1 Created in 2015 GUIDELINES FOR PARAPHRASING SOUR.docx

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GUIDELINES FOR PARAPHRASING SOURCES
Paraphrasing
We have all watched a good television show or an interesting
news story that we wanted to tell others
about. When you are explaining the show or story, you most
likely tell your friends, your family, or your
coworkers what happened, how it happened, and why it
happened. In doing so, you describe things like
the plot, the main characters, the events, and the important
points using your own words. This skill is
paraphrasing–using your own words to express someone else's
message or ideas.
When you paraphrase in writing, the ideas and meaning of the
original source must be maintained; the
main ideas need to come through, but the wording has to be
your own. And, of course, credit needs to be
given to the author. You don’t want to over quote in your paper.
A great alternative to quoting is to
paraphrase information. However, paraphrasing takes a little
more skill than directly quoting information,
because, to paraphrase correctly, you need to understand what
the original quote or passage is about in
order to write about it in your words.

How Do You Paraphrase a Source?
hree times or until you understand
it and its meaning.
own words. Say what the source
says, but no more, and try to reproduce the source's order of
ideas and emphasis.
t unfamiliar words, observing carefully the
exact sense in which the writer uses the
words.
original for accurate tone and meaning,
changing any words or phrases that match the original too
closely. If the wording of the
paraphrase is too close to the wording of the original, then it
can be considered plagiarism.
source, quote them in your
paraphrased version.
ur paraphrased version near the same length of
the original text. For example, if
the paragraph you are paraphrasing is five sentences long, try to
make your paraphrased
paragraph five sentences as well.
rmation (including
the page numbers, if available) so
that you can cite the source accurately. Even when you
paraphrase, you must still give credit to

the original author.
When Is Paraphrasing Useful?
You should paraphrase when…
express the author's idea but not necessarily the
author’s language;
yourself;
lectures, etc; or
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Examples of Good Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing can be done with individual sentences or entire
paragraphs. Here are some examples:
Original sentence #1:

“Her life spanned years of incredible change for women”
(Smith, 2015, p.1).
Paraphrased version:
Mary lived through an era of liberating reform for women
(Smith, 2015, p.1).
Original sentence #2:
“Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay, and they can consume 65
pounds of food a day” (“National
Geographic,” 2013, p.16).
A giraffe can eat up to 65 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay
every day (“National Geographic,”
2013, p.16).
As you can see in the examples, the essence and meaning of the
paraphrased versions are similar to the
original sentences. The paraphrased sentences even used the
main keywords from the original source,
but the order and the structure of the sentence changed when the
author put the information in his own
words. You can apply these same tactics to paraphrasing longer

texts as well. Here is an example of how
to paraphrase a paragraph of information:
Original paragraph:
“The feminization of clerical work and teaching by the turn of
the century reflected the growth of
business and public education. It also reflected limited
opportunities elsewhere. Throughout the
nineteenth century, stereotyping of work by sex had restricted
women's employment. Job options were
limited; any field that admitted women attracted a surplus of
applicants willing to work for less pay than
men would have received. The entry of women into such
fields—whether grammar school teaching or
office work—drove down wages.”
Woloch, N. (2002). Women and the American experience: A
concise history. New York, NY: McGraw–Hill
Higher Education.
According to Nancy Woloch (2002) in Women and the
American Experience: A Concise History,
the "feminization" of jobs in the nineteenth century had two
major effects: a lack of employment
opportunities for women and inadequate compensation for
positions that were available. Thus, while
clerical and teaching jobs indicated a boom in these sectors,
women were forced to apply for jobs that
would pay them less than male workers were paid (p. 170).
This version is properly paraphrased because…

esembles the original passage’s own words and sentence
structure;
quotation marks; and
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GUIDELINES FOR INCORPORATING QUOTES
Incorporating Outside Sources
Quoting from outside sources is an important part of academic
writing because it puts you into the
scholarly conversation and makes your own ideas and your
paper more credible. Using quotes is a great
way for readers to “hear” the expert voices talking about your
writing topic.
When quoting, focus on (a) introducing the quote, (b)

explaining its relevance, and (c) citing the
sources—both in your writing and in formal citations. This form
is known as the ICE method.
The ICE Method
When including outside sources in your writing, follow the ICE
method:
I: Introduce
C: Cite
E: Explain
Use this method when inserting direct quotations as well as
when you’re paraphrasing or summarizing
the ideas of another.
Introduce the Source
Introduce the source by giving your reader any information that
would be useful to know: Who said it?
Where did this idea come from? When was it said? Here are
some examples of how to introduce a
source:
In her essay, “The Crummy First Draft,” Lekkerkerk (2014)
argues that…
Michandra Claire Jones (2015), celebrated poet and author,
wrote that…

