When you are trying to integrate a quote into a paper it helps to use what is called a "signal phrase". In her book "A Writer's Reference" Diana Hacker lists the following signal phrases on page 454:
* admitted * agreed * argued * asserted * believed * claimed * compared * confirmed * contended * declared * denied * emphasized * insisted * noted * observed * pointed out * reasoned * refuted * rejected * reported * responded * suggested * thought * wrote
Whether you use a direct quotation or paraphrase, you must cite your source. Here are some examples of quotation and paraphrasing.
Quotations
As Carey McWilliams states "over 2,000,000 people moved into California, 72R% of whom settled in Southern California, with Los Angeles County recording a gain of 1,272, 037" (135).
According to Walter Nugent "In 1850, 92 percent of white Californians were between fifteen and forty-five" (p. 57)
As Upton Sinclair states "Whoever made this universe ordained it that people learn by suffering, and in no other way" (3).
Summarizing or Paraphrasing
Original Source:
Throughout Southern California there is not a single river, as people ordinarily understand the term, not a single natural lake, not a single creek with a year-round flow of water. - Carey McWilliams, "Southern California Country, An Island on the Land", (1946), p.184
Improper paraphrasing:
Carey McWilliams notes that there is not single lake or creek in Southern California with a yearly flow of water (184)
Correct paraphrasing:
Author Carey McWilliams notes Southern California's propensity to drought as it does not have natural water sources (184).
You do not need to cite common knowledge, information that is widely known or easily located.
Examples of common knowledge:
However, if you are unsure if what you are stating is common knowledge, err on the safe side and cite it.
The Little Book of Plagiarism by
A concise, lively, and bracing exploration of an issue bedeviling our cultural landscape–plagiarism in literature, academia, music, art, and film–by one of our most influential and controversial legal scholars. Best-selling novelists J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown, popular historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, first novelist Kaavya Viswanathan: all have rightly or wrongly been accused of plagiarism–theft of intellectual property–provoking widespread media punditry. But what exactly is plagiarism? How has the meaning of this notoriously ambiguous term changed over time as a consequence of historical and cultural transformations? Is the practice on the rise, or just more easily detectable by technological advances? How does the current market for expressive goods inform our own understanding of plagiarism? Is there really such a thing as “cryptomnesia,” the unconscious, unintentional appropriation of another’s work? What are the mysterious motives and curious excuses of plagiarists? What forms of punishment and absolution does this “sin” elicit? What is the good in certain types of plagiarism? Provocative, insightful, and extraordinary for its clarity and forthrightness, The Little Book of Plagiarism is an analytical tour de force in small, the work of “one of the top twenty legal thinkers in America” (Legal Affairs), a distinguished jurist renowned for his adventuresome intellect and daring iconoclasm.
My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture by
"Classroom Cheats Turn to Computers." "Student Essays on Internet Offer Challenge to Teachers." "Faking the Grade." Headlines such as these have been blaring the alarming news of an epidemic of plagiarism and cheating in American colleges: more than 75 percent of students admit to having cheated; 68 percent admit to cutting and pasting material from the Internet without citation. Professors are reminded almost daily that many of today's college students operate under an entirely new set of assumptions about originality and ethics. Practices that even a decade ago would have been regarded almost universally as academically dishonest are now commonplace. Is this development an indication of dramatic shifts in education and the larger culture? In a book that dismisses hand-wringing in favor of a rich account of how students actually think and act, Susan D. Blum discovers two cultures that exist, often uneasily, side by side in the classroom. Relying extensively on interviews conducted by students with students, My Word! presents the voices of today's young adults as they muse about their daily activities, their challenges, and the meanings of their college lives. Outcomes-based secondary education, the steeply rising cost of college tuition, and an economic climate in which higher education is valued for its effect on future earnings above all else. These factors each have a role to play in explaining why students might pursue good grades by any means necessary. These incentives have arisen in the same era as easily accessible ways to cheat electronically and with almost intolerable pressures that result in many students being diagnosed as clinically depressed during their transition from childhood to adulthood. However, Blum suggests, the real problem of academic dishonesty arises primarily from a lack of communication between two distinct cultures within the university setting. On one hand, professors and administrators regard plagiarism as a serious academic crime, an ethical transgression, even a sin against an ethos of individualism and originality. Students, on the other hand, revel in sharing, in multiplicity, in accomplishment at any cost. Although this book is unlikely to reassure readers who hope that increasing rates of plagiarism can be reversed with strongly worded warnings on the first day of class, My Word! opens a dialogue between professors and their students that may lead to true mutual comprehension and serve as the basis for an alignment between student practices and their professors' expectations.
Doing Honest Work in College by 
