Throughout my three projects this semester, I have always focused my papers on evidence and explanation, especially in my significant writing project. My papers consist of Barclay’s paragraphs in the body of the paper, sandwiched between an effective conclusion and introduction paragraph. In my paragraphs, I give background context of the quote, then use a smooth transition to effectively integrate the quote I am using into my text. After using the quote, I add my “I say” context into the paper and explain how the quote I have chosen supports my thesis and the topic of my paper as a whole.
In my significant project, I effectively integrate my ideas on page 2 when I use the quote, “But for many things, we need to use language to render them significant or to lessen their significance, to signal to others how we view their significance” (2). When I used this quote, I effectively integrated it into my paper by using the signal phrase “as Gee explains,”. This improved the flow and readability in my paper. After the quote, as stated before, I added the “I say” and explained the importance of the quote. I make a text-to-text connection by comparing the Gee quote to a quote from the Nair and Nair reading. Both ideas from both texts may seem different at first glance, but through my writing, I show the writer how these two different ideas from two different sources can be used together and effectively support my thesis. Overall, every body paragraph I write has two quotations that I connect together using Barclay’s formula for connecting ideas in paragraphs. This method is highly effective and I recommend that all writers use it when writing papers in which multiple sources and ideas must be used together.
