NTUT Academic Writing: Concrete Support

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• NTUT Academic Writing Concrete Support
  Quotations, Paraphrases, and Summaries

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Reporting Verbs Phrases

• Common reporting terms
• According to insist report suggest claim
  maintain say write declare mention
  state.

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Rules of Reporting Verbs Phrases

• 1. Can appear before, in the middle of, or after
  a quotation.
• Ex. Dr. Karsten said, _________. ________,
  the doctor stated, ___________.
  _______________, declared the president of IOC.
• 2. Can be used with or without the subordinator
  as.
• Ex. (As) a spokesperson of the IOC suggested,
  ___________.
• 3. Reporting verbs may be in ANY TENSE.
• Ex. As the IOC stated/states in its report after
  the games in Atlanta, __________. As the IOC
  has always insisted, ______________.
• 4. According to can be used to replace a
  reporting verb.
• Ex. According to the IOC, _______________.
• 5. It is a good idea to include the source of the
  quotation in the sentence.
• Ex. According to a report published by the IOC,
  __________.

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Punctuating Direct Quotations

• 1. Dr. Wang, a well-known astrophysicist who has
  been studying black holes, said it is one of the
  most interesting phenomena we astrophysicists
  have ever studied.
• 2. As she explained in black holes the laws of
  nature do not seem to apply.
• 3. A black hole is a tiny point with the mass 25
  times the mass of our sun explained Wangs
  associate, Chun-Yi Su. Black holes are created by
  the death of a very large star she stated.
• 4. It is an invisible vacuum cleaner in space the
  added with tremendous gravitational pull.
• 5. According to Dr. Su, if a person falls into a
  black hole, he will eventually be crushed due to
  the tremendous gravitational forces.

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Direct Quotations
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Indirect Quotations (verb tenses)
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Changing Direct Quotations to Indirect Quotations

• 1. Omit quotation marks
• 2. Add the subordinate that (omit that if the
  meaning is clear)
• 3. Change the verb tense if necessary
• 4. Change pronouns as necessary.

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Examples
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Sequence of Tenses Rules
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Other Tenses Rules

• 1. When the quoted information is a fact or a
  general truth, the verb tense in the quotation
  does not change.
• Ex. He said, Water boils at a lower temperature
  in the mountains. (He said that water boils at
  a lower temperature in the mountains.)
• 2. When the reporting verb is simple present,
  present perfect, or future, the verb tense in the
  quotation does not change.
• Ex. He says, I can finish it today. (He says
  that he can finish it today.)
• 3. When the reporting phrase is according to,
  the verb tense does not change.
• Ex. Gupta said, Anyone I meet on the Internet
  will probable be professional and educated.
  (According to Gupta, anyone he meets on the
  internet will probably be professional and
  educated.)

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Change direct quotations to indirect ones

• 1. Television channel KSA General Manager Jim
  Burns said, Not every can attend college in the
  traditional way therefore, taking courses via
  television will offer many more students the
  chance to earn a college degree.
• 2. Pre-med student Alma Rodriguez said, I miss
  being on campus, but I have to work and take care
  of my family.
• 3. Other students said, Last year, we spent
  several hours a day commuting to and from school.
  Now we dont have to do that.
• 4. Computer engineering student Amir Mehdizadeh
  stated, I can choose when to study and how to
  study without pressure. he also said, I will
  take two more telecourses in the fall.

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Paraphrase

• When paraphrasing, it is important to avoid
  plagiarizing.
• In other words, avoid writing a paragraph that is
  too similar to the original.
• A paraphrase is unacceptable when it contains the
  same vocabulary and sentence structure as the
  original.

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Examples of acceptable and unacceptable
paraphrases
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(No Transcript)
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Summaries

• A summary is similar to a paraphrase except that
  a summary is shorter.
• When you summarize, you compress large amounts of
  information into the fewest possible sentences.
• To do this, you include only the main ideas and
  supporting points, leaving out the details.
• However, just as you paraphrase, you must not
  change the meaning of the original.

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Examples
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Assignment Paraphrase and Summarize the Passage
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Facts Versus Opinions

• In very formal academic writing, even some
  statements that are considered facts need further
  support. In other words, they need specific
  supporting details in order to be completely
  convincing.

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Test Yourselves

• 1. Smoking is relaxing and, therefore, enjoyable.
• 2. Dr. Kathleen Parker, a well-known cancer
  specialist, recently admitted in an interview,
  Although I see the harmful effects of smoking
  nearly every day in my work, I still enjoy
  relaxing with a cigarette after dinner.
• 3. Early in the next decade, more women than men
  will die of lung cancer, according to the
  American Cancer Society.
• 4. According to a recent New York Times article,
  cigarette smoking is increasing among adults in
  their forties as well as among the college
  educated and those earning more than 35,000
  annually.
• 5. Red-light runners must take a drivers
  education class. Then they will become safer
  drivers.

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Documenting Sources of Information

• Be sure to give proper credit to the originators
  of the ideas lest you will be guilty of
  plagiarism.
• Two basic steps to documenting your sources
• 1. In-Text Citations
• provide names and page number(s) if the
  authors name
• is already mentioned, do not repeat the
  name in the citation if quoted from an
  encyclopedia, only the name of the author (if
  provided) and the title of the article should be
  cited if you use someones words that are quoted
  in a source written by someone else, begin the
  citation with the abbreviation qtd. in.

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• 2. A list of works cited
• list names in alphabetical order (the
  example)