Chapter 14- Drafting

This chapter discusses drafting. First part to this chapter is is about using your outline to draft your  paper. Your outline should include:

• the points you will include in your document
• the order in which you will make your points
• the evidence you will use to support each point

Next section is the ways you can draft effective paragraphs. First off you want to focus on a central idea which is typically introduced in your topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph will expand on that. Then follow an organizing pattern, some to consider are:

• Chronology: Identifying the sequence in which events occur over time 
• description: presenting the distinguishing features of an idea, a concept , or an event
• definition: explaining an idea, a concept, or an event
• cause/effect: identifying factors that lead to (cause) and outcome (effect)

Another way to draft an effective paragraph is to use details and examples. Also by integrating information from your sources effectively and using transitions to go between paragraphs.

The third section in this chapter is how to draft your introduction. You need to frame your issue first in a way that anyone who reads it can understand it and interpret your ideas. There are several strategies you can use when writing your introduction, they include:

• state the topic
• establish the context
• state your thesis
• define a problem
• make a surprising statement
• ask a question
• tell a story
• provide a historical account
• draw a contrast
• lead with a quotation

Section four is ways to make sure your paper is easy to follow. things you can do to help with this are:

• provide a map
• use headings and subheadings
• provide forecast and cross references
• use a menu
• pay attention to design principles

The last section to this chapter is drafting your conclusion. First things first is to restate or reinforce the points you have already made. Then select a strategy for your conclusion by:

• offer additional analysis 
• speculate about the future
• close with a quotation
• close with a story
• close with a question
• call your readers to action
• link to your introduction

Chapter 17- Revising and Editing

Chapter 17 is all about revising and editing your paper. The first section of this chapter is the things that you should focus on during the revision process of your paper or document. First ask yourself three questions:

• Will my readers trust what i have to say? How can i establish my credibility?
• Will my readers have other ideas about how to address this issue? How can i convince them that they should believe what i say?
• Will my readers find my evidence appropriate and accurate? Is my selection of evidence consistent with their values and beliefs?

Then consider your argument and ideas. To do this first make sure your thesis is phrased in a way that is understandable to your readers and gets your point across. Then ask yourself if your evidence that you used to support your thesis is clearly conveyed to your readers so that they can accept your thesis. Then consider your use and integration of sources, the structure and organization, and your genre and design.

The next section in this chapter gives some strategies to use when revising your paper. The first strategy suggested is to save multiple drafts in case you decide that some of the changes you have made aren't actually what you wanted. You can also highlight your main point, reasons and evidence to make sure that you have each part and it is organized. Also challenge your assumptions. Pretend that you're the reader, play devil's advocate, or play the "so what" game. Lastly, scan outline and map your document.

The third section is what to focus on as you edit your paper or document. First, focus on accuracy. Check things like your facts and figures to make sure they're correct, check all your quotations, and check for spelling errors. Next focus on economy. Try taking out unnecessary words or sentences. Then focus on consistency. Use numbers consistently, treat concepts consistently, treat sources consistently, and format your document consistently. Next is focusing on style. As people read your paper you're going to be judged on probably everything, just make sure to "choose the right  words, using active and passive voice appropriately  adopting a consistent point of view, rewriting complex sentences, varying your sentence length and structure, providing transitions, and avoid sexist language" (282). Last part to this section is focus on spelling, grammar and punctuation.

The last section in this chapter is the strategies to use to edit your paper. Read carefully and read aloud, mark up your paper for any errors or things you want to go back and check. If you're going to use spell check or anything like that be aware that they are not always accurate. And lastly, don't be afraid to ask for feedback.

Chapter 18-Understanding Design Principles

Chapter 18 is all about understanding design. By understanding such principles you can create a more well-balanced and original project. How to use design effectively is the first part to this chapter. There are 5 basic design principles according to Bedord Researcher:

• Balance: the vertical and horizontal alignment of elements on your pages. 
• Emphasis: the placement and formatting of elements, such as heading and subheadings, so they catch your readers' attention. 
• Placement: the location of the elements on your pages.
• Repetition: the use of elements, such as headers and footers, navigation menus, and page numbers, across pages in your document
• Consistency: the extent to which you format and place text and illustrations in the same way throughout your document

Moderation and simplicity are two more principles that you should consider in your designing process. You want to use these other principles in moderation to create a simple result. When it comes to designing you want to have a purpose. Is it to set a tone, or help readers understand your point, or to get them to accept a point you have made, or lastly clarifying concepts? You also want to design for your readers. With a well thought out and organized designed project your readers will have a better change of engaging into your document and understanding each part of it. Lastly, you  want to design to address genre conversations.

