THONNEY CHAPTER 8
SOURCE ACTIVITY
Summarizing
Briefly conveying just the essence or In the introduction to set the context
main ideas of a text using different
In the body to support claims
words and sentence structure.
Documentation of the original source When you are trying to convey the
is required. author’s main argument
When you want to condense a large
amount of information into a shorter
explanation
Conveying all or most of the details of When you want to reduce a portion of
a sentence or short passage in the text
different words and sentence
When the wording isn’t essential to the
structure. Documentation of the
ideas expressed
original source is required.
When you want to use the author’s
ideas to support your claims
To make the information accessible to
a wider audience
Integrate quotes into your writing – don’t leave them standing alone!
Introduce or analyze information in the quote.
Explain why the information is important to your claim.
Don’t rely on overly long quotes to do the work for you.
Use only what you need from the quote.
If you use a long quote (more than 4 typed lines in your paper), format it
correctly by offsetting it as a block quotation.
Identify the author and give page numbers for all quotations.
Follow the guidelines for MLA or APA – both require page numbers for direct
quotes!
Altering quotes
You can change the capitalization of the first word and alter or delete the
end punctuation – otherwise, copy exactly or note the changes.
You can delete words from a quotation if it doesn’t change the meaning
by using an ellipsis.
According to Miller and McCartan, “Historians are using skills learned from
literary scholars to interpret materials such as diaries, …from psychology to study
issues like the history of human consciousness.
You can provide context for a quote by inserting words, but you must use
brackets to indicate that you have added information.
Miller and McCartan ask, “If the most advanced research in these fields
[biology, literature, history, and business] is occurring at the crossings between
them, why is it necessary to have interdisciplinary programs?” (31).
Homework