Used thoughtfully, your source materials will make your argument more complex and convincing for readers. Sources can play several different roles to support your thesis and develop your points.
Providing background information or context
You can use facts and statistics to support generalizations or to establish the importance of your topic, as student writer Luisa Mirano does in her introduction.
In March 2004, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona called attention to a health problem in the United States that, until recently, has been overlooked: childhood obesity. Carmona said that the “astounding” 15% child obesity rate constitutes an “epidemic.” Since the early 1980s, that rate has “doubled in children and tripled in adolescents.” Now more than nine million children are classified as obese.
Explaining terms or concepts
If readers are unlikely to be familiar with a word, a phrase, or an idea important to your topic, you must explain it for them. Quoting or paraphrasing a source can help you define terms and concepts in accessible language. Luisa Mirano uses a scholarly source to explain how one of the major obesity drugs functions.
Sibutramine suppresses appetite by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2002, p. 594).
Supporting your claims
As you draft, make sure to back up your assertions with facts, examples, and other evidence from your research (see also A4-e). Luisa Mirano, for example, uses one source’s findings to support her central idea that the medical treatment of childhood obesity has limitations.
As journalist Greg Critser (2003) noted in his book Fat Land, use of weight-loss drugs is unlikely to have an effect without the proper “support system”—one that includes doctors, facilities, time, and money (p. 3).
Lending authority to your argument
Expert opinion can add credibility to your argument (see also A4-e). But don’t rely on experts to make your argument for you. Construct your argument in your own words and, when appropriate, cite the judgment of an authority in the field for support.
Both medical experts and policymakers recognize that solutions might come not only from a laboratory but also from policy, education, and advocacy. A handbook designed to educate doctors on obesity called for “major changes in some aspects of western culture” (Hoppin & Taveras, 2004, Conclusion section, para. 1).
Anticipating and countering alternative interpretations
Do not ignore sources that seem contrary to your position or that offer interpretations different from your own. Instead, use them to give voice to opposing points of view and alternative interpretations before you counter them (see A4-f). Readers often have objections in mind already, whether or not they agree with you. Mirano uses a source to acknowledge value in her opponents’ position that medication alone can successfully treat childhood obesity.
As researchers Yanovski and Yanovski (2002) have explained, obesity was once considered “either a moral failing or evidence of underlying psychopathology” (p. 592). But this view has shifted: Many medical professionals now consider obesity a biomedical rather than a moral condition, influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Yanovski and Yanovski have further noted that the development of weight-loss medications in the early 1990s showed that “obesity should be treated in the same manner as any other chronic disease . . . through the long-term use of medication” (p. 592).