When you are writing an argument that will use sources to defend your claim and sources to assist in refuting the opposition, you will need to properly integrate these sources into your body-paragraphs to show your argument can be defended by your own assertions as well as reliable leaders in the field.
Using sources to ‘make’ your argument for you is not acceptable. You must (1) make the argument yourself, and (2) use brief content from scholarly sources to lend credibility to what you have already argued. Once you have those two steps mastered, you can understand the ‘big picture’ of then (3) analyzing and evaluating the support from the source to strengthen your argument even more while assuring the audience that your claim is sound.
See the Source Sandwich Method steps and structure below to assist you with your quote, summary, and paraphrase integration in your body paragraphs.
Do not prove anything in your introduction or conclusion paragraphs.
Save your proof for the body-paragraphs.
An introduction’s purpose is simply to introduce the issue and your claim. The conclusion paragraph’s purpose is to wrap the argument up for the reader while sending the reader away fully-assured that your claim is correct.
Therefore, the body-paragraphs are the only place where the source sandwich will be used as you (1) present your argument, (2) support it with scholarly source material, and (3) prove beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt that your logic is infallible.
Source Sandwich Method:
Introduce, Quote, Explain
To understand how to integrate sources into your body-paragraphs, you will need to learn about the ‘source sandwich’.
You have finally found a source that will support the sub-point topic of one of your body-paragraphs. The paragraph—as a whole—will be filled with source sandwiches that properly argue your overall point of the body-paragraph—which stems from the THESIS statement.
Using Sources: Anytime you want to use a source in your writing, it must be embedded within a sentence of your own. This does not mean that it needs to be embedded between sentences of your own and simply “dropped from the sky” in-between them. Source materials must be contained within your own sentences. To embed a source into a sentence, you must make the source content part of your own sentence.
You can embed the source ideas through paraphrasing, quoting, or summarizing. (Side note: you should have more paraphrasing in your writing than quoting.)
To embed a source into your sentence, you first need to decide what the important point is from the source that you want to use to argue the sub-point of the body-paragraph.
Do not simply copy and paste a quote to use in your sentence. While sometimes this tactic will work to at least establish source support for your argument, in general, you will need to paraphrase the source for best integration and most professionally sounding writing.
Once you have created a sentence of your own—with the source content paraphrased within it, you then need to build the buns for your sandwich.
Integrating sources into a sentence of your own: use as much paraphrasing as possible.
As stated in Wikipedia, sources are considered reliable when they are written by and then peer-reviewed by experts in a field of study (para 2).
Sources are considered reliable when they are written by and then peer-reviewed by experts in a field of study (Wikipedia para 2).
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The sentence with the sourced material in it is the meat of the source sandwich. However, the sentences before and after it are your bread/bun.
Just as a sandwich has three parts—bread, filling, bread—so the source sandwich method gives three steps to incorporating a quotation, paraphrase, summary, or statistic effectively into your body-paragraph.
Step 3—the bottom bun—is the most important part, but please note that anytime you use outside source material in your writing—no matter if it is presented as a quote, summary, or paraphrase—you must include step 1 and step 3 to encapsulate the source (the meat). Otherwise, you are simply creating an essay stacked with source content and your voice will not be present.
Understanding How to Use a Source Sandwich
YOU are the writer of your paper. YOU must lead the sources through the argument in your paper. Do not let the sources lead your writing. Make certain that you establish your own thoughts, argument, and logic, and you use the sources to strengthen those ideas.
Do not assume that outside sources know more than you—they are simply more respected due to their scholarly achievements and published credibility. Your ideas are worthwhile, but you need to find creative ways to use sources to argue those ideas—your ideas. The credibility of the scholarly sources is what will lend strength to your writing, not the other way around.
Steps of the Source Sandwich
Step 1: Introduce the source. This is ALL in your own words and voice. You do not introduce the source by using the source. Introduce the source by writing about it in your own words. You may want to do things like
· Name the author and give his or her credentials
· Describe the experiment, study, or survey
· Briefly summarize the main points of the article or book
Step 2: Give the quotation, paraphrase, summary, or fact. This is in a combination of your own words and the source content. You can create step 2 most professionally and academic by paraphrasing or summarizing the source. No matter whether you use lead-in, integration terms to express the source and then add part of it in as a quote, or if you fully integrate the source content as a paraphrase or summary, you must remember that any sentence that contains information from an outside source must also have an in-text citation embedded prior to the end punctuation of the sentence.
· Use ellipsis (…) to show where you have removed words
· Use square brackets ([ ]) to show words that you have changed
Step 3: Explain how the quote is relevant to your paper. This is ALL in your own words and voice. You do not simply create step 2 and then move on to another source point. You need to analyze, assess, and synthesize the importance of this outside, scholarly content. After all, you are using it to lend strength to your argument. Tell the readers how this works in your paper to prove your point.
· Instead of assuming that your reader will understand how the quote relates to the main ideas of your paper, make it very clear in your explanation
· Write a few sentences explaining how the source is evidence that supports your ideas, or how the source is on the other side of the argument.
