Integrating Your Sources

Effective writers always cite their sources. They do so for a number of reasons. First, it’s important to give other authors credit for research they’ve done. Second, effectively formatted citations help your readers, who may want to find your sources and read them on their own. You want to make that process simple for them by including all of the necessary information. When you make it hard for readers to track down your sources, they might lose trust in your research. Third, keeping track of your sources ultimately makes your own job easier, in terms of organizing and synthesizing your research.

Citation enables you to borrow ideas, opinions, findings, and sometimes the exact words from other writers. Learning how to cite effectively mill make you a more successful, but also a more ethical writer.

The method of citation depends on the discipline, genre, and specific publication you’re writing for. But writers and editors adhere to some universal guidelines discussed below.

This post covers the basics of summary, paraphrase, and quotation. It also offers examples, a list of templates, and table of reporting and signal verbs you can use. You can find even more detailed information on summary and quotation at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

Summary

Summary refers to the bird’s eye view. When you summarize someone else’s work, you explain their overall argument and purpose, as well as the audience and context. In academic writing, summarizing doesn’t mean you explain every detail of someone’s argument. Focus on the main points and their importance for your own work. Consider this example summary of an article by Chi-chen Yang, on possible negative aspects of social media. This summary borrows language from the abstract:

In her article on Instagram use and loneliness, Chia-chen Yang draws on research in psychosocial research in order to explore associations between loneliness and various Instagram activities. Her survey of more than 200 undergraduate students found that browsing and interacting on Instagram did not necessarily lead feelings of loneliness. However, users who posted more frequently reported higher levels of isolation.

This summary provides the major purpose and focus of Yang’s research, as well as the major findings. It omits most of the methods, details, and statistics.

Summary plays an important role in research writing. Your readers need a general account of major sources or trends before going into more details. A summary establishes the context and framework for a source, in order for the details to make sense. Sometimes, all you need is a summary. How much individual detail you provide depends on the source’s importance for your paper.

Paraphrase

Paraphrase zooms in on specific parts of someone’s argument. When you paraphrase, you put some of their specific claims into your own words. You usually don’t paraphrase an entire piece of writing. Instead, you focus the specific claims or interpretations that help advance your analysis or critique. Consider this closer summary of an individual claim from Yang’s article on Instagram and loneliness:

Following existing research on social media, Yang divides activity into three main categories: passive, active, and interactive. Passive users simply browse, without posting. Interactive users mainly post comments and replies on other people’s post. Active users create and post original content aimed at a broad audience, not specific individuals. Most studies assume that passive users demonstrate higher loneliness, but this may not be true.

This paragraph focuses on a specific component of Yang’s argument, rather than her overall argument. In this case, it’s important to understand the three categories of social media users, because it gives further clarification to her main argument. Not every detail like this would provide the same level of understanding. Too much summary and paraphrase of specific points can irritate and confuse readers. It also takes up a lot of room in your own paper, potentially drawing attention away from your own argument.

It’s always best to summarize and paraphrase with purpose. You’ll probably need to re-read and review an article’s abstract to make decisions on what parts to paraphrase. Other posts on this site about academic reading and note-taking strategies can help. The better you get at highlighting and annotated articles, the easier it becomes to summarize and paraphrase effectively.

Indirect Citation

Most writers follow two main citation methods — direct and indirect. A direct citation includes quotations from your source, followed by discussion of the specific words and phrases used by the author(s). Humanities disciplines such as History and English use direct citation the most, because they value the exact words and phrases used in historical and literary texts.

Many disciplines prefer indirect citation, which involves paraphrase or summary of articles rather than direct quotations. For example, you could reference Yang’s article in passing:

Some studies have shown that active posting on social media cites like Instagram can signal higher levels of loneliness (Yang, 2016).

Indirect citation allows you more flexibility when it comes to discussing your experiment results and numeral data like statistics. Summarizing and paraphrasing sources also helps writers integrate their own voice and stance more efficiently, and often results in more readable prose. Finally, indirect citation allows you to cluster many sources together. For example, if you want to make an observation about a larger trend or pattern in research on social media, it helps to be able to cite many sources indirectly at the end of a statement:

Psychology researchers have become increasingly interested in the impact of social media on negative emotional states (Brandtzaeg, 2012; Lou et al., 2012; Steinfield et al., 2008).

Even when using indirect citations, you need to indicate where you found specific information if you’re paraphrasing data or facts that don’t seem like common knowledge. All forms of citations usually include author and year information. Indirect citations like the one above are less likely to include page numbers, since they don’t reference quoted material or specific claims.

