Writing Resources for ENG 1050

After you've developed your topic and taken notes on your sources, consider how you will introduce & frame the sources you use in your paper...

Introducing Sources in Your Paper

The following are useful examples of introductions to summaries, paraphrased content, and quotations. Consider what your source is saying to determine which is best to use in each instance. How you introduce sources will signal to your reader how it fits into your writing. (Use quotation marks only when directly quoting from your source.)

Framing Your Sources

Let your reader know why you’re citing a source. Surround your in-text sources with the answer to at least one of these questions. In just one or two sentences, you can show that you understand your topic enough to have authority to write about it.

• Which sentence of your writing or idea is this source supporting? – Recall what you’ve written and then tell your reader how the source supports your idea.
• What does this source mean? – For example, start the next sentence with In other words, …

*Created by Broward College North Campus Library (2016) including content modified from Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2009).

Best Practice: Compose your abstract after you have finished writing your paper. The abstract should provide a clear, thorough summary of the content of your paper. Naturally, if you've not finished writing it yet, summarizing it in abstract form will be quite tricky!