ENG 106: Composition 2

 

ENG 106: Composition 2

Lesson 3: Using Sources
Week: Jan. 20-26, 2003

Place: Dial 147

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to do each of the following:

  • Summarize material from a source.
  • Paraphrase sentences effectively.
  • Use, punctuate, and integrate full and partial quotations.
  • Identify sources through attributive phrases and parenthetical citations.
  • Compile a list of works cited.
  • Define relevant terms.

Assignments

Write a draft of your evaluation and bring it to class on Thursday.  Make sure that your draft contains an engaging introduction, a clear claim, a set of appropriate criteria, support from five sources, a thorough and effective rebuttal, a satisfying conclusion, and a list of works cited.  Make sure, too, that the writing is generally clear, well-organized, and free from distracting lapses in spelling, grammar, and the like.  Refer to the criteria on the syllabus as you write this draft.  During class this week, we will work on improving this draft.  Your revised draft is due at the end of this lesson.

Activities

Think Fast: Using what you learned from reading this lesson, transform the notes in your outline into at least one paraphrase, one partial quotation, and one full quotation.  Make sure that you introduce each with an attributive phrase, include a parenthetical citation for each item borrowed from a print source, and follow up each item with an interpretive sentence.

 

Presentation: Using Sources (Professor Canada)

 

Cooperative Learning: Exchange outlines and sources with a partner.  Evaluate your partner’s use of sources.  Answer the following questions about each borrowing:

Quotation:  If the material is quoted, do the exact words from the original source appear inside quotation marks? 

Paraphrase: If the material has been paraphrased, has the writer changed both the words and the syntax sufficiently to avoid plagiarism?

Summary: If the material is a summary, has the writer accurately and concisely captured the major points of the original source?

General: Has the writer effectively identified the source through an appropriate attributive phrase and a proper parenthetical citation?  Has the writer punctuated the material properly?  Has the writer smoothly integrated the material into the paragraph and interpreted it so that readers can see how it relates to the writer’s own argument?

Works Cited: Does each entry in the list of works cited conform to the conventions of MLA style?

 

Discussion: During this time, we will discuss the insights and questions that have emerged during our reading, “Think Fast” exercise, presentations, and cooperative learning.

 

Think Again: Using what you have learned in the first few lessons about basic rhetorical principles, claims and support, evaluations, and the use of sources, work with a partner to revise the draft of your evaluation.  

 

Conferences: During these one-on-one conferences, I will review some of your writing, orally quiz you on lesson objectives, and field your questions.

 

Announcements: We will wrap up this lesson with announcements regarding upcoming lessons, as well as other relevant subjects.

Terms

Make sure you know the meaning and significance of each of the following terms:

  • attributive phrase
  • full quotation
  • MLA style
  • paraphrase
  • parenthetical citation
  • partial quotation
  • plagiarism
  • quotation marks
  • source
  • summary
  • syntax
  • works cited

Resource

SF Writer contains an extensive discussion of using sources.

Updated December 30, 2002
© Mark Canada, 2002
mark.canada@uncp.edu
 

Introduction

This course has two important areas of focus, argument and research.  In our last lesson, we took out first look at argument.  In this lesson, we turn to an important aspect of research, the process of using sources to make an argument.  Specifically, we will discuss four ways of using sources—full quotation, partial quotation, paraphrase, and summary—and discuss appropriate methods of identifying sources through attribution, parenthetical citations, and a list of works cited.  You also will practice integrating source material into your own paragraphs and interpreting it to support your claim.  When you come to class each day this week, please bring hard copies of your outline and your draft, along with photocopies of your sources.  Any passages that you quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from these pages should be highlighted on the photocopy.

Discussion

Learning from Research

You may have heard someone say that there is no use in reinventing the wheel.  In other words, why start from scratch when you can use what others already know about a subject and build on that foundation?  In science, medicine, technology, business, history, and indeed every field of endeavor, humans regularly explore the work of their predecessors and contemporaries so that they can learn from others’ successes—and mistakes.  When writing an argument, you can make your work easier and more productive if you first learn what others have learned about your subject.  In other words, start with research.

After you have conducted research, you need to know how to incorporate others' findings into your own article.  The key word here is “incorporate,” which means to bring into a body; that is, you need to bring others' words and interpretations into the body of your own argument.  This step is perhaps the most challenging part of writing a researched argument.  If you merely string together quotations from sources, your argument will come across as fragmented and unoriginal.  On the other hand, if you borrow others' words and ideas without giving them credit, you are guilty of plagiarism, a type of academic dishonesty that can result in an F or even expulsion from the university.  Instead, you must come to understand your source material, weave it into your own argument, and give credit to sources for exact words or interpretations that you borrowed.

