Last class, we talked about documentation style as rhetorical. That is important to consider, but so is just knowing the nuts and bolts. There are two main things to consider with documentation style:

1. In-text citation
2. Having a reference list/endnotes/footnotes

There are also other formatting requirements, but these are easier to learn on your own. You can go to the UW-Madison writing center page for some of this information as well as the Purdue OWL to learn about the most popular documentation styles. It is great to consult these about more information on in-text citation and reference lists, as well (e.g., Mendeley and Zotero are both free).

I thought I’d spend a little time showing some stuff on in-text citation and then refer you to either resources like UW-Madison or Purdue OWL or to software that can help you format reference list entries like these. I’m going to use MLA and APA since these two are very commonly used, but for the assignment, you can choose any documentation style that you think would work for your research project (or one you just want to kind of learn if you think you’ll be using it a lot).

MLA Quote and Paraphrase

The MLA direct quote will look a lot like examples I used on the page on paraphrasing and quoting. It will include author either in sentence or at end of sentence in the citation. After the citation is the period. Signal words are in the present tense and never the past tense.

Example: Libertz claims that in class last week “we talked about documentation style as rhetorical. That is important to consider, but so is just knowing the nuts and bolts” (45).

The direct quote can also include the last name in the parentheses at the end, too. Typically, you never want to do this the first time you use the author in your writing, because you want to introduce the source a bit first (so you are mentioning name anyway). After that, it is clear you are using who you are using so you can put it at the end like in the below example.

Example: In class last week, “we talked about documentation style as rhetorical. That is important to consider, but so is just knowing the nuts and bolts” (Libertz 45).

The MLA paraphrase will typically have the author mentioned with the paraphrase and parentheses at the end with the page number.

Example: Libertz argues that documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric (45).

The paraphrase also can leave out the author (though, typically it makes things easier to include the author). If you do this, you move the last name of the author to the parentheses at the end.

Example: Documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric (Libertz 45).

Finally, I wanted to note two things that can happen. Sometimes there are no page numbers and sometimes there is no author. For page numbers, if there are not, then don’t worry about it. Just carry on like there are none. If there is no author, go to the works cited list and include the next option. So, if the entry is a journal article, then the next prioritized item in the entry would be the title of the journal article.

Example for both no page numbers and no author: Documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric (“Documentation Style Nuts and Bolts”).

APA Paraphrase and Quote

APA prioritizes paraphrase and really discourages direct quotes unless really necessary. This is because social sciences are more interested in the gist of findings rather than very specific language (something the humanities tends to value more). Still, direct quotes can be valuable in social science writing so it is important to know how to do it.

First, paraphrase. APA values years and puts them right next to the mention of the author’s name. Things are written in past tense this time, not present tense.

Example: Libertz (2021) argued that documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric.

If the paraphrase is really specific to an idea on a specific page, you could include the page number:

Example: Libertz (2021) argued that documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric (p. 45).

You can also load the author name into the parentheses.

Example: Documentation style is not just about rules but is highly reliant on rhetoric (Libertz, 2021, p. 45).

For short quotations, the year follows the author and the page number follows the quote like in the paraphrase. It follows same logic overall (e.g., putting author/year with page number if author not mentioned in sentence)

Example: Libertz (2021) claimed that in class last week “we talked about documentation style as rhetorical. That is important to consider, but so is just knowing the nuts and bolts” (p. 45).

If no page numbers, you offer the paragraph number.

Example: Libertz (2021) claimed that in class last week “we talked about documentation style as rhetorical. That is important to consider, but so is just knowing the nuts and bolts” (para. 1).

Odds and Ends

Lots of stuff is just searching the internet for answers to format things correctly. It is easier to just find answers that way rather than trying to learn it all at once.

-If using a quote longer than 4 lines in MLA or more than 40 words in APA, there are different rules for quoting. Look on Purdue OWL or UW Madison WC for more information or find somewhere else.

