Quoting & Paraphrasing

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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.

Taking Out Information

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).

Adding Information

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:

• Quoting and Paraphrasing e-Tutorial

• How to Paraphrase Resource

Checklist

Use the Quoting & Paraphrasing Checklist to guide you through the steps listed above.  This checklist can be downloaded and printed.