Langkaer IB Extended Essay Guide
Part II
Class of 2015
April 3, 2014
1 Table of Contents
I.
Tips about the extended essay writing process……………..….
A: Elements of the Essay …………………………………….…….
B: Referencing the Ideas You Collect…………………….……….
C: A Writing Strategy………………………………………..………..
D: Every EE Is Different……………………………………….………
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3
3
4
5
II. Topics for Your Proposal…………………………………..………..
A: Grounds for Choosing Your Topic…………………………….
B: Narrowing from subject area to topic area to researchable
area………………………………………………………………………
5
5
5
III. Academic Honesty………………………………………………….…
6
IV. How Not to Plagiarize………………………………………………….
7
V. Standard Documentation Formats…………………………………..
A. Traditional Endnotes or Footnotes with Superscript
Numbers (humanities)……………………………………………
B. MLA System: Parenthetical Author-Page References
(humanities)………………………………………………………….
C. APA System: Parenthetical Author-Date References (social
sciences)……………………………………………………………..
D. Numbered Note Systems (sciences)…………………………….
E. Electronic Sources…………………………………………………
10
VI. Using Quotations……………………………………………………….
A. How much should I quote?.......................................................
B. Why is it important to identify my sources?............................
C. How do I introduce a short quotation?.....................................
D. What verbs and phrases can I use to introduce my
quotations?.................................................................................
E. How do I introduce a long quotation?......................................
F. How do I let my reader know I've altered my sources?.........
G. How is punctuation affected by quotation?.............................
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VII. Paraphrase and Summary…………………………………………..
A. When should I paraphrase, and when should I
summarize?................................................................................
B. How do I paraphrase?................................................................
C. How do I summarize?.................................................................
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References…………………………………………………………………..
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I.
Tips about the extended essay writing process1
A. Elements of the Essay
The elements of your essay are very important. The order presented here is most
likely NOT the order in which you will be writing them or starting them. The abstract,
for example, is written only after all else is complete.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Title page
Abstract
Contents page
Introduction
Body (development/methods/results) (This might be broken down into several
sections, differing for each subject area AND possibly by topic researched)
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices
B. Referencing the Ideas You Collect
Your supervisor will give you a “style” system to follow. Whatever style used, keep
track of:
• Titles of books, articles, journals
• Authors
• Pages (of specific references and for entire books or articles)
• Publishers
• Website addresses (with dates they were accessed)
for all sources used, for keeping track of all ideas (of others) you gather.
However time-consuming it seems to be to “keep track”, it is nothing compared to the
time you will use at the end as you frantically write your first draft and scramble to
remember where “that” idea came from, or on what page you found the quotation.
One is tempted to plagiarize when one can’t locate the source for an idea; it seems
easier to pretend the idea or words came from you. The other choice is to leave the
idea out altogether. Neither strategy is good. The first risks expulsion from the
program; the second weakens the scholarship of your work.
SO, use the chosen system of academic referencing from the start. That way, you
are less likely to forget to include a citation. It is also easier than trying to add
references at a later stage. Most modern word processors are helpful with this.
1
Much of Sections I and II draws on text found in Mulgrave School, March 2009. 3 C. A Writing Strategy
i. The introduction
Many students draft the introduction first. This is fine, but be prepared to revise your
introduction as you add more and more sections, because the writing process is a
process of discovery, meaning that, as you write, you discover other relevant
material that either belongs in the introduction or needs to be removed. This revision
is likely to happen again and again until your essay is complete.
ii. The body
The main task of your essay is the “body” of the essay, which will include your
reasoned arguments.2 But the “body” will contain several sections, including
methodology, analysis and evaluation. The section titles will depend on the subject
area you are writing in; your supervisor can help with the appropriate naming.
The “body” is where the reader finds the relevant evidence: what it is, how it was
discovered, where it was discovered and how it supports the argument. Subheadings within sections will help the reader understand (the development of) your
arguments (and will also help you keep on track). After the main body is complete,
the introduction can be finalized, since the introduction tells the reader what to
expect.
iii. The conclusion.
The conclusion reminds the reader of the question that was asked and includes a
summary of the evaluations reached in the body of the EE. This is the information
you will use to answer your question. The conclusion is also the place where you
note limitations that might have kept you from answering the question in a more
complete way. Here is where you would include ideas for further research.
Any information that is important to any argument must be included in the “body”
itself, not in the conclusion.
iv. Bibliography/Reference List
The bibliography/reference list should list only the sources used in the EE and all
sources listed in the EE have to be included in the bibliography/reference list.
iv. Appendices
The examiner is not required to read notes or appendices, so an essay that is not
complete in itself will lose marks. The appendices, however, will keep raw data—
2
We will return to writing paragraphs/developing reasoned arguments when we meet in June. 4 data that is used in more summarized form in the body of the paper: data from
experiments, questionnaires/surveys, etc.
