Msu Distinguished Alumni Program Ideas
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • WRITING A THESIS A thesis statement is a one-sentence summary of a paper's content. It is similar, actually, to a paper's conclusion but lacks the conclusion's concern for broad implications and significance. For a writer in the drafting stages, the thesis establishes a focus, a basis on which to include or exclude information. For the reader of a finished product, the thesis anticipates the author's discussion.
A thesis statement, therefore, is an essential tool for both writers and readers of academic material. This last sentence is our thesis for this section. Based on this thesis, we, as the authors, have limited the content of the section; and you, as the reader, will be able to form certain expectations about the discussion that follows. You can expect a definition of a thesis statement; an enumeration of the uses of a thesis statement; and a discussion focused on academic material.
As writers, we will have met our obligations to you only if in subsequent paragraphs we satisfy these expectations. [ to contents] The Components of a Thesis Like any other sentence, a thesis includes a subject and a predicate, which consists of an assertion about the subject. In the sentence 'Lee and Grant were different kinds of generals,' 'Lee and Grant' is the subject and 'were different kinds of generals' is the predicate.
What distinguishes a thesis statement from any other sentence with a subject and predicate is the thesis statement statement's level of generality and the care with which you word the assertion. The subject of a thesis must present the right balance between the general and the specific to allow for a thorough discussion within the allotted length of the paper. The discussion might include definitions, details, comparisons contrasts - whatever is needed to illuminate a subject and carry on an intelligent conversation. (If the sentence about Lee and Grant were a thesis, the reader would assume that the rest of the essay contained comparisons and contrasts between the two generals.) Bear in mind when writing thesis statements that the more general your subject and the more complex your assertion, the longer your paper will be.
Department of Mathematical Sciences. (Greensboro, NC).
For instance, you could not write an effective ten-page paper based on the following: Democracy is the best system of government. Consider the subject of this sentence, 'democracy,' and the assertion of its predicate, 'is the best system of government.' The subject is enormous in scope; it is a general category composed of hundreds of more specific sub-categories, each of which would be appropriate for a paper ten pages in length. The predicate of our example is also a problem, for the claim that democracy is the best system of government would be simplistic unless accompanied by a thorough, systematic, critical evaluation of every form of government yet devised. A ten-page paper governed by such a thesis simply could not achieve the level of detail and sophistication expected of college students. [ to contents] Limiting the Scope of the Thesis Before you can write an effective thesis and thus a controlled, effective paper, you need to limit your intended discussions by limiting your subject and your claims about it. Two strategies for achieving a thesis statement of manageable proportions are (1) to begin with a working thesis (this strategy assumes that you are familiar with your topic) and (2) to begin with a broad area of interest and narrow it (this strategy assumes that you are unfamiliar with your topic).
[ to contents] Begin with a Working Thesis Professionals thoroughly familiar with a topic often begin writing with a clear thesis in mind - a happy state of affairs unfamiliar to most college students who are assigned term papers. But professionals usually have an important advantage over students: experience. Because professionals know their material, are familiar with the ways of approaching it, are aware of the questions important to practitioners, and have devoted considerable time to study of the topic, they are naturally in a strong position to begin writing a paper. Not only do professionals have experience in their fields, but they also have a clear purpose in writing; they know their audience and are comfortable with the format of their papers. Experience counts - there's no way around it. As a student, you are not yet an expert and therefore don't generally have the luxury of beginning your writing tasks with a definite thesis in mind. Once you choose and devote time to a major field of study, however, you will gain experience.
In the meantime, you'll have to do more work than the professional to prepare yourself for writing a paper. But let's assume that you do have an area of expertise, that you are in your own right a professional (albeit not in academic matters). We'll assume that you understand your nonacademic subject - say, backpacking - and have been given a clear purpose for writing: to discuss the relative merits of backpack designs. Your job is to write a recommendation for the owner of a sporting-goods chain, suggesting which line of backpacks the chain should carry. The owner lives in another city, so your remarks have to be written. Since you already know a good deal about backpacks, you may already have some well-developed ideas on the topic before you start doing additional research.
Yet even as an expert in your field, you will find that beginning the writing task is a challenge, for at this point it is unlikely that you will be able to conceive a thesis perfectly suited to the contents of your paper. After all, a thesis statement is a summary, and it is difficult to summarize a presentation yet to be written - especially if you plan to discover what you want to say during the process of writing. Even if you know your material well, the best you can do at the early stages is to formulate a working thesis - a hypothesis of sorts, a well-informed hunch about your topic and the claim to be made about it. Once you have completed a draft, you can evaluate the degree to which your working thesis accurately summarizes the content of your paper. If the match is a good one, the working thesis becomes the thesis statement. If, however, sections of the paper drift from the focus set out in the working thesis, you'll need to revise the thesis and the paper itself to ensure that the presentation is unified.
(You'll know that the match between the content and thesis is a good one when every paragraph directly refers to and develops some element of the thesis.). [ to contents] Begin with a Subject and Narrow It Let's assume that you have moved from making recommendations about backpacks (your territory) to writing a paper for your government class (your professor's territory). Whereas you were once the professional who knew enough about your subject to begin writing with a working thesis, you are now the student, inexperienced and in need of a great deal of information before you can begin begin to think of thesis statements. It may be a comfort to know that your government professor would likely be in the same predicament if asked to recommend backpack designs. He would need to spend several weeks, at least, backpacking to become as experienced as you; and it is fair to say that you will need to spend several hours in the library before you are in a position to choose a topic suitable for an undergraduate paper.
Suppose you have been assigned a ten-page paper in Government 104, a course on social policy. Not only do you not have a thesis - you don't have a subject!
Where will you begin? First, you need to select a broad area of interest and make yourself knowledgeable about its general features.
What if no broad area of interest occurs to you? Don't despair - there's usually a way to make use of discussions you've read in a text or heard in a lecture. The trick is to find a topic that can become personally important, for whatever reason. (For a paper in your biology class, you might write on the digestive system because a relative has stomach troubles. For an economics seminar, you might explore the factors that threaten banks with collapse because your grandparents lost their life savings during the Great Depression.) Whatever the academic discipline, try to discover a topic that you'll enjoy exploring; that way, you'll be writing for yourself as much as for your professor. Some specific strategies to try if no topics occur to you: Review material covered during the semester, class by class if need be; review the semester's readings, actually skimming each assignment. Choose any subject that has held your interest, if even for a moment, and use that as your point of departure.
Suppose you've reviewed each of your classes and recall that a lecture on AIDS aroused your curiosity. Your broad subject of interest, then, will be AIDS. At this point, the goal of your research is to limit this subject to a manageable scope. Although your initial, broad subject will often be more specific than our example, 'AIDS,' we'll assume for the purposes of discussion the most general case (the subject in greatest need of limiting). A subject can be limited in at least two ways. First, a general article like an encyclopedia entry may do the work for you by presenting the subject in the form of an outline, with each item in the outline representing a separate topic (which, for your purposes, may need further limiting). Second, you can limit a subject by asking several questions about it: Who?
What aspects? These questions will occur to you as you conduct your research and see the ways in which various authors have focused their discussions. Having read several sources and having decided that you'd like to use them, you might limit the subject 'AIDS' by asking who - AIDS patients; and which aspect - civil rights of AIDS patients. Certainly, 'the civil rights of AIDS patients' offers a more specific focus than does 'AIDS'; still, the revised focus is too broad for a ten-page paper in that a comprehensive discussion would obligate you to review numerous particular rights. So again you must try to limit your subject by posing a question.
