Using sources to provide background

You can use facts and statistics to provide context or to establish the importance of your topic, as student writer Anna Orlov does in her introduction.

As the Internet has become an integral tool of businesses, company policies on Internet usage have become as common as policies regarding vacation days or sexual harassment. A 2005 study by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute found that 76% of companies monitor employees’ use of the Web, and the number of companies that block employees’ access to certain Web sites has increased 27% since 2001 (1).

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Establishing context

context The surrounding situation or details that help readers understand a text.