DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES



Documenting your Sources

IN ANY ESSAY THAT USES OUTSIDE SOURCES—EVEN JUST ONE SOURCE—YOU ARE DRAWING ON THE WORK OF OTHER WRITERS AND YOU MUST DOCUMENT THEIR WORDS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR IDEAS. DOCUMENTATION IS REQUIRED (1) WHEN YOU QUOTE FROM A SOURCE, (2) WHEN YOU SUMMARIZE OR PARAPHRASE A SOURCE, AND (3) WHEN YOU BORROW FACTS AND IDEAS FROM A SOURCE. WE WILL BE USING THE MLA IN-TEXT CITATION FORMAT FOR THIS CLASS; KEEP IN MIND THAT THE RULES FOR CITING SOURCES VARY FROM DISCIPLINE TO DISCIPLINE; THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT SOURCE CITATION FORMATS: APA, CHICAGO STYLE...

I. As you write, document sources using a consistent system.

The MLA in-text citation format works in the following ways:

1. The source is introduced by a signal phrase that names its author.

2. A page number in parentheses follows the material being cited. Punctuation goes AFTER the

parenthesis.

3. At the end of the paper, a list of Works Cited, arranged alphabetically according to authors’ last

names, gives complete publishing information about the source.

4. In certain cases, your quote will not be introduced by a phrase including the author’s name and thus,

your parenthetical citation should include the author’s last name followed by the page number, with no punctuation between the name and page number: (Smith 33).

5. If you have two or more texts by the same author, use an abbreviation of the title of the work to

clarify which source you are using: (Daylight 196).

Sample in-text citation:

Signal phrase (According to E. Linden, some psychologists have adopted the oddly unscientific attitude that “the idea of the language capacity of apes is so preposterous that it should not be investigated

at all” (11). (Quoted source

II. Do not plagiarize. Document all quotations and borrowed ideas. Avoid paraphrases that closely resemble your sources.

Much of your writing for school represents a collaboration between you and your sources—an ongoing intellectual discussion in which you, as a scholar and critic, participate. To be fair and ethical AND to allow your readers to easily find your sources should they want to, you must acknowledge other writers’ ideas and language by documenting your sources accurately.

There are three kinds of plagiarism that are especially common; all are equally problematic: (1) borrowing someone’s language, or even just their ideas and information, without documenting the source, (2) documenting the source but paraphrasing the source’s language too closely, without using quotation marks to indicate that language has been borrowed, and (3) copying or using material that has been written by someone else (even a well-meaning friend who has edited your work a little too closely). Close paraphrases may be the most tragic form of plagiarism because—if a researcher is sloppy at the note-taking stage—unacceptable borrowings can occur unintentionally.

III. Limit quotations and integrate them as smoothly as possible.

It is tempting to insert many long quotations in your paper and to use your own words only for connecting passages. This is an especially strong temptation if you feel that the authors of your sources are the experts or that they are better writers than you are. Do not give in to this temptation and quote excessively. Long series of quotations give readers the impression that you cannot think for yourself or that you don’t have an interesting, original voice and point.

Use direct quotations only when the source is particularly clear or expressive or when it is important to let the debaters of an issue explain their positions in their own words. In other instances, use your own words to summarize and paraphrase your sources and to explain how your sources factor into and inform your own ideas.

Integrating quotations smoothly:

Integrate quotations smoothly enough for readers to move from your words to the words of a source without feeling a jolt. Avoid dropping quotations into the text without warning; instead, provide clear signal phrases, usually including the author’s name, to prepare readers for the quotation.

To avoid monotony, try to vary your signal phrases. The following models suggest a range of possibilities:

• In the words of researcher H. Terrace, “ . . .”

• As Flora Davis has noted, “ . . .”

• The Gardners point out that “ . . .”

• “ . . .,” claims linguist Noam Chomsky.

• Psychologist H. S. Terrace offers an odd argument for this view: “ . . .”

• Terrace answers these objections with the following analysis: “ . . . ”

It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a source’s sentence into your own sentence structure:

• B. Millsap claims that the banning of DDT in 1972 was “the major turning point” leading to the eagles’ comeback (2).

• Even Shaughnessy concedes that the decision to dive in to our own remediation process as teachers “demands professional courage” (“Diving” 238).

The above examples suggest that the quoted phrases are particularly important—something the author will go on to explore.

Handling longer quotations (block quotations):

When you quote more than four or five typed lines, set off the quotation by indenting it ten spaces from the left margin. Use the normal right margin. You may single or double-space your block quotes—it’s up to you, just be consistent.

Long quotations should be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon. Quotation marks are unnecessary because the indented format tells readers that the material is taken directly from the source. At the end of a block quotation the parenthetical citation goes outside the final period. No punctuation follows the parenthetical citation.

