Step 8: The Conclusion Recap your main idea If your essay was long and complex, sometimes difficult to follow, in the conclusion youll want to recap your ideas in a clear, summarizing manner. You want your readers to understand the message you intended to communicate. However, if your essay was short and simple, dont insult your readers by restating at length the ideas they already understand. Strike a balance according to what you feel your readers need. In a short essay (600 words or less), any recapitulation should be brief (about 2 sentences), and rephrased in a fresh way, not just cut and pasted from the thesis. Leave a memorable impression Its not enough just to restate your main ideas -- if you only did that and then ended your essay, your conclusion would be flat and boring. Youve got to make a graceful exit from your essay by leaving a memorable impression on the reader. You need to say something that will continue to simmer in the readers minds long after he or she has put down your essay. To leave this memorable impression, try . . . • giving a thought-provoking quotation • describing a powerful image • talking about consequences or implications • stating what action needs to be done • ending on an interesting twist of thought • explaining why the topic is important Keep it short Keep your conclusion short, probably ten lines or less, and avoid fluff. Youre just trying to make a clever exit, and presumably all the really important points have been made previously in your essay. You should not introduce any totally new ideas in the conclusion; however, you should not merely repeat your thesis either. This situation -- not presenting anything new, and neither just sticking with the old -- at first seems to be a paradox. However, with a little effort, one of the above six methods will usually yield a quiet zinger, as John Tribble calls it. ________________________________________ Examples of Real Conclusions 1. Ending on an image Today, as the phonographs which follow prove, the mystique of the cat is still very much alive in the Egyptian environment. For after all, should not the cat be important in the Muslim world, as apparently God inspired man to write its name-qi, t, t in Arabic letters-in such a shape that it looks like a cat? --Lorraine Chittock, Cairo Cats 2. Restating the thesis in a fresh way If this book has any future use, it will be as a modest contribution to that challenge, and as a warning: that systems of thought like Orientalism, discourses of power, ideological fictions-mind-forgd manacles-are all too easily made, applied, and guarded. Above all, I hope to have shown my reader that the answer to Orientalism is not Occidentalism. No former Oriental will be comforted by the thought that having been an Oriental himself he is likely-too likely-to study new Orientals-or Occidentals-of his own making. If the knowledge of Orientalism has any meaning, it is in being a reminder of the seductive degradation of knowledge, of any knowledge, anywhere, at any time. Now perhaps more than before. --Orientalism, Edward Said 3. Ending on an image When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page. It is not necessarily the actual face of the writer. I feel this very strongly with Swift, with Defoe, with Fielding, Stendhal, Thackeray, Flaubert, though in several case I do not know what these people looked like and do not want to know. What one sees is the face that the writer ought to have. Well, in the case of Dickens I see a face that is not quite the face of Dickenss photographs, though it resembles it. It is the face of a man of about forty, with a small beard and a high colour. He is laughing, with a touch of anger in his laughter, but no triumph, no malignity. It is the face of a man who is always fighting against something, but who fights in the open and is not frightened, the face of a man who is generously angry-in other words, of a nineteenth-century liberal, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls. --Charles Dickens, George Orwell 4. Ending on a quotation A popular tale, which I picked up in Geneva during the last years of World War I, tells of Miguel Servets reply to the inquisitors who had condemned him to the stake: I will burn, but this is a mere event. We shall continue our discussion in eternity. --Jorge Luis Borges, Nonfictions 5. Moving towards the general The practice of rhetoric involves a careful attention to the characteristics and preferences of the audience for whom the writer intends the message. Although Syfers and Limpus essays might be somewhat out of place for a contemporary audience, in the 1970s they were not. However, as argued throughout this essay, it is Syfers memorable sarcasm and wit that ultimately win over her audience. Being humorous while also driving home a worthwhile point is a difficult feat to accomplish in writing. Because Syfers accomplishes it so well, she seems to have stepped over the boundaries of time and reached a much larger audience than she may have originally intended. --imitation of a student essay 6. Talking about implications or consequences I am quite convinced that what hinders progress in the Arab world is the absence of a free press. The dirt in our society has been swept under the carpet for too long. But I am certain that this wont be the case for much longer. Arabs are beginning to engage in lively debate over their political and social predicament. And Al-Jazeera offers a ray of hope. Already, other Arab stations are imitating The Opposite Direction, though with limitations. Press freedom leads to political freedom. Someday, in spite of the attempts by todays totalitarian rulers, a free Arab press may help to create real democracy in the Arab world. --Fasial al-Kasim, Crossfire: The Arab Version Step 9: MLA Style When using ideas or phrases from other writers in your own essay, you must correctly cite in your text exactly where the ideas or phrases come from. Correctly identifying these ideas and phrases is called in-text citation, and the page at the end of your essay listing the sources you used is called a Works Cited page. Different disciplines follow different style guides for in-text citation and Works Cited pages, but in most writing courses, because they fall under the humanities discipline, MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is used. Although there are many details and rules about incorporating research into your essay, the following five basic principles will help you correctly ingetrate sources in your essay. 1. Make sure all authors cited in the body of your essay also appear on the Works Cited page. If you quote Jones, Smith, and Johnson in your essay, these three authors should appear with full documentation on the Works Cited pagel. Dont forget them. Likewise, all the authors or sources listed in the Works Cited page should appear in the body of your essay. There should be no sources listed on the Works Cited page that were not cited in your actual essay. 2. Only quote catchy or memorable phrases or sentences. If the source youre quoting is unremarkable and dry in its expression or opinion, dont bring that unremarkable, dry text into your own writing as well. Paraphrase this material instead, and follow up your paraphrase with the authors name in parentheses (or the article title, if there is no author). Only quote catchy, memorable, quotable phrases, and keep the quotations short -- one or two lines usually. In general you want to quote sparingly and preserve your own voice. 3. Dont rely too much on the same source. If you have four or five quotes from the same author, your reader will eventually just desire to read that author instead. Too much quoting also compromises your own voice and sense of authority about the issue. Rather than limiting your research to one or two authors, draw upon a wide variety of sources, and quote only snippets from each. Having variety will ensure that you are well read in the subject and that youve examined the issue from multiple perspectives. 4. Follow up your quotations with commentary, interpretation, or analysis. Avoid just dropping in the quotation and then immediately moving on, assuming the reader fully understands the meaning, purpose, and application of the quotation just presented. You almost always should comment on the quotation in some way, even if your commentary is a simple reexplanation of what the quotation means (In other words . . .). Remember that youre taking the quotation from an article youve read, but the reader only gets a glimpse of that whole article and lacks the context that you have, so it might be more difficult for the reader to understand it. Because the essay is supposed to represent your ideas, not just those of another, you must find some way to comment or analyze what you summarize or quote. 5. Use signal phrases to introduce your quotations. A signal phrase is a clause before the quotation that identifies the author (e.g., Jones says, or According to Jones . . .). Signal phrases are essential to create a bridge between your own voice and that of another you are incorporating into your essay. If you identify the author in the signal phrase, dont also identify author in parentheses following the quotation. Once is enough. Also, dont put the article title in the signal phrase unless you want to draw particular attention it. Including the article title in your signal phrase usually results in a long, clunky pre-quote phrase that takes the focus off the quotation. • Example of a clunky pre-quote signal phrase: According to the article Censorship in American High School Reading Classes, Twains Huckleberry Finn has been sacrificed to the gods of political correctness, without any attention to its literary merits. (Avoid putting the article title in the signal phrase.) • Better: According to the American Quarterly Review, Twains Huckleberry Finn has been sacrificed to the gods of political correctness, without any attention to its literary merits. • Even Better: According to Edmund Wilson, Twain rewrote the American setting through his character Huck Finn. • Example of redundancy: Mark Twain says the secret to success is making your vocation your vacation (Twain.) (We dont need Twain identified twice!) Special note--qtd. in: Suppose youre using a quotation that appears inside an article written by someone other than the one saying the quotation. In other words, if youre using, say, Judge Williams quotation that appears within Mary Jones article, you cite it by writing qtd. in following the quote. If so, write qtd. in Jones, or whomever. • Example: According to Judge Williams, just law is the foundation of a just society (qtd. in Jones). If Jones is just paraphrasing Williams, then you would omit the qtd. in and just write (Jones). Practice: Read Diana Hackers sample research essay and identify as many instances as you can where the above five principles are used. Step 9a: Citation Quick Jump Menu • Direct Quotation • Paraphrase • Mixed Quotation • Plagiarism • Links & Practice There are three main ways to integrate quotations into your essay: (1) direct quotation, (2) paraphrase, and (3) mixed quotation. You should usually paraphrase the material, and only directly quote it or give a mixed quotation when the phrasing of the quotation is interesting or catchy in some pleasing way -- quote when the text is quotable, in other words (like the quotation on the homepage of this site). 