How to paraphrase in five steps
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Read the passage several times to fully understand the meaning
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Note down key concepts
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Write your version of the text without looking at the original
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Compare your paraphrased text with the original passage and make minor adjustments to phrases that remain too similar
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Cite the source where you found the idea
When using quotes, the quote MUST relate to and support your answer.
(Believe it or not, students will answer the question correctly and then just quote something from the passage that sounds nice, but has nothing to do with the question/ answer.)
Notes for 2023
1. Don't quote facts: Mr. Skipper was "born in 1964" (About).
2. Don't quote entire sentences. Mr. Skipper was born in 1964. "He lived in Pearland until he was 18, and his parents still live in his childhood home" (About).
3. Do quote opinions, statistics, and anything that is "particularly elegant, powerful, or memorable (Quoting: When and How to Use Quotations).
4. See #3: I only quoted part of a sentence; I embedded the quote into my own sentence.
See below from Simon Fraser University.
When should you quote?
According to Jerry Plotnick (2002, Director of the University College Writing Workshop) using a quotation is appropriate in the following situations:
1. The language of the passage is particularly elegant, powerful, or memorable.
[Don't worry about 2 - 4. If you really want to read them, click the link above.]
Quoting basics
When you quote, you include the words and ideas of others in your text exactly as they have expressed them. You signal this inclusion by placing quotation marks (“ ”) around the source author’s words and providing an in-text citation after the quotation.
For example:
According to Graff and Birkenstein, when you are inserting a quotation in your writing “you need to insert it into what we like to call a ‘quotation sandwich,’ with the statement introducing it serving as the top slice of bread and the explanation following it serving as the bottom slice” (p. 46). This "sandwich" method ensures that your reader can clearly see the source you are referencing and also understands how this quotation supports your overall argument.
[NOTE: In the new MLA format, paragraph numbers are no longer used for publications without page numbers. If the paragraphs are numbered, you would include (para. 10) to indicate the paragraph (MLA In-Text Citations).]
Here is an example of a quotation that is successfully “framed” within a text:
Citing the islands of Fiji as a case in point, Bordo notes that “until television was introduced in 1995, the islands had no reported cases of eating disorders." Three years after programming from the US and English were broadcast, "62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting” (149-50). Bordo’s point is that the Western cult of dieting is spreading even to remote places across the globe.
[Note: The in-text citations refers to the page numbers of the book. The author's name, Bordo, is already mentioned in the text.]
Works Cited
Bordo, Susan. "The Globalization of Eating Disorders." One World Community,
oneworldcommunity.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/globalization-of-eating-disorders-bordo.pdf.
Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/I Say. W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.
"MLA In-Text Citations." Center for Writing and Communication. University of Central Arkansas,
uca.edu/cwc/mla-basics/mla-in-text-citations/.
"Quoting: When and How to Use Quotations." Library. Simon Fraser University,
www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts/slc/writing/sources/quoting.
Embedding Quotes
Academic writing often calls for quoted material and requires the writer to reference the ideas of others and provide support through the use of quotations from experts. An academic essay should include the student’s own ideas and discussion of the topic, supported by evidence of material written by others.
When quotes are used as support in an essay, it is best to create a smooth connection from your idea to the quoted material. The ideas should flow together and be logical. One way to do this is to embed the quote, which places the quote into the context of your own writing
For example:
If the original text by John Doe reads: “As Sarah walked up the stairs, she came upon John, waiting at her door with her favorite flowers and a sorrowful expression on his face.”
The quote can be embedded like this: John exhibits his true feelings for Sarah when she finds him “waiting at her door with her favorite flowers and a sorrowful expression on his face” (Doe 75).
This quote would then be followed by more analysis of John’s feelings for Sarah.
Signal Phrases: Signal phrases introduce the article a quotation is from, the person who said the quotation, or both. They are key for embedding quotations. The signal phrases used in the examples of this handout are written in bold print.
