***I will only accept writers with excellent commands in the English language***I would like you to choose the Constructivism theory for this essay. Please provide a clear outline and understanding of that theory when you responding to one of the two questions provided with in the assignment details. Note the key assumptions, identify the key theorists associated with constructivism and provide your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the selected theory.
Thank you
Swinburne Harvard brief guide Information Resources Library Swinburne Harvard brief guide IN-TEXT REFERENCES, REFERENCE LISTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES www.swinburne.edu.au/library http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib Swinburne Harvard brief guide 2 1. The purpose of Harvard style Harvard style is an academic citation system that allows you to use and then acknowledge other people’s information and ideas in your own work. Using Harvard style ensures that people who read your work can locate and read the same sources you found helpful; using it also reduces the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Using Harvard style means acknowledging the author of an information source and the date the source was published each time you use their information and ideas by inserting the author’s family name/surname and year of publication in the body of your work. These author and date details, together with all other identifying details (known as bibliographic details) such as the title of an information source and where it was published, are also listed at the end of your work. If you use more than one information source, arrange the sources in a list at the end of your work alphabetically by author surname. Always be consistent when using Harvard style. All information sources of the same type should be treated in the same way. Students are advised to check with their convenor, school, department or faculty which citation style is required, as not everyone in the University uses this style. 2. Acknowledging sources in the body of your work; to paraphrase and to quote The two most important details to acknowledge whenever you use someone’s information are: a) the name(s) of the author, authors or organization who published it, and b) the year they published it. You must insert them each time you use their information in your own work. The details are usually placed at the end of the sentence and are called ’in-text references’, as you are placing them in the text (the body) of your work. The two main ways of using an information source are to paraphrase it or quote it. To paraphrase is to read someone’s information and then write it using your own words and phrasing. To quote is to copy exactly what someone has written and paste it into your work. You should only quote when you feel that the author’s words are perfect and that trying to paraphrase them would weaken their message and power. When you paraphrase or quote, always include the page number or page numbers in the in-text reference, placed after the year it was published. When you quote a sentence, enclose the text in double quotation marks: “ ”. If you quote more than one sentence, then do not use double quotation marks – instead, place the quoted material on a new line, indent the quote and finish with the in-text reference. New text after that quote should commence on a new line and not be indented. For example, consider this sentence from a book: Volunteer programmes are successful when volunteers are working in positions they look forward to undertaking and want to fill. If you copy it from the book and insert it into your work, the in-text reference should look like this: “Volunteer programmes are successful when volunteers are working in positions they look forward to undertaking and want to fill” (McCurley, Lynch & Jackson 2012, p. 78). If you paraphrase it by rewriting the information using your own words and phrasing, the sentence and the in-text reference could look like this: If the volunteers are employed in roles that they want to do, then the volunteer programmes will perform well (McCurley, Lynch & Jackson 2012, p.78) If the author of the work is very well known in their subject field, you may want to include their name as part of your writing. If you do so, you must still include the year of publication (and the page number too, if you are quoting or paraphrasing them). For example: Dawkins (2012, p. 226) states that the universe cannot do good or bad things to humans because it is not a sentient force. If a source does not have a page number (some sources, such as webpages and YouTube videos, do not), simply insert the author’s name and year of publication. If a source has section numbers instead of page numbers (eg. some ebooks; legislation), use ‘s’ instead of ‘p’ and list the section number in the in-text reference. You can still provide an in-text reference even if an information source doesn’t have an author (check carefully first, though). The author detail is replaced by the title of the information source and the title is italicized. Year of publication and page number remain unchanged. For example: Decapsulation of brine shrimp cysts is not necessary but has been carried out by dedicated aquarists for many years as they claim it improves hatching rates (Hatching and raising brine shrimp 2010, p. 2). Authors’ surnames Year of publication Page number Authors’ surnames Year of publication Page number Swinburne Harvard brief guide 3 3. Your Reference List or Bibliography Each time you find a useful information source, keep a record of all its bibliographic details. As well as author and year, other bibliographic details might include the name of the company who published the source; the state, town or suburb the source was published in; what edition number the source is (if not the first); the web address for the source (if you found it on the web); the date that you first found it (if you found it on the web); and other details depending on the type of source. These details all help someone locate and read the same information source you used. These bibliographic details, when arranged in the correct order, are called an entry. Entries are arranged in a single alphabetical list, alphabetically by author surname/family name. This list is either a Reference List or a Bibliography and it is placed at the end of your work. A Reference List is a list of all the information sources you refer to in your work. A Bibliography is a list of all the information sources you refer to and other sources you consulted that were helpful, but do not appear in your work. Ask your convenor which one they require. 4. Books: bibliographic details required For books, the details you must include in the entry are as follows and must be presented in this order: 1. Author(s) – either a person(s) or an organization – or editor(s). Names are presented surname first, initial(s) next. 2. Year of publication. 3. Title – plus the subtitle, if there is one. Place a colon between the title and subtitle. Both are italicized. Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns of book titles should be capitalized. 4. Title of series and volume number, if applicable. 5. Edition – only if this is not the first edition of the book. Edition is abbreviated in the entry as ‘edn’. 6. Publisher. 7. Place of publication – state or city or suburb. Extra information may be provided if there is more than one place with the same name. For example: Rosen, MR & Kunjappu, JT 2012, Surfactants and interfacial phenomena, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. 5. Articles from newspapers, magazines and journals (except those freely available on official newspaper, magazine or journal web sites): bibliographic details required Many students obtain newspaper, magazine and journal articles via Swinburne Library databases. The details required for those and for articles found in print sources (eg. a magazine purchased in a shop) are: 1. Author(s) – if given. 2. Year of publication. 3. Title of article – enclose in single quotation marks. Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns of article titles should be capitalized. 4. Title of newspaper/magazine/journal. Title should be italicized. The first letter of the first word and the first letter of each major word should be capitalized. 5. Volume and/or issue number. Volume number is given a prefix of ‘vol.’, issue number a prefix of ‘no.’. 6. Day and month, or season – if volume and/or issue number are not provided, or if needed to precisely identify an article. 7. Page number(s) that the article is printed on, if they are included. Note: this is not an estimate of how many printed pages would result from printing the article, but the page numbers given in the database or on the publication itself. For example: Fei, W & Wu, B 2011, ‘Equal-area theorem based direct digital sinusoidal pulse-width modulation method for multilevel voltage inverters’, Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 129-136. 6. Information from the web: recommendation Information sources found on the web can sometimes be the most difficult information sources to acknowledge and create entries for. Please carefully examine the guidelines and examples at the Harvard style complete guide webpage (http://www.swinburne.edu.au/library/referencing/harvard-complete-guide/) – you may find an example there that matches what you are trying to acknowledge. If you cannot, you can build an entry by combining the guidelines for books with the guidelines for other sources; the result will be a hybrid entry. For more information about hybrid entries and an example of one, see Section 8. Authors’ surnames and initials Year of publication Title Edition Place of publication Publisher Authors’ surnames and initials Year of publication Title of article Title of newspaper/ magazine/journal Volume and/or issue number Page numbers Swinburne Harvard brief guide 4 7. Information from the web: bibliographic details required Include as many of the following details in the entry as possible: 1. Author(s) or organization responsible for the webpage – if given. If there is no clearly identifiable author, do not use the name of the Copyright owner