Hacker handbooks com writersref 8th edition

Writing With sources

r researching R1 Thinking like a researcher;

gathering sources R2 Managing information;

taking notes responsibly R3 Evaluating sources

MLA Papers MLA-1 Supporting a thesis MLA-2 Citing sources;

avoiding plagiarism MLA-3 Integrating sources MLA-4 Documenting sources MLA-5 Manuscript format;

sample research paper

APA and cMs Papers (Coverage parallels MLA’s)

APA-1 APA-2 APA-3 APA-4 APA-5

CMS-1 CMS-2 CMS-3 CMS-4 CMS-5

i index Multilingual menu Revision symbols Detailed menu

hackerhandbooks.com/writersref How to use this book

Writing correctLy

g grammatical sentences G1 Subject-verb agreement G2 Verb forms, tenses, and moods G3 Pronouns G4 Adjectives and adverbs G5 Sentence fragments G6 Run-on sentences

M Multilingual Writers and esL challenges

M1 Verbs M2 Articles M3 Sentence structure M4 Using adjectives M5 Prepositions and idiomatic

expressions M6 Paraphrasing sources effectively

P Punctuation and Mechanics

P1 The comma P2 Unnecessary commas P3 The semicolon and the colon P4 The apostrophe P5 Quotation marks P6 Other punctuation marks P7 Spelling and hyphenation P8 Capitalization P9 Abbreviations and numbers P10 Italics

B Basic grammar B1 Parts of speech B2 Sentence patterns B3 Subordinate word groups B4 Sentence types

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http://www.hackerhandbooks.com/writersref

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A Reference

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Diana Hacker

Nancy Sommers Harvard University

contributing esL specialist

Kimberli Huster Robert Morris University

A Reference

EiGHtH EDitioN

BEDfoRD/St. MARtiN’S Boston ◆ New York

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For Bedford/St. Martin’s

Vice President, Editorial, Macmillan Higher Education Humanities: Edwin Hill Editorial Director, English and Music: Karen S. Henry Publisher for Composition: Leasa Burton Executive Editor: Michelle M. Clark Senior Editors: Barbara G. Flanagan and Mara Weible Associate Editors: Kylie Paul and Alicia Young Editorial Assistants: Amanda Legee and Stephanie Thomas Senior Production Editor: Rosemary R. Jaffe Production Manager: Joe Ford Marketing Manager: Emily Rowin Copy Editor: Linda McLatchie Indexer: Ellen Kuhl Repetto Photo Researcher: Sheri Blaney Senior Art Director: Anna Palchik Text Design: Claire Seng-Niemoeller Cover Design: Donna Lee Dennison Composition: Cenveo Publisher Services Printing and Binding: RR Donnelley and Sons

Copyright © 2015, 2011, 2007, 2003 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

9 8 7 6 5 4 f e d c b a

For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000)

ISBN 978-1-4576-6676-6 (Student Edition)

ISBN 978-1-4576-8625-2 (Instructor’s Edition)

acknowledgments

Text acknowledgments and copyrights appear below. Art acknowledgments and copyrights appear on the same page as the selections they cover; these acknowledgments and copyrights constitute an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these selections by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Stephen J. Gould, excerpt from “Were Dinosaurs Dumb?” from Natural History, 87(5): 9–16. Reprinted by permission of Rhonda R. Shearer.

Dorling Kindersly, excerpt from “Encyclopedia of Fishing.” Copyright © Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1994. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Group, Ltd.

Anne and Jack Rudloe, excerpt from “Electric Warfare: The Fish That Kills with Thunderbolts,” from Smithsonian 24(5): 95–105. Reprinted by permission.

Betsy Taylor, “Big Box Stores Are Bad for Main Street,” from CQ Researcher, (November 1999). Copyright © 1999 by CQ Press, a division of Sage Publications. Reprinted with permission.

Gary Wills, excerpt from “Two Speeches on Race,” originally published in the New York Review of Books. Copyright © 2008 by Gary Wills, used by permission of The Wiley Agency, LLC.

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vii

Preface for instructors

Dear Colleagues: As college teachers, we have a far-reaching mission. We prepare

students to write for different purposes, for different audiences, and in different genres and media. We show students how to read critically and write effectively, preparing them to join ongoing research conversations as contributors (not just as consumers) of ideas. What we teach is at the very core of students’ college experience. For academic success, no skill is more critical than effective writing.

This new edition of A Writer’s Reference grows out of my thirty years as a writing teacher and from many conversations with college faculty across disciplines. In all these conversations, I hear a similar theme: Writing is the core of a student’s success, no matter the field of study. Teachers speak about ambitious assignments to teach students how to think and write clearly and precisely, how to interpret evidence and data, and how to enter research conversations with the requisite skills to manage information and avoid plagiarism. And faculty across disciplines all speak about the need for their students to have a reliable handbook to help them understand the expectations of college writing assignments and succeed as writers.

I wanted the eighth edition to capture the energy and creativity that surround conversations about student writing, wherever they take place, and to provide students with a trusted reference that sup- ports their development as writers. I also wanted the eighth edition to align easily with course goals and program outcomes, so I spent a good deal of time reviewing such documents and talking with faculty about how A Writer’s Reference can help them meet their goals. We all have high expectations for the writers in our courses; assigning a handbook designed specifically to meet these expectations makes possible both our mission and our students’ success.

Paging through A Writer’s Reference, you’ll discover features inspired by my conversations with teachers and students. One such feature is an emphasis on the relationship between reading and writing. Turn to tabbed section A (p. 69) to see new material that helps students read critically and write insightfully, engage with print and multimodal texts, and move beyond summary to analysis. The eighth edition shows students how to read carefully to understand an author’s ideas, how to read skeptically to question those ideas, and how to present their own ideas in response.

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viii Preface for instructors

In developing the eighth edition, I wanted students to have even more tools to support the challenges they face as research writers: turn- ing topics into questions, finding entry points in debates, and evalu- ating, integrating, and citing sources. In particular, I wanted to help students who are assigned to write an annotated bibliography, a core academic genre. In the eighth edition, students will find five new writ- ing guides, helpful tools that offer step-by-step instruction for complet- ing common college writing assignments, including writing an anno- tated bibliography.

A goal of the eighth edition was to develop a handbook that saves teachers’ time and increases students’ learning. I’m happy to say that teaching with A Writer’s Reference has become easier than ever. The eighth edition is now available with LaunchPad — a system that includes both a print handbook and e-Pages. For the e-Pages, I’ve writ- ten prompts and collaborative activities called “As you write” to help students apply handbook advice to their own drafts and to offer prac- tice with thesis statements, research questions, peer review, and more. The e-Pages also include videos and LearningCurve, game-like adap- tive quizzing — all easily assignable. Turn to page xi for more about the media.

As college teachers, we help our students develop as thinkers and writers. I can’t imagine work more important than this. Some years ago, a student told me that her first-year writing course encouraged her to become a person with things to say. I love these words and the hope they express that a writing course may have such a sustaining influence on one student’s life. I bring certain beliefs to A Writer’s Reference: that all students will learn to read deeply and write clearly, that they will find in their reading ideas they care about, and that they will write about these ideas with care and depth.

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ixPreface for instructors

What’s new in this edition?

An emphasis on critical reading. Substantially revised material in tabbed section A, “ Academic reading, writing, and speaking,” empha- sizes reading as the foundation of every college research and writing assignment. The handbook offers students a reading process, teaching them to read traditional and multimodal texts, research sources, their own work, and the work of their peers critically and reflectively.

7574 Reading and writing criticallyA1-b A1-boutlining a written text

Here is an excerpt from student writer Emilia Sanchez’s double- entry notebook.

noTe: To create a digital double-entry notebook, you can use a table or text boxes in a word processing program.

Ideas from the text My responses

“The question, however, is not whether or not these types of stores create jobs (although several studies claim they produce a net job loss in local communities) or whether they ultimately save consumers money” (1011).

Why are big-box stores bad if they create jobs or save people money? Taylor dismisses these possibilities without acknowledging their importance. My family needs to save money and needs jobs more than “chatting with the shopkeeper” (1011).

“The real concern . . . is whether [big-box stores are] good for a community’s soul” (1011).

“[S]mall businesses are great for a community” (1011).

Taylor is missing something here. Are all big-box stores bad? Are all small businesses great? Would getting rid of big-box stores save the “soul” of America? Is Main Street the “soul” of America? Taylor sounds overly sentimental. She assumes that people spend more money because they shop at big-box stores. And she assumes that small businesses are always better for consumers.

previewing a written text

■ Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials? ■ What is the author’s purpose: To inform? To persuade? To call to action? ■ Who is the expected audience? ■ When was the text written? Where was it published? ■ What kind of text is it: A book? A report? A scholarly article? A

policy memo?

