Learning Outcome 2: Be able to integrate ideas with those of others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and synthesis of relevant sources.

It is important to back up any sort of statement you are making. In my chosen Significant Writing Project, I related the claims I was making with the work of others to provide evidence. By doing so I am backing myself up and proving that my claim is in fact true. At the beginning of the course I was unfamiliar with integrating my ideas with the ideas of others. I was unable to do it to the extent that I am capable of doing now. For example in my essay I claimed that the death of a pet (or animal) that you share an emotional attachment with will cause a change in behavior and personality. I supported my claim with evidence from Herzog’s text saying “His personality changed. A naturally cheerful and warm hearted person, he became tense, withdrawn, shaky”. By being able to provide this evidence is significant for your claim. From there on I was able to use that evidence as a way to connect to David Foster Wallace. I was able to integrate the two texts in order to relate emotional attachment of a dog to that of a lobster. I was then able to explain the quotations which brought me to the conclusion that we care more about the death of our beloved pet than we would of a lobster. Since that emotional attachment is lacking in a lobster it is easier for us to kill. Being able to us a quote as evidence to your claim is very important in the argument you are trying to make. It is essential to explain and back up the quote as well connect it to other text. By doing this you are providing the needed evidence to support your claim.

Consider the Lobster Essay: Essay 3, Final Draft