Learning Goal: I’m working on a history presentation and need an explanation and answer to help me learn. how to format your paper first let’s start off with the introduction all right uh so your introductory paragraph should be about half a page to three-fourths of a page long you don’t want to overdo it and put too much into the introduction or you don’t want it to be too short either so what do you put in your introduction so you want to have some historical background and historical background just about two to three sentences roughly and you want to make sure that this historical background is is significant it’s relevant to what your topic is so say for example if you are writing about the downfall of the roman empire you want to give some historical background that’s relevant uh to that time period when the roman empire was going into decline right you wouldn’t want to give a historical background about the beginning of the roman empireor or something random like i don’t know prostitution in the roman empire uh you know what i mean like you want your historical background to be specifically on or around the topic that you’re going to be writing on for the rest of the paper okay so uh the reason why you’re giving historical background is to let your reader know a little bit more about the topic so say if i’m reading your paper and if i don’t know anything about the roman empire and its downfall uh well then i want to know a little bit about what was going on around that time like what’s the background story you know what’s happening at that time that the downfall is occurring uh so that’s why you’re giving some historical background and just real brief just two to three sentences uh okay so what else is going in your introductory paragraph uh your main claims okay your main overarching claims you should have about three main claims that you’re going to be making in your paper all rightand those main claims may have a number of subclaims under them right so like for example you may have uh one main claim and for that main claim to prove that claim uh you may have three four or five uh paragraphs that have sub claims in them uh that all work towards proving one of your main claims all right so you wanna briefly just state uh your three main claims uh in your in your introductory paragraph right so you don’t want to go too in-depth in them you’re going to do that in the body paragraphs uh you also want to include your historical question all right i want you to actually put the question itself in the introductory paragraph so we know uh the question that you’re going to be answering in this paper and then you want to include your thesis and the thesis is basically uh your argument it is your answer to that historical question all right so for example back to the example of the roman empire say my question was uh what were the factors that brought about the downfall of the roman empire so that’s my historical question and I want to find out the answer to that question well i will give you my thesis so my thesis is my answer to that question and the thesis follows the format of uh making an assertion and then giving three supporting reasons uh that prove that assertion okay i give a separate example here uh as if i was you know writing a paper on facebook uh and so i give an example on that so i have my assertion uh facebook takes away the privacy of its users in multiple ways that’s my assertion that’s what i’m trying to prove and then i have three supporting reasons that support that assertion right including the selling of their information to third-party companies that’s one comma allowing uh government agencies to view their profiles there’s two and allowing the public to see portions of their information as three so that’s my three supporting reasons that prove my assertion that facebook is taking away the privacy of its users in multiple ways all right moving on uh so after the introduction you’re gonna have your body paragraphs so you’ll have a number of different body paragraphs and the point of each body paragraph is to is to prove one specific claim all right uh i mentioned earlier that you will have three main claims right well those three main claims are all going to have sub claims underneath them all right so uh one of my main claims may have four different sub claims that work together to prove that larger main claim so all of your body paragraphs in your paper are all trying to prove uh one of your sub claims right and your sub claims are working together to prove uh one of your main claims right all right so uh with the body paragraphs this is the format that i would like you to follow all right you’ll have your topic sentence let’s start with that the topic sentence is the first sentence of your body paragraphs and basically it’s introducing the topic of that paragraph to the reader now in your topic sentence i want you to state your claim to clearly and specifically all right i’m emphasizing those words clearly and specifically stating uh the claim that you are going to be proving in that body paragraph all right and so you’ll state your claim one claim only you know don’t put two or three in there i know it’s tempting right we want to we want to load it up with a bunch of claims but uh we’re just going to be focusing on one claim at a time per body paragraph all right so you state one claim that you’re going to be proving in that paragraph uh when you state the claim make sure that it specifically tells the reader what you will be arguing you don’t want to be too broad with it sometimes uh it could be a