Writings of a Graduate Student

As I discussed in a previous blog a lot of the writing will be done as technical reports that consist of a lot of analyzing evidence and investigative reports. These will be marked based on clarity, conciseness, proper grammar, and factuality. Great sources to find information for these technical reports are in the library’s scholarly journals. Checking the databases for information to the topic of the paper is always a great place to look because they are reliable and the information is plentiful; especially in the forensic science databases. There are also science and technical writing books in the library that will help a tremendous amount once you get started on your paper. There is no particular length of these papers as it will vary from paper to paper, but one thing that is certain is that they will almost all be scientifically written with scientific information to back up your thesis.

Interview with Professor

In an interview with Professor Barringer I found a lot about my field’s future and what’s to come. I found out that once I get farther into the program most of the writing I will have to do is technical reports. I will have to do a lot of analyzing evidence and investigative reports. There will also be a lot of in-depth papers on contemporary issues. The papers will always use the APA citation which I did not know; this is great information so I make sure I know how to write in APA style before I get to my upper level classes. In the final year of this field there is a cap stone or thesis paper. Papers are usually graded on Clarity, conciseness, proper grammar, and factuality. It was a very educational experience that taught me much about what is to come in my field as far as the kinds of works I will have to do.

Interview with Reference Librarian

In an interview with the reference librarian Geraldine Collins I learned a lot about what kinds of reference materials there are for forensic science and how to use them. The first thing that I learned is that forensic science has its own reference books in the library; this is something that I did not know. The books include a number of in depth encyclopedias along with dictionaries solely relating to forensic science. Geraldine Collins stressed that this is a good point to start researching to find background on whatever topic it is you are either presenting about or writing about. The next thing I learned was how good scholarly journals can be when it comes to researching. These can be found in catalogs and in databases either in the library or on the internet. Scholarly journals are such great sources because they are reviewed many times by experts in the field before they are published making them a very reliable resource. Any person can look up any aspect of forensic science whether it is for criminology, biological, or legal purposes. One of the most valuable tools the librarian mention to me was something called research guides. A research guide is a collection of reference materials, online journals, databases, and reliable web resources from professional organizations or government. This is always a great place to research if you happen to know what particular field you want to research in because all the information is presented in an easy to follow manner that leads to fast researching with reliable materials. All in all the information I learned from Geraldine Collins has really proven invaluable to me in just a short amount of time.

Criteria for what counts as good writing

After emailing a forensic science professor, I found the criteria of writing that he believed most professors in the field look for. One point he made was the utilization of primary, not secondary, scholarly sources is very important. He also noted that integrating classic theoretical perspectives with more contemporary research is a key factor (as well as creating "new" solutions to the more contemporary problems). More criteria, which all professors would require, is critical thinking, no gramatical errors, and pertaining to the social sciences -- accurate APA formatting. The professor also mentioned that these expectations increase from course to course as a student proceeds through the transitions from rfeshman to senior and/or undergraduate to graduate.

FS- Resources for Students

Here are a few resources that will help students with writing APA style papers and descriptive writing, which is prevalently used in forensic science essays.

Essays
http://www.essaytown.com/coursework/forensic_science_essays_papers.html

Descriptive Writing
http://www.ebstc.org/TechLit/analysisGd.html

APA Guide
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

FS- Citation Style

The citation style used on forensic science papers is APA, which is the American Psychological Association and is commonly used in the academic fields of social science. APA format involves the use of headers, footers, and in-text citations. Also, at the beginning of each page is a heading or sub-heading which introduces what that particular segment of the paper is going to be about. At the end of the paper is the Reference page, which can be compared to the Works Cited page in MLA format, except the citations on the Reference page in APA is a little different. APA papers are typed, double-spaced, and call for a 10-12 Times New Roman (or similar) font.