SOCSCI – Practice: Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting
Trouble with Unstylish Source Integration
The following issues related to source integration don’t represent wrongful source integration or plagiarism. Instead, they are style issues that detract from the flow, effectiveness, and polish of a written work.
Stylistic Problem: ‘Dropped’ or ‘Floating’ or ‘Hanging’ Quotations
• A quotation is considered dropped or floating or hanging quotation when it is plopped between two sentences without proper introduction or setup beforehand, and without discussion or analysis afterward.
• This is not itself an academic integrity problem, but it is often considered a stylistic problem.
Stylistic/Academic Problem: Over–Quotation
• Quotation is an important form of source integration, and it is good to use.
• However, it is important to resist leaning too heavily on long quotations in your writing.
• Think of source integration skills as similar to food groups in a healthy diet: a balance and
variety is best.
• In addition to finding good sources you must show that you can synthesize them well using
various source integration techniques, such as summarization and paraphrasing which require
you to demonstrate your own understanding by composing original wording, and which allow
you to articulate your own insights.
Stylistic/Academic Problem: Overuse of Block–Quotations
• Block Quotations are very helpful for re–presenting large sections of text from your source.
• Yet too many block quotations can start to be an easy way out for students who rely on them too much.
• Use block quotations sparingly, preferring other techniques such as blended quotations and fragment quotations to borrow a more limited amount of wording
• Mix shorter quotations and fragments in with your own paraphrasing or summarization in order to make sure that you are expressing your own ideas, showing understanding, and offering insights.
• Before using a block quotation, ask yourself: does reader really need to consider this source’s exact wording, at such length? Is there something special that can’t be paraphrased or at least trimmed down?
• This said, some situations really do call for a block quotation, for example:
o a controversial statement, policy, law, or speech;
o any passage whose wording, phrasing, or argumentation you are going to analyze
closely;
o a historically, politically, or academically significant piece of writing to which your
o research sources have responded, or about which they have commented, etc.
Stylistic/Academic Problem: Over–Reliance on a Given Source
• Finding a great research source worth discussing and using in your own writing is fantastic, but mimicking its structure too closely can be problematic.
• Structural plagiarism can be avoided by giving credit to your source using citations and signal phrases, but even then, be sure to use a healthy mix of sources and develop your own an