Drafting the Paper:
Incorporating Sources
Too often, students believe that the only way to incorporate sources into their research papers is to use direct quotes. However, this is often the worse strategy you can use. Direct quotes have their place in a research paper, but summarizing and paraphrasing are generally superior techniques.
Direct Quotes
There are two potential problems of using too many direct quotes in your paper.
First, they lose their impact if there are too many of them.
Second, a research paper should reflect your own thinking supported by evidence. If you have too many direct quotes, your contribution is lost.
Don't be afraid to use a direct quote when you need to show an expert's exact thoughts, give historical flavor, or it would be impossible to paraphrase the quote because it is too short.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is putting someone else's writing into your own words. If you are tempted to put a direct quote into your paper, try to paraphrase it. If the paraphrase works just as well, don't quote.
Summarizing
Longer passages of an article can be summarized in one or two sentences. To learn more about how to summarize, please consult "Summarizing an Article."
References and Resources
"Decide when to Quote, Paraphrase and Summarize." Academic Center. 2005. University of Houston at Victoria.
"Quotations - Using and Framing." Undergraduate Writing Center. nd. University of Texas at Austin.
Revere, Debra. "Plagiarism: Paraphrasing." Health Services Student Development Resources. 31 May 2005. University of Washington.
