How to Write an Email to Your College Professor

Written by Cameron Henderson

I’ve been a student, I’ve tutored, I’ve acted as a graduate assistant for different professors, and I’ve even taught college courses myself. In that time, I’ve survived on the power of the college email. I find that one of the things that often comes up in discussions between educators is student email etiquette:

Professor: “Argh. I got an email that just said, ‘what’s my grade’ today, from someone with the email address ‘soccergirl28.’ How am I supposed to answer that question?”

Opinions vary – of course, I don’t expect every student to know the unofficial email “rules” with which long-time academics are often so familiar. However, I do hope, at least, that a student will communicate the information necessary for me to at least be able to do something with it. So consider this blog post a guide for writing emails while in college–what kind of information you need to include to help your professor understand what you need, good ways to introduce your emails, and good ways to sign off. I’m hoping that these tips will help reduce anxiety about emailing and make talking with your professors easier and quicker.

Tip number 1: It’s considered friendly and polite to include a greeting in your emails.

Remember that your professor is a person. Instructors and professors have a lot on their plates, and they receive a lot of emails. A simple greeting is considered to be a basic courtesy, and it doesn’t even have to be anything fancy. 

Example: Something like: “Hello, [Professor’s Name], I hope your week is going well.” 

The desire for this kind of greeting in student emails varies from instructor to instructor – and not every professor will respond with the same kind of greeting. (I’ve definitely received the “fine – sent from my iPhone” response to a carefully worded email. Don’t take it personally! Like I said, they get a lot of emails.) – but you can’t control how someone else writes. You only have power over your own actions. Including a brief but friendly greeting in your emails is something that will serve you in any kind of school, business, or other formal setting, so I recommend cultivating the practice now!

Tip number 2: Make sure to include relevant identifying information in your email. 

Many students assume that simply because they use their student email address, the professor will automatically know who they are talking to and what class it relates to. This is often not the case – especially for undergraduate courses, professors and instructors are usually teaching many classes (up to five in one semester), and each of those classes might have fifty students in them. 

Because of the large number of students these professors may be teaching, it’s important to remember to include in your emails your name, the course you’re taking with your professor, and the section or time slot, so that your instructor can access the information you’re looking for without having to go through their courses and look you up. This makes answering your email so much easier and quicker.

Example: My name is _____ _____, and I’m in your English 1013 class at 8AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If you’re sending an email to an office on campus rather than an instructor, you can kind of follow the same pattern. Say that you want to ask a question to someone in disability student services; you could say, “My name is ____ ____, and I’m a freshman in the Kinesiology department.”  Just keep it simple, keep it short and easy to read. If someone recommended for you to ask the question, you might mention it briefly. “My professor told me to get in touch with DSS to ask about…”

Tip number 3: Ask your question or state your point in complete sentences, and try to be clear!

I’ve gotten emails that look like this:

From: student@email.com

Subject: (blank)

Where do i turn it in ?

And that’s all the email says. My response: who is this? Turn what in? Which class is this for? What’s going on? Assuming that you’ve followed the other steps, you should have a short greeting and an introduction letting your instructor know who you are. If you have a question about a specific assignment, mention what assignment that is and state your question clearly.

Example: I have a question about the upcoming free write assignment. Where should we turn that in?

Easy, simple, short. You state off the bat that you have a question, mention what it’s about, and then state your question plainly.

If, instead of a question, you want to tell your instructor that you’ll miss a class, here’s some helpful guidelines. Make sure that you read and understand the attendance policy for your class, so you can include the relevant information:

1. Indicate that you’ve read the attendance policy:

Example: I saw that the syllabus says we are allowed two class absences if we email you in advance.

2. Briefly state when and why you’re missing class. You generally don’t need to give much detail in the initial email. If your professor wants more information, they’ll ask for it in a follow up. 

Example: I’m sick/attending to a family emergency, and I won’t be able to attend class this evening. 

3. Ask for any important information you’ll be missing out on during class.

Example: Are there any notes or slides for the lecture today that I could get a copy of, or should I ask one of my classmates for their notes?

4. Add a “please let me know if there’s anything else you need from my end” – that way, if the professor wants a medical note or something like that, you had the idea to clarify first!

These steps will show that you’ve paid attention to the syllabus and that you are thinking ahead in terms of staying on top of your classwork.

Tip number 4: End your email with a polite sign off and restate your name.

