Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (With Examples)

Three ways to use a source

When you bring someone else’s ideas into your paper, you have three options. Choosing the right one makes your writing stronger and keeps you safe from plagiarism.

One rule beats every guide on the internet, including this one: your own university’s or department’s style guide, handbook, or assignment brief always takes precedence. If it differs from what you read here, follow it. You can upload that handbook to Professor Digital, and everything (outline, citations, checks) is tailored to it.

When and how to quote

Quote when the exact wording matters: a definition, a memorable or controversial phrase, a primary text you analyze (literature, law, historical documents), or a claim you want to challenge precisely. Do not quote simple facts or ideas you could easily express yourself.

Integrate every quote into your sentence and follow it with your own comment. A quote standing alone without explanation (“dropped quote”) is one of the most common weaknesses in student essays.

• Omissions: use an ellipsis (…) to mark words left out in the middle.
• Changes: use square brackets for words you add or change: “[Working students] report…”
• Errors in the original: keep them and add [sic].
• Emphasis: add italics and note “[emphasis added]”.
• Long quotes: use a block quote, indented, without quotation marks.

How to paraphrase correctly

A good paraphrase changes both the words and the sentence structure while keeping the meaning. Replacing a few words with synonyms (“patchwriting”) is not enough and can count as plagiarism, even with a citation.

• 1. Read the passage until you fully understand it.
• 2. Cover the original and write the idea from memory.
• 3. Compare with the original: is the meaning the same? Are wording and structure different?
• 4. Put any unique phrases you kept in quotation marks.
• 5. Add the citation (and a page number if your style or instructor requires it).

How to summarize

A summary reduces a text to its main ideas. Use it to introduce a study, to give background, or to compare several works briefly. A summary of a journal article might be two or three sentences; a summary of a book chapter might be a paragraph. Focus on the aim, the main findings or argument, and, where relevant, the method.

Secondary citations: citing what someone else cited

Sometimes you find an important idea quoted in another author’s work, but you cannot access the original. Ideally, find and read the original. If that is impossible, cite it as a secondary source: name the original author in the text and list only the source you actually read in your reference list. Use secondary citations sparingly; examiners expect you to read key sources yourself.

Signal phrases and reporting verbs

Signal phrases introduce a source and show how you position it. Choose the reporting verb carefully: “claims” suggests doubt, “demonstrates” suggests agreement. Varying your verbs also makes your writing more readable.

• Neutral: states, notes, observes, describes, reports
• Argument: argues, contends, maintains, claims
• Evidence: shows, demonstrates, finds, confirms
• Tentative: suggests, implies, proposes
• Disagreement: challenges, questions, disputes, rejects
• APA uses past or present perfect tense for reporting verbs (“Smith found”, “Smith has argued”); MLA uses present tense (“Smith argues”).