Gavilan College Writing Center
APA STYLE
Integrating Sources into Your Writing
Presentation Overview
• Integrating Sources: What and Why
• Organizing sources in your paragraphs
• Signal Phrases
• Quotations
• Summaries
• Paraphrases
• Resources
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
Organizing sources in your paragraphs
• Begin paragraphs by introducing the topic of the paragraph and
connecting the paragraph to your overall purpose.
• Use source material to support your ideas with examples, facts,
statistics, reasoning, details, etc.
• You can include more than one source in a single paragraph.
• Follow-up source material with comments that connect it back
to your own ideas.
• In general, do not end a paragraph with source material.
Example Paragraph—Too much source material
• "Socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, intelligence, gender,
and race tend to operate in complex . . . ways to limit the
range of occupations open to an individual" (Kimmel,
1990, p. 293). He also explained that "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" (p. 293). Finally, he pointed
out that "the boundaries thus created are often unfair to
particular groups of people (notably African Americans,
Hispanics, and the poor)" (p. 294).
Example Paragraph—Good use of source material
• Many factors affect professional opportunities available to
job seekers in the United States. According to Kimmel
(1990), "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). He also explained that many social factors affect job
opportunities, including educational background,
professional contacts developed through ethnic and
religious background, and discrimination. Solutions for
unemployment in the United States must address this
wide range of concerns in order to effectively alleviate the
current crisis.
Signal Phrases
• A signal phrase is serves to frame a quotation,
paraphrase, or summary of a source.
• Signal phrases usually occur before the source material
and include:
• Author’s last name
• Publication year in parentheses
• Optional: context for the source
Signal Phrase 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 in Signal Phrases
• Use the past tense to describe other people’s work
• Avoid using said. Instead, use academic words to frame
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
Ways to Integrate Sources
Three ways you include other writers’ work in your paper:
• Quotations
• Summaries
• Paraphrases
All three require in-text citation
Quotations
WHAT
• A quotation is a “word for word” copy of a short segment of source
material.
WHY
• Quotations capture phrases or sentences that are particularly
expressive, powerful, or informative.
• Quotations accurately explain technical terms and concepts.
• Quotations from a respected authority add credibility to your writing.
• Quotations can serve to distance your ideas from the ideas of the
source author, who may have a different viewpoint.
HOW
• Use quotations selectively and sparingly.
• Keep your quotations short.
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)
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—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).
Summaries
WHAT
• A summary restates the main points of a source or part of a
source. It is much shorter than the original source material.
WHY
• 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
• Use your own words and your own sentence structures.
• Use no more than 3-4 consecutive words from the source.
Paraphrases
WHAT
• A paraphrase restates a passage of source material, maintaining both
the main ideas and details of the passage. It is about the same length
as the original passage, or slightly shorter.
WHY
• Paraphrases include more specific and detailed information than a
summary, yet can be more general and widespread than a quotation.
• Paraphrases add variety and avoid overusing quotations.
• Paraphrases show your reader that you understand the source.
HOW
• Use your own words and your own sentence structures.
• Use no more than 3-4 consecutive words from 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
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?
• 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 (Balch, 2006).
• Depression impacts 22 percent of adult Americans annually, causing it
to be 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 (Balch, 2006).
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, resulting in the requirement of more time
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
• Use source material to support your own writing, not to
replace it
• Introduce source material with signal phrases
• Follow-up source material with your own comments
• Include source material in the form of:
• quotations
• summaries
• paraphrases
Resources: APA Manual (6th Edition)
Rules of Thumb
A Writer’s Reference
Gavilan College Writing Center
Gavilan College Writing Center
• 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
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