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Resources for Graduate Students

Page history last edited by Lisa 9 years, 5 months ago

Northeast Center Office of Academic Support

www.necacademicsupport.pbworks.com

necacademicsupport@esc.edu

(518)783-6203 ext 5939 


Guide to Writing and Research Support for Graduate Students

 

As a student in one of the degree or certificate programs offered at SUNY Empire State College's Graduate School, you will take all of your courses online. Some degree programs also require face-to-face activities including regional, group meetings or attendance at occasional weekend residencies.  In all cases, writing and academic research will be central to your academic success in these programs.  The resources listed below are a starting point for you to acclimate to the demands of academic writing at the graduate level.


Use the the Table of Contents below for a quick access to the resources on this page or scroll through the page to view the resources. 

 



 

Getting Assistance

There are several options for academic writing and research assistance  available for graduate students:

 

Collegewide Workshops

The directors of academic support offer a series of free, online academic support workshops for students across the college, starting January 2014. All students are invited to log into any of these sessions. See the complete schedule for details about how and when to access them.

 

NEC Academic Support Workshops

The Northeast Center Office of Academic Support offers free workshops on most Wednesday evenings and some Friday mornings throughout the academic year and early summer.  These workshops occur concurrently online and onsite (in Latham and Saratoga Springs). More information about the workshops and the current schedule can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

http://necacademicsupport.pbworks.com/w/page/60274005/General%20Workshop%20Information 

 

Library Workshops

The SUNY Empire State College Library offers online workshops on library research skills. Click on the link below to find out more:

http://subjectguides.esc.edu/workshops

 

Smarthinking

Smarthinking is an online tutoring service provided to SUNY Empire State College students. Use the link below and follow the directions in order to set up your account.

http://www.esc.edu/smarthinking

 

Smarthinking provides asynchronous support for students and they also have limited live writing tutorials. All of these tutorials take place in a text-based online environment.  What might be of particular interest to graduate students is that you can use Smarthinking to get support in "Research & Documentation for help with citation of sources, documentation systems, proper attribution and documentation of source material, using evidence to strengthen claims/arguments, evaluating the quality of source materials and evidence, understanding plagiarism, and research methods and strategies."

 

Individual Consultation

Graduate students can contact the Northeast Center Director of Academic Support, Dr. Lisa D'Adamo-Weinstein (email: lisa.d'adamo-weinstein@esc.edu or phone: 518-783-6203 EXT. 5939) to get connected with a learning coach for writing support. Please mention that you are a graduate student when you contact Lisa.

 

We will work with graduate students at all stages of the writing process. We do not provide a proofreading service. We help students develop productive writing habits and revision strategies and point you to appropriate online resources as needed.

 

During weekday hours, we will work with graduate students in collaborative consultations both online and face-to-face. Face-to-face support through the Northeast Center Office of Academic Support is only available in Latham, NY and Saratoga Springs, NY. We might be able to connect graduate students at other locations in New York State, but for graduate students at locations outside of the Capital District, we will work over the phone and through webconferencing software.

 

You can also reach out to other Directors of Academic Support at the College to see if they have resources available to youa t their location. Click this link to find out who to contact near you - http://www.esc.edu/learning-support/directors-academic-support/ 

 

 


SUNY Empire State College Online Resources

 

               SUNY Empire State College's Online Library

                    http://www.esc.edu/library/ 

 

              Doing Graduate-Level Library Research

https://techinfo.esc.edu/empire_pdf/doingGradResearch2006.pdf#search=graduate 

 

     Citing Sources

http://subjectguides.esc.edu/citing 

 

               Academic Writing

http://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/academic-writing/

 

     Research Writing

http://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/research-writing

 

     How to Write an Annotated Bibliography (with video)

http://subjectguides.esc.edu/annotatedbib


 

Additional Resources

 

Planning

TIME MANAGEMENT NINJAS

http://timemanagementninja.com/2013/03/10-simple-rules-for-choosing-your-productivity-tools/

 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

http://guides.main.library.emory.edu/content.php?pid=376220&sid=3154289

 

Strategies

MIND MAPPING

http://guides.main.library.emory.edu/content.php?pid=376220&sid=3143382

 

Mindmapping for Reading Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvnbKEHOQIY

     

 

WRITE, EDIT, PUBLISH

http://guides.main.library.emory.edu/content.php?pid=376220&sid=3087264

 

Working with Quotations/Citing Sources

 

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Research and Citation Webpage

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/ 

 

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's Writing Center

Online Handout to Using Quotations Effectively in Your Papers

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/quotations/ 

 

Why We Cite

http://www2.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/ 

 

Overview of resources for Graduate Students

http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/Writing_Resources/Index.html

 

 

 

Wide Variety of Links and Resources for Graduate Students

 

Mount Mercy University's Graduate Student Writing and Research Site

http://www.mtmercy.edu/graduate-students-research-and-writing ****** Highly Recommended Resource *****

          Includes links to tips and scholarly articles on writing and research - Guides and Discussions of Scholarly Writing & Specialized Writing: The Literature Review, Annotated Bibliographies

                    Includes time management and succeeding in graduate school links

 

University of Maryland's Graduate School's Writing Resources for Graduate Students

http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/Writing_Resources/Index.html (overview page)

 

http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/Writing_Resources/By%20Field.html (Resources by discipline)

 

Claremont Graduate University 

http://www.cgu.edu/pages/9142.asp

Downloadable Resources Including:

      • Writing Conference Papers
      • Grammar and Style
      • Writing Process
      • Writing specific kinds of papers
      • Working with sources

l

Writing Annotated Bibliographies- http://www.cgu.edu/pages/836.asp

          Writing Business Papers (including case studies) - http://www.cgu.edu/pages/833.asp

 

Graduate Writing at Yale

http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/writing/

 

 

Downloadable Presentation

Academic Writing for Graduate Students

http://www.umbc.edu/studentlife/orgs/siam/docs/SonjaTWMath2009.ppt

 

Academic Writing for Grad Student Presentation

http://www.umbc.edu/studentlife/orgs/siam/docs/SonjaTWMath2009.ppt

 

 

 

Teaching Writing to Grad Students

http://humansciences.okstate.edu/HES6993_102/documents/Harris.pdf

 

 

 


Resources from October 2013 Residency

 

Reading as a Graduate Student

 

Index of Writing Templates

http://ohiouswc.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/ire_templatessimple1.pdf

 

They Say/I Say - Writing Template

https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/43766/wiki/they-say-i-say

 

Link to the book

http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/2298/708991/they_say_-_I_say.pdf

 

Book Review Sample

http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/the-hourglass-society/?print=1&fulltext=1 

 

Princeton Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism/

 

Writing Tips fo MALS Students

By Dr. Anastasia Pratt

1)     Use your first paragraph wisely:

In this first paragraph, you should explain your purpose and offer your main point (thesis).  You do not need to respond directly to the prompt, at least not in the sense that you restate a question, but you do need to offer your audience a sense of what will follow.  Thus, a first paragraph that says

A common theme in American literature is an ideal that has latched itself onto the American psyche and doesn’t seem to be letting go soon. From the poorest urban neighborhoods to the richest aristocracies, Americans are obsessed with our interpretation of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, the American Dream. The definition of this elusive term changes as often as the years, and its values are never immune to criticism. Yet two themes seem to consistently emerge: material comfort and family life. Throughout the 20th century, writers and artists have criticized Americans for turning the American Dream, which is, at its roots, a purposeful model for building and maintaining society, into a greed-driven, power-hungry thirst that creates unequal social classes and immoral standards of living. Two bodies of work, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and All My Sons by Arthur Miller, are such examples. Each offers its own version of the American Dream, contains characters who symbolize the average American, and illustrate the corruption of the very dream for which those characters stand.

 

is less effective than one that says

 

American literature often grapples with the American Dream, an elusive concept in which “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” comes under attack.  Both The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and All My Sons, by Arthur Miller, question that American Dream, at its roots a purposeful model for building and maintain society.   Rather than a useful vision of material comfort and family life, the two works illustrate a greed-driven, power-hungry thirst that creates unequal social classes and immoral standards of living. 

 

 

2)     Choose your tense with care:

Works of literature may always be discussed in the present tense because they live on into the future.  For that reason, I can say, “In Great Expectations, Dickens writes…”  However, I cannot write, “Great Expectations was first serialized in 1860 and 1861.  Its publication is historic in that the work is considered sophisticated.” 

 

If most of what you’re writing about takes place in the past, use the past tense; if most of what you’re writing about takes place in the present, use the present tense.  Try not to mix the two.

 

3)     Avoid the second person:

“You” and “your” serve to divide the author and audience.  Whenever possible, stick with the first person (I/we) or the third (he/she/it/one/they). 

 

4)     Offer pointed examples:

Choose examples that clearly illustrate your point.  Whether a quote, a paraphrased rendering of a work, or a statistic, your evidence must speak to the argument you have stated at the beginning of your paper.  Even if the applicability seems abundantly obvious, reiterate the relationship between the evidence and your argument.  Never assume that your audience will understand without your help.

 

In some ways, I’m asking you to do what Denzel Washington’s character in the movie Philadelphia asked witnesses to do, “Explain it to me like I’m a five year old.”  When you feel you’ve explained clearly enough that child would understand, you probably have managed to be clear enough.

 

5)     Aim for clear and concise prose:

Contrary to common opinion, writing more doesn’t always equal writing better.  In fact, a well-written piece is one that makes its point in as few words as possible.  Rather than using flowery language or a multitude of examples, choose the most powerful words and examples possible.  Your audience will appreciate your clarity and the forcefulness of your argument.

 

6)     Find your own style:

As graduate students, you are free of the 5-paragraph essay form.  Use quotes from outside the assigned readings; be personal; focus on a seemingly miniscule point instead of reiterating an entire argument.  These papers belong to YOU; they should show YOUR voice. 

 


- since October 10, 2013

  (Short Link to the page - http://bit.ly/ESCGradWritingResources)

 

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