Using Sources
While doing research, we are exposed to an enormous amount of information that may or may not be useful to us. When this happens, we must have “infotention,” which was coined by Howard Rheingold and describes how we must filter out any information that isn’t related to our topic. When it comes to finding sources that would give the best support, one must build a critical mass that doesn’t include any circumstantial evidence before information synthesis can occur. During information synthesis, one can organize their sources in a way that makes the most logical sense. Once the writing process begins, the writer can choose to paraphrase, summarize, or directly quote from sources to help support his or her claim. When sources are used, it is important to avoid “patchwriting,” which is a situation where information from a source has little to no proper citations. In essence, knowing how to effectively pick sources and how to strategically place them in a paper is essential to writing a strong, argumentative piece of work.
In my opinion, this article gave really great tips on how to use sources for our papers. For written works I’ve done in the past, I’ve just used my intuition to figure out how I should use different sources. After reading this, I now have a better understanding about how to effectively use and cite sources. However, I still have one question about paraphrasing: Say you’ve written a small paragraph where you paraphrased information from single source. How would you properly use citations if you decide to not use signal phrases? Would you place the source at the very end of the paragraph, or after every sentence within that paragraph?
Intro to Refining Your Writing Style
We all have our own writing styles, but when it comes to writing for a discourse community, we must adapt to that discourse community’s specific writing style to effectively get your point across. This also includes changing the way you cite sources. For example, one wouldn’t want to use a biologists’ style of writing and citations to write an persuasive essay about how great pizza is. When it comes to writing, we must be mindful of who our audience is so we can come across as credible when presenting our claims to them. As we write papers for different classes, I find it interesting how, whether we realize it or not, we change our writing styles to sound credible.