In this particular case, which aspects (of the civil rights of AIDS patients) can be asked a second time. Six aspects may come to mind: • Rights in the workplace• Rights to hospital care• Rights to insurance benefits• Rights to privacy• Rights to fair housing• Rights to education Any one of these aspects could provide the focus of a ten-page paper, and you do yourself an important service by choosing one, perhaps two, of the aspects; to choose more would obligate you to too broad a discussion and you would frustrate yourself: Either the paper would have to be longer than ten pages or, assuming you kept to the page limit, the paper would be superficial in its treatment.
In both instances, the paper would fail, given the constraints of the assignment. So it is far better that you limit your subject ahead of time, before you attempt to write about it. Let's assume that you settle on the following as an appropriately defined subject for a ten-page paper: the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace The process of narrowing an initial subject depends heavily upon the reading you do. The more you read, the deeper your understanding of a topic. The deeper your understanding, the likelier it will be that you can divide a broad and complex topic into manageable - that is, researchable - categories. Identify these categories that compose the larger topic and pursue one of them.
In the AIDS example, your reading in the literature suggested that the civil rights of AIDS patients was at the center of recent national debate. So reading allowed you to narrow the subject 'AIDS' by answering the initial questions - the who and which aspects. Once you narrowed your focus to 'the civil rights of AIDS patients,' you read further and quickly realized that civil rights in itself was a broad concern that also should be limited. In this way, reading provided an important stimulus as you worked to identify an appropriate subject for your paper. [ to contents] Make an Assertion Once you have identified the subject, you can now develop it into a thesis by making an assertion about it. If you have spent enough time reading and gathering information, you will be knowledgeable enough to have something to say about the subject, based on a combination of your own thinking and the thinking of your sources. If you have trouble making an assertion, try writing your topic at the top of a page and then listing everything you know and feel about it.
Often from such a list you will discover an assertion that you then can use to fashion a working thesis. A good way to gauge the reasonableness of your claim is to see what other authors have asserted about the same topic. In fact, keep good notes on the views of others; the notes will prove a useful counterpoint to your own views as you write, and you may want to use them in your paper. Next, make three assertions about your topic, in order of increasing complexity. • During the past few years, the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace have been debated by national columnists.• Several columnists have offered convincing reasons for protecting the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace.• The most sensible plan for protecting the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace has been offered by columnist Anthony Jones.
Keep in mind that these are working thesis statements. Because you haven't written a paper based on any of them, they remain hypotheses to be tested. After completing a first draft, you would compare the contents of the paper to the thesis and make adjustments as necessary for unity.
The working thesis is an excellent tool for planning broad sections of the paper, but - again - don't let it prevent you from pursuing related discussions as they occur to you. Notice how these three statements differ from one another in the forcefulness of their assertions.
The third thesis is strongly argumentative. 'Most sensible' implies that the writer will explain several plans for protecting the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace. Following the explanation would come a comparison of plans and then a judgment in favor of Anthony Jones. Like any working thesis, this one helps the writer plan the paper. Assuming the paper follows the three-part structure we've inferred, the working thesis would become the final thesis, on the basis of which a reader could anticipate sections of the essay to come. The first of the three thesis statements, by contrast, is explanatory: During the past few years, the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace have been debated by national columnists.
In developing a paper based on this thesis, the writer would assert only the existence of a debate, obligating himself merely to a summary of the various positions taken. Readers, then, would use this thesis as a tool for anticipating the contours of the paper to follow. Based on this particular thesis, a reader would not expect to find the author strongly endorsing the views of one or another columnist. The thesis does not require the author to defend a personal opinion. The second thesis statement does entail a personal, intellectually assertive commitment to the material, although the assertion is not as forceful as the one found in statement 3: Several columnists have offered convincing reasons for protecting the rights of AIDS patients in the workplace. Here we have an explanatory, mildly argumentative thesis that enables the writer to express an opinion. We infer from the use of the word convincing that the writer will judge the various reasons for protecting the rights of AIDS patients; and, we can reasonably assume, the writer himself believes in protecting these rights.
Note the contrast between this second thesis and the first one, where the writer committed himself to no involvement in the debate whatsoever. Still, the present thesis is not as ambitious as the third one, whose writer implicitly accepted the general argument for safeguarding rights (an acceptance he would need to justify) and then took the additional step of evaluating the merits of those arguments in relation to each other. (Recall that Anthony Jones's plan was the 'most sensible.' ) As you can see, for any subject you might care to explore in a paper, you can make any number of assertions - some relatively simple, some complex.
It is on the basis of these assertions that you set yourself an agenda in writing a paper - and readers set for themselves expectations for reading. The more ambitious the thesis, the more complex will be the paper and the greater will be the readers' expectations. [ to contents] Using the Thesis Different writing tasks require different thesis statements.
The explanatory thesis is often developed in response to short-answer exam questions that call for information, not analysis (e.g., 'List and explain proposed modifications to contemporary American democracy'). The explanatory but mildly argumentative thesis is appropriate for organizing reports (even lengthy ones), as well as essay questions that call for some analysis (e.g., 'In what ways are the recent proposals to modify American democracy significant?' The strongly argumentative thesis is used to organize papers and exam questions that call for information, analysis, and the writer's forcefully stated point of view (e.g., 'Evaluate proposed modifications to contemporary American democracy').
The strongly argumentative thesis, of course, is the riskiest of the three, since you must unequivocally state your position and make it appear reasonable - which requires that you offer evidence and defend against logical objections. But such intellectual risks pay dividends, and if you become involved enough in your work to make challenging assertions, you will provoke challenging responses that enliven classroom discussions. One of the important objectives of a college education is to extend learning by stretching, or challenging, conventional beliefs. You breathe new life into this broad objective, and you enliven your own learning as well, every time you adopt a thesis that sets a challenging agenda both for you (as writer) and for your readers. Of course, once you set the challenge, you must be equal to the task. As a writer, you will need to discuss all the elements implied by your thesis.
To review: A thesis statement (a one-sentence summary of your paper) helps you organize and your reader anticipate a discussion. Thesis statements are distinguished by their carefully worded subjects and predicates, which should be just broad enough and complex enough to be developed within the length limitations of the assignment. Both novices and experts in a field typically begin the initial draft of a paper with a working thesis - a statement that provides writers with structure enough to get started but with latitude enough to discover what they want to say as they write. Once you have completed a first draft, you should test the 'fit' of your thesis with the paper that follows.
Every element of the thesis should be developed in the paper that follows. Discussions that drift from your thesis should be deleted, or the thesis changed to accommodate the new discussions. [ to contents] QUOTATIONS A quotation records the exact language used by someone in speech or in writing. A summary, in contrast, is a brief restatement in your own words of what someone else has said or written. And a paraphrase is also a restatement, although one that is often as long as the original source.
Any paper in which you draw upon sources will rely heavily on quotation, summary, and paraphrase. How do you choose among the three?
Remember that the papers you write should be your own - for the most part, your own language and certainly your own thesis, your own inferences, and your own conclusions. It follows that references to your source materials should be written primarily as summaries and paraphrases, both of which are built on restatement, not quotation. You will use summaries when you need a brief restatement, and paraphrases, which provide more explicit detail than summaries, when you need to follow the development of a source closely. When you quote too much, you risk losing ownership of your work: more easily than you might think, your voice can be drowned out by the voices of those you've quoted. So use quotations sparingly, as you would a pungent spice.