little vague and i’m not sure you know specifically what you’re going to be arguing there so be as specific as possible uh and so you want to uh so that’s what i mean down here where i say avoid being too vague or or too broad okay all right so that’s your first sentence of each of your body paragraphs is going to be stating a claim if your first sentence is not stating a claim uh then you got to go back and make sure that it is all right so many times i read uh you know papers like that where it’s the first sentence is not really telling the reader what you’re going to be trying to prove it what you’re going to be trying to prove in that in that body paragraph and so the body paragraph becomes kind of like a little confusing you know you don’t know what the point is of it what’s the topic of it and so that’s the whole point of having a topic sentence to direct the reader so that they know okay they’re going to be trying to prove this point in this in this paragraph all right okay so after you do the first sentence the topic sentence then you’re going to start introducing your evidence and your evidence is what you get from uh your research from your sources okay uh and so you will be using your sources to provide evidence that proves the claim that you stated in your topic sentence all right uh and so you i want you to provide at least two pieces of evidence per body paragraph so that uh we’ll have you know at least a couple of pieces of pieces of evidence that show that the claim that you’re making is is true okay this the whole point here is we’re trying to prove to the reader uh that what you’re claiming is actually true that it actually went down that way all right so you introdu so you uh you will have your two pieces of evidence in your body paragraph uh you also want to have some analysis of that evidence uh sometimes the evidence will be straightforward and the reader will you know will get it right off the bat but sometimes you have to really show the reader how the evidence proves the claim that you were making in the topic sentence okay you got to tie it together for them and really just kind of think of it as you’re holding the reader’s hand as you walk them through that body paragraph and you’re trying to prove this point to them you’re showing them some evidence and then you’re showing them how that evidence proves your point that’s your analysis okay in addition you may have some historical background in that paragraph if it’s needed if it’s not then you don’t have to include it but sometimes you got to let the reader know a little bit of background what was going on at that time in relation to that point that you’re making in the topic sentence right they need they may need to know a little bit more in order to understand uh and really be convinced uh that you that your point is true all right and so after you have all of that you will end uh each body paragraph with a concluding sentence and the concluding sentence is basically just reaffirming the point that you made in your body paragraph and then also you can you can include a transition uh to the next paragraph i sometimes will include my transition in the topic sentence uh going from one paragraph to another uh but you can also include it in the concluding sentence it’s up to you all right so that’s that’s your structure for all the body paragraphs uh in your paper all right so uh just so if you’re not familiar you know the papers structure includes an introduction which introduces the topic to the reader and then it includes a number of different body paragraphs that are all aimed at proving different points that ultimately prove your overall thesis right and your thesis has your assertion and your three reasons your three reasons being your three main claims same thing uh and then you’ll have your conclusion uh which ultimately reaffirms all the points that you made i mean not everything but you’re just kind of summarizing the main points that you’ve made in your paper and then maybe stating uh the significance of your overall thesis okay so let’s go ahead and take a look at an example of a body paragraph so you could actually see what i’m talking about this paper here was written by me a long time ago when i was a student so uh you know it’s not perfect but it’ll give us an idea of the structure that i’m talking about so before i start reading the uh the paragraph let me just give you a little bit of background on what this paper is on so that you kind of understand the topic right i gotta give you a little historical background right uh so uh this paper is basically talking about how uh the traditional religions of the nawa people and people who lived in the andes right so these are native american peoples uh who lived in central mexico uh and in the andes of areas like peru and bolivia uh the paper is about how these people continue to practice their traditional religions uh during a time when uh spanish uh clergy were trying to uproot those traditions so they continue to practice in private that’s what the paper is trying to prove to the reader okay so right now we’re going to start with one of my body paragraphs that is trying to prove a specific claim a sub claim to the reader okay so let’s go ahead and see what that claim is all right so topic sentence uh in central mexico the small towns and villages that were located away from the sphere of spanish authority acted as havens of traditional religion okay so that’s my claim right i’m stating it out there like it like it sounds like it’s a fact right but really it’s it’s a claim that i have to prove