IT513 Unit 3 Reading PDF

Writing from Source Material

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Quoting from Sources

In a typical academic paper, quotes should be used sparingly. There is no set maximum but consider
that quotes do not prove your understanding of the material, and of course, your grades should reflect
your understanding.

Importantly, you should not use a quote to begin or end a paper, since the words are not your own and
therefore you relinquish control of your reader. Despite these disclaimers to limit quoting, occasionally it
is logical to include them, and so it is important to learn how to write them correctly. Your program also
requires the use of APA 7th edition standards; these may be a little different than the rules you learned
in previous schooling.

Short quotes are less than 40 words, must have double quotation marks around the copied words, and
must be followed by an in-text citation that includes the page number (or in the case of a web page, the
paragraph number or section heading). Here are some examples; you will find additional ones in the
Citation-Referencing Take-Away PDF:

• According to Bloom and Cinader (2024), "the database downtime cost $5 million" (p. 66).
• "The network was inadequate for company ABC's needs" (Parmalee, 2025, para. 8).
• Grant et al. (2023) state that "as much as 32% of the company's franchises were under
suspicion for fraudulent activity" (Suspect Activity).
○ Note: "Suspect Activity" is the name of the section heading for that web source.

Current APA standards allow the first letter of a direct quote to be changed to a capital or a small case
letter as necessary for proper grammar - without any mention that you changed it. (Previous rules
required the letter be placed in brackets. This is far cleaner.)

Long quotes are 40 words or longer. They are indented 1/2" from the left margin, culminate in the
original source's final punctuation, and must be followed by an in-text citation with the page or
paragraph number or section name, but quotation marks are not used. Long quotes may be
discouraged by your instructors for the reasons mentioned above; if you find the need to include one,
make sure it is allowed. Note that long quotes are not allowed in this course.

In future classes, you may need to quote a list. Follow each list item with a semicolon and then cite
your source at the end. This technique should be used even if you are only quoting subheadings from a
document without the content under each heading. An example of a quoted/properly copied list:

The following process is suggested:

• Gather data from the company;
• Analyze the data;
• Organize the data into logical subgroupings;
• Research for details and consequences (Kilenyi et al., 2024).

Special Techniques
Quotes are by definition the exact wording of someone else, but there are three techniques you can
employ to clarify the meaning. As you read the section below, note where punctuation is placed.

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 Shortening
When the quote is too long and you need to shorten it, use an ellipsis (three periods in a row) to
indicate where you removed words. Since it is assumed quotes are extracted from a larger whole,
do not use an ellipsis at the beginning or end of a quote; only when removing words from the
middle. Type a space before and after the ellipsis and ensure the sentence still makes sense
without the removed words.

• Original: Web development includes understanding modern design principles, accessibility,

marketing, and more.
• Quoted: "Web development includes understanding … accessibility" (Girardi, 2020, p. 15).

Clarifying
If there is the need to clarify something, add appropriate words in square brackets [ ]. The sentence
must still make sense with the inserted word(s).

• Original: Robotics in this case did not work well.

• Quoted: "Robotics in this [medical] case did not work well" (Behr et al., 2022, para. 9).

Identifying errors
If there are misspellings or poor grammar in a quote, you cannot change it – but you must
acknowledge it. Use [sic], which means "thus it stands" in Latin. The brackets are not italic, but the
sic must be italic. Note: words spelled correctly for British English are not considered mistakes.

• Original: Cellphone tecnology grew incrementally.

• Quoted: "Cellphone tecnology [sic] grew incrementally" (Gonzales, 2017, p. 71).

Special note about brackets: When writing in your own words, do not use brackets except where
you wish to nest parenthetical content inside another set of parentheses, such as in the example
below. Note: overuse of "nesting" in this fashion greatly reduces readability, and so this technique,
while allowed, is discouraged:

• The issues with accessibility (lack of alt text [to identify image content], missing video
captioning, etc.) are apparent and troubling.

Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Most of the time, you will summarize and paraphrase ideas from sources instead of quote.
• A summary is a short overview, typically without examples present in the original.
• A paraphrase is the rewording of ideas and may include examples and other detail.

Since ideas were learned from sources, you must cite both summaries and paraphrases. It is possible
that your rewording of the source material might be several sentences long; 7th edition APA requires
that the first sentence must be cited. If it is clear that the following information is still from that same
source, it need not be cited. That being said, sentences that contain statistics or quotes must have
citation to provide clarity.

This means that sometimes you will cite every sentence, but sometimes you will not have to do so. A
good rule to follow is to ensure that every paragraph with any content from a source has at least one
citation; longer paragraphs may need more for clarity. To determine this frequency, read through your
paper as if you had never seen the information before, and if you can clearly identify the source of each
piece of information, you have cited enough.

Whether you summarize or paraphrase, you will need to use your own words to explain the content of
your sources. Revisit the Unit 2 Reading PDF for the "Paraphrasing Rules to Keep You Safe" list.

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In-text Citations and Reference Entries
For guidance with acknowledging your sources properly for this unit's Assignment and all Assignments
moving forward, make sure you review the information in the APA 7th Edition Citation-Referencing
TakeAway PDF. It may also help to review the last part of the Formal Writing and Common Errors
Take-Away PDF, where case (use of capital letters) is explained in detail.

