Quoting – and not quoting – 161
or
In section 3.1 above we examined Coleman’s (1970) outline of how the
Commission’s activity broadened to encompass other aspects of urban
renewal.
Finally, take care to avoid this kind of misleading statement:
The poem is reminiscent of a happier time which the two lovers in it have
associated with the park.
Ask yourself who is doing the reminiscing – the poem (or the lovers ‘in
it’), or the writer of the sentence? If we say ‘The poem is reminiscent’,
it is the writer of the sentence who is doing the reminiscing. If, on
the other hand, we say ‘The poem reminisces’, it is quite clearly the
poem. The writer of this sentence clearly intends the second meaning,
since he is not concerned with his own memories of the park but with
those of the poet himself and of the lovers who are in the park.
Since much academic writing engages in the self-conscious
analysis of what the writer says about what other writers have said,
it is very easy to blur the distinction between self and other by an
unwise choice of word or structure. But if you are clear in your own
mind what it is you are doing, and if you resist the temptation to hide
behind the texts of your sources, you should have little difficulty
avoiding the kinds of confusion exemplified above.
3
Quoting – and not quoting
Whether you should quote from other sources in your essays, and
when you should do it, are questions particularly relevant to the
success with which you establish a satisfactory relationship between
your language and your material. Tutors in the humanities and social
sciences are not impressed by scissors-and-paste essays which consist
largely of quotations stitched together by a few linking sentences and
or
In section 3.1 above we examined Coleman’s (1970) outline of how the
Commission’s activity broadened to encompass other aspects of urban
renewal.
Finally, take care to avoid this kind of misleading statement:
The poem is reminiscent of a happier time which the two lovers in it have
associated with the park.
Ask yourself who is doing the reminiscing – the poem (or the lovers ‘in
it’), or the writer of the sentence? If we say ‘The poem is reminiscent’,
it is the writer of the sentence who is doing the reminiscing. If, on
the other hand, we say ‘The poem reminisces’, it is quite clearly the
poem. The writer of this sentence clearly intends the second meaning,
since he is not concerned with his own memories of the park but with
those of the poet himself and of the lovers who are in the park.
Since much academic writing engages in the self-conscious
analysis of what the writer says about what other writers have said,
it is very easy to blur the distinction between self and other by an
unwise choice of word or structure. But if you are clear in your own
mind what it is you are doing, and if you resist the temptation to hide
behind the texts of your sources, you should have little difficulty
avoiding the kinds of confusion exemplified above.
3
Quoting – and not quoting
Whether you should quote from other sources in your essays, and
when you should do it, are questions particularly relevant to the
success with which you establish a satisfactory relationship between
your language and your material. Tutors in the humanities and social
sciences are not impressed by scissors-and-paste essays which consist
largely of quotations stitched together by a few linking sentences and