Using Sources

Potential confusions: What is “original?”
Your role as a researcher can seem confusing. On one hand, you are asked to read the published words of experts and learn about their work. But when your research requires you to collect information and ideas from others, how can you also be original and creative so that your writing is truly “your own?” The whole notion of “originality” can seem hazy. Furthermore, some students come from cultures in which originality can mean “ancient” or “timeless” and which may not value invention or newness as highly as they are in U.S. schools (Price 94); and in some cultures, the ownership of ideas ("intellectual property") and the need to document may not be as strong as they are here.

As a college student here, you are challenged to combine ideas in new ways, to add your own perceptions and analysis and examples, to juxtapose and synthesize your thinking and words with those of others, to explore new applications or frame issues in novel ways, so that you create something that is conceptually new or innovative. As a writer, you may use others’ (published) work in several ways:

Direct quotation
Reproducing the exact words or phrases of another writer when the precise wording is important or when rephrasing would compromise the meaning. Quotation can provide powerful support for an argument, especially when the words are very apt or the person quoted is notable. When quoting, you should pare the quotation to the phrases or sentences that are essential to your purposes, and should smoothly integrate those words with your own.

Paraphrase
Restating an original passage in different words and sentence structures, to simplify or clarify the meaning. You must take care that the paraphrase is faithful to the original and does not alter its meaning.

Summary
Summaries compress another author’s ideas or work or conclusions by presenting the gist or main point. Summarizing is especially useful when direct quotation would be too long or tedious.

Inclusion of data and visuals
Numbers, graphs, tables, and drawings may be used directly (a form of quotation) or indirectly (a kind of paraphrase or summary) to provide useful information, support, or contrast to your own report, presentation, or article. For brevity and focus, you may use data and visuals selectively or create new visuals based on others’ data, as long as the compression or new version is true to the sense of the original.

These uses of borrowed material are legitimate, but writers must acknowledge their sources, by providing citations and references in the style used by the particular discipline.

Good working habits
Developing effective reading and note-taking skills during the research phase can help you avoid plagiarism and save time later, when you’re actually writing a paper or report. Here are some tips:

• Take careful notes
  
• Ensure that you: keep quotations as quotations (especially tricky when you cut and paste from notes), don’t lose citations,
  
• Check over your work scrupulously for uses of borrowed material and appropriate citation
  
• If in doubt, cite (better to err on the side of excess in this case)
  
• Don’t rely on a single source of information
  
• Keep all of your notes intact until paper is returned (important to document honest uses of sources, in case questions arise)

Also see tips at:

<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html>