Week 6 – TEXT 1

BRINGING IN OTHERS’ IDEAS

PART I

When you are using information from a source, you can quote, paraphrase, or summarize
the information.

Quotations are the exact words of an author, copied directly from a source, word for
word. Quotations must appear with quotation marks, and they need to be cited with in-text
citations and at the end of the text in the references part. Quotes are easy to make, but
you need to use them sparingly. It is best to use your own words in your writing tasks and
written assignments.

Paraphrasing is stating an idea or passage in your own words. When you are
paraphrasing from a source you cannot copy information from the original text. This
means you need to keep the same meaning as the original text but use your own words.
You must significantly change the wording, phrasing, and sentence structure (not just a
few words here and there) of the source. These also must be noted with in-text citations
and the end-of-text reference list.
Summarizing is condensing the author's words or ideas without altering the meaning or
providing interpretation—you use your own words for this. As in paraphrasing you must
significantly change the wording, phrasing, and sentence structure and cite your
summary. Summarizing is basically, presenting the original information in a nutshell.

Paraphrasing: A 3-Step Process

Paraphrasing is a three-step process.

Step 1: Understand what you have read. You need to understand the text to explain it to
someone else.

Step 2: think about how you can explain the same idea and give the same information
using different language. Consider:

• using synonyms

Examples: money currency

organization institution

volatile unstable

earn money make money

backing a cause supporting an issue

sweeping change complete overhaul

• changing word forms (parts of speech): adjectives to adverbs, nouns to

verbs, adjectives to nouns, verbs to adjectives, etc.

Original source: “Universal changes are controlling the spread of disease.”

Change the parts of speech wherever possible.

Example paraphrase: Changes all over the universe are causing diseases to spread.

• changing the order of information

Original source: “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are determined to end poverty and
hunger, in all their forms and dimensions.”

Example paraphrase: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to ensure all forms of
hunger and poverty are eliminated.
• changing sentence type

Ask yourself, “What sentence type is used in the original writing?” Once you have
answered this question you can change the sentence structure to avoid plagiarism.

Original source (single independent clause + prepositional phrase): “Bitcoin is a

groundbreaking digital technology with the potential to radically change the way
individuals conduct banking and commerce.”

1. Change the sentence structure to independent clause + dependent clause + phrase:

Example: Individuals could radically change the way they conduct banking and commerce
if they used Bitcoin, the ground-breaking digital technology.

2. Add appropriate synonyms:

Example paraphrase: People can completely overhaul their banking and business
transactions if they adopt Bitcoin, the innovative digital currency.

• changing the voice from active to passive, or from passive to active

Original source (active voice): “Malaria kills over one million people yearly; the devastating
majority of them are kids in sub-Saharan Africa.”

1. Change to passive voice:

Example: Yearly over one million people are killed by Malaria; the devastating majority of
them are kids in sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Add appropriate synonyms and change sentence type:

Example paraphrase: Each year, over a million people are killed by malaria, and the
majority of the sufferers are children who live in sub-Saharan Africa.

You may need to use more than one of these techniques to complete a successful
paraphrase.

Step 3: give the citation so your reader knows where the information came from.

Example paraphrases:

● People can completely overhaul their banking and business transactions if

they adopt Bitcoin, the innovative digital currency (IFO, 2019).
● According to Gabriel (2003), each year, over a million people are killed by
malaria, and the majority of the sufferers are children who live in sub-Saharan
Africa.
● Changes all over the universe are causing diseases to spread (Paul, 2004).
Patchwriting

Patchwriting occurs when a student paraphrases a passage but directly lifts from a source and
changes only some of the words and grammar. Patchwriting is a type of plagiarism and
therefore not acceptable.

Study the examples below, identify and underline patchwriting in the paraphrased
version.

Original passage:

“Where mainstream sports typically refrain from displaying unapologetically violent acts,
professional wrestling dives in headfirst. A large portion of wrestling’s cultural appeal is
generated by the psychological arousal/excitement provided by witnessing highly aggressive
and violent forms of physical interaction in this sphere. Wrestling takes that which is pushed
behind the scenes of social life and places it in the center ring”

Source: Atkinson, M. (2002). Fifty million viewers can’t be wrong: Professional wrestling, sports-
entertainment, and mimesis. Sociology of Sport Journal, 9, 47-66.

Patchwriting:

According to Atkinson (2002), mainstream sports refrain from showing unremorseful violent acts
while professional wrestling unapologetically revels in the same type of violence. A large part of
wrestling’s appeal is generated by the very aggressive and violent interaction in this sport. While
such violence is usually behind the scenes of social life, it is the center of wrestling’s existence.

This is plagiarism as chunks in the original paragraph such as

● mainstream sports refrain from
● violent acts
● professional wrestling unapologetically
● a large
● wrestling’s appeal is generated by
● aggressive and violent interaction in this
● behind the scenes of social life
● center
are copied and pasted in the attempted paraphrase.

For extra information about paraphrasing visit

https://www.eapfoundation.com/writing/paraphrase/

Adapted from https://cehe.instructure.com/courses/20915/pages/3-dot-4 patchwriting? Module _item id =813008

Develop EAP Course Booklet by Averil Bolster and Peter Levrai

Language of Attribution: Reporting Verbs

As you know from weeks 2 and 5, when borrowing information from another source (when
quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing) academic writing requires you to use citations to refer to
the author of that source. One of the most common ways to incorporate these citations into your
writing is to use ‘reporting’ verbs to present information. In addition to helping you to avoid
plagiarizing others’ work, reporting verbs help you to strengthen your claim and to help the
reader understand the relevance of the sources you are using in your writing.

