Bringing Research Into Your Paper

• What Are Sources?• What Are Citations?• Quoting• Paraphrasing• Summarizing• Avoiding Plagiarism

What Are Sources?

• A source is what you turn to for information about your topic.

• A source can include any of the following:• a book• a magazine or newspaper article• a scholarly journal article• a film, television show, or radio program• a web site• a personal interview

• They generally fall under print sources, non-print sources, and electronic sources.

Print Sources• A print source can be a periodical or a non-periodical.

• A periodical is a publication that is issued periodically, such as any of the following:

– a newspaper (The Boston Globe);– a magazine (Newsweek); – a journal (Journal of Naturopathic Medicine).

• A non-periodical most often refers to a book.

Non-Print Sources

• A non-print source can include, but is not limited to, any of the following:

• a television or radio program• a film • a personal interview• a class lecture• a recording

Electronic Sources• An electronic source can refer to a source found on the

Internet, such as a personal or professional web site.

• There are some electronic sources that originally appeared in print form. These include articles found on databases such as EbscoHost and Infotrac and articles in newspapers and magazines that publish on the web and in print.

What is a Citation?

• When you bring research (quotations, paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your paper, you must give credit to the source and its author(s).

• Giving credit to a source is also called citing a source.

• You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations. They are called parenthetical citations because the bibliographic information goes inside parentheses.

What to Cite

• Quotations: Someone else’s exact words, enclosed in quotation marks.

• The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone else—even if you restate them in your own words in a paraphrase or summary.

• Facts and statistics—unless they are common knowledge and are accessible in many sources.

• Common Knowledge is information that can be found in many sources and that no one can claim owning. It is information that “belongs” to everyone. Often, it is the stuff of encyclopedias. Examples:

• 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust.• The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.• The Civil War ended in 1865.

• You may not have known this before you started your research, but it is still common knowledge. Often, you will encounter knowledge that is common in your field of study, even if the general population may not know it.

Quoting• When you quote, you borrow an author’s exact words.

• Use a quotation when…

– the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so well that you cannot improve or shorten it without weakening it;

– when the author is a respected authority whose opinion supports your own ideas;

– when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with others in the field.

Paraphrasing

• Paraphrasing is putting material (including major and minor points) into your own words and sentence structure.

• You can paraphrase a theory, an idea, the results of a study, or a passage in an original source, as long as you use your own words to describe it.

• A paraphrase is often the same length as the original, but it is in your own words.

Example of a Paraphrase• Original Text (from James C. Stalker, “Official English or English Only”)

“ We cannot legislate the language of the home, the street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set up a cadre of language police who will ticket and arrest us if we speak something other than English” (21).

• ParaphraseStalker points out that in a democracy like the United States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use of a language and it certainly would not be possible to make police enforce such laws in homes and public places (21).

Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writersby Ann Raimes

Summarizing• Summaries are often less detailed than paraphrases.

• In a summary, you provide your reader with the gist of the most important sources you find in your own words.

• Summaries give readers basic information and are always in your own words.

• When you include a summary in your paper, introduce the author’s name and/or the work.

What is Plagiarism?• It is fine to bring the words and ideas of other writers

into your paper.

• However, when you do so, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of these sources.

• If not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious academic

offense.

Avoiding Plagiarism• In order to avoid plagiarism, be sure that you not only

give credit where credit is due, but that you follow the appropriate formats, often either MLA (Modern Languages Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) styles of documentation.

• There are also several good publications available with which students should be familiar. They will be mentioned later in this presentation.

MLA Style Documentation

• What is MLA?• How To Integrate Research Into the Body

of Your Paper• How to Create a “Works Cited” Page

What is MLA?

• If you are writing a research paper in English, foreign languages, or other humanities classes, use MLA-style documentation.

• MLA stands for the Modern Language Association.

• The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for Writing Research Papers. This book contains all of the rules that govern MLA-style documentation.

Most good English handbooks also include a section on writing research papers. An English handbook is a valuable resource for any college student. The Academic Support Center has copies for students to borrow. Here are a few good ones:

The Everyday Writer, Lunsford and Connors Keys for Writers, Ann Raimes The Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers, Jane E.

Aaron Rules for Writers, Diane Hacker Rules of Thumb, Silverman, Hughes, and Weinbroer

Points to Remember(About MLA-Style Documentation)

• All written material (the body of your paper and the “Works Cited” page) is double-spaced.

• MLA-style has two main elements:

• In-text Citations

• “Works Cited” Page

• Use in-text citations in the body of your paper when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other borrowed material. Citations should be as concise as possible, while still giving readers enough information to find the full bibliographic information on the “Works Cited” page.

• The ”Works Cited” page is a separate page and carries the heading “Works Cited” (or “Work Cited” if you are using only one source). This is where you list all of your sources, giving the reader full bibliographic information.

• On the “Works Cited” page, sources are always listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.

– If your source has no author, go by the first word of the title to alphabetize.

• When listing sources, indent every line after the first line five spaces or one-half inch.