This is another opportunity for you to make it easier for your professor to see who they’re talking to, as well as a space for you to thank them for their time. It’s always nice to respect other people’s time!

I usually sign off my emails with a simple “Thank you” or “Thanks in advance.” You could also say “Thank you, and have a great weekend/evening,” and then restate your name on the next line. 

Tip number 5: Try and write something in the subject line that briefly tells your professor what your email is about. It does help, trust me.

Additionally, It never hurts to run your email through a word processor (like Word or Google Docs) before you send it. Give that baby a quick spellcheck! (My mom does this every time she sends an email, and she swears by it – her boss has even commented on how clean her emails are!)

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER – EXAMPLE EMAIL:

Any similarity to real people’s names or objects sitting on my desk while I write this is purely coincidental. (Be nice to me, I’m trying.)

Subject: Question about the discussion

Hello Dr. Notebook,

I hope your week is going well! My name is Coffee Mug, and I’m in your 8am English 1013 class on MW.

I had a quick question about the upcoming discussion post. In our responses to two different classmates, are we supposed to bring in quotes from the text, or can we just respond with our own ideas?

Thanks, and I’ll see you in class next week,

Coffee Mug

—

See? Easy, simple, polite, to the point. Your professor knows exactly who they’re speaking with and can give you the information quickly, so you can finish your assignment. 

Note that each part of the email is on a new line – please hit enter after your greeting and the body of your email. Small bits of text are also easier to read than big blocks – don’t be shy about making a new paragraph in the middle of the email’s body. 

And that’s it! Enjoy your emails, and good luck this semester!

Tackling Your First College Writing Assignment

Written by Anna Whitaker

Picture this: it’s three weeks into the semester and you’re facing down your first college-level writing assignment. Whether this is a research paper, a Think Piece, or a narrative essay, we’ve got some handy tips and tricks to get you started!

1. Get all the details.

Knowing everything you can about the assignment is going to make things a lot easier in the long run. Details and instructions can be found in several places; usually, they are on the assignment itself in Canvas, as well as the syllabus. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your professor, either. They want to see you succeed – they know everything about the assignment (they’re the ones who made it!) and are more than willing to share the nitty gritty details with you. Here are a few things you’re going to want to know about what you’re writing:

• Format: Does your professor want MLA, APA, or something different?
• Genre: Is this an argumentative research paper or a lab report? Are you writing an editorial piece or a lengthy literary analysis? Understanding the assignment genre will help guide your writing.
• Technical Details: What’s the word requirement? How many sources are you supposed to have?

2. Figure out your topic, and outline it.

This is a key component in the writing process, because without it, you’ll have no idea where you’re going or even where to start! First, you’ll want to brainstorm your topic. What are you going to write about? What appeals to you? What topic has plenty of sources available for you to draw on?

Once you’ve decided, create an outline of what you want your paper to look like. It can be as bare as three or four bullet points, or you can go in-depth with topic sentences for each paragraph and jumpstart your research process by including links to sources. Outlining looks different for everybody – the goal is to have some guidance that can (and will) evolve as you develop your paper.

3. Jump into the writing!

You can start with your introduction, or dive straight into the body paragraphs. Writing doesn’t need to be linear, so go with whatever flow works for you. Remember, your first draft isn’t going to be perfect. The first draft exists so that you can get all your thoughts onto the paper – polishing and editing comes later in the process. As you write, keep the assignment guidelines in mind; your arguments, claims, and use of evidence should align with your thesis (a statement, usually in the introduction paragraph, that makes a claim about your topic and outlines how you’re going to back up that claim).

4. Bonus points: head over to the Write Site before you submit your paper to get advice and feedback from top-tier writers and English students.

The Write Site is a free service open to all Texas Woman’s University students (undergraduate and graduate) that assists with all aspects of writing. They help with big-picture issues (such as structure and argument development) to smaller scale items (like grammar and formatting). You can submit your first first or your final draft. The Write Site can work with whatever you’ve got in a face-to-face or online appointment! Whenever you get stuck, the Write Site and its well-trained writing consultants are a great resource to utilize to help get you past any writing block you’re facing.

College writing may seem daunting at first, but you’ve got plenty of resources behind you to help get you were you need to go. Best of luck!

