The skills of quoting and paraphrasing

Citing other writers’ work is a complex task which demands the appropriate use of a set of rules. Therefore, we, post-graduate learners of English, need to be acquainted with the uses of in-text citations in order to integrate short or long quotations and paraphrases into our papers. In one of her articles, Myles (2002) blends quotations with introductory phrases and paraphrases trying to enhance the credibility of her writing and support her own claims.
In Myles’s (2002) article, different types of quotations are highly integrated, introduced with effective reporting verbs and also blended with striking paraphrases. For instance, many short quotations are well integrated into complete sentences preceded by prepositions like “by”, “of”, “in” and “as”. On the other hand, reporting verbs such as “observe”, “conclude”, “argue” and “point out” or phrases like “according to” introduce the longer quotations. Some of these quotations are preceded by a colon and a sentence written by Myles (2002) paraphrasing other writers’ words:
He states that we very often use feelings as information: “When faced with a situation about which we have to make a judgement we often ask ourselves how we feel about it…we may also employ feelings when time constraints and competing tasks limit our cognitive capacities.” (p. 7)
In addition, Myles (2002) links paraphrases and direct quotations when citing authors’ words: “According to Ellis (1985), it is through analyzing learner errors that we elevate ‘the status of errors …learning process’” (p. 9).
When directly quoting, Myles (2002) has made use of insertions and ellipsis in order to change letters and omit some words or whole sentences. For instance, the writer has used square brackets to change lower-case letters to upper-case letters when citing the words “learners” and “although” at the beginning of two long quotations. On the other hand, Myles (2002) has deleted unnecessary words in some of her quotations. For example, “Indeed, writing ‘should not be viewed solely as an individually-oriented, inner-directed cognitive process, but as much as an acquired response to the discourse conventions . . . within particular communities’” (p. 3).
In conclusion, Myles (2002) has extended the depth of her writing by successfully blending elaborate paraphrases with illustrative quotations from a variety of sources. Therefore, this author has succeeded in composing a scholarly journal article since she has fulfilled the academic writing requirements. Indeed, her writing can be regarded as a "vehicle for constructing and negotiating knowledge claims" (Mac Donald, 1994, p. 9).




References

Mac Donald, S. P. (1994). Professional academic writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Carbondale, SI: Southern Illinois University Press.

Myles, J. (2002). Second Language Writing and Research: The Writing Process and Error Analysis in Student Texts. TESEL-EJ, 6, 2, 2002. Queen's University. Retrieved September 12th, 2009, from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESl-EJ/ej22/a1.html