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Attributive TagsAttributive tags are short phrases that help you indicate that an idea in your writing comes from somewhere else. In other words, you "tag" ideas and other evidence to show that they should be attributed to outside sources. Attributive tags have some key benefits:They help you avoid being accused of plagiarism, since they ensure that you clearly indicate all paraphrased, summarized, and quoted material.They help your reader understand when outside evidence starts and stops.They help you establish the authority of your evidence, since they give you an opportunity to establish the credentials of your source.Quotations which have been "dropped into" a paragraph with no in-text attribution are sometimes referred to as "orphan quotes," since they can often feel misplaced and unclearly related to the material around them. In general, avoid orphan quotes in your writing!Choosing the Right Attributive TagThere are many verbs that you can use in attributive tags, so choose one that works appropriately for your writing:Neutral tags: says, writes, claims, comments, notes, discussesTags to suggest that an idea may not be fully accepted: contends, suggests, asserts, believes, proposes, speculatesTags that allow you to emphasize a source's key ideas: points out, emphasizesTags for adding information to an idea you're establishing: adds, agrees, confirmsTags to introduce counter-arguments or alternate views: argues, disagrees, warns, contendsTags related to future actions/solutions: proposes, predicts, speculatesAttributive Tags / aka Signal Phrases Your success in academic writing may depend on how well you integrate outside sources into your essays. To make your points effectively and to build credibility, you must show your audience how your source material supports your points and forwards your argument. To smoothly incorporate source material, use signal phrases also called attributive tags. These phrases signal that you are borrowing outside information and indicate the source of that material. A signal phrase or attributive tag can also build ethos by identifying the academic affiliation or asserting the professional credentials of your source. Good tags will clarify for the audience where more information about the subject can be found, and reinforce that you, not the sources, are in charge of the paper. Your first attributive tag about a source is likely to be longer than subsequent ones: Dr. Redford Williams, director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University asserts that "diet and exercise alone are like a two-legged stool" (92). He explains that the third leg, stress management, must also be an active undertaking to reduce the risks of heart attacks.According to Williams the stress management techniques reduce recurrence of . . . . Williams argues that chances of improvement over five years . . . .In some instances, an author's name and credentials might not be as informative as the place where an article was published: In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Jussi Vahtera concludes that stress increases vulnerability to cardiac trouble (78). The absence of the attributive tags or signal phrase in an essay frequently reveals a passive patchwork way of writing papers with orphan quotes dropped in and abandoned without explanation and connection to the argument. Without tags, the audience may become confused about the source of the information. For example: Confusion Caused by Lack of Attributive Tag: Romance readers insist on formulaic plots of "childlike restrictions and simplicity," and as a result these books lack "moral ambiguity" (Gray 76). Sentence Revised with Attributive Tag: In "Readers Reduced" Gary Gray explains that romance readers insist on formulaic plots of "childlike restrictions and simplicity" resulting in plots which lack "moral ambiguity" (76). As the first sentence begins, the audience has every reason to think that it states the essay writer's ideas. Matters become confusing when the quotation marks signal that another voice has entered the text, but its source and the author's name in the citation is not particularly informative. Readers would have to go to the works cited list to get the contextualizing information that the second clause provides.Attributive tags can appear at any natural break within a sentence. Here are some examples of attributive tags: Published in 1997 in the online journal Slate, Gary Gray's article "Readers Reduced" offers . . . . Gray challenges readers to . . . . The purpose of reading, Gray contends, is to stimulate thinking and the imagination . . . .Predictable plots, as Gray's argument indicates, offer escape rather than . . . .Attributive tags can offer a variety of information depending upon a writer's purpose and sense of the intended audience's background knowledge on the subject. Possible elements, which can be used alone or in combination, include author's name Title of the article Publication information Author's or expert's credentials or relevant specialty ("Director of Research at Duke University," "a high school teacher," "a lawyer who has defended serial killers in the past," "the Justice Department's main espionage prosecutor for over 20 years,." …) A quick statement of the work's purpose or reputation "an article detailing the study's results," "King's well-known speech at the 1963 march on Washington," "a brochure explaining the hospital's purpose," "the President's State of the Union Address," … )An indication of the work's context and the conversation it is a part of (“Birk's essay praising books" or "a scathing letter to the editor published in the Corpus Christi Caller Times”)Of course if you used all this information in one tag, the sentence would have hardly any room left for you own ideas. You must decide what kind of information and how much your readers need at a given point in a text. The following guidelines will help you use attributive tags effectively. ?Make the tag part of your own sentence. The first time you bring in a particular source, put the tag before the quotation or summary so that readers will have the background they need when they reach the borrowed source material. Vary the format and vocabulary of your tags. Avoid a long string of phrases that repeat "according to" or "he states." Provide just enough background to help readers understand the significance of the material you are bringing in, not everything there is to say about the source Base your decision about attributive tags on what you are confident readers will recognize and what will help them recognize the relevance of the source you are using. ................
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