I will include some writing support information below as I create it. In the meantime, remember that you can always use the Writing Centre for one-on-one help and online assistance.

General Essay Help

Here is an excellent overview of how to think about organizing and writing essays in a handy Prezi. Queen’s University also has an excellent Style Guide available that includes some common Canadian spellings of words, but also clarifies the use of some commonly misspelled or misused words. It is actually really quite helpful and I have referred to it on a regular basis.

Ways to think about a case study argument:

Consider your overall argument first, then your case study as a way to explore that argument.

In the example below, you can see the overall argument; the case study; and the theoretical/important concepts.

If you wanted to talk about Hollywood adaptation of Anime and cultural difference, for example, you could use a franchise like Transformers and then you could discuss it in terms of Hollywood adaptation and probably bring in the transcultural audience to discuss the ways the Hollywood shows and films are made to sell toys and vehicles without recognizing the history of mecha within the Japanese industry that created the original.

Research Materials

Things to consider when searching for research materials:

• Start with the library — use the Research Guides option to find a relevant database (select Research Guides from the Library homepage, then Social Sciences, then Communication & Culture, and then select Journal Articles from the Finding Articles drop-down menu. From here you can select one of the databases to search for journal articles).
• Doing a general search online will not guarantee you academic/scholarly articles
• You can use Google Scholar, but be sure to try multiple search terms and read the abstracts of the articles before you decide to use them in your research as they will not be subject-specific and many will be newspaper or magazine articles.
• The table of contents for a book is your friend! Check out the titles of the chapters to see which sections are most relevant to you before just diving in to read. If the titles don’t make things very clear, you can skim the introduction to see how the author/editor breaks down the topics for each chapter.
• Research in academic journals tends to be newer than that of books. Research in scholarly books tends to be older research simply because it takes longer to get published. Depending on the style of writing, when you are looking to support your argument, you should have a mix of research from journal articles, books, and edited collections as well as the occasional news article or non-academic text/source.
• When considering whether a text is an academic source, consider the journal in which it is published or the publishing company if it is a book. Also consider who wrote the text: are they a journalist, an academic, is it an opinion piece in a newspaper, or is the author a non-specialist member of the general public?
• Remember that research takes time. You won’t be able to write a decent paper the night before it is due no matter how well you can write if you haven’t done the research. Consider your research topic early. Begin searching for material as soon as possible because you need time to follow the links that come up in the research and really consider how it applies to and possibly reconfigures your argument.

Quotations

Here is a doc showing some ways to integrate your quotations into your essay. This document uses MLA format because these are actual examples from previous papers that I have written. You can use the Works Cited list as a sample for MLA style formatting, but you should check for updates to the format since this document was created a few years ago. quotation-integration-examples

Remember that you should include an in-text citation to back up your evidence and to help your reader find your sources if they want to do further research themselves. You definitely have to include a citation when you include quantitative information like dates or numbers and when you make definitive statements like “it has been said.”

Citation Style Guides

You can find some information on how to use the different formats (MLA/APA/Chicago) at the SPARK site, the Purdue OWL website, or the Chicago Manual of Style website directly.