Paraphrasing and Quoting

Paraphrasing and quoting other's ideas and words can be tricky. It is essential, however, to avoid plagiarism by correctly citing and documenting your sources.

With direct quotes, the important thing is to remember to include quotation marks around the exact words used and to include the correct author and page (if needed) in the parenthesis. If the original source is an online source, the author may be the title of the web page without a page number. Electronic sources vary depending on the original source used. You may need to consult a style manual or Library style guide for examples.

Paraphrasing is a challenge. To paraphrase correctly you need to capture the original author's ideas without repeating exactly or even nearly the words used. To paraphrase, you need to use different words and sentence structure as well as your own insight. As with direct quotes, you will also need to include an in-text, parenthetical citation. Generally, the author's name should be included in a signal phrase and the page number need to be included in the parenthesis. 

 

For a humorous yet informative video from Rutgers University, view this 3-part series
(but turn your volume DOWN first - it is very loud) Rutgers Plagiarism videos

 

 

 

 

 

 

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