First and fifth periods worked on citations and quoting sources. The major focus for this quarter is research skills, and that includes what to do with the fruits of research. We focused today on how to incorporate quotes into our writing in order to strengthen our writing and avoid plagiarism. We looked at three points to effective quote use.

1. Include who the author of the source is.
2. Use only the most important part of the sentence you’re quoting.
3. Try to blend it in with your own words; don’t just write, “Smith says, ””

Initial efforts were promising:

Second and fourth periods worked on the first paragraph (which will be upwards of a page long in and of itself) for the Romeo and Juliet project. We ended by looking at how to craft more descriptive and predictive topic sentences. The class’ results are below:

• Second period: “Decoration Day,” with its feuding clans and reluctant violence, parallels the behavior and causes of Romeo’s fight with Tybalt.
• Fourth period:“Decoration Day,” which tells the story of feuding clans and a narrator reluctant to involve himself in the fight, parallels Romeo and Juliet‘s central themes.

Homework

• First and fifth periods: none.
• Second and fourth periods: review the Spark Notes summaries of act two scenes two through five.