Quick Tip: Who’s Asserting What?

by Chuck Sebian-Lander

In an academic essay you often need to present other scholars' findings and claims in order to support your own claims. Be careful when you write to clarify in every sentence whether or not an assertion is yours or your source’s. If you don’t, your professor won’t be sure when you’ve written what you believe as opposed to what your sources believe. This can potentially be embarrassing, as in the following example:

• Xenophanes was one of many pre-Socratic philosophers with theories about the Earth’s shape. The Earth is a flat disc that touches the sky on top and extends down to the underworld.

Most likely you don't believe that the Earth is a flat disk. But, based on the way the sentence is written, it sure sounds like you do. It’s easy to avoid being mistaken for a believer in a flat Earth by clarifying that second sentence:

• Xenophanes was one of many pre-Socratic philosophers with theories about the Earth’s shape. He believed that the Earth is a flat disc that touches the sky on top and extends down to the underworld.