Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing

Objective:Students will be able to identify the

differences between quotation, paraphrase, and summary.

Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are writing techniques that allow you to use another author’s work in your research.

Citing others’ works adds credibility to your work and provides support for your ideas.

To get started, let’s read the following short article found in the April 2006 issue of USA Today Magazine on page 10.

Using Quotations

Quotations must…• be used if you are taking something directly (word for

word) from the information source. • be attributed to the original author.

From the article, you like the sentence that says:“However, body art is going mainstream and growing in

popularity, particularly among young people.”

So in your project/paper, you will incorporate that sentence.

According to an article found in the USA Today Magazine, “…body art is going mainstream and growing in popularity, especially among young people” (“Tattoo, Bling Craze Raises Hiring Issues” 10).

Notice:• quotation marks are used around words directly

borrowed from the article • The in-text citation tells the reader where the quote

originated

Using ParaphrasingParaphrasing•Putting information from a source into your own words •It is the same length or slightly shorter than the original source•Must still give credit to the original source (of the ideas)

For this example, let’s try paraphrasing the following section:

Our ParaphraseJust 10 years ago, people in charge of hiring would have placed resumes of people with visible tattoos and body piercings in the discard pile. Today, that policy has changed. A significant percentage of younger generation employees have tattoos or other body marks (“Tattoo, Bling Craze Raises Hiring Issues” 10).

Notice that you’ve put the thoughts from the original snippet into your own words.

Using the same words and phrases and just rearranging them is plagiarism and a serious offense.

Direct Plagiarism

Ten years ago, (1) most job search authorities would have said that tattoos would have eliminated you from possible contention for a position. (2) Times have changed. (3) More than one-third of the younger generation (4) now sport tattoos.

This is direct plagiarism. The text in red has been taken directly from the article.

1

2

4

3

SummarizingSummarizing • Restate the main points of a source in your own

words• Must cite the original source• You must condense the information source into a

few sentences

For this example, let’s try summarizing the entire article. Let’s look at it again.

Our Summary

This article quotes John A. Challenger, a chief executive officer for an outsourcing firm, on his views about tattoos and other body art. He believes that times have changed and that companies will have to become more accepting of body art if they want to hire young people. However, he recommends that job seekers find out about a future employer’s acceptance of body art when interviewing for a position (“Tattoo, Bling Craze Raises Hiring Issues” 10).

Summing UpQuoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are all important skills to use when writing research papers. Using other people’s information provides support and credibility to your research.

– Use quotation marks if you are copying word for word. – Use paraphrasing to put the thoughts of the author into

your own words. – Use a summary to describe the main points of an

information source.– In all forms (quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing) YOU

MUST, also, include an in-text citation!

Works Cited

• This PowerPoint Presentation was borrowed from:

“Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing.” High School Tutorial Collaboration Website. Stewart Library - Weber State U, 2008. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

http://library.weber.edu/ref/hstutorial/