When reading complex material, take notes and keep lists. Always note the author and title of the source. Put quotations in quotation marks, so that you do not plagiarize.

You should list the main points of the article or essay. For example, the news release from the Economic Policy Institute, "Wealth Flows to the Wealthiest as the Percentage of Americans Who Own Stock Falls" has statistics about the concentration of wealth in America which you can use in your essay. The main points are easily listed:

• the wealthy got wealthier
• home ownership increased
• stock ownership became more concentrated among the wealthy
• household debt grew
• economic differences between the races persisted
• many Americans are financially unprepared for retirement.

A list of the main points allows you to present an author's arguments, and to compare one author to another.

Read "Reading To Write"

Exercise: Read "Incomes and Inequality" and fill out the form following the article.


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