Learn to Take Notes
Avoid Plagiarism
Learn to Reference Sources in the Body of Your Paper
Master MLA and APA Citation Styles LEARN TO TAKE NOTES Gathering information for a research paper is best done
by recording notes on 3" x 5" index cards. In general, use one index card
for each fact or idea you take from a source. This way, you will be able
to organize notes easily when it comes time to draft your paper. In fact,
you can lay the cards out on a desk or table to see your paper take shape. UNDERSTANDING WHY YOU SHOULD CITE SOURCES Citing a source
means telling your readers from which source you took a piece of information.
It is a way of giving credit to the person who originally thought of or
researched that material. Not citing sources properly will cast doubt
on the authenticity of your research and may even lead to inadvertent
plagiarism, which is explained below. | CAUTION: | You should cite sources of all facts, ideas, and
opinions that are not general knowledge and
that you take from someone else's writing, whether
you quote, summarize, or paraphrase that material. |
WHEN TO CITE
SOURCES: THREE BASIC RULES
- Don't mention a source if the information comes
from first-hand observation or personal experience.
- Don't cite sources of common knowledge. For example,
don't explain where you learned that aerobic
exercise strengthens the heart or that the film Apocalypse
Now is based on Conrad's Heart of
Darkness.
- Cite sources of information that you take from
others and that is not common knowledge.
For example, credit the source of information about a new ulcer
treatment or of an opinion about how much
the filmmaker took from Conrad's novel. These
ideas are the intellectual properties of the people who thought
them up and who must be given credit.
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THREE WAYS TO TAKE NOTES In general, your notes should take three
forms: direct
quotations, summaries,and paraphrases. A DIRECT QUOTATION Sometimes, your research will reveal information expressed
in language so precise, clear, or moving that you will want to repeat
it exactly as it appears. A direct quotation is an exact, word-for-word
copy of the original. Place quotation marks ("/") around such material as you
take notes. This will remind you that the information was copied exactly
and that you will have to place quotation marks around it in your paper.
DIRECT QUOTATION—SAMPLE NOTE CARD
Ancona 3
"We have come to rely too heavily
on our rational ability; consequently, we have lost contact
with the deeper,
emotional and instinctual layers of our being."
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| NOTE: | You can keep track of your sources
easily by writing the author's last name and the
relevant page number(s) at the top of each card. If no author is
given, use a shortened version
of the source's title. This quotation is from page 3 of Francesco
Ancona's book Myth. |
A SUMMARY Summarizing means condensing information into a shorter
form while keeping the main idea. Always use your own words. Compare an
original passage from page 23 of Ancona's Myth with a summary: Original Ancona 23 "In the InterpretationofDreams,
Freud recognized the difficulty inherent in trying to communicate
with the unconscious. He attributed the problem to what he called
a ‘censor.’ He believed that some elements of consciousness did
not want the messages from the unconsciousness to surface."
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Summary Ancona 23 Freud argued that the conscious mind
prevents information stored in the unconscious from getting out. |
A PARAPHRASE A paraphrase is like a summary except that it may be as
long as the original. Once again, use your own words while capturing the
writer's main idea: Original Ancona 38 "The Bible provides its share
of beanstalks. In a sense, the Tower of Babel can be seen as a failed
attempt to follow Jack’s route while Jacob’s ladder is the wish
fulfillment of his dream of ascension into heaven." |
Paraphrase Ancona 38 Jack and the Beanstalk has its parallels
in the Bible. Take Jacob’s ladder, for example. Even the Tower of
Babel is similar in that it might be a "failed attempt to follow
Jack’s route." |
| NOTE: | You might want to include some words
from the original in a paraphrase. If so, be
sure to put quotation marks around them. |
AVOID PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is the use of someone else's words or ideas
without telling readers where you got that material. Intentional plagiarism occurs when you copy something
from a source, usually word for word, and use it without quotation marks.
It is an unethical practice and has no place in any academic endeavor.
Unintentional plagiarism can result from - Careless note taking, such as forgetting to put quotation
marks around material you copy.
- Using material you have summarized or paraphrased and
forgetting to tell readers the source of that
material.
The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is to remember that
you must tell readers the sources of all facts, ideas, and opinions that
are not general knowledge and that are taken from others, whether that
material is quoted, summarized, or paraphrased.
LEARN TO REFERENCE SOURCES IN
THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER As you learned above, you must reference
direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. The process by which you
do this is known as citing sources. The easiest way to cite a source is
through a parenthetical
citation. USING PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS Parenthetical citations provide information about the
source from which you have taken information. These citations are called
""parenthetical" because they display information in parentheses
[(/)]. In most—but not all—cases, a parenthetical citation contains
the author's name and the page number of the document on which you found
the information. This information makes it easy for the reader to find
complete publication information on a particular source in a works-cited
page or references page, which appears at the end of the paper. PLACING RESEARCHED MATERIAL INTO A PAPER | NOTE: | The information you provide in a parenthetical
citation depends on the source and
the way you incorporate researched material into your writing. |
As you continue in Chapter 12, you will learn how
to: - Incorporate summarized or
paraphrased material.
