Using

Sources
Composition II HCC Southshore

When Do I Use Sources?

Use sources only when those ideas contribute
to your thesis by:
Supporting your point
Providing background for your topic
Offer a counterargument for you to
refute.

3 Ways to Use Sources

SUMMARY:
should be significantly shorter than the
original source (either the primary or
secondary text);
should be in your own words
has to be cited

PARAPHRASE:
Should be in your own words
Should not be of a entire work, but a portion
Should be as long as the original text

QUOTING

When to Quote
You should quote the text directly only when its
wording is significant.
In other words, when the author says it

better than you could.

Five Rules for Using Quotes

Quoting

Rule #1
Generally speaking, you should
reproduce a quotation EXACTLY as it
appears in the original every word,
exact spelling, capitalization, italics,
punctuation

Rule #1: with changes

You can make minor changes when

absolutely necessary but dont distort the

meaning and acknowledge the changes.
Additions and substitutions may be

necessary for grammatical reasons: [just

enclose in brackets]
Omit with three its called an

ellipse.

It is universally accepted that once upon a time

open lands of magic and wonder. John Connolly
starts his book, The Book of Lost Things, with those
four words; however, with those words, he opens
not a world of magic and wonder. Rather, much
like Frank Baums depressing, gray farm in the
Wizard of Oz, Connolly places the reader in
wartime London and with a boy who [was
losing] his mother[to a] disease that was killing
her [in a] creeping, cowardly [way] (Connolly, 1).

Rule #2
When incorporating short quotations
into sentences, put them in
quotations marks and make sure they
fit into the sentence grammatically
and syntactically.

Example
David learns much throughout his
journey. He doesnt see himself as
a hero; however, he had changed
so much...he was a child no
longer (Connolly 328). Rather
with the help of the Woodsman
and Roland, David was becoming
a man (328).

Poetry Rule - Rule #3

Yep, it gets complicated

Rule #3
When quoting fewer than three lines
of poetry, indicate any line breaks
with a slash mark still using the
capitalization and punctation of the
original text.
The most recognized poem from Lewis Carrolls
Through the Looking Glass is the Jabberwocky
which talks of a monster with eyes of flame,/Came
whiffling through the tulgey wood,/ And burbled as it
came! (lines 14-16).

Long Quotes - Rule #4

Rule #4
Forty or more words - or more than
4 lines of poetry should be
indented and presented without
quotations to create a block
quotation.
In the case of poetry, reproduce the
original lines and stanza breaks.

Prose
Fairy tales have been adapted, revised, and rescripted,
even bowdlerized for centuries. They greet us in movies
such as Pretty Woman and Ella Enchanted. In the writing
of The Book of Lost Things. Connolly states that he used
fairy tales and folklore in the book:
Because theyre so elemental, I suppose. I was
always interested in something that the Brothers
Grimm wrote in the introduction of one of their
collections. They said that every society, and every
age, produced its own version of the same tales. I
think I saw some similarities between the earlier tales
and elements of mystery and supernatural fiction
[T]hey become building blocks for the creation of the
world into which David retreats. (343).

Ever since the early days of Disney, a happily-ever-after

life has been marketed to feed the fantasies of the
average American. However, Anne Sexton took Grimms
fairy tale Cinderella and reimagined it. In the poem,
Cinderella and her prince lived happily ever after, but
in a perverted sense of the phrase:

Poetry

Cinderella and the prince

lived, they say, happily ever after,
like two dolls in a museum case
never bothered by diapers or dust,
never arguing over the timing of an egg,
never telling the same story twice,
never getting a middle-aged spread,
their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.
Regular Bobbsey Twins. (lines 100-108).
Not a pretty fate, is it? However, the poem does have a
more realistic view on life.

Rules #5
Periods and semicolons belong
outside the quotation marks.
Question marks and exclamation
points go inside if they are part of
the quotation; outside if they are
not.

One Last Thought on Quotes

Dont Drive-By Quote - make
sure to explain the importance of
the quote.

Some Other
Considerations

Titles
Books and Long Poems: Italicize the titles.
Short Stories and Poems: Put inside quote
marks, making sure to capitalize the title
just like the author

Authors Names
Either refer to the author by his/her full
name or by their last name:

In Carrolls Alices Adventures in

Wonderland, the character of Alice is
modeled on the fourth daughter of Henry
Liddell, also named Alice.

Victoria Aveyards Mare in Red Queen is

more fairytale princess than Alice fresh
from Wonderland.