Integrating Sources
into Your Writing
University Writing Center
Jaclyn Wells
Using Sources
College writing assignments often ask you to
incorporate others’ writing. For example:
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You might be asked to write a research paper
that refers to a specific number of credible
sources that provide information on your topic.
You might be asked to write a proposal that
uses information and examples from outside
sources in order to support your claims.
You might be asked to write a literary analysis
in which you need to reference other scholarly
interpretations of the work you are analyzing.
Summary, Paraphrase, Quotations
In general, it’s a good idea to use a combination of
summarizing, paraphrasing, and direct quoting from
sources. An essay that balances these strategies will
provide the smoothest integration of sources and the
most effective use of information.
How to Choose
When deciding whether to summarize an entire
source, paraphrase a passage, or directly quote a
small segment, you will need to consider your
specific writing task, what your reader needs, and
how you are using the source.
In particular, considering the reader will help you
make the most rhetorically effective choice.
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Sometimes, your reader needs an overview of a
source’s overall, or big picture, argument.
Other times, the reader needs an explanation of a
specific part of an argument.
And other times, the reader needs the impact of a
source’s original words.
Choice of Summary
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you
might want to summarize your source.
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Are you trying to give your reader a broad
sense of a source’s major point(s)?
Are you trying to show another general
argument that has been made about a topic
before presenting your own?
Are you trying to provide a broad outline of a
source before presenting its more specific
points to your reader?
Summary: How-To
When you summarize, you explain the main points
or ideas of a source to your reader. Your goal is to
get at the general idea or argument from the
writing, rather than the specifics.
When summarizing, it is important to:
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Provide a “big picture” sense of the source
Put ideas in your own words
Name the author and source
Communicate the source’s meaning as honestly
as possible
Summary Example
The following paragraph summarizes the example
passage on your handout.
In “The Benefits of Facebook ‘Friends’: Social
Capital and College Students' Use of Online
Social Network Sites,” Ellison, Steinfield, and
Lampe conclude that online social networking
sites like Facebook may have positive
outcomes for the college students who use
them. These positive outcomes, particularly the
preservation of relations across communities,
contrast with previous literature that warns of
the potential negative impact of using sites like
Facebook.
Choice of Paraphrase
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you
might need to paraphrase from your source:
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Are you trying to give your reader a sense of a
specific part of the writing, as opposed to a
general sense of the whole source?
Are you trying to support your own argument
with information, an example, or an argument
from a specific passage of a source?
Are you trying to make an expert’s argument
accessible to your reader?
Paraphrase: How-To
When you paraphrase, you put a passage from a
source in your own words. Generally, your paraphrase
will be around the same length as the original
passage or perhaps a bit shorter. It should sound like
your writing, not the original.
As with summarizing, it is important to give credit to
the original author when you paraphrase, and it is also
necessary to communicate the author’s meaning
honestly. It’s also necessary to show your reader the
significance of the paraphrase (rather than assuming
they know).
Paraphrase Example
The following sentences paraphrase the
second paragraph of the example passage
on your handout.
Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe argue that
Facebook is particularly useful in helping
students maintain relationships when
moving from high school to college, and
that it may help students maintain
connections after college. They suggest
that colleges encourage use of social
networking sites because of these potential
benefits.
Choice of Quotation
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you
might choose to quote directly from your source:
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Are you trying to emphasize a very specific
section of a source?
Are you trying to communicate not only the
meaning, but also the exact phrasing, of a
section of a source?
Are you trying to appeal to emotion (pathos)
or credibility (ethos) by using your source’s
exact words?
Quotation: How-To
When you quote, you copy an exact portion from a source
into your writing. It’s important to show your reader the
significance of the quote—you do not want to assume that
readers automatically understand why you’re including it or
how the quote relates to your larger argument.
You also should:
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Copy the segment identically (even punctuation counts!)
Give credit to the original author and double-check your
quotation marks
Introduce the quote so that it flows smoothly from your
own writing
Provide necessary explanation of the quote and its
significance to your argument
Quotation Example
The following short paragraph offers an
example of how you might integrate a quote
from the example passage on your handout.
Social networking sites like Facebook have
often been criticized for discouraging in-person
interaction between people. On the other
hand, Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe argue that
“Online interactions do not necessarily remove
people from their offline world but may indeed
be used to support relationships and keep
people in contact, even when life changes
move them away from each other.”
Introductory Verbs
The verbs you use to introduce quotes, summaries,
and paraphrases help weave your source’s words
with your own writing. Some useful verbs for
introducing sources include:
acknowledges
suggests
observes
argues
concludes
speculates
advises
complains
refutes
claims
concurs
considers
proposes
expresses
denies
interprets
concedes
offers
insists
reveals
(dis)agrees
remarks
believes
condemns
states
points out
notes
A Note about Citations
You’ll notice that the examples do not include
in-text citations. A couple of notes:
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No page numbers are cited because the
example source is an online document with no
page numbers. If you were paraphrasing from a
source with page numbers, you would include
the page number in an in-text citation,
according to MLA guidelines.
The example summary, paraphrase, and quote
name the authors. If they were not named in
the text, you would include their names in an intext citation, according to MLA guidelines. See
the Purdue Online Writing Lab for more
information about citing sources.