Learning Outcome #2 – Integrating Ideas
Outcome: Be able to integrate their ideas with others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and synthesis of relevant sources.
At the beginning of the school year, I felt as if all of my classmates and I were in the same boat in terms of integrating ideas. During my high school years, I was taught the colon method, the signal phrase method, and the smooth integration method, all of which I consistently applied throughout the four years. Although these methods proved to be quite effective, it was refreshing to transition to an approach that foregrounded my perspective at a more complex level when entering English 110. Through being an active participant in my English 110 class, I discovered that presenting the author’s idea prior to the quote, followed by me channeling my individual stance, fluently integrated my voice and vividly conveyed the rationale behind my choice of the quote to the audience. In my first essay “The Emotional Rollercoaster of Social Media” that I composed in the early stages of the school year, it is clear to see that there is less cohesion, smoothness, and relevance to my own assertions when embedding a quotation, rather than merely reiterating the texts prior to each quotation, in contrast to the revised quote from my second essay “Empathy – The Mirror That Reflects Faith in Humanity”.
Work Sample 1. Reflecting on this quote and how I integrated it into my essay, it is evident that I possessed limited understanding of how to incorporate my own voice. Instead, I relied heavily on the author’s voice and summary to introduce my quotes. This strategy, however, was shaped by my high school education, where I had not yet explored the art of harmoniously combining sources.
Work Sample 2. This paragraph is drawn from my second essay assigned to me in English 110, and it demonstrates a notable improvement over the paragraph from my first essay. In comparison to my first essay, here I was able to infuse more of my own perspective prior to unveiling the quote, with the intention of nurturing a stronger sense of genuineness and personal connection throughout my essay. Interlacing more of my individual opinions enabled me to articulate to the reader why the quote I selected resonated with me and why it held particular significance within the broader context of my argument, making the holistic content of my second essay more thoughtfully constructed and stronger than my first essay.
