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Scholarly Communications & Publishing

Have questions about writing, citing, submitting, publishing, or sharing your scholarly work? This guide can help!

Best Practices for Academic Writing

If you are submitting your work to a scholarly journal or scholarly press, you will probably be provided with some guidelines for your writing. However, there are some stylistic and structural considerations that hold true regardless of where you're submitting:

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

A quotation is:

  • a way of incorporating another author's ideas using the exact words from the original source
  • included in your own sentence (see suggested sentence structures)
  • used to explain, illustrate, support, or give an example

Use a quotation INFREQUENTLY, in cases when:

  • you need to preserve vivid or technical language
  • you want to comment on a quotation
  • comparing or contrasting your point of view and the quotation
  • a paraphrase might alter the meaning

Sentence Structure Formulas for Quotations:

  • Author states, "insert quote here" (in-text citation). In other words, author believes explain the quote in your own words.
  • According to author, "insert quote here" (in-text citation). Author is supporting the argument that explain the quote's argument in your own words. 
  • In the book, title of book, author maintains that "insert quote here" (in-text citation). In making this comment, author urges us to explain the quote in your own words.

Example:

According to Kearney, "even well-prepared students are often not clear about when and how to use summary, quotation, and paraphrase" (1). Kearney is supporting the argument that these concepts can be difficult to teach and learn but practice and awareness can reduce the tendency for students to plagiarize someone else's work. 

Sources: 

Kearney, Virginia. How to teach paraphrasing, quotation and summary. Owlcation, 26 March 2019, https://owlcation.com/academia/Teaching-Quotation-Paraphrase-and-Summary. Accessed 1 April 2020.

Graff, Gerald, and Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.

A paraphrase is:

  • an easier way to incorporate another author's specific points into your paper 
  • an accurate and comprehensive account of the author's ideas
  • written in your own words and uses a different sentence structure than the original work (see suggested sentence structures)

Use a paraphrase VERY FREQUENTLY, in cases when:

  • you need to describe the author's evidence and engage with his/her findings
  • referring to a short passage
  • the source is not authoritative or interesting enough to quote

Sentence Structure Formulas for Paraphrase:

  • On the one hand, author #1 argues insert paraphrase here (in-text citation). On the other hand, author #2  believes insert paraphrase here (in-text citation).
  • Author suggested that insert paraphrase here (in-text citation). 
  • According to researchers, insert paraphrase here (in-text citation).

Example:

Kearney suggested that writing notes after reading a passage can help students with paraphrasing and make it easier to paraphrase in many of the instances in which students instinctively want to quote (2). 

Source: 

Kearney, Virginia. How to teach paraphrasing, quotation and summary. Owlcation, 26 March 2019, https://owlcation.com/academia/Teaching-Quotation-Paraphrase-and-Summary. Accessed 1 April 2020.

Graff, Gerald, and Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.

A summary is:

  • a way of incorporating an author's main idea by using your own words
  • summarizes the whole source, not just a section or key point
  • much shorter than the original piece

Use a summary FREQUENTLY, in cases when:

  • you need to describe the main idea of a book, article or passage
  • referring to an author's major argument
  • describing a theory you plan to apply to your work

Sentence Structure Formulas for Summary:

  • The purpose of author's article is to argue insert summary here (in-text citation). 
  • Author's thesis boils down to insert summary here (in-text citation). 
  • Numerous researchers have found insert summary here (in-text citation).
  • In summary, author argues insert summary here (in-text citation).

Example:

In summary, Kearney argues that students who understand how to quote, paraphrase, and summarize will write stronger papers and have less of a tendency to plagiarize (1).

Source: 

Kearney, Virginia. How to teach paraphrasing, quotation and summary. Owlcation, 26 March 2019, https://owlcation.com/academia/Teaching-Quotation-Paraphrase-and-Summary. Accessed 1 April 2020.

Graff, Gerald, and Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.

Step 1: Identify which words and/or ideas you borrowed

Do this by using a quotation, paraphrase or summary of the original work to incorporate it with an in-text citation

Step 2: Acknowledge where it came from

Your in-text citation helps acknowledge and identify where it came from.

Ex: According to Kearney, "even well-prepared students are often not clear about when and how to use summary, quotation, and paraphrase" (1). Kearney is supporting the argument that these concepts can be difficult to teach and learn but practice and awareness can reduce the tendency for students to plagiarize someone else's work. 

Step 3: Provide detailed information about where it came from

The original work should also have a full citation in a Reference List or Works Cited page.

Ex: Kearney, Virginia. How to teach paraphrasing, quotation and summary. Owlcation, 26 March 2019, https://owlcation.com/academia/Teaching-Quotation-Paraphrase-and-Summary. Accessed 1 April 2020.

 

Literature Reviews

Most scholarly works include a literature review, which is a summary and analysis of existing scholarship on the subject. It usually identifies gaps in the literature and provides context for your work. Here are a couple of useful resources related to literature reviews:

Citation Tracing

In trying to follow the scholarly conversation, you may find it helpful to use a research method called “citation tracing.” When you find a source that seems promising, you should do two things: first, you should look at what older sources it has cited. And second, you should see what newer sources have cited it. 

Tracing Citations Forward

Tracing Citations Forward

If you want to know how other authors have responded to a specific article, you can look at who has cited the article since it was published. Search for the article title in Google Scholar and then click on the "cited by" link below the search result.

Screenshot of Google Scholar

Finding Articles based on Citations

Finding Sources based on Citations

1. In order to effectively find a research article based upon a citation you will need to have the journal title, year, volume number and issue number. If you are missing this information from the citation, search for the title in Google Scholar.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search

 

2. Once you have a full citation, search for the journal title in the Forsyth Library Catalog. It is important to search for the journal title because though all journals appear in the catalog, not all articles within those journals do. You will know you have the correct item in your results because the word "Journal" will appear above the title.

screenshot of a journal result in the library catalog

3. When you click into the record you will see that there are multiple entries and each one has a different date range. Choose the link with the date range that contains the year for the citation you are tracing.

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4. In the database record for the journal, there will be a list of years, volumes, and issues. Choose the issue in which your article was published and navigate to your article.

Screenshot of issue list for journal