by showing you evidence all right uh and so what i’m just saying that you know these little towns and villages that are far away from where the most the majority of the spanish population is that’s where you see traditional religions still being practiced so that’s my claim i have to prove that uh to my reader now all right um so let’s go ahead and start after the topic sentence i go in i’m going to introduce some evidence all right so uh in the mid th century uh las casas this is this is a priest uh las casas recognized that the periphery would remain a stronghold of traditional religions if the indigenous people were not won over in their hearts so here is a piece of evidence showing that a priest from that time period is saying that yeah they’re going to practice their traditional religions on the outskirts in the periphery unless we really uh convert them to catholicism okay so that’s my that’s one of my pieces of evidence proving my topic sentence let’s go on uh although the nawaz were able to practice their traditional rituals more freely in the periphery they still needed to keep their devotion hidden from the secular and regular clergy who were assigned to their area during the extirpation campaigns these are just campaigns to uproot traditional religion uh during the extirpation campaigns of central mexico in the early th century spanish secular clergy acknowledged that many practitioners of traditional religion would return to their practices even after being reprimanded right after being punished okay so i’m still making my point here so i’m giving you some more that was more like historical background right so now let’s get to the point another piece of evidence uh ruiz de arla cone this is uh another uh you know spanish clergy member from that time ruiz de arla cone uh cited the example of a person named augustine jacobo an indigenous man from the district of ho upon in central mexico uh after finding that jacobo uh had been practicing traditional incantations uh in an effort to gain supernatural aid for his hunting abilities ruiz ordered him to cease immediately and he explained to jacobo that such practices were evil as they entailed a pact with the devil but despite that chastisement of this ecclesiastical judge jacobo eventually resumed the ritual after moving and i’m putting this in quotation marks away from populated places meaning that he continued to practice his traditional religion away from the centers where the spanish were in the periphery in those small villages that i was saying so that’s that’s basically my claim that i was making in my topic sentence and so i i kind of built up i gave you a little bit of background uh on what was going on people were practicing even though they were punished and then i give you some example an example of a specific person this is evidence i’m giving you evidence showing you that a specific person uh actually did go away from populated places and continue to practice his religion now you may also notice that i put it in quotation marks because i use a direct quote from the text now when do you use a direct quote from the text this is another point i want to make to you guys okay use direct quotes when they have an impact only when they have an impact um there’s no point in in doing a direct quote if you could simply just paraphrase it yourself put it in your own words if you’re just trying to explain something something i always tell students is you don’t want to let the quote speak for you say you’re trying to relate uh you know an author’s theory or something like that paraphrase it into your own words right paraphrasing it means just putting it on into your own words the only time you really want to quote it directly is when you want it to have an impact on your reader to really show them hey look at the evidence this is true okay and that’s what i did here alright so i i quoted from the text because it shows you specifically that he was practicing his religion away from populated places and that’s my whole point in this paragraph is to try to prove that and and that’s why i i made that quote okay all right so that’s when you quote uh all right let’s continue we’ll finish off this paragraph all right so ruiz de arlacone related that it was common to find uh the continued practice of indigenous religions in and i’m doing it again i’m giving you a direct quote hills and deserts remote from the main towns so it’s common that people are still practicing their religions uh during this time away from the populated areas in the hills and in the deserts okay so again it has an impact it’s showing you that what i was arguing in my topic sentence is true all right so that was it i gave you evidence i gave you a little historical background uh all towards proving my point that i made in my topic sentence see how it’s organized all around proving one main point right each body paragraph is organized like that let’s finish it off with the concluding sentence all right the distance between rural villages and the main centers of spanish population allowed nawaz these are the native people of central mexico uh to maintain some of their religious traditions all right it’s just reaffirming the point that i made in that body paragraph okay uh so that is an example of how to structure your body paragraphs you’ll have multiple body paragraphs in your paper uh and they should all follow a structure similar to that okay okay uh next i want to talk a little bit about citation when do you cite when do you need to cite your sources well i give you three different times when you need to cite