Once you select sources that align with your research interest and assignment requirements it is time to use them! Reading to complete an assignment differs from reading for enjoyment- it is important to identify the main ideas, locate and take note of important ideas and details from the articles that you will want to include in your own project. Continue reading this page to learn strategies on how-to use your research for a successful research paper!
Definitions
A quote is when you take someone else’s exact words and put them in your paper.
A paraphrase is when you take someone else’s ideas, findings, or observations and put it in your paper in your own words.
A summary is when you briefly restate the main points or main ideas of another source.
Whether you are paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting an article, you need to lead into cited material, use parenthetical notation in the text, explain the material’s relation to your thesis, and include an entry in your works cited page.
If you are quoting an article, you will need to do all of those things as well as enclose the quoted words in quotation marks.
To lead into cited material is to prepare your reader for the shift from your ideas or words to someone else’s. A typical lead may be as simple as saying:
According to climate scientist Michael E. Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, the Exxon-Mobil papers prove that, “the villainy that we long suspected was taking place within ExxonMobil really was. It wasn’t just a conspiracy theory. It was a legitimate conspiracy“ (Song 2015).
By naming the source (Michael E. Mann) and establishing why he is an authoritative source (he is the director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center), you not only alert your reader that what comes next is someone else’s words, you also establish why those words should be heeded.
You can read more about paraphrasing and summarizing in any MLA Handbook or on sites such as Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab
When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize
Summaries and paraphrases should be used when you want to touch on a source’s main points.
As a general rule, exact quotes should be reserved for very precise information or for striking turns of phrase.
To summarize an article in 3 steps:
Take note of the main ideas
Consider the purpose of your summary
Combine the main ideas in a way that is easy to read
For example:
Please read the article Scientists set to prepare strongest warning that warming man-made and note how the three steps above are applied here:
1) Take note of the main ideas contained in the original article.
2) Consider the purpose of your summary to decide which aspects of the article are most important. This does not mean ignore the parts that disagree with you. It simply means that you ask questions such as, “Is it more important to point out that they are preparing for a meeting, or is it more important that they are preparing to warn us about global warming, OR are the things they are going to warn us about the actual important things?” Depending on the aim of your paper, you might want to highlight different aspects. If we focus on the things they are set to warn us about, then we are left with the following ideas:
3) Find a way to combine these ideas in a way that is easy to read (i.e.: not just a collection of randomly presented factoids) and remains true to the ideas presented in the article.
The fifth report of the IPCC will assert at least a 95% probability that human activities are the main cause of global warming since the 1950s and that left unchecked, we can expect the warming to cause more extreme weather events over this century. The report will caution that the impacts of climate change will be worsened if governments do not act to drastically curtail greenhouse gas emissions. The 4th report of the IPCC asserted a 90% probability that human activities were responsible for driving climate change, and though they do not expect the increase in probability to spur greater public awareness, scientists suggest that recent extreme weather events have made climate change more visible to the public. They likewise suggest that global economic considerations have decreased governments’ foci on global warming since the failed UN summit in Copenhagen in 2009. The IPCC will explain the 15-year hiatus in global warming by detailing “a combination of natural variations” and predicts resumption of the warming in coming years.
The annotated bibliography is a list of your sources including citations and accompanying descriptions. Sources are listed in alphabetical order by author’s last named, allowing you to keep all of your sources in one place and offering other researchers insight into your materials.
Each entry on your annotated bibliography must have at least these two parts:
More involved annotated bibliographies may also include one or both of the following:
The summary portion will consist of three points:
The evaluation of credibility will note things such as:
The assessment of the usefulness of the article to your project will disclose:
A Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry
Kharecha, Pushker A., and James E. Hansen. “Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power.” Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 47, no. 9, 2013, pp. 4889–4895., https://doi.org/10.1021/es3051197.
In Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power, Kharecha and Hansen(2013) hypothesized that replacing carbon-producing fuels with nuclear power could “prevent an average of 420 000–7.04 million deaths and 80–240 GtCO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by mid-century, depending on which fuel it replaces” (p. 4889). They correlated the historical output of CO2 to the resultant air pollution-related deaths to determine that the use of nuclear power since 1971 has prevented “ an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2-eq) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning” (p. 4889). The authors found that increased reliance on nuclear energy would be safer and less ecologically harmful than continued reliance on fossil fuels or expansion of natural gas use. The publisher of this paper, American Chemical Society, is known to be a reputable, peer-reviewed source, but it has lately come under fire by the libertarian-leaning Watts Up With That blog for presenting a political agenda. Because of the known bias of Watts Up With That, such claims are not necessarily prohibitive; likewise, there are no peer-reviewed studies refuting the data of the article. This article is especially useful for discussing the opportunity costs of society’s dependence on coal and oil as well as for calming some of societies’ concerns about nuclear energy.
Finding, reading, and taking notes on articles is one thing. But how do you actually use all of that information to write a paper?
In your research, you will find many different kinds of articles, some of which are more up-to-date, objective, accurate, and/or on-point than others.
Here is what you can’t do:
Here is what you can do!
1. When you find an article contains your keywords, but is not about your subject:
You want to write a business paper about shell companies, but your search retrieves an article about Shell Oil Company or about a company that sells sea shells.
All you can do is look for other articles. A quote from an article that isn’t about your actual topic will not help you prove or defend your thesis. You may have to reevaluate your search terms and determine if they should be more specific of more general. You shouldn’t waste your time trying to find a quote that you can somehow twist and contort into your paper.
2. When the article contains your keywords but is focused on a different aspect of your subject:
You want to write a sociology paper about community programs that help solve the problems of juvenile delinquency, but your search retrieves an article about how one particular neighborhood is protesting the opening of a new detox center for juvenile offenders.
Save the article, take notes about it, and store the information. Even though it does not help you prove your point, you might be able to use it to explain the social context of your subject. It might also be useful as a counterargument.
3. When the article is about the same aspect of your subject, but from the opposite point of view:
You want to prove that government-funded after-school programs don’t decrease gang violence, but the article contends that such programs actually do decrease gang violence.
Save the article, take notes about it, and store the information. Even though it does not help you prove your point, it might also be useful as a counterargument. The next step is to read more articles and hope that they will help you prove your point and refute the claims of the first article.
4. When the article contradicts your claim and you can’t find anything to refute it:
You might have to reconsider your claim. Perhaps you are wrong and should try to prove the opposite of what you first thought. Or, perhaps your thesis is only conditionally right and you need to qualify it with certain conditions.
Note! You can generally avoid this problem by doing your research BEFORE you come up with a thesis statement. Approaching your topic with an unbiased research question allows you to inform your thesis with the knowledge of experts, instead of trying to make their expertise back up your preconceived opinion!
5. When the article is about your subject and corroborates your thesis:
You have found an article that reinforces your point of view and will work PERFECTLY to prove your point!
You still have to evaluate it for credibility, timeliness, and objectivity. If the article is outdated, comes from an unreliable source, or is biased, you may have to leave it out of your paper or include it with caveats and qualifiers. HOWEVER, if the article passes inspection…
Take notes for later. Write down all of the information you will need for your works cited page. Write down any information you will want to quote, paraphrase or summarize, being careful to note the page number or paragraph number of the where you got the information.
This information can be mapped out in your outline and used in your paper. Always follow the documentation style your instructor wants you to use.
Sometimes you will find an article, news source, book, or website that disagrees with your thesis. As upsetting as that might be, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to throw everything away and start over! Take time to carefully analyze the new information to see if it is objective, accurate, and timely.
You may be able to refute it by considering the following:
Do some research to see if the author or source has a consistent political bias. If so, those allegiances may call into question the accuracy of the claims therein.
Science, research, and technology update our understanding of the world daily. Claims that represented the best understanding in the year 2000 may no longer represent the best understanding. Look for more current articles to see if anything has changed.
Weasel words are used by some commentators to disguise personal opinions as facts. These phrases are not always weasel words, but when you see them, you should pay attention to the claims being made to see if they actually ring true. Common weasel words are:
But what each of these phrases has in common is that it makes a claim without providing any indication of who said it, when it was said, or why it may or may not apply to the current situation.
In other words, when you see these words be sure to start asking questions. Further research might show that the article is not being entirely honest.
If you can honestly refute a source that disagrees with you, point out its flaws. If you cannot verify it or refute it, acknowledge that more study needs to be done on both sides. If you can verify the new information and cannot refute it, congratulations! You now have a new and better understanding of the world!