The Golden Gate University OWL - General Info

GGU at http://sfo-gweb.ggu.edu/ and OWL (On-line Writing Lab)
Buy A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker (5th edition, softback, 2002).	The Diana Hacker site: http://www.dianahacker.com/
English grammar books.	New books read.
Books On How to Write Poetry.	Disclaimer

OWL tutors:

• Offer online writing assistance to GGU students, via email.
• Don't 'correct' errors or edit papers, which is the student's responsibility.
• Provide feedback and point to specific problems in a student's work, guiding students through the writing process.
• Allot 30 minutes per submission (the same as a student receives at the S.F. Writing Center).

OWL students should:

• Limit submissions to 1,000 words (3-4 pages).
• Fill out a submission form before sending work to OWL.
• Indicate areas you'd like your OWL tutor to focus on: Grammar and mechanics? Organization and development? Documentation and research?
• More about Golden Gate University

OWL advice:

1. Ways to improve your submission
2. The most common problems
3. Other grammar
4. Essay structure
5. When good spelling goes bad

While you can make a lot of progress with ideosyncratic spelling, we don't recommend it. Even though you can just read the following sentence straight through without really thinking about it.

Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.

Ways to improve your submission

1. Read it aloud to yourself. Screenplay writers do this, as do broadcasters. Aim to find at least one improvement per 100 words.
2. Cut every word, phrase, and sentence that is repetitive or unneeded.
3. Add full stops (periods). Your sentences should average no more than 12 words, to enhance comprehensibility and to reduce the charms of complex grammar.
4. Use specific nouns and verbs. Replace adjective-noun pairs with stronger nouns. Replace adverb-verb pairs with stronger verbs.
5. Your reader is not a mind reader, just a print reader. Be aware of what the reader will not know. Define your terms.
6. Remove negatives (no, not), rewriting so you express your idea positively.
7. Subject-predicate sentences are clearest and minimize the reader's puzzled frustration.

1. Articles (a, an, the): articles = determiners.
2. Documentation. Use the APA documentation style as at: apa Examples.
   For APA documentation general guidelines, see APA "Guide for Writing Research Papers."
   For help with documenting Internet sources, see "Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources".
3. Parallel Structures: parallelism.
4. Pronoun must agree in number and gender with the noun it references.
5. Verb must agree with the subject it references.
6. Multiple verbs in the same paragraph should have the same tense (unless you really know what you are doing with tenses).

1. Information on writing at the GGU OWL.

2. Adjectives: adjectives.

3. Adverbs: adverbs.

4. Apostrophes.

5. Conjunctions (Coordinating, Subordinating, Correlative, 'Omitting that'): conjunctions.

6. Possessives

7. Pronoun cases (use of "I" versus "me"): http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cases.htm.

8. Punctuation:
   • Commas (when to use and NOT to use): commas.
   • Comma splices (avoid): runons. or http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/indep_clauses.htm.
   • Semicolons: semicolon.

9. Sentences:
   • Avoid awkward phrasing:
     (1) read the sentence aloud; check it has: SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT;
     (2) see: grammar diagrams
   • Avoid fragments: fragments.
   • Avoid run-on sentences: run-ons.

10. Verbs:
    • Active versus Passive voice: active/passive
    • Verb forms: verbs and verb forms
    • Gerunds ('-ing' form) and infinitives: gerunds and infinitives
    • Subject-verb agreement: agreement.
    • Verbs with helper (or auxiliary) verbs: auxiliary verb.
    • Verb tenses: commnet.edu Verb tenses and/or purdue.edu Verb tenses.

Essay structure

For Help with:

• Introductions: intros.
• Introductions and Conclusions: powa thesis and scroll down to Intro's and Concl's.
• Thesis statement: review
  (1) 'Characteristics of an effective thesis' (Hacker, p. 15);
  (2) http://www.powa.org/thesis/index.html and scroll down to "Revising Your Thesis."
• Transitions: transitions
• Revising: powa revise. and http://www.powa.org/edit/index.html.
  Also general powa revise and general powa edit.
• Sentence Variety: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sentences.htm.

Reminder to all OWL students: plagiarism is not tolerated at GGU. Wikipedia defines plagiarism as "a form of academic dishonesty, the unacknowledged use of another person's idea(s), information, language or writing. ... the passing off of another person's work as one's own, whether deliberate or accidental." To avoid a charge of plagiarism, you must:

1. Give citation and reference for every quotation and every borrowed idea.
2. Put quotation marks around any language that you copy verbatim.
3. Use your own words and style when you summarize or paraphrase.

For APA format for your references and citations, see this URL: http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm

For APA format of Internet reference, see "Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources" at http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/

Here are some highlights to apply to APA format of References:

1. Invert author names (family name precedes given name).
2. Use only INITIALS instead of first names.
3. When there are two or more authors, separate the final two authors by ", &" not ", and."
4. The year of publication should be IN PARENTHESES immediately after the author names.
5. If a month is to be specified, the month should be after the year, such as: (2005, April).
6. Remember to put a period after the closing parenthesis on the publication date.
7. The title of an article is in regular type. Do, however, put the title of a book in italics.
8. Both a journal and its volume are italicized; omit 'Vol.'
9. Use "pp." (instead of "p.") when multiple pages are specified. Always put a space after that abbreviation and before the page number(s).
10. Remember to end each reference with a period.

About Golden Gate University

Golden Gate University (GGU):

• Located (main campus) in San Francisco; regional sites in Seattle and throughout California (San Jose, Sacramento, Walnut Creek, Monterey Bay, and Los Angeles).
• Founded in 1901 in San Francisco.
• California's fifth largest private university.
• Offers undergraduate and graduate programs in business and management, information technology, taxation, and law.
• Has a School of Taxation ranked number two in the USA.
• Developed Saturday MBA programs and an executive MBA program for experienced executives, managers, and entrepreneurs.
• Accredited degree programs can also be taken through Golden Gate's CyberCampus, which permits students to work and study on their own schedules using the Internet.
• On the web: GGU at http://sfo-gweb.ggu.edu/.

Lastly, When Good Spelling goes bad.

	Check disclaimer or log of books read or English grammar books.
Buy A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker (5th edition, softback, 2002).	"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year." [John Foster Dulles]

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