Citing Sources & Using In-text Citations

1. Citing Sources&Using In-text Citations

2. Giving credit to others for information and ideas that you used from their books, articles, web sites, or presentations. You cite a source when you: Use a direct quote. Paraphrase someone else’s words. Present an opinion or idea that is not your own. Use a statistic from a study. Use a fact that is not common knowledge. Use a picture, graph, table, chart, or other image that is not your own. What is citing?

3. Why cite sources? • To provide specific details or evidence to support your thesis. • To include facts that answer your research questions. • To emphasize, illustrate, or prove a point. • To add credibility by citing the findings of experts.

4. Why Use MLA Format? Proper Citation: • Protects you against plagiarism. • Allows readers to easily cross-reference your sources. • Provides a consistent format for you to follow. • Gives you credibility as a writer.

5. Why Use MLA Format? • The correct documentation of your sources is serious business! • If you plagiarize, even inadvertently, you may fail a class, be suspended from school, or expelled from college. • Plagiarism in your professional career can result in your being sued, fired, and publicly embarrassed.

6. Where Do I Find MLA Format? • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers • Composition and research guides and textbooks • RTM website: M.L.A. Style Sheet and Bibliography Cards • R.T.M. website address: • <http://www.rtmsd.org>

7. MLA Style: Two Parts Part 1: In text / Parenthetical Citations Part 2: Works Cited Page

8. When Should You Use In Text/ Parenthetical Documentation? • When you arequoting Any Words that are not your own. • Quotations are the exact words of an author, copied directly from a printed source or the Internet word for word, using quotation marks. • .

9. When Should You Use In Text/ Parenthetical Documentation? • When summarizingfacts and ideas from a source. • When paraphrasing facts and ideas from a source.

10. When Do You Cite? Don’t fall into the trap of plagiarism! If the ideaorinformation you are using did notoriginate in your own mind . . . Unless…it’s common knowledge ! cite it!

11. What is common knowledge? • You think your readers will already know what are considered to be accepted facts. • You can easily find the information in any general reference source. • You can find the information undocumentedin at least five sources. • You are sharing your own experiences, thoughts, or observations. • You are using folklore, common sense observations, or shared information within your field of study.

12. Keys to In-Text Citations Readability! • Keep references brief. • Give only information needed to identify the source on your Works-Cited page. • Take advantage of cross-referencing! • Do not repeat unnecessary information.

13. Handling In-Text Citations Typical in-text citation: Citation with source author mentioned in text:

14. Handling In-Text Citations Consecutive citations from the samesource:

15. Handling In-Text Citations Sometimes more information is necessary. • More than one author with the same last name: (W. Wordsworth 23) (D. Wordsworth 224) • More than one work by the same author: • (Joyce, Portrait 121) (Joyce, Ulysses 556) • Different volumes of a multi-volume work:(Jones 1: 336) • Citing indirect sources: (Johnson qtd. in Boswell 450)

16. Handling In-Text Citations Other problems: • If the source has no known author, then use an abbreviated version of the title: Full Title: “California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers” In-text Citation: (“California ” A14) • If the source is only one page in length or is a web page with no apparent pagination: Source: Dave Poland’s “Hot Button” web column In-text Citation: (Poland)

17. When To Use Quotations Use quotations carefully when you’d like to: • Add the power of an author’s words to support your own argument. • Disagree with an author’s argument. • Highlight particularly eloquent or powerful passages of writing. • Compare and contrast specific points of view. • Note important research that precedes your own.

18. How To Use Quotations Choose your quotations carefully. • A short phrase or sentence is more easily understood than a long quotation. • Look for the "kernel" or the most important part of the quotation and extract it. • Long quotations should be indented and single-spaced.

19. Handling Long Quotations

20. Handling Quotes in Your Text There are many different combinations and variations within the MLA citation format. If you run into something unusual, look it up!

21. Where can you go for additional help with MLA documentation? • RTM Home Page • MLA Handbook • Your Teacher • Your Librarian

22. Works Cited • Avoiding Plagiarism. OWL Online Writing Lab. 1995-2004. Purdue University. 20 January, 2005. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_plagiarism.html> • Brady, Jean. Norwood High SchoolResearch Paper Handbook. English Department. 25 March 2002. Norwood High School. 19 Janaury 2006. <http://norwood.k12.ma.us.edu/nhs/>. • Francis, Barbara. Other People’s Words: What Plagiarism Is and How to Avoid It. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2005. continued

23. Works Cited (continued) • Plagiarism. Research and Style Manual. c2003. Nauset Public Schools. 20 Jan 2006. <http://nausetschools.org/research/plagiarism.htm>. • Rohrbach, Carol and Joyce Valenza. Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting. Virtual Library. Springfield Township High School. 20 January 2005. <http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/sumparquo.html> • Thurston, Cheryl Miller. Plagiarism. Online posting. September 2002. Cottonwood E-News. 4 December 2002 <http://secure.cottonwoodpress.com/enews.htm>.