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Source use samples
ENG 102 Guides

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Below is a writing sample, one version with sources, the other without.
See how the use of sources adds not only information to the writing, but also support for the points the author is making.

The Victorian image of women as the "weaker sex" discouraged their participation in most activities outside the home, the elementary school, and the church. Overexertion was considered detrimental to childbearing.













Although men and women differ in physical makeup, however, not all the differences favor men. Men have more muscular arms and legs, making them more adept at hitting, throwing, and sprinting. Women have narrower shoulders--an advantage in swimming. They also have a layer of fat cells that can be a source of energy. Women also perspire less than men.



Before World War I, the belief that women are physically frail was reinforced by their costumes. They wore heavy layered dresses that dragged on the ground and tight corsets that restricted breathing. Fainting spells were understandably frequent among genteel females.


A revolution in women's dress in the 1920's encouraged athletic activities, especially golf and tennis, because bare legs and shorts skirts were tolerated on the tennis courts.

The Victorian image of women as the "weaker sex" discouraged their participation in most activities outside the home, the elementary school, and the church. Overexertion was considered detrimental to childbearing. Menstruation was considered an illness that weakened women and restricted their activities (Vertinsky 7). Vigorous exercise was thought the cause "nervous instability, premature pelvic ossification, narrowed vaginas, difficult deliveries, heart strain, and spinsterhood" (Twin 207). A study of 740 women athletes by D. Stanley Eitzen and George H. Sage, however, indicates that they had shorter labor periods than average and 50% fewer cesarean sections (273). According to Dorcas S. Butt, women have 53 to 60% of the muscular strength of men and 70 to 80% of the lung capacity (130).

Although men and women differ in physical makeup, however, not all the differences favor men. Men have more muscular arms and legs, making them more adept at hitting, throwing, and sprinting. Women have narrower shoulders--an advantage in swimming. They also have a layer of fat cells that can be a source of energy. For example, women runners seldom collapse at the finish line as men runners often do (Murphy 270). Women also perspire less than men.

Before World War I, the belief that women are physically frail was reinforced by their costumes. They wore heavy layered dresses that dragged on the ground and tight corsets that restricted breathing. Fainting spells were understandably frequent among genteel females.

A revolution in women's dress in the 1920's encouraged athletic activities, especially golf and tennis, because bare legs and short skirts were tolerated on the tennis courts. The corset was abandoned, and the average cloth in women's costumes, according to Rader, was reduced from nineteen and a half yards in 1913 to seven yards in 1925 (128).

Note that there is nothing really "wrong" with the paragraphs on the left, it is just that the paragraphs on the right, with the source information, are much more interesting, developed and believable because of the use of the sources.