Writing From Sources

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Writing an academic essay always involves:

appropriating information from the texts you read,

processing this information, and

incorporating it into your own writing.

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It’s the middle step – the processing – that makes your essay original. This is what your lecturer is interested in – not just what you’ve read, but how you’ve interpreted it and used it to support your thesis statement. This is what demonstrates that information has been turned into knowledge.

appropriating information from the texts you read,

processing this information, and

incorporating it into your own writing.

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The words you write in your essay are your own words, expressing what you know after reading, interpreting, selecting, and critically evaluating what you’ve read.

appropriating information from the texts you read,

processing this information, and

incorporating it into your own writing.

Reading
Interpreting
Selecting
Critically evaluating

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Every essay begins with an assignment brief, from which you formulate a provisional thesis statement.

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With this provisional thesis statement in mind, you consult source texts – textbooks, journal articles, or electronic material.

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As you read, you make notes.

Remember to record bibliographical details so that you can correctly reference the material you appropriate from the source texts and incorporate it into your own essay.

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If you use the appropriate note-making techniques, your notes will already be in your own words, but you may want to process them further through summaries or concept maps.

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The point to remember is that what you appropriate from the source text is raw material only; it has to be processed and filtered through your own perspective before it can be incorporated into your essay.

This is what makes your essay original and demonstrates to your lecturer that learning has taken place.

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As you can see from the diagram, there is no direct pathway from the source text to your assignment – material is never just copied – it has to go through the process of appropriation, processing, and incorporation.

This is a quotation from that passage. There are several places where you can place a quotation. It can be positioned within your paragraph at the beginning, middle or end.

Note that the writer has not used all the words from the quotation, but has left a few out. When you do this you need to place three dots in your quotation to indicate that you have left some words out. This is called ellipsis and will be addressed in this seminar in the section addressing quotations in more detail.

Original:

Conflict refers to hostile or antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to thwart the intentions or goals of another. Conflict is natural and occurs in all teams and organizations. However, too much conflict can be destructive, tear relationships apart, and interfere with the healthy exchange of ideas and information needed for team development and cohesiveness (Koehler 1984, 121).

Quote: “Conflict refers to … antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to thwart the … goals of another” (Koehler 1984, 121).

Position within your paragraph – beginning, middle or end

Referencing is part of a much bigger picture.

When you work on an essay or report, you usually begin by choosing your topic. Then you might examine source texts. From these you could make notes, summaries or concept maps. After this you write up your assignment, but you always keep your original or stated topic in mind.

This process is not always one-way, but can flow backwards and forwards depending on where you are up to or how you like to work. For example, you may write part of your essay and then take some more notes before writing the next section.

Referencing your sources clearly, thoroughly and accurately, in accordance with the referencing style guide supplied by your school or allocated to that assignment, is an important and essential part of this process.

Click on the Writing from Sources link in the right-hand menu.

What is Academic Integrity?

Academic Integrity is the ethical use of other people’s ideas and work to support, comment upon or add to your own ideas.