Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Citing Sources

Q: Why do I need to cite sources?

• Incorporating source material into your writing is a way to involve "expert witnesses" in your argument, the way that lawyers do in a court case. You rely on the accepted and respected authority of your sources to support your ideas.
  
• Just as a lawyer would not want to rely on a single piece of testimony by an expert witness to make her case, you do not want to rely on a single source to support your entire argument. You want to present a few different viewpoints in your research, just as a lawyer would call different witnesses with different perceptions to support her argument.
  
• After you have presented these different pieces of information, you get to draw your own original conclusion from the "evidence," like a closing statement in a court case, that sums up the information from the sources and shows how that information supports your argument.

Q: When do I need to cite a source?

• You need to include a citation anytime you include someone else's words or idea(s) in your own work. According to the Ready Reference Handbook , "Frequent, fair, and accurate documentation gives credibility and authority to your writing" (Dodds 332).
  
• Citing does not apply only to quotes.
  
• You do not need to cite information that can be considered common knowledge; if an average person is probably aware of the fact in question, you don't need a citation. If your information could be easily found in at least three different reliable sources, it is probably common knowledge. When in doubt, cite anyway to be on the safe side.

Q: What is a paraphrase?

• You are paraphrasing when you take someone else's idea and completely rephrase it using your own words. It does NOT mean taking the original quote and replacing a few words here and there, which is considered plagiarism.
  
• A paraphrased passage must be cited.
  
• If you think you will be tempted to "borrow" too much from a source, try paraphrasing with the book closed.

  Sample paraphrase:

  Original text: Land, then, is not merely soil; it is the fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. The circuit is not closed; some energy is dissipated in decay, some is added by absorption from the air, some is stored in soils, peats, and long-lived forests; but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented, revolving fund of life.
  Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac , p. 212
  
  Plagiarism: Land is not simply soil; it is a waterfall of energy moving through a circuit of soil, plants, and animals. Food chains are the channels that move energy upward; dying and decay return it to the ground. The circle is not closed; some energy is lost in decay, some is added to the air, some is saved in soil, peat, and forests; but it is a continuing circle, like a mutual fund of life.
  
  Acceptable Paraphrase: More than "merely soil," land is a "fountain of energy." It generates the life cycle, lifting energy upward through plants and animals, receiving it returned through death and decay, absorbing extra energy from outside itself, and storing it to maintain the life cycle (Leopold 212).

Q: What is plagiarism?

• Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty in which you knowingly use another person's words or ideas without giving him or her credit.
  
• Plagiarism is a form of theft and a serious breach of the University Code of Conduct. Failure to document your borrowing from sources is considered plagiarism. It can result in a failing grade on a paper, a failing grade for a course, and possibly expulsion from the University.

Q: How do I quote from a source?

• As discussed above, quoting from a source allows you to borrow some authority from another author to support your point. Quotes can be illuminating for a reader, but only if they are properly used.
  
• Introducing your quotes
  Any quote you include needs to be adequately introduced by the incorporation of a phrase such as: "So-and-So says/states/claims/argues/believes/asserts/contends/maintains/ emphasizes/alleges/etc" or "According to So-and-So." An introduction such as these makes sure that your reader knows whom you are referencing; you can only benefit from your sources' authority if you establish that authority from the start.
  
• Interpreting your quotes
  All quotes also need some form of interpretation afterward. You cannot simply let a quote stand on its own; you need to explicitly establish the significance of the quote to your argument. Try not to say, "This quote means," or "What So-and-so is trying to say is. . ." Instead you should try to make a connection between the quote and your argument, because many times that connection won't be immediately obvious to your reader.
  
  
• Using block quotes
  It can sometimes be helpful to include longer quotes by an author, but only if the entire quote is truly relevant to your argument.
  If parts of the quote are not especially enlightening to your argument, you should think about omitting those parts. You might also consider breaking a long block quote into two segments and inserting some interpretation between the segments.

Q: How do I pick a good quote to support my point?

• A useful quote will provide some important information that helps explain your argument.

• Don't go through a text and pick out your quotes first. If you do this, your paper will probably be hard to read, because you will be struggling to force quotes that have nothing to do with your argument into your paper.

• First, figure out what you want to argue, and then look through your sources for sentences that seem to support your point.

Q: What if the quote I picked doesn't fit into my sentence right?

• Sometimes the quotes we pick don't fit into the rest of the paper. For instance, let's say you want to use a quote that talks about Conwell's opinion on something: "I say again that the opportunity to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now." But your sentence begins, "Conwell says that. . ."
  
• If you kept each of those pieces as they were, your sentence would end up sounding silly: Conwell says that "I say again that the opportunity to get rish, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now.." This sentence .sounds as if Conwell is talking about you.
  
• You might also feel like the quote is too long; maybe you don't need to include the whole thing. Omitting parts of a quotation is acceptable, as long as you signal that you are leaving something out, as shown below.
  
• Instead, you could write the sentence as follows:

  Conwell says that "the opportunity to get rich . . . is here in Philadelphia now."
  
  OR
  
  Conwell emphasizes that "[he] say[s] again that the opportunity to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now."
  
  OR
  
  Conwell says, "the opportunity to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now."