SCHOOL:

NAME:

ACADEMIC WRITING

DATE: OCTOBER – FEBRUARY 2010

1

Lic. Eliana Pinza

Languages

FIRST BIMESTER

SUPPORTING DETAILS: FACTS, QUOTATIONS, AND STATISTICS

Academic writing normally requires that you support your ideas and opinions with facts, statistics, quotations, and similar kinds of information. It is possible for you to get these kinds of supporting details from outside sources such as: Books Magazines Newspapers Web sites Personal interviews, and so on

FACTS VERSUS OPINIONS

› Opinions are subjective statements based on a person’s beliefs or attitudes. They are not acceptable as support.

English is an easy language to learn

Nevertheless, it is acceptable to express opinions in academic writing. So, if we express an opinion we must support it with facts.

› Facts are objective statements of truths

At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees Celcius

Example:

Fashion models are unnaturally thin.

The average model weights 25 percent less than the average woman of the same height.

Photographs of ultrathin fashion models send the wrong message to girls and young women.

Opinion

Fact, but needs proof

Specific supporting detail

USING OUTSIDE SOURCES

Personal experience

Gather quotations and statistics by performing an experiment, taking a survey, or interviewing people

In the library

On the Internet

Where can we find specific supporting details to support our ideas?

1. We can quote it

There are three ways to insert outside information into your own writing

2. We can summarize it

3. We can paraphrase it

PLAGIARISM• It is using someone else’s words or ideas as if they were

our own, and it is a serious offense. • When we use information from an outside ource without

acknowledging that source, we are guilty of plagiarism.• One way to avoid plagiarism is to always put quotation

marks around words that you copy exactly.• You do not need to use quotation marks if you change the

words

• We are guilty of plagiarism if we fail to cite the source of outside information even if we are paraphrasing

Citing a source is a two-step process

› Insert a short reference in parentheses at the end or at the beginning of each piece of borrowed information. This short reference is called an in-text citation

› Prepare a list describing all our sources completely. This list is title “Works Cited” and appears as the last page of your paper.

To cite a source means:

to tell where you got the information

QUOTATIONSA quotation can be a sentence, several sentences or a short paragraph.

Quotations from reliable and knowledgeable sources are good supporting details.

There are two kinds of quotations

Direct: We copy another person’s exact words and enclose them in quotation marks

Indirect: We report what other person said without using quotation marks

If we want to introduce borrowed information we can use the phrase according to or a reporting verb such as:

assert declare maintain report

claim insist mention say

write suggest state

Indirect Quotations

They are called reported speech because what the speaker said or wrote is reported indirectly without using quotation marks.

Indirect quotations are introduced by the previously mentioned reporting verbs, and the word that is used to clarify.

STATISTICS

They are good supporting details which can be used with the previously mentioned reporting verbs when citing.

HOMEWORK

Develop “practice 3” on page number 49. Develop “practice 4” on page number 49.

THANK YOU