There are several skills that we need to practice going forward. Many of these involve transforming our research for the second essay into the arguments, claims, paragraphs, and sentences we need to write for essay two.
Research skills
Emerging Arguments and Claims: As we research, our sources will help point us in the directions we want to argue. This is what we mean by text-based evidence: we are basing our claims on information, and we can 'back up' our claims by pointing to the research we've found. This means that we will discover our arguments as we go - maybe not all of them, but many of them.
In-text citations and bibliography: We have practiced successfully quoting from books like Climate Casino, but this essay asks us to get better with sources like PLANYC (except that now you are responsible for finding many of these sources on your own). We have to know what parts of internet sources should go in the direct quotation/citation part of our quote sandwiches. We also have to save a lot of information for the bibliography (the list of works cited at the end, which is in MLA style).
Incorporating information from multiple sources: We may not have room to introduce every source we find, and then have a direct quotation from them, and then explore that quotation. But we are using information from many sources. So what do we do? Consider these rules:
1. Keep track of where all your information comes from. You can summarize information from one website and cite it (put in parentheses) even if you don't quote from it. A reader should be able to figure out where you're getting the information.
2. So what information do you put in direct quotations? You use the information that best supports the claim you're making (and thus BEST supports the thesis). This might mean you have a paragraph with several citations of sources, but still only one direct quotation. In general, then, the quote sandwich for a research essay might expand to include 'ingredients' that refer to other sources, but the main 'meat' or 'cheese' of the quote sandwich is still the best quote you're using to support your topic-sentence claim (and, again, your thesis).
Quote Sandwiches
Our quote sandwiches are more important than ever because of our research. We will need to pay special attention now to introducing sources, in many cases because readers won't have encountered them. We need to take this responsibility seriously. There are two new ways we will introduce sources beyond the one we've already learned, which is summary of main ideas.
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of our sources? What do they do well? What are they useful for? What are their limits? What do they leave out? How are they biased?
2. Why should a reader trust these sources? Who wrote them? Where are they from? Why should we trust them?
Essay Directions
We will need to continue practicing 'in-text directions' for our readers. In-text directions are sentences in the essay that tell the reader what's happening in the paper and why. For example, we might have templates like:
In this essay I will argue...
In this paragraph I will argue...
We should now turn to ____ because ____
The sources I use in this essay will be____. They are credible because______.
Thesis/topic sentence repetition
In the last essay, our repetitive argument language was around "preparation." In this essay, it is "adequate/not adequate" and "successful" or "not successful."
The city's response to Sandy was successful because ______, etc, but not successful because ____
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