APA Formatting and Citations: Personal Communication

Don't keep your source content hidden!
Photo by Edoardo Costa, [Line out[#2]

Every piece of source information used in an essay must be cited.  Source information is information that comes from a source. To cite a source is to give credit where credit is due.

   

In an essay cited in APA style, the source information must be cited in two different places.  First, the writer must cite information in the paper with the sentence in which the source information is used.  These “in-text” citations let a reader know which pieces of information in the text of the paper came from a source.  The writer must also cite that same source on the references page.  The references page entries give the reader and the writer enough information to find the original sources of information, again.  Both sets of citations play their own roles and have their own purpose.

However, there is one exception to the “cite-every-piece-of-information-in-two-places” rule.  The exception to the rule is when source information comes from a piece of personal communication.

Example of an In-Text Citation for Personal Communication 

If a writer is composing a paper about effectively managing an art supply store, he or she might contact the manager of an art supply store to ask a few questions.  The contact could be via email, in person, or over the phone.  If the information is helpful, the writer may choose to include a few of the ideas in his or her paper.  Because the ideas did not originate with the writer, the writer must cite the responses in the text of the paper.  In order to give credit where credit is due, the writer must indicate, in the text of the paper, which ideas came from the manager of the art supply store.  The writer will use quotation marks, introductory phrases, and in-text citations to indicate the information that came from the personal communication.  In fact, the writer will actually use the phrase “personal communication” in the in-text citation.  

Take a look at the following example, which uses the introductory phrase “according to,” the name and credentials of the source in the sentence, a direct quote in quotation marks, and an in-text parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence:

According to Fred Pohler, manager at Arts and Arts and Arts art supply store in Newark, effectively managing an art supply store requires “not only an understanding of how to manage a business,” but also “an extensive knowledge of a vast array of art supplies” (personal communication, September 23, 2013).

Example of a References Citation for Personal Communication 

Step two in citing this source is for the writer to determine whether or not Fred Pohler’s statements can be looked up or seen by others.  For example, if Fred answered the interview questions, and the writer posted the answers as a Blogger post, his answers can be seen by others, and the writer must cite the blog on the references page as a blog post.  The responses are not personal communication, and the in-text citation should be revised.  However, if Fred answered the questions in an email, and no one else but the writer can see those answers, then there will be only the in-text citation, no references citation.

   

Remember, the purpose of the references citation is to record the information necessary for the writer or reader to find the information, again.  Since the information cannot be found, as it’s not published for the public to read, there is no reason for it to be on the references page.

Helpful? 

Just remember, when in doubt about what constitutes a piece of “personal communication,” ask whether the information the writer has used has been given only to the writer, or if it can be looked up or seen by others.  If the answer is “Yes, it can be looked up by others,” the information should not be cited as personal communication. 

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Ekphrasis: Describing Visual Art

This painting is called "L'Arbor et La Soleil." 
How does it make you feel? What about the painting makes you feel that way?

Ekphrasis is a literary term that refers to a piece of writing that describes a visual work of art. 

Ekphrasis can take the form of either poetry or prose, and a writer can choose to write about either a real object or a fictional object.

No matter what form the writing takes, or whether the subject is a real or imagined object, a writer should follow a few guidelines when writing in the descriptive mode.

Choose a Dominant Impression to Unify the Writing

Choosing a dominant impression is important because it will help control the content of the ekphrasis. The dominant impression for ekphrasis, a typically subjective or impressionistic type of writing, can usually be summed up with mood or emotion words, like “mysterious, joyful, nostalgic, or anxious.” Choosing a dominant impression might require a little prewriting, like clustering or listing, to generate an idea. On the other hand, writers might be so awed or transfixed by a work of art that they already know the type of mood or emotion they want to convey: Without having to think about it, a writer may know exactly how to describe how a work of art makes him or her feel. In that instance, a writer should start prewriting at the point where he or she needs to generate ideas for supporting details.

Add Consistent Supporting Details that Maintain the Dominant Impression

All of the descriptive details in ekphrasis should support the dominant impression. For example, if a writer describes a painting that conveys a feeling of sadness, all of the supporting details in the writing should support that dominant impression. The job of the writer describing this sad painting is to find ways to explain to the reader, then describe to the reader, how and why the painting depicts sadness.

