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CHAPTER 6 Using Sources Effectively

The abilities to find and document sources and to develop an argument about or interpretation of them have many applications in school and on the job. The genres of researched writing used in academic disciplines include the argumentative research paper (often called a term paper), the proposal, the annotated bibliography, the book review, the literature review, the personal research report (often called an "I-Search" paper, the name given to it by Ken Macrorie, an early advocate of this genre). You may be asked to a build a Web site based on library research. You may be asked to simply report on your research, or to use it as a starting point for experimentation or observation in the laboratory or on field observations. Usually oral presentations and the visuals that sup- port them are rooted in extensive research. Research reports in the sciences (lab reports) and social sciences, although their formats differ from papers in the humanities, usually begin with a review of the previous research that led to the hypothesis currently under investigation. All these genres of researched writing involve similar strategies for find- ing and evaluating sources, taking notes, and using quotations, summaries, and para- phrases skillfully. However, when and how sources are used and how they are cited vary for different kinds of writing and from field to field. Thus, these general information literacy and research writing skills must be adapted to meet discipline-specific expecta- tions for format, style, and means of presentation in specific academic fields.

SKILLS FOR ACADEMIC INQUIRY: QUOTATION, PARAPHRASE, SUMMARY, AND SYNTHESIS There are four basic means for using sources when writing researched papers and reports: quotation, paraphrase, summary, and synthesis. These techniques help writers progress from taking notes to drafting. It is always necessary to cite sources as you use them and to consistently distinguish between your own words and ideas and those of your sources.

1. Quotations are exact repetitions of a writer's work. Quotations are less often used in disciplines that use APA (American Psychological Association) style than those who use MLA (Modern Language Association) style because arguments in most

101

102 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

disciplines that use APA depend more on summary and synthesis of previous research than on close analysis of texts.

2. Paraphrases are restatements of the writer's ideas in your own words, following the source closely in the order in which an argument is developed or evidence is laid out. Paraphrases must be clearly identified as such, by direct attribution to the author, because they can be mistaken for your own thinking.

3. Summaries give an overall representation of a writer's argument or part of one, and also must also be identified as representing the ideas of the original as they are moved from notes to drafts.

4. Syntheses draw on more than one source in order to show relationships among methodologies, assumptions, and conclusions.

Summaries and syntheses of other writers' work make up the "literature review" that opens most academic papers and provides the context for most academic arguments. Any aspects of understanding or response that occur to you while taking notes and working with sources make drafting a researched paper easier, so write your interpreta- tions, questions, and responses into your notes, using a consistent method (font, color, etc.) to distinguish your voice from the voice of the author.

Quoting

Quotations always must be exact copies of the original, whether copied or cut and pasted, and in your notes they should always be enclosed in quotation marks and accompanied by a reference to the source. One convenient way to keep references attached to citations while taking notes and drafting is to attach a footnote to each quo- tation, which can then travel with the citation as you use the source for various projects. Add each source to your working bibliography, so that you can easily copy it into the reference pages of each project.

FOCUS POINTS: US

m Remember that whenever you reproduce a source's wording, even for a few words, you must put quotation marks around it. You may not add or delete anything from the quoted text, unless you use brackets (for adding) or ellipses (for deleting).

a Be very careful not to take a quotation out of context in a way that changes or distorts its meaning. For example, Jacob Bronowski's statement quoted in Chapter 1 would be severely misrepresented by cutting out a few words of that statement, even if ellipses were correctly used. Notice the difference between the following statements: [The book] will bring home to the nonsdentist how the scientific method really works: that

we invent a model and then test its consequences, and that it is this conjunction of imag- ination and realism that constitutes the inductive method.

[The book] will bring home to the nonsdentist how the scientific method really works: that we invent a model . . . and that it is this conjunction of imagination and realism that constitutes the inductive method.

m When taking notes, copv Quotations when von want tl-ia ova^f ™T™J;-~~ ~( -

Skills for Academic Inquiry: Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary, and Synthesis

understand a claim or a piece of evidence, making an exact copy allows you to go back to it later, when further reading in the field may give you a better under- standing of it. However, you should resort to that kind of copying as little as pos- sible, since it can lead to a paper that simply pieces together quotations rather than using them to make an argument. To write effectively you need to understand your sources, not just repeat them. When you use notes to draft a paper, it is advisable to state the point or purpose of a quotation before you use it and to integrate shorter quotations smoothly into com- plete sentences. This is a way to demonstrate your understanding of the source and guide your readers to share it. For example: Alfie Kohn claims that there is no data to confirm that more students in the present than

in the past receive higher grades for less real achievement: "The bottom line: No one has ever demonstrated that students today get A's for the same work that used to receive B's or C's."

It is important to distinguish word-for-word quotations of sources from paraphrases and summaries in your own words, and correct punctuation is the way to make this distinction clearly and effectively. The rules for punctuating quotations are relatively simple, but they need to be followed consistently. These rules follow Modern Language Association (MLA) style, because quotations are rarely used in fields that use American Psychological Association (APA) style.

Authors' Names

The first time you use an author's name, you should use the full name, without hon- orifics (Mr., Miss., Professor, Dr., etc.). For later reference, use only the last name. Never refer to an author by first name only.

Short Quotations

H In contemporary American practice, short quotes are put in double quotation marks. • In the following example from Benjamin Franklin's biography, the spelling and

capitalization of the original are maintained, even though they are now obsolete. s If the author's name is mentioned before the quote, only the page number goes

in the parenthetical citation. The period that ends the final sentence follows the final parenthesis.

• In the following example from the MLA Handbook, notice how the quotation is fused to the writer's text to produce a single, grammatically correct sentence.

a Since the author is not cited before the quotation, the last name is included in the parenthetical citation.

Short Quote Following a Complete Sentence

Benjamin Franklin describes how he Learned to write through imitating The Spectator, an

English magazine: "I bought it, read it over, and was much deliahted with it. I thnuaht thp

104 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

Short Quote Integrated into a Sentence

It is crucial for students to learn to document sources well because it "not only recognizes

the work writers do; it also tends to discourage the circulation of error" (MLA Handbook 52).

Long Quotations

m A long quote (three or more lines; one or more complete sentences) should be set off by indenting the entire quote one inch—or ten spaces. Notice in the example below that when long quotes are set off, quotation marks are not used around them.

fa Use long, set-off quotations when it is important to get the exact words of a partic- ular passage or when the author's style is very important and you need a long quote to get across its impact. However, they should be used sparingly, since they can look like "padding" and may suggest that you do not understand the material well enough to summarize it. Moreover, many readers admit to skipping over them, and this can dilute the impact of your argument.

m It is particularly important to introduce long quotes, so that your reader can see the point in a single reading. Use the same spacing (double or single) for the set-off quotation that you use for the document itself.

Punctuating Introductions to Quotations

e When using a quotation in a paper, it is more effective to introduce it than to just let it "speak for itself."

0 If the introductory statement is a complete sentence, follow it with a colon.

B If the introductory statement is integrated with the quotation to make a complete sentence, use a comma only if you would use a comma if the quotation marks were not there. If the introductory statement would need a comma without the quotation, follow it with a comma.

Quote Following a Complete Sentence

Alfie Kohn claims that there are no data to confirm that more students in the present than in

the past receive higher grades for less real achievement: "The bottom line: No one has ever

demonstrated that students today get A's for the same work that used to receive B's or C's."

