So far you’ve written the the introduction, the statement of background and the beginning of your confirmation. For this assignment you will submit the next section of your paper: the remainder of the “confirmation.” As a helpful reminder, this section defined in detail below.

Confirmation

This is what you might normally call the body of your paper. This is where you explore the problem and offer the arguments you want to use to convince readers that you’re right. This part is where you really make use of the “They Say, I Say” structure. That is, you share something you learn from your research (“They Say”) then you offer your interpretation about why this bit of research is important (“I Say”). Then you offer a second related piece of knowledge you learned in your research (“They Say”), and your interpretation, including how this new knowledge is related to the last piece of knowledge you shared (“I Say”). Again, this is where much of the work of your argument gets done — and the longest section of your paper.

Please Note: Be sure to use the kinds of templates you learned in Graff & Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say. I will be evaluating your submission on how well you use the “they say, I say” techniques.

A successful paper will have the following:

• The basic parameters of the assignment;
• A clear and focused goal and purpose generated by the writer;
• An introduction that frames the discussion and a conclusion that affirms the paper’s project;
• An organization of paper and paragraphs that is logical, coherent, unified and easy to follow;
• Reference to legitimate support (your research) using MLA citation;
• Effective use of “They, I Say” structure, avoiding “voice mixing” and the “data dump”;
• Specific and clear explanation of your ideas;
• Logical relationships—linkages—between ideas, sentences and paragraphs;
• Sentence style that is powerful, clear and precise; and
• No surface feature errors.

What is a “data dump”? A data dump is when a writer takes all of his or her research and dumps it into the paper without any kind of analysis, interpretation or assertions of importance or emphasis. This is a common kind of the so-called “research paper” found in high school. But it isn’t. So don’t do this. Data dumping makes for a very bad paper.

What is “voice mixing”? Voice mixing is a condition when a reader can’t tell the difference between the author’s own voice and the voices from the sources. This is bad. It should always be clear when a reader is reading the sources ideas (the “They Say”) and when they are reading your own ideas (the “I Say”). To make matters worse, voice mixing can look a lot like plagiarism.

What is one way to tell that you have data dumping or voice mixing in your paper (though not the only way)? That your paper has one or a number of paragraphs that have only one citation located at the very end of the paragraph. A paragraph should most likely have a source (or two) that needs an in text citation and then also have your own voice (which won’t have an in text citation).

Due Now

Use a separate document (you’ll be combining the sections later in the term) submitting the remainder of the confirmation — aim for about an additional TWO to THREE additional pages (depending on how many pages of the confirmation you’ve already written).

What you turn in here must contain:

1) at the top, please post your central thesis.

2) in the text, include correct in-text citations.

3) be sure to include a relevant Works Cited page at the end. If you use only one source, then your Works Cited page will have one source.

DO NOT USE SOURCES FROM GOOGLE! USE THE SCHOOL LIBRARY DATABASE!

IF YOU USE A SOURCE FROM GOOGLE PLEASE ATTACH THE SITES URL IN THE WORKS CITED AREA

Research with the Databases through the CCP Library

Doing research for this section of English 102 will require you to make use of the various databases offered by the CCP Library. These databases are expensive, and the college subscribes to them for your use. In other words, the cost is included in your tuition.

What Are Databases?

A database is essential a collection of data organized for searching with its own search engine. Google is a search engine that allows you to search the web, which is itself a database. However, the web is an indiscriminate body of data, a collection of myriad kinds of texts and images of varying kinds and qualities. And most of what is found on the Internet is inappropriate for quality research.

The databases provided by the library have already been judged to offer access to knowledge that is relatively or highly reliable. This is why English 102 requires that you make use of the databases.

How to Access the Databases

To access the college databases, do the following:

1. 1) Log onto MyCCP .
2. 2) Looktotheleftcolumnonthehomepage.Youwillsee“StudentQuickLinks.” Click on this link
3. 3) Anumberofoptionswillopenforyou.Scandowntoyoufind“Library Databases.” Click on this link.
4. 4) Youarenowonthepagewiththefullcurrentcollectionofallthecollege’s databases. The names of the databases are in alphabetical order.