• Use quote marks for exact words, whether you use entire sentences, phrases, or only a distinctive word.
• Do quote memorable words and strong statements of opinion.
• Make sure your quotations are woven into complete sentences. A fragment is a fragment.
• Do NOT quote commonly known facts or standard terminology.
• Keep quotes brief and use them sparingly. INTRODUCE THEM. Make clear who is speaking and the source of information. Twiddle Dum, in his article, “Jane Loves Rochester,” writes “blah” (181).
• Use ellipses for omitted words.

Paraphrase

• Paraphrase basic information.
• Paraphrase with fear and trembling. Use your own words. Make sure you use plain English.

Summary

• Condense the material. Write fewer, not more, words.
• Summarize material you don’t need to cover in detail.

Punctuating Direct Quotes

• No punctuation before the quotation when it fits into the sentence.
Winky suggests Bertha’s “senselessness” results from passion (12).
• Comma before quotation if you use attribution (says, suggests, writes).
Winky writes, “Bertha’s senselessness begins with her sexual desire” (12).
• Use a colon before a quotation of a sentence or more.
In her article, Winky suggests the root of Bertha’s madness: “Bertha’s senselessness begins with her sexual desire” (12).

Examples of Summary, Paraphrase, and Direct Quote
Jane’s rebuking of herself (Chapter XVI, p. 141)
“He said something in praise of your eyes, did he? Blind puppy! Open their bleared lids and look on your own accursed senselessness! It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.”
 

Summary: Jane warns that if a woman wastes her emotions on a man who cannot marry her, she risks being hurt beyond redemption.

Paraphrase (w/quotes): Jane describes herself as a puppy that can’t see and needs to open its eyes. While men might flatter women they have no intention of marrying, the woman will be “devoured” by her yearnings when they are kept secret. If she allows herself to respond to the infatuation, she will be unable to be saved from the “miry wilds” (Bronte 141).

Direct Quote: Brontë writes that Jane is afraid that if Rochester learns of her love for him and responds to her, it would “lead, ignis-fatus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication” (141). (PAGE # ONLY because Brontë is in text.)

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A good way to start with your sources is to read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas. Then, summarize in your own words what the single main idea of the essay is. Next, paraphrase important supporting points that come up in the essay. Also consider any words, phrases, or brief passages that you believe should be quoted directly.
Give credit for information not commonly known statistics, ideas, quotations, opinions—even when you use your own wording. Always put quotation marks around someone else’s exact words. Do NOT let sources take over your paper. This paper is your educated opinion.

• Use the author’s last name and page number (Bronte 141), unless you name the author in the text. Then use the page number alone (141).
• Internet sources don’t use page numbers. Poems have line numbers. Use abbreviated chapters for the Bible. (Eccles. 3:1). Plays use act, scene, lines (2.2.333-334).
• For two or more authors, list each one as ordered in the source (Winky, Dinky, and Dum 151).
• When you have two or more sources from the same author, refer to the author in the text and use the first identifying words to indicate which title you’re citing: Smyth suggests Bertha is sane (Insanity 32). In your Works Cited section, use three hyphens and a period to replace the author’s name for the second title.
Smyth, Adrienne. “Insanity for Three.” New York Times 17 Jan. 1996, sec. 7: 67-90.
---. Fun with Rochester and Jane. Chicago: Big Books, 1997.
• For sources originally in print but read on the screen, cite the printed version format without page numbers. In the Works Cited section, include the URL for the source.
• In your Works Cited section, LIST ONLY THE SOURCES CITED IN THE PAPER.
• Online Source Format:  Author or organization. “Title of Article.” Title of the Complete Work. Date of publication or revision. Sponsoring organization if different from the author. Date you viewed it. <URL>.

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