Tumblr crosspost (25 November 2019)
Aug. 3rd, 2021 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineAn anon said:
Do you want your students to be paraphrasing more or less?
I replied:
More, definitely.
The thing about direct quotation is this: it’s supposed to be used when there’s something crucial about the exact wording that needs to be preserved. But much of the time, the exact words aren’t what’s important—it’s the ideas and information. If that’s what you need, it’s usually much less disruptive to paraphrase.
And many of my students (not just this semester) tend to drop in long direct quotations without really connecting the information to the broader discussion or explaining why the quote is even there. They do both much more often when they paraphrase.
Qualifier: this is much more of an issue in composition than literature papers.
Do you want your students to be paraphrasing more or less?
I replied:
More, definitely.
The thing about direct quotation is this: it’s supposed to be used when there’s something crucial about the exact wording that needs to be preserved. But much of the time, the exact words aren’t what’s important—it’s the ideas and information. If that’s what you need, it’s usually much less disruptive to paraphrase.
And many of my students (not just this semester) tend to drop in long direct quotations without really connecting the information to the broader discussion or explaining why the quote is even there. They do both much more often when they paraphrase.
Qualifier: this is much more of an issue in composition than literature papers.