Writing from Sources

by Spatt

• ISBN13: 9780312437978
• ISBN10: 0312437978
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-20
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Writing from Sourcesprovides students with a complete guide to the skills of doing research and integrating the results confidently and effectively into their own prose, while providing instructors with all the readings and prompts they need for a complete course in source-based writing. To teach students a reliable process for working with sources, the book builds systematically from simpler skills such as finding a topic and looking for sources to more demanding ones such as choosing appropriate sources and integrating them smoothly with the writer's own ideas, providing detailed guidance and examples for each step. Many exercises and writing assignments, supported by numerous readings ranging from brief excerpts to full essays, provide ample practice in every skill.

Author Biography

BRENDA SPATT taught English at Herbert H. Lehman College of The City University of New York for 13 years before becoming the university's director of academic affairs and then associate dean.

Table of Contents

    To the Instructor
    To the Student
    Citations
    
PART I. MAKING SOURCES YOUR OWN
  1. Reading for Understanding
    Underlining
    Annotating
       Reading: William Leach, from Land of Desire
       Exercise 1: Annotating a Passage
         *Anne Hollander, from Sex and Suits
    Asking Questions
       Reading: Blanche Blank, A Question of Degree
       Exercise 2: Understanding What You Read
         *Jane Bernstein, A Victim of Circumstance
    Questioning the Author
      *Reading: Rubén Martínez: The Kindness of Strangers
       Exercise 3: Examining Intention
         *Martha C. Nussbaum, Cosmopolitan Emotions?
    Analyzing the Author's Use of Evidence and Reading
    Interpreting Evidence: Inference
       Exercise 4: Drawing Inferences
         *Marshall Poe, The Other Gender Gap
    Logical Reasoning
    Analyzing an Author's Logic
       Exercise 5: Analyzing an Author's Logic
         *Walter Newell, from The Code of Man
    
PART II. PRESENTING SOURCES TO OTHERS
  2. Summarizing Sources
    Summarizing a Paragraph
       Exercise 6: Summarizing a Paragraph
          Andrew Sullivan, from The Love Bloat
          Bradford W. Wright, from Comic Book Nation
         *Gail Collins, from America's Women
          Daniel Boorstin, from Americans: The National Experience
         *Steven Pinker, from The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
    Summarizing an Article
       Reading: Selwyn Raab, Holdup Man Tells Detectives How to Do It
       Exercise 7: Summarizing an Article
         *Eric Hoover, Crying Foul Over Fans' Boorish Behavior
    Summarizing a Complex Essay
       Reading: Bertrand Russell, The Social Responsibility of Scientists
       Assignment 1: Summarizing an Essay
         *Shannon E. French, When Teaching the Ethics of War Is Not Academic
         *Neal Gabler, Our Celebrities, Ourselves
         *John Taylor Gatto, Against School
    
  3. Quoting Sources
    Reasons for Quoting
    Using Quotations
       Exercise 8: Quoting Correctly
    Quoting Accurately
       Tailoring Quotations to Fit Your Writing
       Exercise 9: Using Ellipses and Brackets in Quotations
    Writing Citations
    Deciding What to Quote
      *Reading: Lizabeth Caten, Feminizing Public Space
       Exercise 10: Why Quote?
         *Gail Collins, from America's Women
       Exercise 11: What to Quote
         *Edward Tenner, from Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology
         *Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy At Home and Abroad
    Integrating Quotations into Your Paragraphs
       Exercise 12: Integrating Quotations Into a Paragraph
    Avoiding Plagiarism
       Exercise 13: Identifying Plagiarism
    
  4. Paraphrasing Sources
    Using Paraphrase in Your Essays
    Using Paraphrase as Preparation for Reading and Writing Essays
    Writing a Good Paraphrase
    Paraphrase and Summary
    Writing an Accurate Paraphrase
       Exercise 14: Identifying a Good Paraphrase
         *David Barash, from Evolution, Males, and Violence
    Paraphrasing a Difficult Text
    Writing a Literal Paraphrase
    Writing a Free Version of the Literal Paraphrase
       Assignment 2: Paraphrasing a Difficult Passage
    Using Paraphrase with Quotation and Summary
    Reading: Conor Cruise O'Brien, Violence -- And Two Schools of Thought
    Exercise 15: Distinguishing Between Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary, and Commentary
         *Felicia R. Lee, Does Class Count in Today's Land of Opportunity?
    Citing Your Paraphrased Sources
    Writing a Paragraph that Incorporates Paraphrase and Quotation
      *Reading: Anthony Swofford, Jarhead
       Exercise 16: Writing a Paragraph That Incorporates Paraphrase and Quotation
    Presenting Sources: A Summary of Preliminary Writing Skills
    
