1. Using Sources
Quotation, Paraphrase, and Summary
Photo, Reading-Lectura, taken June 13, 2010 By el rogos available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

2. Guidelines for using
quotation
Use quotations from authorities on your subject to
support or refute what you write in your paper.
Never use a quotation to present your
THESIS STATEMENT or a TOPIC
SENTENCE.
Select quotations that fit your message.
Choose a quotation for these reasons.
 Its language is particularly appropriate or
distinctive.
 Its idea is particularly hard to paraphrase
accurately.
 The source’s authority is especially
important to support your thesis or main
point.

3. Never allow quotations to make up more than
a quarter of your paper. Instead, rely on
paraphrase . . . and summaries. . .
Quote accurately. Always check each
quotation against the original source—and
the recheck it.
Avoid PLAGIARISM.
Document quotations carefully.
(Troyka&Hesse, 2009, p. 575)

4. Guidelines to using
paraphraseon your subject
Decide to paraphrase authorities
to support or counter what you write in your
paper.
Never use paraphrase to present your THESIS
STATEMENT or a TOPIC SENTENCE.
Say what the source says, but no more.
Reproduce the source’s sequence of ideas
and emphases.
Use your own words and writing style to
restate the material. If some technical words
in the original have no or awkward synonyms,
you may quote the original words—but do so
very sparingly.

5. Never distort the source’s meaning as you
reword and change the writing style.
Expect your paraphrases to be as long as,
and often longer than, the original.
Avoid PLAGIARISM.
Enter all DOCUMENTATION precisely and
carefully.
(Troyka&Hesse, 2009, p. 581)

6. Guidelines for using
summary
Use summaries from authorities on your subject
to support or refute what you write in your paper.
Identify the main points you want to
summarize and condense them using your
own words without losing the meaning of the
original source.
Never use summary to present your THESIS
STATEMENT or a TOPIC SENTENCE.
Keep your summary short.

7. Integrate your summaries smoothly into your
writing.
Avoid PLAGIARISM.
Enter all DOCUMENTATION precisely and
carefully.
(Troyka&Hesse, 2009, p. 585)

8. For help with integrating quotation,
paraphrase, and summary into
your own writing check out They
Say/I Say on amazon. Most of the
book is available to preview and all
of the templates are available in
the index.

9. References
Troyka, L., &Hesse, D. (2009). Simon & Schuster
Handbook for Writers (9th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson.