Introduction

Last week’s Writing Lesson focused on the application of five questions to new source material to check for credibility. To review, those five questions are:

Is the source current?
Is the source relevant?
Is the source authoritative?
Is the source accurate?
Does the source have a clear purpose?

You also put those principles into action in last week’s Writing Practice as you applied many of these questions to a possible source for your upcoming Informative Essay assignment due at the end of week 10. To review, here is your writing prompt for that assignment:

Writing Prompt

Drawing on everything you have learned these past several weeks about the informative essay, write a clear, focused essay in response to one of the following prompt questions:

What are the primary differences between top, mid, and lower-level goals? (W06 Life Skill Lesson)
What are three things people can do to start changing bad habits? (W06 Life Skill Lesson)
What are two of the benefits of holding regular family councils? (W07 Life Skill Lesson)
What are three steps people can take to avoid debt? (W08 Life Skill Lesson)
What are two things people can do to eliminate debt? (W08 Life Skill Lesson)
What are three principles people can take to invest in their future? (W08 Life Skill Lesson)
What is the difference between fixed and variable costs? (W09 Life Skill Lesson)

You will be graded on how well you answer the prompt question that you selected. You will also be graded on how well you apply the following components of the informative essay:

An essay that contains a clear and focused purpose centered on delivering the desired message without opinion or bias (taking a side); an essay that also is addressed to an audience with limited prior knowledge of the topic being discussed.
An engaging introductory paragraph in which you draw your reader in with an effective hook and establish a thesis statement.
Two to three detailed and organized body paragraphs that each contain a single controlling idea inside a strong topic sentence, at least two different types of supporting details, and a concluding/transition sentence.
At least one credible source (in other words, current, relevant, authoritative, accurate, purposeful) integrated into the body of the essay; that source is integrated and cited using the ICE method (introduction, citation, explanation)
A strong concluding paragraph that revisits themes and ideas from the introductory or body paragraphs, and provides the reader with closure.
A double-spaced essay written in Times New Roman 12pt font, which has 1" margins; the essay also contains a left-aligned heading, centered title, and at least four left-aligned, indented paragraphs; There are no more than two distracting grammatical errors.

Conventions and Formatting

Aim for an essay with four to five paragraphs that is between 500–750 words. Consider your audience for this assignment to be a group of people who are unfamiliar with your prompt topic.

In order to do this assignment well, you will not only need to select the appropriate, credible source material to strengthen your supporting details, but also know how to integrate them in an effective and seamless way.

Lesson

There are two main benefits to good quote integration:

It strengthens the overall thesis and controlling idea of the essay through credible and authoritative supporting details.
It accomplishes it in a way that avoids plagiarism.

The last couple Writing Lessons have focused on the importance of using credible and citable sources in essays so the overall thesis of it is strengthened. This week’s lesson will show you how to use those credible and citable sources within your essay in a way that makes sense and avoids plagiarism.

Avoiding Plagiarism

According to Purdue’s Online Writing Lab experts, there are “few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts.” So, why is that? What exactly is plagiarism and how can it be avoided?

Plagiarism is the use of another person’s words or ideas without giving them proper credit. On the surface, this might not seem like such a bad thing, so why would so many universities in the world categorize it as so serious? The answer lies in the policies (rules) of the Western education system.

In the Western education system, the use of another person’s words or ideas without proper credit being given is considered to be intellectual theft. John R. Edlund explains about intellectual theft in his article “What is Plagiarism and Why Do People Do It?”

He further explains that plagiarism is a problem for students in the Western education system because educators in this system “believe that writing is a visible, concrete demonstration of a writer’s knowledge, insight, and academic skill. Thus, to represent another person’s writing as your own is to misrepresent your own accomplishments.” To summarize Edlund’s thoughts, the expectation of this course and all others beyond it is for you to give proper credit for the words and ideas you are using in your writing in order to avoid intellectual theft. It is also the expectation of this and other university courses moving forward that you give proper credit for the words or ideas you use so your true knowledge, insight, and academic skill are properly represented in your writing.

Now that you have a proper understanding of what plagiarism is and why it should be avoided, let’s turn our attention to how it can be avoided.

Integrating Quotes

Many times, students plagiarize simply because they do not know how to properly integrate the words and ideas they find from other sources with their own words and ideas. While there are many ways this can be successfully done, this lesson will focus on teaching you one simple way of integrating source material. It is known as the ICE method.

