IT513 Unit 4 Reading PDF

APA and the Summary Paper

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Clarification for the Assignment

Check email from your instructor and/or the classroom announcements early in this unit to know which
classmate is designated as your teammate for this assignment. Note that while it is called "teamwork,"
you are not to actually work together. Instead, it is a swap of work. Make sure you read about the
pitfalls of collusion in the assignment instructions.

Since this is a swap, each student works independently but timing for the swap is crucial. Do not wait to
begin this assignment. Start by reading through all of the assignment instructions first so you know
what to expect as well as when you must complete the steps.

Lastly, ensure that you have chosen a news article per the instructions. If you are not sure that your
choice is appropriate, ask your instructor for verification and guidance.

Reminders: In-text Citations and Reference Entries

For help with acknowledging your sources properly in the Assignment, review the information in the
APA 7th Edition Citation-Referencing Take-Away PDF. It may also help to review the last part of the
Formal Writing and Common Errors Take-Away, where case (use of capital letters) is explained.

Writing a Paper's Topic Sentence

Your papers need a clear topic sentence in the first paragraph that directly states the topic without
reference to the reader, writer, or the paper.

Do not use the generic "you" or "us."

• Weak: You might wonder if database normalization worth it.
• Strong: Database normalization is worthwhile for many reasons.
Do not include yourself.
• Weak: I will explain why Search Engine Optimization is important for eCommerce.
• Strong: Search Engine Optimization is important for eCommerce.
Do not allow the paper refer to itself:
• Weak: This paper will explain the reasons to use Cloud computing.
• Strong: There are many reasons to use Cloud computing.

Be specific and direct: phrases such as "many people understand this" or "this should be learned" are
not supportable by source material.

Writing Introductions
Once you have a topic sentence, write the paper's introduction. Choose one of these formats:

1. Begin with the topic sentence, and then an overview of topics that will be covered in the paper.
This works well for short papers and work documents.
2. Begin with some statements that demonstrate the relevance of your topic, and then present the
topic sentence at the end of the paragraph. This format is often used in longer research papers.

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The "hook" you may have learned in previous writing courses is not appropriate for higher-level
academic writing; it is really a technique for creative writing, where your audience must be enticed to
read. Too often a hook takes the form of an anecdotal commentary or analogies that are either
confusing for the reader or not clearly connected to the paper's true purpose. This technique also may
be interpreted as manipulative by some readers, which is another reason to avoid it. Remember to:

• Avoid emotional content

• Avoid analogies that might not be understood by a wide audience
• Keep focused on your paper's main purpose
The introduction for a short paper should not be too long; perhaps only 6–8 lines depending on your
topic. An introduction does not include details, as it should be just an overview of what will be covered
in the paragraphs following it.

Writing Article Titles in the Body of a Paper

This week's Assignment submissions will each be based on one Web news article. This means that the
title of the article and the author's first and last names (or authors') are crucial to include in the first
paragraph to identify the purpose of the paper.

Place the web article title in double quotes when it is presented in the body of your paper. If you decide
to also include the news source's name, place it in italics. This follows the general rule of using italics
for a larger body of work and quotes for a small part of that larger work. Examples:

• Author Johnston McAllister explains a new technology in their article, "Mainland company
develops new robotics," sponsored by Robot News.
• The article under examination, "Artificial Intelligence needs oversight," was authored by Maryam
Fellows and published by AI News and Magazine.
• "Music Recording today," written by Marvella Rimsky and Elvis Sergeant for Music Technology
News, explains technological advances currently pursued in the music industry.

After the Introduction: Writing Deductive Paragraphs

When you read a novel, the paragraphs are most likely written in "inductive" style, which means details
are provided before the main idea. This suspense keeps you interested in reading through each
paragraph.

For the workplace, however, this is not appropriate. Bosses, managers, customers, and coworkers do
not typically read everything you write for them; instead, they look for main ideas and then read the
parts they feel they need. For schoolwork and the workplace, use deductive paragraphing, where you
begin each body paragraph with a main idea statement and then give details.

In previous courses, you may have learned to write transitions at the ends of paragraphs, where new
ideas are introduced before the paragraph in which it is explored more fully. This concept (like the
hook) works for creative writing. In the workplace it should be avoided, as it does not meet the
deductive paragraphing premise. Consider instead each of your paragraphs to be a capsule based on
a single subtopic. Write your main idea sentence and then the details and begin a new paragraph
when you have a new subtopic.

Example deductive paragraph with clear main idea sentence, then details:

Coding with XML (eXtensible Markup Language) follows specific rules. The prolog should be
placed above the code, and a root tag pair is required. All tags come in pairs and must be

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 nested properly. The coder invents their own descriptive tags, unlike HTML where all tags are
predetermined. Underscores are allowed in tag names, but periods, hyphens, and spaces are
not allowed. Consistency in this case is crucial for ensuring that the code can be validated.

