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CSTW Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing

College of Humanities

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Tips For Integrating Secondary Sources

The Second-Level Writing Handbook // Creating and Implementing Effective Writing Assignments // Responding to Student Writing // In-Class Writing Activities // Peer Response // Preventing Plagiarism // OSU Resources.

Download Tips For Integrating Secondary Sources as a Microsoft Word file.

  1. Assignment Requirements: Are footnotes or a Works Cited page requested? Is there a minimum number of citations, or a recommended type of source?
  2. Do you have a good reason to quote, paraphrase, or summarize this particular information? Is the citation smoothly integrated not only into your prose, but also your argument? Are you quoting or citing too often?
  3. Is the information now common knowledge to your audience, such as "DNA is a double helix"? If so, citation is not important. If it is unique information, an opinion, or if you are quoting a passage verbatim, it must be cited. Understand what plagiarism is, and what procedures and penalties are involved.
  4. What kind of source are you using? A book or scholarly article? Newspaper? Internet? Email? Personal Interview? Find out what information (e.g. Web site address, date of access, page number) is required for your citation format, and make sure you record that information. For MLA and APA format advice, see the OSU Writing Center's handouts.
  5. Have you evaluated your source? Web sites can contain false or plagiarized information. For advice on evaluating sources, see "Ten C's for Evaluating Internet Sources," University of Wisconsin, Eau-Claire.
  6. Introduce the author / speaker of the information. If your audience will not recognize the name, an identifying phrase may be needed, such as "professor of neuroscience at Purdue," and another phrase may explain his/her expertise or relationship to the topic: "who has researched brain cancers for twenty years."
  7. Introduce the context of the quotation or paraphrase. An explanatory phrase may be needed to support the citation, such as "In the weeks after the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened, a Hungarian newspaper article appeared in which . . ." or "speaking of the materials used by Michelangelo, Roberts explains that . . ."
  8. Paraphrase and quote ethically. When paraphrasing, change vocabulary AND sentence structure. Quote word for word, and note any modifications you must make for grammar or clarity. Do not omit or overlook important phrases such as "I disagree with the statement that" - phrases which, when omitted, would twist the intended meaning of the author.
  9. Distinguish between your ideas and borrowed ideas, and distinguish between information from various sources or authors. A transitional phrase such as "This is significant because" may signal that now you are telling us your own thoughts and the citation is finished. "He/She continues" signals that the next sentence's idea belongs to the same author/speaker.
  10. Comment on the relevance / significance of the citation to the argument of your paper. Do not merely "speak through" quotations as if you are saying them, and do not assume that a quote speaks for itself in your paper. Demonstrate how the idea relates to your argument: evaluate the idea, critique the language you quoted, comment on what the citation reveals or focuses on. Squeeze all the value you can out of each quotation or paraphrase.
  11. Use proper punctuation and format specific to quotations. Learn how and when to use the ellipsis (. . .), square brackets [ ], punctuation outside or within quotation marks, etc. There is a lot of online advice, for example University of Wisconsin-Madison's "Writer's Handbook".