Nevertheless, quoting just the right source at the right time can significantly improve your papers. The trick is to know when and how to use quotations. [ to contents] Quoting Memorable Language Assume you're writing a paper on Napoleon Bonaparte's relationship with the celebrated Josephine. Through research you learn that two days after their marriage Napoleon, given command of an army, left his bride for what was to be a brilliant military campaign in Italy. How did the young general respond to leaving his wife so soon after their wedding? You come across the following, written from the field of battle by Napoleon on April 3, 1796: I have received all your letters, but none has had such an impact on me as the last. Do you have any idea, darling, what you are doing, writing to me in those terms?
Do you not think my situation cruel enough without intensifying my longing for you, overwhelming my soul? What a style! What emotions you evoke! Written in fire, they burn my poor heart!
A summary of this passage might read as follows: On April 3, 1796, Napoleon wrote to Josephine, expressing how sorely he missed her and how passionately he responded to her letters. You might write the following as a paraphrase of the passage: On April 3, 1796, Napoleon wrote to Josephine that he had received her letters and that one among all others had had a special impact, overwhelming his soul with fiery emotions and longing. How feeble this summary and paraphrase are when compared with the original! Use the vivid language that your sources give you.
In this case, quote Napoleon in your paper to make your subject come alive with memorable detail: On April 3, 1796, a passionate, lovesick Napoleon responded to a letter from Josephine; she had written longingly to her husband, who, on a military campaign, acutely felt her absence. 'Do you have any idea, darling, what you are doing, writing to me in those terms?... What emotions you evoke!' He said of her letters.
'Written in fire, they burn.my poor heart!' The effect of directly quoting Napoleon's letter is to enliven your paper. A direct quotation is one in which you record precisely the language of another, as we did with the sentences from Napoleon's letter. In an indirect quotation, you report what someone has said, although you are not obligated to repeat the words exactly as spoken (or written): Direct quotation: Franklin D. Roosevelt said: 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'
Indirect quotation: Franklin D. Roosevelt said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. The language in a direct quotation, which is indicated by a pair of quotation marks (' '), must be faithful to the language of the original passage. When using an indirect quotation, you have the liberty of changing words (although not changing meaning). For both direct and indirect quotations, you must credit your sources, naming them either in (or close to) the sentence that includes the quotation [or, in some disciplines, in a footnote]. [ to contents] Quoting Clear and Concise Language You should quote a source when its language is particularly clear and economical - when your language, by contrast, would be wordy.
Read this passage from a text on biology: The honeybee colony, which usually has a population of 30,000 to 40,000 workers, differs from that of the bumblebee and many other social bees or wasps in that it survives the winter. This means that the bees must stay warm despite the cold. Like other bees, the isolated honeybee cannot fly if the temperature falls below 10°C (50°F) and cannot walk if the temperature is below 7°C (45°F). Within the wintering hive, bees maintain their temperature by clustering together in a dense ball; the lower the temperature, the denser the cluster. The clustered bees produce heat by constant muscular movements of their wings, legs, and abdomens. In very cold weather, the bees on the outside of the cluster keep moving toward the center, while those in the core of the cluster move to the colder outside periphery. The entire cluster moves slowly about on the combs, eating the stored honey from the combs as it moves.
A summary of this paragraph might read as follows: Honeybees, unlike many other varieties of bee, are able to live through the winter by 'clustering together in a dense ball' for body warmth. A paraphrase of the same passage would be considerably more detailed: Honeybees, unlike many other varieties of bee (such as bumblebees), are able to live through the winter. The 30,000 to 40,000 bees within a honeybee hive could not, individually, move about in cold winter temperatures. But when 'clustering together in a dense ball,' the bees generate heat by constantly moving their body parts. The cluster also moves slowly about the hive, eating honey stored in the combs. This nutrition, in addition to the heat generated by the cluster, enables the honeybee to survive the cold winter months. In both the summary and the paraphrase we've quoted Curtis's 'clustering together in a dense ball,' a phrase that lies at the heart of her description of wintering honeybees.
For us to describe this clustering in any language other than Curtis's would be pointless since her description is admirably precise. [ to contents] Quoting Authoritative Language You will also want to use quotations that lend authority to your work. When quoting an expert or some prominent political, artistic, or historical figure, you elevate your own work by placing it in esteemed company. Quote respected figures to establish background information in a paper, and your readers will tend to perceive that information as reliable. Quote the opinions of respected figures to endorse some statement that you've made, and your statement becomes more credible to your readers. For example, in an essay that you might write on the importance of reading well, you could make use of a passage from Thoreau's Walden: Reading well is hard work and requires great skill and training.
It 'is a noble exercise,' writes Henry David Thoreau in Walden, 'and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.' By quoting a famous philosopher and essayist on the subject of reading, you add legitimacy to your discussion. Not only do you regard reading to be a skill that is both difficult and important; so too does Henry David Thoreau, one of our most influential American thinkers. The quotation has elevated the level of your work. You can also quote to advantage well-respected figures who've written or spoken about the subject of your paper.
Here is a discussion of space flight. Author David Chandler refers to a physicist and an astronaut: A few scientists - notably James Van Allen, discoverer of the Earth's radiation belts - have decried the expense of the manned space program and called for an almost exclusive concentration on unmanned scientific exploration instead, saying this would be far more cost-effective.
Other space scientists dispute that idea. Joseph Allen, physicist and former shuttle astronaut, says, 'It seems to be argued that one takes away from the other. But before there was a manned space program, the funding on space science was zero. Now it's about $500 million a year.'
Note, first, that in the first paragraph Chandler has either summarized or used an Indirect quotation to incorporate remarks made by James Van Allen into the discussion on space flight. In the second paragraph, Chandler directly quotes his next source, Joseph Allen. Both quotations, indirect and direct, lend authority and legitimacy to the article, for both James Van Allen and Joseph Allen are experts on the subject of space flight.
Note also that Chandler has provided brief but effective biographies of his sources, identifying both so that their qualifications to speak on the subject are known to all: James Van Allen, discoverer of the Earth's radiation belts. Joseph Allen, physicist and former shuttle astronaut.
The phrases in italics are called appositives. Their function is to rename the nouns they follow by providing explicit, identifying detail. Any information about a person that can be expressed in the following sentence pattern can be made into an appositive phrase: James Van Allen is the discoverer of the Earth's radiation belts. James Van Allen has decried the expense of the manned space program James Van Allen, discoverer of the Earth's radiation belts, has decried the expense of the manned space program. Use appositives to identify authors whom you quote. Incorporating Quotations into Your Sentences Quoting Only the Part of a Sentence or Paragraph That You Need As you've seen, a writer selects passages for quotation that are especially vivid and memorable, concise, or authoritative. Now we will put these principles into practice.
Suppose that while conducting research on the topic of college sports you've come across the following, written by Robert Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago: If athleticism is bad for students, players, alumni and the public, it is even worse for the colleges and universities themselves. They want to be educational institutions, but they can't.
The story of the famous halfback whose only regret, when he bade his coach farewell, was that he hadn't learned to read and write is probably exaggerated. But we must admit that pressure from trustees, graduates, 'friends,' presidents and even professors has tended to relax academic standards.
