Paragraph Construction Using OSIE

Part I: OSIE Format OSIE stands for OBSERVE SUPPORT WITH A SOURCE INTERPET the source for your reader EXPLAIN how the source ties back into your thesis statement

OBSERVE O=Observe. Make an observation and/or start a new body paragraph with a transition Observations often start body paragraphs Examples First of all, Reisberg’s essay is convincing because he provides several statistics to illustrate how widespread the problem of college stress is for students this year. Furthermore, the essay does not seem to support the idea that women are more stressed than men.

Examples of OBSERVING Examples First of all, Reisberg’s essay is convincing because he provides several statistics to illustrate how widespread the problem of college stress is for students this year. Furthermore, the essay does not seem to support the idea that women are more stressed than men. On the other hand, the essay does show that students are especially susceptible to college stress in 2011.

SUPPORT with a SOURCE S = Support with a Source Find a quote or paraphrase and put it after you make an observation Examples: First of all, Reisberg’s essay is convincing because he provides several statistics to illustrate how widespread the problem of college stress is for students this year. In paragraph 2, for example, he argues that “58% students were found by 100 universities to be stressed, versus 43% from 2010.” Furthermore, the essay does not seem to support the idea that women are more stressed than men. In fact, Reisberg notes that only 2% more women are stressed which doesn’t indicate a significant portion more than men.

INTERPRET I = Interpret What do YOU think this quote/paraphrase means? What are YOU getting from it? Tell your audience what they should get from it with this sentence.

Examples of INTERPRETING First of all, Reisberg’s essay is convincing because he provides several statistics to illustrate how widespread the problem of college stress is for students this year. In paragraph 2, he argues that “58% students were found by 100 universities to be stressed, versus 43% from 2010.” This is a 15% jump! Furthermore, the essay does not seem to support the idea that women are more stressed than men. In fact, Reisberg notes that only 2% more women are stressed which doesn’t indicate a significant portion more than men. It’s very hard to tell if the 2% of women are more stressed because more women go to college than men.

EVALUATE E=Evaluate Tell us what all of this information is doing in your paper What does this evidence from the article/text prove? Why should we care? Link back to your thesis (I feel Article X is not useful because…)

Examples of EVALUATING First of all, Reisberg’s essay is convincing because he provides several statistics to illustrate how widespread the problem of college stress is for students this year. In paragraph 2, he argues that “58% students were found by 100 universities to be stressed, versus 43% from 2010.” This is a 15% jump! Because Reisberg cites such a large increase from a credible survey from the American Association of Higher Education, I was convinced by this essay that in 2011 college students are more stressed.

Examples of EVALUATING Furthermore, the essay does not seem to support the idea that women are more stressed than men. In fact, Reisberg notes that only 2% more women are stressed which doesn’t indicate a significant portion more than men. It’s very hard to tell if the 2% of women are more stressed because more women go to college than men. Because Reisberg does not take the time to explain how the two statistics of increased college attendance by women and increased stress add up, I was not convinced that college women are indeed more stressed.

Part II Go through and highlight the steps of OSIE format. Highlight in BLUE=observation Highlight in YELLOW=support from a source Highlight in RED= interpretation Highlight in GREEN= evaluation If any steps are missing, take time and add a sentence or two to complete OSIE for each of the three examples you use.