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Citing and Documenting Sources

The Value of Citing Sources

• It allows readers to cross-reference your sources easily.

• It provides consistent format within a discipline.

• It gives you credibility as a writer.

• It protects you from plagiarism.

• It helps with further research.

What needs to be cited? (Maimon and Peritz 208)

A direct quotation is when you use someone else’s exact words within your own prose.

If it is fewer than four lines, identify with quotation marks.

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies claims that

“there is nothing inherently concrete about historiography”

(10).

What needs to be cited? (Maimon and Peritz 232).

If the direct quotation is more than four lines, use a block quote.

There was a pronounced gangster

element at the Sunset, but Louis, accustomed to being employed and protected by mobsters, didn’t think twice about that. Mr. Capone’s men ensured the flow of alcohol, and their presence reassured many whites. (Bergreen 279).

How do you cite ? (Maimon and Peritz 230).

Direct quotations should always have three parts:

Tag: Material that explains the quote Quote: Material taken directly from the author Source: Material that documents the source, such as

page numbers

As Robinson points out, [tag] his innovative singing style alsofeatured “scat,” a technique that combines “nonsensesyllables [with] improvised melodies” [quote] (425).[documents the source]

Proper Punctuation to Incorporate a Quotation into a Sentence

If the introductory material is a sentence, add the quotation after a colon.

Eleanor Roosevelt spent many years feeling insecure before she realized this idea: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Proper Punctuation to Incorporate a Quotation into a Sentence

If the introductory material is not

an independent clause, use a comma.

Eleanor Roosevelt states, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Proper Punctuation to Incorporate a Quotation into a Sentence

If you include the words of a quotation into one of your sentences, use square brackets [ ] and ellipses . . . .

I agree with Eleanor Roosevelt that “[n]o one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

It is impossible to “. . . make you feel inferior without your consent” (Roosevelt).

What needs to be cited? (Maimon and Peritz 207).

If you use someone else’s ideas but use your own words, it is a paraphrase or summary.

According to Jones and Chilton, Glaser’s responsibilities

included booking appearances, making travel

arrangements, and paying the band members’ salaries

(160, 220).

Paraphrasing

Prompt acknowledgement is required when material fromanother source is paraphrased or summarized, in whole orin part.

– Paraphrasing is rephrasing ideas or statements. • Restate or repeat something in new words. • Do not simply substitute synonyms. • Substantially rewrite the original without changing

its meaning. • Allow for translating technical information into lay

terms and selecting words more suited to a new audience.

Summarizing– Gives the "gist" of a statement

or idea, using your own words and not the author's.

– Purposes for summary: • To shorten material• To convey a general idea • To give all necessary

information (excluding the unnecessary)

• To reference material • To set up quoted material

– Generally informative and descriptive.

• Concise, coherent sentences to relay important information.

• May include – deleting extraneous

material, – highlighting key words,– synthesizing the overall

meaning, – miniaturizing primary

ideas.

• Length of the summary depends on what is being summarized.

MLA Citation Style

• Go to the library home page: http://library.tamu.edu/portal/site/Library/– Click on Research Support>Citation Guides.– Scroll down to MLA Citation Style

• Go to http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/– Click on Resources > Webliography >

Research and Documentation.– Scroll down to Documentation MLA Diana

Hacker.

MLA In-text Citations (Maimon and Peritz 208)

Name the author in the citation at the end of the sentence:

In the late nineteenth century, the sale of sheet music spread rapidly ina Manhattan area along Broadway known as Tin Pan Alley (Campbell63).

Name the author in the signal phrase:

Richard Campbell noted that, “In the late nineteenth century, the sale ofsheet music spread rapidly in a Manhattan area along Broadway

knownas Tin Pan Alley (63).

MLA Indirect Sources (Hacker 345)

When a writer’s or a speaker’s quoted wordsappear in a source written by someone else,begin the citation with the abbreviation “qtd.in.” Use the original source in your signalphrase.

According to Richard Retting, “As the comforts of homeand the efficiency of the office creep into the automobile, itis becoming increaslingly attractive as a work space” (qtd.in Kilgannon A23).

MLA List of Works Cited (Maimon and Peritz 213)

• At the end of the paper, a list of works cited provides publication information about the source.

• The list is alphabetized by authors' last names (or by titles—for works without authors).

• Be sure to use hanging indentation.Example: Maimon, Elizabeth P., and Janice H. Peritz. A Writer’s

Resource: A Handbook for Writing and Research. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Works Cited

Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Maimon, Elizabeth P., and Janice H. Peritz. A Writer’s Resource: A Handbook for Writing and Research. New York: McGraw-Hill.