Outcome 2 (Integrating Ideas) – Be able to integrate their ideas with others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and synthesis of relevant sources.

Coming into English 110, I was not familiar with the use of paraphrasing, and I was not comfortable with the idea of it. In high school, I only had the experience of using quotes to support my ideas and not paraphrasing. I tried to avoid it at all costs because I did not necessarily know how to properly paraphrase or even go about the idea of it. On my first essay, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and integrate paraphrasing into my writing.  In Figure 1, I have an example of paraphrasing from my first essay with Konnikova (highlighted section). There was a long quote within Konnikova’s article that I wanted to incorporate within my writing, but was too long to use as a quote, so I decided to paraphrase. At first I was scared that my paraphrasing would be seen as more summary rather than actual textual evidence, but after incorporating the ideas from the text into my essay, it all flowed together.

Figure 1: Excerpt from Essay #1 Final Draft:

Because I had used quotes so often in highschool, I felt relatively comfortable with the idea of using them, but I feel as though I did not utilize all of my resources when introducing a quote. Professor Brod introduced me to the idea of a quote sandwich, showing that we had to introduce the text and the author, and give some background information before we dive right into the quote. This definitely helped me set up my quotes and make sure background context and introduction of the author was included before every quote. This being said, an easy way to ensure that I utilized the idea of quote sandwiches was to use templates in “They Say/I Say” by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Richard Bullock. These templates allowed me to properly introduce a quote by giving me ideas of what to say, allowing me to easily implement them in my writing. In Figure 2, I have included an excerpt from my Essay #2, showing a quote where I have used a template. The highlighted section is the template. After utilizing these templates, I feel as if my writing is more clear, as it clearly integrates my ideas from introducing the author, into their ideas and the quote.

Figure 2: Highlighted Template from Essay #2 Final Draft: