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Purdue OWL News for January 27, 2005
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The Purdue OWL Staff
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Jan 27, 2005 08:28 PST
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The Purdue OWL News
January 27, 2004
Welcome to the first edition of Purdue OWL News for 2005!
The Purdue OWL News is an online newsletter about happenings in the
Purdue University Writing Lab and the Purdue University Online Writing
Lab (OWL). You can visit our website at
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit
<http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/>. To unsubscribe
from the newsletter, click on the link at the bottom of this email.
Writing Question of the Week
I'm putting the finishing touches on a project in which I have done
research and conducted surveys and then designed a summer reading
program for a local elementary school. How do I site the handouts that
I was given by the teachers and librarians that I interview which I then
used to help me "brainstorm" my own program? The handouts have been
produced by those teachers and do not give credit to any other source.
--Fran
Answer
I can't find any category in either the MLA or APA manual that would
accurately describe what you have. So here is my commonsense
recommendation:
If the teachers you talked to posted their handouts to their course
websites, then you just cite those sites. If those handouts have not
been published in any form, not even as internal documents circulating
within the schools, then you may cite them as results of your personal
interviews with those teachers.
--Jenny, OWL Tutor
The OWL Help Nest
Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish
to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to
include your name and/or your email address when we publish your
response. The following week, we'll publish the best information and
advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a question for our
readers, please send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
Last Semester's Final Question
Hi,
In the school where I am presently teaching, there are the old ones and
the new breed. When we review students with pronouns, we always debate
as to what gender to use if the there is a common-gender pronoun.
For example:
The student is expected to finish (his, her, his or her).
Some teachers who call themselves purists say they prefer to use the
masculine gender because that's what they are comfortable with.
However, I prefer to use the his or her since I also would like to use
what has been posted as "new rule" in the net. I have also read from a
resource that modern writers prefer to use his or her to avoid sexism.
However, isn't it cumbersome to be using his or her in the paragraph
everytime a common-gender noun is mentioned? Help me...
(Anonymous)
Answers:
This question generated a huge volume of replies. We are sending along
three representative answers:
I may be missing something, but I have yet to find a current handbook
that recommends using the masculine to apply to either gender It's a
bad idea (not linguistic purism) to teach students to use a practice not
recommended (indeed, recommended against) by style handbooks,
professional associations (like APA and MLA), and most college
professors.
Some ways to avoid the cumbersome "his or her" repetitions include using
the plural whenever possible and alternating "his" and "her" as pronouns
applicable to both genders.
--Linda Bergmann, Director of the Purdue University Writing Lab
Sone style guides require techniques such as using his one time and her
the following time. I personally defer to the following rule. If I am
discussing a his or her or a her or his issue, it can usually be viewed
as a plural situation. Otherwise, I would probably know the gender of
the targeted person. Thus, the sentence becomes a requirement for
numerous students.
"The students are expected to finish their ________. "
This is always politically correct. That is, this is correct until
someone suggests that the term students is demeaning. At that point, I
will revert to my old standby
"These individuals (persons, folks) are expected to finish their
______."
It works for me.
--Betty Nye Lendway
Everyone should think about the way they use pronouns in common-gender
situations, because words can be symbols, and as symbols are powerful
things which, when used thoughtlessly, as with the generic 'he' usage,
can lead to discrimination, such as the persona non grata role assigned
to the female. So what are the various options available, and being
used?
1.the 'random' option - using 'he' or 'she' as it takes the author's
fancy, an option that I consider confusing for readers.
2.the constant use of 'he or she' which appears cumbersome - clumsy,
uneconomical, plus the pedantic necessity then to balance 'he or she'
with 'she or he' so as not to appear to favouring one gender over the
other
3.'new' neutral words such as 'shim' and 'sher' - they appear as
unacceptable as the poet Coleridge's whimsical solution of using 'it'
4.the use of the singular 'they' and 'their' which is being adopted
more universally these days
Of the various options, I prefer the last as being part of traditional
established English usage from the King James Bible to Shakespeare to
Austen to Orwell.
The history of the singular 'their' construction, the prejudice against
its use in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the compelling reasons for
reinstating its usage, is given at the following site:
'Singular "their" in Jane Austen and elsewhere: Anti-pedantry page',
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html
--Valli Rao
Next Week's Question
My question is when they have to cite in text their source, MLA seems
to say that all you have to do is cite the author or article, but what
happens if a student takes a quote from a 7 page printout wouldn't it
be helpful for the student to cite the section or paragraph where the
quote is located? MLA says it is not necessary unless at the end of
the printout it says 135 sections or paragraphs.
However,the difficulty is that few of the online articles say how many
sections or paragraphs they have.
So my question is the following: how do students show what section of
the printout they paraphrase or quoted from, so when you check their
source to see if they plagerize, you have to read through reams of
paper to locate their source. Seems unrealistic not to note in text
the section it came from. is this acceptable if the number of sections
is not written at end of article.
- a frantic and busy teacher
What's Happening on OWL
OWL Eye on...How would you organize the OWL?
A major part of our ongoing redesign involves organizing the materials
on OWL so they are much easier to find. If you have any suggestions
regarding organization and navigation, please send them along to Karl at
webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
What's Happening in the Writing Lab
OWL Eye on...the Updated Website!
Karl Stoley, webmaster of the Purdue OWL, has been hard at work
redesigning and scripting the writing lab's website. Please go visit it
at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/writinglab/ Soon the OWL and Writing
Lab Newsletter sites will undergo similar revisions.
OWL Eye on...Spring Schedule
The Writing Lab at Purdue University will be available during its
regular hours. It offers one-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class
workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and a multitude of other
Writing Lab resources every weekday.
Spring 2005 Writing Lab Hours:
Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
ESL Conversation Groups: M 1:30-2:30, Tu/Th: 4:30-5:30, W: 11:00-noon,
F: 11:30-12:30
OWL Eye on....Spring Semester In-Lab Workshops
You can get a list of our In-Lab Workshops here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/writinglab/topic/inlabworkshops
Upcoming workshops:
ESL Orientation - Tuesday Feb. 1st 2:30PM
Using THOR - Tuesday Feb. 8th 2:30PM
Research and the Internet - Tuesday Feb. 15th 2:30PM
Peer Review - Tuesday Feb. 22nd 2:30PM
Final Thoughts
Soon this newsletter will be changing its form. We'll be abandoning the
Topica list and moving all the subscribers to our updated OWL News
webspace (coming soon as part of our OWL redesign). You'll still be
able to receive regular OWL News, but it will be changed slightly in its
format. There will be no advertising. Most of the major changes will
be invisible.
Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator,
Chris Berry, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster,
Karl Stolley, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Chris and Karl take
turns writing the newsletter.)
If you received this newsletter as a forward and would like to get your
own subscription, visit
http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/ to subscribe.
This newsletter is copyright (C) 2005 the Purdue University Writing Lab
and Purdue University. Purdue's OWL is located at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu.
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