The "ICE" Method of Quote Integration. 1. "I": Introduce. 2. "C": Cite. 3. "E": Explain.

I: Introducing the Source

Whether you are paraphrasing someone else’s words or ideas or directly quoting them, your reader will likely want to know at least the following about what you are saying:

Who said it (the author)
Where it was said (in what source it was found)
When it was said (when it was published)

Who, Where, and When

To illustrate, let’s take a look at a couple examples of source introduction based on one of the writing prompt questions you could select for your upcoming Informative Essay writing assignment.

Imagine for a moment that you selected the following prompt question for your essay:

What are two of the benefits of holding a regular family council?

Next, imagine that upon doing research, you come across a talk given by Elder M. Russell Ballard. This talk happens to have a great quote in it that would give a large amount of credibility to one of the "benefits” you would like to focus on in the body of your essay. Following the three-tiered rule of identifying who, where, and when, a proper introduction of this quote might be:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard…

Notice how the partial sentence above clearly states who said it (Elder M. Russell Ballard), where it was said (in a talk entitled “Family Councils”), and when it was said (April 2016 General Conference)?

(When) In an April 2016 General Conference (Where) talk entitled "Family Councils," (Who) Elder M. Russell Ballard...

Ponder and Record

Think about the Writing Practice you completed with last week’s Writing Lesson. What source did you choose to look at?
Is there a quote or idea from it that you feel would work within your essay?
Were you to use it, could you answer the three questions of who, where, and when?

Signal Verb

You probably noticed by now that the introduction example above appears to be incomplete. That is because it is missing another important part of the introduction-- the signal verb. The main purpose of the signal verb is to indicate to the reader that the source’s words (not your own words) are coming up next. Let’s return to our above example to illustrate:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard…

What? Elder M. Russell Ballard did what? The signal verb is what indicates that “what.”

Truthfully, there are a lot of good signal verbs you could choose from to cue your reader about the upcoming shift. Here are just a few, courtesy of the Ashford University Writing Center: Signal verbs. Accessible version available below.

Now, looking at the list above and using your knowledge about the general context and tone of most General Conference talks, what signal verb might be a good fit for the quote introduction example above? How about this:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches….

Ponder and Record

Based on the sources you have collected, what might be a good signal verb for you to use in your source introduction?

C: Citing the Source

After you have created your source introduction, your next step should be source integration (actually citing the source). In general, there are three basic ways you could do this:

Direct Quotation
Paraphrase
Combination of both

Direct Quotation.

Direct quotation is exactly what it sounds like it is. It is the direct quoting of another author’s words or ideas word-for-word. To illustrate, let’s return to our example from the last section. As a reminder, the prompt question the example quote will be supporting is this one:

What is a family council and what are two of its benefits?

Applying the skills learned in the “Introducing the Source” section above, the quote introduction becomes:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches....

Now, imagine for a moment that one of the benefits you want to focus on in your essay is the family council’s ability to protect the family from the temptations of the outside world. Based on the thoughts shared in M. Russell Ballard’s Conference talk, a good supporting quote for this “benefit” might be this one:

A family council that is patterned after the councils in heaven, filled with Christlike love, and guided by the Lord’s Spirit will help us to protect our family from distractions that can steal our precious time together and protect us from the evils of the world.

Based on this quote, a good application of “direct quotation” with the source introduction we already created might be:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches that “A family council that is patterned after the councils in heaven, filled with Christlike love, and guided by the Lord’s Spirit will help us to protect our family from distractions that can steal our precious time together and protect us from the evils of the world.”

Ponder and Record***

What quote from your own source materials might be a good fit for the “direct quote” method of quote integration?

Paraphrase

Another approach you can take to quote integration is the use of paraphrasing. Unlike a direct quote where the author’s words are quoted word-for-word, a paraphrase is a summary of another person’s words or ideas. To illustrate, let’s return to our example from the last section. As you likely remember, the selected quote from M. Russell Ballard was:

A family council that is patterned after the councils in heaven, filled with Christlike love, and guided by the Lord’s Spirit will help us to protect our family from distractions that can steal our precious time together and protect us from the evils of the world.

When seeking to paraphrase instead of directly quote a source, the first question you’ll want to ask yourself is, “what is this person essentially saying?” and “can it be summarized in a more clear and simple way?”

Ponder and Record

Looking over Elder Ballard’s quote above, what would you say his overall point is?
If you had to summarize his message in a brief sentence, what would that sentence say?

