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Quotation is simply the reproduction of someone else's words in your own text. For example,

Abdul Aziz Rantisi argues that 'Nothing can be called Arab socialism. It was Marxism with some cosmetic to create the impression that it belonged to us. In reality it was a foreign seed implanted in the Islamic world.' (Wallach and Wallach 1992: 208-209)

Paraphrase is your own formulation of the other person's argument. For example:

Abdul Aziz Rantisi argues that Arab socialism is an impossible concept. For him, it merely represents an attempt to disguise the importation of Marxism, an ideology alien to, and incompatible with, Islam. (Wallach and Wallach 1992)

Summary is a highly condensed form of paraphrase in which the essence of a whole essay or book is conveyed in a few sentences or paragraphs. For example:

Contending that Arab socialism is merely the disguised importation of the alien concept of Marxism to the Islam context, Abdul Aziz Rantisi advocates... (Wallach and Wallach 1992)

Reference is simply the identification of a source. In this sense it must always accompany summary, paraphrase and quotation, as in the examples above. Reference can however be used to support and clarify your own argument. For example,

Many Arab thinkers, however, have rejected the attempt to reconcile Marxism and Islam. (See, for example, Abdul Aziz Rantisi in Wallach and Wallach 1992, xxxx 1989, yyyy 1990 and zzzz 1996.)

Think about when, how often, and under what circumstances each of these methods should be used, then click here to continue.

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