Although it is tempting to insert many quotations in your paper and to use your own words only for connecting passages, do not quote excessively.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

It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. To reduce your reliance on the words of others, you can often use signal phrases to integrate language from a source into your own sentence structure. At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a source’s sentence into your own sentence structure.

Carmona (2004) advised the subcommittee that the situation constitutes an “epidemic” and that the skyrocketing statistics are “astounding.”

As researchers continue to face a number of unknowns about obesity, it may be helpful to envision treating the disorder, as Yanovski and Yanovski (2002) suggested, “in the same manner as any other chronic disease” (p. 592).

The following strategies can help you use quotations appropriately: