Integrating Sources

Integrating Sources

Finding good sources isn’t the only difficult aspect of the argumentative paper. You also need to integrate that source material into your essay. Supporting material is NOT meant to replace your words—it is meant to support your own assertions and conclusions. Therefore, you can’t simply “drop” quotes and statistics into your paragraphs and expect them to sound good. Supporting material must be woven into the fabric of your essay. To successfully accomplish this, you must make sure you fully understand your supporting material. Try rephrasing quotes and sections in your own words (paraphrasing) to make certain you know what they mean. You must also be unfailingly honest in your use of those sources—you cannot twist the writers’ words to fit your thesis if that interpretation is not supported in the source.

Whenever you use supporting material, you should try to write at least three sentences to fully integrate the material into your paper.

1. The first sentence introduces the sub-topic or point the supporting material is going to back up.

2. The second sentence introduces and cites the supporting material.

3. The third sentence explains the supporting material—why it is relevant, how it connects with your point or thesis, whether you agree or disagree with it, etc.

Therefore, a body paragraph should never begin or end with a quote; if you’ve done that, you’re leaving out a step (the rules change, of course, when you’re dealing with introductions and conclusions). Remember, your research is backing up your thesis, so you need to explain to your readers how the sources you use accomplish that.

Below are two examples of successfully integrated quotes:

Peer pressure on young people has received a great deal of attention in the media lately, but the coverage seems to focus on the effects of peer pressure rather than how it originates. The arguments of anthropologist Clyde Kluckhorn offer an important clue: "Culture regulates our lives at every turn. From the moment we are born until we die there is, whether we are conscious of it or not, constant pressure upon us to follow certain types of behavior that other men have created for us." Working from Kluckhorn, it is easy to assert that elementary and high schools are simply a microcosm of the larger society, with peer pressure reflecting larger society pressures that force people to conform to a prescribed set of behaviors.

College professors continually lament that incoming students show only limited ability to think critically or creatively. However, according to Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Russell Baker, "During formal education, the child learns that life is for testing. This state lasts twelve years, a period during which the child learns that success comes from telling testers what they want to hear." With all those years of indoctrination, is it fair for professors to expect that first-year college students will suddenly and miraculously be able to think for themselves? To combat this problem, the emphasis on testing in primary and secondary education must be supplanted by an emphasis on teaching students to think on their own.

From: http://www.washjeff.edu/users/kmcevoy/assessing_and_integrating_sources_tips.html by K.A. McEvoy 11/4/09