Using an Outside Source in Your Writing
Why Use an Outside Source?
Weaving outside material effectively into a piece of your writing can be tricky. It’s a skill that is
developed over time with lots of practice. First off, it’s essential that you know WHY you are using an
outside source every time you do. Of course, a particular assignment, such as research paper, may require
you to, but even so, you should still think about:
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Does someone express an idea better than you could yourself?
Are you citing numbers, statistics, facts that will strengthen your argument?
Are you quoting someone famous, whose name readers will recognize and with whom you want
to align yourself? Is the person an expert who will lend credibility to your own ideas?
This handout, and the exercise on the last page, will give you some basic tips on incorporating an outside
source into your writing and give you an opportunity to practice.
Using Quotes and Signal Phrases
If you are using the exact wording of a source, think about when and where and how you are using it.
Quotes are most effective and help strengthen an argument or analysis if they are well placed and used
deliberately and carefully. “Dropped quotes” (quotes that aren’t introduced or otherwise “weaved” into
your own ideas) are awkward and clunky and sometimes worse; they can be more distracting, confusing
and misleading than helpful or useful. They end up hindering the writer’s focus and argument because
the reader doesn’t know how to connect them with the rest of the writing.
To bring someone else’s words into your own writing SEAMLESSLY, use signal phrases to introduce
the quote. In this example the signal phrase is underlined:
According to one writing instructor, “students continually tell me how Basic
Writing changed their lives” (Peter 34).
Generally speaking, you should never begin a quotation without some sort of signal phrase
introducing it.
Also, when you use a quote you want to “sandwich” it with your own words -- both introducing the
quote into the text smoothly, and following up on it, pulling it back into your own writing,
explaining why it is there and how it relates to your ideas. Here’s an example:
According to one writing instructor, “students continually tell me how Basic
Writing changed their lives” (Peter 34). In that way Basic Writing seems to
be an important course for students to take. Others, however, have different
opinions. John Smith, first year student, said “if we had talked about run
ons one more time, I would have totally lost it” (25). What conclusions can
we draw from that? There are several possibilities…
Notice how in the first citation the source’s name is given in parentheses. That’s because the name
wasn’t given in the signal phrase. In the second citation, the name is NOT included in the citation. Why?
Because it IS used in the signal phrase. You should do one or the other, but you DON’T need to do both.
Also, notice also how the writer’s ideas, and the ideas of the sources used, are weaved together.
Also, notice where the period goes – outside the parentheses, rather than where it would normally go (at
the end of the sentence).
Paraphrasing v. Quoting
Once you’ve decided what material you want to use from another source, you need to determine whether
you’re going to use an exact quotation or paraphrase the writer’s idea. What you do is a judgment call.
Generally, if the writer says it better than you can, use a direct quote, but you need to be careful not to use
all quotes or all paraphrases. An effective paper has a combination of both. Most importantly, a
paraphrase, because it is still the idea of someone else, MUST still be cited, just as you would cite a direct
quote. To not cite a paraphrase, thereby passing it off as your own idea, is committing plagiarism.
Just as selecting the “right” quote is key, writing an effective paraphrase is important as well. Here’s a
tip: once you’ve selected the material you want to paraphrase, cover the page up and write your
paraphrase without looking at the original material. Better yet, put the material away, wait an hour (or
even longer, if you can), and then write your paraphrase from memory. This little trick will help you
avoid following the original quote too closely and will require you to think more about putting it in your
OWN words.
What Do You Do With a Long Quote?
Once in a while you may want to use a longer quote in a paper. When your quote is more than four typed
lines of text, set off the quotation by indenting it one inch (or ten spaces) from the left margin. Use the
normal right margin (don’t center your quote), and single-space the quote. marks are not needed because
the reader will know, from the context, that it’s a quote. Be sure you introduce your quote with a signal
phrase:
Lucy Grealy writes about the freedom she felt at Halloween in the following
passage:
I felt wonderful. It was only as the night wore on and the moon came
out and the older kids, the big kids, went on their rounds that I began
to realize why I felt so good. No one could see me clearly. No one
could see my face. (119-120)
Notice where the period goes in a longer quotation – where it normally should be. Why the difference?
