curiosity engagement responsibility reflection

Provide context for sources

“When you write with sources, don’t make quotations stand on their own. You have to support a quotation on either side (leading into it and then analyzing it) and give it a place to stand.”

—Danielle Novotny, student, Brandeis University

It’s an exciting moment when you think you’ve found the perfect source or the perfect quotation to support a point you’re making in a researched essay, something that says exactly what you were trying to say or felt you needed to say. It’s tempting to let this quotation make your point for you. However, when you write papers for college courses, papers in which you are expected to make a genuine contribution to the conversation about a subject, it’s useful to remember that you are in charge of the conversation in your paper. You shape the argument with your words and ideas, making, as Danielle Novotny suggests, “a place” for each source to stand.

Becoming a college writer requires you not only to use evidence, integrating sources into your argument and responsibly acknowledging their contributions to your thinking, but also to put that evidence into a context that will help readers understand your ideas—your stand on the issue.