Excerpt from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
1 You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no
matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly
he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or
maybe Mary. Aunt Polly--Tom's Aunt Polly, she is--and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is
mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.
2 Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.
We got six thousand dollars apiece--all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took
it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round --more than a body could tell what to do
with. The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the
time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways, and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit
out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said
he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.
From this passage the reader can tell that the speaker, Huck Finn, values
A)
the law, the courts, and the government.
B)
freedom, plain-spoken speech, and mischief.
C)
wealth, material goods, and the love of women
D)
respectability, civilization, and polite manners.

what: when quoting a source, use the author’s words verbatim, or word-for-word. this means you shouldn’t change any grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. put quotations around the words to tell your reader where the quote begins and where it ends.

you also need to acknowledge the author. for example, if using mla format for your research paper, you should have in-text citations with the author’s name and page number listed at the end of each quote.

when: use quotations to provide concrete examples to support your claims. using direct quotations is a great way to build your credibility on the subject. it’s also a good idea to quote your source when the author states things in a powerful way. if you think he or she said it best, then use the exact words to share the ideas.

example: in the short story “a jury of her peers”, mrs. hale compares mrs. wright to her caged bird, saying “she—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. how—she—did—change” (glaspell).

paraphrasing

what: paraphrasing differs from quoting because you restate the passage in your own words. since you don’t use the author’s words, you don’t need to use quotation marks. however, you still need to acknowledge the author for his or her ideas.

when paraphrasing a text, you should communicate the full meaning of the text; don’t change the meaning. it can be a condensed version of the text, or it could end up being longer than the source it’s paraphrasing.

when: you use paraphrasing when you take notes, or explain a chart or diagram to someone. paraphrasing highlight the important parts of a larger text. it also allows you to simplify the ideas for your readers.

example:

original: “it was no ordinary thing that called her away–it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in dickson county. but what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted” (glaspell).

paraphrase: as mrs. hales walks around mrs. wright’s home, she notices that the kitchen is in disarray as if she was in the middle of baking bread (glaspell).