Including Evidence In Your Writing “ CITE IT! ” Including Evidence In Your Writing

Objectives/Standards W.2.b.—Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.

CITE IT! Why do we cite evidence in writing? What is plagiarism? When do we cite evidence? What does it mean to ICE your evidence? You should be able to answer ALL of these questions after this lesson.

Why do we need evidence in writing? https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=audi+commercial+with+evidence&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002 Evidence proves the main point in your writing. You have to explain to your reader WHY the evidence proves your point. Ask yourself, “So what?” What is the evidence telling you?

Why cite evidence? It avoids plagiarism!! We cite evidence to avoid plagiarism. Why do we need to avoid plagiarism? It is a serious offense! Plagiarism is stealing someone else’s writing, ideas, images, music or media and passing it off as your own. It doesn’t matter if you committed plagiarism intentionally or unintentionally—you are still held responsible!! Plagiarism is so serious that it can get you a zero on a paper, or when you get older, kicked out of college, fired from a job or even sent to prison.

Why cite evidence? It makes you a great writer!! “ Why cite evidence? It makes you a great writer!! Properly including evidence in your writing helps support your ideas and improves the quality of your writing. You provide relevant evidence to support and explain your ideas and claims You protect yourself from plagiarism You demonstrate the ability to consider other people’s ideas ”

Types of citations You can cite evidence in your writing in three ways: Quotes Paraphrases Summaries We will only focus on quotes for now!

“ ” What is a QUOTE? The word quote is short for quotation When we quote we repeat or copy a group of words from a text. ”

Include evidence when… Do not include evidence when… “ CITE IT! Include evidence when… Do not include evidence when… Writing an informative/ explanatory essay Writing an argumentative essay Writing a narrative essay ”

“ ” Introduce Cite Explain Always ICE it! Remember the acronym ICE to help you include evidence in your writing. Introduce Cite Explain ”

“ I C E ” Introduce thE QUOTE

“ ” QUOTE IT A quote should NEVER stand alone. You should NEVER begin a sentence with a quote. You should ALWAYS explain your quote after you properly cite it. ”

“ ” Introduce the Quote EXAMPLES TO HELP YOU INTRODUCE QUOTES On page _________, it said,… The author wrote… According to ___________, he/she states, For instance,… According to the text, … For example, … The graphic shows… Based on the visual clues in the illustration, … This proves… This means… It can be inferred that… ”

Introduce the Quote So your example should look like this: According to the text, “Bullying in school is a large and complicated problem.” For instance, “Only about 42 percent of its students graduate in four years.” For example, “The school also offers extracurricular activities, dances and other get-togethers for students.”

CITE the Quote (or evidence) “ I C E ” CITE the Quote (or evidence)

CITE THE QUOTE When you cite the quote, you are properly including that group of words you copied from a text. To properly include a quote means you are citing it correctly and successfully avoiding plagiarism!

CITE THE QUOTE When you cite the quote, it looks like this: According to the text, “Bullying in school is a large and complicated problem.” For instance, “Only about 42 percent of its students graduate in four years.” For example, “The school also offers extracurricular activities, dances and other get-togethers for students.”

EXPLAIN the Quote (or the evidence) “ I C E ” EXPLAIN the Quote (or the evidence)

“ ” Explain the Evidence After you introduce and cite the evidence, you still need to thoroughly explain the evidence. ”

Explain the Evidence To explain evidence, you must write out the connections you were making in your mind when you chose your evidence. IF THE QUOTE DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR TOPIC, IT ISN’T RELEVANT! Questions to ask yourself about a piece of evidence: So what? Why is this important? Why does it matter to the topic? What is the other side of the issue? What inferences can I make from this?

“ ” Explain the Evidence Here is an example: For a writing prompt when you need to explain bullying in schools: According to the text, “Bullying in school is a large and complicated problem.” This proves that bullying does not happen at just one school or to just one student. Schools, teachers, parents, and even students themselves need help handling the bullying issue. ”

Explain the Evidence Here is another example: For a writing prompt when you need to discuss the negative effects of attending online school: - For instance, “Only about 42 percent of its students graduate in four years.” This means that most of the students who attend online school either take much longer than normal to graduate or do not graduate at all.

Explain the Evidence Here is yet another example: For a writing prompt when you need to discuss the benefits of attending online school: - For example, “The school also offers extracurricular activities, dances and other get-togethers for students.” It can be inferred that online school offers more than an academic education. Online school can be an excellent way for students to meet others just like them who they might not have met in a traditional school.

Put it all together to cite evidence correctly! ICE it!! Introduce your evidence, cite it, and explain it to ICE it! According to the text, “Bullying in school is a large and complicated problem.” This proves that bullying does not happen at just one school or to just one student. Schools, teachers, parents, and even students themselves need help handling the bullying issue.