Annotating a written text

■ What surprises, puzzles, or intrigues you about the text? ■ What question does the text attempt to answer? ■ What is the author’s thesis, or central claim? ■ What type of evidence does the author provide to support the

thesis? How persuasive is this evidence?

conversing with a written text

■ What are the strengths and limitations of the text? ■ Has the author drawn conclusions that you question? Do you have a

different interpretation of the evidence? ■ Does the text raise questions that it does not answer? ■ Does the author consider opposing viewpoints and treat them fairly?

Asking the “so what?” question

■ Why does the author’s thesis need to be argued, explained, or explored? What’s at stake?

■ What has the author overlooked in presenting this thesis?

guidelines for active reading

Asking the “So what?” question

As you read and annotate a text, make sure you understand its thesis, or central idea. Ask yourself: “What is the author’s thesis?” Then put the author’s thesis to the “So what?” test: “Why does this thesis matter? Why does it need to be argued?” Perhaps you’ll conclude that the thesis is too obvious and doesn’t matter at all — or that it matters so much that you feel the author stopped short and overlooked key details. Or perhaps you’ll feel that a reasonable person might draw different con- clusions about the issue.

A1-b outline a text to identify main ideas. You are probably familiar with using an outline as a planning tool to help you organize your ideas. An outline is a useful tool for reading, too. Outlining a text — identifying its main idea and major parts — can be an important step in your reading process.

As you outline, look closely for a text’s thesis statement (main idea) and topic sentences because they serve as important signposts for read- ers. A thesis statement often appears in the introduction, usually in the first or second paragraph. Topic sentences can be found at the begin- nings of most body paragraphs, where they announce a shift to a new topic. (See C2-a and C5-a.)

■ In the first sentence, mention the title of the text, the name of the author, and the author’s thesis.

■ Maintain a neutral tone; be objective. ■ As you present the author’s ideas, use the third-person point of view

and the present tense: Taylor argues. . . . (If you are writing in APA style, see APA-3b.)

■ Keep your focus on the text. Don’t state the author’s ideas as if they were your own.

■ Put all or most of your summary in your own words; if you borrow a phrase or a sentence from the text, put it in quotation marks and give the page number in parentheses.

■ Limit yourself to presenting the text’s key points. ■ Be concise; make every word count.

guidelines for writing a summary

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2nd Pages

Help with analyzing multimodal texts and composing in new genres. A new chapter about reading and writing about multimodal texts introduces new genres and practical strategies for analyzing these genres. Throughout the book, writing guides give tips for composing college assignments as podcasts, presentations, Web sites, and other alterna- tives to the traditional essay. New discussions of genre and sample papers in new genres (literacy narrative and reflective letter) align

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x Preface for instructors

the book more closely with the goals of writing programs and the 2014 Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) outcomes.

Paraphrasing sources: strategies for multilingual/ESL writers. New content includes advice about paraphrasing sources effectively. This new section moves students away from the practice of word-by-word substitution and offers strategies for understanding and presenting another writ- er’s meaning.

Practical writing guides. Five new writing guides help students compose common assignments: argument essays, analytical essays, annotated bibliographies, reflective cover letters, and literacy narratives. The guides clarify the expectations of the genre; provide a step-by-step path as students explore, draft, and revise; and lay a foundation for writing in multiple disciplines.

Draft ● Draft a working thesis to focus your analysis. Remember that your

thesis is not the same as the author’s thesis. Your thesis presents your judgment of the text.

● Draft a plan to organize your paragraphs. Your introductory paragraph will briefly summarize the text and offer your thesis. Your body paragraphs will support your thesis with evidence from the text. Your conclusion will pull together the major points and show the significance of your analysis. (See C1-d.)

● Identify specific words, phrases, and sentences as evidence to support your thesis.

revise

Ask your reviewers to give you specific comments. You can use the following questions to guide their feedback.

● Is the introduction effective and engaging? ● Is summary balanced with analysis? ● Does the thesis offer a clear judgment of the text? ● What objections might other writers pose to your analysis? ● Is the analysis well organized? Are there clear topic sentences

and transitions? ● Is there sufficient evidence? Is the evidence analyzed? ● Have you cited words, phrases, or sentences that are summarized

or quoted?

85

A2 Reading and writing about images and multimodal texts

In many of your college classes, you’ll have the opportunity to read and write about images, such as photographs or paintings, as well as multi- modal texts, such as advertisements, maps, videos, or Web sites. Multi- modal texts combine one or more of the following modes: words, static images, moving images, and sound.

A2-a read actively. Any image or multimodal text can be read — that is, carefully approached and examined to understand what it says and how it communicates its purpose and reaches its audience. When you read a multimodal text, you are often reading more than words; you might also be reading a

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Writing guide | Analytical essay

An analysis of a text allows you to examine the parts of a text to understand what it means and how it makes its meaning. Your goal is to offer your judgment of the text and to persuade readers to see it through your analytical perspective. A sample analytical essay begins on page 80.

