ENC 1101-1102

The BEAM Model Stands for Background, Evidence, Argument, and Method, and refers to four different ways you can invoke sources when writing a paper. 

You can call in a source as Background if it provides context for the topic you are writing on, such as:

• biographical or historical detail
• facts or other relevant information 

You can invoke a source as Evidence when it the material you are analyzing or interpreting. This is often the primary source text you are talking about in a paper. This can include:

• close reading of a relevant passage
• quotations from a primary text

You can bring Arguments into a paper to either support, refute or complicate them. Arguments are usually secondary scholarship that addresses the topic of your paper or a similar topic. This includes:

• journal articles, scholarly books, or book chapters on your topic
• opinion pieces, popular books, and other pieces of writing that state a position

Methods are invoked in a paper as a means of providing a theoretical framework for the paper. These include:

• papers that articulate a method for approaching a text 
• theoretical or philosophical texts that articulate a way of thinking about the world

Citation

Bizup, J. (2008). “BEAM: A rhetorical vocabulary for teaching research-based writing.” Rhetoric Review 27, 1: 72-86