Good day! Hope you are well. Today we will pick up where we left off last week. We will review summary and paraphrase, use of quotations and proper source reference, and the expository essay. We will also discuss the field report, introduced on last week's blog. The field report must be done on your own, and requires you report from an eye witness perspective on some event or feature of our local community.
The work in progress (#4) is a short report on a subject rooted in last week's article by Cornelia Dean, "With Warming, Peril Underlies Road to Alaska." The essay is due today. My suggestion was to pull together a number of examples addressing climate change and the evidence for it. These you must weave together in a portrait of climate-induced changes–large and small–being documented around the world. Each source must be clearly referenced in text by title and author or publication site if no author is named. The Modern Language Association publishes guidelines for writing in the humanities which we will follow. These include what are called in-text citations and a Works Cited list. We will look at the format further today.
In research, whatever the topic, we can use dictionaries to help us define, encyclopedias to get at the facts and history, the news media to learn of events large and small and the range of popular and expert opinion on any given matter. And what of the artists whose works give us imaginative insight, and the personal stories that come to us by so many means? What have the many who have weighed in on this (your) subject had to say? You are to write informatively, with the express purpose of conveying information to your readers. There may be a personal story or basis to your writing, but reference to the work or ideas of others is necessary, in the form of description, summary and paraphrase or direct quotation.
Essay work should always advance a point, that is, a thesis, always an arguable claim, and one that tries to convince readers of the truth or soundness of some position, or perhaps to do something, take a stand, too. Essayists may explore a topic so that readers are in a position to make an informed decision, without themselves insisting on a single position or interpretation of events. The thesis may address an issue that has no ready or absolute answer, nor one readily verified by resort to factual report, but one that must be grappled with and that challenges readers to define their values and beliefs.
Argument or fact?
*Recent severe weather events have been caused by global warming.
*Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
*Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
* Van Gogh’s work is that of a madman.
* Plastic bags are polluting the seas.
*Consumers must reduce their carbon footprint.
*The average temperature of the earth has risen over the last century.
*Glaciers are melting at a rate unprecedented in modern times.
The argument is to be built around an arguable claim, that is one about which reasonable people could reasonably disagree. It should be supported with reference to your readings, expert or authoritative findings, factual support and logical analysis. First-person experience and appeals to common sense and human values count, too.
Consider the following thesis: The use of plastics worldwide must come under closer scrutiny and regulation.
Readers may now want to know why, and how the issue affects them and, indeed, if there is anything they might do to help resolve the issue. Your sources provide background information, demonstrate your knowledge of the topic, provide authoritative support and perspective, and show the range of perspectives possible, in fairness to differing opinions.
Our ideas, whether commonly held or no, are rooted in traditional areas of study reflecting the history of human thought, values, attitudes, and tastes, and conduct. These study areas include philosophy, religion, nature, aesthetics, science, ethics, education, etcetera. Our most closely held beliefs and attitudes reflect very often our unexamined ideas about the nature of love, faith, trust, loss, betrayal, goodness and evil, freedom, sanctity, the very meaning of life. Whether we focus on Washington and the shenanigans that make the nightly news, bioengineering, Facebook, legal injustices, or the most recent individual or "hero" making a positive difference in the world, our beliefs, associated ideas, and feelings define us as human beings. In choosing a research topic you will tap into some subject about which you feel strongly and have clear enough knowledge to put across a cogent argument or position, as supported also by fact and opinion gathered from your reading of available literature.
*Select material for quotation on the following bases:
1) -the wording is particularly memorable, to the point, and not easily paraphrased
2) -it expresses an author’s or expert’s direct opinion that you want to emphasize
3) -it provides example of the range of perspective
4) -it provides a constrasting or opposing view
*See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/675/1/ for MLA formatting rules and examples of direct quotation. The OWL site offers fairly comprehensive discussion and examples of presenting and documentaing primary and secondary source material.
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Citing Sources in MLA Style
To document your research sources, whether from an article in print or online, an encyclopedia or dictionary item, an interview source, a film, photograph, illustration or other visual material– there is a standard means. The primary reference is the author of the source, whose last name provides the key or first word to an itemized alphabetical list on the last page of the report (called the Works Cited page) that contains the full bibliographic information of all the sources referenced or cited in the text. Any directly quoted, paraphrased or summarized information should be referenced or cited in text and included on the Works Cited page. The author’s name and the title of the piece should be included in the essay text along with whatever information item you have borrowed or used. This in-text reference may appear as a parenthetical citation (i.e. a set of parentheses like the one I am using now) containing the author's last name and perhaps a page number or text title. Sometimes an article or source may have no author credit; in such instances, use the text title as the key term.
The following URL displays the MLA guidelines and illustrations for integrating sources:
Checklist:
*Double-check to that you have acknowledged all material from a source.
*Identify the author of each source in text or in parentheses following the information item.
*Use the title as a source reference for works without identified authors.
*Follow the basic pattern for creating entries on the Works Cited page, and be sure to alphabetize them.
Individual Author of a Book
Hazzard, Shirley. The Great Fire. New York. Farrar, 2003. Print.
Article from a Printed Magazine
Jenkins, Lee. “He’s Gotta Play Hurt.” Sports Illustrated. 26 Oct. 2009: 42-3. Print.
Article from an Online Magazine
Bowden, Mark. “Jihadists in Paradise.” The Atlantic.com. Atlantic Monthly Group, Mar. 2007. Web. 8 Mar. 2007.
Article from an Online Newspaper
Richmond, Riva. “Five Ways to Keep Online Criminals at Bay.” New York Times. New York Times, 19 May 2010. Web. 29 May 2010.
Selection from an Online Book
Webster, Augusta. “Not Love.” A Book of Rhyme. London, 1881. Victorian Women Wrtiers Project. Web. 8 Mar. 2007.
Organization Web Page
“Library Statistics.” American Library Association. Amer. Lib. Assn. 2010 Web. 26 Feb. 2010.
Film
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2003. Film.
Program on Television or Radio
“The Wounded Platoon.” Frontline. PBS. WGBH, Boston, 18 May 2010. Television.
Online Video Clip
Murphy, Beth. "Tips for a Good Profile Piece." Project: Report. YouTube, 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 19 Sept. 2008.
Advertisement
Feeding America. Advertisement. Time. 21 Dec. 2009: 59. Print.
Comic or Cartoon
Adams, Scott. “Dilbert.” Comic Strip. Denver Post 1 Mar. 2010: 8C. Print.
Personal, Telephone, or E-mail Interview
Boyd, Dierdra. Personal Interview. 5 Feb. 2012.
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