Elder Ballard makes lots of points in his quote, but given the fact that the benefit of the family council we want to draw attention to in our essay is its ability to protect the family from the temptations of the outside world, perhaps the best summary we could come up with would be:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches that the family council, facilitated by the guiding hand of the Holy Ghost, can provide the family with an added layer of protection from outside worldly influences.

Notice how Elder Ballard’s tone and ideas are accurately represented in the paraphrase above even though they are not quoted word-for-word? Notice also how there is enough difference in word selection and word ordering that, while representing Elder Ballard’s quote accurately, it is in no way a direct quote? This is what you will want to try to accomplish when paraphrasing. You’ll want it to be an accurate summary of the author’s ideas, but also different enough in word choice and order that it in no way plagiarizes this author’s words.

Ponder and Record

Pull out one of the direct quotes you intend to use in your own essay. How could you instead summarize what that quote is saying in your own words?

Combination of Both

One final approach you can take to quote integration is a combination approach—meaning paraphrase combined with direct quotation. While generally considered more of an advanced approach to quote integration, this approach tends to get rid of the less applicable parts of a direct quote. This then helps the writer to get to the main point much more quickly and effectively.

Whenever you are considering taking a combination approach to quote integration, the main question you should be asking yourself is, “which part of this quote contains the most important information?”

Returning to our example quote from Elder Ballard, what part of his quote might be the most important part to share given your essay’s focus? How could you effectively combine it with the source introduction you already created?

A family council that is patterned after the councils in heaven, filled with Christlike love, and guided by the Lord’s Spirit will help us to protect our family from distractions that can steal our precious time together and protect us from the evils of the world.

Well, based on the benefit you want to highlight in your essay (the family council’s ability to protect family members from outside temptations), perhaps the most important part of that quote is the section that focuses on the family council’s ability to “protect us from the evils of the world.” Based on this selection, an effective use of direct quotation combined with paraphrase might be:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches that the family council, facilitated by the guiding hand of the Holy Ghost, can “protect us from the evils of the world.”

Ponder and Record

Look over the direct quote example as well as the paraphrase example and then compare it to the combination example above. What pieces of each example appear in the combination example?
Which approach do you feel is most clear and effective given the purpose of the essay as well as the audience of the essay?
Look over your own direct quote and paraphrase examples. How could you use them both to create a combination approach to quote integration?

E: Explaining the Source

The final thing every integrated source needs is a follow-up explanation. This explanation portion of quote integration gives you as the writer an opportunity to explain the significance of the quote or paraphrase, provide an analysis of it, and even establish connections back to the topic sentence of the paragraph. In short, you never want your reader to have to wonder why you shared that particular source or what the significance of it is. These brief follow-up explanations do not take long and add so much value.

To get a clearer picture of the role this part of the quote integration process plays, let’s return to one of our examples:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches that the family council, facilitated by the guiding hand of the Holy Ghost, can “protect us from the evils of the world.”

Ponder and Record

The purpose of integrating this quote is to draw attention to one of the benefits of holding a family council. What do you think a good follow-up explanation to it might be?
How could you illustrate, show significance, provide analysis, or tie back to the thesis statement?

One possible thing you could do is choose to illustrate the significance of this quote with a personal experience. Something like:

I have seen this promise prove true in my own life as my family has held regular family councils. One time, my little brother was on the computer and…

Let’s imagine this quote is coming toward the end of a paragraph and you want to emphasize its connection to the overall controlling idea of the paragraph (its topic sentence). One possible explanation you could provide would be:

Clearly there is a strong protectional benefit that comes with holding regular family councils.

Ponder and Record

Based on the source material you’ve gathered, what kind of follow-up explanation could you provide for some of the quotes you intend to integrate?

Putting it Together

Based on what you have learned about the ICE approach to source integration (introduction, citation, explanation), a fully integrated quote might look like the following:

In an April 2016 General Conference talk entitled “Family Councils,” Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches that the family council, facilitated by the guiding hand of the Holy Ghost, can “protect us from the evils of the world.” I have seen this promise prove true in my own life as my family has held regular family councils. One time, my little brother was on the computer and…[finish sharing concrete example]

To help you start creating your own ICE method-based quote integrations in your own essay, consider reviewing and returning often to the visual below:

1. Introduce: Who said it, where it was said, and when it was said. 2. Cite: Direct quotation, paraphrase, and combination of both. 3. Explain: Explain the significance of the quote.