• Underline book titles and web sites.

• Use quotation marks around articles, stories, poems, and essays.

Integrating Research• There are only two pieces of information that need

to go inside the parentheses of an in-text citation:

• the author’s last name • the page number

• This information refers readers to the full bibliographic information on the “Works Cited” page.

– An in-text citation looks like this:• (Smith 165)

– If there are two authors, give both last names:• (Jones and Nichols 18)

– If there is no author, give the first word of the title:• (“Recent” 23)

– If there is no page number, give the paragraph number:• (McKnight par. 10)

Examples

• Many young women, from all races and classes, have taken on the idea of the American Dream, however difficult it might be for them to achieve it (Sidel 19-20).

• The adult mountain lion population in California is now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and Messina B1).

More Examples

• In California, fish and game officials estimate that since 1972 lion numbers have increased from 2,400 to at least 6,000 (“Lion” A21).

• An article that appeared in Research Quarterly states that, “Their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (Russo par. 3).

Signal Phrases• Signal phrases help you to transition from your words and

ideas to the words and ideas of others.

• With practice, you will learn how to integrate research smoothly into your paper.

• In most cases, it is preferable to include the author’s name in a signal phrase that precedes the quote, fact, statistic, etc. Because the author is already named, you need only list the page or paragraph number in the parentheses.

Examples

• The sociologist Ruth Sidel’s interviews with young woman provide examples of what Sidel sees as the “impossible dream” (19).

• Michelle Russo’s article from Research Quarterly states that “Their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (par. 3).

• The following signal phrases are good examples of ways you can introduce the findings of your research in your paper:

• According to…

• In the words of…

• In a recent study by…

• Current research proves that…

• Avoid overusing the verb “said” in your paper. Here is a list of strong, active verbs that you can use in your signal phrases.

• You can write that someone…

• acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees

• argues, asserts, claims, or comments

• confirms, believes, declares, or implies

• insists, notes, observes, or points out,

• reports, states, theorizes, or writes

• Often in your research you will encounter quotes, facts, statistics, etc. that are written by someone other than the author of the piece you are reading. Use the following format:

• We generate words unconsciously, without thinking about them; they appear, as James Britton says, “at the point of utterance” (qtd. in Smith 108).

• “We only used seven signs in his presence,” says Fouts. “All of his signs were learned from the other chimps at the laboratory” (qtd. in Toner).

• NOTE: On the “Works Cited” page give the bibliographic information for the source you read, not the source quoted from—since you haven’t read that.

Creating a “Works Cited” Page

• A “Works Cited” page contains the full bibliographic information to which you have been referring in the body of your paper.

• The “Work Cited” page is…

• the last page of your paper

• double-spaced

• alphabetized

• There are many different ways to cite sources on your “Works Cited” page, depending on whether your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.

• You are not expected to memorize each way; you are expected to know how to find the format you need for your particular source.

• Once you find the format, follow it to the letter. Do not add information not in the example.

• The following is an example of a “Works Cited” page. (On the left is the name of the kind of source; this is only to help you in the presentation and does not appear on your “Works Cited” page.)

Works Cited

Allende, Isabel. “An Act of Vengeance.” Trans. E.D. Carter, Jr.

Literature and Its Writers. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel

Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 66-71.

Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Laura E. Hunt

and William Barek. May 1998. U of Toronto. 11 May 1999

<http://citd.scar/index.html>.

“The Decade of the Spy.” Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.

Hallin, Daniel C. “Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections,

1968-1988.” Journal of Communication 49.2 (1992): 5-24.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:

U of Chicago P, 1980.

on-lineprofessional site

anon. article in amagazine

work froman anthologywith a translator

article in a journalthat pages issuesseparately

book two authors

Works Cited

Navarro, Mireya. “Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building.” New

York Times 13 July 2001: A1+.

Russo, Michelle Cash. “Recovering from Bibliographic Instruction

Blahs.” RQ: Research Quarterly 32 (1992): 178-83. Infotrac:

Magazine Index Plus. CD-Rom. Information Access. Dec.

1993.

Sidel, Ruth. On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the

American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990.

Spanoudis, Steve. Poet’s Corner. 2 Feb. 1998. 4 Feb. 1998

<http://www. geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems>.

Zacharias, Peter. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2001.

book one author

on-lineprofessionalsite with author

journal article with continuous pagination (froma database)

article in anewspaper

interview

Electronic Source• Author and/or editor names (if available)• Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)• Title of the Website, project, or book in italics. (Remember that some

Print publications have Web publications with slightly different names. They may, for example, include the additional information or otherwise modified information, like domain names [e.g. .com or .net].)

• Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers.

• Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.• Take note of any page numbers (if available).• Medium of publication.• Date you accessed the material.• URL (if required, or for your own personal reference)

Electronic Source

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Article name (in quotation marks). Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution or organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Page numbers. Medium of publication. Date of access. <URL>.Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a

Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 595-600. Web. 8 Feb. 2009. <http://www.investigatingdisease.com>.

For Reference…

•http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/