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January 2010: Read Your Style Manual
Which option is correct?
(answers are below the featured article) 1. Do you think that it is possible to have [a; an] utopian society? 2. The turtle went into [its; it's] shell. 3. The primary colors ([i.e.; e.g.], red, yellow, and blue) can be mixed together in different combinations to create many other colors. 4. Has the new medication had any [affect; effect] on your health? 5. The company had only been in operation for a year when [they; it] became the market leader.
Cattering? Sounds like a perfect word for a game of Balderdash.
Although many students think otherwise, APA and MLA are not 4-letter words! If you have been putting off a date with Kate Turabian or some other style guru(s), please forgive us for reminding you. Joking aside, there are some very important reasons to familiarize yourself with the writing style that your instructor or discipline requires before you write your document.
Reason #1: Speak the Lingo and Join the "In" Crowd Think of the style of your discipline as a language; the manual or style guide is the dictionary or grammar book for this language. To ensure consistency when ideas are shared, your field has agreed to recognize this style as the language in which all of its members will communicate. Improper use of a style can mark you as an outsider and diminish your credibility, but mastery of this language is an important sign of membership. In the same way that local-level errors like spelling, punctuation, tense, and other potential writing issues can detract from the document and distract the reader from the most important aspect (i.e., your message!), style errors can be equally troublesome for those who are proficient in the language. If you are pursuing a career in this field, you should seriously consider learning the style sooner than later; it certainly will not hurt your chances of getting your manuscripts published in a journal, and you may someday be a dissertation advisor yourself. But even if you are an undergraduate and more concerned about the approval of an instructor than a journal editor, proper use of a style could mean the difference between an A and a B. Reason #2: References and Beyond Many students mistakenly assume that styles like APA or MLA only deal with formatting references, and, for this reason, they wait to approach this seemingly burdensome task until after they've written about their primary interest. After all, if you love psychology, art, literature, economics, pharmacology, or any other academic topic, why would you choose to read a style manual over these (admittedly) more interesting options? The reality is that style guides handle a range of topics beyond citations and references; these topics include seriation, headings, use of numbers (numerals vs. written out), formatting tables and figures, and guidelines for presenting statistical information to name a few. That's all fine and dandy - but why should you care? Have you ever started or even completed a task only to later discover that you made one or more errors that could have been avoided had you simply read the directions? Consider how much easier it will be to format your tables correctly the first time instead of reformatting them later - especially when "later" is usually a high-stress period that is much closer to an assignment due date, a journal-submission deadline, or your dissertation defense. Reason #3: Bonus Points Are you completing an assignment for a class? Will you be sending a chapter of your work to a dissertation advisor? Do you plan to submit your work to a journal and have requested that a colleague look over it? In all of these situations, you will get subconscious bonus points from those who are evaluating or helping you with your work. Making their lives easier will invariably make your life easier too. If you demonstrate aptitude in the style, one or more of the following will result: (a) your grade will be higher than if you do not, (b) your dissertation advisor will be relieved that he or she can focus on your ideas instead of investing more of his or her personal time to correct a problem that is not related to content, and (c) your friends, the journal editor, and the peer reviewer(s) will probably be more amenable to your arguments. Pop Quiz Answers Did you answer "an"? The rule for using the indefinite article is based on vowel sound. The word utopian is pronounced as if it started with "yoo." Because it sounds as if it starts with a consonant, you should use "a." Another example from literature is Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour.
2. The turtle went into its shell. "It's" is a contraction for "it is" whereas "its" is the possessive form of the singular pronoun "it." Visit the Commonly Misused Words section of the Common Errors Guide.
3. The primary colors (i.e., red, yellow, and blue) can be mixed together in different combinations to create many other colors.
"i.e." means "that is" whereas "e.g." means "for example." If you use "i.e.," you must provide a comprehensive list or a definition/explanation; in other words, "e.g." would be a better option for a long list for which a few relevant examples would be more appropriate than the entire list. For example: "The Democrats in the Senate (e.g., Senator Brown, etc.) have agreed to the bill."
4. Has the new medication had any effect on your health? In most situations, "effect" is a noun that means "the result of something" (definitions of effect). On the other hand, "affect" is most commonly used as a verb; when "affect" appears as a noun, it means "feeling or emotion" (definitions of affect). 5. The company had only been in operation for a year when it became the market leader. Although you might think of a company as plural because of the people who work for it, words like business, company, team, and agency are singular and require the singular pronoun "it." Idiom of the Month Didn't find the answer you need? Click here to send us your question.
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