Issue For June 29, 2004

**During the Summer Session at Purdue (through August), we'll be sending out the OWL News every two weeks.

Writing Question of the Week

Hello OWL: Soon I will need to write a literature review for research methods and statistics course and I have never written one before. I have checked Google and obtained a few outlines but curious of what you think the best way to complete the assignment. The reader is advised not to begin each paragraph with the name of the researcher. What are some examples of how to start new paragraphs?

Answer It's difficult not to begin the sentence with the name of the researcher when the researcher is the subject of the sentence. You can add introductory elements to vary the style, just as you would in any other type of writing, and you can also simply use the author's name in parentheses.

For example: Jones (1988) claimed that research should be conducted with a sample of subjects that is large enough that generalizations can be made. However, as Frederick (1992) noted, large sample sizes are difficult to obtain in certain types of studies. It is possible to replicate studies with smaller sample sizes to generalize the cumulative results (Markeson, 1995).

My best advice is to pay attention to the way the lit review sections are written as you are reading the articles that you are going to review. You can try to adopt the writing style that you see.--Gigi Taylor, Purdue Writing Lab Tutor

The OWL Help Nest

Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to include your name and/or your email address when we publish your response. The following week, we'll publish the best information and advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a question for our readers, please send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu.

Last Week's Question I keep hearing that it is no longer necessary to have two spaces after a sentence-ending period. I was repeatedly taught in elementary school that two spaces are required, so single spaces look incorrect to me. Of course, when people put one space after one sentence and two spaces after the next, that's clearly wrong; beyond simple misuse, though, is there truly a stylistic preference? Two spaces just look better to me: they more clearly define the structure of a paragraph, and often eliminate confusion when a sentence ends with something like "etc.".

Answer: I am a computer technology teacher, and I constantly have to defend the "one space after marks of punctuation" convention. I researched it thoroughly, and the two-space rule was followed by teachers who taught typing on a manual typewriter, where the size of the keystroke was always uniform. Hence, the two spaces made reading the sentences a little easier. With word processing, however, the letters are not uniform in size, and one space after the period or other mark of punctuation is perfectly adequate. One of the articles on this topic was written by a typesetter who vowed that never in the history of typesetting were there ever two spacers put after a period. Even Microsoft Word will prompt an error if you put two spaces after a period. This feature can be turned off, but the fact that it exists attests to the one-space rule.--Carolyn Stanley, Connecticut

What's Happening on OWL

OWL Eye on...Job Changes Former OWL coordinator Karl Stolley is now the Purdue OWL webmaster, and Chris Berry has joined up to fill Karl's old position. Karl and Chris wish to say Thanks! to Erin Karper for her years of service to the OWL. Erin has completed her PhD and accepted a job in the Northeast.
OWL Eye on...What Are Your OWL Dreams? This summer marks the beginning of work to transform Purdue's OWL from a massive collection of HTML pages into a streamlined database that will deliver content dynamically to the Web. As we make plans for this transition, we'd like to hear from you as to what you'd like to see on Purdue OWL in the future. Please email Karl Stolley, OWL Coordinator/soon-to-be OWL Webmaster at ka-@owl.english.purdue.edu with your wildest dreams and suggestions.

What's Happening in the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on...Summer Schedule The Writing Lab will continue to offer services for students and teachers in Summer Session courses. One-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and Writing Lab resources will all be available every weekday from June 14 through August 6, except for July 5.
- Summer Session 2004 Writing Lab Hours:
- Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
- ESL Conversation Groups: M & Tu 3-4; W & Th 11-12.
OWL Eye on....Summer Session In-Lab Workshops
- Tues. July 6: APA
- Tues. July 13: PowerPoint
- Tues. July 20: Writing for an American Academic Audience
- Tues. July 27: Sentence Clarity & Combining
- Tues. August 3: MLA

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator, Chris Berry, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster, Karl Stolley, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Chris and Karl take turns writing the newsletter.)

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