A thesis statement is one of the greatest unifying aspects of a paper. It should act as mortar, holding together the various bricks of a paper, summarizing the main point of the paper "in a nutshell," and pointing toward the paper's development. The thesis statement can help "map" a paper as it suggests an order or direction for the paper's development. A thesis statement, for example, might read:

Judy Syfer's essay, "I Want a Wife," exaggerates the marital expectations facing women in our society today.

The following sentence could continue:

Those expectations include managing a household, maintaining a career, and having a good relationship with a spouse.

In this example, the thesis statement suggests an obvious path for development in "marital expectations." The writer develops the paragraph by exploring the term "marital expectations." Three following paragraphs, for example, would logically discuss 1) household responsibilities, 2) careers, and 3) marital relationships.

A good thesis statement often answers the questions "How?" and/or "Why?". You may encounter a thesis statement that reads:

The lifestyle of a teenager in the Middle Ages was very different from the lifestyle of most modern American teenagers.

How? In what ways are the lifestyles of the youngsters different? Better versions of this statement might be:

Because of the relative freedom enjoyed by youngsters today, the lifestyle of modern American teenagers is very different from the lifestyle of teens in the Middle Ages.

or

Teenagers in the Middle Ages, who were considered young but responsible adults by the age of sixteen, had very different lifestyles compared to modern American teenagers.

Both of the thesis statements above are improvements because they do not simply state the obvious; they give a reason why or how we can accept the thesis statement.

Now answer these questions:

--What question is my assignment asking?

--How can I answer that question AND focus on a small area of investigation?--Can I sum up the main idea of my paper in a nutshell? Try this: state or write down, in a sentence or two, the paper's main idea. If you can do that, you're close to having a workable thesis.

--What "code words" (such as "relative freedom" or "lifestyles" above) does the draft of my thesis statement contain? Are these words adequately explained?

--As I read my paper, have I supported the thesis, or digressed?

Plagiarism"is the deliberate presentation, oral and/or written, of words, facts, or ideas belonging to another source without proper acknowledgment."(1) For academic writing, this usually involves the use of outside material without properly citing sources, rather than a deliberate theft of another student's work.

You should also check with your professor about the "style" of documentation you'll need to use. Each academic field uses its own system for citing sources. In English, the standard is The Modern Language Association (MLA) HandbookWhat is a Direct Quote?

Whenever you directly quote the words of an author, you must note that you've copied this and indicate that the quotation is taken verbatim from a source. Although the conventions vary between each system of documentation, generally you place direct quotes in quotation marks (") unless the quote runs more than four lines. In those cases the quotation is set apart from the rest of your text by indenting it.

In either case, you follow the quote with a note of some kind that indicates the source; this either takes the form of a footnote/endnote number or a parenthetical reference. For example, if you were quoting from John Doe's book on grammar (using MLA format), your paper might read as follows:

The direct quote can add emphasis to your work. As the author of Grammar for Everyone puts it, "the direct quote serves to support your ideas, to emphasize a point, or to add a memorable quotation to your work" (Doe 25).

This brief guide to documentation cannot cover all of the rules and exceptions about direct quotes. Consult your Professor or a tutor for guidelines. You may also use the Handbook.

Paraphrases restate another person's ideas using your own words and your own sentence structures. You won't want to fill your paper with direct quotes, which makes the paper look unoriginal--little more than a summary of what others have said.

Paraphrases, however, give you another method for incorporating source material. Like direct quotes, paraphrases must be credited to their sources; to fail to do so constitutes plagiarism. Remember, just restating another's original idea using different words does not make it your own!

When you paraphrase material, put it in your own words and use your own sentence structure. Don't allow the wording to resemble the original, even if you cite the source. Otherwise, you're plagiarizing the author's words without letting the reader know that the words aren't your own.

Consider our direct quote:

"the direct quote serves to support your ideas, to emphasize a point, or to add a memorable quotation to your work" (Doe 25).

Here's a possible paraphrase:

John Doe gives three reasons for using direct quotes in one's work; he notes that quotes can support one's ideas, provide emphasis, or add eloquence in the form of a memorable quotation (25).

