Basic Principles of Quotation and Paraphrasing

I. Quotation Trumps Paraphrase. In the majority of argumentative contexts, particularly those

that involve analysis and an attempt to persuade your reader of a particular point of view, the
validity of an interpretative claim, or when you want to sway them toward a course of action,
quoting research sources directly is a much more effective technique that simply paraphrasing.
Quoting removes any doubt that you might have misrepresented the authors words (deliberately
or unintentionally) and allows your reader to focus on the more substantive question of how you
are interpreting and analyzing those words. Quoting is also more effective, since the aim of much
research writing is not simply to use quoted material as evidence to support your point, but as the
object of analysis and a subject for further discussion in the paper itself.
II. Quote directly from sources that you personally have viewed. While there are ways of
citing quotations from a work that you find included in another work, this should only be used as a
last resort, and is usually employed when it is difficult or impossible for you to get hold of the
original text. If you come across a quotation from another research paper or book that sounds
interesting, dont simply rely on the author you are reading to establish that the quote itself is
accurate ormore importantlythat the second authors explicit or implicit argument concerning
the context of the first authors argument is faithful to the original. Check it out for yourself; its an
essential part of being a responsible researcher.
III. Support quoted and paraphrased material with other material whenever possible. This
is particularly important where you are making a claim, or interpreting a quote in a manner that is
liable to be contentious. A responsible researcher should always try and indicate where is the
consensus on a given issue, and to mark clearly where they are departing from that consensus.
When you do depart from the prevailing wisdom (and its often the case that the some of the most
useful research is precisely that which takes a new approach to old problems, or raises new sets
of issues) you need to be able to support your reasons for doing so.
IV. Be fair to your source. Don't misrepresent what the quote is saying for your own purposes,
or use a quote out of the original author's context just because it appears to support your
argument.
V. Be accurate in copying quoted material. Make sure that you copy the words exactly as the
author has written them. It is a natural tendency to write what you think should be there rather
than what is actually there. A badly copied quote is easy for a reader to spot, even when they
don't know the original quotation.
VI. The quotation, as well as any material of your own that introduces it or follows it, must
make sense grammatically. Quotations are not exempt from the rules of grammar and cannot
simply be dropped into sentences. Learn when to use a comma and when to use a colon to
introduce a quote. If you are including a quotation in a sentence of your own, the whole thing
must make sense grammatically.
VII. Use only as much of the quotation as you need. Resist the temptation to quote large
blocks of text. Instead, use only the sentences or phrases that are immediately relevant to the
point you are trying to make. Your readers are primarily interested in what you have to say about
the text--if they wanted to read large extracts of the original, they would re-read the original!
VIII. Don't quote merely for the sake of quoting. In college-level writing you do not use quotes
merely to demonstrate to your reader that you have read the text; the quality and sophistication of
your overall argument should do that. Also, do not use quotes to support descriptive points. For
example, if you say that "Captain X lived on E street," it is not necessary to support this with a
quote that says "My parents and I lived on E street." Instead, concentrate on using quotations to

support analytical points, those in which you make an assertion that is arguable and which
therefore require you to point to places in the text that justify making that assertion.
IX. Make sure your quotations are interesting. Look for quotations in which the author makes a
point in an original way, by using a striking image or comparison for example. Or you might wish
to quote a place where the author is able to sum up his or her argument in a particularly succinct
fashion. You should always be asking yourself: can I say this better in my own words? If you can,
there is no need for you to use the quotation. Once again, your readers are interested mainly in
what you have to say.
X. Always make sure that you explain the significance of your quotation. It is easy to
assume that a quote speaks for itself, and that a reader will immediately see why you think that
quote is significant to the argument you are making. Because we all interpret things differently
this is seldom the case. Always be sure that you comment directly on the quote. For example,
point out to your readers what is distinctive about its language, or the ideas that it expresses and
tell them how it is relevant to the argument you are making.