Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively

1. "It is usually easier to write a paper that uses all of only one short source on a familiar topic than to write a paper that selects material from many long sources on a topic that one must learn as one reads and writes" (38) This is very true. Most students are just looking to get the work done usually, not to learn something new. I think many college students have this attitude.
   
2. "It is easier to use whatever one likes, or everything one finds, than to formally select, evaluate, and interpret material" (38) This is also true. We tend to pick topics we are familiar with because we will not have to spend time looking up new research information. We can simply use our prior knowledge about things we already know and just build off of that instead of taking the time to learning something new. This is also an attitude I think most college students have.
   
3. "If we want students to learn to build original arguments from texts, we must teach them the skills needed to create divergent interpretations." (43) Some students probably often experience this because teachers are stressing to build arguments from sources, yet some are never taught thoroughly how to interpret text and use sources successfully.