Slides for Day 20 in EWRT 1A

1. EWRT 1A
Day 20
Penultimate!

2. AGENDA
 MLA Style Quiz? Maybe. Who knows?
 Review: Essay #4
 Counterargument
 Alternative Solutions
 New
 Conclusions
 Technical Aspects
 Sentence Strategies
 Integrating and Citing Sources
 Works Cited Page
This is fine.

3. MLA Style Game! (Maybe?)
 Play in your Houses.
 Someone in your House must have
a smart phone or laptop.
 You will need a good view of the
projection screen at the front.
 Each House will receive the
(adjusted) number of House points
they score.
 https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/385622
e0-7dfa-494d-8627-aeb3557f4986
 You should go to: http://kahoot.it

4. Counterargument vs. Alternative Solution
 A Counterargument is a challenge to your particular solution. You
must address the argument to your solution by explaining how or
why your solution is the best one regardless of the specific
challenge.
 For example, if someone says your solution is too expensive, you have
to explain how you will fund it, or you can explain why your solution
should be applied in spite of its cost.
 An Alternative Solution section takes a look at other solutions
people might consider. Then, you must explain how or why the
solution you are offering is the superior choice.
 For example, if you suggest we alleviate parking problems at De Anza
by adding several rapid buses to the local routes, you might also
examine the alternative solution of building a parking structure. At the
end of your discussion of the alternative solution, you must return to
why the rapid buses are are the better solution.

5. The Counterargument
 You anticipated objections in our last class. You should
have developed one or more of them for your
homework. Now choose another important one to
accommodate or refute in your essay. If you have
written out more than one in paragraph form, take this
opportunity to read and revise them. If you have only
considered one counterargument, consider a second
one now.
 Write down objection 1
 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.
 Write down objection 2
 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.

6. Consideration of alternative
solutions and their disadvantages
 You identified alternative solutions in our last class. You should have developed one
or more of them for your homework. Now choose another important one to discuss
in your essay. If you have written out more than one in paragraph form, take this
opportunity to read and revise your work. If you have only considered one
alternative solution, consider a second one now.
Write out alternative solution 1
What are the disadvantages of this solution?
Write out alternative solution 2
What are the disadvantages of this solution?
Write out alternative solution 3
What are the disadvantages of this solution?

7. NEW:Conclusions
Endings are important too!

8. End by summarizing your solution and
its advantages, as O’Malley does.
 “From the evidence and from my talks with professors and
students, I see frequent, brief in-class exams as the only
way to improve students’ study habits and learning, reduce
their anxiety and procrastination, and increase their
satisfaction with college. These exams are not a panacea,
but only more parking spaces and a winning football team
would do as much to improve college life. Professors can’t
do much about parking or football, but they can give more
frequent exams. Campus administrators should get behind
this effort, and professors should get together to consider
giving exams more frequently. It would make a difference.”

9. Or, try one of these endings
End with a scenario suggesting the
consequences of a failure to solve the
problem.
End with an inspiring call to action.

10. Try writing two endings!
Then choose the best one or combine them!
1. End by summarizing your solution
and its advantages.
2. End with a scenario suggesting the
consequences of a failure to solve
the problem.
3. End with an inspiring call to action.

11. Putting it together: Organizing your essay
 Your outline/essay organization will of course reflect your own writing
situation. While you already have a working plan, you should not
hesitate to change it as necessary while drafting and revising.
 For instance, you might find it more effective to hold back on
presenting your own solution until you have discussed alternative but
unacceptable solutions.
 Or you might find a better way to order the reasons for adopting your
proposal.
 The purpose of an outline or essay plan is to identify the basic
features of your proposal and to help you organize the pieces
effectively, not to lock you into a particular structure.

