DIRECT QUOTATION

- copies the exact words of the original author

- a word-for-word (verbatim) reproduction of the source’s statements or remarks

Formats

1. Strong-author orientation

Ex.

Dr. James (1994) states that “. . . . . . . . . . .” (p.122).

2. Weak-author orientation

Ex.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared “. . . . . . . . . . .” (p.3).

3. Subject orientation

Ex.

“Anxiety causes nightmares for adults as well as for children” (Guiley, 1995, p.49).

When to Quote

 the phrasing of the original text is such that a paraphrase of it would diminish it in
terms of either significance or rhetorical appeal

 to back up your explanations and arguments with what experts and authorities in the
field said about it in order to add credibility to your paper

 the writer’s explanation is already clear and restating it will distort or just muddle it

 if you are uncertain how you will finally use the data in your paper
Examples:

Original Text

A program that attempts to transmit knowledge not possessed by the teacher is doomed
to fail.

Direct Quotations

“A program that attempts to transmit knowledge not possessed by the teacher is

doomed to fail” (Copperman, 1980, p.65).

Original Text

Anxiety causes nightmares for adults as well as for children.

Direct Quotations

Dayag (1995) writes, “anxiety causes nightmares for adults as well as for children”
(p.49).

“Anxiety” writes Dayag (1995). “causes nightmares for adults as well as for children”
(p.49).

“Anxiety causes nightmares for adults as well as for children,” writes Dayag (1995,
p.49)

PARAPHRASE

- rephrasing of the original/restatement of another author’s ideas and arguments in your

own words

Importance

 allows you to first make sense of the material before you write it in another form

 helps you to resist the urge to quote too much from your source, thus lessening
 committing plagiarism

Features

* include all of the author’s ideas, even though you rewrite them in your own words

* is likely to be the same length as the original

Reasons for Paraphrasing

- to reword information presented in complex style into more simple and direct language

- to integrate and researched pieces of information into one coherent whole

- “to use his/her [writer] own language to make the point fit more smoothly into the
document being written”

- to input his own style and tone into the different ideas put together in the research

Example:

Original Text

When Robert Mugabe was elected prime minister on April 18, 1980, nearly a century
of exploitation and unrepresentative government came to end in Zimbabwe’s people.

Paraphrased Version

Robert Mugabe’s election as prime minister of Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980 marked
end of almost a century of unfair use and undemocratic rule of the country’s citizens
(Veneracion, 1995).
 SUMMARY

- a concise condensation of the original text

- a restatement of another’s ideas but shorter

FEATURES

* usually no more than one third the length of the original

* provides the main ideas of the original, omitting all of the details except a few vital ones

* presents the main ideas the same order as the original

* expresses the main ideas of the original in the summary writer’s own words

IMPORTANCE

 valuable when faced with material which you know you can make use of in your
research but which does not contain a quotable passage or statement, or contains some
information not relevant to your research

 it entails fully understanding the material before reducing it to its gist

SAMPLE TEXT

Public and scientific interest in the question of apes’ ability to use language first soared
some 15 years ago when Washoe, a chimpanzee raised like a human by R. Allen Gardner of
the University of Nevada, learned to make hand signs for many words and even seemed to
be making short sentences.

Since then researchers have taught many chimpanzees and a few gorillas and
orangutans to “talk” using the language of deaf humans, plastic chips like Kanzi keyboard
symbols. Like Washoe, Sarah, a chimpanzee trained by David Premack of the University of
Pennsylvania, and Koko, a gorilla trained by the psychologist Francine Patterson, became
media stars.

SUMMARY

The ape experiments began 15 years ago with Washoe, who learned sign language. In
later experiments some apes learned to communicate using plastic chips or symbols on a
keyboard (Eckholm, 2004).