A Note on Using Evidence (Paraphrasing and Quoting)
The evidence that you will pull from your texts to
support your claims will either be paraphrases of textual material or direct
quotations. An effective rhetorical
analysis will have a combination of paraphrasing and direct quotations. Direct quotations can add power to your
argument, as you are providing specific evidence word for word from the
source. Paraphrases may be more
beneficial when a longer quotation would take up too much space or when a piece
of evidence is very detailed. In any
event, when using either paraphrases or direct quotations you must analyze your
evidence, explaining the significance.
Paraphrasing means to put an
idea in your own words while maintaining the same meaning (Simply changing a
word or two within a direct quotation is not sufficient paraphrasing and can be
regarded as plagiarism).
Direct quotations should be
put into quotation marks and quoted exactly as it appears in the text.
Quotations
Using Quotes within your
Text:
Introducing a Quote:
In Paul Gilmore’s article “ ‘The Genuine Article’ “ he contends that “Sam’s intelligence and hard work earn him
success and freedom, replicating the dream of self-made manhood upon which
middle-class manhood was founded” (767).
Incorporating
your words with the author’s:
In understanding this
“conflict with one’s audience,” Lamb introduces a more environment friendly
interactive approach, which she terms as negotiation and mediation (281).
Block quotes:
At times you may have to
include a large piece of text within your writing. When it is more than four
lines of your paper, you must put it in block quotes. You need to indent the
entire quote two tabs from the left margin. Continue your analysis on the next
line after the citation and do not indent.
Ex:
In the same interview Kingston
remarks, in regards to the initial breaking of silence by her mother:
It
wasn’t me that started breaking the silence about the no name woman. My mother
did it; she’s the first one that said, “Let’s remember this story.” And
actually she’s even the one that gave it meaning, but then her meaning was just
don’t fool around or you’re going to get pregnant and into big trouble. But she
broke the frozen ice. Then the struggle on my part was to say no to that
meaning. (67)
Kingston, via her narrator,
gives the story of the No Name Woman alternate meanings through the multiple
versions of the encounter between the No Name Woman and the father of her
child.
Paraphrase:
The maps that neuroscientists
make today are like the early charts of the New World with grotesque coastlines
and blank interiors. And what little we
do know about how the brain works raises disturbing questions about the nature
of ourselves.
Zimmer, Carl. Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the
Brain—and How It Changed The World. New York: Free, 2004.
The maps used by
neuroscientists today resemble the rough maps of the New World. Because we know so little about how the brain
works, we must ask questions about the nature of ourselves (Zimmer 7).
Carl Zimmer compares today’s
maps of the brain to the rough maps made of the New World. He believes that the lack of knowledge about
the workings of the brain makes us ask serious questions about our nature (Zimmer
7).
Humans are a remarkably
resourceful species. We have spread into
every region of the globe that is remotely habitable, and some, like Greenland,
that aren’t even that. The fact that we
have managed this feat in an era of exceptional climate stability does not
diminish the accomplishment, but it does make it seem that much more tenuous.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. “Ice Memory.” New Yorker 7 Jan. 2002: 37.
Human beings have to be
resourceful in order to inhabit a wide range of remote areas. This accomplishment is remarkable in a time
when our climate is constantly changing (Kolbert 37).
Elizabeth Kolbert
believes that the spread of humans throughout the world, even to remote places
like Greenland, demonstrates not only that we are resourceful but also that our
achievement, however remarkable, has not yet been threatened by climate change
(37).
Summary:
Iraq was once, like the
United States today, a country of firsts.
Sedentary society emerged in Mesopotamia around 5000 when people learned to plant, irrigate
and harvest crops. Three thousand years
before Christ, writing based on abstract symbols was invented to label the
fruits of agricultural surplus. When a
potter’s wheel was turned on its side and hitched to a horse, modern
transportation was born. It was where
time was first carved into sixty minutes and circles into three hundred and
sixty degrees. When in the ninth century
the Arab caliph Haroun al-Rashid wanted to
demonstrate his society’s superiority over Europe, he sent Charlemagne a clock.
Kremmer, Christopher. The Carpet Wars.
New York: Harper Collins, 2002. 197.
Iraq was once a center of
innovation, where new methods of agriculture, transportation, writing, and
measurement were generated (Kremmer 197).