Ways of Using Sources

You can incorporate source material into your own writing in a number of ways:

  • Full Quotation: When reading a source, you may come across one or more complete sentences that are striking because of the way they are expressed; perhaps, for example, the author has used some colorful or poetic language.  In such a case, you should consider using a full quotation, which is the use of one or more complete sentences from a source.  You must place a full quotation within quotation marks.  Do not change any of the words.  Identify the source with an attributive phrase that names both the author and the publication.  After you have identified the author and publication once, you may use just the author's last name in future attributive phrases.  If the source has page numbers, place the number or numbers where the quotation appeared in a parenthetical citation at the end of the full quotation.  Below is an example, in which colors indicate the various components just described.  Pay close attention to the placement of punctuation marks, such as the period at the end of the sentence.  In particular, note that a colon appears between the verb in the attributive phrase and the quotation itself.
    • Original: While he ruled, however, he did so in the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority, arbiter of manners and morals for his people.
    • Full Quotation: In an article on James Strang in Smithsonian magazine, Bil Gilbert explains: "While he ruled, however, he did so in the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority, arbiter of manners and morals for his people"(84).
  • Partial Quotation:  In some cases, you may want to use only part of a sentence you found in a source—perhaps just a phrase or even a single word.  As with a full quotation, you must place the exact words you borrow within quotation marks.  Do not change any of the words that appear within the quotation marks. Identify the source with an attributive phrase that names both the author and the publication.  After you have identified the author and publication once, you may use just the author's last name in future attributive phrases.  If the source has page numbers, place the number or numbers where the quotation appeared in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence.  Below is an example, in which colors indicate the various components just described.  Unlike full quotations, partial quotations require no additional punctuation other than quotation marks.  Simply punctuate the sentence as you normally would, but be sure to place the final period after the parenthetical citation.
    • Original: While he ruled, however, he did so in the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority, arbiter of manners and morals for his people.
    • Partial Quotation: In an article on James Strang in Smithsonian magazine, Bil Gilbert explains that Strang governed "in the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority, arbiter of manners and morals for his people" (84).
  • Paraphrase: Most of the time, the material you find within a source will be valuable primarily for its content, not for the way it is expressed.  In such cases, you should use a paraphrase, which is the rephrasing of someone else's information in your own words. To paraphrase without plagiarizing, you must change both the words and the syntax—the way the words fit together in a sentence—of the original.  Because you no longer are using the source's exact words, you should not use quotation marks.  If the material is purely factual, you generally do not need to give credit to the source.  On the other hand, you should give credit to the source if the material you are paraphrasing 1) contains any kind of interpretation, 2) presents facts—particularly statistics—that required painstaking investigative work, or 3) includes facts that may elicit curiosity or doubt in your audience.  You should give credit to the source in the same way you give credit for quotations.  That is, use an attributive phrase that names both the author and the publication.  After you have identified the author and publication once, you may use just the author's last name in future attributive phrases.  If the source has page numbers, place the number or numbers where the original information appeared in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence.  Below is an example, in which colors indicate the various components just described.  Note the placement of punctuation.
    • Original: While he ruled, however, he did so in the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority, arbiter of manners and morals for his people.
    • Paraphrase: In an article on James Strang in Smithsonian magazine, Bil Gilbert explains that Strang exercised great power in his dominion, providing laws and even shaping his subjects' personal lives (84).
  • Summary: If you come across a paragraph, a section, or even an entire chapter or article that is valuable to you for its major point and not for all the particulars, you may want to provide a summary, which is a condensed version of the original.  Like a paraphrase, a summary must be in your own words and does not require quotation marks.  You still should identify the source with an attributive phrase that names both the author and the publication.  After you have identified the author and publication once, you may use just the author's last name in future attributive phrases.  If the source has page numbers, place the number or numbers where the original information appeared in a parenthetical citation at the end of the summary.

No matter how you incorporate material into your article, you should interpret its significance for the audience.  In other words, use one or more of your own sentences to explain how the full quotation, partial quotation, paraphrase, or summary fits in the argument you are making.  If I were paraphrasing Bil Gilbert's article to support my own argument about how religious leaders such as James Strang have turned into dictators, I might write the following:

In an article on James Strang in Smithsonian magazine, Bil Gilbert explains that Strang exercised great power in his dominion, providing laws and even shaping his subjects' personal lives (84).  The example of Strang shows how this Mormon "king," like the other religious leaders I have described, took advantage of his position to subjugate his followers.

Finally, you must include at the end of your article a list of works cited—that is, a list of the sources that you referred to specifically in your article through attributive phrases, parenthetical citations, or both.  If you borrowed only factual material from a source and have not identified it through attributive phrases or parenthetical citations in your article, do not include it in your list of works cited.  Your list of works cited should conform to the style used in the particular discipline in which you are writing or the style dictated by your instructor.  When writing a paper for an English class, for example, you generally will use MLA style. See SF Writer for guidelines on using MLA style.  Do not assume that the format that appears in any research database that you happen to be using is MLA format.  Indeed, you often will need to rearrange the components that appear in the citations you find on databases.

Conclusion

By the end of this lesson, you should have a handle on the important skill of using sources.  You will continue using this skill over the remainder of the semester.  In our next lesson, we will turn to causal argument.