-Depending on the type of source, it will be cited in the text and listed in the reference list differently. Look on Purdue OWL or UW Madison WC for more information or find somewhere else.

-If you aren’t familiar with using documentation styles, don’t stress. Lots of it is just getting used to it. I’ll guide you along in comments on your first draft.

Task

In a comment below, take about 50-100 words to explain which documentation style you think you will use and why for your research-driven writing project. Think about the sort of academic disciplines you are engaging.

After commenting, click on the button below to continue the module.

How do you make your voice the strongest? By connecting sources and saying something a bit newer even if not completely new, you start to develop a strong voice that can help address your research question in a robust fashion.

Here are the three main tools to do that:

Summary:

Summary can be helpful for you to understand the source, so could be good to write on your own (as you’ve done with Reflective Annotated Bibliography entries). They can sometimes be useful within your draft, but only if an extended version of contextual information about the source is necessary. In your Rhetorical Analysis, this was sometimes true because your audience was the class and you can’t assume everyone had read/heard/viewed the same text you were analyzing.

For academic arguments, you’ll want to key in on:

• what the main argument (i.e., thesis) is
• background on the author (e.g., academic discipline)
• some sort of comment about how this source (and, thus, summary) is relevant to your own argument

Paraphrase:

Paraphrase can be helpful to capture a point from one of your sources (say, a good sentence or paragraph related to your argument) but positioning in your own voice to make for better writing or to better fit it, structurally, into the organization of your writing. Here are some tips on paraphrasing:

• Identify source and comment on source
• Cover main points in same order author does
• Have page number noted
• Put paraphrase in your own words and sentence structures. If you want to keep something in its original form, use quotation marks.
• Keep your own comments, elaborations, reactions separate from paraphrase
• Have information you need to make in-text citation
• Have a note after about where you intend to use it
• Recheck to make sure it reflects your own words and the source’s words accurately

Direct Quotes:

Good to use direct quotes when the author puts something really well that you using paraphrase instead would not put so well. To quote:

• Always, always, always introduce the quote with who it is from. E.g., Susan Sontag argues that; Theorist and critic Susan Sontag explains that…; Sontag has noted that…
• Don’t quote a lot. In MLA, it is no more than 4 lines of text. In APA, it is 40 words or less. But the general rhetorical idea here is that it is easy for a reader to get lost and stop paying attention. Too much of a quote can be hard to follow in its connection to YOUR writing.
• Always, always, always use either no punctuation or punctuation that makes sense in the context of the sentence. Follow the grammar, don’t just drop it in.

Examples

Here are some examples of direct quoting and paraphrasing (we covered summary a bit already in the Rhetorical Analysis, so check that out for review in past lesson plans and Learning Modules):

• • NO: Susan Sontag wrote extensively about photography. “And, contrary to what Weston asserts, the habit of photographic seeing–of looking at reality as an array of potential photographs–creates estrangement from, rather than union with, nature” (97). Photography is about seeing the world. [No introduction to quote, just dropped in there]
  • YES: Susan Sontag argues that “the habit of photographic seeing–of looking at reality as an array of potential photographs–creates estrangement from, rather than union with, nature” (97). In this paper, I want to examine a productive form of “estrangement” produced by a series of professional photographs that attempt to capture elements of global warming.
  • YES: Susan Sontag writes that professional photography is reliant on “photographic seeing,” which is a habit of “looking at reality as an array of potential photographs” (97). The history of landscape photography is a history of people who had to do research to find opportune places and times to take photographs; they had to use “photographic seeing” in many ways to find the right moment (a convergence of place and time) to do their work.
  • YES: Sontag writes about this phenomenon of the photographer being divorced from the scene: “the habit of photographic seeing–of looking at reality as an array of potential photographs–creates estrangement from, rather than union with, nature” (97). Photographers need to acknowledge how their perspective will always color how a photograph is created in a way that is necessarily unnatural.
  • YES: According to Susan Sontag, to see photographically, or to “loo[k] at reality as an array of potential photographs,” is the essential ethos of the photographer (97). This way of seeing necessarily produces “estrangement from, rather than union with, nature” (97). This estrangement can be highly productive from an artistic standpoint.
  • NO: Susan Sontag (1977) said that photography is really about reality but it is hard to get reality. [this does not really represent what is said in the original–it is way too broad]
  • YES: Susan Sontag (1977) has argued that seeing photographically is seeing the world as filled with unrealized photographs.
  • YES: Unlike other theorists of photography before her, Susan Sontag claims that photography creates a necessary divide from nature for photographers (97).

