Dembrow,
Instructor
OK, let’s say that you're in the
process of completing the rough draft of your "research" report. One of the things you'll have to do now is
make sure you acknowledge your sources.
As you know, when you quote from another piece of writing you've got to
put quotation marks around the words used. But more than that, you've got to
let the reader know exactly where the quote came from; you've got to provide
the reader with information that will allow him/her to find the original piece
of writing if necessary.
In fact, it's not just direct quotes
that you need to acknowledge; you must also cite sources for paraphrases and
summaries of another's thoughts or ideas.
If you don't, you can be accused of plagiarism,
the most heinous crime in the world of ideas.
The Modern Language Association
Handbook defines plagiarism in the following way:
Plagiarism may
take the form of repeating another's sentences as your own, adopting a
particularly apt phrase as your own, paraphrasing someone else's argument as
your own, or even presenting someone else's line of thinking in the development
of a thesis as though it were your own (4).
In most
institutions of higher learning, a proven case of plagiarism can result in failure
of the course; in some schools the student is automatically expelled. In the "real world" plagiarism can
result in a lawsuit. In short, it's a
big deal. At PCC, cases of plagiarism
are governed by the College’s “Academic Integrity Policy”; you can find the
policy on the web at http://www.pcc.edu/edserv/academic/integrity.htm
How do you know when you need to
document a piece of information? You
don't need to acknowledge information that's of a general nature or considered
common knowledge. For example, you
wouldn't need to show a source if you wrote that abortion is a controversial
subject. You would have to show a source
if you wrote that 78% of those queried in a recent poll feel that the abortion
issue will never be resolved. (As the reader, I would be wondering, "Where
did she get that figure from?"
You've got to tell me.)
Generally speaking, when you are
discussing a single essay from your textbook, you don’t really need to worry
about steering the reader to the sources—just make sure that the reader knows
which essay the quote or information came from, ideally the page where it can
be found. But when you are dealing with
multiple texts from a variety of sources, you’ll need to give more information.
How do you acknowledge your sources? Breathe a sigh of relief‑‑it's
much easier now than it used to be. All
you need to do now is have a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper. This
list will be arranged alphabetically by last name of the author (by title if
the source has no author listed). Look
to your handbook for examples of how to organize your sources into a Works
Cited page.
Once you have a list of Works Cited,
you can refer to it in the body of your paper.
For example, imagine that your essay includes the following discussion
of Turow’s comments about target marketing:
According
to a professor at the
Now, the
reader who wants to know more about the source of the Turow
quote can turn to the Works Cited section of your paper and find it easily
under “Turow.”
There, you will indicate his full name, where and when his essay first
appeared, and where it can be found in our collection of essays.
Notice that there is no comma
between the author's name and the page number, and that your end‑period
comes after the parentheses. (This is how it’s done according to the
“MLA” Style.) If an entire paragraph is
a summary of ideas taken from a single source, put the parentheses at the end
of the paragraph. Otherwise, the
reference should go immediately after the quote, paraphrase, or summary.
It’s not always necessary to give
the author’s name in the parenthetical reference. Look at the following two examples:
As one
prominent writer on the craft of writing fiction tells us, "For those who
know how to listen, the world is full of voices whispering insights into our
patient ears" (Burroway 14).
Or
Janet Burroway, a prominent writer on the craft of writing
fiction, tells us, "For those who know how to listen, the world is full of
voices whispering insights into our patient ears" (14).
Can
you see the difference, and why you don’t need to put the author’s name in
parentheses in the second example?
If
you are using a source from the internet, you most likely won't be able to
include a page number. In that case, the
author's name will suffice. If there is
no author, use the first word(s) of the title, just as you've listed it in your
Works Cited:
There is a
trend to enhance linkages between one government entity and another. As a recent editorial in The Oregonian states, "We can no longer afford to
have agencies that do not speak to one another" ("Tighten
Tri-Met").
Dembrow 6
Dickenson, Helen T. “Settling Into
Ebscohost.
Hayslip, Le Ly. “Yearning to Breathe Free.” Child of War, Woman of Peace.
Doubleday: 1993. Rpt. in One World, Many
Cultures. Ed.
Stuart Hirschberg.
Henry, Tanu T. “Black Labeling: What’s in a Name?” Africana.com.
November 2002 <http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20010315.htm>.
Hoffman,
Eva. “Lost in
Translation.” Lost
in Translation. Penguin Books, 1989. Rpt. in One World, Many
Cultures. Ed.
Stuart Hirschberg.
Marino, Rodrigo, Geoffrey W. Stuart, and
Harry I. Minas. “Acculturation of Values and Behavior: A
Study of Vietnamese Immigrants. Measurement & Evaluation
in Counseling & Development. , Apr. 2000, Vol. 33, Issue 1. Ebscohost Academic Search Elite.
Nash, Jesse
W. “Confucius and the
VCR.” Natural
History. May 1988. Rpt. in One World, Many Cultures. Ed. Stuart Hirschberg
and Terry Hirschberg.
Otengho,
Sunday-Joseph. "Culture
Shock." Association
for the Advancement of Africa Website.
Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood.” Rpt. in American Voices. Eds. Delores Laguardia and Hans P. Guth.
Sanchez, Maria
T. Personal Interview.
Turow, Joseph. “Targeting a
Urrea, Luis Alberto.
“Border Story,” Across the Wire: Life
and Hard Times on the Mexican Border. 1993. Rpt. in One World, Many Cultures. Ed. Stuart Hirschberg
and Terry Hirschberg.
Wong, Jade
Snow. “Fifth Chinese
Daughter.” The
Immigrant Experience. Ed. Thomas C. Wheeler. Dial Press, 1971. Rpt. in American Voices. Eds. Delores Lguardia and Hans P. Guth.
Dembrow, Spring 2007