In an essay, the sources are used as evidence to support the claim. If you did not have sources the essay would lack the support that is needed to strengthen the argument. If you take quotes from the text it makes a connection between the information that is stated by the writer and the sources. When we were introduced to our first essay for English 110, I was in for a surprise. She read off the essay prompt, which included the criteria that were needed in order for the paper to be each different letter grade. In high school, I never wrote an essay that included sources and quotes, so this was a little bit of a shock to me. Elisha introduced us to a book called the “Little Seagull”, which helped us insert quotes in MLA format. In the final draft of my significant writing project, I used the book to help properly format the quotes and then I used my claim to make sure that the quote fit into the text. ThenI made sure that I was able to demonstrate my ability to select, integrate, and explain the quotation.
For example in the picture above, I used the source above in the paragraph about how the mindset cannot be reversible. I chose the quote from Michael Erard, “There is no dictionary of these.” As I was writing the claim and making an outline this quote came to mind because it is showing that the metaphors have no fixed meaning. If something does not have a fixed meaning then it cannot be reversed. I used a summary to explain that the metaphors are open for interpretation and can have many different understandings of these metaphors depending on how the reader interprets it. Throughout the semester, I learned a lot from Elisha which has made a positive impact on my writing.