In the textbook, Information Literacy, Mossler (2015) states ….
After introducing the quote, be sure that you use a signal verb
to indicate that the source’s words are
next. In the third example above, you can see that "states" has
been used to signal the source’s
words. Other signal verbs include:
acknowledges
advises
agrees
argues
analyzes
answers
asserts
assumes
believes
charges
claims
considers
criticizes
declares
describes
disagrees
discusses
explains
emphasizes
expresses
holds
implies
interprets
leaves us with

lists
objects
observes
offers
opposes
points to
presents
proposes
recognizes
regards
remarks
replies
reports
responds
reveals
says
states
suggests
supports
tells us
thinks
wants to
wishes
wonders
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Cite the Source

When citing outside sources, you are required to include: the
author(s)' last name(s); the date of
publication; and, for direct quotations, the page number on
which the quoted passage appears. If
there is no page number, use the paragraph number to indicate
the location of the quotation.
Precisely how do you insert this required information into your
writing? You have two options. The
first is to include the full or last name(s) of the author(s)
directly in a sentence, and the year of
publication in parentheses just following the name(s). If
directly quoting, include at the end of your
sentence the page number where the quotation can be found.
Here are some examples:
Johansson (2009) says he believes that scholars...
OR
Norman Johansson (2009) says, "Scholars should pursue PhDs"
(p. 167).
Your second option is to include all of the required information
in parenthesis at the end of the
sentence. Here are some examples:
Research suggests that graphic warnings on cigarette packages
promote smoking cessation
(Smith, 2015).
OR

According to one research study, “In the year following the
introduction of graphic warnings…”
(Smith, 2015, p. 16).
OR
Marcus explains that smoking can be deterred by “carefully
placed warnings with disturbing
imagery included” (Tomlinson, 2008, p. 16).
Notice in the above examples that quotation marks always have
a beginning and end, occurring
immediately before the first word of the quotation and
immediately after the last word. Periods are
always placed after the end-of-sentence parentheses, as in (p.
132).
Explain the Relevance
After introducing and citing the passage, you will need to
explain the significance: How might this
author’s idea relate to my thesis? How does this data add to
what I am trying to prove in this
paragraph? Why am I putting this quotation in my paper? What
am I trying to show here? Never leave
any room for interpretation. It is your responsibility as the
writer to interpret the information for your
reader and identify its significance. Remember, a quote does not
speak for itself or prove anything on
its own. That is your job!

Here is an example of an explanation that would be appropriate
to accompany the Mack quotation
above: Judge Mack viewed juveniles as children first. He
envisioned a system that would protect and
give treatment to these young offenders so that they could
become productive adults, and saw no
place for criminal responsibility and punishment within this
system.
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Now, here is an example of the ICE method at work in a
paragraph:
In the beginning stages of the juvenile justice system, it
operated in accordance to a paternalistic
philosophy. This can be understood through the published words
of Judge Julian Mack, who had a
hand in the establishment of the juvenile justice system. In
1909, he stated that this system
should treat juveniles “as a wise and merciful father handles his
own child” (as cited in Scott &
Steinberg, 2008, p.16). Judge Mack viewed juveniles as children
first. He envisioned a system
that would protect and give treatment to these young offenders
so that they could become
productive adults, and saw no place for criminal responsibility

and punishment within this
system.
relationship or authority on the topic.
Five Tips for Effective Quoting
While quoting from reliable sources is an important part of
writing a research-based paper, some students
can become too reliant on quotes to do the work for them, over-
running their papers with other peoples’
words. The purpose of quoting is to include an expert’s voice
that is unique and different from your own in
order to support your ideas.
Here are five key tips for effectively incorporating quotes into
your writing:
1. Make Quotes Count. You should quote sparingly, so make
sure the quotes you include are
impactful and approach the subject in a way that you might not.
Part of quoting is “capturing”
someone else’s voice and unique expression of an idea. If you
could summarize the information
and lose none of its meaning, then do that. But if you feel like
the expert says it best, then quote
the expert.
2. Copy Quotes Correctly. It is important to be accurate when