These gentry often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit. Recruiting, subsidizing and the double educational standard cannot exist without the knowledge and the tacit approval, at least, of the colleges and universities themselves. Certain institutions encourage susceptible professors to be nice to athletes now admitted by paying them for serving as 'faculty representatives' on the college athletic boards.
Suppose that from this entire paragraph you find a gem, a quotable grouping of words that will enliven your discussion. You may want to quote part of the following sentence: These gentry often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit. [ to contents] Incorporating the Quotation into the Flow of Your Own Sentence Once you've selected the passage you want to quote, work the material into your paper in as natural and fluid a manner as possible. Here's how we would quote Hutchins: Robert Hutchins, a former president of the University of Chicago, asserts that 'a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit.' Note that we've used an appositive to identify Hutchins. And we've used only the part of the paragraph - a single clause - that we thought memorable enough to quote directly.
[ to contents] Avoiding Freestanding Quotations A quoted sentence should never stand by itself - as in the following example: Various people associated with the university admit that the pressures of athleticism have caused a relaxation of standards. 'These gentry often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit.' But this kind of thinking is bad for the university and even worse for the athletes. Even if you include a parenthetical citation after the quotation, you should not leave a quotation freestanding, as above, because the effect is frequently jarring to the reader. Introduce the quotation by attributing the source in some other part of the sentence - beginning, middle, or end.
Thus, you could write: According to Robert Hutchins, 'These gentry often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit.' A variation: 'These gentry,' asserts Robert Hutchins, 'often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit.'
Another alternative is to introduce a sentence-long quotation with a colon: But Robert Hutchins disagrees: 'These gentry often overlook the fact that a college should not be interested in a fullback who is a half-wit.' Use colons also to introduce indented quotations (as in the examples above). When attributing sources, try to vary the standard 'states,' 'writes,' 'says,' and so on. Other, stronger verbs you might consider: 'asserts,' 'argues,' 'maintains,' 'insists,' 'asks,' and even 'wonders.'
[ to contents] Using Ellipsis Marks Using quotations is made somewhat complicated when you want to quote the beginning and end of a passage but not its middle - as was the case when we quoted Henry David Thoreau. Here's part of the paragraph in Walden from which we quoted a few sentences: To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.
It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. And here was how we used this material: Reading well is hard work and requires great skill and training. It 'is a noble exercise,' writes Henry David Thoreau in Walden, 'and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.
It requires a training such as the athletes underwent. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.' Whenever you quote a sentence but delete words from it, as we have done, indicate this deletion to the reader by placing an ellipsis mark, three spaced periods, in the sentence at the point of deletion.
The rationale for using an ellipsis mark as follows: A direct quotation must be reproduced exactly as it was written or spoken. When writers delete or change any part of the quoted material, readers must be alerted so they don't think that the changes were part of the original. Ellipsis marks and brackets serve this purpose. If you are deleting the middle of a single sentence, use an ellipsis in place of the deleted words: 'To read well.
Is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.' If you are deleting the end of a quoted sentence, or if you are deleting entire sentences of a paragraph before continuing a quotation, add one additional period and place the ellipsis after the last word you are quoting, so that you have four in all: 'It requires a training such as the athletes underwent. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.' If you begin your quotation of an author in the middle of a sentence, you need not indicate deleted words with an ellipsis. Be sure, however, that the syntax of the quotation fits smoothly with the syntax of your sentence: Reading 'is a noble exercise,' writes Henry David Thoreau. [ to contents] Using Brackets Use square brackets whenever you need to add or substitute words in a quoted sentence. The brackets indicate to the reader a word or phrase that does not appear in the original passage but that you have inserted to avoid confusion.
For example, when a pronoun's antecedent would be unclear to readers, delete the pronoun from the sentence and substitute an identifying word or phrase in brackets. When you make such a substitution, no ellipsis marks are needed. Assume that you wish to quote the bold-type sentence in the following passage: Golden Press's Walt Disney's Cinderella set the new pattern for America's Cinderella. This book's text is coy and condescending. (Sample: 'And her best friends of all were - guess who - the mice!' ) The illustrations are poor cartoons. And Cinderella herself is a disaster.
She cowers as her sisters rip her homemade ball gown to shreds. (Not even homemade by Cinderella, but by the mice and birds.) She answers her stepmother with whines and pleadings. She is a sorry excuse for a heroine, pitiable and useless.
She cannot perform even a simple action to save herself, though she is warned by her friends, the mice. She does not hear them because she is 'off in a world of dreams.'
Cinderella begs, she whimpers, and at last has to be rescued by - guess who - the mice! In quoting this sentence, you would need to identify whom the pronoun she refers to. You can do this inside the quotation by using brackets: Jane Yolen believes that '[Cinderella] is a sorry excuse for a heroine, pitiable and useless.' If the pronoun begins the sentence to be quoted, as it does in this example, you can identify the pronoun outside of the quotation and simply begin quoting your source one word later: Jane Yolen believes that Cinderella 'is a sorry excuse for a heroine, pitiable and useless.' If the pronoun you want to identify occurs in the middle of the sentence to be quoted, then you'll need to use brackets.
Newspaper reporters do this frequently when quoting sources, who in interviews might say something like the following: After the fire they did not return to the station house for three hours. If the reporter wants to use this sentence in an article, he or she needs to identify the pronoun: An official from City Hall, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said, 'After the fire [the officers] did not return to the station house for three hours.' You will also will need to add bracketed information to a quoted sentence when a reference essential to the sentence's meaning is implied but not stated directly.
Read the following paragraphs from Robert Jastrow's 'Toward an Intelligence Beyond Man's': These are amiable qualities for the computer; it imitates life like an electronic monkey. As computers get more complex, the imitation gets better. Finally, the line between the original and the copy becomes blurred. In another 15 years or so - two more generations of computer evolution, in the jargon of the technologists - we will see the computer as an emergent form of life. The proposition seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures. But when drives are useful, they can be programmed into the computer's brain, just as nature programmed them into our ancestors' brains as a part of the equipment for survival.
For example, computers, like people, work better and learn faster when they are motivated. Arthur Samuel made this discovery when he taught two IBM computers how to play checkers.
They polished their game by playing each other, but they learned slowly. Samuel programmed in the will to win by forcing the computers to try harder - and to think out more moves in advance - when they were losing. Then the computers learned very quickly.
One of them beat Samuel and went on to defeat a champion player who had not lost a game to a human opponent in eight years. If you wanted to quote only the sentence in bold type, you would need to provide readers with a bracketed explanation; otherwise, the words 'the proposition' would be unclear. Here is how you would manage the quotation: According to Robert Jastrow, a physicist and former official at NASA's Goddard Institute, 'The proposition [that computers will emerge as a form of life] seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures.' Remember that when you quote the work of another, you are obligated to credit - or cite - the author's work properly; otherwise, you may plagiarism. [See your Allyn and Bacon Handbook for guidance on citing sources.].
[ to contents] WRITING INTRODUCTIONS A classic image: The writer stares glumly at a blank sheet of paper (or, in the electronic version, a blank screen). Usually, however, this is an image of a writer who hasn't yet begun to write. Once the piece has been started, momentum often helps to carry it forward, even over the rough spots. (These can always be fixed later.) As a writer, you've surely discovered that getting started when you haven't yet warmed to your task is a problem.
