In this passage from a Newsweek article we can see different techniques used
in quoting sources (verbal and data). Note that name, age and origin are given
for lay "authorities" and informants, whereas name, organization and/or claim
to authority (such as an authored book or study) are given for expert authorities.
| Type | Use | Persuasive power | Example |
| one example | explain | weak | When today's teens are not with their friends, many live in a private, adult-free world of the Web and videogames. Aminah McKinnie, 16, of Madison, Miss., attends church, loves gospel hip-hop and hopes to work in the computer industry. She doesn't "hang out," she says. |
| quote: involved informant | explain | weak | "I shop on the Internet and am looking for a job on the Internet. I do homework, research, e-mail and talk to my friends on the Internet." |
| group data | explain, persuade | strong | She is not unusual. Data released last year from the Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development found that teens spend 9 percent of their waking hours outside school with friends. They spend 20 percent of their waking hours alone. |
| quote: expert authority | elaborate, persuade | medium | "Teens are isolated to an extent that has never been possible before," says Stanford's Damon. "There is an ethic among adults that say, 'Kids want to be autonomous; don't get in their face.'" |
| quote: expert authority | explain, persuade | medium | This generation is strongly peer-driven. "This is much more a team-playing generation," says William Strauss, co-author of the 1997 book "the fourth Turning." "Boomers may be bowling alone, but Millennials are playing soccer in teams." |
| example | explain | weak | That makes belonging so crucial that it can be a matter of life and death. In Littleton, Colo., a year ago, the two teenage shooters stood apart, alienated from the jock culture that infused Columbine High School. |
| quote: expert authority | elaborate, persuade | medium | Yet in a landmark study of 7,000 teens, researchers led by Barbara Scheider of the University of Chicago found that teen social groups are as fluid and hard to pin down as a bead of mercury. "Students often move from one group to another, and friendships change over a period of a few weeks or months," they write in "the Ambitious Generation." "Best friends are few." |
| quote: lay "authority" | elaborate | weak | As a group, today's teens are also infused with an optimism not seen among kids in decades (it doesn't hurt to have grownup in a time of relative peace and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.) "I think a lot of adolescents now are being taught that they can make a difference," says Sophie Mazuroski, 15, of Portland, Main. "Children of our generation want to. I am very optimistic." |
| single figure | persuade | strong | Still, the law of teenage angst is still on the books: 4.3 percent of ninth graders make suicide attempts serious enough to require medical treatment. |
| comparative figures | explain, persuade | very strong | [a few paragraphs later] ...Regardless of what their terrified parents suspect, the belief that today's teens "are more sexual, rebellious and inebriated is flat-out wrong," says pediatrician Victor Stransburger of the University of New Mexico. In 1997, 48 percent of high-school students had had sexual intercourse, compared with 54 percent in 1991, according to the CDC*. More are smoking (36 percent, compared with 28 percent in 1991), but the percentage who are drinking alcohol remains at 51 percent. |
| quote: lay "authority" | elaborate | weak | [relevant to above point] The social surround, though, may be different now. "A lot of my friends are into drinking a lot," says Marcus Ruopp. "Kids don't see it as a big problem. It's a regular thing, not like they're reveling. There is no pressure to drink." |
[(From "A World of Their Own," Newsweek, May 8, 2000; downloaded May 5. (The
date given as the article date conflicts with the date I downloaded, so it must
be wrong.)]
*This is a major problem, and I'm surprised to see it in Newsweek. The acronym is presented without the spelled-out name having first been presented. Whenever you use an acronym, present it in parenthesis after you first present the full name. After that first instance, you may present the acronym by itself.