Document Work (MLA) – English 110J 2018

When it comes to integrating quotations I believe I have always been decent at it. One thing that I have struggled with is the lead in to quotations, I struggle with what to say and how to introduce the text. Yet this has become more consistent and has improved throughout the semester. When it comes to the quote itself, I believe I am very strong with picking quotes that display my claim. Throughout the semester I have also definitely improved on the explanation afterwards, it is no longer a summary but a centralized explanation that carries my claim throughout. A strong example of integration from my significant writing piece is,

“This can be seen throughout the study of Eliza, Haas realized that within her senior year she was able to finally realize connections throughout academic literature, “She also exhibited a greater awareness of the intertextual nature of discourse; texts were not isolated, but linked” (66). She no longer struggled to obtain all the facts in a text but instead takes the general knowledge and relates it to other academic pieces she’s read upon. She believes that in science everything builds upon one another due to gained knowledge, that no one has a truly original idea but instead they’re all indirectly related. This marked an important stepstone in her learning growth as a college student, showing how memorization isn’t the only aspect in scientific discourse. Establishing connections between scientific readings is a practice that shows in depth understanding, this furthered her progress as a member in scientific discourse. This deeper understanding proves how Eliza as well as many other individuals are able to become apart of the scientific discourse.”

It is evident how I efficiently introduce Haas work before the quote as well as giving some background information. Not only this but the quote itself displays how relationships between texts are crucial in scientific discourse. Preceding the quote is a good in-depth explanation that is neatly wrapped up. This shows that I have efficiently integrated ideas throughout the semester. Improving both my lead in and explanation with time. Versus a quote from my first essay,

“Like Gee said, “Lack of fluency marks you as a non-member… In fact, the lack of fluency may very well mark you as a pretender… And you can’t be let into the game after missing the apprenticeship and be expected to have a fair shot at playing” (Gee, 10). The apprenticeship that he refers to is acquired when an individual is young. Gee believes that if one isn’t taught the Discourse when young, it is impossible to join. And since someone isn’t able to join they often resort to faking it, which only distances them more from the group. Which I don’t agree with after reading Cuddy’s work and seeing the results of her experimentation. I believe that individuals are in fact able to fake until they become who they want to be.”

In this example the lead in is close to nothing, a mere mention of the author. No background information is given before the reader is thrown into the quote. The quote is strong yet the explanation is misleading and simplistic. In addition, my works cited for paper two, my significant writing piece is strong, yet not as strong as my third papers. For the last essay the class really focused on proper citations, which was demonstrated. It is evident that there is growth throughout the semester, due to each works cited improving with more knowledge. It can be seen that my intext citation for paper two was correct meanwhile for paper one it was incorrect, therefore showing improvement.