Documen

ting Your
Sources
tation and Academic Honesty
Reasons for Citing our Sources
• academic honesty
• copyright law
• for the readers who want
to
locate your sources
Documentation
System
• Definition: set of
mechanical
conventions that
allows a writer to
inform readers about
Documentation
System
For Natural and Social Sciences:
names and dates were usually
emphasized
• American Psychological
Association (APA)
Example: (Talbot, 1995)
• Chicago Manual
Documentation
System
For Humanities: names rather
than dates were usually
emphasized
• Modern Language Association
(MLA)
Example: (Talbot 8)
In-text Citation
• Parenthetical – most
efficient and most practical
Author’s names, and
publication dates can all be
given in parentheses in the
text.
In-text Citation
• numerical
• footnotes
• endnotes

Disadvantage: Difficulty in
formatting
Plagiarism
• intentional or
unintentional giving
of impression that
words or ideas from
another source are
Plagiarism
To avoid plagiarism:
• have something to
say about the topic
• have plenty of time
to complete the
Plagiarism
• Research depends on borrowing
materials.
• learning is advanced by:
1. analyzing,
2. synthesizing, and
3. Reshaping ideas from
borrowed materials.
What should
be cited?
• common knowledge if you are
using it verbatim.
• copyrighted information.
• information that is in public
domain.

What is a common knowledge?

