Monday, June 19, 2017
Friday, June 16, 2017
Summer 2017, Post #4
One hallmark of advanced writing is the effectiveness with which one
uses another person's words and ideas. There are three ways to
accomplish this: summary, paraphrase, and direct quote. To summarize or
paraphrase means to keep the author's ideas but to reconstruct them in
your own language, syntax, and voice (while giving attribution to the
original author, of course). To directly quote a source is to keep the
author's ideas and words (if the language is vivid enough to be worth
keeping). However, when using a direct quote, writers should avoid
free-standing quotes (also known as dropped, floating, or cut-and-pasted
quotes). A free-standing quote is a quote that a writer uses without
introduction or integration, and it will disrupt the writer's own tone
and flow.
There are three ways of introducing quotes to prevent them from being free-standing.
1. Use a simple introductory phrase, like "According to" or "So-and-so argues." This method emphasizes the author, so a writer would use this when he or she wants to emphasize the person as an expert or someone offering testimony.
Here's an example.
According to Siegfried Kracauer, "While time is not part of the photograph like the smile or the chignon, the photograph itself, so it seems to them, is a representation of time" (424).
2. Write your own sentence, then use a quote (introduced with a colon) that functions as evidence or demonstration of your sentence's ideas. Be sure your sentence is a complete sentence; otherwise, the sentence becomes a fragment. This method works most effectively for using source material as evidence for the writer's own claims.
Here's an example.
In certain ways, a photograph functions as a more reliable witness than our own memory: "Memory encompasses neither the entire spatial appearance nor the entire temporal course of an event. Compared to photography memory's records are full of gaps" (Kracauer 425).
3. Instead of introducing the entire quote, integrate pieces (words, phrases, or clauses) into the context of the writer's own syntax. This method works best to synthesize ideas and to create a smooth flow.
Here's an example.
When we reduce our experience of the world to collecting photographs, we become guilty of the "warehousing of nature" (Kracauer 435) and loved ones in dusty albums as forgotten souvenirs.
Your assignment:
A. Find three relevant quotes from your sources.
B. Introduce those three quotes using the above methods:
1. Introductory phrase, "quote" (citation);
2. Complete sentence: "quote" (citation);
3. Your sentence with the "quote" embedded somewhere in the middle (citation).
There are three ways of introducing quotes to prevent them from being free-standing.
1. Use a simple introductory phrase, like "According to" or "So-and-so argues." This method emphasizes the author, so a writer would use this when he or she wants to emphasize the person as an expert or someone offering testimony.
Here's an example.
According to Siegfried Kracauer, "While time is not part of the photograph like the smile or the chignon, the photograph itself, so it seems to them, is a representation of time" (424).
2. Write your own sentence, then use a quote (introduced with a colon) that functions as evidence or demonstration of your sentence's ideas. Be sure your sentence is a complete sentence; otherwise, the sentence becomes a fragment. This method works most effectively for using source material as evidence for the writer's own claims.
Here's an example.
In certain ways, a photograph functions as a more reliable witness than our own memory: "Memory encompasses neither the entire spatial appearance nor the entire temporal course of an event. Compared to photography memory's records are full of gaps" (Kracauer 425).
3. Instead of introducing the entire quote, integrate pieces (words, phrases, or clauses) into the context of the writer's own syntax. This method works best to synthesize ideas and to create a smooth flow.
Here's an example.
When we reduce our experience of the world to collecting photographs, we become guilty of the "warehousing of nature" (Kracauer 435) and loved ones in dusty albums as forgotten souvenirs.
Your assignment:
A. Find three relevant quotes from your sources.
B. Introduce those three quotes using the above methods:
1. Introductory phrase, "quote" (citation);
2. Complete sentence: "quote" (citation);
3. Your sentence with the "quote" embedded somewhere in the middle (citation).
Monday, June 12, 2017
Summer 2017, Post #3
For this post, use the Walter Stiern Library's ebrary electronic search database for books, and find one book that would be relevant for your essay. Post the title, author, and a short explanation as to how/why you could use this source in your essay.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Summer 2017, Post #2
Part of an effective argumentative essay is the use of evidence to help proves one's point; we can classify types of evidence using the Greek terms logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos refers to logical evidence, such as facts, statistics, and hard "objective" data. Ethos refers to the legitimacy of an ethical voice; this usually takes the form of expert testimony but can also refer to legal codes and other "fundamental" sources. Pathos refers to emotional evidence, such as specific examples, descriptions, and narratives. An effective argument will use all three types of evidence to convince and appeal to each part of an audience's personality.
Thus, when you are finding sources to use to develop your formal argument (the in-class essay), you should be looking for facts/statistics to develop the logic of your claims, expert testimony to develop the ethics of your claims, and specific examples and narratives to develop the emotions of your claims.
Begin your research by looking for scholarly articles (that have been peer reviewed and have an "ethos" foundation) through the Walter Stiern Library. To decide which search terms to use, look at each body paragraph of your in-class essay. What was the focus of body paragraph #1? Search for an article that explores those ideas, and then do the same for each of your body paragraphs. Be sure to save the articles (or e-mail them to yourself). You might run into some difficulty if you're using a home computer with slow internet connection, so if this happens, give yourself some time to stop by the actual Walter Stiern Libray to use their computers.
For this blog, post the authors and titles of three (3!) articles you find, and explain in a sentence or two how each source is relevant for the topic of your essay.
Thus, when you are finding sources to use to develop your formal argument (the in-class essay), you should be looking for facts/statistics to develop the logic of your claims, expert testimony to develop the ethics of your claims, and specific examples and narratives to develop the emotions of your claims.
Begin your research by looking for scholarly articles (that have been peer reviewed and have an "ethos" foundation) through the Walter Stiern Library. To decide which search terms to use, look at each body paragraph of your in-class essay. What was the focus of body paragraph #1? Search for an article that explores those ideas, and then do the same for each of your body paragraphs. Be sure to save the articles (or e-mail them to yourself). You might run into some difficulty if you're using a home computer with slow internet connection, so if this happens, give yourself some time to stop by the actual Walter Stiern Libray to use their computers.
For this blog, post the authors and titles of three (3!) articles you find, and explain in a sentence or two how each source is relevant for the topic of your essay.
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