History 101 & 102 / American History Web Course WEB MODULE: Information Literacy / Library Skills
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Part 4 -- Incorporating Ideas from Sources into Your Paper
Here, in Part 4, you learn to incorporate ideas from your ACADEMIC-QUALITY sources (print, electronic and Web sites) into your research paper.
There are only THREE WAYS to incorporate the ideas found in your sources into your paper. You can:
- Quote
- Summarize
- Paraphrase
The following passage is from Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies, by Robert Middlekauff, University of California Press, 1996, page 21:
Franklin was a big man in every sense, and he possessed a splendid capacity for friendship. But despite his generosity and his largeness of spirit, he was not all sunshine and light. There was another, passionate, side that once aroused could attract enemies, even make them. And, of course, there are always men who need little or no reason to become the enemies of others.
1. If you were to QUOTE Middlekauff in your paper, it would look like this
Robert Middlekauff points out that:
"Franklin was a big man in every sense, and he possessed a splendid capacity for friendship. But despite his generosity and his largeness of spirit, he was not all sunshine and light. There was another, passionate, side that once aroused could attract enemies, even make them. And, of course, there are always men who need little or no reason to become the enemies of others."
Note that the passage, as quoted word-for-word in your paper, must be enclosed within quotation marks.
2. If you were to SUMMARIZE Middlekauff, it might look like this:
Franklin attracted both friends and enemies.
To summarize is to restate another author's ideas in the briefest manner.
3. Finally, a PARAPHRASE of Middlekauff, where you express another author's ideas in your own words, might look like this:
Large-of-spirit and generous, Franklin formed lasting friendships easily and frequently. But there was a passionate, less affable side to the man, and when this component of Franklin's personality surfaced, it sometimes resulted in his either luring enemies or making them outright, these in addition to enemies of his that had needed no good reason at all to turn against him.
Note that a paraphrase sees you state the author's entire idea in your own words.
IMPORTANT: In all three cases above, because you have taken Middlekauff's idea and written it into your paper, you must credit Middlekauff as the source of the idea.
Failure to cite Middlekauff as the source of the idea written into your paper would be idea theft, a serious academic infraction otherwise known as plagiarism!
Crediting your sources properly to avoid committing plagiarism is called documentation, a very important research procedure covered in Part 5.
End of Part 4. Continue to Part 5: Documenting Your Sources >