Quotes Integrated into Sentences

As Alfie Kohn argues, "the long history of indignation" over grade inflation is usually ignored.

Alfie Kohn observes that "the long history of indignation" over grade inflation is

usually ignored.

Quotes within Quotes

Put quotations within quotations in single quotation marks, as in the example below. However, quotes within set-off quotes are punctuated normally, with double quota- tion marks.

Skills for Academic Inquiry: Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary, and Synthesis 105

Quotes within Quotation Marks

Alfie Kohn observes that a report from "the National Center for Education Statistics

revealed that fully 33.5 percent of American undergraduates had a grade-point average of

C or below, a number that ought to quiet 'all the furor over grade inflation,' according to a

spokesman for the Association of American Colleges and Universities."

Set-Off Quotes

Alfie Kohn raises serious questions about the reality of grade inflation by citing highly

reliable sources:

To get a more accurate picture of whether grades have changed over the years, one needs

to look at official student transcripts. Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst with the

U.S. Department of Education, did just that, reviewing transcripts from more than 3,000

institutions and reporting his results in 1995. His finding: "Contrary to the widespread

lamentations, grades actually declined slightly in the last two decades." Moreover, a

report released just this year by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that

fully 33.5 percent of American undergraduates had a grade-point average of C or below in

1999-2000, a number that ought to quiet "all the furor over grade inflation," according

to a spokesperson for the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Sentence-Ending Punctuation

The basic rule is that commas go inside quotation marks, and periods do so if the sentence ends with the last quotation mark. However, there are several important variations:

a When a parenthetical citation immediately follows the quotation, the sentence does not end with the final quotation mark, and so the period follows the final parenthesis.

a Question marks and exclamation points go inside only when they are part of the quotation. When they are not part of the quotation, they go outside. Commas go within the quotation marks, but semicolons and colons go outside them. For example:

Alfie Kohn asserts, "The bottom line: No one has ever demonstrated that students today get

A's for the same work that used to receive B's or C's."

Mike Rose admits that "there is no single profile of the Good Teacher" (9).

Why did Mike Rose reject the idea that "there is no single profile of the Good Teacher" (9)?

Ellipses, Brackets, and [Sic]

» Use ellipses when you cut away a piece of a quotation. Be very careful not to change the author's meaning by cutting a part away. Do not use ellipses at the beginnings or ends of quotations, unless there is a real possibility of misunderstanding without

106 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

them. Ellipses consist of three dots, separated by spaces. Use a period before the ellipses to show that a sentence ends before the ellipses begin (and thus the number of dots totals four in those cases).

E Use brackets to add to the quotation any material necessary to understand it. The bracketed material can clarify words or expressions in the original text that could be ambiguous when read out of context. In the following example, the bracketed material replaces and clarifies what the author is referring to by "the two."

• The term "sic" set in brackets is used to indicate that the preceding material is original to the source, not the invention or mistake of the quoter. For example, the archaic capitalization and contractions in the quotation from Franklin above could have been followed by [sic] to indicate that they were part of the original. Using [sic] is a judgment call, but it is preferable to avoid it unless there is the possibility of serious confusion or misreading. This did not seem to be the case in quoting Franklin.

Ellipses. . .

Alfie Kohn draws on the distinction between kinds of motivation:

With the exception of orthodox behaviorists, psychologists have come to realize that

people can exhibit qualitatively different kinds of motivation: intrinsic, in which the

task itself is seen as valuable, and extrinsic, in which the task is just a means to the

end of gaining a reward or escaping a punishment. The two are not only distinct but

often inversely related. . . . But the reality is that it doesn't matter how motivated

students are; what matters is how students are motivated. A focus on grades creates, or

at least perpetuates, an extrinsic orientation that is likely to undermine the love of

learning we are presumably seeking to promote.

Brackets [ ]

Alfie Kohn observes that "the two [intrinsic and extrinsic motivation] are not only distinct

but often inversely related."

PARAPHRASING EFFECTIVELY

Paraphrases follow the thinking and wording of the author closely and may include some short quotations like those in the examples above. As when you use quotations, the best way to distinguish your thinking from that of the source is to name the source at the beginning of the paraphrase and (when using MLA style) to follow the para- phrase with the page number in the source from which it was taken. Paraphrasing when taking notes can be used to follow a line of reasoning in detail, but it is risky because it is easy to reword it when actually writing the paper, bringing it back so close to the original (whether or not you intend to) that it will seem like plagiarism— using another writer's words without attribution. If you feel you must closely follow the reasoning of a source by using a paraphrase, consider quoting directly in your

Summarizing Appropriately 107

notes and writing the paraphrase later, when you draft the paper. If there are cases where this is not possible, leave reminders to yourself when you paraphrase, so that you know what you have in your notes when using them later. As with a direct quo- tation, introduce each paraphrase, end it with a page number (when available), and attach a reference.

Alfie Kohn observes that people who blame grade inflation on the liberal excesses of the

1960s are ignoring the fact that people have been complaining about it for centuries.

Alfie Kohn argues that there is no documented evidence that grade inftation has

taken place.

SUMMARIZING APPROPRIATELY

Summaries, an important aspect of note-taking, are also written in your own words, but they cover more of the source in a more general way. Being able to summarize what a writer said accurately, briefly, and without distorting the meaning is a crucial academic skill. A summary of a whole work (sometimes called an abstract) recapitulates the major claim the author makes in a piece, the reasons that support the argument, and the conclusion reached. Although summaries are sometimes assigned and written for their own sake to demonstrate that you have read and understood an article, in research writing they are primarily used to establish the context of an argument and to bring in evidence from other researchers to support a line of reasoning. Keep those uses in mind while summarizing sources and when deciding how much detail to include from a par- ticular source. Like other uses of sources, summaries should be clearly distinguished from your response to the material; although your response is important, the summary should never change or distort the meaning of the original piece. The length of any summary should depend on how you plan to use it in the project and on how central its argument, reasoning, or evidence is to your own developing argument.

• Attach a reference to the summary so that you have the material for a bibliographic entry. Remember that the source for a summary needs to be cited, even if you are describing a writer's general approach or argument, and even if you are not using any direct quotations in it.

• Clearly indicate in the notes when you are speaking for yourself and when you are summarizing another work. The clearest way to distinguish your own thinking from that of your source is to name the source before summarizing, just as you would before quoting or paraphrasing it. If you consistently mark your responses (by highlighting or using a different font) while taking notes, you can easily dis- tinguish them from your summaries of sources.

• If you use an author's summary—from an abstract or concluding paragraph—as a starting place for your own, make sure that you do not simply copy it into your paper. Try restating the author's summary in your own words, and then decide what additional information is needed for the purposes of your project. It may help to close the source while you summarize, so that you are forced to think through the

108 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

main ideas until you fully understand them before putting them in your own words. Then check that the summary accurately represents the source. If it does not, a quotation might be preferable at this stage of your inquiry.

m Let the author do some of the work of summarizing by looking at the central argument (or thesis) of the piece, which usually can be found at the end of the introduction, and which is often reiterated at the beginning of the conclusion and referred to at the beginnings of some paragraphs. You can usually find the major claims, rea- sons, and organization of the evidence in a piece by skimming it. Try highlighting the first sentence of each paragraph of a source you are working with, as well as the first and last sentences of the introduction and conclusion. How close do the highlighted parts bring you to a summary?

