Blog Post#5: Annoying Use of Sources

Hi everyone! I just got off reading through 15+ pages of the chapter 'Annoying Ways People Use Sources' from the book 'Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing' today and I could not wait to share my first thoughts about it! The author, Kyle Stedman mentions that the way most of the people quote sources is as annoying as following a slow driver on the highway since our readers are either thinking that we have no idea how to quote things properly or that we don't care to quote them properly. Moreover, it will be a lot harder for readers to take us seriously if they think we’re ignorant or rude. The more effectively we anticipate the pickiness of people, the more likely it is that readers will interpret our quotations and paraphrases in the way we want them to.

The author in the chapter also goes over some of the most common mistakes that students make when quoting sources, how to fix them, and examples of good and bad quoting. The author highlights that the conventions of writing have a fundamentally rhetorical nature. One of the fundamental ideas of rhetoric is that speakers/writers/composers shape what they say/write/create based on what they want it to do, where they’re publishing it, and what they know about their audience/readers.

In fact, I came across something similar while reading about a chapter on 'Quoting Sources Effectively' from the book 'Using Sources Effectively' by Robert A. Harris. In the chapter, the author explains the benefits offered by direct quotations and throws light on their usage. Some of the unique benefits offered by a direct quotation are: Expert declaration, Direct support, Effective language, Specific example, Material for analysis, etc. Here is the link (DOI) to this book:

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315267067

There is also an interesting video on this topic that explains how writers can be annoying to readers when they don't integrate sources appropriately (primarily when quoting) through various examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0JDuuuaCjU