- Introduce a direct quotation
with the author's last name.
- Introduce a direct quotation
without mentioning the author in the text
of your paper.
- Use a direct quotation as
part of your own sentence.
- Use a long quotation.
- Use material from sources
for which no author is given.
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MASTER MLA AND APA CITATION
STYLES Before you go on, you need to realize that different academic
disciplines demand that documents be written in different styles. Two
of the most popular ways of incorporating researched material are the
Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association
(APA) styles. In general, the MLA style is used in most of the humanities
such as composition, communications, English and American literature,
and foreign languages. The APA style is used in most of the social sciences
such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology. INCORPORATING SUMMARIZED OR PARAPHRASED MATERIAL—MLA
STYLE Remember that you must cite sources of material that you
summarize or paraphrase as well as of material that you quote. Often the
easiest way is simply to put the last name of the author and the page
number of the source in parentheses after the summarized or paraphrased
material. Here's what a citation might look like if you were including
a summary of material taken from page 266 of A World Lit Only by Fire,
a book by William Manchester: When Magellan, a Portuguese navigator
sailing for Spain,
began what was to be
the first crossing of the Pacific
Ocean, he had no idea
of how long and how dangerous this
12,000-mile voyage would
be. In fact, before Magellan,
Europeans believed that
Mexico and Japan were less than
a thousand miles apart
(Manchester 266).
| NOTE: | No punctuation separates the author's
name and the page number. The period that
ends the sentence comes after the parentheses. |
INCORPORATING SUMMARIZED OR PARAPHRASED MATERIAL—APA
STYLE The easiest way to cite summarized or paraphrased material
using APA style is with a parenthetical citation containing the last name
of the author and the year of publication of the source in which you found
the information. William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire was
published in 1993. Here's how a summary of information from that book
might look: When Magellan, a Portuguese navigator
sailing for Spain,
began what was to be
the first crossing of the Pacific
Ocean, he had no idea
of how long and how dangerous this
12,000-mile voyage would
be. In fact, before Magellan,
Europeans believed that
Mexico and Japan were less than
a thousand miles apart
(Manchester, 1993).
| NOTE: | APA style differs from MLA style. In
APA style - A comma separates the author's
name and the year.
- For a summary or paraphrase, the
year of publication replaces
the page number in the parentheses.
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INTRODUCING A DIRECT QUOTATION WITH THE AUTHOR'S
LAST NAME—MLA STYLE Sometimes you might want to name the author of a direct
quotation in your text. In the next example, the student quotes directly
from page 238 of William Manchester’s A World Lit Only by Fire.
Because the author's name introduces the quotation, only the page number
appears within parentheses. Since the quotation is a complete sentence,
it is set off from the student's own writing with a colon. In speaking of the navigators who
launched the Age of
Exploration in the fifteenth
century, Manchester explains:
"It is a remarkable
fact that virtually all of them
came from one corner
of Europe" (238).
| CAUTION: | Don't forget to enclose direct
quotations in quotation marks. |
INTRODUCING A DIRECT QUOTATION WITH THE AUTHOR'S
LAST NAME—APA STYLE Here the student uses APA style to include a quote from
page 238 of WilliamManchester's A World Lit Only by Fire,
which was published in 1993. Because the author's name and the date of
publication introduce the quotation, only the page number of the source
appears within parentheses at the end of the quotation. In speaking of the navigators who
launched the Age of
Exploration in the fifteenth
century, Manchester (1993)
explains: "It is
a remarkable fact that virtually all
of them came from one
corner of Europe" (p. 238).
| NOTE: | APA style differs from MLA style. APA
demands that - The year of publication appear
in parentheses immediately
after the author's last name.
- The abbreviation p. (for page)
come before the page number.
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| CAUTION:
| Don't forget to enclose direct
quotations in quotation marks. |
| INTRODUCING A DIRECT QUOTATION WITHOUT
MENTIONING THE AUTHOR IN THE TEXT—MLA STYLE |
You can introduce a direct quotation without
mentioning the author's name in the text of your paper. To do so, just
put the author's last name and the page number or numbers from which you
took the quotation within parentheses. The parentheses will appear at
the end of the sentence. Here's an example from Thomas Cahill's book How
the Irish Saved Civilization. Although Ireland is an island,
its people's origin is neither insular, nor
recent. As one scholar
has pointed out: "The Irish are part of a larger
ethnic grouping called
the Celts . . . , who first entered western
consciousness about
600 BC." (Cahill 78-79).
| NOTE: | Ellipses ( . . . ) indicate that the
student has removed words from the quotation before
placing it in the paper. |
| CAUTION: | Don't forget to enclose direct
quotations in quotation marks. |
| INTRODUCING A DIRECT QUOTATION WITHOUT
MENTIONING THE AUTHOR IN THE TEXT—APA STYLE |
To introduce a direct quotation without mentioning
the author's name when using APA style, just put the author's last name,
the year of publication, and the page number or numbers from which you
took the quotation within parentheses. Here's an example from Thomas Cahill's
book How the Irish Saved Civilization. Although
Ireland is an island, its people's origin is neither insular, nor
recent. As one scholar
has pointed out: "The Irish are part of a larger
ethnic grouping called
the Celts . . . , who first entered western
consciousness about
600 BC." (Cahill, 1995, pp.78-79).
| NOTE: | Remember that APA style differs from
MLA style. In this case, the year of publication
and the abbreviation p. or pp. also appear in parentheses. |
| NOTE: | Ellipses ( . . . ) indicate that the
student has removed words from the quotation before
placing it in the paper. |
| CAUTION: | Don't forget to enclose direct
quotations in quotation marks. |
USING A DIRECT QUOTATION AS PART OF YOUR OWN SENTENCE—MLA
STYLE To make a direct quotation part of your own sentence,
just combine it with your own words without a comma or colon before the
quotation marks. The quotation below is taken from page 3 of Thomas Sowell's
book InsideAmericanEducation, which was published
in 1993. In a recent critique of American
education, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute
cites the alarming "results
of an international study of 13-year-olds which found
that Koreans ranked
first in mathematics and Americans last" (Sowell 3).
| CAUTION: | Don't forget to enclose direct
quotations in quotation marks. |
USING A DIRECT QUOTATION AS PART OF YOUR OWN SENTENCE—APA
STYLE To make a direct quotation part of your own sentence using
APA style, just combine the quotation with your own words without a comma
or colon before the quotation marks. The quotation below is taken from
page 3 of Thomas Sowell's book InsideAmericanEducation,
which was published in 1993. In a recent critique of American
education, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute
cites the alarming "results
of an international study of 13-year-olds which found
that Koreans ranked
first in mathematics and Americans last" (Sowell, 1993, p. 3).
| NOTE: | Remember that APA style differs from
MLA style. In this case, the year of publication
and the abbreviation p. also appear in parentheses. |
USING A DIRECT QUOTATION OF MORE THAN FOUR LINES—MLA
STYLE To include a direct quotation longer than four lines,
double-space it and indent it 10 spaces from the left margin: In How the Irish Saved Civilization,
Cahill describes the people of Britain during the
fifth century: In Patrick's time the island of
Britain was peopled by Romanized Celts, whom we call Britons, and, in
its northern reaches, by the un-Romanized and ferocious Picts, who painted
pictures all over their bodies, horrifying the Romans, who called them "Picti"
(Painted People). Patrick was a Romanized Celtic Briton, not an
Englishman. (Cahill 158)
| NOTE: | No quotation marks are used unless
they appear in the original; the indentation tells
the reader you are quoting. |
USING A DIRECT QUOTATION OF 40 WORDS OR MORE—APA
STYLE To include a direct quotation of 40 words or more using
APA style, double-space and indent the quotation five spaces from the
left margin. In How the Irish Saved Civilization,
Cahill (1995) describes the people of Britain during the fifth century: In Patrick's time the island of
Britain was peopled by Romanized Celts, whom we call Britons, and, in
its northern reaches, by the un-Romanized and ferocious Picts, who painted pictures
all over their bodies, horrifying the Romans, who called them "Picti"
(Painted People). Patrick was a Romanized Celtic Briton, not an Englishman.
(p.158)
| NOTE: | No quotation marks are used unless
they appear in the original; the indentation tells
the reader you are quoting. |
USING MATERIAL FROM SOURCES FOR WHICH NO AUTHOR
IS GIVEN—MLA STYLE If no author is indicated in a source from which you take
information, place the title in parentheses followed by the page number.
The source will appear under its title in your works-cited
page, so readers will be able to find it. Calvinists led an austere existence.
Dancing, feasting, playing musical instruments or
singing, card playing,
gambling, hunting, and attending plays or other forms of
entertainment were prohibited
as were adorning oneself with colorful clothing and
makeup ("The Puritan
Legacy"18).
USING MATERIAL FROM SOURCES FOR WHICH NO AUTHOR
IS GIVEN—APA STYLE If no author is indicated in a source from which you take
information, place the title in parentheses followed by a comma and the
year of publication. Calvinists led an austere existence.
Dancing, feasting, playing musical instruments or
singing, card playing,
gambling, hunting, and attending plays or other forms of
entertainment were prohibited
as were adorning oneself with colorful clothing and
makeup ("The Puritan
Legacy," 1990).
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