so always cite when and i you know put this all in uppercase letters because i want you to really pay attention to this always cite when using a direct quote obviously right and that’s when most people do make their citations is when they uh do a direct quote uh and don’t forget to use those quotation marks so that happens i see many people like you know quoting but they forget to put the quotation marks they put one quotation marks and and not the other you know so always put those quotation marks that’s definitely one time when you’re going to be citing your sources but that’s not the only time uh to cite your sources all right there’s a couple of other uh instances all right so another time where you would cite your sources is if you’re paraphrasing any information or ideas from that source okay meaning that say uh you know there’s a lot of information in the source and you want to put it into your own words rather than use a direct quote which i encourage i think you should do a lot more paraphrasing than quoting i don’t really care for papers i have a lot of quotations because it’s kind of like letting them speak for you uh so put it in your own words show me that you understand and comprehend uh what you’re writing about so paraphrase it put in your own words now any time you paraphrase you have to cite where you got that information from all right you so that i could look back in your source and say oh okay yeah they got it from this page you know so very important to cite that information anytime you put something into your own words okay uh and lastly uh when you’re summarizing any information or ideas from a source you have to cite it as well so say you read like i don’t know two or three pages and you want to just summarize all that into a couple of sentences uh and that’s fine you should do that but you have to cite what pages you got that from so basically any ideas any information that you get from a source you have to cite where you got it from otherwise you’re claiming responsibility for that information or those ideas and that is considered plagiarism right uh and so you cannot do that uh and so these are the three times when you cite information okay uh and so uh keep in mind you know when it’s your idea it’s something that you’re coming up with yourself like say your topic sentence that’s gonna be your claim uh you don’t have to cite that all right so i shouldn’t see citations in the topic sentences because that’s the claim that you’re making any time that you’re analyzing evidence and showing how it proves your point that’s you that’s your ideas you don’t have to cite that either okay uh so any times it’s your ideas or your uh your own thinking your own points you don’t have to cite it but if you get it from somewhere else any information doesn’t even matter if you’re just it doesn’t matter if you’re directly quoting it or not any information you have to cite where you got it from okay all right and so uh about quotes a little bit more about direct quotations uh i want you to always introduce your quote uh don’t just insert your quotes as a standalone sentence this is uh comments that i make uh quite a bit right because a lot of times people will just put a quote in without saying anything about it is just there as its own sentence um you want to let the reader know what is this quote what’s the point of this quote in what context was the quote made right uh who is saying the quote those are all ways to introduce the quote to your reader okay uh so before we stop with citation let’s go ahead and go back uh to this example here and i’ll show you what the citation looks like okay so in this sentence right here i got this from a book right it wasn’t my own thoughts i actually you know got it from a book and so i have to cite it and i put it in my own words i did there’s no direct quotation in this sentence right but i got the information from a source so i got to cite it so here is where and how to do a citation in mla format uh okay so at the end of the sentence right i did a space and then you have your your parentheses and then after the pres the parentheses you just put the author’s last name in this case it’s la casas and then after the last name you do another space and then you put the page number or page numbers where you got that information from this is the in-text citation in mla format and then you finish that off with a end parenthesis uh and then your period comes after the citation okay after it’s important you know sometimes people will put the period before uh and so that’s it that’s your citation right that’s the format for in-text citation uh little you know of course there’s different a format for your for your bibliography or works cited page but this is what it looks like inside of the text okay so last name space page number page numbers all right all within parentheses period at the end all right uh and that is pretty much it here’s another example of it here okay all right and the last thing i want to talk about is the conclusion all right this is the last paragraph of your paper uh and so in the conclusion you’re you’re basically just reaffirming the main points that you made in your body paragraphs just showing the reader how you prove the argument that you had introduced in your introduction and then you also may want to say what the significance of your thesis is right why should they care about it you know why why should the readers be interested in you proving this point in the first place right so why is it important to them.

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