2: Employing Sources & Parallelism

“They Say”

  • Set your topic in conversation with what other scholars in the field have written on it. Cite and acknowledge your sources. Enriches your work, shows you have done your research on the topic — generates ethos and logos.

  • Assess the scholars you research:

    • Authority in the field (ethos)

      • Previous works? Definitions created by this scholar?

    • Relevance to your chosen subject

    • Currency of material: general rule, 10 years.

      • contributes to the relevance of your paper and argument.

      • what are present discussions centred around?

    • Contribution to your chosen subject

Acknowledging the Work of Others

Direct quotation:

  • Use of quotation marks, cite page number.

  • Captures a writer’s exact words

  • Helpful when the direct words of the writer are necessary for your analysis, when there is no better verbiage for their point.

  • Should not make a sentence on its own — integrate into a sentence.

  • Sparing usage of block quotations, only when absolutely necessary.

    • e.g. necessary definitions that are long. Each style guide has their own guidelines on regular quotes vs. block quotes.

    • Ellipses to signal omission.

  • Comma before direct quotation, period after page citation.

  • Analyze your quotations, give them value.

  • Don’t cite everyday words, or when quotes are not specific to the author’s analysis.


Paraphrasing:

  • Re-stating an original idea in a writer’s own words. Put original words from the source in quotation marks in a paraphrase.

  • Allows you to maintain your voice. Mindful of length of paraphrases and quotations.


Summarizing:

  • Expressing the main ideas of their sources in a condensed form. Could be a sentence or paragraph, depending on the length of information.

  • Requires that the writer puts original words from source into quotes.


Parallelism

  • Focus: Development of balanced structure in one’s writing.

  • Similarity of grammatical form between two or more elements of a sentence.

    • Balancing of various parts of a sentence to ensure cohesion, coherence, and equivalence.

  • Parallel elements of a sentence match each other in terms of structure and meaning.

    • The air is dirtied by factories belching smoke and cars spewing exhaust.

      • Uses similar verbs that parallel each other.

Parallelism in sentence elements using:

  • coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS)

    • Signals a need for parallelism. Without parallelism in structure, the resulting sentence will be awkward and distracting. “Many people enjoy jogging, skating, and to ski”

    • Examples:

      • The little rubber in the fire is melting and expanding.

      • Industrial workers are understandably disturbed that they are losing their jobs and receiving no empathy from the government.

    • Correcting poor parallelism with coordinating conjunctions: Three reasons why steel companies keep losing money are inefficient plants, high labour costs, and increasing foreign competition.

  • correlative conjunctions (both .. and, neither .. nor, either .. or, etc.)

    • Pairs of connectors. Most errors come here after the second connector doesn’t match the elements after the first connector.

    • “not only does he give me comfort, but he does xyz”

    • both .. and; neither.. nor; not only .. but also; either .. or; not .. but; whether .. or.

    • Correcting poor parallelism with correlative conjunctions:

      • Mark Twain refused either to ignore the moral blindness of his society or to spare the sensibilities of the reader.

      • At the end of the novel, Huck Finn both rejects society’s values by turning down money and affirms his own values by setting out for “the territory.”

      • It is better to live rich than to die trying.

  • compared or contrasted, e.g. not only, but also

  • listing, itemizing, and outlining.

    • Essential in a formal topic outline.

    • Elements of a list or outline that divides a larger subject are coordinate and should be parallel in structure.

  • Gerund nouns: -ing nouns.