Researched Essay Reminders & Tips:
1) Your claim must be clearly argumentative and
presented with controlled language. Your entire
essay is a development of YOUR argument.
2) Your argument must integrate counterclaims and
respective refutations. The best counterclaims
are presented in the form of counter-evidence.
Consider using your additional sources to show
opposing viewpoints to your own.
3) Avoid generalizations. Always use qualifiers,
unless cited evidence includes generalizations.
4) When in doubt, cite!
5) In the final stages, read your essay backwards to
check for correct grammar/mechanics.
Additional In-Text Citation Reminders
(Information provided by 5th Edition Hacker’s Guide on MLA Rules and Writing Center at the University of
Portland)
1)
Author Unknown:
Either use the complete title in a signal phrase or use a short form of the title in parentheses. Titles of
books are italicized; titles of articles are put in quotation marks.
Example: A popular keystroke logging program operates invisibly on workers’ computers yet provides
supervisors with details of the workers’ online activities (“Automatically”).
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TIP: Before assuming that a Web source has no author, do some detective work. Often the
author’s name is available but is not easy to find. For example, it may appear at the end of the
page, in tiny print. Or it may appear on another page of the site, such as the home page.
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NOTE: If a source has no author and is sponsored by a corporation or government agency, name
the corporation or agency as the author
2) Page number unknown:
Do not include the page number if a work lacks page numbers, as is the case with many Web sources.
Even if a printout from a Web site shows page numbers, treat the source as unpaginated in the
in-text citation because not all printouts give the same page numbers. (When the pages of a Web
source are stable, as in PDF files, supply a page number in your in-text citation.)
Example: As a 2005 study by Salary.com and America Online indicates, the Internet ranked as the top
choice among employees for ways of wasting time on the job; it beat talking with co-workers—
the second most popular method—by a margin of nearly two to one (Frauenheim).
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If a source has numbered paragraphs or sections, use “par.” (or “pars.”) or “sec.” (or “secs.”) in the
parentheses: (Smith, par. 4). Notice that a comma follows the author’s name in this case.
Additional In-Text Citation Reminders
(Information provided by 5th Edition Hacker’s Guide on MLA Rules and Writing Center at the University of
Portland)
3) Blocked Quotes:
Any quote longer than four typed lines must be presented in block format. Do not use quotation
marks; instead, indent the entire quote one inch from the left margin to form a “block” of
text. Double-space the quote, just like the text of the paper, and place the period at the end
of the quote, not after the parentheses.
Example:
Lynda Boose identifies a conflict within this feminist examination:
With a certain irony, it can be said that psychoanalytic theory – which assumes the
transhistorical nature of the family unit – had seemed to feminist explorers so strikingly
appropriate a compass for remapping Shakespearean drama precisely because the
Shakespearean family seemed to resemble our own modern one so closely. Even the
Christian marriage ceremony has changed but negligibly from the ritual alluded to in
Shakespeare’s plays. (614)
** Another example here: http://www.englishdiscourse.org/block.quotes.htm
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Long quotations should be used rarely, however, because frequent use tends to break up
your text and make the reader impatient. Also, be especially careful to integrate the
quote into your paper. Introduce it, and comment afterwards on why it was important.
Quote-Weaving
• Option 1: Speaker’s Tag: When
_______(background)_________, he says, “___________” (Last
Name/Title of Article/Other #).
• Option 2: Complete Thought: ________(IND)___________:
“____________” (Last Name/Title of Article/Other #).
• Option 3: Incomplete Thought: ___________(DCW) ________
“___________” (Last Name/Title of Article/Other #).
Strengthening Your Argument:
Considering Argumentative Appeals
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Appeal to Logos:
Your interpretations need to show clear progression of ideas or the logic of your
argument.
Avoid fallacies such as slippery slope (this is a conclusion based on the premise
that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps, through B, C,...,
X, Y, Z will happen, too, basically equating A and Z. So, if we don't want Z to occur,
A must not be allowed to occur either.); ad hominem (this is an attack on the
character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments); either/or (this
is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or
choices.)
Develop your ethos:
Cite sources correctly.
Provide appropriate background your sources (What is the ethos of these sources?
Consider the time context, title of authority for speakers, affiliations to credible
institutes.)
Final Thought: If you were to do a rhetorical analysis on your own essay, what
would that look like?