Writing About Writing asks you to develop and write a critical response to one or more published texts and tailor the response to an academic audience.
Primary and Secondary
Secondary information (Ex. a published text) is distinct from primary information in that secondary information is a report, summary and/or analysis of primary Information. Primary information is the original document, for example: a speech, diary, or experiment. Secondary information describes or comments on that original document.
Today we will scan a primary document here: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-lpg-speeches-1949/6/. This speech is a typed version of a speech given in Maine by Louis Philippe Gagné in 1949.
Now scan a secondary source, a newspaper article written by the Sun Journal in 2013 here: https://search-proquest-com.wv-o-ursus-proxy01.ursus.maine.edu/docview/1269550318/65AEBFAC12CD44DAPQ/4?accountid=8120
Think about how the two documents are alike, and how are they different?
Next watch the following video demonstrating the process of analyzing an academic article.
As described in the video, my task in analyzing an article is to break the article down into paragraphs. I identify the topic sentence of each paragraph, then put it in my own words to make sure I understand what the paragraph is about. I then look for an interesting quote from the paragraph that either tells the story of the paragraph (an example of an event, for instance). Or is just so interesting in general it might be the focus of the article as a whole.
I can represent the topic sentence and quote(s) in two ways.
Note: both of these approaches require I give credit to the author. Depending on your instructor you might have to create an in-text citation, a footnote, and/or a Works Cited page at the end of your paper.
Perform the same process with the following article. Note the new challenge in question 2. People can read articles from different perspectives. Can you find evidence of a particular theme?
Use the following article (or substitute another if you wish)
https://www.snowshoemag.com/2012/06/17/snowshoes-and-the-canadian-first-nations/