1 BEAM Model

The BEAM Model helps you decide how to use the source information you find.[1]

Background

Establish/Give Context/Help your reader understand the big picture by using information that:

  • Defines concepts
  • Provides need-to-know information
  • Gives a history
  • Summarizes the current situation

Exhibit

Explain/interpret/analyze information that:

  • Hasn’t already been interpreted  by an expert (or had but with a new lens)
  • Is a primary source
  • Consists or data, stories, and/or examples

Argument

Affirm/Dispute/Refine your argument by engaging with:

  • Claims made by experts and scholars
Method

Situate/Position/Frame your research and writing by applying it to  or following:

  • Key terms of theories
  • A particular  procedure, set of steps, or methodology
  • A specific perspective
  1. Adapted from Joseph Bizup "BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing," Rhetoric Review 27, no. 1 (2008): 72-86. ↵

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