Choosing Relevant Parts of a Source

When you use sources in a paper, remember that the main focus of your paper should always be on what you are saying, rather than on what any individual source is saying. You will, of course, devote portions of your paper to what your sources have to say, but these sources should always be discussed in service of your own argument. Your reader will be interested in the ideas the source offers, but this interest will be primarily in terms of how that source contributes to, or is relevant to, your own argument.

In order to make the strongest argument you can, you should always be trying to strike a balance between your sources and your own voice. Remember that your paper is just that—your paper—and you don't want it to be overwhelmed by source material. Say, for example, you were asked to apply Freud's theories of sexuality to the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. While you'd certainly want to devote a section of your paper to summarizing the relevant parts of Freud's work and the relevant passages of the novel, you would not want your paper to be overwhelmed by your summaries of these two texts. Your instructor will be interested in hearing how you think Freud's work applies to or illuminates the novel and what it allows you to say about the novel, rather than in reading a lengthy summary of Freud's work or of the novel.

When you consult multiple sources for a research paper, you might find yourself trying to strike an even more delicate balance between the voices of those sources and your own voice. In a case like this, it might be helpful to think of yourself as part of a conversation among scholars who are interested in the same topic. Your paper is your chance to speak in the conversation, but you also need to accurately and clearly represent the other participants in the conversation.

As you think about what portion of a source to use in your paper, keep thinking back to what you're trying to do in your paper, and how the source helps you accomplish this goal. When you choose the parts of a source that are most relevant to your argument, you may be surprised to find that you are using less of that source (and therefore spending more time analyzing how it fits into your argument) than you originally imagined you would.