What Is Commentary?

In this subtopic, we will look at one more way you can interact with secondary sources—by providing commentary on them in your writing.

Commentary includes:

• Your own attitude towards the original writing (“opinion”)
• Your own explanation of the original writing (“insight”)
• Your own assessment of the original writing (“interpretation”) (Tepper, 2013)

View the source from Tepper, 2013.

Adapted with Permission from Kibin.com.

It is important to differentiate providing commentary from paraphrasing and summarizing. When you summarize and paraphrase, you change the words of the original author but leave the ideas the same. Essentially, you provide a surface-level synopsis of the original writing. When you add commentary, you provide your own original ideas on the secondary source.

Let’s take a look at an example.

(This full writing example is from Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing – Volume 2, by Stedman, 2011. The article excerpted is titled: “Annoying Ways People Use Sources.” This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License and is subject to the Writing Spaces’ Terms of Use. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. To view the Writing Spaces’ Terms of Use, visit http://writingspaces. org/terms-of-use.)

We will be looking at three parts of the example:

• The original quote
• The documentation used
• The commentary provided

Let’s start with the original quote.

“There is anxiety that scientists lack both wisdom and social responsibility and are so motivated by ambition . . .” and “scientists are repeatedly referred to as ‘playing God.’”

Now, let’s add in the documentation used.

“There is anxiety that scientists lack both wisdom and social responsibility and are so motivated by ambition . . .” and “scientists are repeatedly referred to as ‘playing God’” (Wolpert, 2009, pp. 345–48).

As a reader, you have some basic pieces of information here. You know this is a quote because of the “direct quotation” marks. You also know the source (“Wolpert”) and the year the source was published (2009) as well as the page numbers (345-48). But if this is the first time you are reading this quote, you will likely need some additional context. Remember, context provides your reader with additional commentary about how the quote relates to your own writing and ideas.

Let’s finish by looking at the commentary and context provided in the quote.

In the first two paragraphs, the author takes a defensive position when explaining the perception that the public has about scientists by saying that “there is anxiety that scientists lack both wisdom and social responsibility and are so motivated by ambition . . .” and “scientists are repeatedly referred to as ‘playing God’” (Wolpert, 2009, pp. 345–48). With this last sentence especially, his tone seems to demonstrate how he uses the ethos appeal to initially set a tone of someone that is tired of being misunderstood. (Stedman, 2011, pp. 245–246)

You’ll see there is now commentary and context added before and after the quote. In a couple brief sentences, the writer has:

• expressed an opinion on Wolpert’s quote (Wolpert’s quote is a defensive position);
• offered some explanation (Wolpert’s tone uses ethos appeal); and
• provided an assessment (Wolpert is tired of being misunderstood).

When adding commentary to a direct quote, summary, or paraphrase, be sure to:

Dig deep

Look for meaning

Explain and provide support for your opinion

View the chart in this source for an overview of types and definitions of commentary.

Now, try identifying commentary by looking at one of your current or previous pieces of writing. Look specifically for any use of quotes, summaries, or paraphrases.

Ask yourself:

• How does my work include commentary?
• Out of the list of five types of commentary in the chart (“opinion, interpretation, insight, personal reaction, evaluation”), how many have I integrated (Tepper, 2013)?
• What additional commentary might I add?
• Do I have sufficient documentation for any quotes, summaries, or paraphrases used?

Documentation Reminder

Watch this source from Lehman Library (2014) and answer the following questions:

• What is paraphrasing?
• How do you paraphrase correctly?
• What are three steps you can take to avoid plagiarism?

Try It!

Identify whether each sentence is a commentary, paraphrase, or quote. You can read the full source here.

References

See Explain References