Writing from Sources with 2016 MLA Update

Providing you with a foundation in source-based writing, Writing from Sources with 2016 MLA Update guides you through the process of research writing with engaging exercises and content from professional writers.

Brenda Spatt taught English at Herbert H. Lehman College of The City University of New York for thirteen years and also at Borough of Manhattan Community College before becoming an administrator at CUNY's Central Office.  Her titles included director of academic affairs, executive assistant to the Chancellor, and university associate dean for executive search and evaluation.

PART I: READING FOR RESEARCH
1. READING SOURCES
UNDERLINING
ANNOTATING
     Reading: William Leach, from Land of Desire
     Exercise 1: Annotating a Passage
          *Eugene Morozov, from To Save Everything, Click Here
          *Stephen Gundle, from Glamour
ASKING QUESTIONS
     Reading: Blanche Blank, A Question of Degree
     Exercise 2: Understanding What You Read
          *Jonathan Safran Foer, “The Last Thanksgiving of My Childhood”
QUESTIONING THE AUTHOR
     Reading: Steven Pinker, “Why Is There Peace?”
     Exercise 3: Examining Intention
          *James Surowiecki, “The Wisdom of Crowds”
 USING EVIDENCE
     Exercise 4: Citing Evidence
          *Laurie Andrews, “I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did”
INTERPRETING EVIDENCE  
     Exercise 5: Drawing Inferences
          *Tara Parker-Pope, “The Kids Are More Than Alright”
USING LOGICAL REASONING
Exercise 6: Analyzing an Author's Logic
 *Donna Freitas, from The End of Sex
 *Thane Rosenbaum, from Eye for an Eye: The Case for Revenge
 
PART II: WRITING ABOUT SOURCES
2. SUMMARIZING SOURCES
SUMMARIZING A PARAGRAPH
     Exercise 7: Summarizing a Paragraph
          *Yochai Benkler, from The Penguin and the Leviathan
         * Marcus Boon, from In Praise of Copying
          *Sheldon M. Garon, from Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves
          *Brigid Anderson, from Global Woman
          *Sherry Turkle, from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less
           from Each Other
SUMMARIZING A TEXT OR ARTICLE
     Reading: Paul Tough, from How Children Succeed
     Exercise 8: Summarizing an Article
          *Jessica Higgins, “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Notes?”
SUMMARIZING A COMPLEX ESSAY
     Reading: Bertrand Russell, The Social Responsibility of Scientists
     Assignment 1: Summarizing an Essay
          *Louis Menand, “Why We Have College”
          *Stephen Marche, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”
 
3. QUOTING SOURCES
REASONS FOR QUOTING
USING QUOTATIONS
     Exercise 9: Quoting Correctly
QUOTING ACCURATELY
TAILORING QUOTATIONS TO FIT YOUR WRITING
     Exercise 10: Using Ellipses and Brackets in Quotations
GIVING CREDIT TO THE SOURCE
DECIDING WHAT TO QUOTE
     Reading: *John Lahr, “Petrified”
     Exercise 11: Why Quote?
          *Hanna Rosin, from The End of Men: And the Rise of Women
     Exercise 12: What to Quote 
          *Rachelle Bergstein, from Women from the Ankle Down
          *Rachel Shteir, from The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting
INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR PARAGRAPHS
     Exercise 13: Integrating Quotations Into a Paragraph
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
     Exercise 14: Identifying Plagiarism
 
4. PARAPHRASING SOURCES
REASONS FOR USING PARAPHRASES
     Exercise 15: Identifying a Good Paraphrase
          *Tom Lutz, from Crying
     Exercise 16: Paraphrasing a Difficult Text
USING PARAPHRASE WITH QUOTATION AND SUMMARY
     Reading: Conor Cruise O'Brien, Violence-And Two Schools of Thought
     Exercise 17: Distinguishing Between Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary, and Commentary
          * Rachel Feltman, “Most Men Would Rather Shock Themselves Than Be Alone with Their Thoughts”
WRITING A PARAGRAPH THAT INCORPORATES PARAPHRASE AND QUOTATION: “JARHEAD”
     Reading: Anthony Swofford, Jarhead
     Exercise 18: Paraphrasing Without Plagiarism
     Exercise 19: Writing a Paragraph that Incorporates Paraphrase and Quotation
          *Steven Pinker, from The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
PRESENTING SOURCES: A SUMMARY OF PRELIMINARY WRITING SKILLS
 
PART III: WRITING ABOUT SOURCES IN AN ESSAY
5. WRITING THE SINGLE-SOURCE ESSAY
STRATEGY ONE: DEVELOPING AN ESSAY BASED ON A SOURCE
     Assignment 2: Writing an Essay Based on a Single Source
          *William Deresiewicz, “Faux Friendship”
          *Mike Rose, “Making Sparks Fly”
          *Dan Slater, “A Million First Dates”
STRATEGY TWO: ARGUING AGAINST YOUR SOURCE
     Reading: Roger Sipher, So That Nobody Has to Go to School If They Don't Want To
     Assignment 3: Writing an Argument Based on a Single Source
          Carl Singleton, What Our Education System Needs is More Fs
          *Laurie Essig and Lynn Owens, “What If Marriage Is Bad For Us?”
          *Dinesh D’Souza, from What’s So Great About America?
 