Writing Opinion Without Personalization

Remember back to Unit 1 when you were writing description without personalization; the strength of
relying on first person writing and emotion applies to opinion as well. For this unit's assignment, the
opinion section must be written entirely from your critical thinking, but without first person wording or
emotional content. It is your choice of ideas to share that provide "opinion" rather than personalization.

Writing Conclusions
Like introductions, conclusions can be difficult to write. Avoid obvious phrases such as "In summary,"
"In conclusion" or "As stated previously," and simply provide the statements that best wrap up the topic.

Importantly, conclusions should not include new ideas. They should simply summarize the concepts
explained in the paper and connect them to your topic statement. It is a good idea to reiterate the topic,
although not by simply copying the wording used in the introduction.

Style: Active vs. Passive Sentences

One more writing convention to consider is active vs. passive sentence construction. Notice that the
active sentence below is more concise. It is also easier to read active sentences. Passive sentences do
provide variety, however; the old adage that passive sentences should be avoided is no longer true.

• In active sentences, the subject (noun) performs the verb. Example:

o "The technician installed the software."
• In passive sentences, the subject is the recipient of the verb action. Example:
o "The software was installed by the technician."

Finding Web Sources

You used the library last week and pulled articles from a given list. This week, you will need to do your
own research by using an ordinary search engine. Google is considered the most powerful search
engine and is therefore recommended. Because you are looking for news articles, Google Scholar is
not an appropriate choice; just use the simple Google. The number of results can be unwieldy, so it is
important that you know some simple techniques for your searches:

• Choose appropriate keywords and spell them correctly.

• Use + immediately before a search term to ensure that the term is found at results pages.
• Use - immediately before a search term to ensure it is not included.
• Use double quotes around phrases if you want all of the words included in the results.

Example searches performed in mid-October, 2025:

• home security system = 3,470,000,000 results
• "home security system" = 12,100,000 results
• "home security system" -reviews = 4,500,000 results
• "home security system" +setup = 10 results (not including ads)

Try different combinations, and do not be afraid to examine at least three pages of results before
revising your search. There are other techniques as well, but these will be the most useful.
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AI results are not appropriate. Remember that just because a webpage is listed towards the top of a
search result list does not make it an appropriate choice. Search engine optimization techniques
employed by the webmaster and the popularity of sites may well affect results, and neither of these are
indications of truthfulness and relevance. You still need to evaluate sources once you find them.

Lastly, be careful when clicking. "Sponsored" sites in any search engine have paid for the privilege to
be on the top of the first page and are likely identified by a small icon indicating it is sponsored. Take a
look at the URL for clues and read the short descriptions at the results page before clicking.

Evaluating Web Articles

The phrase "web article" needs definition: simply stated, it is a source found online that is not a journal
article, ebook, or white paper. While some journal articles and ebooks are found freely online, they are
still vetted academic-style work. White papers are company reports or proposals; they have a different
purpose (typically to persuade) instead of simply providing information for the masses.

When you search the internet for sources, you will likely encounter a multitude of poor choices before
finding what you want. Here are the things you should consider:
• Authorship: Check the author's credentials or qualifications. You might find this by clicking on
the name or an "about" page. If no information is found, check to see if the person has written
other articles on similar topics. A LinkedIn profile may also offer information.
○ Authors of legitimate information should acknowledge their work openly so that the
information can be verifiable; avoid sources where only a partial name is provided or the
moniker is obviously a pseudonym ("Smitty from the Bronx") or a username ("BudX").
• Sponsorship: This is especially important if no author is identified. Certain websites provide
more accurate and in-depth information than others. To evaluate the sponsor, check other
articles at the site and look for an "about" page that describes the intent of the site.
○ Websites with user-input like Wikipedia and forums are not suitable for college work,
even if you think the content therein seems good.
• Currency: Look for the publication date. Copyright dates are easily manipulated by the
underlying code and are likely a protection for the entire site, not the article itself, so the
copyright date is not indicative of when the information was actually published.
• Organization and depth of content: The organization of ideas should be clear.
• Writing style: Web articles are not always as formal as journal articles, but a certain level of
formality should be expected. If your author is not serious enough with a writing style, it is
difficult to know if they were serious about the content.
• Bias: It is often difficult to find sources without any bias, but you should avoid those that have a
main purpose to encourage purchases of products or services.
• The URL: An examination of the URL may net some facts, although you will still have to
determine the relevance to your research project.
○ You can delete everything after the domain name to check the home page (see below).
○ You may have been taught previously that the .com extension is bad and .edu, .org, .mil,
and .gov are good; however, this is not always the case:
■ Many .com sites have excellent information. Originally the extension was meant
for commerce, but it has become general in use.
■ Sites with .mil (US Military) and .gov (US government) may only provide the
statistics they think the public wants. Of course, they may provide what you need.
■ Organizations with .org extensions might push an agenda. This could be useful,
however, if you are looking for opposing viewpoints.
■ Sites that end with .edu are reserved for institutions of higher education and will
be focused on their students' needs.
○ When ~ is present in the URL, it indicates a personal page for which the sponsor does
not take responsibility.

