How to Make the Most of The Little Seagull

Which of these topics is not covered in the Research portion (all sections that begin with R-) of the book?

finding books in libraries that use the Dewey Decimal System

Match each icon with the function that it represents. Notes Table of Contents Bookmarks Search

pencil book flag magnifying glass

Does every single sentence have to begin with a capital letter? Can I trust this source? What should a proposal include? Is it appropriate to display how angry I feel about this topic? What is academic writing, anyway?

P-8c R-2b W-14a W-1e W-2a

In some of the entries in the Glossary/Index, the head word or phrase is in bold type, while other heads are not. What is unique about the boldfaced entries?

They include a definition of the word or phrase.

Find the icon with three horizontal lines (the "hamburger menu") in the upper left of the screen. What appears when you click on it?

the Table of Contents plus other clickable options

Your instructor assigns you to read section R-4e for tomorrow's class. What are the easiest and fastest ways to find R-4e?

Easiest and Fastest Ways: look in the Detailed Menu in either the print book or the ebook, use the Search function in the ebook Not the Easiest and Fastest Ways: leaf through the print book until you find it, use the Glossary/Index, look in the Brief Menu on the inside front cover of the print book

Your instructor made a comment on your draft that you need to work on subject-verb agreement, so you confidently go to your Little Seagull Handbook ebook and type "subject-verb agreement" into the search function (Really—go do it!), and Yikes! 146 search results! Way too many! Still, you have a couple of options for how the results will be displayed. Is the following statement true or false?In order for your search results to be most useful, set the sorting option by page number rather than by relevance.

False

Throughout your college career, you will encounter many arguments in your readings, and at some point, you will almost certainly need to write one. Which of these sections can help you with analyzing, evaluating, and organizing an argument?

Helpful for This: R-2c W-8b W-3d Not So Helpful for This: S-5a S-8b P-4d

How can you find the definition of a highlighted term in the ebook?

Helpful for This: Click or hover over the highlighted term to pull up the tooltip, Look it up in the Glossary/Index Not So Helpful for This: Find the relevant page in the Detailed Menu, Scroll around in the chapter where you know you saw it yesterday

Do you know what subordinate clauses are? You may not, even though you hear, read, and use them many times every day. We can't guarantee that knowing about them will make you the star of a party conversation, but being able to effectively use subordinate clauses in your academic work can make you a better writer. Little Seagull approaches the subject of subordinate clauses from many different angles. Which of these sections can help you draft and edit subordinate clauses in your academic work?

Helpful for This: E-1a, E-1d, Glossary/Index, S-8b Not So Helpful for This: L-4, P-1b, S-6c

Your US History instructor has assigned a research project, and you're freaking out! You have to select an event or incident that occurred in your town between 1900 and 1950 and write an in-depth report on it using mainly primary sources. What are "primary sources" for local history and how would you even find them?!? Little Seagull Handbook to the rescue!Which of these sections would help you get started?

Helpful for This: Glossary/Index, R-1e, R-1g, Not So Helpful for This: Detailed Menu, R-3a, R-4g

One of your peer reviewers said that your ideas were solid, but your paper was hard to follow because the paragraphs seemed disorganized. Oh, well, it was just one peer review. But then your instructor made the same observation. Uh-oh. Time to consult Little Seagull for some advice. Which of these sections can help with paragraph organization?

Helpful for This: W-4f, W-5a, W-5c Not So Helpful for This: S-8, W-10a, W-13b

Rene and Angela are writing a collaborative paper for their psychology class on the healing effects of a smile. They communicate extremely well, and the paper has gone very smoothly, but they're hung up on one tiny detail: When writing a quotation, Rene insists that the period at the end of the sentence should be placed outside of the quotation marks, and Angela is equally certain that the period should be placed inside. They've wisely decided to let the Little Seagull Handbook settle their argument. Which of these sections will give them the necessary information?

Settles the Argument: E-4b, P-4e Won't Settle the Argument: P-3a, P-4h

At some point, you may be assigned to write a summary/response paper. "What's that?" you ask. Well, you've come to the right place. Match the section numbers below with the headings or subheads that organize the information to help you draft a terrific summary/response paper.

W-12a: An explicit response with support, A concise summary of the text R-4d: Summarizing W-12b: Use signal phrases to distinguish what the author says from what you say, Reflect on your own reaction to a text

Context is really important in writing. Which of these sections will help you consider context effectively?

W-9b

Do you know what an infinitive is? No, it's not Buzz Lightyear's Twitter handle. In fact, it's a grammatical term that will very likely be useful for you to know at some point since it has several functions in English and is used very frequently. Match the example sentences (infinitives in bold) with the book sections that discuss those specific uses of infinitives. L-7c S-1c S-4b S-6c

She started to methodically unwrap the suspicious package. Our only plan is to bake a cake. You need to register before the deadline. I'll ask the office to issue me a new ID.

In class yesterday, your teacher used the term "signal phrase," and you aren't familiar with it. You want to find it in your handbook. What's the quickest and most direct way to find the definition of the term? Try out all of the given options in your ebook before you select your answer, so that you can see for yourself how each option functions.

look in the Glossary/Index

Using the circles on the cover as clues, match the colors to the corresponding sections of the book. write research edit exercises

red blue yellow green

Rudy is writing a report on the social behavior of octopuses for his Biology for Non-Science Majors class, and he is citing a recent popular book, The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, as one of his sources. The instructor allows students to use any one of the four documentation styles that are detailed in Little Seagull Handbook as long as they are careful and consistent with whichever one they choose. Rudy has written the following sentence in his draft: Montgomery asserts that an octopus can have "some shy arms and some bold arms," since each arm is quite autonomous. Before he turns his paper in, he needs to add the appropriate documentation to the sentence. Match the sentence variants below with the appropriate documentation styles and book sections where they're described. APA CMS CSE MLA

Montgomery (2015) asserted that an octopus can have "some shy arms and some bold arms," since each arm is quite autonomous (p. 160). Montgomery asserts that an octopus can have "some shy arms and some bold arms," since each arm is quite autonomous.1 1. Montgomery, Octopus, 160. Montgomery asserted that an octopus can have "some shy arms and some bold arms," since each arm is quite autonomous (2015). Montgomery asserts that an octopus can have "some shy arms and some bold arms," since each arm is quite autonomous (160).

You'll notice in the search that you just did (for "subject-verb agreement," remember?) that each result starts with the bolded section designation, section title, and page number(s) where the result appears. Below that you can see a snippet of the section. Match the first three results with the description of what each one contains. E-3a (pp. 323-327) S-5 (p. 368) S-5 (p. 479)

how to check for and edit subject-verb agreement in your drafts explanation of subject-verb agreement and examples of potential problems with it exercises for practicing subject-verb agreement