Friday, January 31, 2014

Establishing Sources: Sentence Stems


Establishing Positions
  1. What is the title of the source?
  2. Where was it published? When?
  3. Why is the author an expert?
  4. What is the subject of the source material?
  5. What’s the author’s purpose?
  6. What is the context of the original quotation?
  7. How does the author’s point connect to what you want to discuss?
  8. Have you introduced and set-up quotes?
  9. Have you cited the author correctly in text and in a references page?

Example of Establishing a Source
In his 1953 song, “Lobachevsky,” mathematician and satirist Tom Leher mocks society’s tendency to reward poor quality and minimal effort.

Three Different Sentence Stems

In his [date] [type of text], “Title,” [qualifications] [Author] [active verb] [purpose].

In his [type of text], “Title,” published in [year], [qualifications] [Author] [active verb] [purpose].

[Author] – [qualifications] – [active verb] [purpose] in her [year] [type of text], “Title.”

4 comments:

  1. If I'm quoting a religious text, for example, should I write "Jesus said," or "the Bible said?" Not in those exact words, I'm just asking about which source I should include in the text. Also, this is not one of my main sources (I can't qualify the Bible) for the paragraph, I'm just using it for analysis.

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    Replies
    1. "According to the Bible" works pretty well. You'd still need to establish the context f the quote itself. Be sure to google "How to Cite the Bible" for your Works Cited page.

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  2. Do I have to cite the source's qualifications if, for example, I Googled them?

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    Replies
    1. Nope. Qualifications fall under common knowledge. However, be sure not to copy syntax word for word. Always paraphrase.

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