Often, it is easiest to begin with Step 2—the sentence that has the source content integrated into it. If this seems like it will work for you, then, to ‘make the source sandwich,’ you need to write out (or type up) your sentence with the embedded/integrated source content. See the steps above for what goes into creating the ‘meat’ sentence.
Then, once you have your source content in a sentence with a proper lead-in and source integration, you would work on creating the buns to encapsulate that meat.
Create the top bun/bread…
Look at that ‘meat’ sentence and create another sentence—without any source materials in it—to introduce the topic of the ‘meat’ sentence. (The top bun should only be one sentence long.) This is your top piece of bread/bun.
Create the bottom bun/bread…
Then, read your ‘meat’ sentence again. This time create a sentence—without any source materials in it—to explain and analyze the topic expressed in the ‘meat’ sentence. You can have a very thick bottom bun if you have a lot to say about the source content. (The bottom bun does not only need to be one sentence long.)
The main point for the bottom bun is to
explain what the source was saying,
analyze its content and importance, and
evaluate why it is important to your overall point of the body-paragraph (topic sentence)—which ultimately makes it important to your overall point of the essay (THESIS statement).
This section (a sentence or two) is your bottom piece of bread/bun.
In a body-paragraph, you can have multiple source sandwiches. However, the primary concepts to keep in mind are:
MEAT: You must integrate the source content into a sentence of your own,
TOP BUN: You must create a sentence to introduce the topic/source content of the meat sandwich, and
BOTTOM BUN: You must wrap-up the source sandwich with one (or more) sentences that explain, analyze, and evaluate the source material while expressing its importance to your overall point for the body-paragraph.
Examples:
· GETTING THERE—NEEDS WORK: Here is a section of a body-paragraph that introduces and quotes a source well, but there is no explanation of how that quote relates to the paper. The paragraph simply continues on addressing different aspects of the overall topic.
According to the article “What do we mean by ‘sex’ and ‘gender’?" by the World Health Organization, gender roles are defined as, “A set of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship” (Eisend).Traditionally, men are the ones putting the bread on the table. Women stay home to clean and take care of the children. But this is a new century with new ideas and new technology. These so called “gender roles” are hardly existent now and yet are still focused on so closely today when they shouldn’t be.
· MORE ON TRACK—ACCEPTABLE SANDWICH: Here is a better example that introduces the source, quotes it, and then explains how it is relevant.
[introduces the topic] An ideal option is for the U.S. to work jointly with the U.N. on anti-terrorist drone attacks. [introduces the argument to lead to the source] The U.S. could enjoy many benefits from a relationship with the U.N. for drones. [introduces the source] In article 43 of the U.N. charter, it states one of the primary obligations of the U.N. is to [quotes the source] “maintain or restore international peace and security” (Barrett) . [explains how the source is relevant to the overall topic/argument] This article indicates that the U.N. should have an interest in the war on terrorism.
Please keep in mind that the source sandwich method does not constitute the whole paragraph. The body-paragraph consists to additional parts, yet when a source is going to be used, it needs to be set up—within the body-paragraph—in the proper sandwich format.
Structure of a Typical Body-Paragraph
1. Topic Sentence
2. Detail about the topic to transition to the supportive content.
3. Development of the topic (for the upcoming source usage).
4. Introduce the source.
5. Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize the source.
6. Explain how the source relates to the topic and ultimately defends the argument of the body-paragraph—as it relates to the thesis statement.
7. Closing sentence—that wraps up the point of the body-paragraph while relating directly to the topic sentence's overall main idea.
Each of the colored sections above show which areas are working together to accomplish different aspects of logical writing in the body-paragraph. The topic and closing sentence (in yellow) work together to reflect toward or back to each other. The details and development of the topic (in green) work to establish your argument and a sub-point of the thesis statement. The pink areas work to integrate an outside, scholarly source properly, and then the body-paragraph closing sentence (yellow) wraps up the whole concept while reflecting back to the topic sentence (yellow) of the body-paragraph.
While this is the minimum format for a body-paragraph, a fully developed body-paragraph will often have 2 or 3 sandwiches within it. However, the minimum for any body-paragraph of an academic essay is to use at least one outside scholarly source to lend supportive credibility to your argument. Therefore, all body-paragraphs will have at least 1 sandwich in them. See the outline below for a sample body-paragraph with 2 source sandwiches.
Structure of a Well-Developed Body-Paragraph
1. Topic Sentence
2. Detail about the topic to transition to the supportive content.
3. Development of the topic (for the upcoming source usage).
4. Introduce the source.
5. Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize the source.
6. Explain how the source relates to the topic and ultimately defends the argument of the body-paragraph—as it relates to the thesis statement.
7. Detail about another aspect of this body-paragraph sub-point topic to transition to the supportive content.
8. Development of the new aspect of this sub-point topic (for the upcoming source usage).
9. Introduce the source.
10. Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize the source.
11. Explain how the source relates to the topic (which was established in the topic sentence of this body-paragraph) and ultimately defends the argument of the body-paragraph—as it relates to the thesis statement.
12. Closing sentence
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