What's the best way to approach your subject? With high seriousness, a light touch, an anecdote? How best to engage your reader? Many writers avoid such agonizing choices by putting them off - productively. Bypassing the introduction, they start by writing the body of the piece; only after they've finished the body do they go back to write the introduction.
There's a lot to be said for this approach. Because you have presumably spent more time thinking about the topic itself than about how you're going to introduce it, you are in a better position, at first, to begin directly with your presentation (once you've settled on a working thesis). And often, it's not until you've actually seen the piece on paper and read it over once or twice that a 'natural' way of introducing it becomes apparent. Even if there is no natural way to begin, you are generally in better psychological shape to write the introduction after the major task of writing is behind you and you know exactly what you're leading up to. Perhaps, however, you can't operate this way. After all, you have to start writing somewhere, and if you have evaded the problem by skipping the introduction, that blank page may loom just as large wherever you do choose to begin. If this is the case, then go ahead and write an introduction, knowing full well that it's probably going to be flat and awful.
Set down any kind of pump- priming or throat-clearing verbiage that comes to mind, as long as you have a working thesis. Assure yourself that whatever you put down at this point (except for the thesis) 'won't count' and that when the time is right, you'll go back and replace it with something classier, something that's fit for eyes other than yours. But in the meantime, you'll have gotten started.
The purpose of an introduction is to prepare the reader to enter the world of your essay. The introduction makes the connection between the more familiar world inhabited by the reader and the less familiar world of the writer's particular subject; it places a discussion in a context that the reader can understand. There are many ways to provide such a context. We'll consider just a few of the most common. [ to contents] Quotation In introduction to a paper on democracy: 'Two cheers for democracy' was E. Forster's not-quite-wholehearted judgment. Most Americans would not agree.
To them, our democracy is one of the glories of civilization. To one American in particular, E. White, democracy is 'the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles... The dent in the high hat... The recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time' (915). American democracy is based on the oldest continuously operating written constitution in the world - a most impressive fact and a testament to the farsightedness of the founding fathers. But just how farsighted can mere humans be?
In Future Shock, Alvin Toffler quotes economist Kenneth Boulding on the incredible acceleration of social change in our time: 'The world of today... Is as different from the world in which I was born as that world was from Julius Caesar's' (13). As we move toward the twenty-first century, it seems legitimate to question the continued effectiveness of a governmental system that was devised in the eighteenth century; and it seems equally legitimate to consider alternatives. The quotations by Forster and White help set the stage for the discussion of democracy by presenting the reader with some provocative and well-phrased remarks. Later in the paragraph, the quotation by Boulding more specifically prepares us for the theme of change that will be central to the essay as a whole. [ to contents] Historical Review In many cases, the reader will be unprepared to follow the issue you discuss unless you provide some historical background.
Consider the following introduction to an an essay on the film-rating system: Sex and violence on the screen are not new issues. In the Roaring Twenties there was increasing pressure from civic and religious groups to ban depictions of 'immorality' from the screen. Faced with the threat of federal censorship, the film producers decided to clean their own house. In 1930, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America established the Production Code.
At first, adherence to the Code was voluntary; but in 1934 Joseph Breen, newly appointed head of the MPPDA, gave the Code teeth. Henceforth all newly produced films had to be submitted for approval to the Production Code Administration which had the power to award or withhold the Code seal. Without a Code seal, it was virtually impossible for a film to be shown anywhere in the United States, since exhibitors would not accept it. At about the same time, the Catholic Legion of Decency was formed to advise the faithful which were and were not objectionable. For several decades the Production Code Administration exercised powerful control over what was portrayed in American theatrical films. By the 1960s, however, changing standards of morality had considerably weakened the Code's grip. In 1968, the Production Code was replaced with a rating system designed to keep younger audiences away from films with high levels of sex or violence.
Despite its imperfections, this rating system has proved more beneficial to American films than did the old censorship system. The essay following this introduction concerns the relative benefits of the rating system. By providing some historical background on the rating system, the writer helps readers to understand his arguments. Notice the chronological development of details.
[ to contents] Review of a Controversy A particular type of historical review is the review of a controversy or debate. Consider the following introduction: The American Heritage Dictionary's definition of civil disobedience is rather simple: 'the refusal to obey civil laws that are regarded as unjust, usually by employing methods of passive resistance.' However, despite such famous (and beloved) examples of civil disobedience as the movements of Mahatma Gandhi in India and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States, the question of whether or not civil disobedience should be considered an asset to society is hardly clear cut. For instance, Hannah Arendt, in her article 'Civil Disobedience,' holds that'to think of disobedient minorities as rebels and truants is against the letter and spirit of a constitution whose framers were especially sensitive to the dangers of unbridled majority rule.' On the other hand, a noted lawyer, Lewis Van Dusen, Jr., in his article 'Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy,' states that 'civil disobedience, whatever the ethical rationalization, is still an assault on our democratic society, an affront to our legal order and an attack on our constitutional government.'
These two views are clearly incompatible. I believe, though, that Van Dusen's is the more convincing. On balance, civil disobedience is dangerous to society.
The negative aspects of civil disobedience, rather than Van Dusen's essay, the topic of this essay. But to introduce this topic, the writer has provided quotations that represent opposing sides of the controversy over civil disobedience, as well as brief references to two controversial practitioners. By focusing at the outset on the particular rather than the abstract aspects of the subject, the writer hoped to secure the attention of her readers and to involve them in the controversy that forms the subject of her essay. [ to contents] From General to the Specific Another way of providing a transition from the reader's world to the less familiar world of the essay is to work from a general subject to a specific one.
The following introduction to a discussion of the 1968 massacre at My Lai, Vietnam, begins with general statements and leads to the particular subject at hand: Though we prefer to think of man as basically good and reluctant to do evil, such is not the case. Many of the crimes inflicted on humankind can be dismissed as being committed by the degenerates of society at the prompting of the abnormal mind.
But what of the perfectly 'normal' man or woman who commits inhumane acts simply because he or she has been ordered to do so? It cannot be denied that such acts have occurred, either in everyday life or in war-time situations. Unfortunately, even normal, well-adjusted people can become cruel, inhumane, and destructive if placed in the hands of unscrupulous authority. Such was the case in the village of My Lai, Vietnam, on March 16, 1968, when a platoon of American soldiers commanded by Lt. William Calley massacred more than 100 civilians, including women and children. [ to contents] Specific to the General: Anecdote, Illustration Consider the following paragraph: In late 1971 astronomer Carl Sagan and his colleagues were studying data transmitted from the planet Mars to the earth by the Mariner 9 spacecraft.
Struck by the effects of the Martian dust storms on the temperature and on the amount of light reaching the surface, the scientists wondered about the effects on earth of the dust storms that would be created by nuclear explosions. Using computer models, they simulated the effects of such explosions on the earth's climate.
The results astounded them. Apart from the known effects of nuclear blasts (fires and radiation), the earth, they discovered, would become enshrouded in a 'nuclear winter.' Following a nuclear exchange, plummeting temperatures and pervading darkness would destroy most of the Northern Hemisphere's crops and farm animals and would eventually render much of the planet's surface uninhabitable. The effects of nuclear war, apparently, would be more catastrophic than had previously been imagined. It has therefore become more urgent than ever for the nations of the world to take dramatic steps to reduce the threat of nuclear war. The previous introduction went from the general (the question of whether or not man is basically good) to the specific (the massacre at My Lai); this one goes from the specific (scientists studying data) to the general (the urgency of reducing the nuclear threat). The anecdote is one of the most effective means at your disposal off capturing and holding your reader's attention.
