writing and research skills

Intro paraphrase order/strategies (pp. 32–33)

• Read the passage fully

• Put the source away

• Rewrite the idea in your own words and sentence structure

• Compare to the original

• Add citation

Strategies: change sentence structure, use synonyms, combine/split ideas

Thesis statement criteria (pp. 30, 100)

• Is one clear sentence

• States an arguable claim

• Is specific

• Guides the entire paper

• Appears at the end of the introduction

Source types found on EBSCOhost

• Scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles

• Magazines

• Newspapers

• Academic journals

• Reference entries

When to give credit / when not to

Give credit when:

• Using someone else’s ideas

• Quoting

• Paraphrasing

• Summarizing facts or opinions

Do NOT give credit when:

• Using common knowledge (e.g., George Washington was president)

Paraphrasing without looking

• Read the text

• Look away

• Rewrite from memory

• Check accuracy

• Cite the source

Use CiteFast for MLA

• Select MLA

• Choose Journal Article

• Copy citation

• Paste into Works Cited

What goes in parentheses (MLA)

• Author’s last name

• Page number (if available)

• First word of the source

7 steps of the research process

1. Choose a topic

2. Ask questions

3. Gather sources

4. Evaluate sources

5. Take notes

6. Write thesis

7. Draft & revise

Thesis comes after research

True — you must understand your evidence first before forming a claim

Quoting vs. Summarizing vs. Paraphrasing

• Quoting (scalpel): exact words

• Paraphrasing (knife): same idea, new wording

• Summarizing (chainsaw): main idea only

What is a paraphrase?

• A restatement of an idea in your own words and structure

• Must be cited