The comment: Your words?

Similar comments

• Source?
• Who’s talking here?

Understanding the comment

When readers ask “Your words?” the comment often signals that it is unclear whether you are using only your own words or are mixing in some words of your sources.

Strategies for revising

• Check that you have clearly marked the boundaries between your source material and your own words. Have you borrowed words from sources without properly acknowledging them?
• Use a signal phrase to introduce each source and provide context. Doing so prepares readers for a source’s words.
• Use quotation marks to enclose language that you borrow word-for-word from a source and follow each quotation with a parenthetical citation.
• Put summaries and paraphrases in your own words and always cite your sources.

Related topics:

Avoiding plagiarism (MLA, APA, Chicago)

Using signal phrases to integrate sources (MLA, APA, Chicago)

Using quotation marks with borrowed language (MLA, APA, Chicago)

Summarizing and paraphrasing in your own words (MLA, APA, Chicago)