Citing Supporting / Secondary Sources

This writing guide provides strategies for citing supporting sources. For strategies for citing or summarizing literary sources, see Summarizing a Literary Text and Framing and Introducing Literary Evidence.

Summary, Quotation, Paraphrasing (and Patchwriting)

A general rule of thumb is to ensure that your voice is the dominant voice in your essay, allowing the voices and exact words of others to enter the conversation when it is necessary to convey, analyze, or interpret their language choices to build your own argument. A strong writer will use many of the following strategies in any given essay.

• When a writer quotes, he or she “reproduces the exact language” of a source, placing those words within quotation marks and provides citation.
• When summarizing, a writer conveys the main ideas of a source more concisely in mostly his or her own words. In other words, it is common for a writer to include quotations in a summary. A summary is a broad overview of a source text and therefore requires restatement and significant reduction of that source.
• When paraphrasing, a writer restates a source in his or her own words but without the significant reduction in length necessary when summarizing. The writer must strive not to reproduce the sentence structures of the original. If technical or specialized words from the original text are used, they may need to be placed within quotation marks. Paraphrasing requires citation.

Examples

Patchwriting and Plagiarism

Patchwriting should always be avoided. When a writer patchwrites, he or she takes sections of verbatim text and links them together with additional sentences or with a few words or phrases switched out. This is considered plagiarism unless all directly quoted text is indicated with quotation marks and appropriately cited. Students often resort to patchwriting when they don’t understand the text they’re working with well enough to paraphrase or summarize.

To Quote or Not to Quote

Quote when:

• The language of the source is especially clear, vivid or memorable.
• The language of the source demands analysis, interpretation or explication because of its complexity, technicality, nuance, ambiguity, or inconsistency.
• The source is authoritative.

Do not quote when:

• Text is simply providing facts.
• No analysis or explication is necessary and there is nothing special about the original language. In other words, don’t quote when you can easily paraphrase and your discussion is descriptive rather than analytical.
• You are making your own claim. In other words, don’t quote an author’s words (other than a key term perhaps) to finish off a sentence in which you make a claim.
• Starting or ending a paragraph.

Paraphrase when:

• You can say the same thing more clearly.
• You are most interested in the facts being presented.
• Summarize when:
• You need to convey the main point of a work or passage.

Incorporating Quotations into Your Sentences

• Quote only the part of the sentence or paragraph that you need by identifying the precise word, phrase, or clause that meets one of the criteria for quotation.
• Incorporate the quote into the flow of your sentence. Try to work the material into your paper in as natural and fluid a manner as possible.

Summarizing a Source

There is some basic information that your reader will always want to know about your sources:

• The title: Make sure the title is correct and complete. Make sure that it is formatted correctly. Article and chapter titles belong in “quotation marks.” Book, play, movie and artwork titles belong in italics.
• The author: Provide the author’s full name. Thereafter, refer to the author by last name only.
• The year of publication: Identifying the year of publication just after you include the title (2023) helps the reader figure out how current the ideas in the article are. Some ideas are more time sensitive than others, and the year may not interest your reader in every case, but it’s a good idea to include it. Also, sometimes the title or author of a work of literature is well-known enough that the year doesn’t need to be mentioned. For example, if I mention something that was written by Thomas Jefferson, the year might not be important, depending on the context.
• The topic of the source: Explain the basic topic of the source. The reader will always want to know the general topic of the source, even if you are only interested in one of its ideas.

There is some additional information that the reader may need to know as well depending on how you intend to use the source:

• The central question or problem the author is addressing: If the source is going to be an important part of your essay, giving a more detailed summary of the article is a good idea. You might present the problem or question that the writing is trying to address.
• The thesis of the source i.e. the answer to the central question: Again, this is information you might want to give if the source is going to play a big role in your essay.
• The type of text or publication: This can help a reader figure out how credible or authoritative the source is. It also lets the reader know whom the article is written for. Consider how much information your reader may need or want about this text based on how you are using it. Is it a book? A scholarly article? A news article? Where was it published?
• Additional information about the author: Like the type of text or publication, giving the reader some information about the author can help the reader assess the credibility and authority of your sources. Is the author a professor, a physicist, a journalist, a philosopher, an Olympic athlete?

Presenting the Key Idea

Unless you’re writing a review of a source, you will not want to engage with every one of the source’s ideas; that would lead to an unfocused essay. When responding to a source, you’ll typically focus on one key idea. That idea will need to be presented in detail.

• Paraphrase that key idea carefully in your own words.
• Include a quotation from the text that most directly states this idea.
• Explain the quotation in your own words
• Use an example to help explain the idea—either one of your own or one that the author provides him or herself.

Also see the Functions of Sources, CUNY Academic Integrity Policy, and MLA Citation Resources.