6. SYNTHESIZING SOURCES FOR THE MULTIPLE-SOURCE ESSAY
ANALYZING MULTIPLE SOURCES
     Exercise 20: Analyzing Shades of Meaning in Multiple Sources
SYNTHESIZING MULTIPLE SOURCES: “LOTTERY”
     Exercise 21: Identifying Common Ideas
ORGANIZING MULTIPLE SOURCES: “STUDENT PROMOTION”
     Reading: Gene I. Maeroff, from Rule Tying Pupil Promotion to Reading Skill Stirs Worry
EVALUATING SOURCES
WRITING A SYNTHESIS ESSAY
     Exercise 22: Analyzing a Paragraph Based on a Synthesis of Sources
          Alan Wolfe, Moral Freedom: Till Circumstances Do Us Part
    Assignment 4: Writing an Essay Synthesizing Multiple Sources
          *Christine B. Whelan, “Helping First-Year Students Help Themselves”
     Assignment 5: Writing an Argument from Multiple Sources
          *John Markoff, “Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break”
WHEN NOT TO SYNTHESIZE
SYNTHESIZING SOURCES IN ACADEMIC ESSAYS
     Reading: Jeffrey Rosen, from The Naked Crowd
     Exercise 23: Integrating Three Academic Sources
          *Andrew Keen, from The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture
          *Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, from The App Generation
          *Elias Aboujaoude, from Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of E-Personality
     Assignment 6: Synthesizing Academic Sources
          *Christina Hoff Sommers, from The War Against Boys
         * Peg Tyre, from The Trouble with Boys
          *Michael Kimmel, from Guyland
         * Hanna Rosin, from The End of Men
 
PART IV: WRITING FROM RESEARCH
7. BEGINNING RESEARCH
TOPIC NARROWING  
     Exercise 24: Narrowing a Topic
     Exercise 25: Proposing a Topic
LOCATING SOURCES
INTERVIEWING AND FIELD RESEARCH
     Assignment 7: Writing an Essay Based on Interviews or Field Research
SAVING AND RECORDING INFORMATION FOR YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY
     Exercise 26: Compiling a Working Bibliography
     Exercise 27: Finding and Selecting Sources
     Assignment 8: Preparing a Topic Proposal for a Research Essay
 
8. EVALUATING SOURCES
EVALUATING PRINT SOURCES
EVALUATING WEB SOURCES
EVALUATING WEB SOURCES ABOUT ANIMAL RIGHTS
INTEGRATING SOURCES
     Exercise 28: Evaluating Internet Sources
     Exercise 29: Choosing Internet Sources
     Exercise 30: Evaluating Sources
          *Elias Aboujaoude, from Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of E-Personality
          *Giles Slade, from The Big Disconnect
          *Saul Levmore, The Internet’s Anonymity Problem
          *David R. Dupper, from School Bullying
          *June F. Chisholm and Storey K. Day, “Current Trends in Cyberbullying”
          *John Suler, “The Online Disinhibition Effect”
          *Whitney Phillips, “What an Academic Who Wrote Her Dissertation on Trolls Thinks of Violentracez”
          *Elizabeth Landau, “When Bullying Goes High-Tech”
          *Patrick Michels, “Stalker in the Attic”
     
9. WRITING THE RESEARCH ESSAY
SAVING INFORMATION
TAKING NOTES
         Exercise 31: Taking Notes on Three Topics
          *Kwame Anthony Appiah, from The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen
DEVELOPING A LIST OF TOPICS
PLANNING A STRATEGY
ARRANGING THE ORDER OF TOPICS: OUTLINING
COMPLETING YOUR OUTLINE
WRITING INTEGRATED PARAGRAPHS
ACCOMMODATING ARGUMENT IN YOUR PARAGRAPHS
PRESENTING ARGUMENTS FAIRLY
INTEGRATING YOUR SOURCES: RECRUITING IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS
WRITING AN INTRODUCTION
USING VISUALS AND OTHER MEDIA AS SOURCES
     Assignment 9: Organizing and Writing the Research Essay
 
10. ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCES
WHEN TO DOCUMENT INFORMATION
PLAGIARISM: STEALING IDEAS
PLAGIARISM: STEALING WORDS
     Exercise 32: Understanding When to Document Information
     Exercise 33: Understanding Plagiarism
     Exercise 34: Identifying Plagiarism
USING DOCUMENTATION
     Exercise 35: Acknowledging Sources
MANAGING DOCUMENTATION
     Exercise 36: Documenting Sources Correctly
PREPARING THE FINAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
     Exercise 37: Preparing the Bibliography
PRESENTING YOUR ESSAY
 
11. TWO RESEARCH ESSAYS
Readings:
          Bethany Dettmore, Looking at Horror Films
          David Morgan, Explaining the Tunguskan Phenomenon
 
12. SOME BASIC FORMS FOR DOCUMENTATION: MLA, APA, AND ENDNOTES
MLA STYLE
APA STYLE
NUMBERED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ENDNOTE/FOOTNOTE DOCUMENTATION
NOTES PLUS PAGE NUMBERS IN THE TEXT
 
*new to this edition