Using someone's idea and running with it
Sometimes a critic or author may have an idea that you agree with and want to expand on or use to explore in your essay. It is fine to do this, as long as you credit the author with the original idea. Do this IMMEDIATELY. Paraphrase (see above) the original idea or summarize it and state what you are trying to do with it. Make it clear where they stopped talking and where you are then making up new stuff using the concept. It's important to be very clear so your reader doesn't think that author made up YOUR stuff, as well as making sure they don't think you made up the original author's stuff! How can you make it clear? When it is the author's idea keep using the author's name and perhaps try to use exact quotes. When it segues into your part of the idea, use "I" or use phrases such as "when looking at the poem using Donowitz' idea of modernization , one finds that..." Another way is to phrase your comments or expansion in a way that names the author but makes it clear that you are talking "about" them and their idea, but are not quoting or paraphrasing them. (See example directly below.) This works well directly after a quote or paraphrase. Just make it clear what belongs to him/her and what belongs to you. Don't be afraid to USE another author's idea - that is what intellectual discourse is all about. Just make sure to tell the reader that you're using the idea!

An example:
The example uses the same text as in the previous examples.
Ugoretz' assertion that the vocabulary of surrealism is mainly drawn from dream analysis(p. 137) is directly in conflict with Arnason's view. Arnason credits Ernst with inventing a lot of surrealist vocabulary through his looking at biological drawings (p. 243). Although Ugoretz recognizes the similarity between dream imagery and surrealist imagery, he doesn't understand that the underlying roots of the images are different , and, thus, the symbolism is different. They may look the same, but they do not mean the same thing. The microworld that Ernst discovered in the drawings is based on real, tangible, things - just seen in a different light. Dreams, it can be argued, show psychological and emotional dimensions. Although there are definite conjunctions where the emotional/psychological/physiological meet and create ideas in the viewer, the basic vocabulary used is from that physiological base. Yes, the physiological is used to show those other dimensions - but the language itself is physiological.

Note the clear difference between the summaries and the commentary on and thoughts about the summaries.