Introduction to In-Text Citations

Writing Assignment See p. 155. In your academic papers, how do you try to persuade your readers? Do you refer to other sources while writing? Why? / Why not? When you refer to other sources, how do you indicate your readers that the ideas do not belong to you? What do quotation marks indicate?

Introduction: In-text citations When you write an academic paper, you need to refer to other sources in order to persuade your readers. Blinding other sources into your study requires quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

What does citation mean? In case of referring to other sources, you need to inform your readers that you borrowed the ideas from other sources. In this case, while using the borrowed idea, you add some information about the author of the original idea. Such information is called in-text citation and usually includes the surname of the author, date of publication, and sometimes page number(s) of the borrowed text. Additionally, you also need to add a reference list to your paper in order to give the other details of the sources you use in your paper.

What is APA style? You are expected to follow a style in your academic paper. The most common two academic writing styles are APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association). Most of the publication in the field of ELT is written in APA style. APA is a specific type of academic writing style which had an initial attempt to standardize academic papers in the field of psychology. However, the rules of APA style have been adapted by the researchers in the other fields. If you need to write a paper in APA format, then you need to learn APA citations rules. You can obtain all the details of APA rules from their reference book, The Publication Manual of the American Psychology Association. Please, make sure that you use the latest version of the book.

If you like, you can also obtain some information from their web site at http://apastyle.apa.org/. However, be careful about the other web sites on APA style since some of them present contradictory information about these rules. Remember that the APA manual specifically provides information for writing manuscripts in a standardized style. APA is also known to be a parenthetical documentation style which requires the use of citations in the text. In this respect, acknowledging other sources in APA can be regarded from two different views. The first one indicates in-text citations through the surname of the author and date of publication whereas the second one involves providing other details about your in-text citations in the reference list. Every source that you acknowledge must be documented in the reference list and you are not allowed to document any sources in your reference list that you do not acknowledge in the text.

Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are three ways of blending other sources into your paper. When you search relevant literature for your study, you may need to take notes. In case of taking notes, please make it sure that you record the surname of the author, date of publication, and also page number(s) in order to be able to use this information for your citations as your readers will have an intention of learning where the cited information comes from. Besides, when you refer to authorities in your field, you can show your readers that you have searched enough. However, there are some basic differences among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries.

Quotations When you quote, it means that your quotation will exactly be identical to the original material. In other words, the quoted material needs to match the original text word for word. Since you are expected to write your paper by using your own words, you should have strong reasons in order to quote directly. Quotations are also useful if you have an intention of criticising any idea. Then, you will be able to indicate the original idea to your readers without dealing with your own words that you oppose. If you think that the meaning will change when you paraphrase it; then, again you need to quote.

Academic writing requires more use of paraphrases rather than quotations. Therefore, do not intent to copy related information from several sources and paste them all together in your paper. Apart from introducing your quotations, you also need to provide your analysis on this quotation following it. Do not forget to use double quotation marks in order to indicate the quoted part and add the author’s surname, date of publication, and page number(s). See p. 159. You need to make connections between your paper and the quotations you borrow. In this respect, you are expected to refer to introductory words and phrases to indicate your readers that they are about to read a quoted expression.

Punctuation in quotations You do not need to place the final commas and periods into your quotations. However, if the quoted expression includes a question or an exclamation; then, you are expected to use either question or exclamation mark along with the quoted expression. See p. 159-160.

Indicating emphasis in quotations If there is an emphasis in the original version of the quoted information; then, reflect this emphasis to your readers. Such emphasis may be through the use of italics, bold, highlight, and underline. However, you will also need to signal your readers that the emphasis belongs to the original author, not to you. Then you add a phrase of [emphasis is original] following your quotation. You can also add your own emphasis to a quoted expression. Again, in this case, you will indicate this to your readers by adding [emphasis added] that the emphasis belongs to you, not to the original author. See p. 160.

Academic writing rules inside quoted expressions In academic writing you are not allowed to use pronouns of ‘I’ and ‘we’ along with the others which will allow you to focus on the author. However, if the quoted expression involves any of them; then, you can use them in quotation marks. See p. 161.

Changes in the quoted material If you want to change any part of your quoted material, you need to indicate these changes to your readers. In case of removing something from the original text, you need to replace this missing text with an ellipsis and three periods surrounded by spaces. However, in case of inserting additional material into a quotation; then, you are expected to use brackets. See p. 161.

Using single or double quotation marks If the quoted expression includes quotation marks; then, you need make an arrangement. In order to indicate the quoted expression use double quotation marks; however, if any part of the borrowed information includes quotation marks; then, present them as single quotation marks. See p. 162.

Block quotations If your quotation constitutes of 40 or more words; then, it is considered a long one. Long quotations are also called block quotations. In this case, you need to introduce it with a full sentence. You should not place long quotations in quotation marks. However, you need to indent all lines from both sides. See p. 162.

Paraphrases It requires restructuring and rewording the original material. They save you from disorganizing your paper by frequently quoting directly from the original source. In this respect, you are expected to present it in a new form by changing both the structure of the sentence and the words in it. Paraphrases also need to be attributed to the original materials. This means that you need to provide a reference for your paraphrase. When you paraphrase you try to shorten the original material a bit by condensing it. You are expected to paraphrase if you have an intension of transmitting the original ideas by including the details in them. When you paraphrase, refer to the source by mentioning the surname of the author and date of publication. See p. 163.

Basic steps to paraphrase Read the original information, if necessary for several times, until you understand it correctly. Remember that for most instances, you do not need word-to-word paraphrases. It means that provide basically the information that you need in order to support your claims. In this case, after reading the original text several times, it might be good idea to try to write down what you remember about it. In this way, you will be able to check your comprehension of the original material. If you are experiencing problems in the second step; then, changing the structure of the borrowed expression first. To do this, change the original expression from active to passive or from passive to active. Besides, it is also possible to break up long sentences and produce shorter ones, and also combine short sentences to produce a longer one. Then, change lexical items in it. To do this, of course work with synonyms of the lexical items. However, also try changing functions of some words. For example, turn nouns into verbs and adjectives to adverbs.

Summaries It requires identifying the main ideas in the original text and then reflecting them to your readers with your organization. Summaries also require restructuring and rewording the original material. However, the summarized version is much shorter than the original one since it only includes the main points. Summarize if you want to mention the most fundamental ideas in the original source. See p. 164.

Reasons of reporting They support your argument. They provide credibility to your paper by indicating your readers that you searched enough about your topic. They can exemplify your points. You can indicate your agreement or disagreement with other researchers. You can highlight an idea in your argument.