Integrating Sources

1
Integrating Sources

• Basic Principles

2
First Principle

• Use sources as concisely as possible, so your own
  thinking isnt crowded out by your presentation
  of other peoples thinking, or your own voice by
  your quoting of other voices.
• Mention or summarize your source, perhaps quoting
  occasional phrases, unless you have a good reason
  to paraphrase closely or quote extensively

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Good reasons to quote

• Source author has made a point so clearly and
  concisely that it cant be expressed more clearly
  
• A certain phrase or sentence in the source is
  particularly vivid or striking
• An important passage is sufficiently difficult,
  dense, or rich
• A claim you are making is such that the doubting
  reader will want to hear exactly what the source
  said

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Second Principle

• Never leave your reader in doubt as to when you
  are speaking and when you are using materials
  from a source
• Avoid this ambiguity by citing the source
  immediately after using it
• Announce the source in your own sentences or
  phrases preceding its appearance

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Third Principle

• Always make clear how each source you use relates
  to your argument.
• This means indicating to your reader, in the
  words leading up to a source's appearance or in
  the sentences that follow, and reflect on it (or
  in both), what you want your reader to notice or
  focus on in the source.

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One further rule . . .

• Mention the nature or professional status of your
  source if it is distinctive
• Describe the nature of a source that is
  especially authoritative or distinctive

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Rules for Quoting

• General Principles

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Quote only what you need or what is really
striking

• If you quote too much, you may convey the
  impression that you havent digested the material
  or that you are merely padding the length of your
  paper.
• Keep your quotations under a sentence whenever
  possible.
• Try to embed quotes gracefully into your sentences

9
Construct your own sentence so the quotation fits
smoothly into it

• If you must add or change a word in the quotation
  to make it fit into your sentence, put brackets
  around the altered portion.
• Always try to construct your sentence so that you
  can quote verbatim, without this cumbersome
  apparatus.

10
Usually announce a quotation in the words
preceding it

• Your reader should enter the quoted passage
  knowing who will be speaking.
• Withholding the identity of a source until a
  citation at the end of the sentence is acceptable
  when you invoke but do not discuss a source OR
  when the identity of the quoted source is much
  less important than, or a distraction from, what
  the source says

11
Choose your announcing verb carefully

• Dont say Diamond states that unless you mean
  to imply a deliberate announcement.
• Choose a more neutral verb such as writes,
  observes, suggests, remarks
• OR Choose a verb that catches the attitude you
  want to convey such as protests, charges,
  replies, admits, or claims

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Technical Rules for Using Quotes
13
Dont automatically put a comma before a quotation

• Quotations are not dialogue
• Use a comma ONLY if the grammar of your sentence
  requires it

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Use a slash (/) to indicate a line-break in a
quoted passage of poetry

• Insert a space before and after the slash
• EX
• Hamlet wonders if it is nobler in the mind to
  suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous
  fortune or physically to act and end them.

15
Punctuate the end of a quotation embedded in your
sentence with whatever punctuation your sentence
requires

• Do not automatically use the source/authors
  punctuation
• Do not use an ellipsis at the end of a quote
  your reader makes the assumption that there was
  more

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Quote Verbatim

• Double check carefully
• If the source passage is misspelled or
  ungrammatical, add in brackets after the relevant
  word or phrase the Latin word sic, meaning
  thus, to make clear that the mistake is in the
  source

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Quoting Blocks of Information

• If you need to quote more than 4 (TYPED) lines of
  prose or 2 lines of poetry, set off and indent
  the passage as a block

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Basic Rules for Block Quoting

• Indent all lines 10 spaces (Tab X2) from the left
  margin
• Dont put an indented block in quotation marks
• Tell your readers IN ADVANCE who is about to
  speak and what to be listening for
• Construct your lead-in sentence so that it ends
  with a colon
• Follow up a block quotation with commentary that
  reflects on it and makes clear why you needed to
  quote it

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How to Document a Block Quote

• Put your citation of a block quotation OUTSIDE
  the period at the end of the last sentence quoted
• Do not use quotations marks around a block quote

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When to Cite

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Whenever you use factual information or data you
found in a source

• Your reader needs to know who gathered the
  information
• Your reader needs to be able to find its original
  form
• Always make clear how each source you use relates
  to your argument
• Indicate to your reader in the words leading up
  to the quote what you want the reader to notice
  or to focus on

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Whenever you quote verbatim

• Cite if you use two or more words in a row, or
  even a single word or label that is distinctive
• Reader must be able to verify the accuracy and
  context of your quotation
• Words you take verbatim must be in quotation marks

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Whenever you summarize, paraphrase or use ideas
arrived at by another person

• Readers need to know that you are summarizing
  thoughts formulated by someone else

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Whenever you make use of a sources distinctive
structure

• Citing tells your reader that the strategy isnt
  original
• Citing allows your reader to consult the original
  context

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When Not to Cite
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When the source and page location of the relevant
passage are obvious

• If you refer to the same page for many sentences
  in a row, you dont need to cite the source again
  until you refer to a different page or until you
  start a new paragraph
• Your language needs constantly to make clear
  where you are drawing on a source

27
When dealing with common knowledge

• Common knowledge is knowledge that is familiar or
  easily available in many different sources
• Common knowledge is not arguable or based on a
  particular interpretation

28
When you use phrases that have become part of
everyday speech

• You dont need to remind your reader where all
  the worlds a stage or life, liberty, and the
  pursuit of happiness first appeared
• Consider such phrases common knowledge

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Source for this information?

• http//www.fas.harvard.edu/expos/sources/chap1.h
  tml