Although they are no substitute for careful reasoning of your own, the views and voices of experts can contribute to the force of your argument.

Expert opinion offers a voice of authority. Expert opinion might come from

To use expert opinion, make sure that

For example, to help him make the case that print journalism has a one-sided relationship with its readers, student writer Sam Jacobs integrates an expert’s key description.

With the rise of the Internet, however, this model has been criticized by journalists such as Dan Gillmor, founder of the Center for Citizen Media, who argues that traditional print journalism treats “news as a lecture,” whereas online news is “more of a conversation” (xxiv).

When you rely on expert opinion, provide credentials showing why your source is worth listening to, such as listing the person’s position or title alongside his or her name. When including expert testimony in your paper, you can summarize or paraphrase the expert’s opinion, or you can quote the expert’s exact words. You will, of course, need to document the source, as Jacobs did.