12. With your purpose and goals in mind, organize
an essay plan that includes the following:
1. a clear statement of the problem (A complete discussion of the
problem goes before your thesis statement).
2. your thesis statement, announcing the proposed solution and
forecasting your reasons for it
3. your argument for the solution, giving reasons and support
4. anticipation of counterarguments and a response to objections
readers might have about the proposed solution
5. your evaluation of alternative solutions

13. Here is a possible outline for a proposal. Yours may differ in
order, but it should include all of these parts:
I. Presentation of the problem (This is likely multiple paragraphs).
A. Its existence
B. Its seriousness
C. Its causes
D. Consequences of failing to solve the problem
II. Description of the proposed solution (Your thesis)
III. Reasons and support for the solution ( This is likely multiple
paragraphs).
A. How or why will your solution solve the problem
B. How or why it is possible
IV. List of steps for implementing the solution
V. Counterargument
A. Acknowledgment of objections
B. Accommodation or refutation of objections
VI. Consideration of alternative solutions and their disadvantages.
VII.Conclusion
A. Restatement of the proposed solution and its advantages
B. A warning about the failure to solve the problem
C. A call to action

14. Sentence
Strategy:
Writing
Better
Sentences

15. Avoiding Ambiguous Use of “This” and “That”
 The Problem: Because you
must frequently refer to the
problem and the solution in a
proposal, you will often use
pronouns to avoid the monotony
or wordiness of repeatedly
referring to them by name. Using
this and that vaguely to refer to
other words or ideas, however,
can confuse readers.

16. How to Correct It.
 Add a specific noun after this or that. For example, in his essay in this
chapter, Patrick O’Malley writes:
 Another possible solution would be to help students prepare for midterm and
final exams by providing sets of questions from which the exam questions will
be selected. . . . This solution would have the advantage of reducing students’
anxiety about learning every fact in the textbook. . . . (par. 12)
 O’Malley avoids an ambiguous this in the second sentence by repeating
the noun “solution.”
 (He might just as well have used “preparation” or “action” or “approach.”)

17. Look for ambiguous uses of “this” and “that”
in your essay

18. Revising Sentences that Lack an Agent
The Problem: A writer proposing a solution to a problem usually needs to
indicate who exactly should take action to solve it. Such actors—those
who are in a position to take action—are called “agents.” Look, for
example, at this sentence from O’Malley’s proposal:
 To get students to complete the questions in a timely way, professors
would have to collect and check the answers. (par. 11)
 In this sentence, professors are the agents. They have the authority
to assign and collect study questions, and they would need to take this
action in order for this solution to be successfully implemented.
 Had O’Malley instead written “the answers would have to be
collected and checked,” the sentence would lack an agent. Failing to
name an agent would have made his argument less convincing,
because it would have left unclear one of the key parts of any
proposal: Who is going to take action.

19. How to Correct It
 When you revise your work, ask yourself who or what performed the action in
any given sentence. If there is no clear answer, rewrite the sentence to give it
an agent.
 Watch in particular for forms of the verb to be (the balls were dropped, exams
should be given, classroom size should be reduced), which often signal
agentless sentences.

20. Look for sentences lacking agents in
your own essay
Examples

21. Sources.
You need FIVE in this essay, right?

22. Using Sources
Statistics can be helpful in establishing that the problem exists and
is serious.
For example, Patrick O’Malley cites research to support his
assertion that students prefer frequent exams to fewer high-
stakes exams: “A Harvard study notes students’ ‘strong
preference for frequent evaluation in a course’ ” (par. 4).
But his argument would have been stronger and possibly more
convincing if he had cited statistics to support the study’s
conclusion.

23. For statistics and facts to be persuasive, they must be from sources
that readers consider reliable. Researchers’ trustworthiness, in turn,
depends on their credentials as experts in the field they are
investigating and also on the degree to which they are disinterested,
or free from bias.
O’Malley provides a Works Cited list of sources that readers can
follow up on to check whether the sources are indeed reliable.
• The fact that some of his sources come from research institutes
(such as the University of Vermont and the Harvard study) adds to
his credibility.
• He also relies on reputable academic journals for his information
(Journal of Counseling Psychology).
• Another factor that adds to the appearance of reliability is that
O’Malley cites a range of sources instead of relying on only one or
two.
• Moreover, the information is current and clearly relevant to his
argument.

