In This Section
This section will explain how to properly integrate research into
your paper. This section covers
Please note that both quotations and paraphrases require an
in-text citation that credits the original source. See
Citations
in Text for more information.
Quoting
Quoting is
using the exact words from the source in your paper. The format of a
quotation depends on its length.
Quoting Fewer Than 40 Words
Put the exact words from the source inside double quotation marks which
looks like this: "…".
For example, the following is an excerpt
from a book:
Over the past seven decades, theorists have worked to understand how we can
best teach adults.
This is an example of how a short piece of the excerpt would be quoted.
Notice that all quoted words are inside the quotation marks and that the
period is placed at the end.
“Over the past seven decades, theorists have worked to understand how we can
best teach adults” (Cranton, 2000, p. 23).
Quoting 40 or More Words
A quotation of 40 or more words is formatted
as a block quotation, which means
do not use quotation
marks,
begin the quotation on a new line, and
indent the whole quotation.
Example
Diabetes affects many people. As medical practitioners, it is important to understand not
only the symptoms of diabetes, but also how it occurs. Diabetes
is a metabolic disease in which the body is either not able to effectively use the
insulin it produces or not able to produce enough insulin. Insulin is produced in the
pancreas and is crucial to the metabolic function of the body because it controls
how glucose is used. When there is a lack of insulin, glucose levels can stay
elevated in the bloodstream. Over time, this causes damage to the kidneys, eyes,
feet, and nerves (Diabetes Association of Research, 2015, para. 2).
Changes to Direct Quotations
Sometimes it is necessary to make
minor changes to integrate a quotation into your sentence. There are
four ways you can do this:
Changing Punctuation
The
punctuation mark at the end of the sentence from the original source can
be changed to fit your sentence.
Changing the First Letter
The first letter of the first word from the source can be changed to an
upper or lower case letter to fit your sentence.
To leave out part of a sentence, replace the group of
words with an ellipsis which looks like this: …
Example
"Insulin ... controls how glucose is used" (Diabetes Association of Research, 2015, para. 2).
To add information such as an explanation, place
added material within square brackets which looks like this: [ ]
Example
"When there is a lack of insulin, glucose [sugar] levels can stay elevated in the
bloodstream" (Diabetes Association of Research, 2015, para. 2).
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing means using your own words to
communicate the idea from the source.
An effective paraphrase
should
be about the same length of the original source,
never include any new ideas or facts that are not in the original,
and
not use more than three of the original words in
a row.
It is important to keep the same idea as the
original text, but change the words and structure to match your own
writing style. A paraphrase will not have quotation marks. See below for
an example.
Remember that every sentence that you have paraphrased must be cited using the three elements of the in-text citation format. For example, if you paraphrase and it takes you two sentences to complete the paraphrase, BOTH sentences must be cited even though it is the same citation.
The following is an excerpt from a book:
Over the past seven decades, theorists have worked to understand how we can
best teach adults.
This is an example of how the excerpt may be paraphrased. Notice that
the idea has not changed, but the words and sentence structure are
different.
Learning how to effectively teach adults has intrigued academics for 70 years
(Cranton, 2000, p. 23).
For more information on how to
paraphrase, see the following resources in the VLC:
Checklist
Use the
Quoting & Paraphrasing Checklist to guide you through the steps
listed above. This checklist can be downloaded and printed.