R-3a Reading for Patterns and Connections
Your task as a writer is to find as much information as you can on your topic and then to study the data you find to determine what you think and to support what you yourself then write. Read with an
106 R-3b SynThESizing iDEAS
open mind, taking careful notes to help you see patterns, themes, and connections among your sources. Pay attention to your first reactions: you’ll likely have many ideas to work with, but your first thoughts can often lead somewhere interesting. Here are some questions that can help you discover patterns and connections:
• Which sources make the strongest arguments? What makes them so strong?
• Which arguments do you agree with? disagree with?
• Are there any arguments, distinctive terms, themes, or data that you see in more than one source?
• Are there any disagreements among sources? Are there any that you need to address in what you write?
• How have your sources affected your thinking on your topic? Have you discovered new questions you need to investigate?
• Have you found the information you need that will achieve your purpose , appeal to your audience , and suit your medium ?
The ideas and insights that emerge from this questioning can become the basis for your own ideas — and for what you have to say about the topic.
R-3b Moving from What Your Sources Say to What You Say
As you work to make sense of what your sources say, you’ll be figur- ing out what you yourself think — where you stand on your topic and what you want to say. You’ll have some understanding of what others believe, which will affect what you think. But when you formulate your own argument, you’ll need to be careful to draw from your sources to support what you think, to weave their ideas in with your ideas.
Entering the conversation. As you read and think about your topic, you’ll come to understand the concepts, interpretations, and
107R-4a incorporating the Words and ideas of others
controversies relating to it — and you’ll become aware that there’s a larger conversation going on. When you formulate your own ideas on the topic, you’ll begin to find your way into that conversation. This is the exciting part of a research project, for when you write out your own ideas on the topic, you will find yourself entering that conversation. Remember that your stance as an author needs to be clear: simply stringing together the words and ideas of others isn’t enough. You need to show readers how your source materials relate to one another and to your thesis .
R-4 Integrating Sources, Avoiding Plagiarism
When you include the ideas and words of others in your writing, you need to clearly distinguish those ideas and words from your own and give credit to their authors. This chapter will help you with the specifics of integrating source materials into your writing and acknowledging your sources appropriately.
R-4a Incorporating the Words and Ideas of Others into Your Text
When you incorporate source materials into your own writing, you’ll need to decide how to do so — whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize. You might follow this rule of thumb: quote texts when the wording is worth repeating, when you want to cite the exact words of a known authority on your topic, when his or her opinions challenge or disagree with those of others, or when the source is one you want to emphasize. paraphrase texts that are
108 R-4b inTEgRATing SouRCES, AvoiDing PLAgiARiSM
not worth quoting but that contain details you need to include. summarize passages whose main points are important but whose details are not. In addition, you’ll need to introduce any words or ideas that are not your own with a signal phrase in order to clearly distinguish what your sources say from what you have to say.
R-4b Quoting
Quoting is a way of weaving someone’s exact words into your text. When you quote, you reproduce the source exactly, though you can omit unnecessary details (adding ellipses to show that you’ve done so) or modify the quotation to make it fit smoothly into your text (enclosing any changes in brackets ).
Incorporate short quotations into your text, enclosed in quota- tion marks. What counts as a short quotation varies, however; consult the chapters on MLA , APA , Chicago , or CSE for guidelines in each of those styles. The following examples are shown in MLA style.
Gerald Graff argues that colleges leave many students with “the misconception that the life of the mind is a secret society for which only an elite few qualify” (1).
To quote three lines or less of poetry in MLA style, run them in with your text, enclosed in quotation marks. Separate lines with slashes, leaving one space on each side of the slash. Include the line numbers in parentheses at the end of the quotation.
Emma Lazarus almost speaks for the Statue of Liberty with the words inscribed on its pedestal: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” (10-12).
Set off long quotations block style. Longer quotations should not be run in with quotation marks but instead are set off from your text and indented from the left margin. Block quotations are
109R-4b Quoting
usually introduced by a full sentence. Again, what counts as long var- ies across disciplines; consult the chapters on MLA , APA , Chicago , or CSE for specific guidelines on when to format a quotation as a block and how much to indent. Whatever style you’re following, do not add quotation marks; the indent signals that you are quoting someone’s exact words. Remember to document the source, using the format required by the style you’re following. Here is an example shown in MLA style, indented one-half inch from the left margin:
Organizations such as Oxfam rely on visual representations of the poor. What better way to get our attention? asks Diana George:
In a culture saturated by the image, how else do we convince Americans that — despite the prosperity they see all around them — there is real need out there? The solu- tion for most nonprofits has been to show the despair. To do that they must represent poverty as something that can be seen and easily recognized: fallen down shacks and trashed out public housing, broken windows, dilapi- dated porches, barefoot kids with stringy hair, emaciated old women and men staring out at the camera with empty eyes. (210)
If you quote four lines or more of poetry in MLA style, they also need to be set off in a block:
Emily Dickinson, like many poets, asserts that we cannot know truth directly but must apprehend it through indirect means:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise (1-4)
Indicate any omissions with ellipses, inserting three ellipsis dots with space around each one to indicate deleted words. Be careful not to distort your source’s meaning.
In her essay, Antonia Peacocke argues that Family Guy provides an astute satire of American society, though she concedes that it does sometimes “seem to cross . . . the line of indecency” (266).
110 R-4c inTEgRATing SouRCES, AvoiDing PLAgiARiSM
If you omit a sentence or more in the middle of a quotation, put a period before the three ellipsis dots.
According to Kathleen Welch, “Television is more acoustic than visual. . . . One can turn one’s gaze away from the television, but one cannot turn one’s ears from it without leaving the area where the monitor leaks its aural signals into every corner” (102).