you are quoting – the whole point of
quoting is to exactly represent another person’s words. Be
careful to copy the quote correctly,
and if you need to change anything, do so by indicating that you
are changing something. If you
need to insert a word, for instance, use brackets, like this: “In
this quote [the author] states that
people always rise to the occasion.” If you need to delete a
word or phrase, use ellipses to
represent this deletion, like this: “In this quote…people always
rise to the occasion.”
3. Your Words First. Because you are writing the paper, your
words should begin and end it – this
goes for the paragraphs as well as the whole paper. Avoid
beginning paragraphs with a quote –
start with your idea and create a topic sentence. Additionally,
avoid ending paragraphs with a
quote – you may analyze a quote prior to the end of the
sentence, and conclude that its meaning
informs your point. Use your words first – quotes should be
working for you, not the other way
around.
4. Keep Quotes Short. Quoting sources should not be a tactic to
fill space on the page. Not only
should your paper be written in your own words, but the amount
of space given to others’ words
should be brief. As a general rule of thumb, no more than 15%
of your entire paper should be
quoted material. Achieve this general goal by using only a few
quotes, and keeping those few
quotes as brief as 1–2 sentences.

5. “Block” Long Quotes. When your paper necessitates it, you
may use a longer quote. In this
case, “longer” quotes consist of four or more lines, or
approximately 40+ words. When you have a
quote of this length, you format it differently in your paper than
just incorporating it into the normal
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sentence structure. Long quotes must be made into “blocks” – a
visual indicator that this is a long
quote. In order to create this block, indent all the lines twice,
but keep the double-spacing.
Here’s an example of creating a block quotation:
Sometimes peoples’ viewpoints can be surprising. According to
Robert Coles in his 1989 book, The Call
of Stories,
On the way home Daddy became an amateur philosopher; he
said God chooses some
people to be rich, and that’s how it is, and you have to settle for
your luck, and ours isn’t
all that good, so that’s too bad, but if you just smile and keep
going, then you’ll be fine;

it’s when you eat your heart out that you can get in trouble. (41)
NOTE: When you create a block quotation, you do two things
differently than if you’re incorporating
shorter quotes into your sentence regularly.
1. First, you do not encase the quote in quotation marks – the
indentation replaces the quotation
marks.
2. Second, you punctuate the quoted material with a period
before the parenthetical citation – with
no ending punctuation after the parentheses.
ENG125: Introduction to Literature
List of Literary Techniques
Technique Description
Allusion
A reference to a recognized literary work, person, historic
event, artistic achievement, etc. that enhances the

meaning of a detail in a literary work.
Climax
The crisis or high point of tension that becomes the story’s
turning point—the point at which the outcome of the
conflict is determined.
Conflict The struggle that shapes the plot in a story.
Dramatic irony
When the reader or audience knows more about the
action than the character involved.
Epiphany
A profound and sudden personal discovery.
Exposition
Setting and essential background information presented at
the beginning of a story or play.
Falling action

A reduction in intensity following the climax in a story or
play, allowing the various complications to be worked out.
Fate
An outside source that determines human events.
Figurative language
Language used in a non-literal way to convey images and
ideas.
Figures of speech
The main tools of figurative language; include similes and
metaphors..
First-person point of view
Occurs when the narrator is a character in the story and
tells the story from his or her perspective.
Flashback
The description of an event that occurred prior to the
action in the story.
Foreshadowing
A technique a writer uses to hint or suggest what the

outcome of an important conflict or situation in a narrative
will be.
Imagery
A distinct representation of something that can be
experienced and understood through the senses (sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste), or the representation of
an idea.
Irony
A contradiction in words or actions. There are three types
of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic.
Limited omniscient point of
view
Occurs when a narrator has access to the thoughts and
feelings of only one character in a story.
Metaphor

A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between one object and another that is different from it.
Objective point of view
A detached point of view, evident when an external
narrator does not enter into the mind of any character in a
story but takes an objective stance, often to create a
dramatic effect.
Omniscient point of view
An all-knowing point of view, evident when an external
narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of all the
characters in a story.
Persona
Literally, in Latin, “a mask.”
Plot
A connecting element in fiction; a sequence of interrelated,

conflicting actions and events that typically build to a
climax and bring about a resolution
Point of view
The perspective of the narrator who will present the action
to the reader.
Resolution The outcome of the action in a story or play.
Rising action
Conflicts and circumstances that build to a high point of
tension in a story or play.
Situational irony
When the outcome in a situation is the opposite of what is
expected.
Simile
A figure of speech that compares two objects or ideas that
are not ordinarily considered to be similar, linked by using
like or as.
Song

A lyrical musical expression, a source of emotional outlet
common in ancient communities and still influential in
contemporary culture.
Symbol
An object, person, or action that conveys two meanings: its
literal meaning and something it stands for.
Third-person point of view
Occurs when the narrator tells the story using third-person
pronouns (he, she, they) to refer to the characters.
Tone
In a literary work, the speaker’s attitude toward the reader
or the subject.
Verbal irony
When words are used to convey a meaning that is opposite
of their literal meaning.

