Paraphrasing Mitt Romney

You read in the Problem with Diaper Rash and Mitt Romney by Doug Holder

In my research I find that Mitt Romney acts the way he does because the severe itching makes him start bitching and he acts irrationally.

Mitt Romney behavior can be explained by severe diaper rash that causes an upswing in his violent verbal outbursts and irrational behavior.  ( Holder 252)

 

Direct Quote

"In my research I find that Mitt Romney acts the way he does because the severe itching makes him start bitching and he acts irrationally." ( Holder 252)

Works Cited

 

Holder, Doug.  Problem with Diaper Rash and Mitt Romney

Bartleby The Scrivener Quiz

 

 

 

 

The characters that Bartleby shares the office with can be said to create an atmosphere that causes Bartleby to reply to his boss's demand to work with "I prefer not to." How do you feel that these characters contribute to Bartleby's dysfunction? Use at least two characters in your answer, and make sure to quote from the text to prove your point.

Cites-- Works Cited

                                                   Work Cited



Melville, Herman.  " Bartleby the Scrivener." Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner et al. 2nd  ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009. 537. Print. 


Bloom, Harold.  Joe Smith.  New York: Chelsea, 1999. Print.




Cites in text -- (Melville  444.)

Things NOT to do in an introductory paragraph:

Things NOT to do in an introductory paragraph:

• Apologize. Never suggest that you don't know what you're talking about or that you're not enough of an expert in this matter that your opinion would matter. Your reader will quickly turn to something else. Avoid phrases like the following:
  In my [humble] opinion . . .
  I'm not sure about this, but . . .
• Announce your intentions. Do not flatly announce what you are about to do in an essay.
  In this paper I will . . .
  The purpose of this essay is to . . .
  Get into the topic and let your reader perceive your purpose in the topic sentence of your beginning paragraph.
• Use a dictionary or encyclopedia definition.
  According to Merriam-Webster's WWWebster Dictionary,
  a widget is . . .
  Although definitions are extremely useful and it might serve your purpose to devise your own definition(s) later in the essay, you want to avoid using this hackneyed beginning to an essay.
• Dilly-dally. Get to it. Move confidently into your essay. Many writers find it useful to write a warm-up paragraph (or two, even) to get them into the essay, to sharpen their own idea of what they're up to, and then they go back and delete the running start.

Have a minute? Good. Because that may be all it takes to save the life of a child—your child. Accidents kill nearly 8000 children under age 15 each year. And for every fatality, 42 more children are admitted to hospitals for treatment. Yet such deaths and injuries can be avoided through these easy steps parents can take right now. You don't have a minute to lose.

[This article begins with a surprising, even shocking, statistic, 8000 children die each year from accidents. The article then lists seven easy actions a person can take to help guard a child against accidents. These range from turning down the water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to putting firearms under lock and key.]

4 Famous person: People like to know what celebrities say and do. Dropping the name of a famous person at the beginning of a paper usually gets the reader's attention. It may be something that person said or something he or she did that can be presented as an interest grabber. You may just mention the famous person's name to get the reader's interest. The famous person may be dead or alive. The famous person may be a good person like the Pope, or he or she may be a bad person like John Wilkes Booth. Of course, bringing up this person's name must be relevant to the topic. Even though the statement or action may not be readily relevant, a clever writer can convince the reader that it is relevant.

from "Dear Taxpayer" by Will Manley in Booklist, May 1, 1993.

The most widely read writer in America today is not Stephen King, Michael Chrichton or John Grisham. It's Margaret Milner Richardson, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, whose name appears on the "1040 Forms and Instructions" booklet. I doubt that Margaret wrote the entire 1040 pamphlet, but the annual introductory letter, "A Note from the Commissioner," bears her signature.

[This is the first paragraph of an article about the lady named above. The author used the names of three famous, modern American writers to get a reader's interest. Notice that the first name on his list is a name that is probably more widely known than the other two. Stephen King has been around for some time now, and everyone, from teenagers to grandparents, know his name whether they have read his books or not.]

5 Declarative: This technique is quite commonly used, but it must be carefully used or the writer defeats his whole purpose of using one of these patterns, to get the reader's interest. In this pattern, the writer simply states straight out what the topic of his paper is going to be about. It is the technique that most student writers use with only modest success most of the time, but good professional writers use it too.

from "The Tuition Tap" by Tim Lindemuth in K-Stater, February, 1994.

In the College of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering, for example, nearly one-third of the teaching faculty may retire by the year 2004. In the College of Education, more than a third of the professors are 55 years old and older. The largest turnover for a single department is projected to be in geology. More than half of its faculty this year are in the age group that will retire at the millennium, says Ron Downey of K-State's Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. The graying of K-State's faculty is not unique. A Regents' report shows approximately 27 percent of the faculty at the six state universities will retire by the end of this decade, creating a shortage of senior faculty.

[This is a straight forward introduction that gets right down to the topic of the aging of the faculty of Kansas State University. There are no historical reviews, no surprising statements, no anecdotes, no quotations from or about famous people. This is a discussion that leads to further discussion about the topic. The biggest difficulty about this type of introduction is that it can get boring. It is not likely to get the interest of anyone except those who are already interested in this subject. Use this pattern with caution.]

These patterns can give a "lift" to your writing. Practice them. Try using two or three different patterns for your introductory paragraph and see which introductory paragraph is best; it's often a delicate matter of tone and of knowing who your audience is. Do not forget, though, that your introductory paragraph should also include a thesis statement to let your reader know what your topic is and what you are going to say about that topic.