PART III. WRITING FROM SOURCES
  5. The Single-Source Essay
    Strategy One: Arguing Against Your Source
       Reading: Roger Sipher, So That Nobody Has to Go to School If They Don't Want To
    Presenting Your Source's Point of View
    Presenting Your Point of View
    An Argument Based On a Single Source
          Reading: Leon Botstein, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood
          Reading: Carl Singleton, What Our Education System Needs is More Fs
          Reading: Jana Dunn, Fixing the American High School System
       Assignment 3: Writing an Argument Based on a Single Source
         *Reading: Billie Wright Dziech, Forcing Greek Organizations to Go Coeducational Won't Lead to Greater Diversity
         *Reading: Jonathan Rauch, Now, For Tonight's Assignment...
         *Reading: Pat Hagan, Falling on Deaf Ears
    Strategy Two: Developing an Essay Based on a Source
    Finding and Narrowing a Topic
    Taking Notes and Writing a Thesis
    Deciding on a Strategy
    Structuring Your Essay
    Writing the Essay
    Revising the Essay
       Assignment 4: Writing an Essay Based on a Single Source
         *Christopher Clausen, An Army of One
         *Diana Schaub, The Pillars of the Temple of Liberty
         *Leon Kass, The End of Courtship
    
  6. The Multiple-Source Essay
    Selecting Information for a Multiple-Source Essay
       Exercise 17: Selecting and Presenting Information
       Assignment 5: Writing an Essay from Factual Information
    Generalizing from Examples
    Analyzing Multiple Sources
       Exercise 18: Analyzing Shades of Meaning in Multiple Sources
       Assignment 6: Writing a Definition Essay from Multiple Sources
    Synthesizing Multiple Sources
       Exercise 19: Identifying Common Ideas
    Organizing Multiple Sources
          Reading: Gene I. Maeroff, from Rule Tying Pupil Promotion to Reading Skill Stirs Worry
    How the Three Steps Work
    Evaluating Sources
    Writing a Synthesis Essay
       Exercise 20: Analyzing a Paragraph Based on a Synthesis of Sources
    Citing Sources for Synthesis
         *Reading: Alan Wolfe, Moral Freedom: Till Circumstances Do Us Part
       Assignment 7: Writing an Essay Synthesizing Multiple Sources
          Todd Gitlin, Disappearing Ink
       Assignment 8: Writing an Argument from Multiple Sources
         *Sandeep Jauhar, When Doctors Slam the Door
    When Not to Synthesize
    Synthesizing Sources in Academic Essays
       Reading: Jeffrey Rosen, from The Naked Crowd
       Exercise 21: Integrating Three Academic Sources
         *Fendrich, Lippit, and Malamud, In This Year's Fashion Jungle, Beastly Patterns Are the Sincerest Form of Fakery
       Assignment 9: Synthesizing Academic Sources
         *Bill Coplin, Lost in the Life of the Mind
         *Marshall Gregory, A Liberal Education Is Not a Luxury
    
PART IV. WRITING THE RESEARCH ESSAY
  7. Finding Sources
    Topic Narrowing
       Exercise 22: Narrowing a Topic
       Exercise 23: Proposing a Topic
    Locating Sources
    Interviewing And Field Research
       Exercise 24: Writing About an Issue from Multiple Sources
    Saving and Recording Information for Your Bibliography
       Exercise 25: Compiling a Working Bibliography
       Assignment 10: Preparing a Topic Proposal for a Research Essay
    