Unfortunately, when dealing with any sizable work, following this method closely will produce a summary that is far too long and that includes explana- tions, supporting elements, and other peripheral material. In a piece from a news- paper or magazine—like Alfie Kohn's piece on grade inflation and Robert Rivard's piece on plagiarism in the Readings—the paragraphs are usually too short for this to be an effective strategy. But reading for the writer's statements of argument and purpose—wherever they are located—can provide a good start for summarizing.

& Identify key words by skimming first lines and construct a summary around them.

A Simple Format for Learning to Summarize

If you are new to summarizing, here is a simple framework for getting started. This strat- egy is adapted from instructions for formulating a thesis given in The Craft of Research} If you are already experienced at summarizing, you may find this process to be too rigid and formulaic to let you say what you need to say, so do not hesitate to adapt the process to suit the texts you are working with and to your purpose in summarizing them—or to drop the process when it fails to help you frame your understanding of a source:

a The author [full name] raises [name the problem] with [state the purpose]; ffi The author [last name or pronoun] argues that [state main claim] by observing that [state

main reasons]; m The author [last name or pronoun] concludes [describe conclusion and/or recommenda-

tions]; and m The author [last name or pronoun] proposes [state significance or implications where

appropriate].

EXAMPLE 6.1 Building the Summary Here is a summary of Alfie Kohn's article on grade inflation that follows the process described above:

Alfie Kohn raises the issue of grade inflation in order to argue that it is not really a problem

in most universities. He observes that contemporary students are at least as knowledgeable

Summarizing Appropriately 109

as those of a century ago and suggests that concerns about grade inflation rest on misreadings

of data not directly relevant to measuring student learning. He concludes that claims about

grade inflation derive from an uncritical acceptance of the idea of competitive grading, and

proposes that competitive grading itself is destructive of intellectual effort and detrimental to

educational excellence.

This is a very short summary, only ninety words, yet it gives a precise overview of Kohn's piece and gives appropriate weight to the points Kohn stresses. Here's how it works:

1. Alfie Kohn raises the issue of grade inflation in order to argue that it is not really a problem in most universities. [The first sentence of the summary states the prob- lem, repeats the central claim of the article, and gives Kohn's purpose: to refute the idea that grade inflation is a problem.]

2. He observes that contemporary students are at least as knowledgeable as those of a century ago, [The second sentence gives the major reason supporting Kohn's claim]

3. and suggests that concerns about grade inflation rest on misreading data not directly relevant to measuring student learning, [and the reason why the other side is wrong.]

4. He concludes that claims about grade inflation derive from an uncritical accept- ance of the idea of competitive grading [The third sentence shows Kohn's reasons for discrediting the warrant for the other side (which constitutes much of Kohn's strategy in this article) . . .]

5. and proposes that competitive grading itself is destructive of intellectual effort and detrimental to educational excellence. [. . . and gives Kohn's conclusion, which attests to the larger implications of his argument]

Notice that this summary covers the entire argument specifically; it does not move to a higher level of generality than the author uses, but it does leave out the supporting evi- dence and most of the context. It is preferable to keep a summary as near as possible to the level of specificity in the source. For example, this summary could move to a more general level by starting with a statement that Alfie Kohn addresses an issue in American higher education of considerable concern to faculty, students, and parents; this may be true, but that statement is too general to begin a short summary of Kohn's article.

The summary also includes the author's name; a final draft would indicate page numbers (when available) for any material closely derived from the source, meeting the need for accurate documentation. If a longer summary is required, more detailed sup- port could be added to each of the four sections, and the line of reasoning established, in order to more fully describe Kohn's argument. In the example below, the additions have been bolded. Notice that the additions are primarily the main reasons for his position.

EXAMPLE 6.2 A More Detailed Summary

Alfie Kohn raises the issue of grade inflation in order to argue that it is not really a problem

in most universities, suggesting that grade inflation is actually a myth based on false

110 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

information, insufficient proof, and an unjustified belief in the objective validity of

grades. He documents the unreliability of research attesting to grade inflation and

attributes the conclusion that grade inflation is undermining American higher educa-

tion to the conservative political bias of some researchers. Kohn observes that contem-

porary students are at least as knowledgeable as those of a century ago, citing data from a

U.S. Department of Education analysis of student grades, and suggests that concerns

about grade inflation rest on misreading data not directly relevant to measuring student

learning. He concludes that claims about grade inflation derive from an uncritical acceptance

of the idea that grading should be competitive and from the assumption that stringent

grading effectively motivates learning. Kohn proposes that competitive grading itself is

detrimental to education and destructive to educational excellence, citing evidence that

students learn better from internal motives and from teachers who expect them to

succeed than from competition for grades.

Quest/on What would you expect to be the key words in this article?

How Purpose Affects Summary Clearly, summarizing is an important step in progressing from taking notes to writing an argument of your own. You can shape summaries to the purpose of your projects as you go along, and later synthesize summaries of multiple sources to develop your thinking about your topic even further. In the Readings, the excerpt from the introduction to Mike Rose's Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America summarizes the book and explains the order of the evidence used to argue that there is much that is good in American public education. His evidence is embedded in his account of site visits to a range of schools across the country that, he argues, can and should be considered success- ful. He begins and ends by addressing the purpose of the book: "I hope not so much for prescription as for an opening up of the way we think and talk about public schools" (9).

A writer using Rose's book as a source might summarize this passage in ways that are relevant for a number of different purposes. Each of these sample summaries uses a differ- ent aspect of Rose's introduction as a starting point for a response, analysis, or argument.

1. To support a position or offer evidence for it:

Not everyone believes that public school education in America is hopeless. For example,

Mike Rose assembles case histories of schools that provide effective and engaging instruc-

tion to support his argument that American public education for the most part works (8-9).

Notice that even though this summary is setting us up for a response—probably a positive response—to Rose's argument, it nonetheless accurately conveys what the passage says.

Writing an Annotated Bibliography 111

2. To argue against its conclusions, assumptions, or methodologies or to point out weaknesses in the evidence it uses:

Mike Rose assembles case histories of selected American schools to argue for the success

of American public education and for the "decency and achievement" these schools foster.

However, the actual experience of the majority of teachers and students cannot be ade-

quately represented through a handful of case studies, which may or may not be typical.

The phrase "selected American schools" prepares for a negative response by emphasizing the selectivity of this sample, whereas the first summary empha- sized its geographic breadth. The summary, even though asking us for a negative response to the material, accurately states what the passage says.

3. To explain (and possibly adopt) a writer's methodology:

Mike Rose describes his travels from school to school across America, observing class-

es, talking with high school teachers, university faculty, and students, considering

particular practices and projects in terms of their local populations and their condi-

tions of life. This study will follow a similar plan, but limit the "journey" to neighbor-

hoods within a single city.

This short summary offers more details about Rose's methodology, which the writer intends to imitate.

4. To gather evidence about one focus of the writer's work. (For example, a writer examining urban education might summarize only Rose's references to schools in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City):

When considering urban schools, Mike Rose examines the interplay of relationships

between students and teachers, schools and communities, and reform movements and

individual lives.

This writer may be moving into an analysis of the interactions among similar rela- tionships in some other aspect of urban life, summarizing this aspect of Rose's work to establish the terms of analysis.

As you work with sources, you will find additional purposes for summarizing sources; the direction your argument takes and the kinds of claims you make will deter- mine what information should be summarized from a source and the appropriate length of the summary. It cannot be stressed too often, however, that it is crucial to sum- marize accurately and fairly, which means making sure you do not change the author's ideas, even when you take them out of their original context, and especially when you disagree with them. As well as being unethical, such inaccuracy would seriously under- mine your credibility—your ethos as a writer.

