1. PROSPECTUS NOTES

2. STRATEGY 1: MAKE YOUR SOURCES SPEAK Quote, paraphrase, or summarize in order to analyze – not in place of analyzing. Explain to your readers what the quotation or paraphrase or summary of the source means. What elements of it do you find interesting or revealing or strange? Emphasize how those affect your evolving thesis.

3. STRATEGY 2: ATTEND CAREFULLY TO THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR SOURCES Rather than generalizing broadly about ideas in your sources, you should spell out what you think is significant about their keywords. Another reason quoting and paraphrasing are important is because your analysis of a source will nearly always benefit from attention to the way the source represents its position.

4. STRATEGY 3: SUPPLY ONGOING ANALYSIS OF SOURCES Analyze as your quotes or paraphrase a source. When you orchestrate conversations with and among your sources, you need to integrate your analysis into your presentation of them. In supplying ongoing analysis, you are much more likely to explain how the information in the sources fits into your unfolding presentation, and your readers will be more likely to follow your train of thought and grasp the logic of your organization.

5. STRATEGY 4: USE YOUR SOURCES TO ASK QUESTIONS, NOT JUST TO PROVIDE ANSWERS Use your selections from sources as a means of raising issues and questions. Avoid the temptation to plug in such selections as answers that require no further commentary or elaboration. You need to do something with the reading, even with those sources that seem to have said what you want to say.

6. STRATEGY 5: PUT YOUR SOURCES INTO CONVERSATION WITH ONE ANOTHER Rather than limiting yourself to agreeing or disagreeing with your sources, aim for conversation with and among them. Although it is not wrong to agree or disagree with your sources, it is wrong to see these as your only possible moves. If you are citing a source in order to frame the discussion, the more reasonable move is both to agree and disagree with it.

7. STRATEGY 6: FIND YOUR OWN ROLE IN THE CONVERSATION Even if you absolutely agree with your source’s position, you need to find something of your own to say about it. Researching new perspectives on the source can also lead to uncovering new implications. You may think that another source’s critique of your original source is partly valid and that both sources miss things you could point out; in effect, you referee the conversation between them.

8. ADDING SOMETHING NEW Critical commentary Original voice New whole (analysis/interpretation/understanding) Fresh insights Unique connections Investment in topic Significant conclusions

9. POSSIBLE REVISIONS Develop a stronger framework/purpose/investment in making connections among sources Add more voices to the “conversation” Add more original/critical commentary Share new insights Add smoother transitions among sources Understand sources’ ideas/arguments more fully