Specific topics for discussion could include, but certainly are not limited to, the work’s composition, design, era, genre, subject matter, style, the evocation of memory, or an interpreted message. To help generate ideas for supporting details based on these topics, a writer might ask, “Why did the artist choose to paint, draw, sculpt, photograph, or design this way?” and “What effect do these choices have on me?” (Wyrick, 2011).

Include Specific and Visceral Details that Allow a Reader to "See" the Work of Art

Writing about a visual work of art requires writing that helps create a specific picture in the mind of the reader. This can be achieved by writers who include specific and visceral language in their descriptions. When writers write using specific language, they use words a reader is able to see in the mind’s eye as vividly as the writer sees the original. For example, instead of writing that a painting is empowering, a writer using specific language might state that a photograph makes the viewer feel empowered because of its realistic depiction of the linked arms of women from all races and ages at a women’s rights rally. The first description is too vague because the word “empowering” might mean different things to different people and does not create a picture in the mind’s eye. Another example is when a writer changes words like “things” or “very good” into more descriptive language like “mud puddles” or “it left me crying.”

No matter the type of ekphrasis a writer is composing, be it verse or a personal essay, there are a few good rules of thumb to follow. Writers should choose, and then stick to a dominant impression of the work of art, using specific and visceral language to convey a clear message to the reader.

References

Wyrick, J. (2011). Steps to writing well (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.



Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Sample Literary Analysis: Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

Original image by Don,  Gothic Rest, used with 
Creative Commons License

Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" ends with a shockingly macabre scene, but that may not resonate with some readers. Why not? And how do we write about that?

When writing a literary analysis, student writers should try to keep some key ideas in mind. First, a good literary analysis is based on an interesting observation. Second, a good literary analysis must be framed as an argument (a statement that is neither verifiably true nor false,  but can be argued). Finally, a literary analysis should be narrowed to focus on one literary element within the story, and a writer should provide examples of that literary element in the context of his or her argument.

What follows in italics is a breakdown of how an argument about William Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily" changes from observation to argument as the writer expands on the main idea. This argument begins with the writer's own personal observations, and then the writer focuses on one literary element while providing examples from the story.

Beginning with an Observation: Social Distance and Loss of Affect in "A Rose for Emily"

Skeleton Woman by Original Bliss

To begin, after reading the story a few times, a reader might notice a few things about the story. The reader
might notice some lines in the story that make her uncomfortable, and she might notice that although it seems to her  like the ending of the story should be shocking, it just isn’t.  She just doesn't feel "shocked."  The reader might then go on to try to figure out why the ending isn’t as shocking as she thinks it is supposed to be.  "It's probably because of all the violence on television," she thinks, as she has heard it so many times.  "I'm desensitized to the violence."

It might be easy for the reader to consider the argument that Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily" is no longer relevant because today's readers have become desensitized to the macabre ending of the story. The reader jots that down as a working thesis statement and then looks for evidence in the story.


The reader jots down: When the narrator and other townspeople enter the room that "no one had seen in forty years," and discover Miss Emily's "rotted" love, the narrator reports they "just stood there" (Faulkner, 1931, pg. 183). The narrator and townspeople are shocked by the scene, whereas today's readers might easily recall seeing such a scene, or worse, in dozens of films, television shows, or even newspapers in recent years. It would be easy to say these readers would not be shocked, and this moment in the story, meant to be a jarring revelation, might be lost on them. 

However, although that argument can be supported, there’s something just not right about it. The reader knows that she is often shocked by any violence she sees in the media, so she knows that her exposure to violence can’t really be the reason the ending is lost on her. In order to reframe the argument, this writer must reexamine her initial interesting observations and dig deeper into the story.  "There are no shortcuts or easy answers in literature," she remembers her professor saying.  She draws a line through her first thesis and continues to work.

Reframing an Observation as an Argument: The Narrator's Tone Distracts the Reader

The reader knows she is not shocked by the ending of “A Rose for Emily,” but she knows it isn’t because of her desensitization to violence. The reader’s job is to find a better reason why she is disconnected from the end of the story. Going back to her original observations, she sees that she highlighted and starred a few lines in the story that all make her very uncomfortable, almost distracted. All of the lines, if spoken today, would be highly offensive to women or other races.  All of the lines she has marked demonstrate a lack of diversity consciousness.

The reader considers that her disconnect with the story has a lot to do with those lines and her own discomfort.  She was so distracted by the blatant racism and sexism in the lines, she wasn't even thinking about the ending of the story when it came along.