WRITING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources relevant to an inquiry, alphabetized by the author's last name. Each source is summarized and evaluated, usually in no more than

112 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

a short paragraph or two. Published annotated bibliographies serve as reference guides for other researchers, and finding a recent one related to your research can offer an expert introduction to the literature and a strategy for navigating through it. Sometimes researchers write more informal annotated bibliographies for themselves, in order to keep track of their sources when working on a long-term project. They are often assigned in upper-level courses in the humanities.

m Copy the citations from the working bibliography into a new file; focus on sources you have read and are likely to use in later projects.

m Evaluate your sources in terms of reliability. See the Focus Points on Evaluating Sources and Evaluating Materials on the Web in Chapter 2, pages 29 and 40. Discard sources that do not seem reliable or that are irrelevant to your inquiry, unless you have a special reason for including them, for example, exposing their unreliability as part of your response.

• Find additional reliable and relevant sources to add to the bibliography until you have enough to demonstrate the scope of your inquiry and to meet the require- ments of the assignment.

a Consider your audience: your class and your instructor. Are you writing for a research group with considerable knowledge in common, or for an audience that has an interest in your topic but less knowledge about it than you do? Consider the balance of common and disciplinary knowledge appropriate for this audience.

e Write a summary for each source chosen. For some of the sources you may be able to draw on notes, summaries, and responses from previous exercises. Revise this earlier work to fit into the summary/response format and to reflect what you have learned later in your inquiry; write new annotations for sources not yet summarized.

m Write a new or revised response to each source. Start by considering criteria for evaluating the entries: • what part the source plays in your emerging argument, • how it relates to the other sources, • how it has affected your thinking, and • how you might use it in another project.

m Compare your earlier responses to these new ones, and consider how they have changed. Consider how the sources may be useful for future projects based on this inquiry.

% Make sure the entries are in alphabetical order, and write a short introduction to the bibliography that describes its purpose, how much of the inquiry it covers, and what other sources or kinds of sources are needed to complete the inquiry,

is In a longer bibliography (30 or more sources), you can divide the bibliography into sections with subtitles; if you do so, the introduction should also explain what each section covers.

Writing an Annotated Bibliography 113

EXAMPLE 6.3 Sample Annotated Bibliography for a Paper on Plagiarism

Plagiarism: An Annotated Bibliography

This bibliography describes and documents my reading so far for an investigation of

plagiarism and possible solutions to it at American universities. I decided to focus my early

reading on specific cases and places, in order to give me a sense of the "common

understanding" of the issues. Most of the articles examine specific cases of plagiarism or

responses to it, at specific American schools. They identify plagiarism as a problem that

needs to be solved, without paying much attention to defining it or questioning whether it is

a problem at all. The pieces by Rebecca Moore Howard and Candace Spigelman, however, do

make the issue more questionable, and I will need to examine the individual cases reported in

the popular press to distinguish between fraud and mistakes. At the same time, it is

important to test that distinction against descriptions of specific cases to make an argument

about whether or not it is a useful distinction.

Feldt, Brandon. "English Professors Discuss Solutions for Plagiarism." Daily Vidette. Illinois

State University, 27 Jan. 2003. Web. 17 Nov. 2008.

This university newspaper article describes how professors at Illinois State University

consider possible solutions for the growing plagiarism issue. They discuss preparation for writing

in both college and high school atmospheres, and suggest that some students do not understand

the different aspects of plagiarism and/or how to cite correctly. They also consider the impact of

the fact that some teachers tend to give nonspecific directions for papers and assignments.

This article supports my research by providing several different problems that cause

plagiarism as well as a few possible solutions. It considers many of the same issues I plan

to touch upon, particularly the unexplained issues.

Foster, Andrea L. "Plagiarism Tool Creates Legal Quandary." Chronide.com. Chronicle of

Higher Education, 17 May 2003. Web. 17 Nov. 2008.

This article touches upon the law and copyright infringement. It shows the critical

issues concerning computer programs that have emerged since universities began using

them. The article also gives reactions to the possible copyright infringing services.

The article can help my argument by covering the legal aspects of the situation. It

also helps me get a broader understanding of plagiarism as an intellectual property issue.

114 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

By being able to fully understand the situation, I can write a thorough report on the issue,

addressing legal issues as well as moral issues.

Garinger, Alex. "Plagiarism Cases Jump During Fall." Chronicle. Duke University, 13 Jan.

2003. Web. 17 Nov. 2008.

This article reaffirms the increasing rate of plagiarism in our school systems. It focuses on

a study done at Duke University, discussing problems with plagiarism over the past few years.

This article might work as additional background information for my research.

Haberling, Michael. "Maintaining Academic Integrity in Online Education." Online Journal of

Distance Learning Administration 5.1 (2002): n. pag. 3 Dec. 2003. Web. 11 Nov. 2008.

This article refutes the idea that plagiarism and other forms of cheating occur more

often in online courses than in face-to-face courses. Comparing plagiarism cases in both

kinds of classes at Baker College in Michigan, the author (the president of the college) argues

that this is not necessarily so. In fact, it may be easier to detect plagiarism in online courses.

For one thing, teachers of online classes have a larger record of students' writing, since most

class participation is done in writing. It can be easier for a teacher to spot plagiarism when

he or she is used to a student's normal writing style and abilities. The article describes how to

do a "search in reverse" on search engines to detect plagiarism and includes a pretty funny

story about students plagiarizing their college application essays and getting caught.

This article extends the question of plagiarism to online courses, which I have not

really thought much about in this project.

Howard, Rebecca Moore. "Forget about Policing Plagiarism. Just Teach." Chronicle.com.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 16 Nov. 2001. Web. 17 Jan. 2008.

This article seems like a simpler version of the earlier article in College English. Instead

of considering what students do when writing, it tells teachers how to deal with plagiarism in

their courses. Howard does not seem to think that there is a "plague" of plagiarism, and she

reminds teachers that they do not want to be police. She looks into some of the reasons why

students may cheat, and talks about how professors' working conditions can help them assign

papers that students do not want to cheat on.

This article seems to be blaming colleges and professors for students' cheating. It

does raise the question of how professors should be teaching classes.

Writing an Annotated Bibliography 115

—. "Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty." College English 57.7

(1995): 788-806. Print.

This article makes the issue of plagiarism much more complicated than some of the

others. The author thinks that plagiarism should be given a different definition, so that

cheating is seen differently than "patchwriting." Both of them are bad, but they are not the

same thing, in her opinion. Schools should rewrite policies to make that difference clear, and

teachers should teach students how to use sources better, even though it takes a long time.

This article makes my thinking about this research more complicated. It also makes

me wonder how the schools and teachers in the other articles defined plagiarism. Which

cases were really cheating, as compared to making mistakes?

Jerome, Richard, and Pam Grout. "Cheat Wave." People 17 June 2002: 82-83. Print.

This article discusses one specific disagreement that occurred in Piper, Kansas, and

one legal outcome of the current debate on plagiarism. It also considers the effect of the

court decision upon the student and the school.

This article provides a strong case study of the impact of plagiarism on a community.

Also, by showing that there is more than one side to the issue, I should be able to raise

awareness of the importance and growing magnitude of the issue at hand.

McGrath, Charles. "Plagiarism: Everybody Into the Pool." New York Times 7 Jan. 2007: 33. Print.

