Integrating Research

1. “Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and that from those surprises will come some of my best writing.”

2. Not every single piece of writing may be perfect or have a purpose or function. However, sometimes those pieces may lead to a bigger, better piece of writing. In his essay, “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger says, “Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and that from those surprises will come some of my best writing” (1). Ballenger basically says it usually takes at least a couple of rough drafts before he feels comfortable and confident in his writing. This is relatable. For instance, I “write badly” in rough drafts because I do not pay close attention to conventions or sentence structure. I just try to get the main ideas and the beginning of a body written down in a rough draft. Then, I go back and revise the rough drafts to polish-off the writing. All of those rough drafts add together to make one final, hopefully good, piece of writing.

3. “Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and that from those surprises will come some of my best writing.” This basically says it usually takes at least a couple of rough drafts before he feels comfortable and confident in his writing.

4. In his essay, “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger says, “Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and that from those surprises will come some of my best writing” (1). Ballenger, basically says it usually takes at least a couple of rough drafts before he feels comfortable and confident in his writing. This is relatable.

Keep your answer in mind as we learn about incorporating research/evidence into our papers.

When I am reading papers, I am constantly asking:

1. How?

2. Why?

Evidence answers the question, "how?" When someone makes a claim, like a topic sentence, I want to know, "How is this true?"

Explanation answers the question, "why?" After evidence is presented, I want to know, "Why is this relevant to this paragraph and paper?"

You need to explain everything to the "idiot" reading the paper. When you don't, you've lost them.

Note: In some parts of this lesson, you might have noticed a mention of "citations" or page numbers for citations. We will go into that concept in later in this lesson.

Overview of it All

To wrap it up, below are some resources that not only review all of the above, but provide a step-by-step guide to effectively integrating quotes into your body paragraphs.

Please, use the contents of this document below to help give you guidance and ideas for how to integrate quotes and paraphrases (a quote that was put in your own words).

The video below sums-up what was explained in this section of our lesson nicely. It even goes into how to choose quotes, which is super helpful when writing research assignments.

Revisit Warm-Up Activity

Now that you have learned how to properly incorporate a quote into a body paragraph and why, revisit your answer to the Warm-Up Activity.

Do you still agree with your answer? If so, why?

Do you now want to change your answer to a different choice? If so, why?