For decades, speakers have begun their general remarks with a funny, touching, or otherwise appropriate story; in fact, there are plenty of books that are nothing but collections of such stories, arranged by subject. [ to contents] Question Frequently, you can provoke the reader's attention by posing a question or a series of questions: Are gender roles learned or inherited? Scientific research has established the existence of biological differences between the sexes, but the effect of biology's influence on gender roles cannot be distinguished from society's influence. According to Michael Lewis of the Institute for the Study of Exceptional children, 'As early as you can show me a sex difference, I can show you the culture at work.'
Social processes, as well as biological differences, are responsible for the separate roles of men and women. Opening your essay with a question can be provocative, since it places the reader in an active role: He or she begins by considering answers. Are gender roles learned? Are they inherited? In this active role, the reader is likely to continue reading with interest.
[ to contents] Statement of Thesis Perhaps the most direct method of introduction is to begin immediately with the thesis: Computers are a mixed blessing. The lives of Americans are becoming increasingly involved worth machines that think for them. 'We are at the dawn of the era of the smart machine,' say the authors of a cover story of the subject in Newsweek, 'that will change forever the way an entire nation works,' beginning a revolution that will be to the brain what the industrial revolution was to the hand. Tiny silicon chips already process enough information to direct air travel, to instruct machines how to cut fabric - even to play chess with (and defeat) the masters.
One can argue that development of computers for the household, as well as industry, will change for the better the quality of our lives: computers help us save energy, reduce the amount of drudgery that most of us endure around tax season, make access to libraries easier. Yet there is a certain danger involved with this proliferation of technology. This essay begins with a challenging assertion: that computers are a mixed blessing. It is one that many readers are perhaps unprepared to consider, since they may have taken it for granted that computers are an unmixed blessing.
The advantage of beginning with a provocative (thesis) statement is that it forces the reader to sit up and take notice perhaps even to begin protesting. The paragraph goes on to concede some of the 'blessings' of computerization but then concludes with the warning that there is 'a certain danger' associated with the new technology - a danger, the curious or even indignant reader has a right to conclude, that will be more fully explained in the paragraphs to follow.
One final note about our model introductions: They may be longer than introductions you have been accustomed to writing. Many writers (and readers) prefer shorter, snappier introductions.
Install Red Hat Linux Dual Boot Windows 7. This is largely a matter of personal or corporate style: there is no rule concerning the correct length of an introduction. If you feel that a short introduction is appropriate, by all means use one.
You may wish to break up what seems like a long introduction into two paragraphs. (Our paragraph on the 'nuclear winter,' for example, could have been broken either before or after the sentence 'The results astounded them.' [ to contents] WRITING CONCLUSIONS One way to view the conclusion of your paper is as an introduction worked in reverse, a bridge from the world of your essay back to the world of your reader. A conclusion is the part of your paper in which you restate and (if necessary) expand on your thesis. Essential to any conclusion is the summary, which is not merely a repetition of the thesis but a restatement that takes advantage of the material you've presented. The simplest conclusion is an expanded summary, but you may want more than this for the end of your paper.
Depending on your needs, you might offer a summary and then build onto it a discussion of the paper's significance or its implications for future study, for choices that individuals might make, for policy, and so on. You might also want to urge the reader to change an attitude or to modify behavior. Certainly, you are under no obligation to discuss the broader significance of your work (and a summary, alone, will satisfy the formal requirement that your paper have an ending); but the conclusions of better papers often reveal authors who are 'thinking large' and want to connect the particular concerns of their papers with the broader concerns of society. Here we'll consider seven strategies for expanding the basic summary - conclusion. But two words of advice are in order. First, no matter how clever or beautifully executed, a conclusion cannot salvage a poorly written paper. Second, by virtue of its placement, the conclusion carries rhetorical weight.
It is the last statement a reader will encounter before turning from your work. Realizing this, writers who expand on the basic summary-conclusion often wish to give their final words a dramatic flourish, a heightened level of diction. Soaring rhetoric and drama in a conclusion are fine as long as they do not unbalance the paper and call attention to themselves. Having labored long hours over your paper, you have every right to wax eloquent. But keep a sense of proportion and timing. Make your points quickly and end crisply.
[ to contents] Statement of the Subject's Significance One of the more effective ways to conclude a paper is to discuss the larger significance of what you have written, providing readers with one more reason to regard your work as a serious effort. When using this strategy, you move from the specific concern of your paper to the broader concerns of the reader's world. Often, you will need to choose among a range of significances: A paper on the Wright brothers might end with a discussion of air travel as it affects economies, politics, or families; a paper on contraception might end with a discussion of its effect on sexual mores, population, or the church. But don't overwhelm your reader with the importance of your remarks. Keep your discussion well focused. The following paragraphs conclude a paper on George H.
Shull, a pioneer in the inbreeding and crossbreeding of corn:... Thus, the hybrids developed and described by Shull 75 years ago have finally dominated U.S. Corn production.
The adoption of hybrid corn was steady and dramatic in the Corn Belt. From 1930 through 1979 the average yields of corn in the U.S. Increased from 21.9 to 95.1 bushels per acre, and the additional value to the farmer is now several billion dollars per year. The success of hybrid corn has also stimulated the breeding of other crops, such as sorghum hybrids, a major feed grain crop in arid parts of the world. Sorghum yields have increased 300 percent since 1930. Approximately 20 percent of the land devoted to rice production in China is planted with hybrid seed, which is reported to yield 20 percent more than the best varieties. And many superior varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, and other vegetables are hybrids.
Today virtually all corn produced in the developed countries is from hybrid seed. From those blue bloods of the plant kingdom has come a model for feeding the world. The first sentence of this conclusion is a summary, and from it the reader can infer that the paper included a discussion of Shull's techniques for the hybrid breeding of corn. The summary is followed by a two-paragraph discussion on the significance of Shull's research for feeding the world. [ to contents] Call for Further Research In the scientific and social scientific communities, papers often end with a review of what has been presented (as, for instance, in an experiment) and the ways in which the subject under consideration needs to be further explored.
If you raise questions that you call on others to answer, however, make sure you know that the research you are calling for hasn't already been conducted. This next conclusion comes from a sociological report on the placement of elderly men and women in nursing homes. Thus, our study shows a correlation between the placement of elderly citizens in nursing facilities and the significant decline of their motor and intellectual skills over the ten months following placement.
What the research has not made clear is the extent to which this marked decline is due to physical as opposed to emotional causes. The elderly are referred to homes at that point in their lives when they grow less able to care for themselves - which suggests that the drop-off in skills may be due to physical causes. But the emotional stress of being placed in a home, away from family and in an environment that confirms the patient's view of himself as decrepit, may exacerbate - if not itself be a primary cause of - the patient's rapid loss of abilities. Further research is needed to clarify the relationship between depression and particular physical ailments as these affect the skills of the elderly in nursing facilities. There is little doubt that information yielded by such studies can enable health care professionals to deliver more effective services. Notice how this call for further study locates the author in a large community of researchers on whom she depends for assistance in answering the questions that have come out of her own work.
