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One way to think about writing from sources is to think of yourself in a conversation with a number of people who have different perspectives. When you write something based on source material and you cite it, you essentially are doing the same as stopping the conversation long enough to say "By the way, that's what Jackie said" or "According to John it happened like this."
The basic idea behind integrating sources is to use them to strengthen, deepen, or otherwise enhance your ideas. If you're writing paragraphs in which you are listing source after source after source without saying anything original yourself, you're not using your sources properly. To use sources well, be selective and purposeful when choosing them. Using sources simply to fill space or to meet a page requirement wastes your time and your reader's time.
There are three primary ways to integrate sources into your own writing: by summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. A summary is a short synopsis of a long piece of writing, in which you distill the most salient pieces of information. A summary is written in your own words, and may include an important quotation or two. Like a summary, a paraphrase is written in your own words; unlike a summary, a paraphrase is approximately the same length as the original passage, and is a direct translation of the author's thoughts. A quotation is entirely different from the first two: it is the author's exact words. For more details, view the Writing Center 's handout on summary and paraphrase.
Just as people like interesting conversationalists, readers enjoy interesting writers. Treating your writing like an academic conversation will help you develop an appropriate style and tone, as well as a sense of pleasure, in your writing.
In the box above is a set of four principles that will help you use sources well. (These are based loosely on Harvard University's Three Principles of Integrating Sources into a Paper in Writing with Sources: A Guidebook for Harvard Students) .
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