Direct Citation & Quotation

Direct citation and quotation involves borrowing specific sentences and phrases from another work. You may want to provide quotations if you think someone’s specific wording of a viewpoint would be helpful to readers. Maybe a researcher offered a clear definition or explanation or a complex idea, or maybe a politician had an elegant way of articulating an issue. For example, you could quote directly from Yang’s article:

Research on social media and loneliness has been mixed. As Chia-chen Yang observes, “scholars need to move beyond overall usage and attend to what users do online and with whom they interact in cyberspace” (703).

Writers don’t always quote others simply to agree with them. If you’re critiquing another opinion, and think the phrasing matters, it’s often necessary to put those words right in front of your readers so they have access to them.

Anytime you quote another writer, include their words in quotation marks. You should try to quote sparingly. In most cases, you should only borrow 2–3 sentences from a text at a given time. You should always follow your quotations with some discussion and analysis of the author’s specific word choice, so readers understand why you decided to include it, and how it directly helps your argument.

It’s important to understand how summary, paraphrase, and quotation work together to fairly and accurately represent sources. You never want to simply drop a quotation into a paragraph without giving readers context. Summary and paraphrase provide the framework for meaningful quotations.

Introducing Quotations

Sometimes, you’ll want to introduce a source explicitly by naming the author(s), the article title, and the name of the journal. Other times, you might decide to simply identity the authors and the journal, or just the author.

You can decide how much information to include up front based on guidelines from your teacher or editor, but also how much time you plan to spend on the source. If you plan to talk about an article in depth, analyzing its points and evaluating its methods and evidence in depth, then you should probably identity the authors, the article title, and the journal. If you only plan to spend a few sentences on the article, then you can probably cite the author.

Deciding how to introduce your sources might seem trivial, but readers often want information on a source immediately so they know how seriously to take the research. You don’t want readers distracted by a lack of information, asking questions to themselves like, “Who is this person? Where do they work? How do I know this source is reliable?” Providing key data answers these questions, and allows the readers to focus on the content.

You’ll find a number of phrases and verbs to help integrate sources into your papers. These phrase appear commonly throughout all kinds of writing, but especially in research articles. Experienced readers see these phrases as cues that prepare them to process information form a source. In other words, they serve as a heads up to your readers. Without that heads up, they can become confused and frustrated, and therefore less receptive.

Below, you’ll see some basic templates for introducing quotations. You can use these as starting points, and customize them using the verb table at the end of this post.

Ways of Introducing Quotations

As Author X states, “…..” (X).

According to Author X, “….” (X).

In a study on X, Author Y argues that “…” (X).

Author X offers a different perspective, showing how “…” (X).

From Author X’s stance, the issues involves “…” (X).

Lots of verbs exist to help you introduce and discuss your sources. Writing specialists sometimes call these reporting verbs, or signal verbs, because they convey information about the relationship between you, your sources, and the topic. Some reporting verbs indicate agreement, some imply doubt, and still others give you more specific ways to tell your readers about your stance toward a source. They can also help you efficiently explain how authors and researchers view each other’s opinions and evidence.

True, you’ll ultimately tell readers directly what you think about your evidence and sources anyway. So why care about verb choice? First, skilled verb use gives readers another cue or heads up to help guide them through your article. Second, it enhances your voice and will earn you respect and consideration from readers. The more precise you are when it comes to reporting on your sources, the more persuasive you’ll be.

Think about the difference between verbs like argue, assert, insist, offer, and declare. Each of these verbs may sound similar on the surface, but they mean different things. An author who declares something must have overwhelming evidence to back up their claims. Insisting on something may indicate a degree of passion or urgency. On the other hand, speculating or predicting seems more open-minded, less certain. It’s fine to be insistent or uncertain, but they’re different attitudes that call for distinction when you summarize, paraphrase, and quote sources.

Some reporting verbs indicate concession or partial agreement. For example, if you say “Author X concedes that,” then you’re indirectly describing a concession on that source’s part. Other verbs that perform similar moves include acknowledge, admit, and grant.

Other reporting verbs offer ways to convey the attitudes of other writers toward each other. Think about the verb dismiss. When you say a researcher dismisses prior studies, that implies they don’t take them very seriously — which you might see as good or bad. On the other hand, verbs like counter, contend, oppose, scrutinize, assess, or examine all indicate different stances that researchers might take toward other studies.

You might want to gently critique a source, even while you’re summarizing it. In these cases, you might point out problems in another author’s view of an issue. They might assume things that aren’t true, overlook other explanations for a trend, or neglect other viewpoints. Each verb suggests a different weakness in someone else’s approach.

Many articles may not take a strong stance on an issue, but only attempt to explain or show evidence in support of a particular viewpoint. In these cases, using these verbs helps convey that goal more clearly when you summarize that source to your readers.

List of Common Reporting Verbs