The whole essay needs to be proofread carefully (computer spelling and
grammar checkers are useful but will not do everything). Pages must be numbered
and the contents page must be completed. The abstract is written last and does NOT
include anything that is not in the introduction, body or conclusion of the EE.
D. Every EE Is Different
Every EE is different. Your research question and methodology will affect how you
section your EE and the content you include. Therefore, the above is intended as a
guide only, not as a requirement. Consult with your supervisor regarding the sections
you need to include.
II.
Proposal Topics
A. Grounds for Choosing Your Topic
What to write about? One step at a time. First choose your subject area: English,
chemistry, economics, visual arts, etc.
Consider, in addition to your interest in a subject area, your comfort with the person
who will be supervising EEs in the subject areas. This is especially useful if you are
feeling anxious about this project and need someone who “gets” your way of
thinking. But, no matter which teacher becomes your guide (supervisor), this project
takes work: you will need to work and need to work hard.
By following the small steps laid out for you, you will minimize the anxiety and
stress of doing an EE and maximize the learning, which you will be using again
and again in university education.
B. Narrowing from subject area to topic area to researchable area
Most of you have met with potential supervisors to hear about topic examples within
each subject area. For those of you yet unclear about subject area and topic choice,
the samples below are meant to help you narrow your topic. A talk with your
teachers will help.
Subject Area
Group 1
Narrowing down to a researchable area3
Starting Topic Choice
A more specific topic choice
The Brontes
Religious Imagery in Wuthering
3
Taken from Mulgrave School, March 2009, pp. 6-­‐7. 5 Racial Conflict in the 20th
Century
Biology
Organ Transplants
Chemistry
Water Analysis
Economics
The Third World Debt Crisis
History
Fascist Propaganda
Mathematics
Fractals
Alternative Energy Sources
Wave Theory
Physics
Politics
Visual Arts
Heights
The Problems of Racial Conflict as
Shown Through the Works of
James Baldwin
Histocompatibility in Organ
Transplants
Spectrophorometric Determination
of Trace Amounts of Lead in
Drinking Water
Do Interest Rates Affect Investment
Decisions in Addis Ababa?
Use of the Visual Arts in Fascist
Propaganda
The Hausdorff Dimension of Fractal
Sets
Wind Power: A Clean Source of
Energy?
The Investigation and Analysis of
the
Modes of Vibration of a Guitar
String
The Political Thought of Plato
Marxist-Leninism
Education in Plato’s Republic
The Concept of ‘The Dictatorship of
the Proletariat’ in Marxist-Leninism.
Constructivism
Picasso: Genius or Cultural Thief?
III.
Academic Honesty
Doing research involves:
• understanding what others in your field have done before you
• how you are going to add to what has been done before you.
Your job is NOT:
• to pretend that all the information you present is yours or
• to figure out how to collect the information, digest it and recreate it all in your
words.
No one is expected to do that. We always build on others’ ideas. Look closely as you
read research in your subject area; you will see continuous referencing to others’
6 thoughts, ideas, words. Familiarity with what others have already written about your
subject or related subjects is a sign of scholarship. 4
The use of others’ ideas in your text must be properly recognized, for, in addition to
concerns with plagiarism, and making the EE a learning process, no one likes their
ideas ‘stolen’. So, for both your benefit and the authors of the ideas, you must
acknowledge your sources, as indicated below.
In general, you must
• Make certain that all your quotations are properly formatted and integrated into
your paper.
• Make certain that you have acknowledged all sources within the paper (if an idea
or phrase is clearly not common knowledge, acknowledge it—this is why you
have made careful notes!)
• Make certain that your endnotes/footnotes/citations are accurate, so that readers
who are interested in learning more can access this information.
• Make certain that you have included a comprehensive and accurate bibliography.
The following sections have been excerpted from the University of Toronto, Canada:
Writing at the University of Toronto online writing website:
IV.
How Not to Plagiarize5
You've heard the warnings about plagiarism. It's against the rules to buy essays or
copy chunks from your friend's homework; it's also plagiarism to borrow passages
from books or articles or Websites without identifying them. … But you may still be
wondering how you're supposed to give proper references to all the reading you've
done and all the ideas you've encountered.
The point of documenting sources in academic papers is not just to avoid unpleasant
visits to the [principal’s] office, but to demonstrate that you know what is going on in
your field of study. It's also a courtesy to your readers because it helps them consult
the material you've found. That's especially important for Internet sources. So
mentioning what others have said doesn't lessen the credit you get for your own
thinking—in fact, it adds to your credibility.
