Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Course Links: Highlights – May 2011


The three websites listed in the screenshot above are about halfway down the Course Links list in the sidebar of the Writing Studio Blog. There are links to lead you directly to those websites in the sidebar (not in the screenshot in this post).

Citation Maker

The first link, Citation Maker, has been in the link list for a year or more. It points to a tool for generating reference citations that you can use to produce APA-style references for your book review (BR) posts. Please note that rough reference citations that you produce with Citation Maker are fine for now.

However, when you transfer those citations to your BR posts, I urge you to modify the APA-style. Please type out authors' full names: Family, Given. Then readers of your book reviews can see that you've got the right names, in the right order for reference citations.

Purdue OWL

The Purdue OWL [Online Writing Lab] Search page, I added to the Course Links list today. That search page covers the site I browse when I need detailed information about how to write APA-style references. For example, yesterday I wanted to check the style for a periodical, rather than a book. My search took me here:
There is a similarly detailed explanation there for references to books:
Please note, once again, that for practical purposes in BRs you should spell out authors' full namesFamily, Given. Use a modified APA-style, so we all can see that your citations of authors' names are accurate.

Phras.in BETA

Phras.in BETA is an easy tool to use when you're wondering about the wording of something you're writing or revising, after you've checked the spelling. Just paste or type in a phrase, and Phras.in displays the number of Google hits it gets. "Low figures mean ... that very few people ever phrased ... [it] that way, thus it was probably incorrect" (Phras.in, Why, 2011.05.10). 

Phras.in BETA will also list numerous contexts in which the phrases you're checking appear. This function is especially useful when you get high figures for two or more different wordings. To find out how it works, please use the "Contextualize 'em" button to you try it out with these example phrases:
  • speak at
  • speak of
  • speak to
  • speak with
[400 words]

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