Signal Words

In the above examples, you will note some “signal words” or words that help let your readers know that you are gesturing toward another writer. I used words like “writes,” “argues,” and “claims” to do this. But, there is a really great word bank on page 175 in our textbook that has other examples.

Functions of Paraphrasing and Quoting

It can be helpful to think about the range of purposes for paraphrasing and quoting.

Establish Context. Use a source to be an example of some sort of context for your writing to matter, to be interesting, to be relevant to your audience.

Review the research on your subject. Who else has written about what you are saying and what can you quickly tell me about it?

Introduce a term or define a concept. Any term that might be central or highly important to your argument should be defined, and using a quote from an expert can be helpful to do that work. When doing this, make sure you connect the definition back to your argument.

Repeating something from an expert to support or amplify what you argue. You can use a paraphrase or direct quote from an expert to echo or further support what you say to enhance your own credibility. So, perhaps not much in the way of new information, but you amplify your point and make it last a bit longer for a reader while also showing that other people agree with you.

Highlight differences or counterarguments. It can be valuable to highlight counterarguments or people who see things a little differently. It shows that you are aware of other arguments and you have thought about them. Make sure to build in how these counterarguments either enhance your own position or provide evidence for how they don’t quite support the argument you are making.

Task

In a below comment, choose a 1-2 sentence passage from one of your sources for your paper so far. If you don’t have one, see if you can find one quickly by using a keyword from your topic, finding a source with that keyword in a search engine, and choosing a 1-2 sentence chunk. Do three things:

• Paste the full quote
• Write a paraphrase of that quote (use “signal words”!)
• Write a direct quote where the quote is introduced and commented on (use “signal words” and see examples above).

After commenting below, click on the button to continue the module:

On Wednesday (4/21), the Reflective Annotated Bibliography is due.

You will submit 2 entries following the 6 criteria outlined in the instructions on Blackboard (see Submit Assignments>Process Writing and Reading Responses>Reflective Annotated Bibliography).

I want at least 1 of the entries to be an academic source (i.e., in an academic journal or in a book published by a university press).

• This is a really good page on telling the difference between an academic journal article and a popular source: Identifying Scholarly/Professional Journal Articles – Identifying Scholarly/Professional Journal Articles – LibGuides @ URI at University of Rhode Island. This source is VERY very helpful for making these distinctions. If you aren’t sure, just ask me!
• For academic books, they will be published by a university press. So, look at the publisher early on in the book (either title page or just before title page where copyright information is) and see if a college/university name is in the title of the publisher. Other examples of academic presses are these: Routledge, Parlor, Verso, Bloomsbury Academic. If you aren’t sure, just ask me!

Take some time to look over the instructions. This assignment will build on the last page of choosing sources, saving them, and taking notes on them to integrate with your Research Writing Project essay.

Do you have any questions on this assignment? Comment below. If you have no questions, just write “I have no questions.”

After commenting below, click on the button below to continue the module.

As you start to find things, you will have to:

• Evaluate them to see if they will help answer your research question
• Make sure they are saved so you can refer to them later
• Take notes on them so you know how to use them to move toward writing

Evaluation

Make sure you check out this page on evaluating sources from Learning Module 7, the reading from the textbook on evaluating sources, this page on using targeted questions to evaluate sources from Learning Module 7, and this short reading for the flow chart on those targeted questions.

