Transcript Incorporating Outside Sources

Incorporating Outside Sources
A Survival Guide
The Writing and Reading Program Faculty
Western New England College
Why Use Quotations?
 To capitalize on particularly effective or memorable
language.
 To lend authority and credibility to your argument.
 To help summarize or convey an important counterargument.
 To acknowledge sources that have influenced your
thinking.
Effective or Memorable Language
 “The only thing we
have to fear is fear
itself.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
 “The aim of education
must be the training of
independently acting
and thinking
individuals, who,
however, see in the
service of the
community their
highest life problem”

Albert Einstein
An Appeal to Authority
 In his essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,”
Kozol makes an appeal to an authoritative voice:
Some of our Founding Fathers did, however, have [questions of
literacy] in their minds. One of the wisest of those Founding Fathers
[. . .] recognized the special dangers that illiteracy would pose to
basic equity in the political construction that he helped to shape.
“A people who mean to be their own governors, “ James Madison
wrote, “must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.
A popular government without popular information or the means of
acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps
both” (371).
Note the use of brackets and ellipsis marks.
Representing Counter-Argument
 In the essay, “Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy,” Van Dusen
quotes Thoreau as a way of representing and then refuting a key counterargument to his own position:
Civil disobedience is not above the law, but against the law. When the
civil disobedient disobeys one law, he invariably subverts all law. [. . . ]
Thoreau expressed well the civil disobedient’s disdain for democracy:
As for adopting the ways which the state has provided for remedying the
evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time and a man’s life
will be gone. (876)
Thoreau’s position is not only morally irresponsible but politically
reprehensible.
Direct versus Indirect Quotations
 Direct quotations use
quotation marks and
must report the
language of the
original precisely:
 Franklin D. Roosevelt
said: “The only thing
we have to fear is fear
itself” (1).
 Indirect quotations may
alter the original text
but must remain
faithful to the author’s
meaning:
 Roosevelt said that we
have nothing to fear
but fear itself (1).
Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text…
 Identify a passage that serves your specific
purpose.
 Quote only the sections of the text that are
absolutely necessary.
 Determine where this quotation should
appear in your essay. Aim for a logical
placement.
Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text…
 Create an effective transition

Build a sentence that will flow directly into
the quoted material.
Environmentalists often contend that “one
species – man– [has acquired] significant power
to alter the nature of his world” (Carson 293).
Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text…
 Another way to create a transition
Use a signal phrase at the beginning or in the
middle of the quoted passage:
Rachel Carson, noted biologist and forerunner of
the environmental movement, contends that “one
species – man– [has acquired] significant power
to alter the nature of his world”(293).

Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text…
 All quotations require an effective transition

Use a colon to introduce a quotation that is one
sentence or more in length:
Carson discusses the implications of scientific discovery
in the modern world, and she expresses a concern that
change will occur at a rate that is incompatible with
nature itself: “The rapidity of change and the speed with
which new situations are created follow the impetuous
and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace
of nature”(294).
Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text


Use a colon to introduce a quotation that is four or more
sentences in length.
This is called a “block quotation.” You must follow a
specific formatting rubric for all block quotations:




Indent the block quotation 10 spaces from the left margin.
Do not set off a block quotation with quotation marks.
Observe the correct punctuation and in-text citation format for
block quotations.
Use the block quotation format sparingly and only
include text that you plan to comment on specifically.
A Sample Block Quotation
Carson describes the dangers of artificial “situations”created by
man:
The rapidity of change and the speed with which new
situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless
pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature.
Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of
rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of
the sun that have existed before there was any life on earth;
radiation is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering
with the atom. (294)
Aiming for a Fluid and Readable Text
 Do not drop quotations into the text without
providing a transition:
There is a human penchant for scientific
discovery which seems to supercede all other
considerations. “The rapidity of change and the
speed with which new situations are created
follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man
rather than the deliberate pace of nature”(Carson
294).
Anatomy of a Paragraph…
 Topic sentence