The second part to this chapter is what design elements can you use. There are many different elements that you can use. Different fonts, line spacing and alignment are the ones that most writers tend to use. Page layouts is also important because you don't want things that have nothing to do with each other next to each other. Color, shading, and borders can give your project some character and pin point the more important stuff to your project. And lastly, illustrations is another element that is useful to "demonstrate points made in the text of your project" (291).

Chapter 15-Using Sources Effectively

This chapter is all about sources and how to incorporate them into your paper. There are three parts to this chapter, 1) Using sources to accomplish your purpose as a writer 2) Ways to integrate sources into your draft and 3) How to document sources

Using your sources to accomplish your purposes as writer is the first step. Sources are good ways to provide support for your ideas, and other's ideas, as well as ways to clarify statements, and provide examples. Sources are generally presented in your paper in three ways,a quotation, an image, or numerical information. Keep in mind your readers and what you think will appeal best to them when it comes to choosing which type fits best where.  You also want to make sure that you provide all sorts of evidence and support for your claims so your readers are more likely to "accept your argument" (249). For example, instead of just stating something, use a source than can back it up. But when you do use a source don't forget to provide the author at the end of the source.

The next step is the ways to include those sources into your paper. One thing you want to do is use attributions and in-text citations. For example, "according to or as the author points out- alerts your readers that the point is not your own" (251). However you're going to want to mix up the different attributions that you use so it doesn't become repetitive. Providing in-text citations lets the readers know where that information came from. Also if you add some context about the source and how it connects to your paper, your readers will be able to understand it more and know how it relates to your topic. Another thing you should do is quote strategically. You can use block, partial, or complete quotes. When choosing between these think about which one will convey the message best. You can also modify quotes so they will fit into your paper better, all you have to do is bracket the word you are changing. There are many rules to punctuate your quotes correctly, here are just a few:

• Use double quotation marks (" ") around partial or complete quotations. Do not use quotation marks for block quotations
• Use single quotation marks (' ') to indicate quoted material within a quotation
• In most cases, place punctuation marks such as commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation points inside quotation marks.
• Place colons and semicolons outside quotation marks

Paraphrasing your ideas and arguments and summarizing are two more good tools. But when or if you use either of these be sure to include the citations. And like quotes, you can also "summarize an entire source, parts of a particular source, or a group of sources to support your argument" (257).

The last step in this chapter is how to document your sources. Along with your in-text citations you also want to include publication information for all of your sources, most likely in the form of a bibliography. First, you should figure out which system you should be using. Such as, MLA, APA, Chicago, or CSE. Then you'll want to provide the publication information such as, the authors, title, publication date, publisher and city, periodical name, and the URL and access date. Next, double check for unattributed sources in your document. Lastly, you  want to make sure that it is clear what ideas are yours and what ideas aren't so your readers don't get confused.

Chapter 16-Writing with Style

Chapter 16 teaches us how to write with style. Understanding your writing situation is key to having good style. Some ways you can write with style are by writing concisely. If your writing is to difficult to understand your readers won't be interested and get frustrated and stop reading.  Make sure to write clearly and most of the time the shorter the better. Some ways to do this are things like getting rid of words that you don't actually need such as really and sort of. Also you want to get rid of little phrases that are also unneeded such as it goes without saying or it is obvious that. Lastly the chapter suggests to eliminate stock phrases. These are "phrases that you can replace with on or two words" (265). Another way to write with style is to use active and passive voice effectively. These are two different ways you can write a sentence. Active voice specifies a person or thing that they have done. But with passive you are specifying what that action was without saying who did it. The next step to write with style is to adopt a consistent point of view. A point of view comes in 3 types, first person, second person, and third person. Stick with one point of view throughout the entire paper or things will get confusing for you and your reader. The last step to write with style is choosing your words carefully. Think about the formality of your writing and make sure it fits with you as a writer and with the project that's been assigned. Also pay attention to specialized language also known as jargon to make sure you know your readers will understand if you decide to use such language. And lastly, use a variety of words. Things start to get boring when you are repeating yourself over and over again, make it more interesting and spice it up a bit.