1. Direct Quotation Direct quotation involves quoting word for word one or more sentences from an author or source. When you quote, be sure to introduce your quotation with a signal phrase. A signal phrase is a clause that lets the reader know who the author or source is. In the following examples of direct quotation, note how the signal phrases precede the quotations: • According to Karl Menninger, a Freudian psychoanalyst, the wish to kill, unexpectedly robbed of certain external occasions or objects of unconscious gratification, may be turned back upon the person of the wisher and carried into effect as suicide (54). (Notice how the phrase a Freudian psychoanalyst explains who Menninger is. Phrases that rename their subjects like this must always be enclosed in commas.) • Menninger says that suicide occurs when an individual thus treats himself as an external object, frequently identified with the very object toward which his love and hate, particularly his unconscious wish to kill, had been directed (55). (The inclusion of the word that allows you to omit the comma. If you dont use that, however, then you would need the comma.) • Menninger says, In Catholic countries there is usually a higher homicide rate, a lower suicide rate; in Protestant countries a higher suicide and lower homicide rate (61). (The number in parentheses indicates what page the quotation is on. If your source doesnt have page numbers (e.g., a website), then do not invent any page or paragraph numbers here.) 2. Paraphrase Paraphrase, instead of quoting the author word for word, involves putting the original phrasing into your own words. Be careful to substantially reword the original, however. If you leave just several words in a row unchanged, it will be considered plagiarism -- because youre essentially stealing someone elses phrasing. As far as signal phrases and paraphrasing go, when you paraphrase you can choose whether or not to use a signal phrase. If you do not use a signal phrase, you must identify the author in parentheses following the paraphrase. Here are a few examples: • Freudian psychoanalyst Karl Menninger says that people who are deprived of the ability to kill others usually end up turning their murderous anger back upon themselves to commit suicide (54). (Notice how Ive totally reworded this from the previous section. The rewording is my own phrasing.) • Suicide occurs when an individual redirects his initially outward-directed hatred back upon himself (Menninger 55). (Notice that there is no signal phrase here, so I have identified the author in parentheses following the paraphrase.) • Menninger explains that Catholic countries report higher rates of homicide and lower rates of suicide, while Protestant countries report the reverse: more suicides and less homicides (61). (Notice that the author is identified in the signal phrase, so I dont need to identify him again in the parentheses following the paraphrase.) 3. Mixed Quotations Mixed quotations are a mix between direct quotation and paraphrase. Mixed quotations involve paraphrasing half of the original but mixing in a few direct selections from the author. When you insert mixed quotations, be sure to blend in the quotation with the grammar of your own sentence. The sentence as a whole must flow smoothly. To achieve this smooth flow with mixed quotations, you may need to omit or add words from or to the original. To omit words, insert an ellipses . . . in place of the words you take out. Ellipses always indicate omission. To add words, insert them inside brackets [ ] to indicate the insertion. Notice that there are spaces between the ellipses dots and that the brackets are square, not rounded like parentheses. • e.e. Cummings asserted that the poets imagination and his preoccupation with the Verb results in an ability to surpass normal standards of logic and create an irresistible truth [in which] 2 x 2 = 5 (34). (Notice that the words in which inside brackets are my own insertion. I needed to add them so that the sentence would flow grammatically.) • B.F. Skinner, a social constructionist, believes that our behavior is a genetic endowment traceable to the evolutionary history of the species and that whatever predispositions or character we have developed, it is a consequence of our environmental immersion rather than innate character (78). (I chose to quote partially here to be accurate with Skinners definition, but I didnt want to quote too much from Skinner because his writing may be difficult for my audience to understand.) • Poet Wallace Stevens, when asked about his literary influences, explained that he was not conscious of having been influenced by anybody and ha[d] purposely held off from reading . . . Eliot and Pound in order to refrain from unconsciously imitating their works and ruining his originality (234). (Note the ellipses. I omitted several words to shorten the quotation around the essential point I wanted to communicate. I also had to change have to had, and so wrote ha[d] to indicate the alteration..) Plagiarism Plagiarism -- its original meaning, to kidnap -- is a serious academic offense that can result in your failure of the course and possible suspension from the university. It is important that you know what plagiarism entails so that you can avoid the consequences. Ignorance is no excuse. In short, plagiarism occurs whenever a student attempts to pass off someone elses ideas or phrasing as his or her own, rather than giving due credit to the author. Even if the student mentions the source, if he or she fails to put quotation marks around phrasing not his or her own, it is considered plagiarism, because the student is attempting to pass off phrasing that does not belong to him or her. You can learn more about plagiarism in two easy ways: 1. Take this excellent ten question plagiarism quiz prepared by Indiana University. Highly recommended! 2. Read about plagiarism from AUCs Academic Integrity site. Links and Practice I have compiled a number of websites, Word documents, and Powerpoints on MLA style, created by different instructors and organizations who present the complexities of in-text citation and works cited. You can also do some practices with in-text citation.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:43:45 +0000
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