First: Response 3 is due next time
Three overall pieces of advice:
First, concerning intro paragraphs: how to structure them? Start by giving your reader a basic (two- or three-sentence) introduction to the condition or problem or idea that the text or documentary is about, but without yet referring to the text or documentary itself.
Then, simply and straightforwardly introduce the text/documentary on which you’re focusing, accompanied by a basic (two- or three-sentence) summary of the text or documentary.
Then, conclude the paragraph with a thesis statement area (which can and indeed probably should be more than one sentence!) that informatively, but also efficiently (i.e. not too wordily), specifies the following:
A) what the text or film’s argument is,
B) the dominant rhetorical techniques that the text or film is using to make its argument,
C) what group or groups the text/film is targeting, and
D) what its basic rhetorical situation is (e.g. were there any major constraints on its the ability of this text or film to be persuasive, and does the text/film appear to be aware of those in the rhetorical choices that it’s making?)
Second: as in Project1 1, it might be a good idea to do a description/summary paragraph if you find yourself unable to briefly summarize (in a sufficient manner) the text in your intro paragraph.
Third: Avoid circular logic when you’re trying to explain this text’s target audience.
Tips for target audience discernment:
–try to discern the piece’s implicit frame of reference (what does the author assume he/she needs to explain, what does he/she assume the audience already knows)
–look out for moments where the author refers collectively to a “we” or “us”
MLA info:
Use the Purdue OWL:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
MLA sample paper: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20160920114529_747.pdf
1) Citing a book:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.
In-text citations for books:
Gleick argues that “akdsfnadskngsdl” (12).
As one critic puts it, “akdsfnadskngsdl” (Gleick 12).
2) Citing a scholarly article:
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.
Duvall, John N. “The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo’s White Noise.” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 1994, pp. 127-53.
In-text citation for scholarly articles:
Duvall argues that “sngsdkjgn” (145).
As one critic puts it, “asjdngsfjkgnsjkdng” (Duvall 145).
3) Citing time-based media, such as films:
Option 1:
List films by their title. Include the name of the director, the film studio or distributor, and the release year. If relevant, list performer names after the director’s name.
The Usual Suspects. Directed by Bryan Singer, performances by Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro, Polygram, 1995.
To emphasize specific performers or directors, begin the citation with the name of the desired performer or director, followed by the appropriate title for that person.
Lucas, George, director. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Twentieth Century Fox, 1977.
Option 2 (cite it as its YouTube page):
If the author’s name is the same as the uploader, only cite the author once. If the author is different from the uploader, cite the author’s name before the title.
“8 Hot Dog Gadgets put to the Test.” YouTube, uploaded by Crazy Russian Hacker, 6 June 2016, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBlpjSEtELs.
McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube, uploaded by Big Think, 3 July 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.
Which one you choose is up to you.
In-text citations for films:
When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a documentary film, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference, like so: (00:02:15-00:02:35).
As the documentary puts it, these whales were forced into a “dark, metal, 20 foot by 30 foot pool for two thirds of their life” (00:16:41-00:16:55).
4) Citing web pages:
Name of author (if available). “Title of web page.” Name of Site, Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).
“Athlete’s Foot – Topic Overview.” WebMD, 25 Sept. 2014, http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-topic-overview.
Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow, http://www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.
In-text citations for web sources are difficult to wrap one’s head around at first. This is because there are no page numbers. So if not the page number where you’ve found the quote, what do you put in the parenthetical citation?
The answer is simple: you put the first thing that appears on the Works Cited page entry for that source. This would be the author’s last name, or if no author is given, then the title of the web page. Examples:
There is evidence of this commonly held misconception all over the web; as one commentator puts it, “blabh lakblkanfdklnafbn” (Kennedy).
*If you use the author’s name when you introduce the quote, no parenthetical citation is necessary:
Kennedy exemplifies this commonly held misconception when he asserts that “blabh lakblkanfdklnafbn.”
In-text citation for a web source when no author is given:
There is evidence of this commonly held misconception all over the web; as one anonymous commentator puts it, “blabh lakblkanfdklnafbn” (“10 Fatal Diseases Curable Simply by Drinking Lemon Water”).
Here are some more helpful tips regarding how to locate all the bibliographic data for a web source:
http://courses.semo.edu/library/infolit/mlastyle_web.htm
5) Article in an Online Magazine–basically the same as web pages above:
Provide the author name, article name in quotation marks, title of the web magazine in italics, publisher name, publication date, URL, and the date of access.
Bernstein, Mark. “10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.” A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.
Rhetoric & Writing I 