Saving Sources

If you found a journal article, make sure you save it as a PDF file to your computer so you can look at it later.

If you found a book that is online, make sure you have either a link to it saved in a separate document or you write down the full name and author of the book so you can find it again. If the link is through Baruch’s library, make sure you do both (the link might not work, so you’ll want the author and title so you can find it again).

If you found a journal article or another webpage that is only available as a webpage, make sure you have the link saved in a separate document.

Finally: a good idea is to create a folder on your computer (or somewhere else, like Google Drive) and label it by the name of the assignment (e.g., “ENG 2100 Research Paper”). That way you can always find a document with saved links or PDFs of articles or whatever. You can also save different versions of your Research Writing Project there, as well.

Taking Notes and Moving Toward Synthesis

So you have some sources and you have some writing to do. Naturally, you will toggle back and forth here a bit (you might have some sources, then you do some writing, then you find a need for more sources, and then you do more writing).

Now what? Get organized.

First, you have to keep your research question at the forefront of what you want to do here. Let it manage your attention and keep your focus on what you want to prioritize in reading through sources.

Second, you will want to immerse yourself in your sources so you know them really well. It will be clear in your writing if you have not done this, because you will just drop a quote here or there and write in a way that would leave an impression that you did not need the source at all. Don’t do that! Getting really deep into the sources you have will help you learn in impactful ways and it will help produce better writing.

Lean on your reading annotation skills! Take notes on things that jump out to you, note where you pause, look over your notes and compare notes against notes on other sources. What patterns or themes do you see? What are the connections among your sources? Mark those connections.

Third, evaluate the sources you have (another layer of evaluation after evaluating to include them in your project to begin with). Page 169 in our textbook has some great questions to ask to start doing this.

Doing this work will help you move toward integrating your writing in relation to the sources you find with the larger argument of your research paper (one that will be developed by engaging with these sources and not *before* you ever encounter sources!).

Task

Do one of the following in a comment below:

• Find a source that is potentially relevant (use previous page to help) and talk about why it could be helpful in no more than 100 words.
• Share a note you took on a source you have already started to read through. Explain what the note is in reference to.

After commenting below, click on the button to continue:

So you have a topic to research, and maybe you have a rough draft of a research question. Let’s try a run at looking for information about this topic/question.

On 3/22, we looked over that “fake news” research question to try to find some sources to try to address that question. (see also reading from textbook due that day)

In Learning Module 7, we talked about moving toward a proposal for your topic, things to think about when evaluating sources, and using questions to help choose sources. (see also readings from textbook due that day).

On 4/5 we used stasis theory as a way to narrow down a possible research question to ask, and, finally, on Monday (4/12) we related research questions to disciplines of knowledge and connected that to writing practices in regard to citation.

Below is a list of bullet points for you to try out with your research topic/question.

