



Direktes Zitat:

“In an unusual example of the increasing influence of one popular form on another, both novel and film combine cinematic and literary traditions in their exploration of the relationship between horror and mystery” (Russell 159).

Indirektes Zitat/Paraphrase (beispielhaft):

The international celebrity of Sherlock Holmes as a character in detective fiction was evident for example in 2006 when Google placed him as an icon on the anniversary of Arthur Conan Doyle’s death (cf. McCaw 19).


Group II – Solutions:

GLOVER, David. “The Thriller.” The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin PRIESTMAN. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 135-153.

THEOHARIS, Jeanne. “Alabama on Avalon.” The Black Power Movement. Rethinking the Civil Rights–Black Power Era. Ed. Peniel E. JOSEPH. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. 27-54.



ROUTLEY, Erik. The Puritan Pleasures of the Detective Story. A Personal Monograph. London: Gollancz, 1972.

HORSLEY, Lee. Twentieth -Century Crime Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

LEVAY, Matthew. “Remaining a Mystery. Gertrude Stein, Crime Fiction and Popular Modernism.” Journal of Modern Literature 36 (2013): 1-22.



Direktes Zitat:

According to David Glover, “the thriller is unusual in its reliance upon, or subordination to, the single-minded drive to deliver a starkly intense literary effect” (135).


A good example for the richness of ideas and creativeness of the early twentieth-century thriller would be Edgar Wallace, who was the most important author in that genre until his death in 1932 (cf. Glover 139).

FAU Erlangen-NürnbergDepartment GeschichteProfessur für Alte GeschichteGroup III – Solutions:

WILLIAMS, Rhonda Y. “Black Women, Urban Politics, and Engendering Black Power.” The Black Power Movement. Rethinking the Civil Rights–Black Power Era. Ed. Peniel E.

JOSEPH. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. 79-104.

POLLARD III, Alton B. “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: A Meditation.” The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture. Toward Bridging the Generational Divide. Ed. Emmett G. PRICE III. Lanham, Toronto and Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press, 2012. 3-14.


Group III – Solutions:

WORTHINGTON, Heather. Key Concenpts in Crime Fiction. London and New York: Macmillan, 2011.

GREGORIOU, Christina. Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction. London and New York: Macmillan, 2007.

WINKS, Robin W. ”American Detective Fiction.” American Studies International 19 (1980): 3-16.


Group III – Solutions:

Direktes Zitat:

According to Rhonda Williams, “an examination of their articulated motivations and practices not only provides a picture of 1960s’ struggles that often defy clear-cut categorizations, but also expands historical understandings of Black Power […]” (82).


Detective fiction, along with the thriller and the gothic novel, has taken the place of the cowboy novel as the most important genre of American popular literature (cf. Winks 3).


Group IV – Solutions:

HOWARD, Charles L. “Deep Calls to Deep: Beginning Explorations of the Dialogue between the Black Church and Hip Hop.” The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture. Toward Bridging the Generational Divide. Ed. Emmett G. PRICE III. Lanham, Toronto and Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press, 2012. 33-42.

VANSERTIMA, Ivan. “African Linguistic and Mythological Structures in the New World.” Black Life and Culture in the United States. Ed. Rhoda L. Goldstein. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971. 12-35.



COHEN, Cathy J. Democracy Remixed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

LANE, Anne J. “The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Afro-American.” Black Life and Culture in the United States. Ed. Rhoda L. GOLDSTEIN. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971. 131-152.

BROPHY, Brigid. “Detective Fiction: A Modern Myth of Violence?” The Hudson Review 18 (1965): 11-30.



Direktes Zitat:

As Brigid Brophy puts it, “the question mark is casting doubt on the violence, not the modernity or the myth […]” (11).


In ancient times, where originality and novelty were less important in literature than today, many works by different authors might have contained the subject of one single myth (cf. Brophy 11).


Group V – Solutions:

KINNEY, Esi Sylvia. “Africanisms in Music and Dance of the Americas.” Black Life and Culture in the United States. Ed. Rhoda L. GOLDSTEIN. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971. 49-63.

OGBAR, Jeffrey O. G. Black Power. Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.



LINCOLN, C. Eric/ MAMIYA, Lawrence H. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990.

SKINNER, Elliott P. African Americans and U.S. Policy toward Africa 1850-1924. In Defense of Black Nationality. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1992.

COHEN, Victor. “Progressive Nostalgia: The Post-War Crime Fiction of Paul William Ryan.” Journal of Narrative Theory 37 (2007): 375-399.



Direktes Zitat:

Following Victor Cohen, „at first glance this might seem a curiously anachronistic literary project” (375).


African Americans were discriminated against in all areas of public life and laws and customs on different levels made them outsiders (cf. Ogbar 11).