Here’s a sample use of the block quotation:

In an article condemning the new SAT essay test as “revers[ing] decades of progress toward literacy” (B14), Dennis Baron promotes the imperative of teaching and evaluating student writing within meaningful contexts. One reason the SAT essay test fails, Baron contends, is because it does not meet this imperative. Instead, it takes written English out of context and attaches it to a free-floating and therefore largely meaningless formula, such as the five-paragraph essay, which impacts the teaching of language and writing by forwarding the notion that it, too, can be accomplished out of (disciplinary) context. Baron explains:

The fact that the new SAT’s writing section values correct English more than competent writing will have a negative impact on the teaching of grammar and usage in our schools. Correctness in language is not learned through memorization. It evolves through complex choices conditioned by the social and rhetorical context of specific acts of communication. The SAT’s idea that questions about language can be answered a, b, c, d, or “none of the above” [questions that account for more than two-thirds of the writing section score] promotes the mistaken notion that there is only one right answer when it comes to good English, and thus will force language instruction to revert to simplistic, one-size-fits-all grammar drills. (B15)

The complex choices that writers make, along with the social and rhetorical situations that condition them, evolve within and as disciplinary sites of learning. That is, students learn to read and write a lab report for biology, for instance, in terms that are distinct from how they learn to read and write a film critique. As Baron explains, the SAT writing section runs counter to the important disciplinary notions of writing that have evolved in higher education and therefore do a disservice to students.

Using the ellipsis mark and brackets:

The ellipsis mark and brackets allow you to keep quoted material to a minimum and to integrate it smoothly into your text.

ELLIPSIS: To condense a quoted passage, you can use the ellipsis mark (three periods, with spaces between) to indicate that you have omitted words. What remains must be grammatically complete.

• In a recent New York Times article, Erik Eckholm reports that “a 4-year-old chimpanzee . . . has demonstrated what scientists say are the most humanlike linguistic skills ever documented in another animal” (A1).

• As Baron asserts, “The SAT’s idea that questions about language can be answered a, b, c, d, or ‘none of the above’…will force language instruction to revert to simplistic, one-size-fits-all grammar drills” (B15)

On the rare occasions when you want to omit a full sentence or more, use a period before the three ellipsis dots.

To use the ellipses mark well and fairly, you must be an author with integrity. That is, you should not take out any section of the quoted text that changes or compromises its original meaning; you can’t quote what works for you and dismiss what doesn’t. Responsible scholarship demands that you tackle the full meaning of your source. Therefore, only use the ellipses mark for purposes of brevity.

BRACKETS: Brackets [square parentheses] allow you to insert words of your own into quoted material. You can insert words in brackets to explain a confusing reference (see the first example) or to keep a sentence grammatical in your context (see the second example).

• Robert Seyfarth reports that “Premack [a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania] taught a seven-year-old chimpanzee, Sarah, that the word for ‘apple’ was a small, plastic triangle” (13).

• In an article condemning the new SAT essay test as “revers[ing] decades of progress toward literacy” (B14), Dennis Baron promotes the imperative of teaching and evaluating student writing within meaningful contexts.

IV. Attach a Works Cited page to the end of your essay. (YOU CAN SKIP THIS FOR YOUR ESSAY 1 IF YOU’RE USING OUR CLASS TEXT AS YOUR ONLY SOURCE.)

What follows is a model for how to include certain types of sources; find more information on citing these and other types of sources on this online guide:

WORKS CITED

A BOOK:

Boyer, Ernest L. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990.

Graff, Gerald. Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003.

AN ESSAY OR OTHER PIECE IN AN ANTHOLOGY:

Bartholomae, David. “What Is Composition and (If You Know What That Is) Why Do We Teach It?” Composition in the 21st Century. Eds. Lynn Bloom, Donald Daiker, and Edward White. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996.

AN ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER:

Arenson, Karen. “CUNY Raising Admissions Standards with Higher Math Cutoff.” New York Times 28 July 2007, B 1.

Baron, Dennis. “The College Board’s New Essay Reverses Decades of Progress Toward Literacy.” Chronicle of Higher

Education 6 May 2005, B14–15.

AN ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL:

Shaughnessy, Mina P. “Open Admissions and the Disadvantaged Teacher.” College Composition and Communication 24.5 (1973): 401-404.

Shaugnessy, Mina P. “The English Professor’s Malady.” Journal of Basic Writing, 3.1 (Fall 1980): 109–114.

AN ARTICLE IN A MAGAZINE:

Lamb, Douglas H., and Glenn D. Reeder. “Reliving Golden Days.” Psychology Today. June 1986: 22.

Jelinek, Elfriede. Interview. New York Times Sunday Magazine. Deborah Solomon. 21 Nov. 2004: 31.

A REVIEW:

Anderson, Jack. Rev. of Don Quixote. American Ballet Theater. Metropolitan Opera House, New York. New York Times 30 May 1987, late ed.: 13.

“Girls and Boys Together.” Rev. of The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, by Kathryn Davis. The Village Voice 2 Nov. 1993: 71.

A FILM:

It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. With James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946.

A RECORDING:

Bragg, Billy. “Accident Waiting to Happen.” Don’t Try This At Home. Elektra, 1991.

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