Writing into and out of quotes Exercise



McCormack ENG 101 Fall 2008

Classroom exercise: Writing into and out of quotes.

Note: You will need three pieces of paper for this execise.

Intro: You are writing a paper on low-wage workers in America. You are using Ehrenreich’s text.

Choose a quote from the list on the next page. (Note that these are all quotes from sections of the text that we discussed in the last class. )

Step 1: (Put your name at the top of a page.) At the top of a page, introduce the Ehrenreich text as if you were using it for the first time in your paper (a full introduction), and then introduce the context for the quote (as we practiced in the last class). Then write the quote (or paraphrase). Continuing right off the quote (or paraphrase), write what you think the quote is talking about; what point is being made. Now write a response to the quote. Why is it important to you. How does it relate to the world? (These are the steps to a good source paragraph that we discussed last class: 1) intro the source 2) use the source 3) comment on the source.

Step 2: Pass your page to the right. In a new paragraph, continue the ideas begun by the previous writer, by reacting to the quote. What is your response Can you add onto what has been said? Can you elaborate or give an example? Can you contradict or disagree? Can you complicate the initial idea? Can you relate what is being said to another text we have read?

Step 3: Pass the page to the right. Choose a moment in the text where you can add a footnote to the text. A footnote can be used for a point of digression, for something else interesting to say that doesn’t quite fit into the text. It can also be used for connecting the ideas to a different text. It can also be used to qualify what is being said (to limit it) or to offer an example. Choose a place for a footnote and label it with a small “1” after the period where you want to include the footnote. On a separate page, again put a raised number “1” and then write your comment.

Step 4: Pass the page to the right. Reading the page over first, start a new page that is actually the first page…write sentences that lead into this discussion. What larger ideas could prepare the reader for the discussion without giving too much away. Is there another idea, text, or class discussion that relates to this one and should come first? Can you tell a story, give an example or describe a situation that might introduce this source paragraph?

Step 5: Pas the page to the right. At the top of the NOW first page, title this section of the paper with a subhead. Make it good: informational and catchy.

Return the pages to the owners. Have a few students read aloud. Ask students what they got from this exercise. Emphasize the following:

Amount from the source and amount from the writer.

The need to introduce source material.

The need to respond to source material.

Adding complexity and examples to what you say to build a full paragraph.

Non-linear writing process. (Writing in chunks, not beginning to end. Writing the skeleton and then filling in the meat.)

Use of footnotes.

Read a few paragraphs outloud.

Repeat the exercise with writers doing all of these steps with a quote they are using.

Choose from these quotes.

(Note that these are from the sections of the text that we discussed in class.)

“[A]ll of these jobs were physically demanding, some of them even damaging if performed month after month” (195).

“Part of the answer is that actual humans experience a little more ‘friction’ than marbles do, and the poorer they are, the more constrained their mobility usually is” (205).

“So if low-wage workers do not always behave in an economically rational way, that is, as free agents within a capitalist democracy, it is because they dwell in a place that is neither free nor in any way democratic” (210).

Ehrenreich reports that 60 percent of American workers earn less than $14 per hour (213).

“The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. ….To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else” (221)

“[A]ll of these jobs were physically demanding, some of them even damaging if performed month after month” (195).

“Part of the answer is that actual humans experience a little more ‘friction’ than marbles do, and the poorer they are, the more constrained their mobility usually is” (205).

“So if low-wage workers do not always behave in an economically rational way, that is, as free agents within a capitalist democracy, it is because they dwell in a place that is neither free nor in any way democratic” (210).

Ehrenreich reports that 60 percent of American workers earn less than $14 per hour (213).

“The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. ….To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else” (221)

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