List of Writing Prompts
For students:
There are three prompts below each with four texts. For your
literary analysis essay, choose
ONE prompt and text pairing that interests you. Then, take a
look at the guiding questions for
the text you choose. You don’t necessarily need to answer all
of these questions in your paper.
The questions are there to help get you thinking in a direction
that will be more likely to lead
you to a successful literary analysis.
PROMPT 1.
Write an analysis of a key character in a literary work. Focus on
two or three key actions of that
character. Discuss the character’s motivations and decisions in
terms you can support with clear
evidence from a critical reading of the text. Consider whether
this character’s actions fit
together or contradict each other. You may also want to
consider whether or not any other
characters in the story are aware of this conflict, and if so, how
they influence the character you
are writing about.
Literary Works (choose one):
“Interpreter of Maladies” (Jhumpa Lahiri, 1999)
Guiding Questions:
1. How does a new outsider community member like Mrs. Das

influence Mr. Kapasi, who
seems to have become bored with his life and his role in the
community?
2. How does Mr. Kapasi’s desire for Mrs. Das make him unable
to understand Mrs. Das’
desires, leading to his failure to fulfill his role as the Interpreter
of Maladies?
3. How do the Das family’s actions surrounding their children
show that their desires or
interests do not accord with their obligations?
“What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” (Sherman Alexie, 2003)
Guiding Questions:
1. How does the grandmother’s property at the pawn shop help
to define the narrator’s
desires and feeling of obligation to recover it? Why is it so
important?
2. How does the character accomplish his objective, and how is
this surprising considering
all of the unfortunate events and bad decisions he makes along
the way?
3. How do the other characters--the Aleuts, the pawn shop
owner, the waitress, the police
officer, the other Indians at the bar--each play an important role
in showing how the
http://central-lausd-
ca.schoolloop.com/file/1251955222331/1251955217263/227976
7265736662414.pdf

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/04/21/what-you-
pawn-i-will-redeem
narrator is committed to an important mission he is worthy of
completing?
“We Came All the Way from Cuba so You Could Dress Like
This?” (Achy Obejas, 1994)
Guiding questions:
1. To what conflicts does the title allude (social? Political?
Cultural? others?)?
2. The first-person narrator switches tenses (from present to
future). How does this create
tension in the story?
3. How is the narrator’s internal conflict (“man v. self”) merely
an internalization of
political, familial, and social conflict?
“The Things They Carried” (Tim O’Brien, 1990) - 5.4 in
Journey into Literature
Guiding Questions:
1. The second paragraph of the story begins, “The things they
carried were largely
determined by necessity” (O’Brien, 1990). Were the soldiers
truly able to carry
everything they needed? What needs were left unfulfilled by
these items, and what in
the story suggests this?

2. The narrator also lists specific items that each man carried.
How do these items
symbolize the emotions that they carried with them, and how
does this understanding
enrich our understanding of the characters?
3. Often a comparative analysis can help us to notice elements
of a story that we might not
otherwise notice. Choose two or three characters and compare
the things they carried.
How does this comparison help qualities of each come to the
surface?
PROMPT 2.
In some stories, characters come into conflict with the culture in
which they live. Often, a
character feels alienated in his/her community or society due to
race, gender, class or ethnic
background. The texts below all contain a character who is
‘outcast’ or otherwise disconnected
from society in some way, reflecting important ideas about both
the character and the
surrounding society’s assumptions, morality, and values.
Choose a text and consider the
questions below as you critically read the text. Then, craft a
working thesis that suggests how
this alienation is expressed in the text and why it is significant.
Literary Works (choose one):
“What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” (Sherman Alexie, 2003)
Guiding Questions:
1. What beliefs and values from Native American culture does

the narrator consider
important, based on ideas and actions in the story?
2. What kinds of experience and values do characters share
across cultural differences like
Native Americans and whites, or even between different native
groups in the story?
https://latinosexualitygender.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/obeja
s-we-came-all-the-way-from-cuba.pdf
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/04/21/what-you-
pawn-i-will-redeem
3. How do the bisexual character, the narrator, and the homeless
characters in the story all
demonstrate and resolve different “outsider” identities?
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (Gabriel García
Marquez, 1955)
Guiding Questions:
1. How is the supernatural made familiar and the familiar
defamiliarized in the story? Is
the angel made more human? Are humans made supernatural or
less humane?
2. How is the tension between supernatural and human resolved
(or not) in the story?
3. What doe the community’s treatment of this ‘outsider’ reveal
about its culture, values,
and beliefs?