General Principles

When integrating direct quotations into a paper it is important to move smoothly from the source information to your own thoughts. If quotations are simply dropped into a paper without significant warning, a reader may become confused as to the appropriateness and relevance of that particular quotation.

Therefore it is necessary to introduce the quotation, usually with its author's name or the source from which it came, to give the reader adequate notice of the relevance and importance of the quotation. Here's a passage from an essay written to analyze five of Stephen Crane's short stories in relation to a uniting theme. The quotation lacks adequate introduction:

The men in Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat," are courageous; they want to live. "The idealistic virtues of bravery, fortitude, and integrity possess no meaning in a universe that denies the importance of man" (Stein 151). The ideals of their native environment, then, mean little when confronted with the harshness of the open ocean. These men finally realize that it is possible they will die.

While the writer addresses the importance of the quotation, this discussion comes after it is "dropped into the paper." A better use of this particular quotation follows:

The men in Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat," are courageous; they want to live. As critic William Bysshe Stein points out, however, "the idealistic virtues of bravery, fortitude, and integrity possess no meaning in a universe that denies the importance of man" (151). The ideals of their native environment, then, mean little when confronted with the harshness of the open ocean. These men finally realize that it is possible they will die.

In this passage, the quotation is well-introduced. The author of the quote is identified, as is the quote's relation to the previous statement. From the introduction, the reader can detect the contrast between the quote and the first sentence of the paragraph.


Achieving Variety when Introducing Quotes

While it is necessary to introduce direct quotations in order to qualify them in relation to the rest of a paper, it is also necessary to introduce these quotations using a varied wording. It becomes monotonous if all the quotes in a paper are introduced with stock phrases: "this critic states" or "another critic says." A paper is much more interesting and cohesive if the introductory phrases, or "signal phrases," are varied.

Here are some possible signal phrases:

* According to Jane Doe, "..."
* As Jane Doe goes on to explain, "..."
* Characterized by John Doe, the society is "..."
* As one critic points out, "..."
* John Doe believes that "..."
* Jane Doe claims that "..."
* In the words of John Doe, "..."

Note that there exist fine shades of meaning between phrases such as "contend" and "argue" and large differences between ones such as "claim" and "demonstrate." Ask yourself questions as to whether the source material is making a claim, asserting a belief, stating a fact, etc. Then choose a verb that is appropriate for the source material's purpose.

A list of possible verbs for use in the introduction of quotations follows. Double-check meanings before using them!

acknowledges, adds, admits, affirms, agrees, argues, asserts, believes, claims, comments, compares, confirms, contends, declares, demonstrates, denies, disputes, emphasizes, endorses, grants, illustrates, implies, insists, notes, observes, points out, reasons, refutes, rejects, reports, responds, states, suggests, thinks, underlines, writes.


Using Paraphrases

Paraphrases restate another person's ideas using your own words and your own sentence structures. Like direct quotes, they must be credited to their sources; to fail to do so constitutes plagiarism. Remember, just restating another's original idea using different words does not make it your own!

If something you read in a text is general knowledge, or could be gained from a number of sources, the idea is not "original" to your author. The following example presents such a fact:

Source 1: "By late 1941, the Royal Air Force had effectively stopped the German bombardment of England. Except for Hitler's V-1 and V-2 attacks in 1944 and 45, England escaped further sustained air attacks."


CAUTION:When you paraphrase material, put it in your own words and use your own sentence structure. Don't allow the wording to resemble the original, even if you cite the source. Otherwise, you're plagiarizing the author's words without letting the reader know that the words aren't your own. The next quote reveals an original opinion by the author:

Source 2: "During the Battle of Britain, Hitler made a serious mistake in switching the emphasis of his air attacks from the British airfields to British population centers. Fortunately for England and the rest of the world, Hitler's decision allowed the RAF to regroup and destroy more and more attacking German bombers" (Doe 100).
In the paraphrase that follows, note that the first sentence recaps a general fact, whereas the second and third restate Doe's opinion (using MLA format). Note the substantial rewording of sources:

Paraphrase: Although Hitler's buzz bombs and rockets fell on England late in the war, Germany's air offensive against the island effectively ended in 1941. Historians such as John Doe contend that the battle's turning point came when Hitler ordered his bombers to switch their attacks from military to civilian targets (100). This change in tactics proved a serious mistake for Nazi Germany, since the Royal Air Force, initially hard hit, gained enough breathing space to launch an effective counterattack (Doe 100).

Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation is used primarily for English papers and uses a parenthetical format. This is a system of using parentheses within the body of the paper, instead of footnotes or endnotes. Don't forget to also include a Works Cited list at the end of the paper. What follows is only a part of the MLA Documentation Style. Consult your Handbook for further ideas.

Books with Single Author

If you use the author to introduce the quotation, then only the page number would appear in the parentheses:

Ex. According to R. Lewis, "When Thoreau would sit outside his house . . ." (93).

If you don't use the author to introduce the quote, state the author's last name and the page number within parentheses:

Ex. Thoreau believed that since America was a new nation, it had an abundance of natural resources, but he could see something had to be done to preserve them. He had traveled to Europe and observed firsthand how abused and depleted the land of the Old World had become (Fussell 152).

Note: In both cases, there is no comma within the parentheses and the period for the sentence follows the citation.


Set-out text


If a direct quotation is set-off from the text, skip two spaces after the concluding punctuation mark, then add the parenthetical reference.

Ex. In a poem on Thomas Hardy, Molly Holden recalls her encounter with a "young dog fox" one morning:


I remember he glanced at me in just that way, independent and unabashed, the handsome sidelong look that went round and about but never directly met my eyes, for that would betray his soul. He was not sly, only careful. (43-48)

Note: In set-off quotations the quote should be at least four lines long and should be indented and double-spaced.


Books with Multiple Authors

If your book has more than one author, use the authors' last names as they appear on the title page. Include each name, up to three authors:

Ex. In the 1970's the Great Pyramid inspired a fad of pyramid enthusiasts, who . . . (Schul and Pettit 159).

Schul and Pettit draw attention to the fact that in the 1970's the Great Pyramid . . . (159).

If there are more than three use "et al." showing there are others:

Ex. The editors of Writing About the World set an agenda for their text book. They intend to "include the study of women as well as men, and people of color as well as Western European figures in university courses" (McLeod et al. iii).



Articles from journals


Use the name of the author and the title of the essay in the text; place the page number within the parentheses:

Ex. In "Criticism and Sociology," David Daiches insists that "sociological criticism can help increase literary perceptions" (17).


Quotation within a work


When referring to a quotation within a work not made by the author, write "qtd. in . . ." within the parentheses following the quotation.

Ex. Bernard Baruch states that "Mankind has always thought to substitute energy for reason" (qtd. in Ringer 274).

Note: On your Works Cited page you would use Ringer as the author of the work cited, then the title of his book, etc.


Citing two or more works by the same author

When using more than one book by the same author, provide a shortened title of the book in each citation. The "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" will have two separate entries for this author.

Ex. Feodor Dostoyevsky declares that the "underground rebel is representative of our society (Underground 3). He seems to confirm this view in Raskolnikov's superman speech (Crime 383-84).

When the author's name does not appear in the text, it is placed first within the parentheses followed by a comma, the shortened title, and the page number.


Multivolume Work

When citing a work that has more than one volume, put the author, the volume followed by a colon and a space, and the page number within the parentheses:

Ex. It is interesting to note that while Johann Sebastian Bach composed in the modern era, his use of the polyphonic style was a regression to medieval music (Wallbank and Taylor 2: 67).

This document should be titled "Works Cited" if it includes those works actually cited in your paper. If it includes works consulted but not actually cited, use the title "Bibliography" or "Works Consulted."

* Double-space between and within entries
* Type the first line of each entry flush with the left margin; indent each additional line 1/2 inch
* Arrange entries alphabetically by authors' last names, with anonymous works included by title (ignoring the articles a, an, & the).

In the following examples, note that Barnes' article comes from a weekly magazine, and thus uses the same form as would a newspaper article. Cook's article is from a "scholarly journal." Lannon's work is a book, while Leap's article comes from a book containing the works of several authors. Can you spot the differences between the citations?

