Using a direct quote may seem like the easiest way to integrate source information. However, summarizing and paraphrasing are often much better approaches, since a quotation will "inject" the style used by the author of the source into your report. That style is likely to be different from your own, especially if the source is a technical document or academic journal article that uses specialized vocabulary. If you use a direct quote from one of these kinds of sources, you have to make sure that readers can follow the sudden shift and help them understand why the shift happened.
Suppose, for instance, that your research paper includes this paragraph:
Human beings like to think that we are independent, self-controlled creatures. However, we are dependent on and affected by many organisms that are too small to see with the naked eye. Our digestion is dependent on microbes, and scientists even think that the personalities of some people could be affected by parasites.
Suppose you want to include this direct quote because it adds a concrete example of your point, one that you think would be difficult to paraphrase or summarize without losing some of the passage's precise descriptions.
Men infected with the parasite may become more introverted, suspicious, and prone to risk-taking behaviors. Infected women, on the other hand, may become extroverted, trusting, and prone to follow rules.
This quote is not very technical in its style, but it is written from a different perspective than the research paper. To make sure readers understand what's happening in the paragraph, we'll need to introduce the quote in a way that integrates it into the paragraph:
Human beings like to think that we are independent, self-controlled creatures. However, we are dependent on and affected by many organisms that are too small to see with the naked eye. Our digestion is dependent on microbes, and scientists even think that the personalities of some people could be affected by parasites. Scientists have been studying the effects of a parasite carried by cats, Toxoplasma gondii, and found that "[m]en infected with the parasite may become more introverted, suspicious, and prone to risk-taking behaviors. Infected women on the other hand, may become extroverted, trusting, and prone to follow rules."
Question
What sentence in the "integrated" paragraph introduces the direct quote?
Scientists have been studying the effects of a parasite carried by cats, Toxoplasma gondii, and found that . . .
