DJP #9
Before Spring Break, we worked on two distinct workshops. We worked on strategies for defining. We looked back at your reading in Chapter 16; and we listened to a portion of the Code Switch podcast, “Hold UP! Time For An Explanatory Comma,” discussing different ways to think about audience in connection with definitions and explanations. (If you have not listened to the podcast, please do. The link is on our tumblr page.) We also talked about organization structures for your essay in this Explanatory genre.
What to do now? Well, your job over the break was to draft to at least 3 pages. We are workshopping tomorrow. Remember to bring 4 copies of your draft.
While you draft, this digital journal should help you to think about using that research you’ve been doing.
When considering how to use a source to support your own writing, argument, or in this case explaining, it is important not only to consider the source and what part of that source you might use (always with citations and due credit), but it’s also important to consider how you may use the source. Will you paraphrase the author or authors? Would it be a better idea to summarize? Or is a short direct quote in order?
By now, you all should have read Chapter 23 in our SM Guide, “Using Information from Sources to Support Your Claims.” For this DJP, I would like you to return to that chapter, review it. Turn to one of the sources you’ve chosen for your Concept Assignment. You will practice these 3 different ways to use sources in your own writing - paraphrasing, summarizing, and directly quoting.
We, generally, summarize when we hope to use the main idea or the main findings of an entire article or study. We, generally, paraphrase when the language in the writing is not particularly striking but the main idea is. When paraphrasing you must take the ideas, theories, or concepts from the author, but not their words. Paraphrasing can be a tough skill to get right. When paraphrasing, you shouldn’t just simply copy and paste the section of someone else’s writing into your own paper and change just a few words here and there. You should rather read the work, then turn to your own work and explain their ideas, theories, and/or concepts in your own words, always being certain to give credit to that other author or authors by citing their work.
When directly quoting, you should only choose a small portion of the author or authors words. We tend to directly quote too much of another’s work. Is it a sentence of statistics? If so, you may not need to quote them but paraphrase. Are you quoting an entire paragraph? More often than not, an entire paragraph or even 3 sentences can be too much to directly quote. Be particular.
So for your DJP #9, I would like you to do the following:
Refer to one of the sources you are already using to support your ideas in your Concept Assignment. Find one area you feel supports your writing well.
Using chapters 23 and 24, practice directly quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing the same ideas, section, or concepts. When you directly quote, I challenge you to use no more than 10 words of direct quote.
Use the sentence making strategies in Chapter 23 AND use Chapter 24 to help you to use proper MLA formatting. Also, at the base of your DJP, write in the citation for the source you are paraphrasing, summarizing, and directly quoting. Use Chapter 24 and the Purdue OWL (linked in our BBoard) to help you to practice this skill. tumblr will not let you insert a hanging indent, so don’t worry about that part of it. But, you can italicize. Try to get it formatted correctly. Practice, practice.
This DJP is due by 12:00 PM on Wednesday, March 22.