Key features ● A careful and critical reading of a text reveals what the text says, how

it works, and what it means. In an analytical essay, you pay attention to the details of the text, especially its thesis and evidence.

● A thesis that offers a clear judgment of a text anchors your analysis. Your thesis might be the answer to a question you have posed about a text or the resolution of a problem you have identified in the text.

● Support for the thesis comes from evidence in the text. You summarize, paraphrase, and quote passages that support the claims you make about the text.

● A balance of summary and analysis helps readers who may not be familiar with the text you are analyzing. Summary answers the question of what a text says; an analysis looks at how a text makes its point.

Thinking ahead: Presenting and publishing You may have the opportunity to present or publish your analysis in the form of a multimodal text such as a slide show presentation. Consider how adding images or sound might strengthen your analysis or help you to better reach your audience. (See section A2.)

Writing your analytical essay

ExplorE

Generate ideas for your analysis by brainstorming responses to questions such as the following:

● What is the text about?

● What do you find most interesting, surprising, or puzzling about this text?

● What is the author’s thesis or central idea? Put the author’s thesis to the “So what?” test. (See p. 74.)

● What do your annotations of the text reveal about your response to it?

82

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xiPreface for instructors

Research and documentation advice fit for any college course. Substan- tially revised sections teach researchers to find an entry point in a debate and develop authority as a researcher. New advice on writing a research proposal gives practical help that’s useful across the curricu- lum. And because some sources are difficult to cite, new how-to boxes address author ship and new types of sources such as course materials and reposted Web content.

369368 R2-akeeping a working bibliographyThinking like a researcher; gathering sourcesR1-f

Surveying opinion

For some topics, you may find it useful to survey opinions through writ- ten questionnaires, telephone or e-mail polls, or questions posted on a social media site. Many people are reluctant to fill out long question- naires, so for a good response rate, limit your questions with your pur- pose in mind.

When possible, ask yes/no questions or give multiple-choice options. Surveys with such queries can be completed quickly, and the results are easy to tally. You may also want to ask a few open-ended questions to elicit more individual responses, some of which may be worth quoting in your paper.

Other field methods

Your firsthand visits to and observations of significant places, people, or events can enhance a paper in a variety of disciplines. If you aren’t able to visit an organization, a company, or a historic site, you may find use- ful information on an official Web site or a phone number or an e-mail address to use to contact a representative.

R1-f Write a research proposal. One effective way to manage your research project and focus your thinking is to write a research proposal. A proposal gives you an oppor- tunity to look back — to remind you why you decided to enter a specific research conversation — and to look forward — to predict any difficulties or obstacles that might arise during your project. Your objective is to make a case for the question you plan to explore, the sources you plan to use, and the feasibility of the project, given the time and resources available. As you take stock of your project, you also have the valuable opportunity to receive comments from your instructor and classmates about your proposed research question and search strategy.

The following format will help you organize your proposal.

• Research question. What question will you be exploring? Why does this question need to be asked? What do you hope to learn from the project?

• Research conversation. What have you learned so far about the debate or the specific research conversation you will enter? What entry point have you found to offer your own insights and ideas?

hackerhandbooks.com/writersref R1 Thinking like a researcher > As you write: Writing a research proposal

• Search strategy. What kinds of sources will you use to explore your question? What sources have you found most useful, and why? How will you locate a variety of sources (print and visual, primary and secondary, for example)?

• Questions you are asking. What challenges, if any, do you anticipate? What questions are you asking about the project that readers of your proposal might help you answer?

R2 Managing information; taking notes responsibly

An effective researcher is a good record keeper. Whether you decide to keep records in your research log or in a file on your computer, you will need methods for managing information: maintaining a working bibli- ography (see R2-a), keeping track of source materials (see R2-b), and taking notes without plagiarizing your sources (see R2-c). (For more on avoiding plagiarism, see MLA-2 for MLA style, APA-2 for APA style, and CMS-2 for CMS style.)

R2-a Maintain a working bibliography. Keep a record of each source you read or view. This record, called a working bibliography, will help you compile the list of sources that will appear at the end of your paper. The format of this list depends on the documentation style you are using (for MLA style, see MLA-4; for APA style, see APA-4; for CMS style, see CMS-4). Using the proper style in your working bibliography will ensure that you have all the information you need to correctly cite any sources you use. (See R3-e for advice on using your working bibliography as the basis for an anno- tated bibliography.)