If you are asked to write a term paper or research paper, you will probably have to research and select information sources to support the arguments you make in your paper.  Writers use these techniques to help blend outside information sources into their writing:  Balance of Voice, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting, and citing the sources of your information.

Here are some tips for integrating sources into your writing:

• Whenever you use quotations, paraphrases, or summaries, they need to be connected to your words and ideas.  Be sure the author's works or ideas are supporting what you think and not replacing what you think.
• To weave other's ideas into your writing and research, use phrases such as "according to the author" or "as the author explains" and identify the author when referencing them.
• Follow your quotation, paraphrase or summary with an explanation of why the source is important, noteworthy, and/or how it relates to your idea or argument.

Balance of Voice refers to creating a balance between your own ideas and the outside information source you may use.  Outside information sources should be used to illustrate or support your ideas, and only represent a small portion of your total work.  

To illustrate this, in the example on the left, the GREEN areas represent the writer's original writing and ideas while the YELLOW areas represent the outside information sources the writer uses to support their ideas.

A summary is a condensed version of information from a research source.  Whereas paraphrasing restates all the points of the original source, summaries focus on generalizing what the author of the source is trying to say.  The benefit of using a summary is to reduce the length of the passage, and in some cases expressing the content in a more concise way. 

When summarizing:

• Do write using your own words.
• Do  highlight the main points of the original passage.
• Provide an objective overview. Avoid including interpretation of the ideas.
• Cite your source material.

EXAMPLE:

Original passage: These new teachers realized from the start that their salaries as teachers would not match those of their friends working in law, consulting, business, or banking. Although they often said that they did not expect to be well paid as teachers, they were troubled by a salary scale that did not encourage individual initiative, recognize extra hours worked, or reward them for success in raising students’ test scores. As teachers, their only options for increasing their pay were to take additional courses or to become a club adviser for a modest annual stipend. They complained when they realized that they were earning far less than an experienced teacher in a neighboring classroom, whose class was out of control or whose students learned little—failings that they said their administrators ignored.

Summary: The teachers in a study helmed by Susan Johnson found that -- though their salaries were not low to begin with -- their opportunities for salary increases were highly limited and, usually, those increases were predicated in doing extra work (Johnson 110).

Reference in MLA format: Johnson, Susan Moore. “Having It Both Ways: Building the Capacity of Individual Teachers and Their Schools.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 82, no. 1, 2012, pp. 107–22, https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.82.1.c8515831m501x825 .

A paraphrase is a restatement of another's ideas in your own words. Paraphrasing is often used to simplify an idea or make the meaning clearer to the reader.  Paraphrasing can be tricky because you want to avoid using the same language as the original passage but still get the essential information across to the reader.  Paraphrasing well takes some practice but it's a valuable writing skill because process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original, and paraphrasing helps you control the temptation to quote too much.

Steps to Effective Paraphrasing:

• Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
• Put the passage aside and write down the main points of the original passage.
• Using the points you wrote down, write in your own words the essence of the original passage.
• Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses in your own words all the essential information in a new form.
• Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
• Note/record the source (including the page); you must cite paraphrased material

EXAMPLE:

• Restates the idea of the original text in simpler form.
• Includes citation information.

A quotation is a word-for-word repetition of something you have researched, heard or read.  Quotations can be used when you cannot reword it better than the original but should be used sparingly in order to avoid plagiarizing.

EXAMPLE:

Original Passage:  Such “no excuses” reforms assume that a teacher can do it all, that an individual who succeeds in one school can succeed in any school, and, conversely, that a teacher who falters in one classroom will fail in all others.

Passage from Student Paper: Susan Johnson (2012) points out that these " 'no excuses'   reforms assume that a teacher can do it all, that an individual who succeeds in one school can succeed in any school, and, conversely, that a teacher who falters in one classroom will fail in all others" (Johnson 108).

Reference in MLA format: Johnson, Susan Moore. “Having It Both Ways: Building the Capacity of Individual Teachers and Their Schools.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 82, no. 1, 2012, pp. 107–22, https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.82.1.c8515831m501x825 .