This article talks about some high-profile plagiarism cases that have occurred over

the last couple of years. It also discusses how students that plagiarize often suffer harsher

consequences than their professors who are guilty of the same thing.

I will probably use one of the statistics from the end of the article about students

who reported cheating by using the Internet. The article also discusses Richard A. Posner's

The Little Book of Plagiarism, which may be another good source to consider.

Robillard, Amy E. "We Won't Get Fooled Again: On the Absence of Angry Responses to

Plagiarism in Composition Studies." College English 70.1 (2007): 10-31. Print.

This article talks about plagiarism from the side of the Composition instructor. It tells

how frustrating it can be for teachers to play the role of a policeman when grading papers,

but it also explains the dilemma involved with dealing out punishment to plagiarizing

students and what that means for their self-esteem and careers.

116 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

This article supports the point of view of the teacher on plagiarism and will contrast nicely

to other articles that discuss it from the student's point of view and that of other professionals.

Silverman, Gillian. "Ifs a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Plagiarism Buster!" Newsweek

15 July 2002: 12. Print.

This article pertains specifically to students stealing from the Internet. It raises the

idea that plagiarism is partially due to the nature of students' lives. It suggests that

students are either too busy or too free to do other things, and so they tend to do

homework at the last minute, which causes them to turn to plagiarism.

This article supports different points of view on plagiarism, the point of view of the

schools and the point of view of the student. By looking at several different viewpoints I

can make a better response to the issue.

Spigelman, Candace. "The Ethics of Appropriation in Peer Writing Groups." Perspectives on

Plagiarism and Intellectual Property in a Postmodern World. Ed. Lise Buranen and Alice

M. Roy. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 1999. 231-40. Print.

This article discusses how students talk about and think about intellectual property in

writing groups that are part of a class. It discusses the problem that some courses want

students to work alone, so that their ideas are always theirs alone. The writer quotes the

students discussing their feelings about where ideas come from and the need to credit

people as well as books for influencing their thinking.

This article will be useful because it makes the idea of plagiarism more complicated.

The author doesn't just quote people for and against plagiarism, but students trying to

understand what to do in different situations.

Straw, Deborah. "The Plagiarism of Generation 'Why Not?'" Community College Week 14.24

(2002): 4-6. Print.

This article explains the rising complications with plagiarism specifically upon the high-

school level and also on the collegiate level. It uses statistics from universities and high

schools around the country to represent this idea while also including quotes from various

school officials. The article considers the part the Internet has played in the growing incidence

of plagiarism. After introducing the problem, the article questions who is likely to be an

offender. It suggests that the higher entrance requirements at colleges cause students in high

Moving from Summary to Synthesis: Establishing Relationships 117

schools to try and get the highest grade point averages that they can, even if it means

plagiarizing. The article concludes by providing possible ways of attacking the dilemma.

The source is a credible one that gives me ample information to create a sound base

for my research. This article provides a background scene I can use to help the audience to

better understand the situation. Also, it gives me statistics to prove that the situation

exists and is becoming more of a problem every year.

Questions 1. What kinds of sources does the writer of the bibliography use? How directly do

they address his particular project? 2. Do you agree with the writer's assessment of the reh'ability of the sources in this

bibliography? Which ones seem questionable? Why? 3. How precise are the summaries? Where should they be clearer? 4. What are the criteria for the responses? Are they applied consistently? Do they

seem reasonable? How could they be improved? 5. The audience for this bibliography seems to be primarily the writer himself. How

might it be adapted to communicate the content and value of the sources to another audience, for example, to an audience more interested in reading about plagiarism than in writing about it?

6. How informative is the introduction? How might it be revised to disclose more clearly the researcher's purpose in writing the annotated bibliography?

MOVING FROM SUMMARY TO SYNTHESIS: ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS

A synthesis shows one or more significant relationships among sources. Synthesis draws on techniques of comparison and contrast, but it demands acknowledging nuanced relationships among sources and guiding readers through them. For example, to explain the consensus of a significant body of opinion in a field, you can draw on the ideas of a number of authors, attributing variations of ideas or different approaches to the appropriate source. Synthesis uses your responses to make judgments, and the suc- cess of a synthesis will depend in large degree on how good your judgment is and how well you understand the sources in the context of their field. Although a synthesis may be based on your response to the sources and may point toward your developing argu- ment, like, other uses of sources, it requires a fair and accurate reflection of what the source actually says.

Summarizing accurately and for a purpose is a good starting point for synthesiz- ing, and the purposes suggested for summaries in the previous section can be expanded into the governing purpose for a synthesis. The key to writing an effective synthesis is to show the relationship of sources—often different in kind and in purpose—to each other and in relation to a field or an issue. Synthesis is also used to set a context for an argu- ment. Synthesis requires more than merely pasting a number of summaries together, but requires that you identify and even argue for a particular relationship among the sources. An effective synthesis not only brings together a body of information from a

118 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

number of sources, but also—and most importantly—provides the reader with a map to navigate the field. Before you can write an effective synthesis, you must reach a clear idea about the relationships among the sources and how they fit into the field to serve as a guide for your readers.

fPft̂ lNJ^^ A synthesis can draw on a variety of organizing principles, depending on the topic and purpose of the paper you are writing. The topic and purpose should be evident in a topic sentence that orients the reader to your intentions. For example, a synthesis might:

1. Establish considerable overall consensus in a field or among a group of writers, with which you might be preparing to agree or disagree. • Although they might disagree on some particulars, most physicians agree that

mental and physical processes affect each other in subtle but important ways. • These historians define professionalization as a sequence of activities a group of

practitioners consciously undertakes to move from amateur to professional status, including forming an organization that distinguishes insiders from out- siders and producing documents like codes of conduct, codes of ethics, and requirements for entry.

• Rebecca Moore Howard's distinction between cheating and incomplete learning initiated a body of research that takes a developmental view of teaching stu- dents to incorporate sources into their writing.

2. Claim more or less sharply divided sides to the issue (a dichotomy), either to identify specific sources typical of opposite lines of reasoning or to identify the range of thinking about the issue. • The scholars who address issues of plagiarism tend to fall into two camps: those

who look at all instances of "borrowing" stories, ideas, phrases, or complete texts as wrong; and those who distinguish cheating from allusion, "sampling," and inadequate documentation.

• While most physical education departments have come to emphasize competitive sports, a few hold on to an older ideal of providing personal fitness education for all students, an ideal that has regained some popularity in recent years.

• Current thinking about plagiarism ranges from the position that any almost any form of unattributed imitation is wrong, as seen in the work of Thomas Mallon, to the motive-based distinctions recommended by Rebecca Moore Howard.

3. Show several points of view from which the issue can be analyzed, resulting in differing predictions about outcomes or prescriptions for courses of action. • Studies of international teaching assistants tend to focus on either the effects of

their teaching on American undergraduates or the impact of teaching American students on the education of international graduate students.

• While downloading music from the Internet looks like a reasonable use of freely available resources to many of those who do it, it looks like theft to the record companies. For some recording artists, the issue is less about compensation and more about maintaining artistic control over their material.

There are variations on these strategies that can be used to articulate the "state of the field" you have been studying. Two kinds of synthesis very common in academic fields are the history of an idea, issue, or controversy within a field, and the literature review

Reviewing the Literature 119

(in this context, "literature" means published previous research in a field, not creative writing). A crucial factor in all kinds of synthesis is how well the writer establishes and maintains a clear and consistent presence (possibly personal, but not necessarily so) as a guide through the material. Notice the tone of assurance in the previous examples.