Supporting the Argument with Examples of the Distracting Narrative Tone

The reader jots down: A deeper argument about the relevance of this story has much more to do with the tone of the narrator, and much less to do with violent images in the media. Almost offhandedly, throughout the story the narrator demonstrates a negative and superior attitude toward both the Black race and female gender. The narrator seems to accept as fact his superiority over the two groups.

Then, the reader looks for examples in the story that support her argument: For example, “Only a woman could have believed it,” the narrator states when describing the invented business that led to Miss Emily’s tax remittance (pg. 177). Additionally, the female Blacks in this town are not allowed out on the streets without aprons (pg. 17), the judge uses what we refer to today as “The N Word” (pg. 178), and Miss Emily’s servant, Tobe, is her servant until the day she dies and he leaves the premises (pg. 183).

This tone, or attitude, toward both the Black servants and Miss Emily and the other women of the town creates a distracting distance between the reader and the cultural atmosphere of Faulkner's story. Because of the narrator's tone, today’s younger reader just cannot imagine himself or herself in that setting without feeling a bit of moral indignation. Distracted by their own thoughts and discomfort about the moral indignation within the story as gauged by contemporary standards, the morally wrong act committed by Miss Emily, the murder, is lessened. In fact, it's actually that distance, that unwillingness on the part of the reader to accept these negative attitudes, that causes the reader's disconnect with the jarring ending, not contemporary society's fascination with violent media images.

At this point, our reader can begin to add her ideas to an outline so the paper can be planned and drafted.  She has learned that to write about literature is to make observations about a work, frame the observation as an argument, focus on one literary element within the story, and provide examples in the context of the argument.

References

• Faulkner, W. (1931). A Rose for Emily. In P. Schakel & J. Ridle (Eds.), Approaching Literature: Reading + Writing + Thinking, (3rd ed.), (pp. 176 - 183. Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martins.

Need More Help Writing about Literature?

Try the following blog posts:

• Writing about Gilb's "Love in L.A."   
• Writing about Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" 
• Denotative and Connotative Meaning in the Poetry of Denise Levertov

What's a Muppet Whatnot?

A Couple of Whatnots
Created on the FAO Schwarz Web Site

Are you a fan of the Muppets? With the advent of the Muppet Whatnot Workshop and kits, you can design and own your very own Muppet puppet!

What would the infamous Harry Met Sally scene in the restaurant be without the surprised on-looking patrons? How lonely and large Hogwart’s Great Hall would look if it were only the lead actors sitting to eat their feasts. Wouldn’t Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow have been disappointed if there were no citizens of Emerald City to greet them when they finally arrived?

Luckily, Sally has her audience, Harry has his peers, and Dorothy and her friends are greeted warmly and exuberantly by the entire population of Emerald City. That is the magic of extras, actors hired to fill in the world created by filmmakers.

Identifying a Muppet Whatnot

In a Muppet production, the extras work under a different name. These “zany-looking” creatures are known as Whatnots. The lexical definition of “whatnot,” as defined by the Colllins English Dictionary, is “informal unspecified assorted material,” and that’s how you know when you’re looking at one: They’re a bit “unspecified.”

If you’ve ever seen a Muppet production, like The Muppet Movie, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock or the most recent The Muppets, you’ve seen hundreds of these colorful and fuzzy actors. They add color and texture to every scene in which they appear. They sing, they dance, they cause a little trouble. However, according to Kermit the Frog, as quoted on the FAO Schwartz Web site, something a Whatnot should never do is “get between Miss Piggy and the camera.”

Where to Find A Muppet Whatnot

FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store located in lower Manhattan, features a Muppet Whatnot Workshop. Although the exciting benefit of creating one of these puppets in store is that it’s a hands-on experience in one of the greatest and most well-known toy stores in the world, fans of Muppets can also design their own creations at the FAO Schwartz online Muppet Whatnot Workshop, or they can even purchase Muppet Whatnot Kits, which contain a selection of interchangeable body parts.

When creating a Muppet Whatnot in the online workshop, a creator has three body shape options, thirteen eye options, thirteen noses to choose from, twenty-three options for hair, and a variety of costumes and outfits. Online design options appear, and online shoppers can customize their Whatnots and see a final price before the final project is placed in the shopping bag. A different option is purchasing a Muppet Whatnot Kit, which comes with a variety of parts. The least expensive option is the Whatnot Vinyl Cling Kit.

