Detailed Information About the Subject: Using Quotation, Paraphrase, and Summary

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

To learn more about quotation, paraphrase, and summary, see Chapter 26.

Profile writers—like all writers—depend on the three basic strategies for presenting source material: quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages. It’s obvious why Cable chose this quotation: “We’re in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, along with another funeral home whose owners’ names are Baggit and Sackit” (par. 14). But decisions about what to quote and what to paraphrase or summarize are not always that easy.

ANALYZE & WRITE

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Write a few paragraphs analyzing Thompson’s decisions about how to present information from different sources in “A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields”:

  1. Skim the essay to find at least one example of a quotation and one paraphrase or summary of information gleaned from an interview or from background research.
  2. Why do you think Thompson chooses to quote certain things and paraphrase or summarize other things? What could be a good rule of thumb for you to apply when deciding whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize? (Note that when writing for an academic audience (in a paper for a class or in a scholarly publication, all source material—whether it is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized—should be cited.)

    Question