4
Your job is to seamlessly weave others’ ideas into your work. Ideas about doing this are presented below in Section IV. 5
Taken from Proctor, “How Not to Plagiarize”, but edited. 7 That's not to say that questions about ownership of ideas are simple. For one thing,
the different systems for typing up references are admittedly a nuisance. (Standard
Documentation Formats, which follow, explains basic formats.) But the real
challenge is establishing the relationship of your thinking to the reading you've done
(yes, that includes the Internet).
Here are some common questions and basic answers.
• Can't I avoid problems just by listing every source in the bibliography?
No, you need to integrate your acknowledgements into what you're saying.
Give the reference as soon as you've mentioned the idea you're using, not
just at the end of the paragraph. It's often a good idea to name the authors
("X says" and "Y argues against X,") and then indicate your own stand ("A
more inclusive perspective, however, . . . "). The examples [here] and the
ones found in Standard Documentation Formats [below] show various
wordings. Look at journal articles in your discipline to see how they refer to
their sources.
8 •
If I put the ideas into my own words, do I still have to clog up my pages
with all those names and numbers?
Sorry—yes, you do. In academic papers, you need to keep mentioning
authors and pages and dates to show how your ideas are related to those of
the experts. It's sensible to use your own words because that saves space
and lets you connect ideas smoothly. But whether you quote a passage
directly in quotation marks, paraphrase it closely in your own words, or just
summarize it rapidly, you need to identify the source then and there. (That
applies to Internet sources too: you still need author and date as well as title
and URL. … Standard Documentation Formats gives examples for a range of
types.)
•
But I didn't know anything about the subject until I started this paper. Do
I have to give an acknowledgement for every point I make?
You're safer to over-reference than to skimp. But you can cut down the clutter
by recognizing that some ideas are "common knowledge" in the field—that is,
taken for granted by people knowledgeable about the topic. Facts easily
found in standard reference books are considered common knowledge: the
date of the Armistice for World War I, for example, or the present population
of Canada. You don't need to name a specific source for them, even if you
learned them only when doing your research. In some disciplines, information
covered in class lectures doesn't need acknowledgement. Some interpretive
ideas may also be so well accepted that they don't need referencing: that
Picasso is a distinguished modernist painter, for instance, or that smoking is
harmful to health. Check with your supervisor if you're in doubt whether a
specific point is considered common knowledge in your field.
•
How can I tell what's my own idea and what has come from somebody
else?
Careful record-keeping in your EE notebook helps. Always write down the
author, title, page number and publication information (including the specific
identifying information for online publications) so you can attach names and
dates to specific ideas. Taking good notes is also essential. Don't paste
passages from online sources into your draft: that's asking for trouble. As you
read any text—online or on the page—summarize useful points in your own
words. If you record a distinctive phrase or sentence you might want to
quote, put quotation marks around it in your notes to remind yourself that
you're copying the author's exact words, whether electronically or in
handwriting. And make a deliberate effort as you read to notice connections
among ideas, especially contrasts and disagreements, and also to jot down
questions or thoughts of your own. If you find as you write that you're
following one or two of your sources too closely, deliberately look back in your
notes for other sources that take different views; then write about the
differences and why they exist. See the advice file Taking Notes from
Research Reading for more tips.
•
So what exactly do I have to document? With experience reading
academic prose, you'll soon get used to the ways writers in your field refer to
their sources. Here are the main times you should give acknowledgements.
(You'll notice many different formats in these examples. See the file
on Standard Documentation Formats for advice on these systems.)
1. Quotations, paraphrases, or summaries: If you use the author's exact
words, enclose them in quotation marks, or indent passages of more than
four lines. (For more on the mechanics of quoting, visit our file on using
quotations.) But it's seldom worthwhile to use long quotations. In literary
studies, quote a few words of the work you're analysing and comment on
them. In other disciplines, quote only when the original words are
especially memorable. In most cases, use your own words to paraphrase
or summarize the idea you want to discuss, emphasizing the points
relevant to your argument. But be sure to name sources even when you
are not using the exact original words. As in the examples below, it's often
a good idea to mention the author's name. Mentioning the author's name
indicates where the borrowing starts and stops and gains you some
reflected glory for responding to the experts.
a. e.g. As Morris puts it in The Human Zoo (1983), "we can always be
sure that today's daring innovation will be tomorrow's respectability"
(p. 189). [APA system]
9 b. e.g. Northrop Frye discusses comedy in terms of the spring spirit,
which he defines as the infusion of new life and hope into human
awareness of universal problems (Anatomy 163). The ending
of The Tempest fits this pattern. [MLA system—short title to
distinguish among different works by same author].
