Directions: Read each passage. Highlight or underline necessary information. Write your summary. 1. The English were not the first Europeans to land their ships on American soil. The Vikings had discovered North America in the 11th century. Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492 for Spain, and the French began expeditions to the New World in 1524. But the first English presence in North America is important because the thirteen English colonies that would later be established eventually became the country now known as the United States of America.
The English

2. In April of 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh, under the authority of Queen Elizabeth of England, sent an expedition of seven ships carrying 600 men, half of them soldiers, to found an English colony in North America. The colony was to be used to establish an English presence in the New World as well as a base from which English privateers, or pirates, could attack and plunder Spanish treasure fleets. Raleigh’s cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, led the expedition.


3. In July of that year the bulk of the fleet reached a small island off the coast of Virginia that was called Roanoke. After building a small fort on the north side of the island, the colonists initiated relations with a Native American tribe that lived on the island, the Aquascogoc. These natives showed little interest in building relations with the English colonists, and they soon parted company. After this encounter, however, the English noticed that one of their silver cups had gone missing, and they attributed its disappearance to the Aquascogoc. Grenville, the English captain, was furious. He believed that the Aquascogoc had stolen the silver cup. Whether or not this was true, angry exchanges followed and soon the English burned the Aquascogoc village. The English held their fort against the subsequent attacks of the natives.

what: when quoting a source, use the author’s words verbatim, or word-for-word. this means you shouldn’t change any grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. put quotations around the words to tell your reader where the quote begins and where it ends.

you also need to acknowledge the author. for example, if using mla format for your research paper, you should have in-text citations with the author’s name and page number listed at the end of each quote.

when: use quotations to provide concrete examples to support your claims. using direct quotations is a great way to build your credibility on the subject. it’s also a good idea to quote your source when the author states things in a powerful way. if you think he or she said it best, then use the exact words to share the ideas.

example: in the short story “a jury of her peers”, mrs. hale compares mrs. wright to her caged bird, saying “she—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. how—she—did—change” (glaspell).

paraphrasing

what: paraphrasing differs from quoting because you restate the passage in your own words. since you don’t use the author’s words, you don’t need to use quotation marks. however, you still need to acknowledge the author for his or her ideas.

when paraphrasing a text, you should communicate the full meaning of the text; don’t change the meaning. it can be a condensed version of the text, or it could end up being longer than the source it’s paraphrasing.

when: you use paraphrasing when you take notes, or explain a chart or diagram to someone. paraphrasing highlight the important parts of a larger text. it also allows you to simplify the ideas for your readers.

example:

original: “it was no ordinary thing that called her away–it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in dickson county. but what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted” (glaspell).

paraphrase: as mrs. hales walks around mrs. wright’s home, she notices that the kitchen is in disarray as if she was in the middle of baking bread (glaspell).

im not