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Academic Integrity: Quoting

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“A fundamental part of academic study is reading the work of other people and using their ideas to develop your own.”

Jeanne Godfrey, How to use your reading in your essays

A quotation is an unchanged piece of text from a source that you use in your own writing. They are extremely useful in particular situations (see below) but should be used sparingly as they can break up the flow of your writing and do not show the same level of understanding that putting something into your own words (paraphrasing) can.

When should you use a quotation?

Although quotations should be used sparingly, they can be the best option in a number of situations. These include when:

  • You are providing a definition of something:

Braden and Hortin (1982:41) defined visual literacy as “the ability to understand and use images, including the ability to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images”. 

  • The authors have expressed themselves in an unusual or notable way:

"The library is dead, long live the library!" (Ross & Sennyey, 2008).

Seglem and Witte (2009) suggested that this was an even more important benefit than the widening of literacy in general, especially for students who have been previously “burned by print” (page 224).

  • The words have historic or other significance (and you would not want to change them):

In his influential 1852 discourses The Idea of University, John Henry Newman wrote that during the acquisition of a university education a graduate would develop a lifelong mindset “of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation and wisdom” (Newman, 1931:101).  

  • You are quoting single words or short phrases where a paraphrase would be unhelpful:

Said redefined the idea of "orientalism", using it to refer to the misconceptions the 'west' held in relation to Asian and North African societies.1

  • A quotation, rather than a paraphrase, makes your point more justifiable because it backs it up specifically:

Despite statements of generic graduate attributes being developed and published for over 20 years in Australia, this was often done hastily (Barrie, 2006) and far from them being agreed by a ‘university community’ the development group was often “a small working party of managerial staff and nominal academic representatives” (Knewstubb & Ruth, 2015:5).

  • There is no other way of re-wording it:

The report identified several attributes that were suggested as generic: “communication, research and data retrieval skills and critical thinking” were proposed most often, with “synthesis, reflective practice, motivation for independent and continuing study, interpersonal skills and time management” also being suggested (HEQC, 1997b:17)