This document provides instruction on writing a concept essay, including how to use appositives, integrate quotations, avoid plagiarism, and develop a draft. It discusses using appositives to define terms, introduce new concepts, and give credentials. Quotations should be used sparingly and integrated into your own writing. Plagiarism is avoided by properly citing all sources. Tips are provided for starting with an anecdote, writing a thesis, using examples and definitions, citing quotes, and completing a works cited list. Students are assigned to post appositive examples and a draft essay for feedback.

1. +
Class 25: Online
EWRT 1A

2. +
AGENDA
 Appositives
 How and When to cite
 Plagiarism
 Quoting and Summarizing
 Integrating Quotations
 Writing the draft
 Tips for writing your essay

3. +
Sentence Strategy
Appositives

4. + A Sentence Strategy: Appositives
SMG 177-79
 As you draft an essay explaining a concept, you have a lot of
information to present, such as definitions of terms and
credentials of experts. Appositives provide an efficient, clear
way to integrate these kinds of information into your
sentences. An appositive is a noun or pronoun that, along with
modifiers, gives more information about another noun or
pronoun. Here is an example from Ngo‟s concept essay (the
appositive is in italics and the noun it refers to is underlined):
 Cannibalism, the act of human beings eating human
flesh(Sagan 2), has a long history and continues to hold
interest and create controversy. (Ngo paragraph 5)

5. + placing the definition in an appositive phrase right after
By
the word it defines, this sentence locates the definition
exactly where readers need it. Writers explaining concepts
rely on appositives because they serve many different
purposes needed in concept essays, as the following
examples demonstrate. (Again, the appositive is in italics
and the noun it refers to is underlined.)
Defining a New Term
 Some researchers believe hyperthymics may be at
increased risk of depression or hypomania, a mild variant
of mania (Friedman, Paragraph 5).
 Cannibalism can be broken down into two main
categories: exocannibalism, the eating of outsiders of
foreigners, and endocannibalism, the eating of members
of one’s own social group (Shipman 70). (Ngo
paragraph, 6)

6. +
Introducing a New Term
Each person carries in his or her mind a unique
subliminal guide to the ideal partner, a “love
map.” (Toufexis, paragraph 17)
Giving Credentials of Experts
 “Love is a natural high,” observes Anthony Walsh, author
of The Science of Love: Understanding Love and Its
Effects on Mind and Body. (Toufexis, paragraph 10)

7. Identifying People and Things
 When I was in high school I read the Robert Browning
Poem „My Last Duchess.‟ In it, the narrator said he killed
is wife, the duchess, because . . .(Friedman, Paragraph
2).
Giving Examples or Specifics
 Some 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates proposed that a
mixture of four basic humors—blood, phlegm, yellow
bile, and black bile—determined human
temperament…(Friedman, paragraph 6)

8. +
Try it!
 Try writing several appositive phrases.
 Defining a term
 Introducing a new term
 Giving the credentials of experts
 Identifying people and things
 Giving examples or specifics
 Use the examples as models.

9. +
How and When to Cite
Sources
Avoiding Plagiarism

10.  Avoiding Plagiarism: Writers — students and professionals alike —
occasionally fail to acknowledge sources properly. The word plagiarism, which
derives from the Latin word for “kidnapping, ”refers to the unacknowledged use of
another‟s words, ideas, or information. Students sometimes mistakenly assume
that plagiarizing occurs only when another writer‟s exact words are used without
acknowledgment. In fact, plagiarism also applies to such diverse forms of
expression as musical compositions and visual images as well as ideas and
statistics. Therefore, keep in mind that you must indicate the source of
any borrowed information or ideas you use in your essay, whether you have
paraphrased, summarized, or quoted directly from the source or have reproduced
it or referred to it in some other way. Remember especially the need to document
electronic sources fully and accurately. Information, ideas, and images from
electronic sources require acknowledgment in even more detail than those from
print sources (and are often easier to detect as plagiarism if they are not
acknowledged). Some people plagiarize simply because they do not know the
conventions for using and acknowledging sources. Others plagiarize because
they keep sloppy notes and thus fail to distinguish between their own and their
sources‟ ideas. If you keep careful notes, you will not make this serious mistake.
Another reason some people plagiarize is that they feel intimidated by the writing
task or the deadline. If you experience this anxiety about your work, speak to me.
Do not run the risk of failing the course or being expelled from school because of
plagiarism. If you are confused about what is and what is not plagiarism, be sure
to ask me.

11. Quoting and Summarizing:
Writers use sources by quoting directly and by summarizing.
Deciding Whether to Quote or Summarize
As a general rule, quote only in these situations:
(1) when the wording of the source is particularly memorable or vivid or
expresses a point so well that you cannot improve it.
(2) when the words of reliable and respected authorities would lend
support to your position.
(3) when you wish to cite an author whose opinions challenge or vary
greatly from those of other experts.
(4) when you are going to discuss the source‟s choice of words.
• Summarize any long passages whose main points you wish to
record as support for a point you are making.

12. + Integrating Quotations
Depending on its length, a quotation may be incorporated into your text by being
enclosed in quotation marks or set off from your text in a block without quotation
marks. In either case, be sure to integrate the quotation into the language of your
essay.
In-Text Quotations: Incorporate brief quotations (no more than four typed lines of
prose or three lines of poetry) into your text. You may place the quotation virtually
anywhere in your sentence:
 At the Beginning:
 “To live a life is not to cross a field,” Sutherland writes at the beginning of her narrative
(11).
 In the Middle
 Woolf begins and ends by speaking of the need of the woman writer to have “money
and a room of her own” (4)--an idea that certainly spoke to Plath‟s condition.
 At the End
 In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir describes such an experience as one
in which the girl “becomes an object, and she sees herself as object” (378).

13. + Integrating Quotations Divided by
Your Own Words
 “Science usually prefers the literal to the nonliteral term,”
Kinneavy writes, “--that is, figures of speech are often out of
place in science” (177).
When you quote poetry within your text, use a slash ( / ) with
spaces before and after to signal the end of each line of verse:
 Alluding to St. Augustine‟s distinction between the City of God
and the Earthly City, Lowell writes that “much against my will /
I left the City of God where it belongs” (4-5)

16. +
Tips for writing your essay
 Begin with a long anecdote to draw the reader into your essay.
 Write a thesis that includes all of the categories you will
discuss.
 Use examples and definitions to make your point.
 Use appositives to describe nouns and eliminate wordiness.
 Introduce and cite your in-text quotations.
 Enter your sources on your Works Cited list.

17. +
Homework
 Read: HG through chapter 24
 Post #30: Post a list of five appositive phrases you have
included in your essay.
 Post #31: Draft of your complete concept essay
 Study: Vocab (1-24)
 Bring: Working draft of Concept essay