24. In-Text
Citations

25. Citing an Image
 Reproducing Figures and Tables
 Reproducing happens when you copy or recreate a photo, image, chart, graph, or table that is not
your original creation. If you reproduce one of these works in your assignment, you must create a
note (or "caption") underneath the photo, image, chart, graph, or table to show where you found
it. If you do not refer to it anywhere else in your assignment, you do not have to include the citation
for this source in a Works Cited list.
 Citing Information From a Photo, Image, Chart, Graph, or Table
 If you refer to information from the photo, image, chart, graph, or table but do not reproduce it
(the image) in your paper, create a citation both in-text and on your Works Cited list.
 If the information is part of another format, for example a book, magazine article, encyclopedia,
etc., cite the work it came from. For example if information came from a table in an article in
National Geographic magazine, you would cite the entire magazine article.

26. Fig. 1. Example of an MLA citation of an image. “MLA Citation Guide (8th Edition): Images, Charts,
Graphs, Maps & Tables” Columbia College, www.columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/mla/images.
Accessed 16 March 2019.

28. Ask Yourself:
 Are my sources reliable?
 Do they support my assertions
with facts, statistics, or
credible opinions?
 Do I need more support?
 Where will I find it?

29. Review: Integrating Quotations,
Citations, and Works Cited
The next 20 slides contain
information to help you
integrate and cite your
quotations and summary
correctly. Please use it to
minimize your errors.

30. In-Text Quotations
 At the Beginning
“Kitten season is overwhelming, crowded, and very hectic. I can be examining one cat and there
will be 10 or more waiting for me with more coming in one after the other on the other side of the
exam room door. It's never-ending and it affects the cats. They pick up on the stress we feel," says
Christa Raymond, a lead veterinary technician in the Animal Humane Society (“Cats in Crisis”).
 In the Middle
In any given shelter, they are supposed to hold “strays up to only 5 days” according to animal
shelter specialist Stephanie Watson (6).
 At the End
According to Green Eco Services, “75% of Americans admit to littering within the past five
years.”
 Divided by Your Own Words
“We are always telling people about spay/neuter,” says Kit Belcher, the executive director of
Beltrami Humane Society, and “[t]he responsibility starts the day the animal is born, but many
don’t accept the responsibility” (“Spaying/Neutering” 14).

31.  Remembering just a few simple rules can help you use the correct
punctuation as you introduce quotations.
o Rule 1: Complete sentence: "quotation." (If you use a complete sentence to
introduce a quotation, use a colon (:) just before the quotation.)
o Rule 2: Someone says, "quotation." (If the word just before the quotation is
a verb indicating someone uttering the quoted words, use a comma.
Examples include the words "says," "said," "states," "asks," and "yells.”
o Rule 3: Ending with that “quotation.” (There is no punctuation if the word
"that" comes just before the quotation, as in "the narrator says that.")
o And remember that a semicolon (;) never is used to introduce
quotations.

32. Block Quotations
 In the MLA style, use the block form for prose quotations of more
than four typed lines. Indent the quotation an inch (ten character
spaces) from the left margin, as shown in the following example.
Double space, just as you do in your paper.
US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has, in essence, supported this position:
Americans will be more likely to change their behavior if they have a
meaningful reward--something more than just reaching a certain
weight or dress size. The real reward is invigorating, energizing,
joyous health. It is a level of health that allows people to embrace
each day and live their lives to the fullest without disease or disability.

