Start with a Working Thesis. Sometimes you start reading for a source-based paper with a clear position in mind; other times, you begin simply with your initial response to your sources. Either way, try to state your main idea as a working thesis even if you expect to rewrite it — or replace it — later on. Once your thesis takes shape in words, you can assess the richness and relevance of your reading based on a clear main idea.

Once your thesis takes shape in words, you can analyze its parts and use them to guide your search for reliable information. Of course you’ll want to support your view, but often material that questions it proves more valuable, prompting you to rethink your thesis, refine it, or counter more effectively whatever challenges it. For example, the working thesis above breaks into two parts: workers and employers. Each might benefit from, or suffer from, longer vacations. Instead of looking for a perfect source to prove your thesis, you’re now ready to look for the light each source can shed on either view (benefit or suffer) held by either party (worker or employer) you’ve identified.

Read Each Source Thoughtfully. Before you begin copying quotations, scribbling notes, or highlighting a source, simply read, slowly and carefully. After you have figured out what the source says, you are ready to decide how you might use its information to support your ideas. Read again, this time sifting and selecting what’s relevant to your thesis.

Join the Academic Exchange. A well-researched article that follows academic conventions will identify its sources for several reasons. It gives honest credit to the work on which it relies — work done by other researchers and writers. They deserve credit because their information contributes to the article’s credibility and substantiates its points. The article also informs you about its sources so you, or any other reader, could find them yourself.

The visual on pages 238–39 illustrates how this exchange of ideas and information works and how you join this exchange from the moment you begin to use sources in your college writing. The middle of the visual shows the opening of a sample article about a global health problem: obesity. Because this article appears online, it credits its sources by providing a link to each one. A comparable printed article might identify its sources by supplying brief in-text citations (in parentheses in MLA or APA style), footnotes, numbers keyed to its references, or source identifications in the text itself. To the left of and below the source article are several of its sources. (They, in turn, also supply information about their sources.) The column to the right of the source article illustrates ways that you might capture information from the source.

Capture Information and Record Source Details. Consider how you might eventually want to capture each significant passage or point from a source in your paper — by quoting the exact words of the source, by paraphrasing its ideas in your own words, or by summarizing its essential point. Keeping accurate notes and records as you work with your sources will help you avoid accidental plagiarism (using someone else’s words or ideas without giving the credit due). Accurate notes also help to reduce errors or missing information when you add the source material to your draft.

As you capture information, plan ahead so that you can acknowledge each source following academic conventions. Record the details necessary to identify the source in your discussion and to list it with other sources at the end of your paper. The next sections illustrate how to capture and credit your sources, using examples for a paper that connects land use and threats to wildlife. Compare the examples with the original passage from the source.

Identify Significant Quotations. When an author expresses an idea so memorably that you want to reproduce those words exactly, quote them word for word. Direct quotations can add life, color, and authority; too many can drown your voice and overshadow your point.

Writers often begin by highlighting or copying too many quotations as they struggle to master the ideas in the source. The better you understand the reading and your own thesis, the more effectively you’ll choose quotations. After all, a quotation in itself is not necessarily effective evidence; too many quotations suggest that your writing is padded or lacks originality.

HOW TO QUOTE

Use an ellipsis mark — three spaced dots (…) within a sentence or four dots (.…), a period and three spaced dots, concluding a sentence — to show where you leave out any original wording. You may omit wording that doesn’t relate to your point, but don’t distort the original meaning. For example, if a reviewer calls a movie “a perfect example of poor directing and inept acting,” don’t quote this comment as “perfect … directing and … acting.”

Paraphrase Specific Information. Paraphrasing involves restating an author’s ideas in your own language. A paraphrase is generally about the same length as the original. It conveys the ideas and emphasis of the original in your words and sentences, thus bringing your own voice to the fore. A fresh and creative paraphrase expresses your style without awkwardly jumping between it and your source’s style. Be sure to name the source so that your reader knows exactly where you move from one to the other.