How to Make Your Research Work for You

Written by Meredith Pasahow

No matter what major you are in, there is an essay genre you will certainly come across at some point during your college career: the research paper. Whether this is math and science based or humanities based, every student will undoubtedly be required to write some kind of researched based essay. Oftentimes, the trickiest part is getting started with the research itself. So, in this post, we will explore some tips and tricks on how to make your research work for you.

The first thing to do is to select a database to start pulling research from. Google is all well and good, but it’s usually cluttered with clickbait and blog posts that are only tangentially related to your topic. For an academic or scholarly paper, I would recommend Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). This is a Google-based website specifically for peer reviewed articles, that automatically filters out all the internet detritus we tend to see floating around while we’re trying to find that one perfect source.

Google Scholar has a lot of fantastic features. For instance, say you’re researching women in sports as your topic and you find it. The perfect article for your paper. You love it, you want twenty more like it. Google Scholar has you covered.

You have two options to find more articles like the one you fell in love with. Cited By will give you a list of articles that have used your article as a source. Related Articles will give you more sources along the same lines as the one you like.

Google Scholar search result for a 2000 sports medicine article highlighting the “Cited by” number and “Related articles.”

            Need to do a bit of quick research but don’t have time to read everything you come across? No problem. Simply click on the star on the left-hand side…

Google Scholar search result for a 2000 sports medicine article highlighting the “Save” feature.

…and the article will be saved to your library to read at your leisure. To find these articles later, click on the My Library tab and they will all be there for you when you are ready for them.

The one feature I do not recommend with Google Scholar, as with most sites, is the citation feature.

Google Scholar search result for a 2000 sports medicine article with the “Cite” feature crossed out.

Though it is tempting to use citation machines like this, they are often out of date and do not have the current versions of MLA, APA, or whatever citation style you may need.

In terms of how to begin your research, I recommend starting broadly and narrowing your focus down from there. Sometimes, if we simply type our thesis question or main argument into a search engine, it’s too narrow for the algorithm to find anything for us. However, if we take a few steps back and look more widely at our subject, our research can often take us in unexpected directions. Sometimes we’ll find something we didn’t know we needed!

So, start, for instance, with something like “women in sports”, and then narrow it down to “women in sports Olympics” and then “when did women start participating in the Olympics”. If you’re still having trouble finding sources on your subject, try researching subjects adjacent to your subject. If you can’t find what you want on when women started participating in the Olympics, try searching “history of the Olympics” and going from there.

If you’re having trouble finding what you need on your own, I always recommend a trip to the library. We have incredibly helpful (and friendly!) research librarians who can get you pointed in the right direction. And after you’ve gathered all the research you need, it is much easier to grasp the writing of your paper.

How to Manage Multiple Writing Assignments at Once

Written by Cameron Henderson

Hello, folks! The semester is drawing to a close, and that means finals–for some of you, lots of finals at once. A lot of you will therefore be juggling multiple papers and studying for tests. That can be stressful! We at the Write Site don’t want you to burn yourself out, so here are some strategies you can use to help you manage multiple assignments at once.

Create an assignment calendar

Maybe you already have an assignment planner, maybe you don’t, or maybe you started one at the beginning of the semester and haven’t looked at it since week three (@ me…). Whatever the case, I cannot recommend enough that you sit down with the syllabi from each of your classes and write down every deadline listed for the papers you are working on. That includes outlines, drafts, peer reviews, update posts, presentations, and the finished papers. You can organize this into a calendar or a to-do list; just make sure you can see what kind of progress you need to be making for each class. This will help you to prioritize your work and avoid losing points for missing any smaller deadlines.

These little in-between deadlines professors often assign may seem like an annoyance while you’re trying to balance everything on your plate, but they exist for a good reason! Having concrete, graded milestones to ensure that you’re making some progress on your papers actually helps a ton. An annotated bibliography gives you sources to use in your paper as well as ideas for where you might want to take your argument. You may open up the “update discussion post” on Canvas and realize you haven’t thought about your paper in a week, but now at least you’re thinking about it, even if it feels like you’re just making something up for the grade. Maybe you are just making it up, but you can still use the ideas you come up with and get some feedback from your instructor! Additionally, oftentimes these little assignments are intended as a buffer for that final grade. That’s why it’s so important to keep up with these due dates and actually complete these assignments.

