Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021
Consider how sources will contribute to your research paper
Supporting a thesis
Writing Papers in MLA Style
The source materials you have gathered can play many different roles to support your thesis and develop your argument. As you consider using a source, ask yourself what you learned from the source and how it might function to answer your research question.
Providing context or background information
Readers need some background information and context to anchor their understanding of your topic and the debate around it. Describing a research study or offering statistics can help readers grasp your topic’s significance. Student writer Sophie Harba uses a source to give context for her topic, the benefits of laws designed to prevent chronic disease.
To give just one example, Marion Nestle, New York University professor of nutrition and public health, notes that “a 1% reduction in intake of saturated fat across the population would prevent more than 30,000 cases of coronary heart disease annually and save more than a billion dollars in health care costs” (7).
Explaining terms or concepts
If readers are unfamiliar with a term or concept, you will want to define or explain it. Quoting or paraphrasing a source can help you define terms and concepts in accessible language. Harba defines the term refined grains as part of her claim that the typical American diet is getting less healthy over time.
A diet that is low in nutritional value and high in sugars, fats, and refined grains — grains that have been processed to increase shelf life but that contain little fiber, iron, and B vitamins — can be damaging over time (United States, Department of Agriculture 36).
Supporting your claims
As you develop your argument, back up your assertions with facts, examples, and other evidence from your research. (See also 7f.) Harba, for example, uses factual evidence to support her claim that the typical American diet is damaging.
Michael Pollan, who has written extensively about Americans’ unhealthy eating habits, notes that “[t]he Centers for Disease Control estimates that fully three quarters of US health care spending goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which are preventable and linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and at least a third of all cancers.”
Lending authority to your argument
Expert opinion can add weight and credibility to your argument. (See also 7f.) But don’t rely on experts to make your points for you. State your ideas in your own words and, when appropriate, cite the judgment of an authority in the field to support your position, as Harba does below.
Debates surrounding the government’s role in regulating food have a long history in the United States. According to Lorine Goodwin, a food historian, nineteenth-century reformers who sought to purify the food supply were called “fanatics” and “radicals” by critics who argued that consumers should be free to buy and eat what they want (77).
Anticipating and countering objections
Do not ignore sources that seem contrary to your position. Instead, use them to give voice to opposing points of view and to state potential objections to your argument before you counter them (see 7g). By explaining why many Americans oppose laws that limit what they eat, Sophie Harba creates an opportunity to counter that objection and build common ground with her readers.
Why is the public largely resistant to laws that would limit unhealthy choices or penalize those choices with so-called fat taxes? Many consumers and civil rights advocates find such laws to be an unreasonable restriction on individual freedom of choice. As health policy experts Mello and others point out, opposition to food and beverage regulation is similar to the opposition to early tobacco legislation: the public views the issue as one of personal responsibility rather than one requiring government intervention (2602). In other words, if a person eats unhealthy food and becomes ill as a result, that is his or her choice. But those who favor legislation claim that freedom of choice is a myth because of the strong influence of food and beverage industry marketing on consumers’ dietary habits.