The author summarizes her findings (in the first sentence of the paragraph), states what her work has not shown, and then extends her invitation. [ to contents] Solution/Recommendation The purpose of your paper might be to review a problem or controversy and to discuss contributing factors. In such a case, it would be appropriate, after summarizing your discussion, to offer a solution based on the knowledge you've gained while conducting research.
If your solution is to be taken seriously, your knowledge must be amply demonstrated in the body of the paper.... The major problem in college sports today is not commercialism - it is the exploitation of athletes and the proliferation of illicit practices which dilute educational standards. Many universities are currently deriving substantial benefits from sports programs that depend on the labor of athletes drawn from the poorest sections of America's population. It is the responsibility of educators, civil rights leaders, and concerned citizens to see that these young people get a fair return for their labor both in terms of direct remuneration and in terms of career preparation for a life outside sports. Minimally, scholarships in revenue-producing sports should be designed to extend until graduation, rather than covering only four years of athletic eligibility, and should include guarantees of tutoring, counseling, and proper medical care.
At institutions where the profits are particularly large (such as Texas A &M, which can afford to pay its football coach $280,000 a year), scholarships should also provide salaries that extend beyond room, board, and tuition. The important thing is that the athlete be remunerated fairly and have the opportunity to gain skills from a university environment without undue competition from a physically and psychologically demanding full-time job. This may well require that scholarships be extended over five or six years, including summers. Such a proposal, I suspect, will not be easy to implement.
The current amateur system, despite its moral and educational flaws, enables universities to hire their athletic labor at minimal cost. But solving the fiscal crisis of the universities on the backs of America's poor and minorities is not, in the long run, a tenable solution. With the support of concerned educators, parents, and civil rights leaders, and with the help from organized labor, the college athlete, truly a sleeping giant, will someday speak out and demand what is rightly his - and hers - a fair share of the revenue created by their hard work. In this conclusion, the author summarizes his article in one sentence: 'The major problem in college sports today is not commercialism - it is the exploitation of athletes and the proliferation of illicit practices which dilute educational standards.'
In paragraph 2, he continues with an analysis of the problem just stated and follows with a general recommendation - that 'educators, civil rights leaders, and concerned citizens' be responsible for the welfare of college athletes. In paragraph 3, he makes a specific proposal, and in the final paragraph, he anticipates resistance to the proposal. He concludes by discounting this resistance and returning to the general point, that college athletes should receive a fair deal. [ to contents] Anecdote An anecdote is a briefly told story or joke, the point of which in a conclusion is to shed light on your subject.
The anecdote is more direct than an allusion. With an allusion, you merely refer to a story ('Too many people today live in Plato's cave...' ); with the anecdote, you actually retell the story. The anecdote allows readers to discover for themselves the significance of a reference to another source - an effort most readers enjoy because they get to exercise their creativity. The following anecdote concludes an article on homicide.
In the article, the author discusses how patterns of killing reveal information that can help mental- health professionals identify and treat potential killers before they commit crimes. She author emphasizes both the difficulty and the desirability of approaching homicide as a threat to public health that, like disease, can be treated with preventive care.
In his book, The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin, Sufi writer Idries Shad, in a parable about fate, writes about the many culprits of murder: 'What is Fate?' Nasrudin was asked by a scholar. 'An endless succession of intertwined events, each influencing the other.' 'That is hardly a satisfactory answer. I believe in cause and effect.'
'Very well,' said the Mulla, 'look at that.' He pointed to a procession passing in the street. 'That man is being taken to be hanged. Is that because someone gave him a silver piece and enabled him to buy the knife with which he committed the murder; or because someone saw him do it; or because nobody stopped him?' The writer chose to conclude the article with this anecdote. She could have developed an interpretation, but this would have spoiled the dramatic value for the reader.
The purpose of using an anecdote is to make your point with subtlety, so resist the temptation to interpret. Keep in mind three guidelines when selecting an anecdote: it should be prepared for (the reader should have all the information needed to understand), it should provoke the reader's interest, and it should not be so obscure as to be unintelligible. [ to contents] Quotation A favorite concluding device is the quotation - the words of a famous person or an authority in the field on which you are writing The purpose of quoting another is to link your work to theirs, thereby gaining for your work authority and credibility. The first criterion for selecting a quotation is its suitability to your thesis.
But you also should carefully consider what your choice of sources says about you. Suppose you are writing a paper on the American work ethic. If you could use a line by comedian David Letterman or one by the current secretary of labor to make the final point of your conclusion, which would you choose and why? One source may not be inherently more effective than the other, but the choice certainly sets a tone for the paper. There is no doubt that machines will get smarter and smarter, even designing their own software and making new and better chips for new generations of computers. More and more of their power will be devoted to making them easier to use - 'friendly,' in industry parlance - even for those not trained in computer science.
And computer scientists expect that public ingenuity will come up with applications the most visionary researchers have not even considered. One day, a global network of smart machines will be exchanging rapid-fire bursts of information at unimaginable speeds. If they are used wisely, they could help mankind to educate its masses and crack new scientific frontiers. 'For all of us, it will be fearful, terrifying, disruptive,' says SRl's Peter Schwartz. In the end there will be those whose lives will be diminished. But for the vast majority, their lives will be greatly enhanced.'
In any event, there is no turning back: if the smart machines have not taken over, they are fast making themselves indispensable - and in the end, that may amount to very much the same thing. Notice how the quotation is used to position the writer to make one final remark. Particularly effective quotations may themselves be used to end an essay, as in the following example. Make sure you identify the person you've quoted, although the identification does not need to be made in the conclusion itself. For example, earlier in the paper from which the following conclusion was taken, Maureen Henderson was identified as an epidemiologist exploring the ways in which a change in diet can prevent the onset of certain cancers.
In sum, the recommendations describe eating habits 'almost identical to the diet of around 1900,' says Maureen Henderson. 'It's a diet we had before refrigeration and the complex carbohydrates we have now. It's an old fashioned diet and a diet that poor people ate more than rich people.' Some cancer researchers wonder whether people will be willing to change their diets or take pills on the chance of preventing cancer, when one-third of the people in the country won't even stop smoking. Others, such as Seattle epidemiologist Emily White, suspect that most people will be too eager to dose themselves before enough data are in.
'We're not here to convince the public to take anything,' she says. 'The public is too eager already.
What we're saying is, 'Let us see if some of these things work.' We want to convince ourselves before we convince the public.' ' There is a potential problem with using quotations: if you end with the words of another, you may leave the impression that someone else can make your case more eloquently than you can. The language of the quotation will put your own prose into relief.
If your own prose suffers by comparison - if the quotations are the best part of your paper - you'd be wise to spend some time revising. The way to avoid this kind of problem is to make your own presentation strong. [ to contents] Question Questions are useful for opening essays, and they are just as useful for closing them. Opening and closing questions function in different ways, however. The introductory question promises to be addressed in the paper that follows.
But the concluding question leaves issues unresolved, calling on the readers to assume an active role by offering their own solutions: How do we surmount the reaction that threatens to destroy the very gains we thought we had already won in the first stage of the women's movement? How do we surmount our own reaction, which shadows our feminism and our femininity (we blush even to use that word now)? How do we transcend the polarization between women and women and between women and men to achieve the new human wholeness that is the promise of feminism, and get on with solving the concrete, practical, everyday problems of living, working and loving as equal persons?
