Paul Nguyen English 1102 Rieman Spring 2012 8 February 2012

Reading Response Sheet for Margaret Kantzs article Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively This article first appeared in the academic journal College English in 1990 and more recently is included in a writing course textbook called Writing about Writing edited by Drs. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. I wanted you to read it at this stage of your inquiry work so that you will begin thinking carefully about how you will use the sources youve been collecting when writing your inquiry paper.

Note the change: Please write this response in Word and then paste it into the Discussion Forum of our Moodle site labeled Reading Response to Kantz before you come to class on Thursday February 9. You may also cross-post it to our FB group if you like.

Questions: 1. Wardle and Downs ask: What is Kantzs research question of problem? What does she want to know, or what is she trying to solve? (68). I think Kantzs question is how to help students use sources correctly. She wants to solve the case of students not beign able to use their sources correctly. Like Kantzs example of the sophomore student, Shirley, her sources did not agree with each other. Also she thought her sources and research information were all true, but they were only true in the writers point of view. They were claims made by the writer which doesnt prove true at all times. 2. Wardle and Downs ask the following: Kantz writes that Shirley believes that facts are what you learn from textbooks, opinions are what you have about clothes, and arguments are what you have with your mother when you want to stay out late at night (para. 28). What does Kantz contend that facts, opinions, and arguments actually are? (85). Kantzs is saying that Shirley doesnt fully understand how a text works. She mistakes for thinking that everything is a fact in a textbook. She think an opinion is about clothes since you dont need proof for how good looking a clothing is, because its your own opinion.

3. Make a list of the things Kantz says students dont know, misunderstand, or dont comprehend about how texts work. Judging from your own experience, do you think shes correct? How many of the things she lists do you feel you understand now? (Wardle and Downs 85) -Kantz says students dont know how to use a source correctly, mistaking a text as a true fact, they dont know that its a claim. -From my own experience, I also thought that everything that was written in a book was true. But now that there are different writers, they are just writing from their point of view. 4. How do you think Kantzs ideas will change your own approach to doing research and writing with sources? What have you learned from this article? (Wardle and Downs 85). I have already read this article from my last English class in the fall semester. It had already changed my approach of doing research. It helped a lot with using a source correctly. And how to differentiate a fact from a claim.

Works Cited Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston: Bedford, 2011. Print.