fact or idea that is well known to a general audience and easily
When to Cite?
If you are using
someone’s:
 original words
 ideas which you
summarize
 ideas which you
When to Cite?
If you are using
someone’s:
 interesting phrase
 unique word or term
 painting, sculpture, or
photograph
When to Cite?
If you are using someone’s:
 cartoon
 map or chart
 ideas from speech or lecture
 ideas from an interview or
conversation
 experiment
 ideas from video, film or television
Summarizing
Summary – a concise restatement of
the main facts or ideas of a longer
work
Reason for summarizing:
• to convert passages that are
difficult, jargon-ridden, or technical
into language that is clearly
Tips on making an
accurate Summary:
1. Look up unfamiliar words in the
dictionary and substitute easy-to-
understand synonyms or
definitions.
2. Change the sentence structure.
After rereading the passage, write
your own version of the passage.
• Key: understand the passage well to
Tips on making an
accurate Summary:
3. Check your summary
against the original
making sure that
meaning are not
distorted and facts are
Steps in Writing A
Summary
1. Write an accurate
summary, without bias and
in your own words and
style
2. Make sure that the author
is given credit for the
Basic Styles for
Incorporating
Documentation
1. Using a lead-in
Example:
Martin Mahler (2001)
uncovered the political
motivation behind much of
our nation’s pollution
Basic Styles for
Incorporating
Documentation
2. Put part of the source
information in the narrative of
your paper (or lead-in) and part
of it in parentheses.
example:
Mahler (2001) argues
convincingly that political
Basic Styles for
Incorporating
Documentation
3. Put all the documentation in
parentheses, usually at the end of
the sentence. This is generally
used once you have established
the identity of the source.
example:
The cleaning of our nation’s
environment is often impeded by
General Guidelines for
Documenting Sources
1. LEAD-INS
• Is the best to use a narrative
lead-in giving the author’s last
name and as much information
that you can give the first time
the source is being cited.
• Once the identity of the source
has been established, only the
General Guidelines for
Documenting Sources
2. MULTIPLE AUTHORS
• Mention them in the same
order in which they are listed
in the source:
Herman Brown, and Martel
(2001) predict dramatic
changes in the earth’s climate
General Guidelines for
Documenting Sources
2. MULTIPLE AUTHORS
• for later references to
sources with three or more
authors, cite only the first
author followed by et al.
(Herman et al. 2011)
General Guidelines for
Documenting
3. FRAMES
Sources
• If the summary or paraphrase is
longer than one sentence, it is not
necessary to document each
sentence, BUT you must make it
clear that all of the information is
from one source
• Frame your summary with
documentation information at the
General Guidelines for
Documenting
3. FRAMES
Sources
Example:
David Hernandez, the new chair of the
Federal Trade Commission, reports that
consumer protection agencies seldom
respond to an individual complaints.
Instead they watch for patterns in
consumer complaints. Identifying
businesses that systematically violate
trade regulations is an ongoing process
General Guidelines for
Documenting
4. NO AUTHOR
Sources
Mention the title, since that is
how it will be listed in the
reference list.
Example:
The article “The Rising Toll of
Teenage Alcoholism” (2002)
points out … as desirable.
General Guidelines for
Documenting
4. NO AUTHOR
Sources
If you are putting the information
in parentheses, use a shortened
title.
Example:
A recent New York Times article
makes … as desirable (“Rising
Toll,” 2002).
General Guidelines for
Documenting
5. ABSTRACTS
Sources
• If the abstract seems
promising, try to locate the
article itself.
• the original source is not
available and you still want to
include information from an
abstract of it, indicate in your
General Guidelines for
Documenting
5. ABSTRACTS
Sources
Example:
An abstract of Linder’s article
“Interpersonal Relationships”
states that negative feelings
toward others often come from
irrational beliefs.
General Guidelines for
Documenting Sources
6. NO PAGE NUMBERS
• Electronic sources usually do not
have fixed page numbers or section
numbering.
• without page references, you must
take care to frame summaries of
more than one sentence.
• Computer databases allow you to
retrieve a photocopy of a source as it
originally appeared in print, use the
 Paraphrasing
Paraphrase
• restatement of another
person’s ideas in your
own words.
• it does not condense
or shorten the original.
 plagiarism in your
paraphrases (or
summaries):
1. Rearrange the order of
the information in the
original
2. Have a thesaurus or
dictionary and look up
 plagiarism in your
paraphrases (or
summaries):
3. Rephrase complex
material into easy-to-
understand sentences.
4. If you retain unusual
terminology or phrases
from the original, enclose
 Paraphrasing
Styles:
• entirely in the narrative
of the text
• partly in the text and
partly in parentheses
• entirely in parentheses
 Paraphrasing
Use of Lead-ins:
1. At the beginning
Example:
Prochaska (2002), a
professor at Harvard’s
medical school, states
 Paraphrasing
Use of Lead-ins:
1. In the middle:
Example:
Despite the fact …
Prochaska (2002), a
professor at Harvard’s
medical school, believes that
 Paraphrasing
Use of Lead-ins:
1. At the end:
Example:
More than 300,000
Americans … smoking
(Prochaska, 2002).
 Paraphrasing
Preference: literary present
tense
accepts acknowledges
argues believes
confirms contradicts
declares describes
 Paraphrasing
Preference: literary present
tense
highlights notes
observes proposes
rejects reports
shows suggests
 Direct
Quotations
• direct quotations are used
when you want to preserve
the original wording of your
source.
• no more than 15% of your
paper should be directly
 Direct
Quotations
Use direct quotations for the
following situations:
1. to preserve especially vivid,
well-phrased, or dramatic
statements.
2. to preserve the wording of
someone who is in authority
 Direct
Quotations
Use direct quotations for the
following situations:
3. To preserve the accuracy of
a statement that might be
easily misinterpreted in a
paraphrase or a summary.
 Direct
Quotations
• all direct quotation
must have lead-ins.
• they usually also
require a sentence or
two following to
 Direct
Quotations
• Lead-in at the
Beginning
example:
“… U.S. sales abroad”
(Eason, 1999).
 Direct
Quotations
• Lead-in in the Middle
example:
… the American public, “
notes Isador Gorn (1990),
“that one can acquire an
education, like a suntan,
 Direct
Quotations
• Lead-in at the end
example:
“… people have dreamed
about, “claims Roger
Pollak (1998). He explains
…
 Direct
Quotations
• Lead-in at the End
example:
“… people have dreamed
about, “claims Roger
Pollak (1998). He explains
…
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating
Quotations:
1. Direct quotations require
narrative lead-ins, which
are set-off from the
quotation with commas.
 Direct
Quotations
Example:
William Barnes claims, “ …
rooted practices in historical
practices of economic
exploitations.”
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating Quotations:
2. Quotations of more than forty
(40) words are set off in “block
format” in APA by.
Indent fives spaces and omit
quotation marks. A colon (:) is
generally used with a full-sentence
lead-in to introduce long
 Direct
Quotations
With long quotations set off
in block
format, retain double
quotation
marks for internal
questions.
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating
Quotations:
3. If you quote, paraphrase
or
summarize material already
being quoted in another
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating
Quotations:
4. Short Quotations. With short
quotations (and paraphrases
and summaries), the period
always follows the parenthetical
documentation:
 Direct
Quotations
If the quoted sentence ends in
something other than a period,
retain the punctuation before
the quotation marks and
include an additional period
after the parenthetical
documentation.
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating
Quotations:
Long Quotations (block format).
Retain the end punctuation of the
quoted material and simply add the
parenthetical documentation without
an additional period:
Example:
 Direct
Quotations
5. No lead-ins or commas are
necessary when you are
quoting only a word or short
phrase that can be integrated
in your sentence:
… for the land that “looms
storm-scarred o’er the ocean”
 Direct
Quotations
5. If you place a lead-in
between two-quoted sentences,
follow it with a period:
“The play begins with almost
Wagnerian intensity,” observes
director Betty Evans (1999). “It
suits the characters’
 Direct
Quotations
Rules for Punctuating Quotations:
7. If you place the lead-in at the
end of the quotation that is a
question or an exclamation, keep
the original end punctuation and
do not use a comma to set off the
lead in:
… war encourages?” Davidson
 Direct
Quotations
8. Use single quotation marks to
set off quotations or titles of short
works that are within material
already set off with quotation
marks:
Critic John Guest (1999) states, “The
genius of Oscar Wilde can be found in
short stories such as ‘The Sphinx Without
 Direct
Quotations
The genius of Oscar Wilde
can be found in short stories
such as ‘‘The Sphinx Without a
Secret’’ when one character
says, ‘’women are meant to be
loved, not understood’’
Critic John Guest (1999)
 Direct
Quotations
9. An ellipsis (…) is used to
indicate that you are omitting part
of a direct quotation.
• it is necessary to use an ellipsis ONLY IF
the material is omitted from the middle of
a passage or IF, by omitting material at
the beginning or at the end, the
quotation seems to be an unaltered
sentence.
 Direct
Quotations
10. When documenting well-known
poems or verse plays, do not use
page numbers. Since classic
literary works are available in
many different publications, it is
more convenient for the reader
merely to know the section (part,
act, scene) and line.
 Source
Research Writing
Simplified:
A Documentation
Guide
by: Raymond H.