Paraphrasing



Quotations & Paraphrasing

Quotations:

When used properly, quotations can add authority, persuasion, and strength to your argument. However, quotations should only supplement your argument. Don’t make an argument of only quotations – then it’s not your argument. Getting the hang of using quotations correctly can be tricky. The guidelines below will help you. Remember that all quotes must be properly cited.

You may use quotations (words phrases, or sentences from the story) as you include concrete details. If you do, you must learn how to integrate (blend) the quotations into your own writing and include a smooth lead-in to the quote. The following guidelines and examples will help you incorporate quotations into your essay effectively:

Framing

Framing is a fancy name for fitting quotations into your writing. Framing is where you introduce your quote in the paper. You cannot use a quotation without framing it first.

The most straightforward method of framing quotes is to use speaker tags (also called attributive tags or lead-in verbs) at the beginning, middle, or end of a quote. As the name implies, these tags tell your reader about the speaker.

• As actress Mae West quips, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful.”

Another option is to embed the quote into the sentence:

• Roald Dahl believes that “a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”

Ineffective vs. Effective Use of Quotations:

• Do not overuse quotations. Incorporate quoted phrases into your own sentence structure and avoid having two quotations in a row.

( Ineffective: Lennie’s strength overpowered Curley. “The next minute Curley was

flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand.” “Curley was white and shrunken by now, and his struggling had become weak. He stood crying, his fist lost in Lennie’s paw” (Steinbeck 56).

( Effective: Lennie’s strength so overpowered Curley that Curley looked “like a fish on a

line” with his “fist lost in Lennie’s paw” (Steinbeck 56).

• Work the quotation smoothly into your own sentence structure.

( Ineffective: Steinbeck describes Lennie in animal-like terms by saying, “Lennie dabbled

his paw in the water” (Steinbeck 12).

( Ineffective: “Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water” shows how Steinbeck describes Lennie in animal-like terms (Steinbeck 12).

( Effective: Like a big bear, “Lennie dabbled his paw in the water” (Steinbeck 56).

• You may alter a quote for clarity by placing the change in brackets.

Original: George said, “That mouse ain’t fresh, Lennie; and besides, you’ve broken it pettin’ it” (Steinbeck 14).

Changed: Steinbeck foreshadows Lennie’s troubles early in the novel when Lennie has “broken [the mouse] pettin’ it” (Steinbeck 14).

Block quotes are quotations of more than four lines. They should be used rarely and only when omitting part of the quote would hurt its power. In MLA style, block quotes should be double-spaced and indented one inch on the left (10 spaces). Sentences preceding a block quote should introduce the speaker and context. The sentence immediately preceding a block quote is punctuated with a colon or period.

See the MLA Documentation Format handout or a handbook for citation details.

Use of Ellipses:

If you omit material in order to be concise, mark the omission with three periods (called an ellipsis) with a space between each (. . .). You do not need to use these at the beginning and end of your quotations. It is understood that you are taking passages from a longer work.

Original: “Curley was white and shrunken by now, and his struggling had become

weak. He stood crying, his fist lost in Lennie’s paw” (Steinbeck 57).

With ellipsis: As Lennie continued to crush Curley’s fist, he turned “white and shrunken…his fist lost in Lennie’s paw” (Steinbeck 57).

Analysis:

Never use a quote without analyzing it. To analyze, explain how the quote fits into your argument. Your quotes should help to drive the argument forward. Analysis is also known as commentary.

Citations:

All direct quotations must be properly cited in standard academic writing.

THINGS TO REMEMBER!!!

• Always frame the quote.

• Always put your citation at the end of you sentence.

• The period goes outside of the quotation marks and after the parenthesis.

• Make sure you have a good reason for using the quote.

– Does it support your thesis/argument/point?

– Is it something that can’t be paraphrased or summed up in your own words effectively?

Paraphrasing

A Definition

Paraphrasing is the use of another’s ideas to enhance your own work. In a paraphrase, you rewrite in your own words the ideas taken from the source. Paraphrases avoid excessive reliance on quotations and demonstrate that you understand the source author’s argument. A paraphrase always has a different sentence structure and word choice. When done well, it is much more concise than the original.

