ENG 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Modern Language Association, American Psychological Association, English Studies
Paraphrasing and Other Stuff
Paraphrase of the above: paraphrasing and Additional Content
Don't Paraphrase Wrong
-Restating all of the relevant information from a source's passage In your own words without any additional
comments or any suggestion of agreement or disagreement with the source's ideas
-Useful for recording details of the passage when the wording isn't important
-Because all the details are included, a paraphrase is often about the same length as the original passage
Don't Paraphrase Wrong Pt. 2
-It is almost impossible to avoid using ANY key terms from your original source
-If the words that are used in both the original source and your paraphrase are distinctive, you should put
quotation marks around them
-Example: "I never go to bed until I've recited all of the states in alphabetical order in one breath, smoothly and
relatively clearly."
-Example: The author claims to recite the names of the states in alphabetical order every night before he goes to
bed. He makes himself accomplish this in one breath and requires that he do so "smoothly and relatively
clearly."
Don't Paraphrase Wrong Pt. 3
-UNACCEPTABLE: Too many borrowed words and phrases.
-If you're using a lot of the key terms and phrases from the original text but not using quotation marks, this is
considered plagiarism, even if you cite the source.
-UNACCEPTABLE: Sentence structure repeated too closely
-If your sentence is structured in exactly the same way as the original text but you've just substituted a few
synonyms for the key terms, that is also considered plagiarism
Also, Don't Summarize Wrong
-Summary presents only the main ideas of the source, leaving our examples and most details
-More than just a dry list of main ideas from a source. They are coherent, readable new texts composed of the
source's main ideas
-Summaries provide balanced coverage of a source, following the same sequences of ideas and avoiding any
hint of agreement or disagreement with them
MLA vs. APA
-MLA: Modern Language Association. Used in most humanities courses. Emphasis on authorship. Ends with a
"Works Cited" page.
-APA: American Psychological Association. Used in most social science courses. Emphasis on the date a work
was created. Ends with a "References" page.
Which One Should You Use? Probably APA.
-APA: Social sciences, such as psychology, linguistics, economics, and criminology. Business. Nursing.
-MLA: English studies; Language and literature. Foreign Language and Literature. Literary Criticism.
Comparative Literature. Cultural Studies. Anthropology. Archaeology. History. Law and Politics. Performing
Arts. Religion. Philosophy. Visual Arts.
What's an important website you should write down and refer to constantly while you're working on this
stuff?
Owl.english.purdue.edu
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
