Gavilan College Writing Center
INTEGRATING SOURCES
INTO YOUR WRITING
Using APA Style
Presentation Overview
• Introductions (Name, Classes)
• Integrating Sources: What and Why
• Summaries
• Quotations
• Paraphrases
Integrating Sources: What and Why
• Integrating sources means you put ideas from outside sources
together with your own ideas.
• Sources help develop and support your own writing (your main ideas,
purpose, claims). They do not replace your own ideas.
• Sources strengthen your writing because they:
• Provide background information and context
• Explain important terms and concepts
• Support your claims
• Add credibility to your writing
• Address other viewpoints
Ways to Integrate Sources
Three ways you include other writers’ work in your paper:
• Summaries
• Quotations
• Paraphrases
All three require in-text citation
Summaries
• A summary restates the main points of a source
or part of a source. It is much shorter than the
original source material.
Why use a summary?
• Summaries of other works can give background
or context for your writing.
• Summaries of other works can provide strong
examples that support your ideas.
• Summaries of other works can briefly explain
other viewpoints.
How to Write Summaries
• Leave out your own opinions. Stick to what the
source says. Be objective.
• Use your own words and your own sentence
structures.
• Use no more than 3-4 consecutive words from
the source.
Steps for Writing a Summary
1.
Read the source or passage you want to summarize.
2.
Try to understand the overall meaning of the source or passage
before you start writing your summary. Ask yourself “What is the
author’s meaning?”
3.
Write down what you think the source or passage is saying
without looking at the original (the “look away” technique). This
avoids summarizing a word or a phrase at a time.
4.
After writing your summary, look back at the source or passage
to make sure you haven’t copied the author’s exact phrases.
Quotations
• A quotation is a “word for word” copy of a short
segment of source material.
Example
• “Educational background, contacts with a
particular occupation through one's ethnic or
religious groups and family members, and
discrimination operate for or against an
individual's movement into an occupation"
(Kimmel, p. 293).
Why Use Quotations?
• To capture phrases or sentences that are
particularly expressive, powerful, or informative.
• To accurately explain technical terms and
concepts.
• To add credibility to your writing.
• To distance your ideas from the ideas of the
source author with a different viewpoint.
How to Use Quotations
• Use quotations selectively and sparingly.
• Keep your quotations short.
Don’t leave a quotation stranded!
Quotation Sandwiches
Step 1 (Bread):
• Introduce the Quotation
Step 2 (Meat):
• Quotation
Step 3 (Bread):
• Explain the Quotation
Introduce the Quotation
• Introduce the quotation with:
• Author’s last name
• Publication year in parentheses
• Optional: context for the source
• These introductions work well for paraphrases
and summaries too.
Introduce the Quotation—Examples
• According to Boskin (2004), “…”
• Berstein (2001) claimed that “…”
•
• Barinaga (2009) expressed an opposing viewpoint: “…”
• Young and Song’s (1997) study on fluoridation indicated that “…”
• Tyson (2004) gave the following analysis of the company’s current
financial situation: “…”
Verbs for Introducing Quotations
• In APA, use the past tense to describe other people’s
work
• Avoid using said. Instead, use academic words to
introduce the source information.
• Give source’s concepts/background: described, explained, stated
• Give source’s argument: argued, asserted, suggested, claimed
• Give source’s results: reported, showed, found, indicated
Explain the Quotation
• Explain the quotation by saying:
•
What you think the quotation means
• Why it is important
• How it is relevant to the point you are making
Explain the Quotation—Examples
• Basically, Tyson argued that…“…”
• In other words, Boskin believed that…“…”
• In making this statement, Gee indicated that…“…”
• Young and Song’s point is that…“…”
Sample Sandwich Quotation
• Kimmel (1990) claimed that "Socioeconomic status, ethnic
origin, intelligence, gender, and race tend to operate in
complex . . . ways to limit the range of occupations open
to an individual" (p. 293). In other words, many genetic
and social factors contribute to the job opportunities
available to people today.
Putting Quotations Together
• Multiple sandwich quotations in a single paragraph
• May be from different sources
• Avoid starting or ending a paragraph with a quotation
• Instead, start and end with your own statements give the
topic of the paragraph and connect the paragraph to the
overall topic
Integrating Quotations into your own sentences
• Quotations can be full sentences or shorter phrases.
• Integrate quotations into your own sentence structure.
• As Kern and Schultz (2005) indicated, “Because literacies are
social practices, they are critically linked to social identities” (p.
383).
• Genres are “abstract, socially recognized ways of using language”
(Hyland, 2003, p. 21).
• According to Kozol (2000), “savage inequalities” (p. 12) exist
throughout our educational system.
APA Quotation Format—under 40 words
• Author’s name, year, and page number immediately following
quotation
• Because genres are “abstract, socially recognized ways of using language”
(Hyland, 2003, p. 21) the types of genres that language learners need to
be taught will vary by culture.
• Author’s name in the sentence immediately followed by year
• Page number immediately following quotation
• Hyland (2003) explained that genres are “abstract, socially recognized
ways of using language” (p. 354).
