Content
Academic Conventions
Language
Structure
Pick & Mix
100

What is source synthesis?

Source synthesis is the process of combining related evidence from different sources (e.g., by looking for connections between them) to form an academic opinion.

100

Academic writers use sources for different purposes. Bizup (2008) classifies them as follows: B-E-A-M. What does this stand for?

Background, Exhibit, Argument, Method

100

When Zobel (2014, p.79) says "write for everyone", what he means is ...

... avoid contextual references that might confuse your reader (e.g., slang, analogies, historical events, unnecessary jargon)

100

In general, what section goes at the very end of any piece of academic writing?

References

100

What are the four stages in the process of academic writing?

Topic --> Sources --> Opinion --> Writing

200

Explain what the columns and rows in a research matrix are for.

columns = sources

rows = connections

200

Write an author-year citation for this article.

Title: Generative AI, generating precariousness for workers? Volume: 39. Pages: 2601-2602. Year: 2024. Author: Aida Ponce Del Castillo

Ponce Del Castillo (2024) 

(Ponce Del Castillo, 2024)

200

What is academic voice?

Academic voice is the unique way that you (personally) choose to apply and subvert the conventions of academic writing style.

200

Does this sentence use reference, substitution or ellipsis

"If you haven't already written your conclusion, please do so now."

substitution: "write your conclusion" --> "do so"

200

Name one thing AI can do that improves both the quality of your written work (in the short term) and your skills as an academic writer (in the long term).

Suggest synonyms (or more concise/formal/etc. alternatives) for specific words and short phrases.

Generate practice exercises for conventions of academic writing style.

Check a paragraph for spelling and punctuation errors.

Check a paragraph for opportunities to improve (without making the changes for you).

Write your citations and references.

300

Why can't you rely on AI to think of examples for your academic writing?

AI tends to "hallucinate" (= make up things that never happened). Without a credible source, how do you know your example is real?

300

The CRAAP test is used to check source credibility. Explain what each letter in "CRAAP" stands for.

Current: recent enough for topic and discipline

Relevant: to topic and discipline

Authoritative: written by expert on topic or discipline 

Accurate: peer-reviewed, cited and referenced 

Purpose: why was it written - marketing, journalism, research, etc.

300

Name the six conventions of academic writing we studied in class. (To double your money, name them in order from most to least frequent!)

cautious, formal, concise, clear, objective, precise

300

What is topic-comment structure?

Topic-comment structure means starting each sentence with information you've already mentioned, and only then adding new information.

300

Write an author-year citation for the set reading for ARC 1.1.

Stephan et al. (2021)

(Stephan et al., 2021)

400

What are the four components of an academic definition?

key term (make it obvious) + general category or type + special feature + source

400

What are the four steps to paraphrase from a source?

Read the original source. Look away for a moment.

Write it using your own words (e.g., simple, concise).

Compare your version with the original. (Same meaning? Different words? Different sentence structure?)

Cite the source you used.

400

What are the three components needed to show stance in your writing?

evidence from sources + stance (attitude) towards this evidence + vocabulary to show your stance

400

Name three similarities found in both academic introductions and academic conclusions.

State topic (immediately).

State purpose and thesis.

Summarise main ideas.

Use 5-10% of word count.

400

Give two strategies for taking more efficient notes during a lecture.

Write only the first few letters of each word. 

Use initials for repeated phrases. 

Remove vowels. 

Use a shorter synonym. 

Use symbols. 

Use common abbreviations.

500

What are the four steps towards choosing a topic for an academic assignment?

1. Choose a topic you think is interesting and that fits the task.

2. Narrow your topic idea down by searching for sources.

3. Check: Do you still think the topic is interesting? Are there enough sources?

4. Ask your tutor for feedback on your topic choice.

500

Name any two numerical referencing styles.

American Mathematical Society, Association of Computing Machinery, IEEE, London Mathematical Society, Vancouver

500

Make this more concise: "It still looks a little confusing. For better understanding, here's an example: suppose there are five points on an axis ..."

"For example, suppose there are five points on an axis ..."

500

Write a topic sentence for the paragraph below

"... For instance, face recognition works better on white male faces because it was trained on just this sample (Stinson, 2022). Similarly, an algorithm to predict kidney injury performs poorly on women due to its training data of only 6% women (Vorisek et al., 2023)."

"One of the top reasons for bias in AI is a lack of diversity. For instance ..."

500

According to research, note-taking has a process function and a product function. What does this mean?

the process function = just the process of taking notes helps you remember (even if you never look at the notes again)

the product function = your notes can help you when preparing for tests or completing assignments

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