Showing Off an Original Creation

For even more involvement, fans of Muppet Whatnots, or makers of original designs, can find more Whatnot fun at the Facebook fan page, WHATNOT NATION, dedicated to the puppet creations. Group members can upload photos, share stories and ideas, and share their love of Muppets.

No matter a shopper’s location or budget, there are many options for designing, purchasing, and sharing his or her own “zany-looking” movie extra. More importantly, as an original creation, the shopper is sure to be pleased with the results.

References

• FAO Schwartz (n.d.). The Muppet Whatnot Workshop. Retrieved from http://www.fao.com
• whatnot. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved January 12, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/whatnot

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Stages in the Development of Critical Thinking

The Nano Thinker, Image by Frank E.  Original by Dong-Yol Yang.

Every teacher, no matter his or her subject specialty, is responsible for teaching not only that subject, but for helping students develop as intellectuals.

Recognizing the stages of student development can help teachers better plan lessons and assessment activities to help their specific students become better thinkers.

One well-known model of student development is based on the work of William Perry, Jr.  At Harvard University and Radcliffe College in 1953, Perry surveyed his students and later identified differences in intellectual development among those college students. Over time, Perry's model of intellectual development, because of its similarity to key concepts related to critical thinking, became a model for the linear development of critical thinking skills (Halpern, Stephenson & Williams, 2012). The three stages of development that remain part of that developmental model are Dualism, Relativism, and Commitment (Boss, 2010).

Identifying Dualistic Thinking among College Students

In the Dualism stage of development, students tend to look to faculty, clergy, or other authorities for "right" answers. These students accept the "truth" of what they are taught without question. These students might look for ways to avoid counterclaims to their own arguments and seek out only information that supports their "black or white" answers or opinions of the world. Sometimes, they may be uncomfortable in morally or ethically ambiguous situations because they have not yet developed the ability to make decisions when confronted with ambiguity.

Identifying Students in the Relativism Stage of Critical Thinking

Once students begin to encounter ambiguity in their studies and when making personal decisions about more adult and complicated issues, they may resort to the position of the Sophists of Aristotle's time; that is, they might begin to skeptically question the nature of any truth or probability. For example, these students may tend to use persuasive definitions when making an argumentative claim and ignore lexical or theoretical definitions. These students might be known as the "in my opinion" students. They might truly believe they are communicating effectively when they state their opinions, and they may look to authority figures to approve of their behavior and opinions because they have learned it is better to question the truth than to merely accept it.

Identifying Students Who Have Reached a Level of Commitment

After students reach the stage of Commitment, they are better able to discern the types of information that require additional research, evaluation, reason, and logic, and which types are already reasonable representations of a truth. These students have the skills necessary to complete academic research on a topic, evaluate information using reason and logic, and apply inductive or deductive reasoning to form an opinion or make a decision. These students can accept that there may be multiple "right" answers to a problem or issue, no "right" answers to a problem or issue, or many "probable" answers to a problem or issue.

Teaching Strategies to Promote the Development of Critical Thinking

In order to help students progress along this model of linear development, teachers should practice strategies that help students "come to recognize that there is uncertainty in the world and that authorities can have different positions" (Boss, 2010, pg. 6).

For example, teachers can plan lessons that center around scenarios or case studies that present dilemmas or issues that may have no clear right or wrong answers or solutions. They can also ask students to write multiple drafts of argumentative essays on various controversial topics, asking students to switch positions on an issue between drafts. In multiple-choice assessments, teachers should opt for questions that ask students to choose "best-possible" answers instead of answers that are clearly right or wrong. When taught in conjunction with the hard skills necessary to find, evaluate, and integrate information, these types of assignments can help students recognize and become more comfortable with accepting ambiguity.

No matter whether students are in the Dualism, Relativism, or Commitment stage of intellectual development, teachers can identify students’ strengths and weaknesses in critical thinking, and then help students remediate weaknesses. It should be the goal of every teacher to help his or her students become better thinkers.  What's in it for us?  The assumption that citizens are capable of unbiased, logical, and rational critical thought is the foundation of a working democracy. 

Want to read more about critical thinking?  Try

Contemplative Education and the Cultivation of Diversity Skills
Introducing the Syllogism by Example Example Example
Evidence: Writing Well-Supported Paragraphs

References

• Boss, J. A. (2010). Think; Critical Thinking and Logic Skills for Everyday Life. NY, NY; McGraw-Hill.
• Halpern, D., Stephenson, C. & Williams, P. (2012). Critical Thinking. Education.com, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/critical-thinking/

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.