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englisch:working-with-texts

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Working with texts

Always write about a text in the present tense

✅ Correct ❌ Wrong
“The author writes“The author wrote …”
“She argues …”“She argued …”
“The writer questions if …”“The writer questioned if …”

This is called the literary present — check out some more details about it.

Always give line references to support your argument

Example text



Source: “The real lessons from 9/11”, The Economist, 11.09.2021

Reference in your own text

✅ Correct⭕️ Better but not ideal ❌ Wrong
The author writes that many US citizens are in a “mood of fatigue and apathy” (l. 7)

▶ Best option because the line reference is clear and still as unobtrusive [unaufdringlich] as possible. The literal quote [wörtliches Zitat] at the end is marked by quotation marks [Anführungszeichen]
The author writes in line 7 that many US citizens are in a “mood of fatigue and apathy”.

▶ Not ideal because the line reference has too much weight by making it part of the sentence structure, the literal quote does have quotation marks – so this option is not wrong but also not as good as the first one
The author writes that many US citizens are in a mood of fatigue and apathy

▶ Wrong because
(a) there is no line reference at all and
(b) the last couple of words are a literal quote that is not marked by quotation marks
englisch/working-with-texts.1637488558.txt.gz · Zuletzt geändert: 21.11.2021 (10:55) von retemirabile

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