33. Integrate information from your
sources into your essay using
summarized material.
 Summarizing involves putting an idea into your own
words. Summaries are significantly shorter than an
original text. It is a good idea to summarize material
when you want to briefly discuss the main idea(s) of a
longer piece. Summarizing allows you to discuss central
points without reproducing multiple quotation from a
single source. Remember, it is necessary to attribute
summarized ideas to the original source; that is, you
must cite even summarized material.

34. Citing Summarized Material
 Currently, the law states that the speed limit in a residential area is 25
miles per hour unless posted otherwise (California Driver Handbook).
 Since Generation X, major food corporations have peddled addicting junk
food to children from their birth. This has helped to create the worst
obesity epidemic in human history (Fox 5).
 Despite euthanasia being the very last method to make room in the shelter,
70 percent of the 3 to 4 million pets euthanized nationwide are cats (“Pet
Statistics”).

35. Punctuating within Quotations
Although punctuation within a quotation should reproduce the original, some adaptations
may be necessary. Use single quotation marks for quotations within the quotation:
Original from David Guterson’s Family Matters (pages 16 – 17)
 E. D. Hirsch also recognizes the connection between family and learning, suggesting
in his discussion of family background and academic achievement “that the
significant part of our children’s education has been going on outside rather than
inside the schools.”
Quoted Version
 Guterson claims that E. D. Hirsch “also recognizes the connection between family
and learning, suggesting in his discussion of family background and academic
achievement ‘that the significant part of our children’s education has been going on
outside rather than inside the schools’ ” (16-17).

36. Punctuation
 If the quotation ends with a question mark or an
exclamation point, retain the original
punctuation:
 “Did you think I loved you?” Edith later
asks Dombey (566).
 If a quotation ending with a question mark or an
exclamation point concludes your sentence,
retain the question mark or exclamation point,
and put the parenthetical reference and
sentence period outside the quotation marks:
 Edith later asks Dombey, “Did you think I
loved you?” (566).

37. Avoiding Grammatical Tangles
 When you incorporate quotations into your
writing, and especially when you omit words
from quotations, you run the risk of creating
ungrammatical sentences. Three common
errors you should try to avoid are verb
incompatibility, ungrammatical
omissions, and sentence fragments.

38. Verb Incompatibility in Quotations
 When this error occurs, the verb form in the introductory
statement is grammatically incompatible with the verb form in
the quotation. When your quotation has a verb form that does
not fit in with your text, it is usually possible to use just part of
the quotation, thus avoiding verb incompatibility.
As this sentence illustrates, use the present tense when you refer to
events in a literary work.

39. Ungrammatical Omission.
 Sometimes omitting text from a quotation leaves you with an ungrammatical
sentence. Two ways of correcting the grammar are (1) adapting the quotation (with
brackets) so that its parts fit together grammatically and (2) using only one part of the
quotation.

40. Sentence Fragment.
 Sometimes when a quotation is a complete sentence,
writers neglect the sentence that introduces the quote — for
example, by forgetting to include a verb. Make sure that the
quotation is introduced by a complete sentence.

41. Works Cited
 How to make your page
All of the information on the next slides can be
found in your St. Martin’s Guide.

42. 1” Margins all around
Alphabetical Order Title Centered
Five
spaces
Works Cited
Last Name 1
Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in
Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol.
15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.
Zinkievich, Craig. Interview by Gareth Von Kallenbach. Skewed & Reviewed, 27
Apr. 2009, www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-
online/news/detail/1056940-skewed-%2526-reviewed-interviews-craig.
Accessed 15 Mar. 2009.
Website
Book
Periodical
Specific version

49. HOMEWORK Add the conclusion we wrote today to your
draft. Read it aloud to make sure it is in a
logical order. Change the order of your
paragraphs if that makes sense to you.
Check your essay for ambiguity. Add words
to clarify “this” and “that.” Check your
sentences for “agents.”
Discussion #25: Post your conclusion
Bring one complete, hard copy to class
on Thursday, March 29, at 10 AM.
• Your essay should be in MLA format
• It should include a Works Cited page