Presenting and Documenting Material in Course Essays/Papers

Students often run into trouble when presenting and documenting material in course essays. The following guidelines should help students to steer clear of any of the pitfalls that might result in being penalized for breaching academic standards. All class essays are expected to follow the advice given in this section.

Types of Borrowed Material: 

There are three basic ways in which students may incorporate the ideas that they have confronted in their reading in their essays: quotation, summary and paraphrase. Far too many students misunderstand the differences between these.

• Quotation: With a quotation, you present another writer's idea in that writers words. You must indicate the borrowing with either quotation marks or block indentation, combined with a perenthetical notation.
  For example:
  • According to Stigler, "every industry or occupation that has enough political power to utilize the state will seek to control entry. In addition, the regulatory policy will often be so fashioned as to retard the rate of growth of new firms."¹
    
    
• Summary:  A summary is where you present another writer's idea, only not in his or her words; further you present only the core of the idea-the main point-because you condense the idea as you reword it. You must also indicate the borrowing with a footnote/endnote, usually combined with an introduction (called a frame) that also attributes the summary.
  Here is a sample of the summary quotation:
  • Stigler argues that influential economic interests seek regulations that reduce competition.¹
    
    
• Paraphrase:  A paraphrase is like a summary in that you present another writer's ideas, not his exact words; this time, however, instead of compressing the idea you restate it in your own words. Thus, the paraphrase is a little like a translation. Althoughit isn't usually a word for word substitution, it often follows the pattern of the original wording. Again you must indicate the borrowing with a footnote or endnote, usually combined with an introduction that also attributes the paraphrase.
  Here is a paraphrase of the sample quotation of Stigler:
  • Stigler says that economic interests with sufficient influence over government policy will try to bring about public policies that deter competition from other firms. They will also encourage rules and regulations that are detrimental to new rivals.¹
    
    
• All three types of presentation use borrowed ideas, but only a quotation uses borrowed words. You can mix another writer's words into your summary or paraphrase, but you must show the specific borrowing in quotation marks.
  Here is our example summary with a touch of quotation thrown in:
  • Stigler says that the economic interests with sufficient "power to utilize the state" will seek regulation that operates to reduce the threat of competition from potential rivals.¹
    
    
• This is legitimate. However, the following mixture of paraphrase and unacknowledged quotaions (the exact words from the original are underlined) is not legitimate and, if detected will incur a penalty.
  • According to Stigler, economic interests that have enough political power to utilize the state will use that power to control entry. In addition, they will try to encourage the creation of regulations, which retard the rate of growth of new firms.¹