Quoting & Paraphrasing

Quoting Sources

Quotes are helpful and can advance an essay, but make sure every quote you use has a job to do in your paper. Too many quotes can overpower your own writing or lead to "patchwriting", a type of plagiarism.

Quotes are used when:

A. The language is unusually vivid, bold, or inventive.

B. The quote represents and emphasizes the view of an important expert.

C. The original passage cannot be paraphrased without loss of meaning.

Incorporating Quotes

To integrate a quote smoothly into a paper, introduce the quote by giving the name and credentials of the person or organization you're quoting.

Example: Barbara S. Cain, clinical supervisor at the Psychological Clinic at the University of Michigan, points out that…

Attributive Tags

Attributive tags (also called "signal phrases" or "author tags") tell us that the writer is about to quote or paraphrase someone else. In the above example, "points out that" is an attributive tag. A few more are:

• Writes

• Claims

• Said

• States

• Argues

• Refutes

• Suggests

• Emphasizes

• According to (author), ...

• Reports

Make sure you understand what each tag means before using it, and use proper formatting. Notice how the following quote is cited differently depending on whether the author is using MLA, APA, or a form of Chicago:

MLA: To make his point, Fisher writes that, “such slavish dependency on cell phones is accompanied by the demise of common social courtesies” (660).

APA: Fisher believes that, “such slavish dependency on cell phones is accompanied by the demise of common social courtesies” (2011, p. 660).

Chicago (author-date style): Fisher (2011) believes that, “such slavish dependency on cell phones is accompanied by the demise of common social courtesies” (660).

Paraphrasing

While a quote is word-for-word text taken from another source, a paraphrase takes an idea from a source but changes the wording and structure. In other words, the ideas came from an outside source, but the words are your own. Paraphrases always require an in-text citation. See the examples below, borrowed from Simon Fraser University Library and presented using MLA.

Original passage:

“Where mainstream sports typically refrain from displaying unapologetically violent acts, professional wrestling dives in head first. A large portion of wrestling’s cultural appeal is generated by the psychological arousal/excitement provided by witnessing highly aggressive and violent forms of physical interaction in this sphere. Wrestling takes that which is pushed behind the scenes of social life and places it in the center ring” (Atkinson p. 62-63).

Acceptable paraphrase:

Most sports do not encourage blatant acts of violence, while professional wrestling embraces the same behavior. Wrestling appeals to audiences because people enjoy watching aggressive and violent acts in the ring. What is normally not condoned in ordinary society is made acceptable in wrestling (Atkinson 62-63).

Notice how both the original wording and structure (or order) have been changed. Changing both is the key to a successful paraphrase.

Patchwriting

Patchwriting happens when a student paraphrases poorly, plagiarizing "patches" of words from an author, often using word-for-word synonyms, changes in grammar, and tense changes. Learn how to avoid this and other accidental forms of plagiarism in our Avoiding Plagiarism section.