G'day Will,
In a message dated 12/17/2008 1:16:27 PM Pacific Standard Time, writes: Short of simply quoting Derrida verbatim, there is very little that
can be gleaned from Derrida without any specialist knowledge.>>
Then why be short? Quote him. If you want the general reader to agree on your summary of Derida's belief on A, then quote Derida discussing A.
I don't know if you've looked at our articles discussing deconstructionism lately, but the absolute *last thing* we need is more impenetrable writing. Quoting Derrida can be likened to pouring oil on troubled fires.
Phil has hinted at it, but the primary reason we should be able to summarise and rephrase the words of humanities experts is that if we don't, our articles won't make any gosh-darned sense ...
Cheers,