Integrating Evidence from Research Name:
A good way to think about integrating any kind of research into your own paper is the analogy of planting a tree (from Mauk and Metz, The Composition of Everyday Life). When you plant a tree, you don’t just set the tree down on top of the grass and walk away. You dig a hole, preparing the earth for the tree by removing any large rocks or roots that are in the way. Then, you set the tree into the hole. Again, you don’t walk away to leave the tree to fend for itself in a hole. You connect the tree to the rest of the earth by backfilling the dirt, tamping it down, and watering the newly planted tree in the hopes that it will take root and flourish as part of the landscape.
When you work with research in your writing, you should make the same preparations. Writers use the following order to integrate their sources into their writing. Read these three elements and then review the examples below:
1. Introduce (dig hole & prepare soil): Prepare your paper for the piece of research by crafting an introduction or signal phrase that sets the tone or positions the research for readers. This is also a good time to consider what readers need to know or might want to know about the source, like where it’s from and what makes the source credible.
2. Add Source (set tree in hole): Insert the research by summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting, and cite it correctly in MLA style with quotation marks if it’s a direct quote and an in-text citation that corresponds to a works cited entry on your works cited page.
3. Comment (backfill, tamp, & water): Conclude the integration by commenting on the research, explaining it (if it’s a particularly dense piece of writing), connecting it to your main point, reacting to it if it’s particularly shocking or insightful, comparing it to other sources, or synthesizing it.
Here is an excerpt from Guernsey’s article on the effects of screen time on literacy (to read the full article, click on the title of the Works Cited entry below). See how this source has been integrated, or planted, into the following color-coded examples:
“As analysts and experts parse the data in the months and years to come, new twists may emerge. But the larger picture painted by today’s statistics is hard to miss: Media is embedded in children’s lives and dominating hours of their days, while reading is trailing behind. The next trick is to tease out what I call the Three C’s: the content, context and the individual child. What kinds of media — what TV shows, which online games? Who’s with them as they read and play, and how is that experience integrated into what they are learning or interested in? And what ages and dispositions of children are drawn to what kinds of media for what reasons? Until we can answer these questions, we will continue to be in the dark about the impact of media and its complicated connection to literacy among the next generation.”
Guernsey, Lisa. “Screen Time, Young Kids, and Literacy: New Data Begs Questions.” The Huffington Post, 25 Dec. 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-guernsey/kids-media-consumption_b_1029945.html. Accessed 28 May 2017.
Summary Example
In her Huffington Post article, “Screen Time, Young Kids and Literacy: New Data Begs Questions”, Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation, claims the evidence is clear on one point: children today spend far more time on screens than they do reading. In other words, we are raising a generation of people who will be computer and touchscreen literate. Will that be enough? After all, most tech devices today offer “read to you” applications. What is really lost if we are reading less than we have ever before?
Paraphrase Example
The trend in increased media time and decreased reading time is clear, but many questions remain about the effects of this trend. Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education initiative at the New America Foundation, suggests that exploring details about the study, like specific media used and links between a child’s media exposure and non-media activities will reveal much more about the way media effects literacy. We should also examine how media time is supervised or co-experienced, and how individual differences among children such as age or media preference impact literacy (Guernsey). Given Guernsey’s suggested questions at the end of her article, I am rethinking my role in refereeing media exposure and reading time in my own household with three young children. I decided to try to answer some of her questions for my own kindergartner’s media use.
Quotation Example
While the trend in increased media time and decreased reading time is clear, many questions remain about the effects of this trend, as Lisa Guernsey warns in her Huffington Post article, “Screen Time, Young Kids and Literacy: New Data Begs Questions”: “What kinds of media — what TV shows, which online games? Who’s with them as they read and play, and how is that experience integrated into what they are learning or interested in? And what ages and dispositions of children are drawn to what kinds of media for what reasons?” These questions force me to consider the answers in my own life as a parent of young children, and I am rethinking how I use our I-pad, the number of times each week all three of my kids are in front of the tv while I make dinner, and when reading competes with media in my household.
Integration Practice
Quote a section out of one of the sources you located for your own writing project. With the metaphor of planting a tree in mind, create an introduction before the quote and a comment after the quote:
Create an accurate works cited entry for this source:
Using one of your other sources, summarize a section you find interesting. Plant a tree using an introduction and comment:
Create an accurate works cited entry for this source:
Finally, plant a tree by paraphrasing a third source:
Create an accurate works cited entry for this source:
Reflection
How did your introduction or signal phrases differ as you moved from summary to paraphrase to quotation?
When are you more likely to use each of these integration strategies? Why?
Summary
Paraphrase
Quotation
How can you tell where the research ends, and where your comment begins in each of the examples you crafted above?
Describe your process for summarizing, and your process for paraphrasing information from a source. How do you ensure that you’re not plagiarizing?