10 Research Skills

It’s vital to present information in your own words, and credit your sources. This chapter teaches you how to summarize, paraphrase and credit your sources.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting other people’s content as your own, or using other people’s content without proper attribution. In school, plagiarism includes reusing work that you’ve already submitted for grading.

As you research your topic, make notes of the information you find, and where you found it.

Research notes are the facts and information you found, rewritten in your own words. To rewrite in your own words, you can paraphrase or summarize the original source.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

When you want to include facts, data and ideas from a resource, you can paraphrase or summarize it.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing uses key facts and data from the resource. You note the important facts and data, group and organize them so they make sense for your report, and then write your own sentences.

Don’t copy the sentences from the resource, then change a few words in each sentence. (That’s plagiarism.) Reorganize the information, and write your own sentences.

When paraphrasing:

1. Keep the original meaning but put it in your own words.
2. Don’t just change a few words! Create new sentences, put the ideas in a different order, and use words and phrases that you normally use.
3. Cite your source.

For example:

Original: Although the gender gap in educational attainment favours women, gender imbalances vary widely by degree level and discipline. Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in high-earning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. Just as gender inequities are present in post-secondary attainment, they are also evident in labour force participation and outcomes, with women consistently underrepresented in senior leadership positions. The structural barriers and gaps to post-secondary education and work are wider yet for Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, LGBTQ2S, and racialized Canadians.^[1]

Paraphrased: Indigenous people, LGBTQ2S, people with mental and physical disabilities, and people of colour face significant barriers to higher education and professional employment. Gender inequalities are another problem; women are still underrepresented in STEM programs and C-suite positions, despite typically outperforming men scholastically. ^[2]

Summarizing

Summarizing describes the key ideas of the resource. A summary is shorter than the original content and is written in your own sentences.

To summarize, note the key ideas. Then organize and write them in a way that makes sense to your report.

For example:

Original: Although the gender gap in educational attainment favours women, gender imbalances vary widely by degree level and discipline. Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in high-earning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. Just as gender inequities are present in post-secondary attainment, they are also evident in labour force participation and outcomes, with women consistently underrepresented in senior leadership positions. The structural barriers and gaps to post-secondary education and work are wider yet for Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, LGBTQ2S, and racialized Canadians.^[3]

Summarized: Despite doing better in school than men, women are underrepresented in STEM programs and high-level professional positions. Indigenous people, racialized people, LGBTQ2S and people with disabilities have even harder times succeeding at school and in the workplace, because of systemic barriers and missing resources.^[4]

Quotations

Very rarely, you will use a quotation. A quotation is the author’s words exactly as they were written or spoken. Use a quotation only when’s absolutely necessary.

We add quotation marks at the start and end of the quotation. For example:

Original: Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in high-earning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.

Quotation: “Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in high-earning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.”^[5]

Keep quotations short, especially in reports. A good limit is about 100 words. Most of your report should be in your own words; it’s not acceptable to submit a report that’s mostly quotations.

Citations

What are Citations?

When you write a report or give a presentation, you typically use information from sources other than your own experience. For example, if you write that the population of Canada is 37 million, you probably got that information from a source — you didn’t go out and count every person in the country.

Whenever you use information from a source, you need to cite (credit) the source.

Why are Citations Important?

A citation tells the reader or listener:

• That you did not create the information yourself
• That you’re using real information, not something you made up
• That your sources are valid and trustworthy
• Where you got the information
• Where to find more information

When Do I Include a Citation?

When you include information that you did not create, you must always cite the source.

The only time you don’t need to cite information is when it’s from your own experience, or is considered common knowledge.

What to Cite:

• Words, ideas, information
• Images, video, audio
• Conversations, lectures, presentations
• Data, statistics
• Charts, graphs
• Content that you found online, including podcasts and social media
• Course material

You Don’t Need to Cite:

• Your own experiences, thoughts and ideas
• Your own art: images, art, recordings or photos that you made
• Common knowledge

How Do I Cite?

NSCC Guides to citation:

• APA Style (7th edition)
• MLA Citation Style (8th edition.)

Self-assessment

Canadian Workplace Quiz