In Part One and Part Two of this three part series citations and parts of the overall paper were discussed.  In this final section I will cover the one area that some returning students may have the most difficulty with.  That part being the “voice” that they use while writing a college level research or term paper in a distance learning enviornment.

One thing that has not changed about writing papers in school is that you will need to eliminate all first person references.  For example I, me, my, and mine are not to be used when writing an APA style paper unless permission is given by your instructor to do so.  Considering the casual nature of blogging this was the biggest hurdle for me to jump when I first got started.  Though the audience in most cases will just be your instructor writing your paper as if it is going to be printed in an academic journal and read by niche individuals should be your goal when you sit down to write.

If you just have to inject yourself into your paper using terms like, “this author” or “in this author’s opinion” are acceptable.  The goal of writing papers on the undergraduate level is to show that you have an understanding of the topic that you are writing about not that you are an expert on the subject matter.  This is the biggest area of seperation between traditional and distance learning.  Regurgitation of facts is not the same as putting those facts into your own words to show that you fully understand the topic and know how to translate it to document form to present to your professor.

The tone of your “voice” should be that of educating your reader about the topic without preaching or assuming they know what you are talking about.  Abstract subjects need a clear path and focused voice to get your points across.  Concrete topics need to be structured in such a way to convey a new way of thinking about a familiar subject without duplicating facts already known.

Overall, the voice that you use for your papers should be your own.  Most distance learning institutions advertise upfront that they use anti-plagirism software.  Personally I have no knowledge of students being caught using someone elses work as a result of this tool, but it is just better all the way around if you make sure what you write is is in your own words, period.