Chapter 7: Using Sources Honestly

What You Will Make

Create a source note that keeps borrowed words separate from your explanation. Record the source’s author or organisation, title, edition or date where relevant, and a page, paragraph, timestamp, or other usable locator. Use your teacher’s required citation system in the essay.

Keep Three Kinds of Writing Distinct

Label exact copied words QUOTE immediately. Label a restatement PARAPHRASE and your inference MY ANALYSIS. A paraphrase needs your own structure as well as wording, and it still credits the source. A bibliography alone does not show which sentence uses someone else’s work.

One drafting method is to read the passage, look away, explain its meaning, and then compare your version with the original. Looking away is only a practical aid; the comparison is what catches distortion or wording that remains too close.

Examine a Note

The following uses the fictional passage “The Empty Chair”, paragraph 3.

QUOTE: “She kept one hand on the chair until he sat down.”

Too close to the wording: “She held one hand on the chair until he took a seat.” This mainly swaps words while retaining the source’s construction. A citation would not make it a strong paraphrase.

Flawed paraphrase: “Mina maintains contact with the seat throughout the student’s approach, letting the invitation unfold before she withdraws her hand.” Check this carefully: the passage does not say she withdraws her hand afterwards, so the final phrase adds an event. Remove it.

Corrected paraphrase: “Mina maintains contact with the seat while the student accepts her invitation and sits.” Cite paragraph 3 in this practice exercise.

MY ANALYSIS: “The gesture may suggest hesitation alongside her willingness to connect.” This is an interpretation, not a quotation or a stated fact about her feelings.

Try It Yourself

Make the three labelled notes from one of your assigned sources. Compare the paraphrase against the original for both wording and meaning. Circle any event, certainty, or cause your version adds. Remove it or identify it separately as your inference.

Check Your Work

• Are exact words marked and checked?
• Does the paraphrase preserve meaning without near-copying?
• Can you distinguish the source’s statement from your analysis?
• Is there enough source information to build the required citation?

Do this before copying notes into your draft; uncertainty is harder to untangle later.

Source Guidance

Paraphrased ideas still require attribution; exact borrowed wording needs quotation treatment. (University of Toronto)