Good writers signal paraphrases through clauses such as:

Werner Sollors, in Beyond Ethnicity, argues that. . .

These phrases indicate the source of the paraphrase and help integrate the borrowed ideas into your own work. Because a paraphrase is your restatement of a borrowed idea, it is not set within quotation marks. Though the ideas may be borrowed, your writing must be original; simply changing a few words or rearranging words or sentences is not paraphrasing. In fact, it’s plagiarism, a severe academic offense that can result in disciplinary action.

Proper Citation

Remember that paraphrases, just like direct quotations, must be cited. While the words may be your own, the ideas are still borrowed, and you must acknowledge your source. The following examples use MLA style.

Note taking and Paraphrasing

Good note-taking can improve your paraphrases. When taking notes, do not copy words from a source unless you intend to quote that source. Rather, read carefully, think, and then write, in your own words, the main ideas you have read. Be sure to note the source for proper citation. Skipping the note-taking step and paraphrasing directly from a source into your draft limits your ability to think through the ideas and increases the risk that you will commit negligent plagiarism. Use note taking to develop and organize your own ideas.

The Wrong Way to Paraphrase #1: Failure to Cite Source

Original Passage: “They desire, for example, virtue and the absence of vice, no less really than pleasure and the absence of pain” (Mill 169).

Paraphrase: People want morality just as much as they want happiness.

Explanation: This paraphrase is an accurate summary of the above passage, but is incorrectly paraphrased because it does not cite the source of its main ideas. The author of this paraphrase has plagiarized the ideas of another.

The Wrong Way to Paraphrase #2: Lack of Significant Rewording

Original Passage: “To the young American architects who made the pilgrimage, the most dazzling figure of all was Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School. Gropius opened the Bauhaus in Weimar, the German capital, in 1919. It was more than a school; it was a commune, a spiritual movement, a radical approach to art in all its forms, a philosophical center comparable to the Garden of Epicurus” (Wolfe 10).

.Paraphrase: As Tom Wolfe notes, to young American architects who went to Germany, the most dazzling figure was Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School (10). Gropius opened the Bauhaus in the German capital of Weimar in 1919. It was, however, more than a school; it was a commune, a spiritual movement, a philosophical center like the Garden of Epicurus.

Explanation: This excerpt is not a paraphrase at all; it is too similar to the source. Rather than summarizing the ideas, it uses the same words and structure as the original. This author has committed plagiarism by misrepresenting another’s work as his own.

The Right Way to Paraphrase

Original Passage: “The Republican Convention of 1860, which adopted planks calling for a tariff, internal improvements, a Pacific railroad and a homestead law, is sometimes seen as a symbol of Whig triumph within the party. A closer look, however, indicates that the Whig’s triumph within the party was of a very tentative nature” (Foner 175).

Paraphrase: Contrary to many historians, Eric Foner argues that the Republican platform of 1860 should not be understood as an indication of Whig dominance of the party (175).

Explanation: This paraphrase is properly cited and represents an accurate and concise summary of the source.

MLA – Parenthetical Documentation

AKA-HOW TO CITE YOUR CONCRETE DETAIL!!!

When quoting, referring to any source or using any information that doesn’t come directly from your brain, you must:

• Always mention the author's name—either in the text itself or in the parenthetical citation—unless no author is provided.

• Do so by using parenthetical documentation in the body of your paper. Here’s how:

If the author's name is mentioned in the text

If the author's name is used in the text introducing the source material, then cite the page number(s) in parentheses:

Example - Branscomb argues that "it's a good idea to lurk (i.e., read all the messages without contributing anything) for a few weeks, to ensure that you don't break any of the rules of netiquette" (7) when joining a listserv.

If the author's name is not mentioned in the text

If the author's name is not used in the sentence introducing the source material, then include the author's last name in the parenthetical citation before the page number(s). Note that no comma appears between the author's name and the page number(s).

Example - The modern world requires both the ability to concentrate on one thing and the ability to attend to more than one thing at a time: "Ideally, each individual would cultivate a repertoire of styles of attention, appropriate to different situations, and would learn how to embed activities and types of attention one within another" (Bateson 97).

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