No particular reason, other than that’s just the way MLA is.
Using In-text Citations
Once you’ve figured out the quotes and paraphrases you plan to use, you need to cite them according to
MLA style in the body of your paper. The examples above show proper format for using MLA for citing
a book; citing web sites and other sources can get more complicated. Footnotes, with some exceptions,
are generally NOT used in MLA. The best approach is to consult A Pocket Style Manual, pp. 128-135,
for examples to follow.
Creating a MLA Works Cited List
In addition to citing sources in the body of your paper through in-text citations, you also need to cite them
on a separate sheet in a Works Cited list. How you cite a source will depend on what it is: a book, a
journal article, online source or something else. The best way to figure out how your entry should look is
to 1) figure out what your source is, and 2) find an example to follow. This can get complicated,
especially when it comes to citing online sources; in some cases what to do may not always be crystal
clear.
Some Good Examples of Incorporating Sources
Here are some examples where sources are being worked into a piece effectively, with some explanation.
Example 1:
But does music really have so much of an impact that it may lead to
someone ending their lives because of words in a song? Matt, who is a
death metal fan and was interviewed in a report says, “You know if I
hear somebody singing a song ‘kill yourself,’ I’m not gonna be like
‘oh, that sounds like a good idea’” (Seith 1).
Comments: The quote above works well for a couple of reasons. First, it relates clearly to the
sentence above it, which introduces the question of whether or not music could persuade someone
to hurt themselves. Also, the quotes are introduced with a signal phrase that lets the reader know
that a quote is coming and who will be speaking and in what context. The quote is followed by
proper MLA citation to let the reader know where the information came from.
Example 2:
According to Hagel and Armstrong, “the notion of community has been at
the heart of the Internet since its inception” (134). And more
specifically, research on virtual communities has been dominated not by
the question of whether virtual community is an actual community…
Comments: The quote above works well for a couple of reasons. First, it is introduced with a
signal phrase that gives use the authors of the words and, by including the title of their book, we
get a sense of what their perspective is on virtual community right off the bat. And, yes, there is
an MLA citation. Since the writer has named the authors, it only requires a page number.
In-class exercise in Using Quotations and MLA style
The following are taken from the handouts I gave you in class.
1. Write a paraphrase (two or three sentences) of the following information and include an in-text
citation for your paraphrase.
The word "archetype" was coined by Carl Jung, who theorized that humans have a collective
unconscious, "deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity.... a kind of readiness to
reproduce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas...." This shared memory of experiences
has resulted in a resonance of the concepts of hero and heroine that transcends time, place and culture.
Jung called these recurring personalities archetypes, from the Greek word archetypes, meaning “first of its
kind.”
2. Write one quotation (either a short quotation or one longer than four sentences) from the
following and introduce the quotation with a signal phrase. Include an in-text citation for your
source.
The observations Tami Cowden made are that there are recurring character types who have starred in
story after story, entertaining and informing the human experience for millennia. Review of myths,
legends, fairy tales, epic poems, novels and film reveals that the protagonist types who recur in these
stories fall into sixteen distinctive categories, eight each for the heroes and heroines. These archetypes
are not the inventions of my coauthors and me – they have existed for millennia.
At his or her core, every well-defined hero or heroine is one of the respective archetypes. The
archetype tells the writer about the most basic instincts of the hero: how he thinks, how he feels, what
drives him and why he chooses both his goals and his methods. The skillful writer, in turn, conveys these
instincts to the readers or audience, who, knowing at a glance the character of this hero, settles down to
watch the tale retold anew.
3. Integrate (WEAVE) some material from one of your handouts with at least 3 sentences of your
own ideas, using transitions and connecting thoughts. Also, use signal phrases before all
quotations. Include an in-text citation for your source.