• For your research question, what is the best approach to address it? What sort of field of study (e.g., history, psychology, economics, cultural or literary studies, rhetorical studies, marketing, sociology, environmental studies, urban planning, engineering)?
• What sort of evidence is preferred for that field of study? How do you know?
• What ways of finding information would give you the highest quality evidence to research your topic? (e.g. library databases like Academic Search Complete or JSTOR or EBSCOHost or the Newman Library’s main search engine, internet search engines like Google or Bing, specialized versions of internet search engines like Google Scholar, specific academic journals that you know will have information on your topic, sites with access to image/audio/video–see here for more on that). It can be good to try multiple places to search because each search method will produce different results. If you are not sure where to start, just pick one. You can pick the ones provided (e.g., Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, Google Scholar) or you can explore the databases page on the Newman Library page)
• The place to start for most of this is the Newman Library main page. You can use main search bar but also click “Databases” on right side of page to browse options to look for information.
• Contacting a librarian about places to look for information can always be really helpful. You will learn a ton because they are smart people who specialize in doing exactly what you are just learning to do: find and evaluate information. You can schedule a research consultation here.
• Thinking about how to search is important by using quotation marks to search for full phrases or Boolean operators (E.g., AND, OR, NOT) to help filter things out is a big help. More information on how to search on this page under “Finding Texts.”
• Wikipedia is fine–just see what they cite and grab those sources instead!
• Popular vs. academic sources–academic sources nearly (but not always) always more reliable. Check web address like “.com” vs. “.edu” or “.org”. Something with “.com” or “.net” might not always be as reliable (just have to do more digging).
• Do you need any primary sources or just secondary sources? Primary sources are the original data talked about–e.g., your Rhetorical Analysis was analyzing specific texts, those specific texts were primary sources. Secondary sources talk about data, so you citing a study of college students about learning styles would be secondary since you are not analyzing their data but their analysis of their data.
• Worth collecting your own primary evidence (experiments, making observations, interview people, surveys, personal experience)? If so, how will you go about doing that?

Task

After going through these bullets, comment below with the following in regard to your topic/question:

1. what academic discipline or disciplines would help you address your topic/question?
2. what kinds of evidence would best address this question? (go back to the readings due so far and past lessons/modules linked above to remind yourself of different kinds of evidence)
3. name 2 ways of finding information that you will use–like specific ones not just “the internet” or “a search engine.”
4. name 2 keywords and/or phrases that are relevant to searching for information for your topic/phrase

After commenting below, click the button below to continue the module:

This week, we talked about:

• Writing blogs and how that might influence choices you make as a writer
• Coming up with a plan for revision of your rhetorical analysis
• Thinking about style in terms of coherence
• Getting started with research for your Research Writing Project: your proposal, evaluating sources you find, and using the “Questions to Consider” for choosing sources.

Next Time

-Next week is spring break. Please find some time to rest. If you are really behind, it might be a good idea to start making up work. Let me know if you have questions about planning how to do that–happy to help.

-When we see each other again in April, you have a reading to do about “stasis theory” that can be helpful for forming research questions and narrowing your focus on a research project. Please complete the reading.

-Your proposal will also be due that day (4/5). See prompt for Research Proposal on our course schedule underneath April 5 (it is a post to Discord).

The “Questions to Consider as You Choose Sources” flow chart from the textbook on pages 166-167 is really, really helpful when you start to settle on some potential sources to use in your writing.

I really want you to use it!

Task

Please do one of the following:

• Write about one of the 5 questions and/or one of the parts of the 5 questions that you think is particularly useful. Why?
• Write about one of the 5 questions and/or one of the parts of the 5 questions that you are confused about. What is confusing about it?
• Try it out! Take a source you have been looking at if you have started to find some for your research project. Write about how that source seems useful based on how you answered the five questions and the associated sub-questions.

After commenting, click the button below to continue.

On Monday, March 22 we talked about finding evidence. For today’s Learning Module, you were asked to read two chapters from our textbook (one was VERY short) on “evaluating sources” and questions to ask when choosing sources to work with.

Let’s focus on evaluating sources, first.

Here are some questions you can consider when evaluating the relevance and quality of a source:

• • how is it relevant to your research question?
  • who wrote it (expert? google or google scholar. expert but are they expert in subject they are talking about?)?
  • Reputation of publisher?
  • What are author and publisher’s goals and why?
  • How recent was this, potentially outdated?
  • how credible are sources they cite?
  • how specialized?
  • who was this written for?
  • enough information here to support your research?
  • can you access full document?
  • what is left out?
  • can it be corroborated by other sources?
  • what is web address and is that clue for credibility?
  • does it cite sources for claims?
  • mix of perspectives represented fairly?

Task

So let’s try this out. Using the questions above and what you read from the “Evaluating Sources” chapter, let’s use the example research question we used on Monday, March 22 to try to evaluate some sources. Here again is that example research question:

How susceptible are older people (approx. age 60 and older) to fake news and why?

