Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Using Direct Quotes

Paraphrasing Most of the borrowed material used in a paper should be paraphrased. This means the student rewrites or restates the person’s original ideas in his/her own words.

Paraphrasing Rules Rule 1: Understand. Have a thorough understanding of the passage before paraphrasing it. Note key words and phrases, looking up definitions for any unfamiliar terms. Rule 2: Clarify and simplify. Clarify and simplify the paraphrase. Rule 3: Retain the meaning. Retain the exact meaning of the original.

Paraphrasing Rules Rule 4: Maintain the form. Maintain approximately the same length, order of ideas, tone, and message. Do not use the same words or phrases except for the few that cannot be changed because they have no adequate synonyms or because a specific word is essential to the meaning of the passage. Rule 5: Personalize the style. Develop and maintain a personal writing style throughout the paper, even when restating others’ ideas, attitudes, and beliefs. Rule 6: Provide citations. Provide in-text citations for all paraphrased material.

When to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Use the paraphrase as your basic note form – the form that you always use unless you have a good reason to quote or summarize your source.

Summarizing A summary is a shortened version of a paraphrase. It retains the original writer’s main idea and point of view but condenses the material. Like the paraphrase, it uses the writer’s own words.

Summarizing Rules Rule 1: Read the passage, paying attention to keywords, looking up definitions for any unfamiliar terms. Rule 2: Restate the main facts and ideas, keeping the order. Rule 3: Include essential information, but omit descriptive details, examples, illustrations, analogies, and anecdotes. Rule 4: Try to shrink the passage to about one-third the length of the original. Rule 5: Provide a parenthetical citation for the material being summarized.

When to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Summary Use a summary when a passage in a source is too long to be succinctly quoted or paraphrased.

Direct Quotes Use direct quotes where the author’s exact wording is essential to convey his or her meaning, tone, or language use.

Direct Quotation Rules Rule 1: Use direct quotation of secondary source material. To show excellence of ideas and expression. To explain complex material. To provide a way of introducing personal observations. Rule 2: Use direct quotation of primary source material. To provide evidence for judgments about a poem, speech, novel, case study, historical analysis, and the like. To provide specific examples to support interpretation of symbolism, analysis of character, suggestion of theme, and the like.

Direct Quotation Rules Rule 3: Copy the author’s exact words and enclose them in quotation marks, following the rules for punctuation and capitalization. Place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Place colons, semi-colons, and dashes outside quotation marks. Place question marks or exclamation points inside quotation marks when they punctuate the quotation; place them outside when the punctuate the sentence. Use single quotation marks for a quotation within a quotation. Rule 4: For every direct quotation, provide A lead in – that is, introductory words or phrases A follow up – that is, an explanation of its meaning, relevance, or significance. A parenthetical citation – for example, “… to sleep forever” (Mudge, 98).

Direct Quotation Rules Rule 5: Avoid monotony and maintain fluency by using a variety of methods to introduce direct quotations. Rule 6: Use ellipses, that is, three dots, for omissions. Ellipses should be treated as a word for the purposes of punctuation and spacing. If the author being quoted has used ellipses points and it is necessary to omit a portion of the quote, use ellipses in square brackets […] to distinguish the edit from the author’s edit. Rule 7: For quotations longer than 4 lines, start a new line (enter), indent the entire quotation one inch from the left, double space, omit quotation marks, and place the citation outside the closing punctuation.

Direct Quotation Rules Rule 8: Remember that a research paper should be a personal presentation of thoroughly assimilated material in which direct quotations are used sparingly. Directly quoted material should constitute no more than ten percent of the final paper.

When to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Direct Quotation Use a direct quotation when an idea is especially well stated in a source – that is, when a passage is notable for its succinctness, its clarity, its liveliness, its elegance of expression, or some other exceptional quality. Also use a direct quotation when the exact wording is important historically, legally, or as a matter of definition. Use a direct quotation only when the author has expressed his or her ideas so perfectly that a paraphrase could not do them justice.

When to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Quotation plus summary or paraphrase Write this kind of note when the exact words of the source are desirable but require some explanation to be clear, to be properly attributed, or to be identified as fact or opinion.

Remember… Cite as you write!!!!