There are some things a writer should know

Chapter six of Envision is titled “Organizing and Writing Research Arguments.” As I was reading the chapter, I stopped at a section that particularly interested me. This section was titled “Integrating Research Sources.” It first stated that after you find your sources and create your outline, you must start turning your outline into a rough draft. A question most people have is, “How will I introduce and enter my sources into my paper?” Specifically, you will need to include your sources not only appropriately and rhetorically, but also strategically. This process is called integrating. Integrating consists of three basic ways: Summary, paraphrase, and direct quotations. A summary is a brief vision in your own words of the overall content of a text. However, summaries are not analyses. You summarize by merely laying out the ideas explored by another writer in another text. In summarizing, you need to tell the reader exactly what it is you are summarizing, and provide complete bibliographical information at the end of your paper. Paraphrasing focuses in and restates one part of a text. Some people use paraphrasing in order to help a reader to better understand a text, or you may want to paraphrase a text to make sure that you understand it yourself. Using direct quotations is excerpting a specific passage from a source, and enclosing it in quotation marks. Quotations should be included to accomplish a specific rhetorical purpose, as well as be integrated responsibly in order to give the writer credit.