Because synthesis can be used to document the agreement or overlap among sig- nificant groups within a field or to define a common warrant for argument among authors writing about different topics, it can help you to understand the larger signifi- cance of your inquiry, as well as to establish a context for a claim. For example, the fol- lowing synthesis shows how the readings by Mike Rose, Rebecca Moore Howard, and Alfie Kohn—arguments about different topics—are all founded on similar warrants about the nature of learning.

EXAMPLE 6.4 Synthesizing Warrants

What has been called the "progressive" view of education considers the human interaction of

teacher and student to be the most essential aspect of learning. Underlying this way of think-

ing are the assumptions that teachers and students are naturally interested in teaching and

learning as much as they can, as well as they can; that teaching and learning are personal and

interpersonal activities, best conducted in a nurturing environment; and that benign self-in-

terest and good will can serve as sufficient motivation for good work. Thus, for example, Alfie

Kohn argues that the "external" motivation of the tough grade is not only unnecessary, but

detrimental to the educational process. In a similar vein, Rebecca Moore Howard assures us in

"Forget about Policing" that "patchwriting" students will grow out of the practice as they gain

enough understanding of a field to use their own words, which they will do more effectively

under the guidance of an understanding teacher than a firm disciplinarian. Mike Rose under-

takes his journey across America to look at people more than at institutions, to consider the

possibility of educational reform as "the day-to-day human reality of social change" (8). These

progressive educators assume that the essential honesty and good will of people working to-

gether are more important for learning than are rules and institutional structures.

Such a synthesis could be used as the introduction to a thesis arguing for or against the progressive assumptions outlined in the last sentence. It could also serve as the basis for a much longer synthesis, which would include summaries and perhaps longer quota- tions and more paraphrases from the sources to illustrate the range of agreement and nuances of disagreement within that general consensus. Or it could serve as a basis for a reflection on or response to these authors' positions.

REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

The process of inquiry demands close and critical reading that distinguishes among sources that establish a context, sources that suggest claims or reasons for use in an

120 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

argument, and sources that provide important evidence to support your reasoning. When you find sources difficult to understand, use Focus Points: Reading Arguments (p. 21) to help you work your way through them. Once you can summarize accurately the overall point and purpose of a source, you can consider more fully what role it would best play in your project.

XFO£MSl̂

-WV\^ m Some sources may agree with the argument you are constructing and others might V\; as a research writer, you need to demonstrate the degree of agreement J9 and disagreement among the sources (i.e., the extent of the controversy) and to

give reasons for your own position toward them.

m Writing a critical synthesis of sources is called "reviewing the literature" in most fields. The term literature in this case does not mean creative writing or fiction, but the previous publications in a field (for instance, the literature of suicide preven- tion or the literature of eating disorders). The term critical means that the writer makes judgments about the accuracy, relevance, and value of the sources.

• Most academic studies start with a short review of the literature to set the context for the argument or hypothesis to be examined. There are also standalone surveys of the literature, such as the annotated bibliography and literature review. Examples of literature reviews can be found in the Readings, particularly in Jane Tompkins' "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History" and in Motoko Rich's "Digital Publishing Is Scrambling the Industry's Rules."

^ an All variations of "working with the literature" involve taking clear research notes, writing summaries and syntheses, and addressing a particular audience, in many cases an audience that knows the field in general but is less familiar than you with the specific issue.

B As with other kinds of writing from sources, a good first step toward producing either an annotated bibliography or a literature review is to review what you have already written, such as your notes, the working bibliography, and summaries and syntheses written for previous assignments. Skim through this earlier work to review your ideas, and then extract what you consider the most reliable, interesting, and important sources to include in your selection. Based on your developing expertise:

• Select the sources that seem most relevant for appraising the context and significance of your inquiry.

• Identify sources that provide background for your project and decide how much background is needed.

•$£ • Identify sources that offer evidence for or against your reasons.

• If you find sources that you strongly agree or disagree with, make note of those responses. Keep these written responses so that you can apply them to evaluat- ing the evidence, warrants, or reasoning in those sources. You might modify or change those evaluations as the project develops.

• Sources do not speak for themselves; you must explain how you are using them to support your position. Your voice—your response to the sources—should be clearly distinguished from the voice of the source, whether you are using sum- mary, paraphrase, or quotation.

Writing a Literature Review 121

I The purpose of reviewing sources is to decide how to synthesize them into a coher- ent document. This reviewing and synthesizing can help not only to organize the sources, but even more importantly, to reveal gaps in the research that should be filled. You can cut and paste pieces of earlier summaries, syntheses, and responses into the developing draft—provided that you bring the references with them and clearly distinguish your own responses from the authors' voices.

I As you work with the literature, recheck the formatting of the sources taken from your working bibliography. Even experienced researchers make mistakes with formatting references because this work demands an attention to detail difficult to sustain, and mistakes are easier to recognize when you put the bibliography aside for a while. This is also a good time to double-check the spelling of authors' names and of words in titles. As always, make certain that you have clearly distinguished quotations from paraphrases. If you are not sure, go back to the source and check.

WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW

A literature review is a synthesis that demonstrates how sources reflect and build on each other, that provides a map through the previous literature, and that develops an understanding of a particular question. Often literature reviews convey an argument, support a point of view, or evaluate the sources in relation to each other. Literature reviews serve a number of purposes:

m Many papers assigned in college courses are extended literature reviews, in which students are asked to review, synthesize, and formulate an interpretation of what has been previously written about an issue.

m Some literature reviews serve as the introduction to a paper, setting the context for the thesis or hypothesis, or giving the history of previous investigations. (See Focus Points: Synthesizing the History of a Field, page 123.)

• Literature reviews can also be used as evidence to explore or support claims. For example, Jane Tompkins' essay, "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History," printed in the Readings, uses a long review of literature, first of historians and then of eyewitnesses, to lead to her final conclusions about the limitations of history.

H Some long literature reviews, called "review essays," are published to summarize and evaluate the significant publications in afield over a period of time, so that readers can keep up with the research. These review essays, which consider important recent publications in the context of a longer history of consensus or controversy in the field are common in history, literature, and various humanities and social science disciplines. They are also found in journals like Science, to help scientists keep up with developments in fields other than their own specialty, or like the New York Review of Books, which serves a similar purpose in the humanities and social sciences. The literature review by Robert Macfarlane, "The Burning Question" (in the Readings) is aimed at an even more general audience.

• Carefully consider to whom and for what purpose you are presenting this informa- tion. Are you writing to an audience with considerable knowledge about a particular domain, or to an audience with interest in the field, but little knowledge about it?

122 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

• Choose the sources that seem most valuable to your research projects. • Follow a process similar to the one proposed for writing an annotated bibliography:

draw on your notes, summaries, syntheses, and responses, to re-see and reevalu- ate your reading in the field, as you develop a position toward the sources in your inquiry. Add to the literature review by referring to additional sources at points where they illuminate or contradict your initial sources or raise questions yet to be researched.

a Like any synthesis, a literature review needs a clear and purposeful organization, derived from an interpretation of the meaning of the sources. Referring to your written responses, consider the relationship of the items in the literature to your topic and to each other. Reflect on how the various sources relate to a central ques- tion or purpose, especially if your sources do not fit neatly into a preestablished framework.

a Extract from your working bibliography the references for the sources used in the review and paste them in alphabetical order at the end of the review.

