After you cite your evidence, the next step is presenting the information. You have an ethical obligation to present the author’s ideas accurately. This is accomplished either through direct quotation or paraphrasing.

When you use a direct quotation, you present his or her ideas word-for-word. Any time you use the author’s exact words (even a short phrase), you put them in quotation marks in your notes and in any written outline or copy of your speech that you submit to your instructor. (See the illustration below.) If you leave out quotation marks when using information word-for-word, you are representing that the wording choice is your own and not the author’s. This is unethical and is likely to be a violation of your college’s policy on cheating and plagiarism.

When you cite your source with a direct quotation, use the claim-source-support order. Begin by stating the point you are making. Next, fully cite your source, presenting the author, his or her credentials, the publication, and the date. Finally, quote or paraphrase the evidence. See the following example:

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Family farms are thriving. [claim] An example is provided by Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large for Reuters News Agency, in the July/August 2012 issue of the Atlantic [source]: “Urbanites may picture farmers as hip heritage-pig breeders returning to the land, or a struggling rural underclass waging a doomed battle to hang on to their patrimony as agribusiness moves in. But these stereotypes are misleading. In 2010, of all the farms in the United States with at least $1 million in revenues, 88% were family farms.” [evidence]

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When you paraphrase, you restate the author’s information in your own words. To paraphrase ethically, you must be sure that the words are your own instead of the author’s. A good technique for paraphrasing is to read the author’s words and make sure you understand the idea. Then put the source aside, and write down the idea without looking at the author’s words. Do not use your word processor to cut and paste the author’s words and then change a few terms. In our experience, this practice often gets students in trouble for plagiarism because they end up using words that are mostly the author’s. If you discover that you are using sentences or even phrases that the author used, then those words must be placed in quotation marks.

It is also essential to paraphrase accurately. The words you use must correctly represent the author’s intent. It is unethical to present evidence using power wording—that is, to reword evidence in a way that better supports your claim but misrepresents the source’s point of view.