Example

Citation Vacation

This standard consists of at least four steps for your students:

• First stop on this road trip to textual enlightenment is understanding. You can’t very well connect your ideas to something you don’t get, so you have to get it first. Try to understand the whole meaning of the text, the central argument, before you start breaking it down. If you don’t get it from the get go, then your experience will be more underwhelming than the world’s second largest ball of twine.

• Jump back in the Family Truckster¹  as we head on down to analysis-town. In this roadside attraction you have to determine what your opinion about the text is and decide which details or lines in the reading lead you to that idea. If you simply summarize the text or explain the text’s implied meaning as though they are your own deep insights, then you’ll be like the 15-foot monument of Superman in Metropolis, IL – predictable bro.

• Third stop is the Grand Citation. In order to justify your interpretation or analysis, you must reference the lines in the text that lead you to that idea. While annotating, after noting your assumptions about the text, simply highlight or draw an arrow to the line or lines you refer to. If you don’t see the cites, then the whole trip will be fruitless.

• Last stop on the trip is of course the ultimate destination: Link Land. Dropping quotes and making unsupported assumptions – not good. It’s all about how you link the quotes you’ve identified with the insights you form. Since you’re reading historical texts, make sure you pay special attention to the dates and origins of information, as these details put the text into its proper historical context. Very important.

Cites Like Us

This road trip may be full of obnoxious games and gassy travel buddies, but it will be well worth it to be able to speak intelligently about a text. This skill isn’t going away; there is a route for every subject, so make some maps and settle in for the road ahead.

Source: 

1. Matt-282, username (2012). “Synopsis for Vacation”. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from .

Drill

Read the text below and answer the questions or complete the tasks that follow.

Something to Read

From The Godfather to The Sopranos to the still airing Boardwalk Empire, America is obsessed with its own historical mishaps and failures in regards to organized crime. Some even idolize the crime organizations as noble or heroic, with the police force of the time period being the bad guys. Even Bugs Bunny has found himself in the company of mobsters and crime bosses. American mobs have been a major part of its history and continue to be a resource-sucking machine today. Everything from man-power, to money for fire-arms, to stagnant legislation have been invested and reallocated to fight the ongoing battle. The beginnings of America’s domestic conflict can be traced to the Prohibition era; however, this ninety-year-irk continues to draw the attention of modern federal police.

Many events led to the banning of alcohol on a federal level. Religious revivals and state-to-state movements against drunkenness were building, with advertisements and propaganda citing alcohol as the marriage killer and the cause of poverty by such groups as the Anti-Saloon League of the early 1900’s². It may be concluded that Americans of this time period would first “make thieves and then punish them³,” (Moore, 1901) as they continually campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol, which after achieved, caused a dramatic increase in domestic crime. This is where the iconic figures such as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel became wealthy, boot-legging entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the coveted items in even higher demand because of its restriction, such as gambling, alcohol, and prostitution⁴. Thus the organized business of criminal commodities came to America.

As time progressed so too did the mob, expanding and continuing to carry out business as usual. With the millions gained from the bootlegging of newly illicit goods, the gangsters set their sights on infiltrating legitimate business ventures, such as the construction industry, while still keeping true to the illegal substance trafficking. By the 1950’s the mob was ingrained in American culture; even celebrities such as Frank Sinatra were rumored to have associations with them. The arms of the Mafia reached so far that, “by the mid-20th century, there were 24 known crime families in America, comprised of an estimated 5,000 full-fledged members and thousands of associates across the country⁵.” It seemed as though there was no stopping the crime-based, money making machine.

Today organized crime is not a romanticized past event, it is a real entity, though the faces may have changed dramatically from its fedora wearing ancestors. The crime family regimes of America are no longer major players in the organized crime game, with the FBI claiming Mafia problems of the past were small potatoes compared to the global threats that America faces today. The New York Times printed a laundry list of known criminal organizations and affiliated countries that the American FBI has stakes in, proving this is no invention of Hollywood (Organized Crime, 2012). It seems a constant threat on the red, white, and blue doorstep, a far more menacing and exponentially more profitable venture than it was once known to be.

_{2. The Saloon Must Go (2012). Westerville Public Library. Retrieved March 13, 2012, from http://www.wpl.lib.oh.us/AntiSaloon/history/} 

_{3. Moore, Thomas (1901). Utopia. OregonState University. Retrieved March 13, 2012, from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/more/utopia-I.html}

_{4. Prohibition (2012). The History Channel Website. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://www.history.com/topics/prohibition}

_{5. Mafia in the United States. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://www.history.com/topics/mafia-in-the-united-states}

4. Using the article provided, write at least two original conclusions or insights relating to the central topic. You must use specific line evidence (a quote) to support your ideas. [Medium]

5. Easter Egg Hunt: Find one primary source related to the topic discussed in the article provided, and answer the following questions: [Hard]

a. Explain the central purpose of the primary source.
b. Cite specific details from the primary source that either align with the information in the article provided or contradict it; explain possible insights relating the two texts.

Quiz Questions