Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Analytical and Rhetorical Writing

Matt Barton

Sources and Ethos

• Part of the college experience is learning how to discover information on your own.– Your research papers demonstrate your ability to

find, evaluate, and incorporate information into your own thoughts and feelings on an issue.

– We’ve discussed finding and evaluating sources. Now it’s time to talk about incorporating them into your papers.

Three Ways to Integrate Sources• Direct Quotation

• Paraphrasing

• Summarizing

Direct Quotations

• Copy and paste something directly into your document.

• Enclose the entire quotation between quotation marks:– Barton writes, “Good writers know when to

quote and when to paraphrase” (234).

Citing Direct Quotations

• MLA Citation Method requires that citations include the author and the page number when you cite.– Include the name in the parentheses if it isn’t

obvious to the reader:• Barton writes, “Always include the page number”

(82).• One scholar writes, “Always include the page

number” (Barton 82).

Direct Quotations and Ellipses

• Do not put ellipses (…) at the beginning or end of a quotation; readers realize you’re just quoting part of the source:– Barton writes, “…this looks quite silly…” (82).

• Do put ellipses if you leave out the middle of a quotation:– Barton writes, “Ellipses are easy to use…Just learn a

few simple rules” (205). • Some writers put the … in brackets (check the

journal’s style manual):– Barton writes, “Ellipses are easy to use […] if you just

learn a few simple rules” (205).

Stand Alone Quotations = Bad

• Avoid “stand alone quotations”:– Quoting sources can sometimes be difficult.

“Even graduate students may struggle to cite sources correctly” (Barton 42). However, now we…

• Let’s fix the problem:– Quoting sources can sometimes be difficult.

According to Barton, “Even graduate students may struggle to cite sources correctly” (42). However, now we…

Use the ICE method:Introduce

Cite

Explain

ICE - Introduce

• Introduce your quotations appropriately. Is the audience familiar with the author you mention? – Matt Barton, a professor of English at St.

Cloud State University, writes that “even graduate students may struggle to cite sources correctly” (52).

– Plato argues in the Republic that “a just person is happy” (60).

ICE- Cite

• Next, cite the source carefully, always including the page number if you’re using MLA:– Barton writes, “Even graduate students may

struggle to cite sources correctly” (52).– According to one English professor at St.

Cloud State, “Even graduate students may struggle to cite sources correctly” (Barton 52).

ICE - Explain

• Use quotations to support your points, not make them.– According to one English professor at St. Cloud State,

“Even graduate students may struggle to cite sources correctly” (Barton 52). If even graduate students are having problems citing sources, professors are really expecting too much from their undergraduate students.

When to Quote Directly

• Only quote directly when the way a sentence or passage is worded is significant:– According to Barton, “Don’t quote me on this,

but a student writer is better off paraphrasing or summarizing than quoting directly.”

• Don’t quote “plain” passages directly:– Jordon writes, “There were five chemists

present during the experiment.”

Quoting Directly

• If the quotation is longer than three lines, it must be set apart in a block quote (indented from the rest of the text).

• Avoid overusing block quotes.

One Minute Prompt #1

• Using the ICE Method, write a sentence or two based on this quotation by Matt Barton, page 32:– Students do not plagiarize on purpose. They

plagiarize because their writing often has no purpose.

Paraphrasing

• Paraphrase passages or material that wouldn’t be useful to quote directly.– Original Passage:

• Simmons writes, “If the nation is to obtain the maximum benefit from its investments in information technology, a labor pool capable of using it appropriately is necessary” (52).

– Paraphrase:• According to Simmons, the U.S. won’t benefit from

revolutionary new technologies unless the labor force is better trained (52).

Paraphrasing Guidelines

1. Do not alter the author’s intention

2. Do not eliminate any significant background information

3. Do not copy the original wording too closely.– Don’t just change a few words or shuffle things

around; read the passage several times and completely rewrite it.

