Summaries, Paraphrases, Quotations & Other Stuff: MLA

(or don’t plagiarize)

Summaries & Paraphrases

• Summaries condense information.• Paraphrases use about the same number of

words.• Either way, you have to restate the source’s

meaning using your own language.

Summaries

• Summarize when you need only the point of the passage, section, or even whole article or book. Summary is useful for context or views that are related, but not specifically relevant.

• A summary of a source never serves as good evidence!

Paraphrases

• Paraphrase when you can represent what a source says more clearly than it does.

To cite or not to cite?

• Common knowledge: what is it?• Information your readers could easily find in

any number of general sources.• Birthdates• Death dates• Obvious facts: Paris is the capital of France.

To cite or not to cite

• Specific information• Statistics• Opinions• Something controversial• When in doubt, cite

How to plagiarize

• You can plagiarize without realizing it by half-copying the author’s sentences

• Either by mixing his sentences with yours without quotation marks,

• Or by plugging in synonyms (thesaurus)• What is a thesaurus?

Thesaurus:A dinosaur with a good vocabulary

Quotations(Using too many could tell me that you don’t understand the information)

• Use quotations sparingly and integrate them.• When to use:• When language is vivid or expressive• When exact wording is necessary for technical accuracy• When it is important for debaters to use their own

words to state positions• When the words of an important authority lend weight.• When language of a source is the topic of your

discussion.

Direct quotations

• Direct quotations – You copy another person’s exact words (spoken or written) and enclose them in quotation marks.

• They require reporting verbs: assert, claim, declare, say, etc. There are hundreds.

• MLA – Uses present tense reporting verbs (simple present or present perfect).

• APA – Uses past tense reporting verbs.

Indirect Quotations

• In indirect quotations, the writer’s words are reported indirectly, without quotation marks.

• They still use the same reporting verbs.• Direct quotation:• He said, “The exam is at eight o’clock.”• Indirect quotation:• He said that the exam was at eight o’clock.

Direct vs. Indirect Quotations

• He said, “The exam has just started.”• He said that the exam had just started.• Sam said, “Today I will eat Chinese food, and

tomorrow I’ll eat French food if I can find a good restaurant.

• Sam said that today he would eat Chinese food and that tomorrow he’d eat French food if he could find a good restaurant.

Make Indirect

• Pre-med student Alma Smith said, “I miss being on campus, but I have to work and take care of my family.”

• Pre-med student Alma Smith said that she missed being on campus, but she had to work and take care of her family.

Marking Boundaries

• Avoid dropping quotations into the text without warning.

• The first time you use a source, use a signal phrase.

• Provide clear signal phrases, including at least the author’s name (and you will provide a credential).

Signal Phrases

• Use these to integrate sources when you summarize, paraphrase, or use a direct/in- direct quotation.

• The signal phrase names the author of the source and often provides some context for the material.

• Legal scholar Jay Kesan points out that the law is not meant to be broken (312).

Establish Authority

• The first time you mention a source, briefly include the author’s first and last name, credentials, or experience.

• When quoting from the same writer in the future, only the last name is necessary in the parenthetical.

• Readers shouldn’t have to guess why a quotation appears.

• If you use another’s words you have to explain how they contribute to your point.

• Use interpretive comments to link the quote to your argument. Why is the quote relevant.

Long Quotations

• I really don’t want to see any long quotations in your papers. But if one has to be used follow these guidelines:

• When you quote more than 4 typed lines of prose, or more than 3 lines of poetry, set off quotation by indenting it one inch (10 spaces) from the left margin.

• It should be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon.

• Quotation marks are not necessary

Longer QuotationsExample from Hacker

Botan and Smith examine the role of gender in company practices of electronic surveillance:

There has never been accurate documen- tation of the extent of gender differences

in surveillance. (127)

Notice the punctuation at the end.

Signal Phraseand Ellipses

• Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, points out that “by 1987, employers were administering nearly 2,000,000 polygraph tests a year to job applicants and employees…. Million of workers were required to produce urine samples under observation for drug testing…” (22).

• “The theft of information that can be downloaded to a . . . disk, emailed to oneself. . . , or even posted to a Web page for the entire world to see” (12).

[Brackets]

• Brackets allow you to insert your own words into quoted material.

• To explain a confusing reference• To keep a sentence grammatical in your

context• Legal Scholar Jay Kesan notes that “a decade

ago, losses [from employees’ computer crimes] were growing” (311).

Fin