Unit 2: Citations
Paraphrasing and Quoting
Paraphrasing
You paraphrase when you write someone's ideas, theories, or opinions in your own words. It is your opportunity to show you understand and can communicate important concepts.
Even though the words are your own, the ideas are not. This means you must cite and reference the source. If you don't, this is academic misconduct in the form of plagiarism, as described in an earlier section.
Examples: Citing when Paraphrasing
- Citations refer the reader to a relevant entry in your reference list (Pears and Shields, 2022).
- Pears and Shields (2022) point out that citations contribute to the word count of your assignment.
Quoting
This is when you reproduce a series of words exactly as they appear in the source. It’s OK to include quotations but do so sparingly. Most of the work you submit should be written in your own words by paraphrasing, described above. Quoting works best when providing definitions or when contrasting opposing ideas from separate sources.
Important things to note:
- Short quotations (three lines or less) should be placed within your paragraph, between "quotation marks”.
- Longer quotations (more than three lines) should be a separate indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
- Remember to cite and reference all your quotations!
- Include the exact page the quote appears on in the source. The exception is where the source has no pages, like websites or other online sources.
Examples: Citing when Quoting
- “If your citation refers to a complete work…your citation would simply include the author and date details” (Pears and Shields, 2022, p. 21).
- Pears and Shields (2022, pp. 20-21) state that, “if you are quoting directly… you should include the page number(s) in your citations”.
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