For example, according to; discusses; states; argues; claims; proposes; writes; explains; points out; notes; demonstrates; says.
Built-in Quotations: Built-in quotations are built seamlessly into the sentence usually with a signal phrase/ word and the word "that."
For example, While studying animal sleeping habits, Jane Smith noted that "dolphins sleep with one eye open."
In her article about the sun, Jane Smith points out that "only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star."
Sandwiching Quotes
It is also a good idea to “sandwich” the quote, which means providing your own analysis and explanation of the quote before and after the quote, like two pieces of bread in a sandwich. In the following example, note how the quote is only a small part of the student’s writing. The majority of the words are the student’s own thoughts and analysis.
Combined, the answer would read
Although John is a character who has made many bad choices, he is revealed to have redeeming qualities, such as his love for his wife. John exhibits his true feelings for Sarah when she finds him "waiting at her door with her favorite flowers and a sorrowful expression on his face" (Doe 75). By asking for Sarah’s forgiveness this way, the author shows that John is not the flat, dark character that he seemed to be in the beginning; rather, he is a multi- dimensional, flawed human who has made mistakes but still has emotions.
Floating Quotations: Here's something I see a lot.
Embedding quotations is important because the reader can follow the paragraph more easily. This means that there should be no sentences composed entirely of a quotation, or the reader may find it difficult to connect the quotation to the point one wishes to make in the paragraph.
Incorrect: Jane Smith states there are many good reasons to eat dark chocolate. "Dark chocolate contains many antioxidants."
Correct: Jane Smith states there are many good reasons to eat dark chocolate, including that "dark chocolate contains many antioxidants."
Sometimes, it's necessary to change or omit a word from the original in order for it to fit your sentence.
Using Ellipsis and Brackets in Embedded Quotes
Ellipsis is the series of three dots that look like this: …
An ellipsis is used to indicate that something has been omitted from a quote. If a quote is long and includes information that is not essential to discuss, you can use an ellipsis to show that part of the quote has been removed.
For example: This original quote from the BCCC Tutoring Center website informs the reader about the different types of tutors available and tells the reader to try a few different tutors:
“Our range of tutors, including students, professionals from the community, and faculty, are here to help you, so please feel free to work with different tutors to find the right one or ones for you” (About the Tutoring Center).
If an author wants to use this quote but would only like to emphasize the part about working with different tutors, they can use an ellipsis:
The Bucks Tutoring Center offers a “range of tutors…so please feel free to work with different tutors to find the right one or ones for you” (About the Tutoring Center).
Brackets are the symbols that look like this: [ ]
They are occasionally used in embedded quotes when you need to change a verb tense or a few words in the quote to make the quote grammatically correct within a sentence.
For example: Here is the original quote from the BCCC Tutoring Center website:
“Our range of tutors, including students, professionals from the community, and faculty, are here to help you, so please feel free to work with different tutors to find the right one or ones for you” (About the Tutoring Center).
The author, however, would just like to quote the part about the different type of tutors, so it calls for some changes in the sentence in order to be grammatically correct within the context of the author’s paper:
The Bucks Tutoring Center has a “range of tutors, including students, professionals from the community, and faculty, [who] are here to help you” (About the Tutoring Center).
Occasionally, you may come across a source that may have a grammatical error or misspelling in the original source material. This often occurs in historical documents, such as letters or journals. When this takes place, transcribe the quote exactly as it occurs, including the error. To inform the reader that you intentionally left something incorrectly written, you will use [sic*] after the error.
For example, the following quote from a handwritten Civil War era letter contains a misspelling, so [sic] is used:
Private Smith wrote home, “paper has been scarce, but I will try to rite [sic] more often.”
(sources: Baltimore City Community College
*"Sic" is Latin for So or Thus. It is used to denote that a grammatical error, mistake or specific formatting in a quoted section is in the original quote and the quoted section is AS IT APPEARS in the original document.