Indicate any additions or changes with brackets. Sometimes, you’ll need to change or add words to make a quotation fit gram- matically within your sentence, or you’ll want to add a comment. Here the writer changes the word our to their so that the quotation fits grammatically into her own text:
Writing about the dwindling attention of some composition scholars to the actual teaching of writing, Susan Miller notes that “few discussions of writing pedagogy take it for granted that one of [their] goals is to teach how to write” (480).
In this example, brackets are used to add an explanatory word:
As Barbosa notes, Chico Buarque’s lyrics include “many a metaphor of saudades [yearning] so characteristic of fado music” (207).
Keep in mind that too many ellipses and brackets can make a text choppy and hard to read, so it’s best to keep such editing to a minimum.
❯❯ SEE P-4 for guidance in using other punctuation inside or outside quotation marks.
R-4c Paraphrasing
When you paraphrase, you restate material from a source in your own words, using your own sentence structure. Paraphrase when the source material is important but the original wording is not. Because it includes all the main points and details of the source material, a paraphrase is usually about the same length as the original. Here is an excerpt from a source, followed by a paraphrase:
111R-4c Paraphrasing
ORIGINAL SOURCE
In 1938, in a series of now-classic experiments, exposure to syn- thetic dyes derived from coal and belonging to a class of chemicals called aromatic amines was shown to cause bladder cancer in dogs. These results helped explain why bladder cancers had become so prevalent among dyestuffs workers. With the invention of mauve in 1854, synthetic dyes began replacing natural plant-based dyes in the coloring of cloth and leather. By the beginning of the twenti- eth century, bladder cancer rates among this group of workers had skyrocketed, and the dog experi ments helped unravel this mystery. — Sandra Steingraber, “Pesticides, Animals, and Humans,” p. 976
PARAPHRASE
Biologist Sandra Steingraber explains that pathbreaking experi- ments in 1938 demonstrated that dogs exposed to aromatic amines (chemi cals used in coal-derived synthetic dyes) developed cancers of the blad der that were similar to cancers common among dyers in the textile industry. After mauve, the first synthetic dye, was invented in 1854, leather and cloth manufacturers replaced most natural dyes made from plants with synthetic dyes, and by the early 1900s textile workers had very high rates of bladder cancer. The experiments with dogs revealed the connection (976).
Now see two examples that demonstrate some of the challenges of paraphrasing. The paraphrase below borrows too much of the origi- nal language or changes it only slightly, as the words and phrases highlighted in yellow show.
Now-classic experiments in 1938 showed that when dogs were exposed to aromatic amines, chemicals used in synthetic dyes derived from coal, they developed bladder cancer. Similar cancers were prevalent among dyestuffs workers, and these experiments helped to explain why. Mauve, a synthetic dye, was invented in 1854, after which cloth and leather manufacturers replaced most of the natural plant-based dyes with synthetic dyes. By the early twentieth century, this group of workers had skyrocketing rates of bladder cancer, a mystery the dog exper iments helped to unravel (Steingraber 976).
This next paraphrase uses different language but follows the sen- tence structure of Steingraber’s text too closely.
112 R-4d inTEgRATing SouRCES, AvoiDing PLAgiARiSM
In 1938, several pathbreaking experiments showed that being exposed to synthetic dyes that are made from coal and belong to a type of chemicals called aromatic amines caused dogs to get bladder cancer. These results helped researchers identify why cancers of the bladder had become so common among textile workers who worked with dyes. With the development of mauve in 1854, synthetic dyes began to be used instead of dyes based on plants in the dyeing of leather and cloth. By the end of the nineteenth century, rates of bladder cancer among these workers had increased dramatically, and the experiments using dogs helped clear up this oddity (Steingraber 976).
It can be a challenge to write a paraphrase without inadvertently copying some of the original text’s wording or sentence structures, especially when you’re paraphrasing complex or unfamiliar ideas. One common mistake many writers make is to start by copying a pas- sage directly from a source and then changing it: adding some words or deleting some words, replacing others with synonyms, altering sentence structures. The result is patchwriting , patching together passages from another source; even if the source is documented, patchwriting is considered plagiarism.
To avoid problems of this kind, read over the original passages you’re paraphrasing carefully, but do not look at them while you’re writing. Use your own words and sentence structure. If you use any words from the original, put them in quotation marks. And be sure to indicate the source: the wording may be yours, but the ideas and information come from another source; name the author and include documentation .
R-4d Summarizing
A summary states the main ideas in a source concisely and in your own words. Unlike a paraphrase, a summary does not present the details, and it is generally as brief as possible. Summaries may boil down an entire book or essay into a single sentence, or they may take a paragraph or more to present the main ideas. Here, for example, is a summary of the original excerpt from Steingraber (see p. 111):
113R-4e using Signal Phrases to introduce Source Materials
Steingraber explains that experiments with dogs demonstrated that aromatic amines, chemicals used in synthetic dyes, can cause bladder cancer (976).
As with a paraphrase, if you include any language from the origi- nal, put it in quotation marks — and indicate the source, naming the author and including documentation .
R-4e Using Signal Phrases to Introduce Source Materials
You need to introduce quotations, paraphrases, and summaries with a signal phrase, usually letting readers know who the author is and, if need be, something about his or her credentials. Consider this sentence:
Professor and textbook author Elaine Tyler May argues that many high school history books are far too bland to interest young readers (531).
The signal phrase (“Professor and textbook author Elaine Tyler May”) tells readers who is making the assertion and why she has the authority to speak on the topic.
Signal verbs. The language you use in a signal phrase can be neu- tral, like X says or according to Y. Or it can suggest something about the stance — the source’s or your own. The example above referring to the textbook author uses the verb argues, suggesting that what she says is disputable (or that the writer believes it is).
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