These questions for self-evaluation reflect the audience orientation of the literature review and may help you to address its purpose more clearly. They may also point out where the relationship among sources needs to be clarified or reconsidered.

• Reread the paper. Describe in informal words the criteria by which you have selected and evaluated the sources it reviews for reliability and relevance. Did you make those criteria clear in the introduction?

n How well does the literature review reflect how your research relates to ques- tions being asked by researchers in its field? Can you state this relationship more clearly?

• Has the review established a context for an argument derived from your inquiry? • Does the review anticipate the larger significance of your inquiry — the "so what?"

How can you make this significance more precise? m What parts of the literature review do you really believe in? Highlight them, and

explain with a note in the margin. m What parts of the literature review seem weak to you? Are there points where you

are not sure your readers can follow you? Or parts where you are uncertain about your accuracy or clarity of expression? Highlight those parts and write your specific questions in a marginal note.

REVIEWING THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE WITHIN A FIELD

As suggested previously, many research studies begin with a short history of the development of ideas about a topic in its field. This kind of synthesis provides a con- text for the inquiry and demonstrates the existence and importance of the gap that the researcher proposes to fill — either a lack of knowledge or a presumed mistake in previous

Distinguishing Voices 123

understanding or interpretation (Booth, Columb, and Williams 185). Recounting the history of a topic or of a field's approach to it also helps establish the writer's ethos as an authority by demonstrating that the writer has done the necessary groundwork and is building upon existing common knowledge in the discipline. Many academic writers use this kind of synthesis as an introduction to their claims, but researchers in different fields give the history of their research issue in different ways.

In the humanities, a disciplinary history may go back several centuries, if a question has been central to the field. In the sciences, on the other hand, researchers seldom trace questions very far into the past, but they often look one or two steps back into past understanding of a question, to provide a context for the present research project or interpretation of results. When writing to specialists in a very narrow field, researchers sometimes refer only to the problem itself, expecting their audience to already know the history of attempts to solve it. For example, in their groundbreaking paper on DNA, mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2, Watson and Crick give the history of the problem in three short paragraphs, mentioning only two earlier studies (one not yet published), before they go on to state: "We wish to put forward a radically different structure. . ."(337-38).

• Identify stages of development and acknowledge shades of agreement and dis- agreement among your sources over time.

• Consider whether the controlling assumptions, or central warrants, of the field remain substantially the same over time, or whether there were major paradigm shifts at particular historical moments.

m Make sure your chronological sequence is accurate, and use one or two particular sources to represent each important stage.

a Keep in mind the different uses for which you might use this history, and the different audiences for different projects. For example, this history may be adapted later to serve as a draft of the introduction to another paper or as back- ground material for a Web site.

M End the historical synthesis with a current controversy that needs to be resolved and, if applicable, identify the historical precedents for the stand you expect to take.

a Add references drawn from your working bibliography, and proofread the piece.

DISTINGUISHING VOICES

Even though interpretation is crucial to synthesis, writers need to be careful not to misrepresent what the sources say. Whether you agree or disagree with an author or position, it is important to represent the position fairly and accurately before arguing for or against it. The transition from summary to response must be absolutely clear. One way to show the difference between your own thinking and that of a source is to name the author of the source before citing it. It can help to return immediately to using your own words and tone, which will seldom be as fully professionalized as that of an expert. It can, however, be difficult to show when you are returning to your own thinking and

124 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

your own voice, particularly in fields that do not allow the use of "\" and when using online sources that lack page numbers. Another way is to use transition words as cues when moving from the source to your voice:

• On the other hand . . .

• To question this line of reasoning, however. . .

• Jones's ideas have dominated the field for a decade, but. . .

Reading out loud and listening to the voices can help you hear whether or not you have made the distinction.

MAINTAINING A POINT OF VIEW

Researchers use sources in a number of ways, as you have already discovered:

• Sometimes writers use sources to provide authoritative evidence to support a claim.

• Sometimes they agree with the source's argument and want to extend it or build on it in some way.

• Sometimes writers use a source to distinguish their own position from that of the source, or to argue against it.

• To make their attitudes toward their sources clear, writers use cues to indicate where there are consensus and controversy and to state their own agreement or disagreement with a source.

It is important to distinguish your own position from the positions of your sources, not just to avoid a charge of plagiarism (see Chapter 3) or to avoid misrepresenting the source. Maintaining a consistent point of view reflects your judgments about the issues in your inquiry—and thus provides grounds for your argument.

In "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation" (see Readings, p. 260), Alfie Kohn cites an often-quoted source in order to critique its methodology and conclusions; his rhetorical cues to agreement and disagreement are in italics:

The fact is that it is hard to substantiate even the simple claim that grades have been rising. Depending on the time period we're talking about, that claim may well be false. In their book When Hope and Pear Collide (Jossey-Bass, 1998), Arthur Levine and Jeanette Cureton tell us that more undergraduates in 1993 reported receiving A's (and fewer reported receiving grades of C or below) compared with their counterparts in 1969 and 1976 surveys. Unfortunately, self-reports are notoriously unreliable, and the numbers become even more dubious when only a self-selected, and possibly unrepresentative, seg- ment bothers to return the questionnaires. (One out of three failed to do so in 1993; no information is offered about the return rates in the earlier surveys.)

Notice that his claims about his source's methodology are not absolute—he leaves room for argument—but they are clear. He is not criticizing the methodology of sur- veys, but pointing out the unreliability of this particular survey because it does not

Maintaining a Point of View 125

meet criteria most social scientists consider necessary for generating reliable survey data. Kohn is equally clear about his agreement when he cites sources that support his argument:

To get a more accurate picture of whether grades have changed over the years, one needs to look at official student transcripts. Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst with the U.S. Department of Education, did just that, reviewing transcripts from more than 3,000 institutions and reporting his results in 1995. Hz's finding: "Contrary to the widespread lamentations, grades actually declined slightly in the last two decades." Moreover, a report released just this year by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that fully 33.5 percent of American undergraduates had a grade- point average of C or below in 1999-2000, a number that ought to quiet "all the furor over grade inflation," according to a spokesperson for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. (A review of other research suggests a comparable lack of support for claims of grade inflation at the high-school level.)

Writing much more personally and informally, as suits the newspaper opinion (or op-ed) piece "What Every Student Knows: Thou Shall Not Copy" (see Readings, p. 255), Robert Rivard clearly takes issue with readers who sent e-mails criticizing the firing of a local weatherman for representing downloaded weather reports as his own. The cues are again italicized:

I've personally read more than 125 e-mails and letters now, the majority of them critical of editors and KENS management. To sum up our critics: We like Albert and do not think he deserved to lose his column or his job.

Many of those protesting our decision scare me. What's wrong with what he did, anyway, they demand? Doesn't every-

one do it, both at the Express-News and throughout society? Who do we think we are, acting against such a popular television personality? Isn't plagiarism something only journalists think is wrong?

Thank God for the teachers who have written in our defense.

Although Rivard's informal tone here would be more appropriate for an "I-Search" paper than for a more formal research paper, he too offers strong and clear cues to his disagreement with the complaining readers and to his agreement with the teachers who disparage plagiarism.

Notice that these writers do not let sources "speak for themselves" or by them- selves. Instead, they engage their sources in conversation in order to make a point. Although sometimes a writer's stance toward sources is direct agreement or disagree- ment, in academic writing the response is often nuanced, neither completely agreeing nor completely disagreeing with a source. Writers often find some validity in a source despite shifts in the consensus of their discipline. They may find some useful information in a source, even if they disagree with its conclusion. The more complicated the response to the source, the clearer the writer's rhetorical cues need to be.

