Vocabulary

to outline	explanation	to relate to	well-thought-out idea
skill	entire	persuasive approach	appropriate
frame	visual representation	to convince	informative
formal	to signify	content	benefit
to shift	concluding remark	digression	depth of thought

Unit 4 Using sources

Unit Topics:

Citing sources. Direct quotation

Paraphrasing

Summarizing

Plagiarism

Stating acknowledgments

Citing sources. Direct quotation

Objectives In this unit you ill:	know how to make use of the ideas of other people;
	discover the reasons for using the quotations;
	discover the reasons for not using the quotations.

Starting up

Ex. 1. Discuss the following statements with your colleagues to share experience in writing.

1. In your writing, however, the main voice should be your own and it should be clear what your point of view is in relation to the topic or essay question. 2. The emphasis should be on working with other people’s ideas, rather than reproducing their words.

Introduction Citing sources. Direct quotation

One of the most important aspects of academic writing is making use of the ideas of other people. The ideas and people that you refer to need to be made explicit by a system of citation. The object of this is to supply the information needed to allow a user to find a source. There are several reasons for this:

1. You need to show that you are aware of the major areas of thought in your specific subject. This allows you to show how your contribution fits in, by correcting previous research, filling gaps, adding support or extending current research or thinking.

2. You need to support the points you are making by referring to other people's work. This will strengthen your argument. The main way to do this is to cite authors that agree with the points you are making. You can, however, cite authors who do not agree with your points, as long as you explain why they are wrong. Do not make a statement that will cause your reader to ask, "Who says?"

3. If you are a student, you need to show that you have read and understood specific texts. You need to show that you have read around the subject, not just confined your reading to one textbook or lecture notes.

4. You must not use another person's words or ideas as your own so you need to say where they are from.

Occasionally you may want to quote another author's words exactly.

Example. Hillocks similarly review dozens of research findings. He writes, "The available research suggests that teaching by written comment on compositions is generally ineffective".

References. Hillocks, G. (1982). The interaction of instruction, teacher comment, and revision in teaching the composing process. Research in the Teaching of English, 16, 261–278.

Reasons for using quotations:

1. quote if you use another person's words: you must not use another person's words as your own;

2. you need to support your points, quoting is one way to do this;

3. quote if the language used in the quotation says what you want to say particularly well.

Reasons for not using quotations:

1. do not quote if the information is well-known in your subject area;

2. do not use a quotation that disagrees with your argument unless you can prove it is wrong;

3. do not quote if you cannot understand the meaning of the original source;

4. do not quote if you are not able to paraphrase the original;

5. do not use quotations to make your points for you; use them to support your points.

If you decide to use a quotation, you must be very careful to make it clear that the words or ideas that you are using are taken from another writer. This can be done in several ways, either integral or non-integral:

Example. Widdowson (1979, p. 5) states that "there is a good deal of argument in favor of extending the concept of competence to cover the ability to use language to communicative effect."

According to Widdowson, "there is a good deal of argument in favor of extending the concept of competence to cover the ability to use language to communicative effect" (1979, p. 5).

According to one researcher, "there is a good deal of argument in favor of extending the concept of competence to cover the ability to use language to communicative effect" (Widdowson, 1979, p. 5).

In all cases at end of essay you write:

References. Widdowson, H.G. (1979, p.5). Explorations in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ex. 2. Incorporate the quotation in the text at a suitable point. Decide on a suitable place to include the quotation. Make any changes necessary to the text.

A

Quotation. In this context saying thank you is very rude, for it suggests first that one has calculated the amount of a gift and second, that one did not expect the donor to be so generous.

References. (Robert Dentan (1968). The Semai: A non-violent people of Malaya. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Page 49.)

Text. To express gratitude for the portion received indicates that you are the kind of person who calculates how much you are giving and taking. Thus to call attention to one's generosity is to indicate that others are in debt to you and that you expect them to repay you. It is repugnant to egalitarian peoples even to suggest that they have been treated generously.

B

Quotation. “The whole point of selecting a prefabricated string is to bypass analysis.”

References (A. Wray (1999). In a book Formulaic language and the lexicon, published in Cambridge by Cambridge University Press. This quotation is from page 408.)

Text. Wray (1999) maintains that formulaic language benefits both comprehension and production, in part because such expressions appear to be stored and retrieved as holistic, unanalyzed chunks and thus contribute to economy of expression.

C

Quotation. “I postulate that the physical and social environment of the young child is perceived as a continuum. It does not contain any intrinsically separate 'things'. The child, in due course, is taught to impose upon this environment a kind of discriminating grid which serves to distinguish the world as being composed of a large number of separate things; each labeled with a name. This world is a representation of our language categories, not vice versa”.

References. (E. Leach (1964). Anthropological aspects of language: Animal categories and verbal abuse. In a book of article edited by E. H. Lenneberg New directions in the study of language (pp. 23–63). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. The quote is from page 34)

Text Anthropologists have one popular view of categorization. According to this view, there is no basis for our category structure in the world itself. Instead this structure is imposed by categorical processes of the human mind, which in turn depend upon experiences within a particular culture. Thus the categories we use to distinguish varieties of flowers are simply those used by other members of our culture.

Listening

Script 17

Ex. 3. Listen to the tape and tick words, which were not mentioned.

The purpose of using direct quotation is to show the writers exact words. Therefore, you must accurately copy the passage word for word. Do not make any changes to the text. To indicate that the passage is a direct quotation, use the well-known punctuation rules. Pay very close attention to the use of capitalization and the placement of punctuation marks.

Once you have learned how to correctly punctuate direct quotations, it may become tempting to use them a great deal. However, direct quotations are used sparingly (not often) in academic writing.

Out-of-class Writing Activity

What are major characteristics of a good student?

Studying in a university is challenging. Some students excel, some do an adequate job, but others fail. Why do some students do well? Discuss two or three major characteristics (qualities) of good students. Provide specific details, examples, and your own personal experience or that of someone you know (500–600 words every other line).