Workshop on Citations and Audience

Workshop on Use of Sources Step 1: Mark quote or paraphrase in your essay (underline, highlight in yellow, whatever works for you). Step 2: Mark all of the places where you INTRODUCE your quotes or paraphrases, or give context for them, in a different way (different color, dotted underline, etc). Step 3: Highlight all of the places where you RESPOND to quotes by explaining, giving an additional example, or agreeing/disagreeing, in a THIRD way.

Workshop on Use of Sources Step 1: Highlight EVERY quote or paraphrase in your essay in YELLOW. Step 2: Highlight all of the places where you INTRODUCE your quotes or paraphrases, or give context for them, in light green. Step 3: Highlight all of the places where you RESPOND to quotes by explaining, giving an additional example, or agreeing/disagreeing, in light blue.

Look at your highlighting. Are there any places where you have a lot of yellow (quote) but not a lot of green or blue (introduction and explanation)? Do you need to remove some of the quote? Remove any bits of the quote that aren’t relevant to your response. Do you need to add more to your introduction or response? Make sure that your response addresses any important issues the quote brings up.

Double check for in text citations. Look back at your yellow quotes/paraphrases. In PURPLE, highlight the place where you give credit to the author (or, if you don’t know the author, the article/source). Every quote should have SOME purple. You might give credit in an in-text citation (the author or article name in parentheses). You might give credit in a “signal phrase.” (The author’s name mentioned in the introduction of the quote.)

Digging Deeper… Each introduction of a quote (the green) should: Connect the quote to the point you are currently making. Prepare your readers to notice what you want them to take away from the quote. Give your readers any context that they need in order to understand the quote. Each response to a quote (the blue) should: Deal specifically with the issues that are raised in the quote. It might also… Explain an idea from the quote further. (Not just repeating the ideas from the quote in new words.) Give a new example of an idea from the quote. Agree or disagree with an opinion displayed in the quote and explain your agreement/disagreement. Connect the quote to a point your have made somewhere else on the paper, or to another quote.

Revising for Audience Remember, your audience for this essay is other college-educated students, professors, and members of the college community. Based on that very broad audience, read through your essay and make sure that you have addressed the needs that this audience will have. Do you use logos to appeal to reason? Do you avoid logical fallacies and broad generalizations about your audience? Do you make clear to your audience what is at stake in regards to the issue your paper is about?

Revising for Style Examine your introduction and the beginnings of your paragraphs. Do you have any “throat clearing”? “Throat clearing” usually takes the form of sentences you wrote to get your ideas flowing that are extremely general and not appropriate for a paper at this level for this audience. For example, “Every day all over the world people see pop culture.” This sentence is so broad that it does nothing to indicate what about pop culture you are going to be discussing, nor does it say anything beyond the obvious about how pop culture functions on a global scale.

Revising for Style Read your essay quietly to yourself OUT LOUD. Are your sentences smooth and easy to read? Are there places you stumble? If so, your reader will probably stumble as well. Are there places where the connections between your ideas are unclear? Decide HOW ideas are connected and use templates from the appropriate chapters of They Say, I Say to make the connection clearer. Review lesson on quality introductions and conclusions and improve these areas of your paper.