Using Quotes From Books/Articles or Websites
In the course of your research you will come across different quotes, and facts that may perfectly sum up an area of an article you are writing. These facts or quotes may come from a book you have read as research, a website, or another article you have found on the subject, either in a hard copy publication or on the Internet.
Many writers are not sure whether they are able to use this material in their own articles, or how to go about incorporating this research into what they write.
The first issue is: it is perfectly acceptable to use material from other sources in your article - AS LONG AS YOU REFERENCE WHERE THE MATERIAL HAS COME FROM.
Using Quotes - Plagiarism
If you simply take quotes and facts and information from articles and present it as your own work, this is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is the no. 1 cardinal sin for any freelance writers. However, if you acknowledge where the material has come from, and the work that has been done previously, then it is fine to use the material as a part of your work.
There are a few provisos here, however...
While there are no hard and fast rules about how much of someone else's work you can use, you should be aware that generally speaking, you should only use a line here or there, or a couple of paragraphs at the most.
Anything beyond this and your article starts to become a reproduction of some other article or book, rather than a piece of your own work, and as we have discussed in the section of the course on writing the article, your own research is the building blocks from which you can construct your article. You want it to be your own, not someone else's.
Using Quotes - Know The Source
For example, you may have read a newspaper article in which a well-known football player says, "The modern game is no longer about skill or passion, the team that wins is the one with the most money."
Say the paper is called The Daily News and the footballer's name is Sam Smith. You may be writing an article on any number of related topics, and feel that the quote is a great illustration of a point you are trying to make. Rather than doing an interview with the footballer yourself (which may be impossible to arrange based on the article you are writing alone), or calling the paper and the author, you are perfectly within your rights to use the quote if you not where it has come for.
For example... There is a level of disillusionment in some professional footballers about how commercial the game has become. Last month, champion player Sam Smith told the Daily News, "The modern game is no longer about skill or passion, the team that wins is the one with the most money."
In this case you have used the quote and noted where it has come from, and when it was published. It would not be ethical to present the quote as if you had sourced it from John Smith yourself.
Using Quotes - In Journalism & Media
For journalism in general media - newspapers, magazines, etc - you do not have to provide as extensive footnotes and references as you do in academic writing.
This rule of thumb applies to material you may source from anywhere, including, magazines, newspapers, books, websites, newsletters, research papers, etc.
If you follow these guidelines, then you will not have to request permission from the original authors, or pay any type of royalty fee, and you will be able to use research and information you feel is relevant to your article in a way that will supplement your own sets of interviews.
Also, if you do all of this, then there is no need to submit bibliographies with your articles, as the sources are built into the piece.
How often do you incorporate quotes into your articles? Do you always credit the source? We would be interested in your methods of using quotes and how they work for you. Leave us a comment below and identify any issues you may have encountered.
Fraser is a Freelance Journalist, Author and CEO of Pro-Content
Australia - providing professional online & offline content writing
services worldwide.
In the course of your research you will come across different quotes, and facts that may perfectly sum up an area of an article you are writing. These facts or quotes may come from a book you have read as research, a website, or another article you have found on the subject, either in a hard copy publication or on the Internet.
Many writers are not sure whether they are able to use this material in their own articles, or how to go about incorporating this research into what they write.
The first issue is: it is perfectly acceptable to use material from other sources in your article - AS LONG AS YOU REFERENCE WHERE THE MATERIAL HAS COME FROM.
Using Quotes - Plagiarism
If you simply take quotes and facts and information from articles and present it as your own work, this is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is the no. 1 cardinal sin for any freelance writers. However, if you acknowledge where the material has come from, and the work that has been done previously, then it is fine to use the material as a part of your work.
There are a few provisos here, however...
While there are no hard and fast rules about how much of someone else's work you can use, you should be aware that generally speaking, you should only use a line here or there, or a couple of paragraphs at the most.
Anything beyond this and your article starts to become a reproduction of some other article or book, rather than a piece of your own work, and as we have discussed in the section of the course on writing the article, your own research is the building blocks from which you can construct your article. You want it to be your own, not someone else's.
Using Quotes - Know The Source
For example, you may have read a newspaper article in which a well-known football player says, "The modern game is no longer about skill or passion, the team that wins is the one with the most money."
Say the paper is called The Daily News and the footballer's name is Sam Smith. You may be writing an article on any number of related topics, and feel that the quote is a great illustration of a point you are trying to make. Rather than doing an interview with the footballer yourself (which may be impossible to arrange based on the article you are writing alone), or calling the paper and the author, you are perfectly within your rights to use the quote if you not where it has come for.
For example... There is a level of disillusionment in some professional footballers about how commercial the game has become. Last month, champion player Sam Smith told the Daily News, "The modern game is no longer about skill or passion, the team that wins is the one with the most money."
In this case you have used the quote and noted where it has come from, and when it was published. It would not be ethical to present the quote as if you had sourced it from John Smith yourself.
Using Quotes - In Journalism & Media
For journalism in general media - newspapers, magazines, etc - you do not have to provide as extensive footnotes and references as you do in academic writing.
This rule of thumb applies to material you may source from anywhere, including, magazines, newspapers, books, websites, newsletters, research papers, etc.
If you follow these guidelines, then you will not have to request permission from the original authors, or pay any type of royalty fee, and you will be able to use research and information you feel is relevant to your article in a way that will supplement your own sets of interviews.
Also, if you do all of this, then there is no need to submit bibliographies with your articles, as the sources are built into the piece.
How often do you incorporate quotes into your articles? Do you always credit the source? We would be interested in your methods of using quotes and how they work for you. Leave us a comment below and identify any issues you may have encountered.
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