Quoting and reporting (in-text citations)

There are two ways of referring to other people’s words:

Verbatim – as part of a sentence and Non-verbatim – paraphrased, also called
‘Direct quotations’ and ‘Reporting’
A Direct quotation is the exact repetition of a sentence or passage from a book, poem, play, etc, in
your written work, whereas Reporting is the exposition of another author’s ideas into your own
words.

GUIDELINES FOR QUOTING AND REPORTING

Direct Quotations

 Short quotations: The name of the author(s), year of publication of the book/article etc and
number of page must be included in your text. This can be done in several ways:

White (2002, p.23) states that “knowing when to follow a rule and when to make an exception is one of the
keys to powerful writing”.

According to White (2002), “knowing when to follow a rule and when to make an exception is one of the
keys to powerful writing” (p.23).

According to White, “knowing when to follow a rule and when to make an exception is one of the keys to
powerful writing” (2002, p.23).

Following rules is one of the means to become a good  Bear in mind:

writer, but it should not be forgotten that “knowing
when to follow a rule and when to make an exception is
one of the keys to powerful writing” (White, 2002,
p.23).
 Long quotations (also referred to as block
quotations or extracts): If the quotation is more
than two or three lines long, it has to be indented as
a separate paragraph with no inverted commas.
Following rules is one of the means to be a good writer.
Moreover, according to White (2002):
 p: page - pp: pages
 pp. 99-102: from page 99 to page 102.
 pp. 99;102: only pages 99 and 102.
 (2002, p. 23) is also written (2002:23)
 & (ampersand): Sign meaning ‘and’, used:
- in parenthesis (Grabe & Kaplan)
- in the References list.
 Not used when authors’ names are
part of the sentence (in that case, use
‘and’)

Writing rules always have exceptions. In fact, knowing when to follow a rule and when to make an
exception is one of the keys to powerful writing. As you practice and pay attention to your writing,
you will develop proficiency. (p. 23)

In all cases, at the end of the essay (in the ‘References’ section):
White, N. (2002). Writing Power. Nueva York: Simon & Schuster.

 Secondary sources. If the sentence you wish to use is already a quotation from a previous author,
you should give the reference for the secondary source as well.
 Lamott (1998, as cited in White, 2002, p. 18) points out that “to be a good writer, you may not only have
to write a great deal but you have to care”.

At the end of the essay (in the ‘References’ section)

White, N. (2002). Writing Power. Nueva York, NY: Simon & Schuster Inc.

Reporting

You can either paraphrase the other writer’s ideas if you want to keep the length the same, or
summarise if you want to make the text shorter. The name of the author(s) and the year of publication of
the book/article must be included, but not the number of the page.

According to White (2002) there are exceptions to the rules of writing, and learning when to make them is
crucial to become a powerful writer.

Moreover, there are exceptions to the rules of writing, and learning when to make them is crucial to
become a powerful writer (White, 2002).

At the end of the essay (in the ‘References’ section)

White, N. (2002). Writing Power. Nueva York: Simon & Schuster.

-------------------------------------------- When to use quotations --------------------------------------------

Your paper should be a synthesis of information from sources, expressed in your own words, not just a
collection of quotations. Any quote you use should not do your job for you, but should add something to
the point you are making.

 Reasons for using quotations:

1. quote if you use another person's words: you must not use another person's words as your own;
2. you need to support your points, and quoting is one way to do this;
3. quote if the language used in the quotation says what you want to say particularly well.

 Reasons for not using quotations:

1. do not quote if the information is well-known in your subject area;
2. do not use a quotation that disagrees with your argument unless you can prove it is wrong;
3. do not quote if you cannot understand the meaning of the original source;
4. do not quote if you are not able to paraphrase the original;
5. do not use quotations to make your points for you; use them to support your points.
 Referencing (Reference or Bibliographic list – APA style)

The reference list provides the information necessary for a reader to identify and retrieve any source
you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list;
likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

 Begin the reference list on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References"
centered at the top of the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title).
 All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
 Use italics (or underlining in handwriting) for titles of books, periodicals, newspapers, etc.
 Use alphabetical order. Alphabetize works with no author by the first significant words in the title.
 Indent second etc. lines (French –or ‘hang’- indentation)
 Use (n.d.) if no date is given.
 If the author of a document is not given, begin the reference with the title of the document.
 Authors' names are inverted (last name first)
 For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in
chronological order, from earliest to most recent.

BOOKS
One author: Tribble, C. (1996). Writing (Language Teaching Series). Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.

Two authors: Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973). A University Grammar of English. London:
Longman
More than two Barr, P., Clegg, J. & Wallace, C (1981). Advanced reading skills. London: Longman
authors:

Selections from Mufwene, S. S. (2010). Globalization, global English, and world English(es): Myths
edited and facts. In N. Coupland (Ed.), The handbook of language and globalization
collections: (pp. 31-55). Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Book, corporate
British Council Teaching Information Centre. (1978). Pre-sessional courses for
author: overseas students. London: British Council

Book, no author, Longman dictionary of contemporary English. (1978). London: Longman

or editor:

Books or
articles, two or Lyons, J. (1981a). Language and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
more by the
same author in Lyons, J. (1981b). Language, meaning and context. London: Fontana.
the same year:

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Journals: Abercrombie, D. (1968), Paralanguage. British Journal of Disorders of

Communication, 3, 55-59
Magazine Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today,
Article:
70-76

Newspaper James, R. (1991, December 15). Obesity affects economic social status. The Guardian,
article: p. 18
 DOCUMENTS OBTAINED FROM THE INTERNET
All references begin with the same information which is provided for a printed source. The
WWW information is then placed at the end of the reference in the same way as publishing
information is given for books. The date of retrieval must be given because documents on the
Web may change in content or even be removed from a site.

An article: Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A. & Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated

communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience: Science working
group on facilitated communication. American Psychologist, 50, 750-765.
Retrieved February 21, 1995, from http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobson.html

WWW Li, X. & Crane, N. (1996, May 20). Bibliographic formats for citing electronic
document:
information. Retrieved March 10, 1997, from http://www.uvm.edu/
~xli/reference/estyles.html

WWW American Psychological Association (1996). How to cite information from the world
document – wide web. Retrieved March 17, 1997, from http:// www.apa.org
corporate
author:
/journals/webref.html

WWW A field guide to sources on, about and on the Internet: Citation formats. (1995, Dec
document – 18). Retrieved February 7, 1996, from http:// www.cc.emory.edu/
no author: WHSCL/citation.formats.html

WWW
document – GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
no author, http://www.wast.ac.uk/usersurveys/survey2000-10/
no date:

Wikipedia
document –
no author, Writing. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://
no date, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing
source material
may change
over time:

OTHERS

Government National Institute of Mental Health. (1982). Television and behaviour: Ten years of
report: scientific progress and implications for the eighties (DHHS Publication No.
ADM82-1195). Washington DC: US Government Printing Office.
Publication Malachi, Z. (Ed.). (n.d.) Proceedings of the International Conference on Literary and
with no date
given: Linguistic Copmputing. Tel Aviv: Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University.

Film or Maas, J. B. (Producer), and Gluck, D. H. (Director). (1979). Deeper into hypnosis
videotape: [Film]. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
EXERCISES

1. IDENTIFYING BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Look at the bibliographical entries below. State:
(a) whether they are for a book, article, etc.
(b) what the numbers in brackets refer to (e.g. date of publication, etc.)

2. COMPILING A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Look at the following extract from a bibliography and decide in what ways it is inadequate or incomplete.

3. ORDERING ITEMS IN A BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRY

Put the parts in order to form a correct bibliography entry .