Block out some dedicated time to work on your assignments. Prioritize more urgent deadlines

Now that you have your calendar of due dates, you can start scheduling yourself some time to work on specific assignments. This may mean that you mark out a day for one assignment and a day for another, or it may mean going in and scheduling your week hour by hour to make sure your time is more firmly managed. Some people will find that having a more tightly scheduled plan reduces uncertainty (and, therefore, anxiety). Some people prefer to keep their plan looser so they don’t feel guilty if they stray from it. Either way works, but I absolutely recommend having some kind of work schedule to follow. 

Looking over the deadlines, you can get a sense of what you need to focus on now and what you should save for later. This may seem obvious, but sometimes our brains tell us to work on things we consider more important (or easier) first. Blocking out time for things that are due sooner will help save you from last-minute crunch down the line. That brings me to my next point:

Any progress you make is a good thing

Say you followed the last step and blocked out time for the assignment that is due sooner. You get to your scheduled work time and open up the assignment, but you find yourself stuck and unable to make the progress you were hoping for. In this case, any kind of progress you can make will benefit you down the line, even if that means doing something small and moving onto the next assignment.

There are different small steps you can take to make writing easier when you return to an assignment later on. You could spend a few minutes using a brainstorming technique. You could create a to-do list or checklist with things you need to do for one particular assignment assignment. Maybe you could create an outline with ideas about how many pages each section needs to be. You could look for one scholarly source on the TWU databases and give it a quick read to see what the main idea of the article is. Even if you only get a little bit done, whatever you come up with will be processing in the back of your mind as you put the paper aside and do something else. You may find when you come back to it that you have even more ideas, or that your writing flows much easier than before.

Practice self-care

It’s easy to burn out when you’re juggling multiple finals at one time. It’s important to make sure you are taking breaks from writing to take care of your body and rest your mind. When I create a schedule for working on my own papers, I always make sure to leave time open to do something that isn’t work–take a nap or a hot bath, eat a snack, drink some water, go for a little walk. I always feel rejuvenated after a walk; if I take a break to watch an episode of Property Brothers, I find that my lack of momentum carries over into being unable to get back to work. Taking a walk gets me doing something, which makes transitioning back into school work much easier.

Leaving your schedule open for self-care is also easier when you start on things early–waiting until the last minute means less time for breaks, which makes burnout more likely. I get it, I’ve been there. Sometimes you find yourself drinking coffee in the library at midnight and asking where you went wrong. Trying to stick to your schedule may not feel like self care now, but it will make things easier for Future You. Future You will thank you for that. If you don’t want to let Future You down, remember: small progress is progress, and opening up your document and writing one sentence is better than not doing anything at all.

How to Ask for Help in the Write Site

Written by Cameron Henderson

The struggle: you’re sending your paper into the Write Site, and when you get to the section marked “specific questions/concerns,” you have no idea what to say. “Grammar, I guess? APA formatting? I don’t know, can you just tell me if it’s good?” If you’ve done this, you’re definitely not alone. Students often struggle to formulate questions to ask about their own writing when seeking assistance at writing centers. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of wording: “I don’t know how to say it, but I have a general idea of what I’m worried about.” Sometimes, students come in unsure of what they need at all. Here’s my main piece of advice: don’t stress too much about these feelings. Every writer wonders at some point if they’re doing it right. With a little guidance and a tiny crash course on the things we focus on here, you can start getting an idea of the kinds of questions that will best help you in your individual writing process.

Where to start:

Here’s the thing you need to know about the Write Site: we are not an editing service here to clean up your paper. We’re writing consultants. That is, our job is to give you feedback to help you improve your writing overall, not just in an individual paper. We like to look at the overall structure, or what we call the “global concerns” of the assignment, before we hone in on grammar mistakes. Our feedback is designed both to address the needs of your submission and to give you an idea of how to make your next paper even better.

With that said, here are a couple of ideas for where to start when considering what kinds of things to put in the “specific questions/concerns” section of your Write Site submission. Forewarning: these suggestions are not going to deal with grammar and formatting. Anyone can ask for help with grammar and formatting. Sometimes, I will admit, grammar and formatting are the main things that need to be addressed in a submission, though usually not. Most of the time, there is something else that needs to be addressed before looking at sentence-level errors. You may or may not already have a sense of what; following these two simple pieces of advice can help you figure out what to ask for to help us help you:

1. Check the rubric for question ideas

Your professor will often attach a rubric with specific requirements for the paper. Some of these requirements will deal with the content you need to include in your essay, but many of them also deal with the professor’s structural preferences. You can look at the rubric for inspiration for questions about argument, support, your thesis statement, audience, and purpose. Your tutors would appreciate your effort even if you take the wording directly from the rubric to check if you’ve done something well.