Develop the main idea
Provide an effective transition to the quotation
Quote the text accurately
Provide an in-text citation
Explain the quotation
Relate the quotation to your topic sentence or to
the overall thesis
Sample paragraph
 Science and technology have, indeed, progressed at an
incredible rate, but often neither scientist nor layman stops
to consider the implications of such “progress.” Rachel
Carson, biologist and environmentalist, is particularly
concerned because she feels that this change “[follows] the
impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the
deliberate pace of nature”(294). Instead of considering
implications, we go ahead and use pesticides, only to wind
up with resistant strains of insect (294). We see this today in
the workplace where one particular panacea, the computer,
is often accused of causing repetitive stress injuries, not to
mention a change in visual acuity and comprehension skills.
Clearly, we use technology first and consider its impact later.
Acknowledging an Influential Source
 Science and technology have, indeed, progressed at
an incredible rate, but often neither scientist nor
layman stops to consider the implications of such
“progress.”¹ We see this today in the workplace
where one particular panacea, the computer, is often
accused of causing repetitive stress injuries, not to
mention a change in visual acuity and
comprehension skills. Clearly, we use technology
first and consider its impact later.
¹I am indebted to Rachel Carson for this idea. Please refer to her essay, “The Obligation to Endure.” The Arlington Reader. Eds. Lynn Z. Bloom
and Louise Z. Smith. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 293-98.
The Truth about Paraphrasing
 Paraphrases are NOT summaries. Summaries
condense ideas and offer a shorter version of the
original text.
 In order to paraphrase, writers must understand
their sources completely, identify the critical
passage and cast this specific passage into their own
words, using their own voice and style.
 Writer’s must distinguish between their own text
and the paraphrased material. Use a signal phrase
to accomplish this.
 Paraphrases still require an in-text citation.
Paraphrasing¹
 Scat singing. A technique of jazz singing in which
onomatopoeic or nonsense syllables are sung to improvised
melodies. Some writers have traced scat singing back to the
practice, common in West African musics, of translating
percussion patterns into vocal lines by assigning syllables to
characteristic rhythms. However, since this allows little
scope for melodic improvisation and the earliest recorded
examples of jazz scat singing involved the free invention of
rhythm, melody, and syllables, it is more likely that the
technique began in the USA as singers imitated the sounds
of jazz instrumentalists. – J. Bradford Robinson, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
¹This example comes from your text, A Writer’s Resource, 183.
Paraphrasing¹
 Opening passage from an UNACCEPTABLE
PARAPHRASE:
 Scat is a way of singing that uses nonsense syllables
and extemporaneous melodies. Some people think
that scat goes back to the custom of West African
music of turning drum rhythms into vocal lines. [. . .]
It is more likely that scat was started in the U.S. by
singers imitating the way instrumental jazz
sounded.
¹This example comes from your text, A Writer’s Resource, 183.
Paraphrasing¹
 Acceptable version:
Scat, a highly inventive type of jazz singing, combines
“nonsense syllables [with] improvised melodies.”
Although syllabic singing of drum rhythms occurs
in West Africa, scat probably owes more to the
early attempts of American singers to mimic both
the sound and inventive musical style of
instrumental jazz (Robinson 515).
¹This example comes from your text, A Writer’s Resource, 183.
Remember…
 You must cite all primary and secondary source
material used in an essay.
 Ideas gleaned from outside sources require citations
as well.
 Paraphrased passages must be clearly demarcated
from your own text and must be cited.
 Always include a complete “Works Cited” page.
Sample Citations
Kozol, Jonathan. “The Human Cost of an
Illiterate Society.” The Arlington Reader.
Eds. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 370-76.
Sample Citations
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. “First Inaugural
Address.” Inaugural Addresses of the
Presidents of the United States. Washington,
D.C.:U.S. G.P.O.,1989. Bartleby.com. 2001.
12 Nov. 2003. <http://www.bartleby.com/124>.
Corresponding Citations
Van Dusen, Lewis H. “Civil Disobedience:
Destroyer of Democracy.” The Arlington
Reader. Eds. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z.
Smith. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
871-877.