Summarizing, Paraphrasing,and QuotingThe building blocks of using your research to the fullest.

Important Note

• This info applies to all our assignments but most heavily to the final argument paper.

• Your current assignment (the rhetorical analysis paper) does not require very long summaries of the sources since you’re mainly focused on style and rhetorical tactics.

• Thusly, the mechanics of quoting are most relevant at this point.

How it Works

• Summarizing• Paraphrasing• Quoting• Analysis/Relevance

• When a piece of research comes up in your essay, you will often give it this 4-step treatment to ensure that your research has a purpose.

Importante!

• Source material is not there to make your argument or point for you!• Source material is integrated into your essay

so you can comment on it, analyze it, and use it to make your argument.• In a RA it’s there to provide the specific

examples to which you’re assigning rhetorical relevance

Past Tense

• For all 3 techniques, APA asks that your attributions be in the past tense.• Shakespeare wrote,• Johnson argued,• Smith disagreed with Jones . . .

Summarizing

• Your reader has not read your research. It is your responsibility to give them a brief overview when you first introduce it.

• The length of the summary is dependent on:• How complex the source is• How much you plan to analyze/discuss the source• What the audience generally needs to know for your

rhetorical purpose

Summarizing

• Introduce author by full name upon first mention• Use last name only in subsequent mentions

• Give full title of article only upon first mention• First sentence should signal the fact that it’s a summary

• In John Martin’s (2012) article, “Stamping the Butt: The Dangers of Second Hand Smoke,” he reviews a series of studies related to the public health issue of smoking in public. Martin’s research discovers a common thread running through all the studies: second hand smoke is a problem that the health industry cannot ignore.

Signaling the Summary

• Summary verbs• Argued• Asserted• Claimed• Emphasized• Observed• Reported

Summarizing

• Keep summary relatively short; your analysis is most important.

• Word your summary with your purpose for using the resource in mind• As TSIS says, write a summary “in a way that fits your

composition’s larger agenda” (p. 36)

• The summary should offer the fairest, most unbiased look at the source possible

Paraphrase

• Takes a statistic, unique point, essential information and puts it in your own words

• Is more focused than a summary; a paraphrase focuses on one point

• Paraphrase when the wording is not as important as the meaning.

• Though it’s your own words, the sentence structure should reflect the original source.

Paraphrase

• Original Source:• “Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking

notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.”

• Paraphrase:• In research papers students often quote excessively, failing

to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester, 1999, p. 46-47).

Paraphrase

• Original Source:• “Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes,

and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.”

• Plagiarism:• Students often use too many direct quotations when they take

notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

Paraphrase

• The Rule of 3• If the information could likely be found in at

least 3 general knowledge places (encyclopedias, general text books, etc.) then it does not need citation.

• Cite a paraphrase when it’s a unique point specific to the resource you’re using.

Quoting

• A quote takes the EXACT language from the source and places it directly into your own paper.

• The exact words must be set off inside “quotation marks”

• An in-text citation is always needed.

• Every quote should be, as TSIS suggests, framed.• Let the reader know who said it, what for, and what you’re

using the quote for

Quoting

• In his famous and influential work the Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud (1899) argued that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" (p. 34), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream-work" (p. 35). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before emerging in a kind of rebus puzzle in the dream itself (p. 42).

When to Quote versus Paraphrase

• Quote when the language is particularly unique and effective; therefore, it would be a crime to rob the power of the language in a paraphrase.

Q versus P

• In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) stated, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

• Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) expressed his desire that former slaves might one day be able to hang out with former slave owners.

Variety & Rhetoric

• TSIS offers on pages 46-47, an excellent list of ways to introduce quotes that will provide variety to your writing.

• Though seemingly just different wordings, they do function rhetorically:• According to X, . . .• Writing in the journal Commentary, X stated that . . .• X complicated matters further when she wrote . . .

Q versus P

• Quote when the person has a great amount of authority about the topic.

• Bill Gates (2000) writes, “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure” (p. 201).

The Key

• After all this summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting, you are not done.

• Your S, P, and Q must be immediately followed with your own analysis of why the source is relevant to your thesis.

• Most often, your analysis and commentary is directly related to, or comes out of, the quote you choose to use.

• Length of analysis or discussion should be as long as necessary. But, should always take as much (too a little bit more) page real estate as the actual quote does.• So Block Quote away! But be prepared to write about that quote for a

long time!

• In John Martin’s (2012) article, “Stamping the Butt: The Dangers of Second Hand Smoke,” he reviews a series of studies related to the public health issue of smoking in public. Martin’s research discovers a common thread running through all the studies: second hand smoke is a problem that the health industry cannot ignore. These studies all list off over 700 known chemical compounds in second hand smoke (p. 45). Martin reports, “second hand smoke has higher concentrations of cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) than the smoke actually taken in by a smoker” (p. 47). Statistics like these make clear how important workplace laws are in the name of making a safe environment for employees. Waiters, bartenders, and other restaurant workers cannot avoid this smoke; they need to be in their place of business to earn a paycheck. While smoking patrons happily puff away, these innocent employees are forced to breathe in smoke that is actually more harmful than the smoke inhaled by their customers.

• Summary• Paraphrase• Quote• Analysis tied back to thesis.