Although it is tempting to insert many quotations in your paper and to use your own words only for connecting passages, do not quote excessively. It is almost impossible to integrate numerous long quotations smoothly into your own text.
Except for the following legitimate uses of quotations, use your own words to summarize and paraphrase your sources and to explain your own ideas.
WHEN TO USE QUOTATIONS
When language is especially vivid or expressive
When exact wording is needed for technical accuracy
When it is important to let the debaters of an issue explain their positions in their own words
When the words of an important authority lend weight to an argument
When language of a source is the topic of your discussion (as in an analysis or interpretation)
It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a source’s sentence into your own sentence structure.
As Hurst has pointed out, until “an outcry erupted in the Northern press,” even the Confederates did not deny that there had been a massacre at Fort Pillow.4
Union surgeon Dr. Charles Fitch testified that after he was in custody he “saw” Confederate soldiers “kill every negro that made his appearance dressed in Federal uniform.”20
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 1
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 2
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 3
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 4