Psych Essays - Quotes and Paraphrasing

Often students feel the need to include quotes in their essays. While this can help demonstrate knowledge of other people's knowledge of the topic it does very little to demonstrate that the student knows what they're talking about. This is particularly true if the quote is never explained. In fact, from a marking perspective, quotes often only show an ability to cut and paste rather than an ability to understand the material or craft an argument

Importantly marks are often available for demonstrating an understanding of the material rather than an awareness of its existence. Demonstration of understanding is best done in your own words. For this reason I advise my students to aim for 0 quotes when writing their essay. Instead I encourage them to paraphrase.

Paraphrasing involves taking an idea from a source and presenting it in your own words. Please note that as it is not your own idea you will still need to reference it. Yet,as you still need to acknowledge that the idea came from someone else, how can paraphrasing be better than quoting?
1) It shows understanding
By correctly presenting the information in your own words you show that you understand the information enough to talk about it yourself.
2) It allows for integration
By using your own words you are free to craft sentences that will work for your essay rather than the book, article, website, etc. that you are citing. This also means that you can combine information across sources to show similarities/differences and/or create a stronger argument. If necessary you can even work in an explanation of the information you are citing.
3) It improves flow
All of these forms of integration help improve flow in 2 key ways. The first is that it allows you complete control over the words used in your essay. If something isn't working you are free to change it. The second is it ensures your essay has one voice, yours. one voice is notably more consistent than several.

If I still haven't convinced you and you still feel the need to quote here are some things to keep in mind:
1) ""
Anytime you use quotation marks you are telling your reader that you are quoting something. As such if you quote a single word you will need to include the relevant information (Author, Year, Page number for APA). Alternatively, for single words, you could just remove the quote marks...
2) Format
If you use quotes format them correctly. For APA this means you need to include the Author, Year, and page number of the quote. It also means if it gets too long it needs to be presented in an indented paragraph.
3) Explain and integrate
Remember that quotes don't show you understand what you're talking about. As such the explanation and integration of your quote are key. Alternatively you could just paraphrase the information and get it all out of the way in one go...