Using other people's words and ideas

Quotations

Quotations are the words of another writer. You must always:
put the quotation in quotation marks , e.g.     "......................."
add a reference to the source, e.g.                 Oliver (1987) states "..............................."
                                                                          "............................................" (Oliver 1987)

Common problems with quotations include:

they are overusedthey should only be used when the idea is particularly well written, when the words add strength to the argument,

If you use too many quotations (generally more than 9% of a piece of writing) they:
  1. may look like you are using other people's words because you cannot think of  another way of saying something
  2. may look like you do not really understand what the writer is saying
  3. may produce a wrong balance in your essay between the ideas of others and your own ideas.
they are not special
the quotation just repeats what you have already said and adds nothing to the argument
they are not relevant
  1. the quotation does not fit with the idea you are trying to express
  2. you may misunderstood the quotation or you may be misrepresenting what the original writer wrote
cheating
  1. you may have used a quotation without giving a source. This is usually called plagiarizing.
  2. you may have changed some of the words in the quotation. You cannot do this.


If you want to know more about the language used to introduce citations/sources click here


QuotationsParaphrasingSummary