How to Integrate Sources

Integrating sources effectively is a crucial skill for academic and professional writing at the university level. By properly incorporating evidence from credible references, you can strengthen the validity of your arguments and demonstrate your mastery of the topic. This guide, prepared with input from the university writing center, explores key strategies for seamlessly integrating sources into your paper, including:

• Quoting
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing

Quoting

When you quote, you include another author’s exact words from the original source in your research paper in quotation marks without changing them.

Quoting can be useful for providing precise definitions. You can also quote material when you want to analyze the author’s language or style or when it’s difficult to convey the author’s meaning in different words.

Quoted text must be enclosed in quotation marks. You can integrate quotes effectively by introducing them in your own words, providing relevant background information, or explaining why the quote is relevant to your reader.effectively by introducing them in your own words, providing relevant background information, or explaining why the quote is relevant.

Example: Quote from a source

According to philosopher John Dewey, “Experience is not a veil that shuts man off from nature” (1925, p. 4).

Note: Longer quotations are presented as block quotes (as separate paragraphs, indented and without quotation marks). If you need to use the exact words for more than a few lines, consult your professor or the writing center for guidance on formatting block quotes.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing involves restating an author’s ideas in your own words while maintaining the original meaning and intent. This technique is useful for demonstrating your comprehension of source material and integrating sources into your paper effectively.

When paraphrasing, it’s important to avoid simply rearranging the wording of the original source. Instead, focus on conveying the central message or key points in your own language, which ensures you are genuinely processing the source content rather than inadvertently plagiarizing.

Additionally, you need to cite the source properly to give credit to the author and avoid any issues with academic integrity. Effective paraphrasing allows you to incorporate authoritative evidence to support your arguments while preserving a consistent voice and style throughout your paper. This method is key to maintaining a strong ethos in your writing.

Example: Original Text

“While medicine continues to view the digestive system as being largely independent of the brain, we now know that these two organs are intricately connected with each other, an insight reflected in the concept of a gut-brain axis. Based on this concept, our digestive system is much more delicate, complex, and powerful than we once assumed. Recent studies suggest that in close interactions with its resident microbes, the gut can influence our basic emotions, our pain sensitivity, and our social interactions, and even guide many of our decisions—and not just those about our food preferences and meal sizes” (Mayer, 2016, p. 10).

Example: Paraphrased Text

Contrary to previous medical assumptions, recent research indicates that the human digestive system and brain are intricately connected. The gut’s microbiome significantly influences one’s emotions, pain perception, social behaviors, and even decision-making processes (Mayer, 2016).

Summarizing

Summarizing involves concisely conveying an external source’s central ideas, arguments, or findings in your own words. This technique allows you to provide an overview of key information without delving into extensive analysis or quoting lengthy passages.

When summarizing, the goal is to capture the essence of the source material in a clear, compact format. Summaries should be significantly shorter than the original text and focused on highlighting the main points rather than replicating every detail. It’s important to avoid directly quoting the source and to express the content in your own distinctive language.

Summarizing is useful for efficiently incorporating relevant background information, substantiating claims, or situating your own research within the scholarly discourse. By presenting the core takeaways from a source, you can build context and credibility for your written work without interrupting the flow of your own narrative.

Example: Summary of a Source

In his seminal work _The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction_, literary scholar Frank Kermode explores the human tendency to impose coherent patterns on the progression of time. Kermode posits that awareness of mortality fuels the creation of various apocalyptic narratives and fictions that transcend the personal, finding expression across diverse religious texts and literature.

Signal Phrases

Signal phrases are used to attribute a quote or idea to another author. You can use them when quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Signal phrases:

• Introduce material from an outside source
• Provide relevant background information
• Help to characterize the author’s ideas and your own perspective on them

A signal phrase usually includes the author’s name and an attribute tag such as “has criticized,” followed by the relevant quote or idea.

Example: Signal phrase

As Einstein stated, the description “of the position of an object in space is based on the specification of the point on a rigid body (body of reference) with which that event or object coincides” (2001, pp. 5–6).

Signal phrases can be used alongside in-text citations to distinguish your work from the sources you cite. Each citation style has its guidelines that you must follow. The most common styles are APA in-text citations and MLA in-text citations. If you need more guidance on correctly using these citation styles, contact us at your university writing center for assistance.