BRENDA SPATT taught English at Herbert H. Lehman College of The City University of New York for 13 years before becoming the university's director of academic affairs and then associate dean.

Covering every step of research, writing, and documentation,Writing from Sourcesprovides a complete guide to source-based writing. The book builds from fundamental skills -- such as annotating a passage -- to more demanding ones such as integrating sources smoothly into an original argument. Examples, exercises, and guidance throughout help students gain confidence with essential concepts, while numerous readings drawn from a variety of sources provide models and practice in every skill.

Table of Contents

To the Instructor To the Student Citations



PART I: MAKING SOURCES YOUR OWN



1. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING UNDERLINING ANNOTATING
Reading: William Leach, from Land of Desire
Exercise 1: Annotating a Passage
*Katherine Ashenberg, from The Dirt on Clean
*Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate ASKING QUESTIONS
Reading: Blanche Blank, A Question of Degree
Exercise 2: Understanding What You Read
*Jill McCorkle, Cuss Time QUESTIONING THE AUTHOR
Reading: Rubén Martínez, The Kindness of Strangers
Exercise 3: Examining Intention
*Sally Satel, When Altruism Isn't Moral
USING EVIDENCE AND REASONING
Exercise 4: Citing Evidence
*Dan Bilefsky, Children Left Behind Suffer the Strains of Migration INTERPRETING EVIDENCE
Exercise 5: Drawing Inferences
*Libby Sander, For College Athletes, Recruiting is a Fair (but Flawed) Game USING LOGICAL REASONING Exercise 6: Analyzing an Author's Logic
*Michael Mandelbaum, from Democracy's Good Name
*Diana West, from The Death of the Grown-Up



PART II: PRESENTING SOURCES TO OTHERS



2. SUMMARIZING SOURCES SUMMARIZING A PARAGRAPH
Exercise 7: Summarizing a Paragraph
Margaret Mead, from Some Personal Views
Michael Pollan, from An Animal's Place
Steve Olsen, from Mapping Human History
Sara Kershaw, Enough of the Hills and Woods, Can I Send Grandma an E-Card?
Daniel Boorstin, from Americans: The National Experience
Steven Pinker, from The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
*Lawrence Rosen, What We Got Wrong SUMMARIZING AN ARTICLE
Reading: Selwyn Raab, Holdup Man Tells Detectives How to Do It
Exercise 8: Summarizing an Article
*Jonathan Malesic, How Dumb Do They Think We Are?
SUMMARIZING A COMPLEX ESSAY
Reading: Bertrand Russell, The Social Responsibility of Scientists
Assignment 1: Summarizing an Essay
*Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid?
*Roger Scruton, from A Carnivore's Credo



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 WRITING CITATIONS DECIDING WHAT TO QUOTE
Reading: Lizabeth Cohen, from A Consumer's Republic
Exercise 11: Why Quote?
*John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor, from Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
Exercise 12: What to Quote
*Tom Vanderbilt, Traffic
*Thomas G. Mortenson, from Where the Boys Were INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR PARAGRAPHS
Exercise 13: Integrating Quotations Into a Paragraph AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
Exercise 14: Identifying Plagiarism



4. PARAPHRASING SOURCES USING PARAPHRASE IN YOUR ESSAYS
Exercise 15: Identifying a Good Paraphrase
Peter C. Whybrow, from Dangerously Addictive
Exercise 16: Paraphrasing a Difficult Passage 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
*David Leonhardt, Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness After All 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
*Ursula K. Le Guin, from Staying Awake: Notes on the Alleged Decline of Reading PRESENTING SOURCES: A SUMMARY OF PRELIMINARY WRITING SKILLS



PART III: WRITING FROM SOURCES



5. THE SINGLE-SOURCE ESSAY STRATEGY ONE: ARGUING AGAINST YOUR SOURCE
Reading: Roger Sipher, So That Nobody Has to Go to School If They Don't Want To
Assignment 2: Writing an Argument Based on a Single Source
Carl Singleton, What Our Education System Needs is More Fs
*Steven M. Wise, Why Animals Deserve Legal Rights
*Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke, from Torture: When the Unthinkable is Morally Permissible

STRATEGY TWO: DEVELOPING AN ESSAY BASED ON A SOURCE
Assignment 3: Writing an Essay Based on a Single Source
*Jenni Russell, The Selfish Generation
*Christopher Caldwell, What a College Education Buys
*Bobby Allyn, Among Privileged Classmates, I'm an Outsider



6. THE MULTIPLE-SOURCE ESSAY ANALYZING MULTIPLE SOURCES
Exercise 20: Analyzing Shades of Meaning in Multiple Sources
Assignment 4: Writing a Definition Essay from 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 5: Writing an Essay Synthesizing Multiple Sources
*Laurie Fendrich, The B-Minus Reigns Supreme
Assignment 6: Writing an Argument from Multiple Sources
*Jennifer Medina, Can Students Be Paid to Excel?
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
*Lee Siegel, from Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
*William Deresiewicz, from The End of Solitude
Assignment 7: Synthesizing Academic Sources
*Steven Johnson, from Everything Bad is Good for You
*Christine Rosen, from People of the Screen



PART IV: WRITING THE RESEARCH ESSAY



7. FINDING SOURCES TOPIC NARROWING
Exercise 24: Narrowing a Topic
Exercise 25: Proposing a Topic LOCATING SOURCES INTERVIEWING AND FIELD RESEARCH
Assignment 8: 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 9: 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
*Britannica Online, from Wikipedia
*Andrew Lih, from The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
*Jonathan Zittrain, from The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It
*Andrew Keen, from The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture
*Amit Ray and Erhardt Graeff, from Reviewing the Author-Function in the Age of Wikipedia
*Darren Crovitz and W. Scott Smoot, from Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe
*Jakob Voss, from Measuring Wikipedia
*Roy Rosenzweig, from Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past
*Noam Cohen, from A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia As a Research Source
*Adam Tornes, from Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Karma Sutra?
Exercise 31: Comparing Sources
300 Killed By Fire (The New York Times)
Catastrophe: Boston's Worst (Time Magazine)
Bernard Devoto, The Easy Chair



9. WRITING THE RESEARCH ESSAY SAVING INFORMATION TAKING NOTES
Exercise 32: Taking Notes on Two Topics
Exercise 33: Taking Notes on Three Topics
*Janet M. Davis, from The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top
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 AS SOURCES
Assignment 10: Organizing and Writing the Research Essay



10. ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCES WHEN TO DOCUMENT INFORMATION PLAGIARISM: STEALING IDEAS PLAGIARISM: STEALING WORDS
Exercise 34: Understanding When to Document Information
Exercise 35: Understanding Plagiarism
Exercise 36: Identifying Plagiarism USING DOCUMENTATION
Exercise 37: Acknowledging Sources MANAGING DOCUMENTATION
Exercise 38: Documenting Sources Correctly PREPARING THE FINAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Exercise 39: 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