Post 3: Using Outside Sources In Writing

Using outside sources in your academic writing is incredibly important, especially if you’re a writer with few credentials of your own. When you think about it, it’s kind of like borrowing authority on a topic, with the added bonus of not having to conduct experiments, studies, and surveys yourself. One writer that makes excellent use of citing outside sources is Mike Bunn, author of the essay “How to Read Like a Writer.” In his paper, he utilizes these sources as in-text citations in order to relate to the reader and address some of their experiences, provide analogies that support his ideas, and point out how paying attention to an author’s choices can better help a reader understand the text. 

Bunn can safely assume that many of his readers will be students of higher education. As a result, he takes statements from students and professors alike in order to relate to them, making it easier to convey his points. He takes a comment from Charles Moran, for example, an English Professor at the University of Massachusetts. The professor explains the benefits of Reading Like a Writer, which backs up Bunn’s point of how useful it is. It grants experience in writing because “When we read like writers we understand and participate in the writing.” A student named Mike claims that he has, “...noticed how much more attentive I’ve become to the types of narration (omniscient, impersonal, psychological, realistic, etc.), and how these different approaches are utilized to achieve an author’s overall effect.” Here, Bunn uses Mike’s testimony to show the results of the reading, further attempting to convince readers that this method is what is best for them academically. In my own document, I argue that a method of dealing with procrastination is self-forgiveness, and I use a study to exhibit this. The study “...reported…that students who forgave themselves after procrastinating on the first exam were less likely to delay studying for the second one.” This helped me to further the idea that forgiving procrastination will cause less negative emotions and strife in the future. All in all, using outside sources in your writing is a great way to hand yourself some credibility in whatever you write.