• Omitting the quotation marks is PLAGIARISM (even if you
include the citation)
APA Quotation Format—40 words or more
•Start on a new
line
•No quotation
marks
•½ in. indent
•Double space
entire quotation
•Citation at end
after last
punctuation
Omitting Material from a Quotation
• To shorten quotes by removing extra information, use ellipsis points
(…) to indicate omitted text.
• Use four points (….) for omission between two sentences.
• Ellipsis is not needed at the beginning or end of a quotation.
• Example
• Original Source: In D/discourse analysis, any idea that applications and
practice are less prestigious or less important or less “pure” than theory has no
place. Such a notion has no place, because, as the reader will see, the theory
of language in this book is that language has meaning only in and through
social practices, practices which often leave us morally complicit with harm and
injustice unless we attempt to transform them.
•
• Quotation: “In D/discourse analysis, any idea that applications and practice are
less prestigious or less important or less “pure” than theory has no
place….because…language has meaning only in and through social practices”
(Gee, 2005, p. 8).
Adding to a Quotation
• If additional words are needed to make a quotation clear,
add those words in brackets, [ ].
• Original Source: Many vegetarians are health conscious.
They exercise regularly, maintain a desirable body weight,
and abstain from smoking.
• Quotation: According to the American Council on Science
and Health (2009), “They [many vegetarians] exercise
regularly, maintain a desirable body weight, and abstain
from smoking” (p. 12).
Paraphrases
• A paraphrase restates a passage of source material using
your own words.
• Maintains both the main ideas and details of the passage.
• Is about the same length as the original passage, or
slightly shorter.
Why Use Paraphrases?
• To include more specific and detailed information
than a summary, yet can be more general and
widespread than a quotation.
• To add variety and avoid overusing quotations.
• To show your reader that you understand the
source.
Paraphrasing without Plagiarism
• Acceptable paraphrases convey the meaning of the
source, but use your own words and sentence structure.
To avoid plagiarism, make sure your paraphrase does not:
• Create sentences by piecing together the source’s
phrases with your own phrases
• Plug in different words (synonyms) into the source’s
sentence structure
• Use more than 3-4 consecutive words from the
source.
Acceptable Paraphrases
• Original: Depression affects 22 percent of Americans aged
eighteen and older (one in five adults) every year, making it
one of the most common medical conditions in the United
States. It affects young and old, and is twice as common in
women as in men.
Two paraphrases: Which is acceptable?
• According to Balch (2006), over one-fifth of the adult American
population suffers from depression. In terms of at-risk populations,
gender appears to be a more significant factor than age; in fact,
women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men.
• According to Balch (2006), depression impacts 22 percent of
Americans (aged 18+) annually, making it one of the most widespread
medical problems in America. The disease reaches people of every
age, and is two times as common in women as in men.
Acceptable Paraphrases
• Original: Nutritional deficiencies resulting from
malabsorption may weaken the immune system, in turn
prolonging the time required for the inflammation and
ulcers to heal.
• Two paraphrases: Which is acceptable?
• Deficiencies in nutrition caused by malabsorption may make the
immune system weaker, which makes the required time longer for
the inflammation and ulcers to heal (Balch, 2006).
• Stomach problems such as inflammation and ulcers may have
difficulty healing when the stomach is unable to absorb nutrients
properly (Balch, 2006).
Steps for writing a paraphrase
1.
Read the passage you want to paraphrase.
2.
Try to understand the overall meaning of the passage before you
start writing your paraphrase. Ask yourself “What is the author’s
meaning?”
3.
Write down what you think the passage is about without looking
at the original (the “look away” technique). This avoids
paraphrasing a word or a phrase at a time.
4.
After writing your paraphrase, look back at the passage to make
sure you haven’t copied the author’s exact phrases.
Try it out!
• Read this passage. Then try to paraphrase it without
looking at it. Write what it means using your own words
and sentences.
• Foods greatly influence the brain’s behavior. A poor diet, especially
one with a lot of junk foods, is a common cause of depression. The
levels of certain brain chemicals are controlled by what we eat.
These brain chemicals are closely linked to mood.
Try it out!
• Read this passage. Then try to paraphrase it without
looking at it. Write what it means using your own words
and sentences.
• Foods greatly influence the brain’s behavior. A poor diet, especially
one with a lot of junk foods, is a common cause of depression. The
levels of certain brain chemicals are controlled by what we eat.
These brain chemicals are closely linked to mood.
Acceptable Paraphrase:
• A healthy diet is important for mental health. Because our food
controls our brain chemicals and our mood, poor eating habits can
lead to depression.
Integrating Sources– A Review
• Summaries
• Quotations
• Paraphrases
• TAKEAWAYS?
Gavilan College Writing Center
• Workshop schedule on website
• Writing Assistants trained to guide you through integrating
sources into your paper
• Helpful advice for APA reference books and websites
• Schedule an appointment or drop in
• Hours: Monday thru Thursday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday 8:00 AM-1:00 PM