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Hi.I wanna know how much of a book may I use, like excerpting.Anyone willing to answer me?Thanks in advance!

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

I suppose you can use as much as you want, as long as it is properly cited. This from one academic website:

So what exactly do I have to document? With experience reading academic prose, you'll soon get used to the ways writers in your field refer to their sources. Here are the main times you should give acknowledgements. (You'll notice many different formats in these examples. See the file on Standard Documentation Formats for advice on these systems.)

Quotations, paraphrases, or summaries: If you use the author's exact words, enclose them in quotation marks, or indent passages of more than four lines. (For more on the mechanics of quoting, visit our file onusing quotations.) But it's seldom worthwhile to use long quotations. In literary studies, quote a few words of the work you're analysing and comment on them. In other disciplines, quote only when the original words are especially memorable. In most cases, use your own words to paraphrase or summarize the idea you want to discuss, emphasizing the points relevant to your argument. But be sure to name sources even when you are not using the exact original words. As in the examples below, it's often a good idea to mention the author's name. Mentioning the author's name indicates where the borrowing starts and stops and gains you some reflected glory for responding to the experts.
e.g. As Morris puts it in The Human Zoo (1983), "we can always be sure that today's daring innovation will be tomorrow's respectability" (p. 189). [http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/documentation?start=2]
e.g. Northrop Frye discusses comedy in terms of the spring spirit, which he defines as the infusion of new life and hope into human awareness of universal problems (Anatomy 163). The ending of The Tempest fits this pattern. [http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/documentation?start=1—short title to distinguish among different works by same author].

Specific facts used as evidence for your argument or interpretation: First consider whether the facts you're mentioning are "common knowledge" according to the definition in point 3 above; if so, you may not need to give a reference. But when you're relying on facts that might be disputed within your discipline—perhaps newly published data—establish that they're trustworthy by showing that you got them from an authoritative source.
e.g. In September 1914, more than 1300 skirmishes were recorded on the Western Front.⁸ [traditional endnote/footnote system]
e.g. Other recent researchers (4, 11, 12) confirm the findings that drug treatment has little effect in the treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts. [numbered-note system for biomedical sciences]

Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with them or not: The way you introduce a reference can indicate your attitude and lead into your own argument.
e.g. Writing in 1966, Ramsay Cook asserted that Canada was in a period of critical instability (174). That period is not yet over, judging by the same criteria of electoral changeability, economic uncertainty, and confusion in policy decisions. []
e.g. One writer (Von Daniken, 1970) even argues that the Great Pyramid was built for the practical purpose of guiding navigation. []

Soheil1 · Answer

Thanksw.What about translating a select part from the book?And how can I be sure?

Mister Micawber · Answer

You can be sure only by contacting the publisher or your lawyer.

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