It can be helpful to think about the range of purposes for paraphrasing and quoting.
Establish Context. Use a source to be an example of some sort of context for your writing to matter, to be interesting, to be relevant to your audience.
Review the research on your subject. Who else has written about what you are saying and what can you quickly tell me about it?
Introduce a term or define a concept. Any term that might be central or highly important to your argument should be defined, and using a quote from an expert can be helpful to do that work. When doing this, make sure you connect the definition back to your argument.
Repeating something from an expert to support or amplify what you argue. You can use a paraphrase or direct quote from an expert to echo or further support what you say to enhance your own credibility. So, perhaps not much in the way of new information, but you amplify your point and make it last a bit longer for a reader while also showing that other people agree with you.
Highlight differences or counterarguments. It can be valuable to highlight counterarguments or people who see things a little differently. It shows that you are aware of other arguments and you have thought about them. Make sure to build in how these counterarguments either enhance your own position or provide evidence for how they don’t quite support the argument you are making.
In a comment below, spend about 100 words explaining how the paraphrase/quote might fill one of the above uses (even if it doesn’t do that yet, you could speculate how you could further develop it for one of these purposes).
After commenting, click on the button below to continue the module:
My last quote can be used to establish context. Since I am comparing and contrasting the application of Art of War from past to present, it is helpful to give examples from the past and the present to give my audience a general idea of how the book is relevant throughout history. After that is established, I can then introduce my claim, which will flow easily following the context.
I think that my last quote will be able to introduce a term or define a concept. Although most people will know that the effects of technology are bad, for the members of the audience that are unsure, it is able to introduce the concept that I am trying to explain. That is just the beginning, then I would have to begin explaining the effects in the last five years with specific examples including studies dealing with the youth of today. If i did not include this quote or piece of information in my paper, there would be confusion in the rest of my paper because the concept is not clear.
My previous quote can be used to introduce the concept of educational inequality faced by DC residents. The statistical evidence helps showcase the intensity of the situation as 45 percent is a little over half of 80 percent. That shows that in comparison to while households only half of black household has a head that has a college education. This can then be connected to how not holding a college degree limits the jobs and income of these individuals making them suffer financially and have little to no mobility socially.
I believe my quote could establish context regarding public safety and is highly relevant now. A high ranking member of the incoming Biden administration has expressed his displeasure with Facebook in the wake of the past 5 years which have been highly toxic. Bill Russo is officially an advisor and can definitely influence policy decisions going forward. By pointing to the Steve Bannon video, it shows a non-partisan example of indecency and violent attitudes. The video itself was posted onto Bannon’s verified social media pages, so there is no room for allegations of distortion or misquoting.
My quote would be useful in establishing the context for explaining how racial microaggressions continue to be manifested against Black people since Whites do not share the idea that their actions may both directly and indirectly be translated as racist. This enables the audience to understand why I am conducting the research in question in addition to illustrating why it is important for both sides of the racial divide to acknowledge the existence of the problem before seeking optimal solutions.
A paraphrase/ quote will help “highlight differences or counterarguments”. When a quote is paraphrased it is worded in a way that makes it easy to understand and unravel (most of the time) rather than the original wording. Paraphrasing helps open up said phrase to the conversation and makes it easier to understand thus “highlighting differences and counterarguments”.
My quote could be useful to repeat something from an expert to support or amplify what you argue. The author of the article to quote is sourced from is an attorney that specializes in political efforts for drug reformation. Since my topic is something he studies and it is sort of is job he can be seen as an expert in the topic and this could help to back up my claim. His knowledge on the topic is extensive and his ideas and thoughts are made based off of that knowledge which is what makes it credible.
My quote can help me repeat an idea I established from an expert. My source does this by supporting my argument that it is important to recycle as a individual in a household. It backs all my ideas and is from an expert which will increase the readers belief in the validity of my writing. Along with this the source also brings other new ideas that I can use to expand the readers knowledge on my topic.
“Although the systematic study of meditation is still in its infancy, research has provided evidence for meditation-induced improvements in psychological and physiological well-being.”
As I said before, this quote can help me in various ways, but in terms of context, it is especially helpful: because it denotes how back then the studies behind meditation and it’s physiological and psychological were still in their infancy but still showed promising results wich works as the backbone for the rest of my evidence.
By paraphrasing information from a source, it can definitely help establish context in a person’s writing. It helps the audience look at it from what the writer is trying to convey after reading the source. My quote helps establish the idea that being bilingual can be beneficial in the police force in specific. It is good to incorporate certain examples and not be so vague. This will help the audience understand better.
I think my previous quote would be good for establishing context. It’s great to know that the stock market fell because of investors’ fears about the future, but I would need to go into more detail about how people fears caused stock prices to drop. Basically, I would need to do more to link the cause and the effect.