See the following examples, in which the reporting verbs (point out and state) are shown in
bold.
● Sharpling (2012) points out that reporting verbs have subtle differences in
meaning.
● University of Adelaide (2014) states that using the same reporting verb all the time
is both repetitive and boring.

The most common reporting verb is ‘state’. However, while it is simpler to use the same
verb over and over, this will not give your writing much variation. In addition, each
reporting verb has a slightly different meaning, depending on what the writer you are citing
is saying. It is therefore important for you to be aware of and try to use a range of reporting
verbs, depending on the information you are citing.

Note that “According to” is another common way to refer to a writer's work. This is not a
reporting verb but is used in the same way. A common student mistake is to use this with a
reporting verb such as state, which makes the sentence grammatically incorrect. See the
following examples.
According to Smith (2016), using “According to” and “state” in the same sentence is a
common student error.
Smith (2016) states that using “According to” and “state” in the same sentence is a
common student error.
According to Smith (2016) states that using “According to” and “state” in the same
sentence is a common student error.
Reporting verbs are also a way for you, the writer, to show your ‘attitude’ towards the source
of information you are citing. These attitudes are either ‘positive,’ ‘negative’, or ‘neutral’.
Do you agree with what Do you disagree with Perhaps you don’t feel
the author has said? If so, what the author has said? positive or negative
use reporting verbs with In this case, you can use about the source you are
a ‘positive’ meaning to a ‘negative’ reporting citing. In this situation,
them: verb to indicate this: you should use a ‘neutral’
reporting verb:
● Acknowledges ● Accuses
● Affirms ● Claims ● Adds
● Certifies ● Guesses ● Concludes
● Explains ● Proclaims ● Describes
● Identifies ● Expects ● Feels
● Observes ● Hopes ● Maintains
● Says

Adapted from https://docecity.com/reporting-verbspdf.html

Strength of reporting verbs

Reporting verbs vary in terms of strength. Consider the following examples.

 Smith (2016) assumes that reporting verbs have different strengths.
 Smith (2016) insists that reporting verbs have different strengths.

Although both verbs have the same general meaning, namely believe, the verb assume is
quite weak, while the verb insist is much stronger. The second verb most closely matches
the information above on this page, i.e. as a fact, and is, therefore, more accurate than the
first one.

Grammar of reporting verbs

Reporting verbs are often followed by a that-clause. However, not all verbs follow this
pattern. It is important, when using reporting verbs, to check the grammar usage to make
sure that your writing is accurate. Consider the following examples.

 Smith (2016) insists that reporting verbs have different strengths. [insist + that]
 Smith (2016) agrees with Sharpling (2012) that reporting verbs have subtle differences in meaning.
[agree with sb]
 Smith (2016) challenges writers to use reporting verbs accurately. [challenge sb to do sth]
 Examples of reporting verbs

The table below lists some of the most common reporting verbs.

Now read the underlined sentences in the paragraph and answer the questions.

The socio-economic impacts of artificial intelligence: A review

Aysan Bonab, Ihor Rudko, Francesco Bellini

2021

With the technological advancements in recent decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part
of the everyday life of modern societies. In general terms, AI can be defined as a process of collecting
information, sorting it, and learning from what is stored, which enables computers to perform tasks that
normally require human intelligence (Glidden, 2021). As stated by James (2019), the term artificial intelligence
was coined by John McCarthy in 1956, and early AI research in the 1950s explored topics like problem-solving
and symbolic methods. In the 1960s, many governments and businesses took interest in this type of work and
began training computers to mimic basic human reasoning. For example, in the United States, the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) completed street mapping projects in the 1970s, and they
produced intelligent personal assistants in 2003, long before Siri, Alexa or Cortana were household names.
This early work paved the way for the automation and formal reasoning that can be seen in computers today,
including decision support systems and smart search systems that are designed to complement and augment
human abilities. While Hollywood movies and science fiction novels depict AI as human-like robots that take
over the world and lead to misconceptions that AI is dangerous, AI simply mimics human intelligence. Today,
AI is used in many different fields to make life easier for modern societies. Therefore, it is clear that AI has
countless benefits in terms of economy, health, education and environment.
 1. Whose ideas/opinions are the underlined sentences?

2. When did they publish this paper?

How do we cite a source when it is written by eight authors? Analyze the table below.

Author Type Narrative style citation Parenthetical style citation

(When the author surname is a (When the author surname is not a
word in your sentence) part of your sentence)
1 author Lee (2020)…………….. ………. (Lee, 2020).

2 authors Salas and D’Agostiono ………. (Salas and D’Agostiono, 2019).

(2019)………..
3 or more authors Marquen et al. (2020)…………… ………. (Marquen et al., 2020).

Group author
with National Institute of Mental ……….. (National Institute of Mental
abbreviation Health (NIMH, 2018) Health [NIMH], 2018).
If first mention, ………………….
introduce ………… (NIMH, 2018).
abbreviation: NIMH (2018)……………………

Subsequent citations:
Group author Stanford University ………… (Stanford University, 2020).
without (2020)…………….
abbreviation
When the author refers to Author of the original source ………… (Author of the original source,
another author (Year, as cited in Author of the Year, as cited in Author of the source
source you are using, Year) you are using, Year).
……………
……………(Miller, 2000, as cited in
Miller (2000, as cited in Agrios, Agrios, 2005).
2005)…………..

 Narrative citation:
 Parenthetical citation:
Read the sentences below and underline the phrases that must be changed while
paraphrasing. Then paraphrase the statements remembering what phrases could be
used.

1. With the technological advancements in recent decades, artificial

intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of the everyday life of
modern societies.

2. While Hollywood movies and science fiction novels depict AI as human-

like robots that take over the world and lead to misconceptions that AI
is dangerous, AI simply mimics human intelligence.