The document provides guidance on how to write a strong think piece by effectively incorporating a source text. It emphasizes introducing the author and reading, summarizing the main idea in 1-2 sentences, and assuming the reader is unfamiliar with the source. Quotes and references from the reading should be used to illustrate and support points. Examples are provided that skillfully introduce and incorporate a Frederick Douglass essay to reinforce ideas and experiences.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice! How do I become a better writer?

2. Several of you probably received feedback something like this on your last Think Piece: Always introduce the author and the reading being used for the think piece. Summarize the purpose or main idea in one or two sentences. Always assume your reader hasn’t read the reading you did. You need to incorporate it clearly and with enough background to keep the reader from becoming confused. Use quotes and references from the reading to illustrate your story

3. Frederick Douglass wrote an intriguing essay, “Learning to Read and Write,” about how he learned to read and write. In this essay, Douglass tells about the struggles of acquiring an education while growing up as a slave. With persistence he triumphed over his drawbacks, and successfully wrote a book about his life. Such accomplishments remind me of my father, Matthew George. .. Always introduce the author and the reading being used for the think piece. Summarize the purpose or main idea in one or two sentences . Notice how the writer skillfully introduces the reading, giving us the title, the author, and a brief one sentence summary of the main idea of the piece. Then, he does a great job tying the reading to his own thesis– an implicit statement that Matthew George is the writer’s own Douglass.

4. Always assume your reader hasn’t read the reading you did. You need to incorporate it clearly and with enough background to keep the reader from becoming confused. Use quotes and references from the reading to illustrate your story Frederick Douglass expresses his frustration about his condition as a slave who desires freedom as well as education, stating, "Anything, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was the everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it." Douglass’s statement reminded me of the feelings I experienced. It is indeed torment to be educated and aware of your predicament, but unable to make an immediate change. It is never easy to go against the "norms;" rather, it is always a process of overcoming. However, I think it is exactly this feeling of despair, and the desire for the life one knows they were born to lead, that inspired my mother, and later myself, to action. In this example, the writer incorporates a quote from the Douglass essay, then explains how it relates to her own experience.

5. As you work through the Think Pieces, and later the timed essays, remember that the prompt asks you to reflect on a personal experience, using a provided reading to supplement your ideas. This is called synthesis– using another’s writing to reinforce and illustrate your own .

6. As you complete this week’s Think Piece, work on incorporating the reading in a manner to support your response. As you gain strength, you can experiment with the way you choose to use the reading, such as this skillful incorporation (the following is a compilation of ideas): Author Maya Angelou expresses her deep admiration for her grandmother in her essay “New Directions.” She describes how her grandmother becomes a single mother and needs to find resources to care for her two young children. She is unable to find a job with the local industry and paves a new path to make ends meet. My grandmother too, lived a hard life, which leaves me to believe she is to be revered as well. Mrs. Willie Lee Reagler was born in Reagan, Texas in 1919. At the tender age of twelve she took a bus to the city of Dallas with nowhere to go. A Caucasian family took from the Greyhound bus station and let her stay in their servants quarters. While they worked my great- grandmother cared for their two boys…