Example of Introducing, Integrating, and Explaining an Argument

Here are TWO examples of the same passage from They Say, I Say ch. 3.

The first here is a bad example, an example of a “hit and run quotations”.

There are a lot of things wrong here:

1. No idea who Susan Bordo is.

2. No proper framing/introduction to quotation.

3. Quotation not integrated.

4. Quotation not cited.

5. No explanation or connection to thesis.

The second here is a good example:

Let’s break this down with the Formula:

Topic Sentence

The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo deplores Western media’s obsession with female thinness and dieting.

Claim

Her basic complaint is that increasing numbers of women across the globe are being led to see themselves as fat and in need of a diet.

Statement

Citing the islands of Fiji as a case in point.

Evidence/Example (cited)

Bordo notes that “until television was introduced in 1995, the islands had no reported cases of eating disorders. In 1998, three years after programs from the United States and Britain began broadcasting there, 62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting” (149-50).

Explanation Transition

Bordo’s point is that the Western cult of dieting is spreading even to remote places across the globe. Ultimately, Bordo complains, the culture of dieting will find you, regardless of where you live. Bordo’s observations ring true to me because, now that I think about it, most women I know, regardless of where they are from, are seriously unhappy with their weight…