Using and Integrating Material from Sources

Using and Integrating Material from Sources

To better develop and support paragraphs when writing, you need to include specifics. Sometimes that means ideas, information or quotations from sources. It is important to incorporate these correctly into your papers.

Quotations

When you use any words, phrases, sentences that are from a source, you MUST quote them and quote them accurately. Failing to put them in quotations marks and credit the source is plagiarism and can lead to an F grade. (Changing a few words is NOT ENOUGH to avoid plagiarism – see section on paraphrase.) Quoting inaccurately can misrepresent the ideas of the original author.

• Introduce quotations to help them blend into your paper.

• Be selective. Quote only what is necessary and avoid too many long quotations.

• Make sure quotations make sense and fit in with the sentence or sentences around it.

• Use ellipses (…) to show something has been left out or square brackets [ ] to show you have inserted or changed a part of a quotation to make it fit.

• Make changes only to shorten or make quotations clear and consistent with the sentence. Do not change the meaning.

• If you quote more than 4 lines of prose or 3