Use descriptive verbs in signal phrases to introduce information from sources.

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When introducing quotations, paraphrases, or summaries, writers often use a signal phrase?—?the source author’s name plus an appropriate verb—to alert readers to the fact that they are borrowing someone else’s words or ideas. Often the verb is neutral, as with the following two examples (the verbs are italicized):

“That is one reason why it feels so horrible when we’re abandoned or a lover dies,” notes Fisher. (Toufexis, par. 13)

Signal phrase

Sometimes, however, the verb may be more descriptive—even evaluative:

“As long as prehistoric females were secretive about their extramarital affairs,” argues Fisher, “they could garner extra resources, life insurance, better genes and more varied DNA for their biological futures....” (Toufexis, par. 8)

The verb argues emphasizes the fact that what is being reported is an interpretation that others may disagree with. As you refer to sources in your concept explanation, choose carefully among a wide variety of precise verbs to introduce your sources. Here are a number of possibilities: suggests, reveals, questions, brings into focus, finds, notices, observes, underscores.

For more about integrating sources into your sentences and constructing signal phrases, see Chapter 26-00.

In academic writing, merely mentioning the author’s name in a signal phrase is not sufficient. In most cases, you must also include in-text citations that provide the page number from which the borrowed material is taken and include full bibliographic information in a list of works cited or references, so readers can trace the source for themselves. Writers may also include the source author’s name in a signal phrase. But often the information provided in parentheses following the borrowed passage is sufficient, particularly if the source author has already been identified or if the source’s identity is not relevant (as when citing facts):

The original research on attachment, plus Harlow’s monkey experiments, underlines the idea that “the attachment and fear systems are intertwined” (Cassidy 8). During a time of war, fear obviously is intensified, especially for soldiers in harm’s way. Therefore, we can see how applying the concept of attachment to The Things They Carried can be illuminating. It is especially helpful in understanding Henry Dobbins’s peculiar habit of wearing “his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck before heading out on ambush” (O’Brien 117). Fear triggers Dobbins’s attachment behavior. Like Harlow’s monkey, he seeks comfort from his attachment figure. (Lyu, par. 11)

Parenthetical citation