Works Cited

Barnes, Fred. "Finest Hour." New Republic 11 Feb. 1991: 14-16.

Cook, Eleanor. "Reading Typologically, For Example, Faulkner."
American Literature 63 (1991): 693-711.

Lannon, John M. Technical Writing. Glenview, IL: Scott-
Foresman, 1988.

Leap, William L. "American Indian Languages." Languages in
the USA. Ed. Charles A. Ferguson and Shirley Brice
Heath Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Works Consulted

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers (Fourth Edition). New York: The Modern
Language Association of America, 1995.
Winkler, Anthony C. & Jo Ray McCuen. Rhetoric Made
Plain. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1988.

There are three major uses for semicolons. Note that an "independent clause" means a group of words capable of being a sentence by themselves.

Don't overuse semicolons. Instead, try to use them only when a clear and close relationship exists between the things you connect. In other cases, you might want to use an effective transition.



Use Semicolons:

1) between independent clauses of equal rank when there is not a coordinating conjunction:

Individual environmental action is essential for saving the planet; everyone must take action in his or her community.

2) between independent clauses of equal rank when there is a conjunctive adverb or a transitional phrase. Note that the semicolon comes before the conjunctive adverb or transitional phrase, and it is followed by a comma:

Eliminating red meat from your diet is a good way to reduce cholesterol; besides, it also saves the lives of animals.

All college students should be given a Porsche for graduation; after all, we've earned it!

NOTE: conjunctive adverbs include: also, anyway, besides, finally, however, meanwhile, otherwise, therefore, etc.

NOTE:transitional phrases include: after all, as a result, for example, in conclusion, in other words, etc. You may wish to consult our materials on Transitional Phrases.

3) between items in a list with internal punctuation, in order to make the groupings within the list clearer.

Besides winning Best Picture, The Silence of the Lambs swept the other major categories in the Academy Awards, with Jodie Foster, for Best Actress; Anthony Hopkins, for Best Actor; and Jonathan Demme, for Best Director.


Transitional Phrases

Note: These lists only provide a list of transitional words; be certain you understand their meanings before you use them. Often, there exists a slight, but significant, difference between two apparently similar words. Also remember that transitions do not create relationships between ideas. Choose words that accurately describe those relationships.

Addition

also, and, again, as well as, furthermore, in addition, moreover -

Place

above, adjacent to, below, beneath, beyond, closer to, elsewhere, farther on, here, inside, nearby, next, opposite, opposite to, over, there, to the left (right), under, where
Time

after a few days, after a while, afterward, as soon as, at length, at that time, before, briefly, consequently, finally, first (second, third, etc.), in the meantime, meanwhile, next, now, presently, shortly, simultaneously, since, subsequently, so far, soon, the next day, then, thereafter, until, when


Comparison

also, comparing, likewise, in comparison, in the same way, similarly

Contrast or alternative

although, but, conversely, despite, even though, however, in contrast, in spite of, instead, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the one hand, on the other hand, otherwise, regardless, still, to the contrary, yet

Results

accordingly, as a consequence, as a result, because, consequently, then, thereupon, so, so that, then, therefore, thus

Concession

although it is true that, granted that, I admit that, it may appear that, naturally, of course
Example

for example, for instance, namely, specifically, the following example..., to illustrate
Explanation

certainly, indeed, in fact, in other words, obviously, of course, put another way, simply stated, such as, that is
Summary or conclusion

after all, all in all, as I have said, as we have seen, in any event, in brief, in closing, in conclusion, in short, in summary, in retrospect, on the whole, therefore, to conclude, to sum up, to summarize
Further Reading:

Lannon, John M. Technical Writing. Boston: Scott, Foresman, and Company, 1988.

Rosenberg, Vivian M. Reading, Writing & Thinking. New York: Random House, 1989.

Lunsford & Connors. The St. Martin's Handbook. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.






You will, of course, have a large number of specific questions probably not covered by these illustrations; nevertheless, this guide offers a fine start.

I am thankful for the University of Richmond's Writing Center for on-line help in this project.