126 Chapter 6 • Using Sources Effectively

In academic writing, writers are apt to respond to their sources as members of a discipline or of a group within it, in which case they adjust their ethos to mediate between a personal stance and what they identify as a conventional professional consensus. Therefore, it is useful to notice when a writer uses "we" or "us" and to con- sider who is included in those collective terms. For example, who is included and excluded in "our" when a writer says, "from our best evidence ..." or "our usual posi- tion is ..."? Writers often use a plural pronoun like "us," rather than the personal "me," when invoking a collective professional consensus rather than a personal opinion. To be effective, however, the pronoun must reflect actual consensus—a warrant or position that many or most people in the field would accept—or the argument can be dismissed as "unwarranted" and the writer perceived as not authoritative.

One way to practice conversation between writers and their sources is by using these cues when writing responses to sources throughout the inquiry. By consciously using cues to represent how the sources contribute to your growing body of reasoning and evidence and to point out arguments you find compelling or weak, you can lay groundwork for your argument as you write in other genres.

Exercises

6.1 PRACTICING QUOTATION

Working with one of the sources in the Readings, or with a source related to your developing topic, write the following kinds of quotations. Use the guidelines for punctuating quotations in this chapter.

1. A quotation of a single sentence that is introduced and followed by at least one sentence of your own.

2. A set-off quotation of 3-5 sentences, clearly and specifically introduced. 3. A quotation of 3-8 words that is integrated into a sentence of your own.

6.2 PRACTICING PARAPHRASE

Starting with the quotations you have already written, write three paraphrases that restate the author's meaning in your own words.

1. Consider how much of the context of the quotations you need to include in order not to alter the author's meaning and presumed intention.

2. Read the paraphrases of some of your classmates. Did any of them seem to come too near to the author's wording at any point? If there is any doubt, help each other rephrase them.

6.3 PRACTICING SUMMARY

Working with the same source, try summarizing, using one of the strategies described in the chapter.

1. Write a summary of about 150 words. 2. Discuss with a group of your classmates:

• How well do you think your summary is structured? • Does the "formulaic strategy" seem too constricting? • How did you—or could you—modify it?

3. Trying to summarize often shows writers where they do not really understand a source. Highlight parts of the original source that you still are not clear about.

4. Identify which key words you included in the summary.

Exercises 127

5. Write another 150-word summary using a different source. 6. Review the summary and condense it into summaries of one or two sentences

that are appropriate for each of the four purposes demonstrated in this chapter (pp. 110-111). If you have another purpose in mind, you can substitute it, but be sure to identify it.

7. Discuss your revisions with your group, taking particular care to look for distortions of the author's meaning, and revise as necessary.

6.4 WORKING WITH SUMMARY AND SYNTHESIS

1. Take one of these summaries, and with a small group of students consider how it might be used to shape a synthesis involving the other readings in the research you have consulted in your inquiry.

2. Read at least two or three related sources in your working bibliography. Write a synthe- sis of the sources, based on important aspects of their claims or reasoning.

3. Working with the group, consider how the syntheses could be modified to be used for dif- ferent purposes (see pp. 117-119). Write an opening statement for each kind of synthesis. • Highlight the words that serve as cues for the different purposes and describe how

the opening statements change as you move from purpose to purpose. Using another color, highlight key words.

• Add cues and key words as needed. • Make a list of those cues for later reference.

6.5 SYNTHESIZING SOURCES

1. To help organize your own thinking, write a synthesis of five sources relevant to your topic, identifying both the consensus and the controversy in the field you are working with. If there is an historical aspect to the controversy, this can be a good way to organize a synthesis to be adapted into an introduction.

2. Follow the synthesis with your preliminary thesis statement. Did the synthesis provide enough context to identify your argument as part of an ongoing conversation in its field? If necessary, revise the thesis to make it more specific or to show the significance of your project more clearly.

3. List any other possible significance of or uses for the research you are doing. What can be done with what you expect to show, and why does it matter?

4. With a group of fellow students, consider the revisions needed to make this synthesis, which you wrote to help organize your own thinking, to make it work to provide an argument for other audiences: the group, your class, and your instructor.

5. Based on these analyses, write a short paragraph or a bulleted list that describes the direction in which you plan to take the inquiry.

6.6 LISTENING FOR VOICE IN A SYNTHESIS

Work in groups of four for this exercise.

1. Each group member should take a part to read, and the writer should listen. One person should read any direct quotations, one should read summaries and paraphrases, and one should read the writer's part, including reflections, responses, transitions, and thesis.

2. Discuss what you heard; the writer should take notes on the discussion. • Does the writer's voice clearly guide you through the relations among the sources? • How authoritative does the writer's voice sound? Is it convincing without being

arrogant? How might it be modified?

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• How accurately were the sources summarized, as far as you know? Did the writer's voice clearly distinguish summary from response?

• How convinced were you by the synthesis? What could be improved? 3. Repeat this activity with other members of the group.

6.7 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND INFORMAL WRITING

1. How has your understanding of your topic changed as you have deepened your reading in the field? How would you describe the state of your inquiry at this point in the process?

2. Can you see your topic in terms of some of the concepts of argumentation that have been raised so far, such as warrants, main claims, thesis, reasons, and evidence?

3. What kinds of reasons and evidence are you finding to support your ideas? What more can you foresee needing to support your thesis?

4. At what point can a student writer assume sufficient expertise to write with at least a semblance of authority about an issue of disagreement to experts? What is the student's responsibility to the field? To your classmates and research team? To a larger public?

CHAPTER

Revising and Editing to Meet Audience Expectations

Writers of all kinds know that revision is an important part of the writing process. It is not a punishment for poor performance or busywork for people with nothing better to do; rather, for most writers, it is the most important thing they do to increase how well they get across what they are trying to communicate. For many writers, it is also an important means of discovering what they are trying to say; seeing a draft of a project on the screen or page helps them judge more effectively the extent to which they have examined their research, how convincingly they have recorded it, what remains to be said. Editing is often defined as the aspect of revision that focuses more closely on sen- tences and on language-related elements. Although some students and teachers think of editing primarily as the correction of mistakes, the most effective editors not only correct sentences, but concentrate on how well a writer's choices about language lead to effective communication, to a good working relationship between the writer and the audience, and to clear connections among ideas and evidence. Learning to be an effec- tive editor of your own work helps you hear your voice come through your writing and to use it as you think appropriate for different audiences, purposes, and occasions.

Students are often advised to start revising for larger issues before fine-tuning sentences for correctness and clarity. There are good reasons for this advice. It can be a waste of time to edit a paragraph into perfection, only to cut it entirely out of the paper. Even worse, the commitment you can feel after doing serious editing can make you reluctant to throw out a particularly eloquent paragraph that you later realize to be irrelevant, inconsistent with the argument, or just plain wrong.

The rationale for addressing conceptual issues before editorial corrections, useful as it can be for understanding the difference between revising and editing, does not reflect the actual practices of many experienced writers. Some writers might write a full draft, go back over it asking revision questions like the ones in Focus Points: Revising for Coherence (p. 130), revise the draft, and finally work at the sentence-level correc- tions that contribute to their readability and credibility. However, other writers combine revising and editing, using a recursive process of writing, going back and forth over the revising and editing phases of the process, trying to say more exactly what they

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