II. How to find literature and sources


Contents

1. Library for English (07EN) and American (07AM) Studies

2. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)

3. Jstore

4. MLA International Bibliography

5. Google Books/ Google Scholar

6. Wikipedia?

7. YouTube?


1. Library for English (07EN) and American (07AM) Studies

•Search literature in OPAC

•Look around


2. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)

•Finding books

•Interlibrary loan

•FAUdok

Find detailed instructions here: http://www.studon.uni-erlangen.de/studon/goto.php?target=pg_20335_370


3. Jstore

• Search for essays

• Only accessible with a university IP address

• Use a VPN tunnel to get access from your home

computers


4. MLA International Bibliography

• Most important bibliography for Literature,

Linguistics & Folkloristics

• Access via Uni Erlangen OPAC Databases

• Search for essays and books


5. Google Books/ Google Scholar

• Good for finding out whether a book or an essay is

useful to you


6. Wikipedia?

• What you can use it for:• To get a quick overview• German and English articles are usually pretty

good • Look at the literature cited


6. Wikipedia?

• Why you cannot use it as a reliable source:

• Author of the article is not mentioned

• Author of the article can be anyone

• Articles usually show just one point of view

• Literature cited in articles not sufficient

• Articles may contain wrong or controversial information, but

cite it as “truth”


6. Wikipedia?

• conclusion:

• Use it for general overview and check the literature cited

• Do not include information from Wikipedia in your papers

• Do not cite Wikipedia as a source

• If you find something interesting in Wikipedia, check the literature and cite that as

your source instead


7. YouTube?

• Be careful

• Videos can be deleted

• Make sure the author(s) of the video(s) are reliable


III. Good papers vs. bad papers


Introdution:• “I’ve always really like basketball. And since a lot of Blacks play this sport, I find it really

important to talk about African Americans.” Relevance?

• “Blacks” Terminology: African Americans

• “As you all may know” Empty phrase

• “[…] the first African slaves arrived in the present-day United States as part of the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, founded by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526.”

Relevance?; Source?

• “Today Blacks are quite accepted” What does that mean?; Source

• I think this is a great success Personal opinion not important in an academic paper


Introduction:• “So now let’s discuss […]” Style

• Formal Aspects Blocksatz

No random Images

Source?


Introduction:• What is missing?• Everything!

• Topic (Civil Rights/ M. L. King) only vaguely stated

• Does not make clear why the topic is important• Main Thesis or main Question• Overview of methods and main sources• Structure of the paper• results


Title Page:• “Is this a scary horror story or is the female protagonist just crazy?” No questions in Titles


Contents:• No Introduction• No Conclusion• “Wahrheitsgemäße Erklärung” should not be listed• No Pages


Structure of the paper:1. Biography of the AuthorRelevance?

2. Summary of the storyRelevance?

3. What I really liked irrelevant

4. What I didn’t like so muchIrrelevant


Structure of the paper:5. Is the woman just crazy?

Arguments forStrong argumentsWeak arguments

Arguments againstStrong argumentsweak arguments

Not enoughSub-chapters not numberedStrong-weak division pointless


Structure of the paper:6. Personal opinion Irrelevant

7. What should the Author have done better Irrelevant


Bibliography:1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_AmericanName of editor?Title of the article?Date of access?hyperlinksWikipedia

2.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/67474/African-AmericansName of editor?Title of the article?Date of access?hyperlinks


Bibliography:3. Abernathy, Ralph, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography, Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-016192-2Not MLA styleISBN

4. Branch, Taylor, At Canaan's Edge: America In the King Years, 1965–1968, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-85712-XNot MLA styleISBN


Bibliography:5. I Have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington, August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.Primary and secondary sources need to be separatedWhat version of the speech is this?

TV broadcast?Transcription?Where did you find it?


A good introduction- What does it contain?

-Suitable quotation(s) at the beginning with transition to the topic of the paper

-Main thesis/purpose of the paper (The paper shows that vocabulary becomes more and more crucial to the teaching and learning of a foreign language, while the focus on

grammar decreases.)

-Importance of the topic (recent developments, implications for teaching etc.)


-Overview of methods and main sources

Method: examining the role of vocabulary for English Language teaching today; thinking about potential problems due to the wrong choice of words implications for teaching and curricula with focus on 5th grade, ‘Gymnasium’

Main Sources: curricula, course books for 5th grade

Outline of the overall structure of the paper


Title Page

Includes all important information

Meaningful and expressive title (not too long, tells the reader what the paper will do)


Structure and Table of Contents

- Numbered headings and subheadings, including introduction and conclusion, appendix and bibliography

- Page numbers (consistent)- „Wahrheitsgemäße Erklärung“ is not included - Meaningful subdivision of topics


Bibliography

- Distinguishes between primary and secondary sources

- Sticks to formal (MLA) conventions for each of the publication types (internet, articles in anthology, monographs)

- Consistent- Alphabetical order

Documents

FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg Department Geschichte Professur für Alte Geschichte