Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

When to quote, paraphrase, or summarize
Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing sources
Writing your paper

9.1 When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize

9.2 Creating a Fair Summary

9.3 Creating a Fair Paraphrase

9.4 Adding Quotations to Your Text

9.5 Introducing Quotations and Paraphrases

9.6 Mixing Quotation with Summary and Paraphrase

9.7 Interpret Complex Quotations Before You Offer Them

You should build most of your paper out of your own words that represent your own thinking, but that thinking should be supported by quotations, para-phrases, and summaries of information you found in sources. In fact, new researchers typically find almost all of their evidence in sources. So it is crucial not only that you fully integrate the information from sources into your argument but that you present it in ways that lead your readers to trust it. For that you must know what readers expect, what choices you have, and how those choices lead readers to draw conclusions about your sources and about you.

9.1 When to quote, paraphrase, or summarize

You can present information from a source in the source's words or in your own. Which you choose depends on how you plan to use the information in your argument, but also on the kind of paper you are writing, since different fields use quotation, paraphrase, and summary in different proportions. In general, researchers in the humanities quote most often. Social and natural scientists typically paraphrase and summarize. But you must decide each case for itself.

Principles for Choosing Summary, Paraphrase, or Quotation

Summarize when details are irrelevant or a source isn't important enough to warrant the space.

Paraphrase when you can state what a source says more clearly or concisely than the source does, or when your argument depends on the details in a source but not on its specific words. (Before you paraphrase, however, read 9.3.)

Quote for these purposes:

✵ The quoted words themselves are your evidence, and you need to deal with them exactly as they appeared in the original.

✵ The quoted words are strikingly original, well expressed, odd, or otherwise too useful to lose in paraphrase.

✵ The passage states a view that you disagree with, and to be fair you want to state it exactly.

✵ The passage is from an authority who backs up your view.

✵ The passage expresses your key concepts so clearly that the quotation can frame the rest of your discussion.

You must balance quotations, paraphrases, and summaries with your own fresh ideas. Do not merely repeat or, worse, download words and ideas of others that you then stitch together with a few sentences of your own. Teachers grind their teeth over papers that show so little original thinking.

Readers value research only to the degree that they trust its sources. So when you include a summary, paraphrase, or quotation in your first draft, record its bibliographic data in the appropriate citation style right then and there. (See part 2).