A Sense of Doubt blog post #3033 - Sources: Set-Up, Follow-Up, Unpacking, and Piggybacking: Instructional Tip of the Day for Research Projects
So, I have been doing a series of "instructional tips" for my students, different than the two big catch-all posts published the last two days:
However, this is a good one from which the general public can benefit.
Thanks for tuning in!
Welcome to Instructional Tip of the Day #2!! I am a day late in posting this one, so there will be two today, one later on.
To excel in research project writing, you must do more than just work directly on your project.
You must study the aspects of good writing and work to improve your own project in an informed way.
Don't stop with the four tips I give in today's lesson. Click through the resource links at the end and spend some time reading web pages and OER texts.
This time investigating and reading is a process some call "learning." :-)
SET UP SOURCE MATERIAL
Signal all (most) source material when you share it whether you are quoting or paraphrasing. Some fun high school instructors refer to "quote bombs" as dropping sources into the text, often quotes, with no set-up and no follow-up, nothing for the reader to understand why that material is there in the paragraph or in the project (sometimes the quotes are BIG).
Honestly, you can write your entire project with NO block quotes, despite some teachers who require them. Use them if required. I am saying that they are not needed (and see upcoming "unpacking" section for one reason why).
At a basic level, you need to signal the introduction of source material with "signal phrases."
You are giving credit for source material and signaling the reader that the material to come is not yours. It's obviously not yours if quoted and surrounded with quotation marks. But even paraphrases need these signal phrases because it alerts the reader to the start of the paraphrase and the cite shows the reader where the paraphrase ends.
Hence, SIP format = Signal, Information, Parentheses (in-text cite).
In English 102, often though not always, you want very ROBUST signal phrases that give the author, title, and publication of the source, credentials of the author and/or publication, and/or comments on credibility. ALSO, and most importantly, for some key sources, usually scholarly, that you will use a few times, it's best to describe the source briefly: what's in it? what's it all about? why is it important? is it a key study/article in the greater conversation happening with your subject? Is the author an authority on the subject? All of these elements give CONTEXT to your evidence and show its importance to the world beyond your project-essay. It's one of the reasons you write summaries of your sources in your annotated bib.
Now, it would be tedious if you shared a TON of information each time you introduce a source, and surely, you would not repeat this information each time you cite the same source again (though you always signal in some fashion if just a brief "according to" statement). Fully robust introductions of sources should appear a few times in your project. A writer must use their own judgement to decide what is enough and not too much.
HOT RELATED TIP: Do not jump straight to signaling sources immediately following a single-sentence claim/transition. Like sources that need "unpacking" for understanding context and reasoning related to arguments, the arguments themselves, your claim, needs some explanation. The single sentence may not be enough to understand your point. I like to call this content "connective tissue" but it's also part of what Toulmin calls the warrant. Explain your claim somewhat before you launch into source material. Connect it all. Guide the reader carefully and wisely. Readers will be happier when you do.
FOLLOW UP SOURCE MATERIAL
We have two rules that are "all the time" rules in research writing, at least at our current level:
Do not start paragraphs with source material and do not end paragraphs with sources.
If we think about how our paragraphs are constructed, we want to follow PIE format.
P = point = topic sentence and transition = claim
I = information = evidence (Toulmin's grounds)
E = explanation and analysis (Toulmin's warrant)
In this structure, obviously, since a paragraph starts with a claim (or at least a claim-like sentence that justifies the purpose of conveying the information) as well as a transition from the previous paragraph, all written by you, the project writer, one does not start a paragraph with a signal phrase describing and introducing a source or with a quotation or paraphrase, even if that material is a "claim" written by someone else.
Likewise, a paragraph would not end on source use (and with a cite) because then you are not following evidence with YOUR explanation/analysis.
In English 102, more often than English 101, paragraphs are not simple PIE structures, but PIE-IE-IE-IE structures, in which you, the writer, are unpacking lots of source material and describing how it serves as evidence for your arguments at the paragraph and entire essay levels.
More on "unpacking" source material next....
UNPACK SOURCE MATERIAL (ESPECIALLY QUOTATIONS)
A colleague of mine said the thing I have always done and had never said: "I am a lazy reader. If you, the writer of the project, do not give me a reason to read the quote, then I am going to skip it."
You, the project writer, give readers reasons to read quotations from sources because you explain, extend, and analyze the text of that quotation.
I call this "unpacking."
The reason you quoted the material rather than paraphrasing it is that the words are complicated and need a great deal of additional explanation and/or analysis. You "unpack" the words of the quotation explaining how the quote adds to a point you are trying to make, a claim, the overall argument.
Toulmin calls this part of the process "the warrant," the explanation (reasoning) that connects the grounds (evidence) to the claim (argument).
Also, unpacking quotes shows that you have a great deal to share about the quote, and you quoted the material to be able to share those ideas and not because you do not understand what's in the quote and could not paraphrase it or just are being lazy and using lots more quotes than you need as copy and pasting them into your project is easier than paraphrasing them.
NO PIGGYBACKING SOURCES WITHOUT CONNECTING EXPLANATIONS
Piggybacking is stringing together two or more quotes or paraphrases with only, at most, a signal phrase in between.
This technique creates terrible results.
Guide the reader from one source to the next as you the writer describe how the content connects comparatively or contrastingly.
Many of the samples I have shared show this technique.
Click here for Project samples
For more on working with sources, see the following:
Working with Sources - Lemiere
Ethical Use and Citing Sources (OER text - Composition 2: Research and Writing ed. Brittany Seay)
and
Annoying Ways People Use Sources
Writing Tips on Source Use (OER text - Choosing and Using Sources - OSU)
When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize
~ peace, chris tower, your friend in learning!
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I leaned back on my radio
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2306.08 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2897 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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