Writing Workshop Writing an Academic Essay

Finding your thesis Think about the assignment and find your strongest area of interest Use brainstorming, free writing, clustering, looping, or cubing to find a focus Think about what you will need to summarize, paraphrase or directly quote Find the best direct quotations & keep track of those gems from the texts by page #

Beginning thesis examples:  Domination by a government or a colonial power has a negative impact on indigenous people as Erdrich show in Love Medicine and Obama in his memoir, Dream From My Father.  Identity is deeply rooted in family and experiences for a person as they become adult and formulate a sense of their voice in the world.

Introductions Attract Interest Write your introduction so anyone reading the essay will understand your topic and your thesis Begin with something that will get the attention or interest of your readers. An introduction can be one or two paragraphs, but must have a clear thesis sentence and set the context of the discussion in your paper.

Points need illustration & explanation to make a whole.  IllustrationExplanations Points

Use the MLA in-text style of citation  Signal phrases (attributive tags) introduce your source by name or clear reference to the text or author the first time they are used in the paper.  Use a clear introduction to begin a direct quote, summary or paraphrase. MLA form uses in-text citation as the norm for citing sources  Lead carefully into each use of another source and explain it completely afterwards.

Rules for Documentation Put quotation marks around directly copied words or phrases. Paraphrase carefully and give a citation-- summarize sparingly. Acknowledge each source. List sources on Works Cited page.

In-Text Documentation When you borrow words, information, or ideas from any source in print, on the Web, or produced as a video or on television. Cite in parentheses information reader needs to locate the entry in the list of Works Cited. OR Cite part of the information in the text and part in parentheses at the end of the passage.

Example of quote within a quote: Author and page number in parentheses: In his review John Lee quotes Gish Jen as saying, ‘"I could not have written this story early on in my career in dialect, using that voice, because if I had sent it out, the assumption would have been that I didn't speak English”’(Lee 221).

Author introduced and in parenthesis after the quote. Direct Quotation In his article reprinted in Emerging Voices, Marvin Magalaner says that "the most pervasive image in Love Medicine is unquestionable water" (528). Paraphrase According to Marvin Magalaner in his critical essay reprinted in Emerging Voices water is the most prominent symbol used by Louise Erdrich in Love Medicine (528).

Paraphrase + Quotation Paraphrase and Quotation According to Magalaner, Louise Erdrich uses water images throughout Love Medicine and this "concern with water leads in turn to several associated though subsidiary motifs involving the relationship of her characters to water" (528)..

Multiple Authors If the source has three or fewer authors, cite each of their last names. If there are more than three authors, cite the last name of first author listed on the title page plus the abbreviation et al.

Works from video/television When referring to a work from a video or television. Cite the source material by the way that this source will be listed on the Works Cited. Cite even those sections that you summarize from that source.

Example In “The English Lesson,” Nicholasa Mohr describes the immigrants in Mrs. Susan Hamma’s class in a similar way by saying that they “had migrated [to America] in search of a better future…and worked as unskilled laborers (Mohr 25)..” In “The English Lesson,” immigrants in Mrs. Susan Hamma’s class “had migrated [to America] in search of a better future…and worked as unskilled laborers (Mohr 25).

In-text citation: Author’s name cited in-text: LaRay M. Barna says in “Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication” that “[i]t’s appropriate at this time to major changes in the international scene to take a hard look at some of the reasons for the disappointing results of the attempts at communication” (173). Note: Bracket is used to change something from the original.

Example of indented longer quotation Both author’s name & page # in a parenthetical citation. {Author was previously introduced in the paper.} In talking about identity the nature or nurture discussion emerges. One definition is: Inherited influences represent those situations into which one is born that are experiences in the home on a daily basis. They may be biological or environmental. (Root 238)

Unknown Authorship If you borrow ideas from a source for which you cannot determine the author: Cite the title in-text and page number parenthetically. Cite the title and page number parenthetically. Follow new MLA guidelines for listing Web sources date of access and name of site.

Additional Resources: The Owl at Purdue has MLA information and examples. Use the North Seattle Library site and examples from librarians: Elinor Appel and Aryana Bates Ask Loft Tutors; help each other in peer review and class.