Common Core

When I was an English major at MSU getting my undergraduate  degree I took a class on advanced composition. This class was a requirement for a variety of disciplines. The central activity of the class was the construction of a single research paper.  The instructor devoted the entire semester  for the construction of this paper. Using scaffolding, each student slowly constructed pieces of the paper. Each section was analyzed by the group, edited, expanded, and sometimes reworked. We worked together in groups and discussed our work together with the class as a whole.  Even though the format used by each student was similar, the differences in each discipline produced extremely different results. What was common in an analytic English paper might not be appropriate in a scientific research paper. A paper concerning art history was significantly different from that of an agricultural student, or an economist. Each discipline had its own unique terminology and format of writing. Seeing first hand the differences with in style was something which has stuck with me through out the years. A simple example of a difference is apparent when one considers the variety of citation styles.  here are a few commonly used.

- chicago style
- columbian style
-evidence explained
- harvard referencing
- modern language association
-modern humanities research association
-bluebook
-uniform legal citation
-british legal citation
- american chemical society
- american institute of Physics
-american mathematical society
-council of science editors
- the international committee of medical journal editors
-the institute of electrical and electronic engineers
- american psychological association
- american political science association
- american anthropological association
- american sociological association