Integrating and citing sources/Paraphrasing and Quoting

Paraphrasing and Quoting

Paraphrasing means putting something that someone else has written into your own words, phrasing and sentence structure.

• Because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas (even though you’re not saying it in exactly the same way), it’s important to acknowledge this with a citation.
• Paraphrasing is useful because it shows that you have an understanding of the material and it allows you to keep your writing concise.

Quoting means reproducing the same words that someone else has written.

• Not only does a quotation need an in-text citation with a page number, but it also needs to be presented in quotation marks.
• Use quotations if a piece of information is well-phrased or unique and cannot be simply rephrased to have the same effect. For example, don’t write: Cliff et al. (1989) reported that “A total of 591 great white sharks Carcharodon carcharias were caught between 1974 and 1988 in the gill nets which are maintained along the Natal coast to protect bathers from shark attack” (p. 77).  Instead, write something like: Nearly 600 great white sharks were caught in gill nets along the Natal coast between 1974 and 1988 (Cliff et al., 1989, p. 77).