Here, again, is the original passage by Bruce Babbitt, followed by a sloppy paraphrase. The paraphrase suffers from a common fault, slipping in too many words from the original. (The borrowed words are underlined in the paraphrase.) Those words need to be expressed in the writer’s own language or identified as direct quotations with quotation marks.

To avoid picking up language from the original as you paraphrase, state each sentence afresh instead of just changing a few words in the original. If possible, take a short break, and then check each sentence against the original. Highlight any identical words or sentence patterns, and rework your paraphrase again. Proper nouns or exact terms for the topic (such as tortoise) do not need to be rephrased.

The next example avoids parroting the original by making different word choices while reversing or varying sentence patterns.

A common option is to blend paraphrase with brief quotation, carefully using quotation marks to identify any exact words drawn from the source.

Even in a brief paraphrase, be careful to avoid slipping in the author’s words or closely shadowing the original sentence structure. If a source says, “President Obama called an emergency meeting of his cabinet to discuss the crisis,” and you write, “The president called his cabinet to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis,” your words are too close to those of the source. One option is to quote the original, though it doesn’t seem worth quoting word for word. Or, better, you could write, “Summoning his cabinet to an immediate session, Obama laid out the challenge before them.”

HOW TO PARAPHRASE

Summarize an Overall Point. Summarizing is a useful way of incorporating the general point of a whole paragraph, section, or work. You briefly state the main sense of the original in your own words and also identify the source. Like a paraphrase, a summary uses your own language. However, a summary is shorter than the original; it expresses only the most important ideas — the essence — of the original. This example summarizes the section of Babbitt’s book containing the passage quoted on pages 236–37 and 240.

HOW TO SUMMARIZE

Credit Your Sources Fairly. As you quote, paraphrase, or summarize, be certain to note which source you are using and exactly where the material appears in the original. Carefully citing and listing your sources will give credit where it’s due as it enhances your credibility as a careful writer.

Although academic fields prefer specific formats for their papers, MLA style is widely used in composition, English, and other humanities courses. In MLA style, you credit your source twice. First, identify the author’s last name (and the page number in the original) in the text as you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or refer to the source. Often you will simply mention the author’s name (or a short version of the title if the author is not identified) as you introduce the information from the source. If not, note the name and page number of the original in parentheses after you present the material: (Walton 88). Next, fully identify the source in an alphabetical list at the end of your paper.

Methods of Capturing Information from Sources

Right now, the methods for capturing information and crediting sources may seem complicated. However, the more you use them, the easier they become. Experienced writers also know some time-tested secrets. For example, how can you save time, improve accuracy, and avoid last-minute stress about sources? The answer is easy. Include in your draft, even your very first one, both the source identification and the location. Add them at the very moment when you first add the material, even if you are just dropping it in so you don’t forget it. Later on, you won’t have to hunt for the details.

Let Your Draft Evolve. No matter how many quotations, paraphrases, and summaries you assemble, chunks of evidence captured from sources do not — on their own — constitute a solid paper. You need to interpret and explain that evidence for your readers, helping them to see exactly why, how, and to what extent it supports your position.

To develop a solid draft, many writers rely on one of two methods, beginning either with the evidence or with the position they wish to support.

METHOD 1 Start with your evidence. Use one of these strategies to arrange quotations, paraphrases, and summaries in a logical, compelling order.

Once your evidence is organized logically, add commentary to connect the chunks for your readers: introduce, conclude, and link pieces of evidence with your explanations and interpretations. (Ignore any leftovers from sources unless they cover key points that you still need to integrate.) Let your draft expand as you alternate evidence and interpretation.

METHOD 2 Start with your position or your conclusion, selecting a way to focus on how you want your paper to present it.

Either way, use this working structure to identify where to embed the evidence from your sources. Let your draft grow as you pull in your sources and expand your comments.