2. Read up on some of the writing lingo your writing consultants are using

You don’t have to know everything. Heck, you don’t even have to memorize the terms we use here in the writing center, though it wouldn’t hurt you as a writer. Being aware of some of the underlying structures of an essay will not only help you feel more confident asking your tutors specific questions, but will also improve your confidence as a writer. Knowing what’s going on behind the curtain makes the process of writing feel much less slippery. This handout here is a simple explanation of some basic terms (these are what we mean when we say “global concerns”) and a few example questions you can ask in your submissions. Feel free to save it for later and even copy+paste the questions into your submission forms.

That’s it, that’s my advice. Not too complicated, but hopefully you find it helpful. The first step, of course, is making your appointment–for that (and this next bit is specific to TWU students, though the rest of my advice is for anyone thinking of using writing center services at their school), you need to have a WCOnline account set up using your TWU email address. When you create your appointment, you have the option of selecting an online OWL, which is the type of appointment where you send your essay in and we send it back via email with our commentary and suggestions. There’s no live component to this type of appointment, so it’s great for those with scheduling conflicts. We love to have one or two specific questions to focus on during these appointments, since you won’t have a chance to refine your questions during our reading. You can also make an OWLive appointment, which is an online video meeting where we look over your paper with you in real time. It’s good to have an idea of what you’d like to focus on and what kind of feedback you want, but you’ll also have a chance to come up with more questions during your conversation with your consultant. Finally, you can make a live appointment in the Write Site and come to us in person for the same type of real-time tutoring. Again, the Write Site offers a tutoring service, not an editing service, so don’t expect simple revisions. Expect commentary and suggestions for ways to improve your writing and help you along in your process.

Thanks for reading, good luck, and we hope you have a great semester!

Write Site Reads: Little Fires Everywhere

Written by Write Site Staff

Write Site consultants recently concluded their book club, reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Here are their opinions.

Sam

This book told a beautiful story while incorporating some relevant political topics. It forces you to look at complicated situations from multiple perspectives. It was a wonderful experience, and I would definitely recommend it to a friend!

Ethan

My final thoughts (after our discussion, since I haven’t finished yet): I’m really enjoying the book so far. It starts a bit slow, but I really enjoy learning about everyone’s motivations and why they are the way they are. Ng does a great job portraying small suburbia as well in a way that I haven’t seen done very much in novels.

Scarlett 

After finishing Little Fires Everywhere, my final thoughts are that the story is an engaging read that gives the reader a lot to ponder. The characters have depth to them, and I like the way the narrative challenges the reader to really consider and empathize with a wider range of perspectives, without casting judgment. I especially appreciated how well-written the female characters are, and how this book hits that sweet spot where enough is left to the imagination of the reader. 8/10 I recommend

Taylor

I enjoyed this book a lot. I highly recommend it 🙂

Carli

I thought this was a great read! Once it picks up again it’s a relatively fast-paced read, and Ng does an excellent job of connecting all the dots for her readers. I was satisfied with how it ended, though I also could have read a sequel right afterward!

Little Fires Everywhere: Who Did It Better?

Written by Carli Varble

It’s the age-old debate, do you prefer the miniseries or the book? Personally, I’m usually on team book. I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time dwelling on things that were changed for show, and I definitely spend an annoying amount of time talking about it to people who don’t really care. Cut to me in 2012 absolutely raging about how Effie Trinket said hat instead of buttons, my dad about ready to leave me at the movies. That being said, after watching the show and reading the novel Little Fires Everywhere, I am actually pretty on the fence of which I like more. So, I decided to write up a little comparison for myself, and for those of you who are also deeply invested in this debate. There will be spoilers ahead! You have been warned.

I think the main aspect that made me want to write about this was the relationship between Elena and Izzy. I watched the show first, and really remember disliking Elena a lot more because of how she treated Izzy. The show implies that Elena, an overwhelmed working mother, didn’t want another child, and that’s why she’s so terrible to Izzy. This made me hate Elena so much more. The fact that Elena was so cruel to Izzy (cutting her out of family pictures, actually telling her she wasn’t wanted) just made her character so much more irredeemable. Not that she isn’t also awful in the book, but the book paints a very different picture.

