Page 3 Collect Information & Use Quotations

1. Skim and scan the resources you have chosen to determine if they are relevant to your topic.  Keep track of where you have been when using Internet sources.  Either “bookmark” useful sites and pages or note their URL (addresses), so you can return to them later.  Keep track of all your other sources as well.
2. Keep careful notes of information as you research.  
3. Rewrite the ideas into different sentence structures so that you are not plagiarizing (stealing another person's words). 

---

Quotations

Consider quoting a passage from one of your sources, when:

• the language is particularly powerful or memorable
  
• you want to add to your argument by enlisting the support of an authority on your topic
  
• you want to state someone else's opinion and argue with it in detail
  

How do you do that?

1. When you are quoting someone's exact words, use quotation marks around the person's words. You must quote the person's words exactly. Quotations should not stand alone in your paper; rather, place them within your own sentences. They should be used to support your ideas, and you should introduce them or blend them with your ideas.
   
   Example:
   The name basil comes from the Greek word "king". It can refer to the round, often-pointed leaves of a plant that looks a lot like peppermint, or it can refer to a person. Perhaps the most famous Basil was a Greek bishop who lived around 379CE. He once said, "A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness, gathers love."
   
   
2. To make the quotation fit grammatically within your sentence sometimes requires changing a letter or adding a word. If you must change something in the quotation to make it fit into your writing better, you must show you have made the change. For example, if you have to change a capital letter to a lowercase one, or change the verb tense, or insert words for the sentence to make sense, put square brackets around the changes.  This is shown in the example below.
   
   Example:
   He once said, "A good deed is never lost; [sow] courtesy [to reap] friendship, and [plant] kindness, [to gather] love."
   
   
3. Sometimes, you might want to leave some words out of a quotation. You must use ellipses to show that words are missing. Be careful that you do not change the author's original meaning. You may make changes only to shorten the quotation or to make it fit grammatically into your report.
   
   Example:
   He once said, "... he who plants kindness, gathers love."
   
   
4.  Remember that the period at the end of a sentence goes inside the closing quotation mark, if the period belongs to the quoted material. If the quoted material is a fragment, then the period belongs to your sentence — and it is placed after the quotation mark. If you ask a question, then the question mark is after the quotation mark; if the person you are quoting asked the question, it is inside the quotation marks — all very logical! 
   
   Examples:
   We should remember that he said to "plant kindness".
   Did he say, "... he who plants kindness, gathers love"?
   
   
5.  The focus of your research paper should be on your understanding of the topic. Too many quotations in your paper, crowds your own ideas. Quotations should not take the place of your own writing. If more than 10% of your material is in quotations, then the ideas are not your own.