For reference entries:

• Include all authors. If there are middle names or initials, include those as initials, too.
• Check the case for the article title and make corrections if necessary. Check punctuation as
well; EBSCO might insert a space before the colon in a two-part title, but there should only be a
space after a colon.
• Include as much of the date as possible. The journal issue's date is optimal, but if not identified
clearly (check the library page!), look at the article's PDF. If there are several dates there, use
the Accepted or Published date.
• Page numbers in the reference entry are for the entire article, not just the pages you read. If you
see "e" before a number, it is that particular journal's method of identifying the pages.
• A few of the articles do not have an [Link] link. Simply do not provide a link, then; do not
insert ISBN or other numbers or the library URL in its place.

In-text citations for quotes:

• Find the page number by opening the PDF version. Do not use paragraph numbers since page
numbers are available.

Getting into the Library

You learned previously that you can get into the Purdue Global library from the home page – but this
week you will have to use this path inside the classroom because there are specific items saved for you
in a list created just for this course:

The IT513 classroom > More Tools > Library

You will then see a search page; find the Required Readings link as shown below and click on it; you
will find the articles from which you must choose for the quoting and paraphrasing part of this unit's
Assignment.

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Once you have clicked on an article from the provided list, you will be taken to the article's specific
page. The Access Options button shows if you can read the article in html (webpage) or PDF form. The
download button allows you to keep the file if it is a PDF. You can find a reference entry from links on
the top of the page (look for the quote marks); make sure you look for APA format after clicking there.

Disclaimers: (1) Not all reference entries provided by the library are accurate, but they are a good place
to start in developing APA references. (2) If you use this method to save reference entries, make sure
you do not include the "persistent link" in your paper. Ensure that your reference entries follow the
format provided for journal articles as explained in the Citation-Referencing Take-Away PDF.

Other Library Hints (for Later Use)

If you go back to the search results page, you should see a text link towards the top that allows you to
perform an Advanced Search. This includes using Boolean search parameters, limiting results by
language, choosing peer-reviewed work, and other specifications.

Depending on the keywords you choose, you might see Research Starters appear at the top of the
first search results page. These are typically dictionary or encyclopedia entries, and although they can
be interesting, they are not particularly suitable for graduate-level work. More will be discovered in the
next few weeks about types of appropriate sources.

The Unit 3 Quiz: APA 7th Edition Formatting

For the Unit 3 quiz, you will find answers in the APA 7th Edition Formatting TakeAway PDF. This
information will be put to use in our next unit, so it is a good time to start getting used to APA
formatting!

As with all of the quizzes in this course, you can retake it as many times as you like; they are more like
activities than testing, as the desire is that you learn the ideas rather than simply be tested on them. Do
not complete quizzes ahead, however; this week, complete only the Unit 3 quiz.

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Controversial Tech Topics for the Discussion Board
For the initial post in this unit's discussion, pick one of the topics below. All other instructions are in the
discussion board.

Note: You must choose different topics in future units, so if you wish to investigate one of these more in
depth, pick one of the other topics for this discussion board. It would be nice to pick a topic not already
chosen, but it is okay to choose a topic already in discussion as long as your post is not the same as
the classmate's post.

• 3D printing vs. copyright issues • Mental Health field technology

• AI's environmental impact • Military drone use
• Automation and IT job displacement • Online shopping addiction
• Autonomous taxis • Ransomware insurance
• Biometric requirements for multifactor • Smart home devices and
authentication security/privacy
• Cells phones in K-12 classrooms • Social media addiction
• CGI replacing deceased actors • Social media and the spread of
• Cryptocurrency reliability and stability misinformation
• Dating apps • Tech company monopolies
• Ecommerce fraud and scams • Tracking cookies (in browsers)
• Facial recognition and bias • Traffic cameras
• Genealogy DNA databases used by law • Video game violence
enforcement • Video surveillance on public streets
• Geotracking ethics • Voice technologies in patient care
• Gray hat hacking (medical field)
• Income inequality due to the digital divide • Wearable technology and privacy
• LED lighting as a controversy • Work from home via technology

Lagniappe: Assistive Technologies

Assistive tech may initially be meant for people who have disabilities, but the benefits are for everyone.
If you have ever worked in a loud coffee shop, you will know the value of video captioning; if your
computer browser is having issues and not showing an image, the "alt" text should explain what you
are otherwise missing. While this field is vast, here are a few things to consider:

• For web development, this includes but is definitely not limited to coding techniques that provide
screen reader devices with descriptions of images and allows for the document to be
electronically read out loud. Videos should have captions, audio needs transcription, and forms
need to advance from one field to another via keyboarding rather than only by clicking the
mouse.
• On physical machinery, accessibility may be accomplished by Braille, audio instructions, and a
jack for attaching headphones. Point of sale machines should be repositionable for those who
might otherwise not be able to reach them.
• Some phones have large buttons for easier use by those who have tactile or visual limitations.
TTY machines ("teletypewriter") translate spoken words onto a screen for those with hearing
limitations.
• Assistive technologies extends to robotics such as artificial limbs, and many other facets of
technology.

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