In a comment below, find a source that you think might be relevant to this question using some of the methods (find sources by using some of the methods we talked about on Monday, 3/22) and try to answer 2 of the questions above.

In your comment, identify the questions you chose and your answers to the questions.

Let’s get some ideas out for a proposal (see course schedule under April 5 for what you have to do). Let’s start thinking about what you might write about for your Research Writing Project.

Read over the Research Writing Project at Blackboard>Submit Assignments>Major Writing Projects>Research Writing Project. Click the attachment under draft 1 (or draft 2, it is the same attachment).

Your task for this research project is to come up with something you want to know more about. It is to ask a genuine question. Here is some great information on research questions from George Mason University’s Writing Center.

The key is to:

• be clear with specifics to understand the purpose of the research
• that it is narrow enough that you can genuinely provide some sort of response to the question in the space of the writing task that you have
• that it is concise enough so you are clear on how to answer it (sometimes if research question is too wordy or complex, it is hard to know how to get started)
• the response to the question cannot be summed up with “yes” or “no”…Ask questions that start with “what, how, why” sort of language.
• it is an arguable question, that it is open to debate and exploration and is not already largely “settled.”

Think back to the four research domains that you can choose from: language, reading, writing, learning and/or career path.

Based on the four possibilities for writing, which one appeals to you the most?

What are 2-3 things you want to know more about within that domain?

What is an example of a research question about one of those things?

Task

Go to our Discord server and under Reading/Writing Discussion, post a response to the following in the text channel # mar-24-research-and-questions:

• One of the four domains you are interested in writing about
• 2-3 things you’d like to learn more about within that domain
• One example of a research question about one of those things

Feel free to read each other’s posts and respond with ideas or suggestions for others to refine questions, ask questions for more information, or offer suggestions for various possible approaches to the paper.

After posting in Discord, click on the button below to continue:

This will likely be our last module page on a new style concept (we will do some review in the next Learning Module or the one after that).

This can be an important one to think about, especially for those of you who have mentioned wanting to improve the “flow” of your writing.

Sentence coherence can best be thought of as ways in which you can position your sentences in ways where a reader can quickly understand why one sentence follows another. One of the best ways to think about coherence is the given/new principle in writing.

Generally speaking, the opening of a sentence (‘given’) contains information that the reader already knows and the ending of a sentence (‘new’) contains new information. The ‘given’ information is based on one of two sources:

1. Something that was referred to in the previous sentence or earlier in the passage.
2. Something that is common knowledge or transition words that signal reference (explicit or implicit—as in, inserting common knowledge at beginning that wasn’t mentioned yet, having a sentence of only new information because the new information implies the old/common knowledge, or a transition marker that refers back)

Here are some examples from chapter 4 of the professional writing textbook Business Writing is for Everyone:

It is easy to let your sentences become cluttered with words that do not add value to your message. Improve cluttered sentences [GIVEN] by eliminating repetitive ideas, removing repeated words, and editing to eliminate unnecessary words [NEW].

You should be especially careful when writing about groups of people in a way that might reinforce stereotypes. For example, [GIVEN; offers inference that example will illustrate point in last sentence] implied in his book Elements of Indigenous Style, Gregory Younging discusses how subtle bias can have a big impact when non-Indigenous people write about First Nations, Metis and Inuit people [NEW].

If you are a writer that frequently gets comments on papers that your writing is “clunky” or hard to follow, this can be one fairly easy method to improve the readability for your reading.

Task

Comment below with the following:

1. Paste two consecutive sentences from a previous piece of your writing that you feel is really cohesive. Insert “given” and “new” like I do above in the examples I provided.
2. Explain what you think really helps with the cohesion and comment a little bit about whether it could be improved or if you have noticed general areas you want to work on at all in terms of readability in your writing.

After commenting, click the button below to continue.