28.i.08 Foundations of Verbal Communications

The main concern this morning was in considering the Quotation / Paraphrase / Summary / Reference exercise.

One minor point that many students missed is that in MLA bibliographic form University Presses are abbreviated, so in the bibliography for Always Coming Home, the publisher should be listed as "U California P" or "U of California P", not "University of California Press." The place of publication, also, should be a city whenever that information is provided, so in this case it is Berkeley (Berkeley is a sufficiently well-known place that you need not write "Berkeley CA"). Although it is true that this book was printed in the USA, the place of publication should not be listed as "USA" -- although of course Berkeley is in the USA -- but again, in the most specific location known, down to the level of city (do not include the street address of the publisher, even though that may be available).

A more considerable point is the distinction between a direct quotation, a paraphrase, and a summary.

The distinction becomes more clear if we understand the use of each in the context of a research essay.

Use a direct quotation in those instances where the idea or information expressed in some passage by another author is, first, so important to the support of your thesis as to require inclusion, and second, so beautifully or efficiently worded that it could not possibly be expressed in different words and retain its meaning. Cite the author's last name and page number and link the citation to a bibliographic entry in your "works cited" page.

If, however, the idea or information in the passage is essential to your argument, but could easily be expressed in different words that would be more your own style, change the wording, but include the idea or information. In this case, you are paraphrasing -- rewording the idea or information. You MUST include a citation with the author's name and page number, linked to a bibliographic ending in your "works cited" page, but you must not use quotation marks around the expression of the idea or information.

If you find that a long passage by another author includes ideas or information which are important to your topic, but to paraphrase or quote from the passage directly would take up too much space in your essay, and besides you can condense the idea in the long passage into a few phases or sentences, then make that condensation, using your own wording (if you do use a few words or phrases from the original passage you are condensing, place those in quotation marks). This is called a summary. It is different from a paraphrase in that a paraphrase is approximately the same length as the passage it rewords, while a summary will be briefer, often much briefer, than the passage it condenses. Summaries should be cited, like paraphrases, and if the summary is of material from several pages and you have included some direct quotations, those quotations must be cited individually to indicate the pages on which the phrase quoted occurs.

A reference is essentially an extremely condensed summary; it might be a one- or two-sentence summary of an entire essay, story, poem, novel, etc. Depending on the length of the material referenced, you will either simply include the author's name, or also include page references, but to practice safe scholarship, do include a citation even for a reference.