Using what you read
Writing assignments at university begins with reading.
Before reading
- Be clear about your purpose for reading a text.
- Skim each text to decide if it is useful.
While reading
- Question the text.
- Take notes.
After reading
- Check if your notes make sense.
- Highlight the main ideas.
- Add new thoughts.
Writing assignments involves bringing together two sources of ideas:
- others' ideas (discovered in your reading)
- your own ideas (formed through critical thinking).
When you use others' ideas you can either
- quote (use the writer's actual words)
- paraphrase (rewrite in your own words)
- summarise (rewrite in your own words in a shorter form).
Your ideas and the ideas of an author you have read
In your writing, there should be a good balance between your own ideas and the ideas of the authors you have read.
You can see from the diagram below that
quoting requires the least input from you
paraphrasing requires more thinking on your part
summarising achieves the best balance of your thinking and others' ideas.
- You should summarise much more often than you quote or paraphrase, because when you summarise you show that you:
- understand others' ideas
- can connect those ideas in order to support your argument.
For more information on the conventions of academic writing visit http://www.elssa.uts.edu.au/elssalinks/studylinks.htm