In the book, Elena’s criticisms of Izzy stem from Izzy being a premature baby with lots of health complications. While it doesn’t justify Elena’s actions, they definitely take on a bit of a different meaning especially with the absence of some of Elena’s crueler actions that are in the show. For this aspect, I am team book.

The next thing I want to talk about is the big blowout between Elena and Mia. If I’m being honest, the book left a lot to be desired. I finished this part of the book, and I was a little disappointed. For me, the fallout from the argument in the show really helped me see why Mia decided to leave Shaker Heights, but the argument in the book made me wonder why Mia—no nonsense, doesn’t care about other people’s opinions—decided that she had to leave. Yes, they were renting from the Richardson’s and working for them to cover the rent, but it was established that Mia didn’t need to work for the Richardson’s so why not just find a new apartment? I prefer clearer motivation, which I found in the show and not in the book. Point to team show!

Now I’ve got to address Lexie and Pearl. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I really think the show did Lexie wrong. She wasn’t stellar in the book, but like her mom, she was so much worse in the show. In the show, you miss out on Lexie taking Pearl shopping and the two lending clothes to each other. The book actually shows a friendship between the two rather than Lexie taking advantage of Pearl. Like Elena and Izzy’s relationship, this stems from one event. Book Pearl offers to write Book Lexie’s college admissions essay rather than Cinematic Lexie stealing Cinematic Pearl’s experience for her essay.

These are two drastically different events that show Lexie in two very different lights, which I guess is my big problem with it. Lexie is still not great in the book. She leaves Pearl at a party and uses Pearl’s name at the clinic, but it’s almost like the people behind the show were concerned we wouldn’t dislike the Richardson’s enough and had to make them worse, which brings up a whole other list of questions in my brain that I don’t have the time to cover in this piece. Point to team book for its portrayal of Lexie.

Lastly: that ending. Both the book and the show did great with the ending. Despite knowing the house was going to burn down, I was still pretty amazed with how they got there. There is just something about the plot twist in the show that just makes it slightly better than the book in my opinion. In the book, all signs point to Izzy the whole time. You get to the end and it plays out and you’re pretty satisfied. The show twists this on its head by making you think its Izzy, but it’s actually the other siblings.

I love this plot twist so much because it shows some good sibling solidarity that we don’t really get in the book. The book ends with Izzy leaving because she feels like she’s absolutely alone in the world, but the show ends with her siblings sticking up for her. You get the sense that the siblings have grown closer together rather than further apart which puts me on team miniseries for this aspect.

I have so many more thoughts about the show and the book, but these were the things that stuck out the most to me. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show and reading the book, and definitely recommend both to anyone looking for something to watch or read. Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Review: Little Fires Everywhere

Written by Sam Steelman

Celeste Ng tells a breath-taking story of the war between social classes, the chaos of parenting, the differing opinions centered on morality, with a “love prevails all” message, all in the confinements of a small town. This story forces the reader to look at controversial situations from both perspectives. It provides anyone who reads this book with a widened view as to why people choose the life decisions they do.

In all honesty, it took me a couple tries to be completely immersed in this novel. The first chapter grabs you by the throat. However, the second chapter takes its sweet time setting the scene. I now can understand and appreciate the slow parts of this novel because it was taking necessary time to develop these wonderfully complicated characters. The character progression in this novel is a beautiful experience. Seeing Mrs. Richardson’s complete loss of control and her youngest daughter, Izzy’s, reclamation of her own control is a meticulously written mother-daughter clash.

Mrs. Richardson’s character is intricate and complex, mean-spirited and vile, wrapped in a pretty bow to maintain an upstanding reputation as a small-town reporter stuck in her hometown. She forces herself to believe that staying in Shaker Heights was her plan in order to keep herself from feeling like a bird forever confined to its cage. I personally found Mr. Richardson to not be relevant to the story at all, except for his involvement with the McCulloughs. Other than that, he contributes almost no substance to the story. The Richardson children have their own unique personalities and relationships. However, Mia and Pearl are by far my favorite characters because of their aesthetically pleasing, adventurous lifestyle.