This is the personal and political business of the second stage. Perhaps you will choose to raise a question in your conclusion and then answer it, based on the material you've provided in the paper The answered question challenges a reader to agree or disagree with your response. This tactic also places the reader in an active role.
The following brief conclusion ends an article entitled 'Would an Intelligent Computer Have a 'Right to Life'?' So the answer to the question 'Would an intelligent computer have the right to life?' Is probably that it would, but only if it could discover reasons and conditions under which it would give up its life if called upon to do so - which would make computer intelligence as precious a thing as human intelligence. [ to contents] Speculation When you speculate, you ask what has happened or discuss what might happen.
This kind of question stimulates the reader because its subject is the unknown. The following paragraph concludes 'The New Generation Gap' by Neil Howe and William Strauss. [ to contents] Notes 1 Some writers work with an idea, committing it to paper only after it has been fully formed. Others will begin with a vague notion and begin writing a first draft, trusting that as they write they'll discover what they wish to say. Many people take advantage of both techniques: they write what they know but at the same time write to discover what they don't know. As you'll see, we used both techniques in writing this section of the book.
[] 2 Francis Mossiker, trans., Napoleon and Josephine. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964. [] 3 'Winter Organization' in Patricia Curtis, Biology, 2nd ed.
New York: Worth, 1976, pp. [] 4 Robert Hutchins, 'Gate Receipts and Glory,' The Saturday Evening Post. December 3, 1983. [] 5 Henry David Thoreau, 'Reading' in Walden.
New York: Signet Classic, 1960, p. [] 6 Jane Yolen, 'America's 'Cinderella,' APS Publications, Inc., in Children's Literature in Education 8, 1977, pp. [] 7 Excerpt from 'Toward an Intelligence Beyond Man's' from Time, February 20, 1978. Copyright 1978 Time Inc.
[] 8 Michele Jacques, 'Civil Disobedience: Van Dusen vs. [Unpublished paper.] [] 9 Tammy Smith, 'Are Sex Roles Learned or Inherited?' [Unpublished paper.] [] 10 From 'Hybrid Vim and Vigor' by William L. Brown from pp. 77-78 in Science 80-85, November 1984. Copyright by the AAAS. [] 11 From Mark Naison, 'Scenario for Scandal,' Commonweal 109 (16), September 24, 1982.
[] 12 From 'The Murder Epidemic' by Nikki Meredith from pp. 42-48 in Science 80-85, December 1984. Copyright by AAAS. [] 13 From 'And Man Created the Chip,' Newsweek, June 30, 1980. Copyright 1980 by Newsweek, Inc.
All rights reserved. [] 14 Reprinted by permission.
From the September issue of Science '84. Copyright 1984 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [] 15 Betty Friedan, 'Feminism's Next Step' in The Second Stage.
New York: Summit Books, 1981. [] 16 Robert E.
Mueller and Eric T. Mueller, 'Would an Intelligent Computer Have a 'Right to Life'?'
Creative Computing, August 1983. [] 17 Excerpt from 'The New Generation Gap' by Neil Howe and William Strauss.
Castlevania Judgment Iso Ntscu. Originally appeared in Atlantic, December 1992.
MAC, Michigan Agricultural College A Private Collection of Artifacts from Michigan Agricultural College (1855-1925), Michigan State College (1925-1955), and Michigan State University (1955-) 'To the spirits of former years, around which our memories hover.' Herbert Steele, MAC student, 1897 (see Item #234) Items are numbered in the order I acquired them. I have tried my best to display the items in chronological order within a category (jewelry, pins, watch fobs, etc.). If you discover errors, or if you can offer additional historical information about an item, please.
I'm always looking for accuracy and completeness. Donations of MAC artifacts are cheerfully and gratefully accepted with full credit given on this website to the donor.
Please give me your name, city, state, and any personal history you have about the item(s) you are donating. Thank you.:,,,, a great collection of Spartan memorabilia A Brief Chronology 1847 Michigan holds first state fair in nation; speaker promotes agricultural education 1849 Michigan State Agricultural Society formed; advocates a state college of agriculture February 12, 1855 At urging of Michigan State Agricultural Society, Agricultural College of the State of Michigan is established by Michigan legislature. Williams appointed first president. February 22, 1855 Pennsylvania Agricultural School formed (forerunner of Penn State) March 6, 1856 Maryland Agricultural College (another MAC) chartered May 13, 1857 Agricultural College of the State of Michigan formally dedicated; classes begin Note: Artifacts bearing an MSC logo with 'Established 1857' indicate that the item was marketed before 1934 when MSC decided to use 1855, not 1857, as the year the school was established.
Today, the official seal of MSU shows 'Established 1855' at the center. March 15, 1861 Name officially changed to State Agricultural College. Less cumbersome May 1907 Michigan State Agricultural College celebrates its semi-centennial on May 26, 29-31.
Celebration includes numerous social activities and speeches, including one by US President Theodore Roosevelt entitled, 'The Man Who Works with His Hands.' (Also see '1934' below.) June 2, 1909 Name officially changed to Michigan Agricultural College, to eliminate any confusion about which state it was in. Note: MAC is always pronounced 'M-A-C,' never 'Mack.' One well-traveled street in the heart of East Lansing is 'MAC Avenue.' It is pronounced 'M-A-C Avenue,' yet many today erroneously say, 'Mack Avenue.'
May 1, 1925 MAC wants to remove the word 'agriculture' from its name, but University of Michigan officials oppose the change. Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science created as a compromise, but MSC rarely uses the 'Agriculture and Applied Science' part of its name. 1934 Officials from Maryland Agricultural College ask officials at Michigan Agricultural College why they promote the college as the 'pioneer Land-Grant college' when it celebrated its semi-centennial in 1907 (Maryland Agricultural College was chartered in 1856). Officials at Michigan Agricultural College confer and decide to begin recognizing February 12, 1855, as the date Michigan Agricultural College was formed, thus retaining the title of 'pioneer Land-Grant college'.
Ten days before Pennsylvania Agricultural School is formed (forerunner of Penn State) and a year before Maryland Agricultural College. Note: Artifacts bearing an MSC logo with 'Established 1857' indicate that the item was marketed before 1934 when MSC decided to use 1855, not 1857, as the year the school was established. Today, the official seal of MSU shows 'Established 1855' at the center. July 1, 1955 Name officially changed to Michigan State University of Agriculture & Applied Science. On its 100th anniversary, MSC becomes a university, but not permitted to legally remove 'agriculture' from its name. January 1, 1964 Name officially changed to simply. The Michigan Constitution of 1964 allows MSU to finally drop 'Agriculture and Applied Science' from its name.
February 11, 2005 MSU celebrates sesquicentennial (a day early), coinciding with inauguration of Dr. Simon as MSU's 20th president February 12, 2005 MSU's official sesquicentennial, October 7, 2005 MSU celebrates its sesquicentennial with a revival of the (student floats on the Red Cedar), fireworks and a dance. A cool, damp evening keeps the crowds down. October 8, 2005 MSU continues its sesquicentennial celebration with a down Michigan Avenue and through campus, and the official re-dedication of the outdoor (the original ceramic had been previously moved inside Spartan Stadium to permanently protect it from the elements).
Again, a cool, breezy day keeps the crowds down. October 21, 2005 MSU continues its sesquicentennial celebration with a huge bonfire on the Ag Expo grounds south of the railroad tracks.