  8. Evaluating Sources
    Learning More about Your Sources
    Evaluating Print Sources
    Evaluating Web Sources
    Evaluating Web Sources About Animal Rights
    Integrating Sources
       Exercise 26: Evaluating Web Sites
       Exercise 27: Evaluating Internet Sources
       Exercise 28: Choosing Internet Sources
       Exercise 29: Evaluating Sources
         *Walter Berns, from Making Patriots
         *Robert Goldstein, Burning the Flag: The Great 1989-1990 American Flag Desecration
         *Stephen Nathanson, from Patriotism, Morality, and Peace
         *Cecelia O'Leary, from To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism
         *Michael Welch, from Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest
         *Wilbur Zelinsky, from Nation Into State: The Shifting Symbolic Foundations of American Nationalism
         *The Flag Protection Act of 1989 (Joint Resolution of Congress)
         *Celestine Bohlen, O Say Can You See What That Flag Means?
         *Norm R. Allen Jr., True Patriotism
         *Flag Burning and Other Acts Deemed Disrespectful of American Symbols (web site)
         *The Flag Burning Page (web site)
       Exercise 30: Comparing Sources
          300 Killed By Fire (The New York Times)
          Catastrophe: Boston's Worst (Time Magazine)
          Bernard Devoto, The Easy Chair
    
  9. Writing the Research Essay
    Saving Information
    Taking Notes
       Exercise 31: Taking Notes on Two Topics
       Exercise 32: Taking Notes on Three Topics
         *Stephanie Coontz, from The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
    Developing a List of Topics
    Planning a Strategy
    Arranging the Order of Topics
    Completing Your Outline
       Exercise 33: Writing an Outline with Cross-Referencing
    Writing Integrated Paragraphs
    Accommodating Argument in Your Paragraphs
    Presenting Arguments Fairly
    Integrating Your Sources: An Example
    Writing an Introduction
    Using Visuals as Sources
       Assignment 11: Organizing and Writing the Research Essay
    
  10. Acknowledging Sources
    Documenting Information
    Documenting Ideas Found in Your Source
    Plagiarism: Stealing Ideas
    Plagiarism: Stealing Words
       Exercise 34: Understanding When to Document Information
       Exercise 35: Understanding Plagiarism
         *Comparing Notes (The New York Times)
       Exercise 36: Identifying Plagiarism
    Using Documentation
       Exercise 37: Acknowledging Sources
       Exercise 38: Documenting Sources Correctly
    Signaling the Transitions Between Sources
    Using Explanatory Notes
    Avoiding Excessive Documentation
    Using Umbrella Notes
    The Final Bibliography
    Preparing The Annotated Bibliography
       Exercise 39: Preparing the Bibliography
    Presenting Your Essay
    
  11. Some Basic Forms For Documentation: MLA, APA, and Endnotes
    MLA Style
    APA Style
    Numbered Bibliography
    Endnote/Footnote Documentation
    Notes Plus Page Numbers In The Text
    
  12. Three Research Essays
    Bethany Dettmore, Looking at Horror Films
    Lee Myers, Is Eating People Really Wrong?
    David Morgan, Explaining the Tunguskan Phenomenon
    
  *Appendix A: Writing Essay Examinations
    Reading the Question
    Planning and Developing the Essay
    Analyzing an Essay and an Essay Question
       Reading: George Stade, Football -- The Game of Aggression
    Answering the Question
    Introducing Your Topic
    Presenting Your Essay to the Reader
    
  *Appendix B: Readings for a Research Essay
    Periodicals
      *Essays from The Nation, 7/15/91
      *Debating How Best to Love Your Country (The New York Times, 7/1/00)
      *John Lukacs, When Democracy Goes Wrong (Harper's, 4/05)
    Academic Books
      *Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America
      *Leo Tolstoi, Patriotism, or Peace?
      *Michael Walzer, Civility and Civic Virtue in Contemporary America
      *Irving Kristol, Urban Civilization and Its Discontents
      *Sidney Axinn, Honor, Patriotism, and Ultimate Loyalty
      *Stephen Nathanson, Military Service and Unjust Wars
      *Maurizio Viroli, Patriotism and Nationalism
      *Scott McLean, The War on Terrorism and The New Patriotism
    
    
   * new to this edition