The Source Sandwich Tutorial, 1

• Source Sandwich: Table of Contents

Page 1

Source Sandwich Method:

Introduce, Explain, Quote, Analyze, and Defend

To understand how to integrate sources into your body-paragraphs, you will need to learn about the ‘source sandwich’.  The content of a body-paragraph is YOURS.  You have been assigned a paper, and even though your instructor needs to see scholarly sources defending your assertions within the body-paragraphs, she does not want the essay to be packed with so many outside source views that your voice is lost in the writing.

The Hamburger Method is the basic organization and layout for a body-paragraph; however, within that hamburger, you will integrate sources.  This is where you have little source sandwiches.  

You will need to remember BOTH concepts when structuring your body paragraphs.  

• The Hamburger Method is the organization of the whole body-paragraph, and 
• the Source Sandwich is the little nugget within the hamburger order, where you use sources to defend your argument assertions.

Always use The Hamburger Method and The Source Sandwich.

How you develop the content of your body-paragraph(s) will determine how effective you are at persuading your audience that your views on the issue are the most valid and therefore, must be agreed to.  

Think of your academic, argument essay as a debate.  Your audience will not speak back to you.  You will not know how your audience feels on the subject.  You will simply present your ideas as clearly as possible and follow specific internal content placement strategies to make sure that by the time the audience finishes reading the very last sentence of your essay, they have no other option but to agree with you.

See the content handout in the next few pages for properly developing and organizing your body-paragraphs.

Organize your body-paragraph content to 

1.     DECLARE your argument clearly,

2.   DEVELOP your argument with details, 

3.   SUPPORT the argument with quoted or paraphrased scholarly evidence, 

4.   ASSERT the LOGICAL interpretation of your argument in relation to the scholarly source material through restatement and elaboration, and 

5.    CONTEND that the audience must believe the view in a concluding sentence.

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