Faulty Paraphrase

• Original Passage:– The full extent of the corporate crime wave is hidden. Although

the federal government tracks street crime month by month, city by city through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, it does not track corporate crime. So the government can tell the public whether burglary is up or down in Los Angeles for any given month, but it cannot say the same about insider trading or illegal polluting.

• Faulty Paraphrase:– In “Crime in the Suites” Mokhiher has noted that the full extent of

the corporate crime wave is hidden. The federal government does not track corporate crime, yet it does track street crime month by month, city by city through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. So the government can tell the public whether burglary is up or down in San Francisco for any given month, but it cannot say the same about insider trading or illegal polluting.

Effective Paraphrase

• Original passage:– The full extent of the corporate crime wave is hidden. Although the

federal government tracks street crime month by month, city by city through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, it does not track corporate crime. So the government can tell the public whether burglary is up or down in Los Angeles for any given month, but it cannot say the same about insider trading or illegal polluting.

• Effective passage:– In “Crime in the Suites,” Mokhiber has noted that we lack

information about the prevalence of corporate crime. While the FBI monitors crime statistics for the federal government on a monthly basis, it fails to do so for corporate crime. Consequently, we may know that violent crime is up by 10 percent in Manhattan, but we can’t be sure that less insider trading is occurring this year on Wall Street (32).  

Paraphrases

• Original:– Instead of searching for a job, some college

graduates go into business for themselves after graduation, securing a loan for a franchise restaurant or store.

• Paraphrase (for casual audience):– Although you could enter the job market after

getting your degree, you might also consider running your own McDonald’s or Payless shoe store.

One Minute Prompt #2

• Paraphrase the following sentences:– In order to become a medical doctor, one

must earn an undergraduate degree from a college or university and then attend a medical school and complete the coursework. An internship is also involved. All of this takes time and hard work.

Summarizing

• Usually, authors will simply want to summarize passages instead of quoting them directly or paraphrasing them.– Summaries allow you to sort

through the information in the secondary source and report only what you consider to be essential.

– A summary is therefore much shorter than the original, whereas a paraphrase may be the same length. In addition, you do not need to cite particular pages when summarizing a source.

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Original

Summary

Summaries – How to?

• Original: – Original passage: The full extent of the corporate crime wave is

hidden. Although the federal government tracks street crime month by month, city by city through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, it does not track corporate crime. So the government can tell the public whether burglary is up or down in Los Angeles for any given month, but it cannot say the same about insider trading or illegal polluting.

• Summary:– In “Crime in the Suites,” Mokhiber has noted that we are unsure

about the prevalence of corporate crime because the federal government does not compile crime statistics for white-collar crime.

Summarizing Tips

• You don’t always have to summarize the entire book! Just summarize the parts you think are pertinent to your project.– Plato’s Phaedrus is a long and winding

discourse, but I am concerned only with the strange story at the end concerning the invention of writing. In this story, Plato gives four reasons why writing is harmful. Firstly…

Writing Prompt #3

• Summarize the following passage:– Students seeking graduate degrees are often faced

with severe economic and financial hardships. Graduate school is often a more expensive undertaking than prospective students realize. Some graduates teach in exchange for a reduced tuition, but others are forced to work and attend school at night. Married graduate students often find themselves estranged from their spouses, and others fall victim to despair. However, earning a graduate degree is a grand achievement that is well worth the effort.

Index Cards = Good

• Stay organized. – Use index cards. On one set, write down all

the bibliographic info for each book you use and an easily remembered code. On the other, write down individual quotations you intend to use and the source code.

Refworks = Very Good

• Index cards work for some people, but you may want an electronic solution.

• Q. What is RefWorks? • A. RefWorks is web-based bibliographic

software that makes it easy to– Organize your research– Include citations while you write your paper – Build a bibliography in a variety of formats– Import references from many data sources– Create bibliographies in different document formats

(Word, RTF, HTML, etc.)• Click here for Refworks tutorials!