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For the Assignment this week, make sure you find a web source that shows human authorship and has
a date of publication as explained above.

More About URLs

You already learned previously that text links (where a hyperlink is affixed to a few words or a title) are
not to be trusted, and full URLs instead should be presented. One of the more common errors with
website reference entries is presenting a URL that has been bloated by search terms or links from other
sites. It is important to "clean" the URL and get rid of the unnecessary parts. Look for a question mark
and see if deleting that plus all the content that follows will still get you to the right page. It may take a
few tries to find the most succinct yet specific web address.

An example of a bloated URL is below, with a much shorter "cleaned" address highlighted. Your
reference entry would only include the highlighted part, which gets straight to the source page.

[Link]
BL/dp/B07QYNBVPD/ref=asc_df_B07QYNBVPD/?tag=hyprod-
20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=344022943810&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10219872740242854349&h
vpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021923&hvtargid=pla-
779417513942&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=69534739336&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=344022943
810&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10219872740242854349&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint
=&hvlocphy=9021923&hvtargid=pla-779417513942

This is not to be confused with "shortened URLs," which are complete revisions of an address in an
abbreviated form typically using online programs such as Bitly and resulting in an address that has no
semblance to the original. APA 7th edition allows these surrogates only under certain circumstances.
Because the reader can context clues from its true URL and these short URLs tend to break, they
should not be used for any school work.

Value of News
News articles are typically written quickly because the public demands this kind of information to be
available as fast as possible, and news outlets compete with each other for readership. The processes
in the newsroom are also different than in an academic setting. Typically, the correspondent is
assigned a topic, writes from whatever sources are available, and then an editor works to correct any
language errors and "fit" the length into required parameters. For print news, copy editors may also
have similar editing privileges; for online news, the webmaster might make minor changes. Importantly,
once the article is submitted to the editor, the correspondent no longer is involved. While this is not a
great setup, it is necessary to ensure the timely dispersion of news.

While this may seem like good reasons to avoid news, IT professionals still need to keep up with
current technology events. News articles present the latest ideas, products, and methods being used,
proposed, or investigated. This in turn sparks new technologies through the spirit of competition.

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APA 7th Edition Formatting
It is important as an IT professional to demonstrate a high level of Word formatting skill and
understanding, and so this week, you are responsible for formatting your paper on your own. Use of
any template will cause a rather high loss of points (check the rubric). This unit's APA 7th Edition
Formatting Take-Away PDF will guide you with detailed instructions.

Teamwork Theories
This week's assignment is based in part on teamwork,
using a predetermined process that is explained in detail in
the assignment instructions. There is only one week to
complete this project, so the "team" part of this is limited,
but it is an excellent time to investigate on-the-job
teamwork theories, too.

In the workplace, new ideas may be easier to generate in a

group. Responsibilities are shared. Scheduling is typically
the most difficult but setting deadlines and milestones help
to keep projects and everyday work on track.

Psychologist Bruce Tuckman (1965) developed a team model with the premise that groups of people
with a common goal need a developing process consisting of group testing and dependence
("forming"), intragroup conflict ("storming"), group cohesion ("norming"), and then function within roles
("performing").

Meredith Belbin's theories are about role-playing. There are nine roles, divided into three categories.
You will find more information about these roles at the link below.
• The Social Roles - Resource Investigator, Teamworker, Co-ordinator;
• The Thinking Roles - Plant, Monitor Evaluator, Specialist;
• Task Roles - Shaper, Implementer, Completer Finisher ("The nine Belbin," n.d.)

References

The nine Belbin team roles. (n.d.). Belbin. [Link]

Tuckman, B. W. (1965, June 1). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin,
63(6), 384–399.

Lagniappe: Some Random Tech Terms

• Agentic AI: Artificial Intelligence that makes decisions on its own and acts with little supervision.
• Algorithm: A mathematical procedure for solving a problem.
• Cache: Information stored in memory for quick access.
• Cookies: Small text files
• Encryption: Coding information to prevent unauthorized access.
• Firewall: Part of a system that prevents unauthorized access.
• Generative AI: Artificial Intelligence that "creates" from a prompt and learned responses.
• Peripheral: A device attached to a computer, such as a keyboard or mouse.
• Pixel: A unit of color for a computer image or display ("picture element").
• Steganography: Messages hidden/encrypted in otherwise normal-looking files
• Syntax: Set of rules for a computer language.
• Topology: Network structure.

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