Paraphrasing and quoting in your note taking

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because the process of paraphrasing helps you: • • •

grasp the full meaning of the original text avoid quoting too much avoid plagiarism.

How do you paraphrase? • First, read the material you want to paraphrase several times so you understand it well.

Rewrite in your words • Next, put the text aside and write down the meaning using your own words. Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a to result they overuse quotations in this their final research paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

When writing research papers, students often copy the text exactly into their notes. They quote too much. Since the problem usually happens during note taking, it is important to minimize copying the text exactly.

But keep the same meaning • Make sure the meaning of what you’ve written is the same as the meaning of the original text. Avoid changing the meaning of the author’s position or intent. • The paraphrase should make sense. If it doesn’t make sense you need to revise it. Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. [From "Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.]

Do Not Do This:

A helmet can reduce accidental injury by as much as 85%, saving the lives of hundreds of victims annually, half of whom are school children. [what is missing from the paraphrase?]

Include bibliographic information in your paraphrase • Write down information about the source, such as the author, title, etc. (including the page number) so you can credit the paraphrase if you decide to use the material into your paper. • Having this information with your paraphrase will remind you that these are not your ideas but they belong to someone else. If it is someone else’s ideas, you must give them credit.

Quoting

How do you use quotation marks? • Quotation marks are used to set off and represent exact language that has come from somebody else. • Quotation marks always come in pairs. Do not open a quotation and fail to close it at the end of the quoted material. According to the book, Yosemite National Park Guidebook, “Bears in Yosemite Park go into the woods to eat berries”.

A citation for a print book looks like this: Romero, George. Yosemite National Park Guidebook. San Francisco, CA: West coast Publishing Company, 2011. Print.