BA6: Integrating Quotations

1. BA6: Integrating Quotations Tips For Success

2. Assignment Specifics • Choose 3 passages (at least 5 sentences each) that make use of quotes, summaries, and paraphrases. • Revise each. • Discuss your changes. • Format: • For each passage: • Original • evaluation of original: purpose of sources, reliance of sources, how might you integrate • Revised • evaluation of revised: how have changes enhanced the quality of your argument?

3. Quoting • When to do it: • When you want to preserve specific wording. • For example, clear language • When the phrasing/diction is dynamic and interesting. • When you want the authority of an expert whose opinions support your ideas. • When you want the opinion of an expert who challenges your ideas. • Avoid LONG quotes. You want short and snappy. If you think it’s all good stuff, paraphrase instead.

4. Integrated Quotes: What They Look Like • According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. • According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184). • Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

5. Brackets • Use brackets to add/change words: • Past to present tense • Change pronouns • Insert clarifications • Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

6. Ellipses • Use ellipses when you omit words from the middle of the quote. • There is no need to use ellipses at the end or the beginning of the quote. • In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

7. The Quotation Sandwich

8. Integrating Quotes Fully • Beer Drinking Example: • http://uwc.ucf.edu/files/handouts/Integrating_Quotations_MLA.pdf

9. Paraphrasing • When to Do it: • The details are important, but not necessarily the phrasing or diction. • How to Do it: • Put the passage in your own words • Match in length (or shorten slightly) • Cite it!

10. When to Summarize • When to Do it: • The main point is important, but not the details, and certainly not the phrasing or diction. • How to Do it: • Shorten/condense • Include only main points • Cite it!

11. Examples • Original: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. • From: Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47. • Paraphrase:In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47). • Summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

12. Example: Paraphrase & Quotes • In his famous and influential work The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud argues that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" (26-7), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream-work" (27). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before emerging in a kind of "rebus puzzle" in the dream itself (27-8).