“A Hunger Artist” (Franz Kafka, 1924) – 7.5 in Journey into
Literature
Guiding Questions:
1. What is the “hunger artist’s” art, and how does it challenge
the understanding of the
men who look after the artist as well as the audience that
ignores him?
2. Why does the artist have to explain so much about his “art”
throughout the story-- is he
explaining it for others to understand or as part of his own self-
definition?
3. How does the young panther capture the audience’s attention
so easily yet they ignore
the artist-- what does this say about “appreciating” what others
value?
“Everyday Use” (Alice Walker, 1973)
Guiding Questions:
1. How do we know that the protagonist is impoverished? Is she
content with her class?
Why or why not?
2. How do we know that she is African-American? How does
her alienation due to her race
also connect with her education?
3. The protagonist’s daughter, Dee, who has embraced her
African roots, accuses her
mother of not understanding her heritage. Why? What is the
situational irony at the

end of the story?
PROMPT 3.
Consider the role of setting, or context, in one of the works. For
example, a story that takes
place in a wild and natural setting might include characters
struggling against nature to survive.
A story set in a city might include themes of alienation and
anonymity because of the
impersonal crowds and busy city life. Cultural contexts can
combine with both urban and rural
elements to produce further meaning, as well. Consider the
following questions as you
critically read one of the texts below: Does the protagonist
conflict with the setting or have
particular interactions with it? Does the protagonist’s
relationship with the setting connect with
his/her development as a character? Does the setting reveal
other themes and conflicts?
Literary Works (choose one from any of the lists below):
“The Man of the Crowd” (Edgar Allan Poe, 1845)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WD0f_YhxqZO8avsfAmP
tA2ngivbyqwJxY17XdBk2iyY/mobilebasic?pli=1
https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/leonardamy/Everyday%20Use.p
df
http://poestories.com/read/manofthecrowd
Guiding Questions:
1. How does the city setting--busy streets, buildings with
specific purposes, dark

backstreets-- produce a disorienting and confining experience
for people in the story?
2. How do all of the different occupations and “types” of
workers in the city combine to
communicate that no one is an individual person and no one
really knows each other?
3. What sorts of problems do the narrator and some of the other
characters have as a
result of this alienating city life? (Think of the narrator’s
obsession with the man.)
“The Things They Carried” (O’Brien, 1990) - 5.4 in Journey
into Literature
Guiding Questions:
1. How does the story communicate the uncertain and
frightening setting these soldier-
characters experience? (Consider repeated phrases or other
devices.)
2. What sorts of emotions, such as stress or fear, does the
Vietnam context cause the
characters to experience? Give specific examples from the
story, and consider how
these emotions might be “told” to us in multiple ways.
3. How do the soldiers in the story cope with their
setting/context, whether through
imagined escapes or other means, and are they successful?

“A Worn Path” (Eudora Welty, 1941) – 5.3 in Journey into
Literature
Guiding Questions:
1. Clugston suggests that “[t]he setting in this story is in a
particular season -- the
Christmas season.” Why is this significant considering the plot?
2. Clugston (2011) further writes: “The physical setting changes
during Phoenix Jackson's
journey. How does each environment she encounters reflect her
character?”
3. Phoenix Jackson encounters many obstacles on her journey.
To what non-physical
challenges do they allude?
“Sonny’s Blues” (James Baldwin, 1957)
Guiding Questions:
1. How do the characters’ interactions with the multi-faceted
“local color” and
communities of Harlem articulate the differences between those
characters?
2. What does the story suggest about a neighborhood’s cultural
identity and the diverse
life experiences possible, even when people seem to come from
the same place?
3. What aspects of the setting (the neighborhood, the school,
etc.) could be characterized
as liberating or oppressive, and how is this reflected in the

characters?
http://swcta.net/moore/files/2012/02/sonnysblues.pdf

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