Using Evidence to Support your Argument

Íde O’Sullivan, Lawrence Cleary Regional Writing Centre

Academic-writing workshops

• Strategies to develop your writing • Analysing the assignment title and developing a plan • Developing an effective thesis statement. Methods of development and organisation of ideas • Using evidence to support your argument Regional Writing Centre 2

Writing support: Drop-ins for students

• Visit our website ( appointment.

Mon — www.ul.ie/rwc ) to check out our tutors and make an • Drop-in to the Writing Centre, C1-065 2 – 4 pm Tues 10 - 12 2 – 4 pm Wed Thurs Fri 10 - 12 2 – 4 pm 10 - 12 2 – 4 pm 10 - 12 — Regional Writing Centre 3

Outline

• Evaluating/choosing appropriate evidence • Choosing quotations to support your argument • Avoiding plagiarism • How to integrate quotations into your own writing: – Direct/indirect – Integral/non-integral • Language and punctuation to introduce quotations • When to quote, summarise, paraphrase Regional Writing Centre 4

Evaluating/choosing appropriate evidence

• What types of evidence are appropriate/important in your discipline?

• Primary sources v secondary sources • Critically analyse information sources: – Author, date of publication, publisher, title of journal – Content, audience, reasoning, coverage, style, evaluative reviews • Focus your reading – read critically • Do not only describe evidence, but evaluate and interpret it also.

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Evaluating/choosing appropriate evidence

• Premise - Conclusion • Valid v sound v strong arguments • Poor/weak/invalid arguments • Fallacies (faulty reasoning) • Fact v probability (degrees of certainty) • Fact v opinion (objective truth v subjective truth) • Absolute v relative truths – some/all • Bias • Persuasion v truth Regional Writing Centre 6

Reporting the work of others

Making use of the ideas of other people is one of the most important aspects of academic writing because • it shows awareness of other people’s work; • it shows that you can use their ideas and findings; • it shows you have read and understood the material you are reading; • it shows where your contribution fits in; • it supports the points you are making.

(Gillet, 2005) Regional Writing Centre 7

Evaluating/choosing appropriate evidence

• Record the author’s name, the title of the book, chapter, article, etc., the date of publication, the place of publication, and the page(s) on which the borrowed information is found.

• Inserting outside information into your writing: – Quoting – Paraphrasing – Summarising – Synthesising Regional Writing Centre 8

Avoiding plagiarism

• “If you read a relevant point in a book and want to use it in your essay, you must reference it (say where it came from)” (LSU / MIC, 2004: Online).

• This is true whether you quote a source, paraphrase it, or summarise it. If you use another’s words, ideas, or method of organisation, you must credit that author by citing the source in the text of your writing and referencing it at the end of your essay/report.

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Avoiding plagiarism

• It is very important when you do this to make sure you use your own words, unless you are quoting. You must make it clear when the words or ideas that you are using are your own and when they are taken from another writer. • You must not use another person's words or ideas as if they were your own: this is Plagiarism and plagiarism is regarded as a very serious offence (Gillet, 1995: Online).

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Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism is taking another person's words or ideas and using them as if they were your own. It can be either deliberate or accidental. Plagiarism is taken very seriously in higher education institutions throughout the world.

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Avoiding plagiarism

• Why do we document sources accurately?

• Doing so allows readers to find materials that you have used.

• Doing so enhances your credibility as a writer.

• Doing so protects you against charges of plagiarism.

[From the Department of English, Illinois State University, ‘Course Guide for English 101: Language & Composition 1’, (1997: 109)] Regional Writing Centre 12

Citing and referencing sources

• The ideas or the words of those that you have read are generally recorded twice: – First, in your text ( a parenthetical citation marked ).

– Second, at the end (in a reference page, References , or Works Cited ).

• The parenthetical citation refers to more detailed information given in the References in your text page at the end of your essay.

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Citing and referencing sources

• Example: – Swales has recently withdrawn slightly from his original conception of the discourse community, arguing that "the 'true' discourse community may be rarer and more esoteric than I once thought

”

(1993: 695).

• Reference – Swales, J. (1993)

‘

Genre and engagement

’

, Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 71, 687-98. Regional Writing Centre 14

Citing and referencing sources

• Harvard referencing style is favoured by UL and is the referencing style most often required. • The Harvard referencing style is an author-date system.

• Citations in your text are references to the author of the text from which you retrieved the information that you have presented in your writing and the year of that text’s publication .

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Direct quotation

Example: Swales has recently withdrawn slightly from his original conception of the discourse community, arguing that "the 'true' discourse community may be rarer and more esoteric than I once thought

”

(1993: 695).

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Direct quotation

• Direct quotation of whole sentences or just one or two words (exact words) • Quoted information is enclosed by double inverted commas (“…”).

• The text quoted is sacrosanct. – Do not change spelling (i.e. American to British) or punctuation. – Do not correct spelling and punctuation.

– Sic enclosed in square brackets, [sic], is inserted into the quote, after the error, to indicate to the reader that the error was not yours. Regional Writing Centre 17

Integrate quotations into your own writing

• Direct v indirect • Integral v non-integral • Language for reporting www.uefap.com

• Punctuation – Commas/full stops – Ellipsis – Square brackets – Quotation within a quotation • Page numbers • Quotations in text • Block quotations • Using the abbreviation et al.

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Paraphrasing

“Paraphrasing is writing the ideas of another person in your own words. You need to change the words and the structure but keep the meaning the same” (Gillet, 1995: Online).

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Paraphrasing

Example: • Original Text:  Memory is the capacity for storing and retrieving information.

• Paraphrase:  Memory is the facility for keeping and recovering data.

(Gillet, 1995: Online) Regional Writing Centre 20

Summary

“A summary is a shortened version of a text. It contains the main points in the text and is written in your own words. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to a short text and selecting relevant information. A good summary shows that you have understood the text” (Gillet, 1995: Online).

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Summary

Example: • Original text: People whose professional activity lies in the field of politics are not, on the whole, conspicuous for their respect for factual accuracy.

• Summary:

Politicians often lie.

(Gillet, 1995: Online) Regional Writing Centre 22

Synthesis

• A synthesis is a combination, usually a shortened version, of several texts made into one. It contains the important points in the text and is written in your own words.

• To make a synthesis you need to find suitable sources, and then to select the relevant parts in those sources. You will then use your paraphrase and summary skills to write the information in your own words. The information from all the sources has to fit together into one continuous text.

(Gillet, 1995: Online) Regional Writing Centre 23

Editing a reference list

• Check that in-text dates and page numbers match reference list • Only enter names in reference list that you have mentioned in your text – it’s not a bibliography • Make sure that if a name is mentioned in the document that is in included in the reference list • Do a separate edit of your reference list, checking everything matches, everything is included and it is consistent Regional Writing Centre 24