GIVING CREDIT TO OUTSIDE SOURCES

Using the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) to document a research paper GIVING CREDIT TO OUTSIDE SOURCES

When professionals write papers that require research, they use the documentation style chosen by their discipline.

For details and basic requirements, be sure to consult: www.chicagomanualofstyle.org

First, let’s review the use of sources in any paper.

What are “outside sources” for a research paper? Traditional sources include: • Books • Entire books • Chapters • Works within an anthology • Articles • Professional journals, magazines, newspapers

…but today there are many other types of sources as well, such as: • Web pages • Online journals • Personal interviews • Videotaped interviews • Movies • E-mail correspondence, etc.

There are two types of sources: primary and secondary. • Primary: the work itself. • Secondary: Things written or said ABOUT the primary source.

PRIMARY SOURCES—Letters from a historical figure, memoirs, first-hand accounts of an event, interviews. SECONDARY SOURCES—Scholarly books or journals, notes or handouts from conferences or classes, Web pages, etc. For example, if you were writing a history paper, you might use:

Suggestion: Whenever you have access to a primary source, use it! First-hand information is always strongerthan second- or third-hand.

Rule of thumb for deciding what to document: • Borrowed language • Borrowed ideas • Borrowed information When you use the information, words or ideas of someone else, be sure to tell your readers where the material came from.

What kind of information you put in your citations and how you organize the information depends on the documentation style you are using.

Where do you put the information about your sources in a CMS research paper? Two places: In footnotes (or endnotes) AND on a page at the end of your paper. (BIBLIOGRAPHY)

When you write a CMS paper, you use numbers in the body of your paper These tell the reader where to look in your footnotes in order to find publishing information. This information is repeated on the Bibliography page.

Footnotes go at the bottom or “foot” of the page on which the citation occurs.

Know do you insert a footnote number in Microsoft Word? Place the cursor at the end of the sentence you wish you cite Select “References” tab. Click on “Insert footnote.”

Here’s an example of using a superscript in the body of your paper to point readers to a footnote or endnote: Research on the subject of community building has focused on the need to create more social capital. Putnam and Feldstein have discovered that “the kind of social capital that is most essential for healthy public life …is precisely the kind that is hardest to build.” 1

Foot or Endnotes 1. Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein. Better Together: Restoring the American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 3. (Indent first line 5 spaces.)

What should you do if you refer to the same source more than once in your paper? Do you have to repeat all of the information that you put in your first note?

No! Just give the author’s last name, followed by a comma, and the page number on which you found the information you are using: 7. Putnam and Feldstein, 74. If an author’s name is not available, use a shortened title: 7. Better Together, 74. Some professors prefer the author’s last name, a shortened version of the title, and the page number. Always ask your professor!

If you referred to a source in one note and then refer to the same source in the nextnote, either use a short form (as we just saw) or use the Latin abbreviation ibid. (It means “in the same place.”) It must be the very next source cited. 1. Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, Better Together: Restoring the American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 3. 2. Ibid., 77.

Your Bibliography: It comes at the very end of your paper. It is a list of all of the sources you cited in your paper—and also sources that you consulted but did not actually cite. It repeats the publishing information you gave in your notes, but in a different order.

In Chicago Manual Style, some sources that you do not cite in your bibliography are: • Textbooks • Encyclopedias • Dictionaries Why? These are not considered “scholarly” sources! For this reason, some instructors prefer that you don’t cite them on either the Bibliography page or within the body of your paper.

Naturally, you would NOT “borrow” information from these sources without giving credit to them!So why would you read them at all?

Some advice… Pay close attention to: What type of information goes in the bibliography What the order of this information is for an CMS citation.—ORDER MATTERS! (So does punctuation.) Be sure to copy this information right away—when you are actually using the source—so you’ll have it when you write the bibliography. This will save you extra work and frustration!

Advice, continued… Alphabetize the citations in the bibliography. Start each entry at the left margin and indent for subsequent lines. Single-space with a double-space between entries. Some bibliographies are subdivided by groups (usually for larger papers). Ask your professor if you need to do this.

Here is the basic Bibliography format for a book with one author: • Okuda, Michael. Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future. New York: Pocket Books, 1993. Last name, first name. Work. Place of publication: Publisher, date.

A footnote or endnote would read: 1. Michael Okuda, Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future (New York: Pocket Books, 1993), 10-12.

For a Journal Article: Williams, Roger L. “Revolution and Madness: Blanqui and Trelat.” The Journal of the Historical Society 5, no. 2 (Spring, 2005): 227-252.

A footnote or endnote would read: 3. Roger L. Williams, “Revolution and Madness: Blanqui and Trelat,” The Journal of the Historical Society 5, no. 2 (Spring, 2005): 228-231.

Manuscript format rules for a CMS paper: Standard type style, e.g. New Times Roman or Trebuchet (12 pt.) One-inch margin on all sides. Do not justify right margin. Double-space (or 1.5) everything in the body of your paper. Indent each paragraph five spaces.

Format, continued: Foot or Endnotes page: Single-space each entry. Double-space between entries. Number all pages after the title page. Page numbers go on the bottom of the page in the center.

TITLE PAGE YES. I want one.  This is how it will look:

To Draft or Not to Draft? A Canadian Conundrum Ms. L. StrongMonday, December 16th, 2013CHC 2DI – 03Ms. Strong

GIVING CREDIT TO OUTSIDE SOURCES