The main character rivalry in this novel is between Mia and Mrs. Richardson. Celeste Ng portrays each character as the other’s complete opposite, leading to a perfect falling out by the end of the novel. Mia is a completely free spirit. She parents Pearl with love and understanding, allowing her to make the mistakes she will learn the most meaningful lessons from. Mia goes wherever she feels inspired to complete her artwork, never staying in one spot for too long. On the other hand, Mrs. Richardson has perfectly structured her life, with a perfect house, perfect husband, perfect job. However, her desire to control her children to force them to follow the upstanding path she envisioned for them results in complete rebellion and resentment. Mrs. Richardson resents herself, and the reader sees this unfold throughout the novel. Mia wraps this up in a passionate confrontation: “‘It terrifies you. That you missed out on something. That you gave up something you didn’t know you wanted.’ A sharp, pitying smile pinched the corners of her lips. ‘What was it? Was it a boy? Was it a vocation? Or was it a whole life?’” (Ng 302).

Overall, I would recommend for everyone to read this book. I would especially recommend it to those with a narrow perspective on life, those who make judgements before thinking about the other party’s situation. Above all, this book, in the words of Celeste Ng, is for “those out on their own paths, setting little fires.”

Writing an APA Literature Review

Written by Write Site Staff

Whether you are assigned a literature review as a standalone assignment or working on it as a section of a larger research paper, the APA manual outlines the content a literature review should include and suggests methods organization.

A literature review is not just a summary – it is a critical evaluation of sources and synthesis of current research.

Content

A literature review should include more than just a summary of the information you learned from your sources. While summarizing is definitely a rhetorical component of a literature review, it should address each of the following:

• What is the problem the researchers are attempting to solve?
• What is the research working to change or prove?
• What is the current state of research?
• What is the synthesis of the investigations discussed in your sources?
• How do the sources relate to one another? Address connections, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies.
• What do you think should happen next? In what direction should the research head? What questions remain to be answered? What issues could be clarified?

Organization

Students often organize a literature review source by source, meaning that one paragraph discusses one study, the next paragraph discusses another, etc.

This type of organization is not the most rhetorically effective organizational method and can hinder the kind of critical thinking the literature review is intended to develop.

Simply put, your literature review should include the following sections:

• Introduction: states the main topic and explains the scope of the literature review.
• Main Body: synthesizes your sources.
• Conclusion: summarizes the main body and identifies gaps.

APA Suggested Methods of Organizing Main Body Paragraphs

Sections by Conceptual Categories:

Your sources are likely to be investigating several aspects of the same problem. In a literature review on adolescent depression, for example, you might have a paragraph(s) discussing potential risk factors, a paragraph(s) discussing research on therapeutic options, and a paragraph(s) on the effect of pharmaceuticals. Likely, more than one source will be discussed in each section, and each source will be discussed in more than one section.

Sections by Methodological Similarities:

Group literature together based on how the researcher(s) approached the research. For example, do some of your sources use case studies, others use interviews, and others experiments? If so, this method of organization may work well for you. It allows you to present similar forms of research together, comparing and analyzing what the results mean.

Chronological / Historical Development:

This form of organization presents research chronologically, giving an idea of how the field of study has changed over time. This approach works especially well if a field has been studied over a long period of time or if there have been significant developments in the research.

TIPS:

1. Find an organizational focus.
2. Use quotes sparingly, and paraphrase carefully.
3. Think in terms of synthesis rather than summary.
4. Describe the search procedures you used.
5. Keep your own voice!

Active and Passive Voice

Written by Write Site Staff

A not uncommon bit of feedback students receive in their writing concerns the use of what’s called passive voice. Passive voice is essentially the flipping of verbs and subjects in a sentence and often involves the use of “be” verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). The direct object (the objective or goal of the verb) is in the subject position.

For example:

Passive: The metropolis was terrorized by hordes of zombies.

The actor (hordes of zombies) is at the end of the sentence. The direct object (metropolis) is in the subject position.

Active voice puts the “actor” in the subject position. To find the “actor” of a sentence, look for the action word – the verb – and figure out who did the action of the verb.

For example:

Active: Hordes of zombies terrorized the metropolis.

The actor (hordes of zombies) is moved to the subject position, and the object (the metropolis) is receiving the action of the verb (terrorized). The “be” verb (was) is eliminated.

Like most things in English, however, using active voice is a culturally dictated “rule.” Academics and grammarians prefer active voice because it’s less vague than passive voice. The concreteness of an active sentence structure leaves little to the imagination while the passive structure can leave the subject of the sentence out entirely. In the end, passive voice is a stylistic concern.