Using Evidence from
Text
HOW TO “BORROW” AN AUTHOR’S WORDS
Intellectual property of Becci Carmack:
Use with permission only.
Review: What does a text reference
include?
Title
◦Quotation marks for short stories
◦Italics (or underlining) for longer works
◦Important words capitalized
Author
◦Correctly capitalized
Which is evidence? Why?
If we were in a court of law, which of the following would be
evidence?
◦ The closing argument to the jury
◦ The murder weapon
◦ DNA samples
◦ The attorney’s explanations and comments
◦ Expert witness testimony
What is considered evidence in writing?
Evidence=exact words from an outside source.
This is similar to calling an expert witness in a trial.
Respected authors can be our “expert witness” to back up
ideas and explanations we have.
These are the passages we use from the novel, story, article,
or book in the EXACT words of the author.
(When writing an essay, we choose passages that support a
claim. We call these direct quotations “internal citations”
when we use them inside a paragraph.”
Evidence in writing=citation
One way to think of evidence is to find a passage from text (a story,
article, etc.) that proves our point.
When we use this in writing, we call it a citation.
Remember that an internal citation is just a passage taken from the
text, story, or piece of writing. It is written word for word.
Rules for borrowing
Have you ever borrowed something from someone else?
Have you ever let someone else borrow your things?
How should we treat things we borrow?
MLA format
When we talk about borrowing an author’s words, there is an exact
form for doing that.
Anytime you use the author’s words, use this pattern.
◦ Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks. Parenthesis. Author’s last
name. Page number. Parenthesis. Period.
◦ “Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Example:
“And once they realized how important art was to Homer, they
encouraged it” (Levitt 586).
Was this evidence borrowed correctly?
◦Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks.
Parenthesis. Author’s last name. Page number.
Parenthesis. Period.
◦“Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Sample:
“I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way.” (Tan
23).
Was this evidence borrowed correctly?
◦Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks.
Parenthesis. Author’s last name. Page number.
Parenthesis. Period.
◦“Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Sample:
“I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way (Tan 23).”
Was this evidence borrowed correctly?
◦Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks.
Parenthesis. Author’s last name. Page number. Parenthesis.
Period.
◦“Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Sample:
“I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way” (Tan, 23).
Was this evidence borrowed correctly?
◦Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks.
Parenthesis. Author’s last name. Page number.
Parenthesis. Period.
◦“Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Sample:
“I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way” (Tan 23).
Was this evidence borrowed correctly?
Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks. Parenthesis.
Author’s last name. Page number. Parenthesis. Period.
“Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Sample:
“But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank
look that said she had lost everything” (Tan 22).
STOP HERE!
Next slide Lesson 1/part 2
The last piece
The last part of citing a source correctly is the Work Cited
source citation. This tells readers where you got the
passage you used as an internal citation.
(NO) SURPRISE!!!! There is a correct format for this.
Work Cited format
Work Cited
___________________, _____________. “________________________________________.”
(Author’s Last Name)
(Author’s First Name)
(Selection Title)
Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.__________. Print.
(Page Numbers)
Notice the “hanging” indent!
Work Cited
___________________, _____________. “________________________________________.”
(Author’s Last Name)
(Author’s First Name)
Be sure the title is in quotation
marks and that title and author
are capitalized correctly.
(Selection Title)
◦ Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
◦ Prentice Hall, 2000.__________. Print.
(Page Numbers)
Page numbers here include the
entire selection. For example,
a selection might read 415-468.
Did I cite my source correctly?
Work Cited
___________________, _____________. “______________________________________.”
(Author’s Last Name)
(Author’s First Name)
WORK CITED
Tan. Amy. “Two Kinds. Literature: Timeless
(Selection Title)
Voices, Timeless Themes. NJ.
Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.__________. Print.
(Page Numbers)
Prentice Hall. 8-15 . Print.
Did I cite my source correctly?
Work Cited
___________________, _____________. “______________________________________.”
(Author’s Last Name)
(Author’s First Name)
WORK CITED
Singer. “The Cat Who Thought She Was a Dog”
(Selection Title)
Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless
Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.__________. Print.
(Page Numbers)
Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2000. 8-15 .
Part Two
Review and add…
MLA format
When we talk about borrowing an author’s words, there is an exact
form for doing that.
Anytime you use the author’s words, use this pattern.
◦ Quotation marks. Exact words. Quotation marks. Parenthesis. Author’s last
name. Page number. Parenthesis. Period.
◦ “Exact words of the author” (Last 777).
Example:
“And once they realized how important art was to Homer, they
encouraged it” (Levitt 586).
What if we do not need the beginning of
the sentence? Do it like thisThe original text=
I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way.
Just put the double quotations marks where you want to begin.
“her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way” (Tan 23).
What if we do not need the beginning of
the sentence? Do it like thisThe original text=
I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way.
What if you want the beginning word to start a new sentence? Any
time you make changes in the author’s text, you must use brackets.
Do it like this:
“[H]er chest was heaving up and down in an angry way” (Tan 23).
What if there are quotation marks in the
text already?
If the author has used quotation marks…say for a character’s words…we
replace those with single quotation marks.
Our double quotation marks (”) means we are borrowing the author’s
words.
Single quotation marks (‘) are used to replace double ones in the text.
LIKE THIS—
In the text: “You want me to be someone I’m not!” I sobbed.
In our citation: “ ‘You want me to be someone I’m not!’ I sobbed” (Tan
23).
Part Three
Review and add…
What if we only want to use part of the
sentence?
Add an ellipsis to show that something has been changed or
removed from the original text.
An ellipsis is three dots…
If I change something or leave something out in a citation, I add an
ellipsis with brackets.
Like this:
“ ‘Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter […]’ I shouted” (Tan 23).
What if that will be the beginning of my
sentence?
The original text=
I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way.
Do it like this and use the ellipsis to show you are changing the lower
case letter to an upper case one.
“[H]er chest was heaving up and down in an angry way”
What if I want to take out some of the
middle of the sentence?
Original: I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was
heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she
were pleased I was crying.
Citation: “I was sobbing […]and her mouth was open, smiling crazily
as if she were pleased I was crying” (Tan 23).
What if I want to take off the end of a
sentence?
Original: I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was
heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she
were pleased I was crying.
Citation: “I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest
was heaving even more […]” (Tan 23).
Yikes!!! Never change the meaning of the
original text.
“She lifted me up […] as if she were pleased […]” (Tan 23).
Stop and practice with “After Twenty
Years.”
Stop and practice with “After Twenty
Years.”
Hanging Indent