Step 7: Prepare to Write

Step 7: Prepare to Write

Before you begin writing your draft, it is important to understand how to use the material compiled from your sources. **NOTECARDS SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN ORDER AND OUTLINE TAB OPEN TO FOLLOW ORGANIZATIONAL PLAN. COPYING AND PASTING FROM ONLINE SOURCES IS FORBIDDEN. ORIGINAL WRITING IS REQUIRED.

Paraphrasing Rules

• Understand the passage before paraphrasing it. Note key words and phrases.
• Clarify and simplify in your paraphrased passage.
• Retain the exact meaning of the original information.
• Develop and maintain a personal writing style even when restating others’ ideas.
• Provide in-text citations for all paraphrased material.

Summarizing Rules

• Read the passage, paying attention to key words and phrases.
• Restate the main facts and ideas, keeping their original order.
• Include essential information, but omit descriptive details, examples, illustrations, analogies, and anecdotes.
• Try to shrink the passage to about one-third the original length.
• Provide a parenthetical citation for the material being summarized.

Direct Quotation Usage

• Include proper punctuation
• Include signal words or lead-ins (introductory words or phrases)
• Include follow-ups (explanation of meaning, relevance, or significance)
• Include parenthetical citation for the source

Citations

The purpose of documentation is to allow authors to guide their readers to the source of the quotation, paraphrased idea, or any other type of borrowed material. A citation should provide this information while interrupting the reader’s engagement with the text as little as possible.

Parenthetical Citations

• Required when using a direct quotation
• Required when paraphrasing
• Required when summarizing
• NOT required for personal opinion
• NOT required for common knowledge or undisputed facts

Parenthetical Citation Format

• Place citation after the quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material
• Give author’s last name and page or paragraph number
• Citation precedes the end mark of the borrowed material
• **Citation should match the corresponding information the works cited page

CITE AS YOU WRITE!

Anti-Plagiarism Tips

Remember there are two reasons for documentation. First, a writer carefully gathered the information you are using, so give credit where credit is due. Secondly, using information correctly, documenting it appropriately, and giving the source proper credit is an act of honesty and personal integrity. Suggestions:

• If your information includes statistics, state the source
• The more sources used, the better. Using more sources provides more information, which ensures the paper contains accurate data and helps a writer draw original conclusions.
• When you paraphrase, be sure to use your own words. Just changing one or two words in a passage is not paraphrasing, it is plagiarism.