Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

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Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

• English 103
• John Prince

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Quotations

• Definition A quotation is a direct and exact
  restatement of someone elses words. A quotation
  must be set off with quotation marks. Do not
  take the words out of context or modify the tone
  from the original. Remain true to the original
  intention of the writer.

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Quotations

• Use quotations from sources to
• establish the issue you are discussing
• explain someone elses opinion
• support your own opinion
• demonstrate your familiarity with and knowledge
  of the issue

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Quotations

• Select passages to quote wisely Quotations
  should
• accurately represent the source
• be clear to the reader or easily explained to the
  reader by you, the quoter
• be specific, not overly general statements
• either contain the writers opinions or data from
  their experiments

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Quotations

• Do not use a quotation as a separate sentence
  unto itself but incorporate it into the grammar,
  structure, and flow of your sentence
• Use a parenthetical page citation
• Introduce quotations, do not just drop them into
  your essay

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Quotations

• E.g. 1 In a recent editorial in the Ball State
  Daily News, Andre Villoch writes I hereby
  declare that I am giving up the practice of
  watching television (4).
• E. g. 2 (from Exploring Language) She
  believes university administrators are getting
  confused when they are acting as censors and
  trying to protect students from bad ideas (3).

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Paraphrases

• Definition A close restatement of someone
  elses ideas in your own words and sentence
  structure. It should remain true to the meaning
  and intent of the original statement. Be sure to
  directly state in your paraphrase if you infer a
  tone in the original which the writer might not
  have intended. Paraphrases of opinions and
  supporting arguments must be cited!!

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Paraphrases

• Use paraphrases to
• establish the issue you are discussing
• explain someone elses opinion
• support your own opinion
• demonstrate your familiarity with and knowledge
  of the issue
• set up a quotation which follows it in the next
  sentence

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Paraphrases

• Use paraphrases instead of quotations
• when using a direct quotation is difficult both
  grammatically and semantically
• to condense into a phrase or two what the
  original writer uses two or three sentences to
  express
• when you need to isolate one point out of many
  that exist in the original quotation

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Paraphrases

• Use indirect statement construction to
  grammatically and syntactically introduce ideas
  from outside sources
• I do not believe that the Yankees will win the
  World Series
• John Doe implies that . . .
• Use indirect statement with a combination
  quotation/paraphrase
• Use other keywords to semantically introduce the
  ideas

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Paraphrases

• E.g. 1 Andre Villoch, writer of the Try
  Smiling editorial, argues that we fall victim to
  television partly because of lack of willpower
  and lack of motivation (4).
• E.g. 2 Andre Villoch writes in his editorial for
  The Ball State Daily News that he is giving up
  television.

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Paraphrase/Quotations

• E.g. 1 In a recent editorial in the Ball State
  Daily News, Andre Villoch declares that he is
  giving up the practice of watching television
  (4).
• E. g. 2 I disagree with David Sumner, who argues
  that an open presidential search jeopardizes
  future advancement opportunities at a rejected
  applicants current academic institution (4).

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Paraphrase/Quotation

• E.g. 3 While many people believe that dirty words
  are ugly because of their various allusions to
  sexual intercourse, at least one critic goes a
  step further, arguing that they also imply a
  narrow, mechanical master-and-victim concept of
  sexuality (Brothers 376).

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Summaries

• Definition A summary is a condensed overview of
  the main points of a piece of writing or a
  section of a piece of writing. The style and
  wording should be your own, but the meaning and
  tone should be true to the source. In order to
  avoid plagiarism when you summarize, use specific
  quotations and paraphrases which you cite within
  the summary itself.

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Summaries

• A summary may be part of an essay, in which case
  it may constitute half of a paragraph or even an
  entire paragraph
• A 2-3 page summary of a text may be an assignment
  (school or work)
• A 1-3 paragraph summary of a shorter text may
  also be an assignment

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Quotations, Paraphrases, Summaries

• Cite when the words are not yours
• Cite when the ideas are not yours, even if the
  words are!
• When in doubt, cite a page in parentheses at the
  end of the sentence
• Incorporate quotations into the grammar and
  syntax of your sentences
• If you can quote the source easily, clearly and
  effectively, dont paraphrase