DRAFTING YOUR REPORT

Notes from Booth, Colomb, and Williams: The

Craft of Research

FIND THE BEST WAY TO DRAFT

Write fast and revise carefully
Plan carefully and write carefully

USE PLAN TO GUIDE YOUR

WRITING
Use your storyboard to guide your writing
Make a subsection heading with key words to
guide your writing of a subsection
Delete heading if not appropriate for your field

QUOTES, PARAPHRASES, AND

SUMMARIES
Use quotes, paraphrases and summaries to
provide evidence to support your reasons and
claims
Quote if the source uses

original

phrasing
states the point best
The source is an authority
You disagree with the source and want to be fair

Paraphrase if you can state the idea more clearly

than the source
Summarize if you need to leave out unimportant
information in the source

QUOTES
If the quote is three lines (four in Chicago Style)
run it into your text with quotation marks.
If the quote is four lines or longer, set it off as a
block of indented text.
Introduce a quote with reference information or
include reference information in parentheses or
as a footnote.
Include explanation of how the quote supports
your reason or claim.

EXAMPLES
As Frederick Bastiat notes in The Law, many authors
and political philosophers evidence a desire to play
God and mold the clay of humanity into the shape of
their choosing, often through the means of education.
In the following excerpt, Bastiat chides the many
writers of political philosophy for their arrogance in
deciding what is best for others:
Oh, sublime writers! Please remember sometimes
that this clay, this sand, and this manure which you
so arbitrarily dispose of, are men! They are your
equals! They are intelligent and free human beings
like yourselves! As you have, they too have received
from God the faculty to observe, to plan ahead, to
think, and to judge for themselves!

EXAMPLES
And Thomas Jefferson, in writing the Declaration
of Independence, invokes natural law as that
which is self-evident and endowed by their
Creator. He appeals to the idea of natural law to
speak of just powers the Right of the People.
Furthermore, Jefferson implies that natural law
is linked to commons sense when he writes,
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that.
When human law disagrees with natural law, we
call that human law unjust, or, in the words of
Augustine of Hippo, an unjust law is no law at
all (Book 1, par 5).

If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good

approximation of natural law, then Albania should
recognize the right of parents to educate their children
at home in light of the third line of Article 26
(emphasis added): Parents have a prior right to choose
the kind of education that shall be given to their
children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child
gives a further affirmation that parents are primarily
responsible for a childs education: Parents or, as the
case may be, legal guardians, have the primary
responsibility for the upbringing and development of
the child. The best interests of the child will be their
basic concern (Article 18, par 1). The right of a child to
an education is affirmed in Article 28: States Parties
recognize the right of the child to education, and with a
view to achieving this right progressively and on the
basis of equal opportunity (par 1).

CHANGING WORDS IN THE QUOTE

Original: Posner focuses on religion not for its
spirituality, but for its social functions: A notable
feature of American society is religious pluralism,
and we should consider how this relates to the
efficacy of governance by social norms in view of
the historical importance of religion as both a
source an enforcer of norms (299).
Modified: In discussing religious pluralism, Posner
says that a notable feature of American society is
[our] religious pluralism and notes how social
norms affect the efficacy of governance . . . in view
of the historical importance of religion both as a
source and enforcer of such norms (299).

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE
Plagiarism is claiming or implying that someone
elses ideas or words are your own.
Plagiarism includes:

Copying

or purchasing essays off the internet

Copying someone elses essay
Quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing without
citation
Using others ideas, words, or methods without
citation
Using exact words from a source without quoting
Paraphrasing too closely

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE
Mark all quotations, even of just a few words.
If an author has unique vocabulary or phrasing
that you wish to use, cite it in the first instance:
Example: The power of technology goes beyond
individual inventions because technology begets
more technology. It is, as Diamond puts it, an
autocatalytic process (301).
Later: As one invention begets another one and
that one still another, the process becomes a selfsustaining catalysis that spreads across national
boundaries.
Err on the side of using quotation marks more

WHY CITE?
Proper references improve your academic
reputation
Citations help your readers trust your evidence
and enable them to check your evidence or find
more evidence for their own research
Citations show respect to your sources

FOUR COMMON CITATION STYLES

Author-Title
Chicago

Author-Title
MLA Author-Title

Author-Date
Chicago

Author-Date
APA Author-Date

PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS
Chicago Author-Title (Author, page) (Orwell, 29).
MLA (Author page) (Orwell 29).
Chicago Author-Title (Orwell, Animal Farm, 29).
MLA (Orwell, 1984, 53).
Chicago Author-Date (Author date, page) (Orwell
1945, 29).
APA (author, date, p. #) (Orwell, 1945, p. 53).
On second reference of the same author and
work, leave out authors name.

FOOTNOTES AND WORKS CITED

Footnote:
5.

George Orwell, Animal Farm (London: Harcourt,

1945), 23.

Chicago Style bibliographic entry:

Orwell,

1945.

George. Animal Farm. London: Harcourt,

MLA-Style Works Cited page:

Orwell,

George. Animal Farm. London: Harcourt,

1945. Print.

See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ or purchase an

official style guide for more information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph

M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008.