USING EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT IDEAS IN YOUR WRITING AND THE ACE FORMAT

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USING EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT IDEAS IN YOUR WRITING
AND THE ACE FORMAT

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What do you know about quoting?

• Please take a minute to write down anything you
  can remember about incorporating quotes into your
  writing.

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Supporting your ideas with evidence

• WHEN SHOULD YOU USE EVIDENCE Your whole career
  as a writer
• WHERE Any writing assignment, any subject.
• WHY Adding direct evidence supports your ideas,
  validates your opinions and makes your writing
  more interesting.
• HOW Lets find out

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The ACE Acronym

• An acronym to help students remember the steps of
  effectively using quotes in their writing is ACE,
  which stands for
• ASSERT
• CITE
• EXPLAIN

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ASSERT

• Assert your argument. Introduce the quote so the
  reader knows how it proves your position.
• Example In Shirley Jacksons short story, The
  Lottery, the author presents the image of a
  black box to foreshadow the negative outcome the
  lottery will have for its winner.

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CITE

• Cite your evidence. This is where you insert your
  indirect or direct quote (we will elaborate on
  citing later).
• Example In Shirley Jacksons short story, The
  Lottery, the author presents the image of a
  black box to foreshadow the negative outcome the
  lottery will have for its winner, it was
  necessary to use something that would fit more
  easily into the black box (2).

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EXPLAIN

• Explain how the quote proves your argument.
• Example In Shirley Jacksons short story, The
  Lottery, the author presents the image of a
  black box to foreshadow the negative outcome the
  lottery will have for its winner, it was
  necessary to use something that would fit more
  easily into the black box (2). The color of the
  box implies that the lottery ritual has a darker
  meaning for the individual whose name is drawn.

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Indirect vs. Direct Support

• INDIRECT Also referred to as paraphrasing.  
• SPECIFIC events are put into the writers own
  words to help support their idea.

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INDIRECT SUPPORT EXAMPLE

• One theme in Michael Bruces Gentlemen Your
  Verdict is that murder is justifiable in certain
  circumstances. Bruce illustrates this moral
  dilemma when Lieutenant-Commander Oram serves
  fifteen of his men poisoned whiskey in order to
  save the lives of five men with families, because
  there is not enough oxygen for all twenty to
  survive until help arrives (12).

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Indirect vs. direct support

• DIRECT
• Include a quote as part of your OWN sentence.

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DIRECT SUPPORT EXAMPLE

• One theme in Michael Bruces Gentlemen Your
  Verdict is that murder is justifiable in certain
  circumstances. Bruce illustrates this theme when
  he has Oram explain to the shore station that he
  arranged that lieutenant Paull, Engineers Nordin
  and Jenvey, Torpedoman Preece and Coxswain Peer
  would survive (Bruce 25) because they were
  married men (Bruce 24). In this incident, Bruce
  reveals that faced with the potential death of
  his entire crew, Oram makes a difficult moral
  decision to save five men.

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Reminders about using direct references (or
quotes)

• A quotation should never be a sentence on its
  own! 
• Use ellipses to indicate that you have left
  some words out of the quote

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Need to change a word?

• Use square brackets they to indicate that
  you have changed a word from its original form so
  that it fits in your sentence. (ie fits
  grammatically, in present tense, etc.). For
  example,
• Lieutenant-Commander Oram explains to shore
  station that he arranged that Lieutenant Paull,
  Engineers Nordin and Jenvey, Torpedoman Preece
  and Coxswain Peer would survive.

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• Do not use two direct references in a row. Use
  some of your own words in between. For example,
• Lieutenant-Commander Oram explains to shore
  station that he arranged that lieutenant Paull,
  Engineers Nordin and Jenvey, Torpedoman Preece
  and Coxswain Peer would survive (Bruce 25)
  because they were married men (Bruce 24).