Quoting and paraphrasing appropriately in your engineering dissertation

As a student, you would be aware that good writing is a matter of a lot of thoroughness. You require a lot of time to write, rewrite, revise and edit. Sometimes, it so happens that the student gets stressed by the writing task and start searching for a substitute which is nothing but plagiarism. But he/she should remember that just as there is no shortcut to success, he/she should also take plagiarism seriously. The key is that students should not succumb to plagiarism. The student should realize that this unadvisable academic conduct will result in poor grades.

While you are doing your engineering dissertation, you use several ideas and analyses from other researchers. This is done since your dissertation further investigates previous studies. When you are using another person’s work, it can be carried out in two ways; quoting or paraphrasing that work. When you seek the guidance of dissertation literature review writing service they will keep you informed about paraphrasing and quoting in your literature review.

Quoting some else’s work:

You copy the words

Paraphrasing:

You put forth another person’s ideas by rephrasing it in your own words.

The purpose of this blog is to always cite the source you have used. A non-commitment of this leads to plagiarism. Now let’s see in detail what quoting and paraphrasing means as far as your engineering dissertation is concerned.

Quoting

• You can always quote some significant elements in your dissertation. However, try to refrain from this as much as possible.
• Quoting gives the picture of not being clear with the source.
• Provide quotes only when an author has written in such an effective manner and when you are very much inspired by it.
• The thumb rule in quoting is to maintaining it in quotation marks.
• There is nothing wrong in shortening a quote; you can use ellipses in order to not include unwanted text.
• Quotations must be similar to the original, and they must correspond to the source document word by word.

Paraphrasing

What is the essence of paraphrasing? Here, you talk about a study in your own words. Yes of course you are doing your own research;by doing paraphrasing you are bringing in an existing theory to your research.

• It is very essential to always give a clear introduction to the paraphrase.
• A paraphrase must give due credit to the original source.
• Paraphrased content is generally shorter as compared to the original passage.
• When you are highlighting the ideas articulated, you can paraphrase. But your language should be unique.
• For paraphrasing you needn’t be pre-occupied with the content of the original passage. As a helping tip, you needn’t paraphrase the complete passage. Just give a gist of the important elements.
• Rewriting in the way you understood the passage is one of the key elements of paraphrasing.

Delving more into when to paraphrase and when to quote

Use direct quotations only if you have a fair reason. Besides, understand that you should write in your own words for most part of the paper.

It is essential that the paraphrase or quote has contributed value to your current research. The paraphrase or quote should also gel with the remaining content.

As a student who is aspiring to get better grades in your engineering dissertation the main focus should be to have credibility in your writing. You can use paraphrases and quotes even to increase the depth of your writing. Happy writing!

References:

https://academiccoachingandwriting.org/dissertation-doctor/dissertation-doctor-blog/v-presenting-the-work-of-others-when-to-paraphrase-and-when-to-quote