The second part to this chapter is teaching us the ways to polish your style. First step you can take is varying your sentence structure. Use a question, a statement, a command, or even an exclamation. You want to have a mix of sentences and structures so your readers stay interested and don't get bored with what they are reading. Another step to take is creating effective transitions. When sentences go from talking to one thing to suddenly changing to a different subject readers can become confused. You can use words such as first, second, however, as a result, etc. The next step is introducing authors effectively. Most people introduce an author by using "The author wrote..." why not use something like "The author expressed the opinion that..." Also try to avoid using sexist language. Even though it may be technically right to use male pronouns when you don't know the gender, go for using plurals to avoid being sexist. The last two steps you can take to polish your style is to consult a handbook and read widely. I think that this chapter will be very helpful in writing my final paper!

Chapter 12-Developing Your Argument

Chapter 12 is all about creating a strong and effective argument. The first part to this chapter is the ways to support your thesis statement. The first thing you want to do is to choose your reasons. You will want to have many reasons that will support your thesis. The reasons you choose will vary depending on the type of document that you are writing. The next step is to find evidence that supports those reasons. Each claim or reason you present you also need evidence to back it up. A good way to gather this evidence is from the sources you found, you can use things like visual images, quotes, and statistics. After that you have to decide how you are going to appeal to your readers. Are you going to appeal to them through authority, emotion, character, logic or principles,values and beliefs?

The second part to this chapter is how to assess the integrity of your argument. Something you can do is check for fallacies based on distraction. These are things like a red herring that are used in real life to throw prey off the scent. For example, "Why worry about the rising cost of tuition when the government is tapping our phones?" This is a red herring because "government surveillance has nothing to do with increases in college tuition" (215). Another thing you can do is look for fallacies based on questionable assumptions. An example of this is sweeping generalizations. The book provides the example of "arguing that the rich are conservative and always vote for republican...assumes that anyone who is rich is just like everyone else who is rich" (216). You can also search for fallacies based on misrepresentation.  In my opinion, what shows up the most is something called stacking the deck, which is where the writer only provides reasons and support for one side of the argument. Therefore the other side of the argument is unknown the the readers leaving them wondering why the writer decided not to mention it. Lastly, you can try to locate fallacies based on careless reasoning. An example of this is non sequiturs. In the book these are described as "statements that do not follow logically from what has been presented" (217).

Chapter 11-Developing Your Thesis Statement

This chapter is all about creating your thesis statement. The first thing the book talks about is how to use your sources and position statement to do so. The position you have taken on your issue is essentially your response to your research question. Therefore becoming the basis of your thesis statement. Before you start writing your thesis there are some things you should start with.

Reviewing your position is first. Think about your issue and the position you have taken. Ask yourself if you think that is represents exactly what you are trying to say.

Next is reviewing your notes. While doing this the book says to:

• identify important information, ideas, and arguments that you've come across in your reading
• consider whether the information, ideas, and arguments you've identified in your notes will allow you to pursue your personal, academic, an professional interests. 
• review and elaborate on ideas and arguments that you've come up with as a result of your own thinking about the subject
• consider how your own ideas and arguments might allow you to pursue your interests. 

Then reflect on your reasons for writing this paper and reflect on your readers. Ask yourself questions such as, have your purposes changed since your started? And has your role as a writer changed since you started your research project. Also consider whether or not your arguments "will help you address your readers' purposes, needs, interests, and backgrounds" (205). 

The second part to this chapter is the drafting of your thesis. First, find the most important information and ideas you have collected on your issue. A good suggestion is to even try writing out more than one thesis, exploring different options. However, your final thesis "should convey your position in a way that addresses you purpose and your readers' needs, interests, values, beliefs, and knowledge of a subject" (206). When writing your thesis also be sure to keep in mind the type of document you are going to be writing. And lastly is to focus your thesis statement. To do this you can ask yourself questions about what you think will engage your readers.