2. Specific facts used as evidence for your argument or interpretation:
First consider whether the facts you're mentioning are "common
knowledge" according to the definition in point 3 above; if so, you may not
need to give a reference. But when you're relying on facts that might be
disputed within your discipline—perhaps newly published data—establish
that they're trustworthy by showing that you got them from an authoritative
source.
a. e.g. In September 1914, more than 1300 skirmishes were recorded
on the Western Front.8 [traditional endnote/footnote system]
b. e.g. Other recent researchers (4, 11, 12) confirm the findings that
drug treatment has little effect in the treatment of pancreatic
pseudocysts. [numbered-note system for biomedical sciences]
3. Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with them or
not: The way you introduce a reference can indicate your attitude and lead
into your own argument.
a. e.g. Writing in 1966, Ramsay Cook asserted that Canada was in a
period of critical instability (174). That period is not yet over,
judging by the same criteria of electoral changeability, economic
uncertainty, and confusion in policy decisions. [new MLA system]
b. e.g. One writer (Von Daniken, 1970) even argues that the Great
Pyramid was built for the practical purpose of guiding navigation.
[APA system]
V.
Standard Documentation Formats6
Different disciplines use their own systems to set out information about sources.
Here are samples of common systems, showing the kinds of information needed and
some details of punctuation, typeface, and indentation. The examples also
demonstrate ways of introducing citations and commenting on sources.
For more detailed advice, consult the manuals mentioned below with each system.
Most general writing handbooks have not yet updated their advice to reflect changes
in the MLA and APA systems.
A. Traditional Endnotes or Footnotes with Superscript Numbers (humanities)
6
Taken directly from Proctor, ”Standard Documentation Formats” 10 Some humanities and science disciplines use systems with small raised numbers
matching footnotes or endnotes, followed by a bibliography, because they do not
interrupt the flow of the text. Though the format appears troublesome, your word
processor can create the notes automatically for you: e.g., in Word, click on the tab
for References, and select Insert Footnote. ... The example below follows the NoteBibliography system set out in the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, and its
student version, Turabian's Manual for Writers, 7th edition. … Here are some further
remarks on particularities of this system:
• When you refer to a source the second time, you can shorten the note by
using only the author's last name and the page number (e.g., Smith, 435). …If
you are using two books by the same author, include a shortened form of
the book title to clarify which book you mean.
• Notes are indented like paragraphs in the essay (indent the first line, not the
subsequent ones). Notes should be single-spaced, but with a blank line
between notes. Bibliography entries are given in hanging-indent form (first
line flush with the left margin, subsequent lines indented) and are also singlespaced with a blank line between entries. [See example below]
• In listing a webpage as a source, include the date you read the page as well
as the URL. That information lets your reader judge whether he or she is
seeing the same version of the webpage that you did. See also the section on
Electronic Sources.
• In this system, you still use parentheses within your prose to give page or
line numbers for texts you refer to repeatedly (e.g. historical documents or
works of literature). Use a note for the first such reference so the reader
knows which edition you're using, and state that all subsequent references
will be to this edition.
Example:
When Hamlet protests to his mother, "Leave wringing of your hands"
(3.4.34),1 he is naming a universally recognizable gesture. As Smith says,
similar broad physical movements are "still the most direct way of indicating
inner turmoil."2 Zygmundi confirms their continuing usefulness in
contemporary productions of other sixteenth-century plays.3 Renaissance
audiences would have recognized hand-wringing as a signal for inner
distress,4 specifically for a condition that the Elizabethan author Reynolds
named "ague of the spirits."5 Poor sight lines in Elizabethan theatres also
required highly visible body movements.6 In her new book, Brown attempts
to show that such gestures are related to stylized movements from religious
11 ceremonies.7 She argues that acting methods responded to both the
physical conditions of the theatres and the audience's cultural expectations.8
NOTES
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, in The Norton Introduction to Literature, 8th ed.,
ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, Kelly J. Mays, and Jerome Beaty (New York: W.W.
Norton, 2001), 996. Subsequent parenthetical references will refer to this edition.
2
Jasmine Smith, "Renovating Hamlet for Contemporary Audiences," UTQ 76
(Summer 2007): 960.
3
David Zygmundi, "Acting Out the Moralities for Today's Audiences," Termagant
Society Online, http://www.nouniv.ca/soc/termagant/moral.html; accessed 22 August
2012.
4
Joan Brown, The Renaissance Stage (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2000), 111.
5
Peter Reynolds, The Player's Chapbooke, 1587; quoted in Aline
Mahieu, Acting Shakespeare (Toronto: Gibson, 2004), 69.
6
Smith, 964.
7
Joan Brown, Ritual and Drama in the Elizabethan Age (Toronto: Oxford
University Press, 2008), 90.
8
Brown, Ritual, 14.
1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, Joan. The Renaissance Stage. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2000.
-------. Ritual and Drama in the Elizabethan Age. Toronto: Oxford University
Press, 2008.
Mahieu, Aline. Acting Shakespeare. Toronto: Gibson, 2004.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. In The Norton Introduction to Literature, 8th
ed., ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, Kelly J. Mays, and Jerome Beaty.
941-1033. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
Smith, Jasmine. "Renovating Hamlet for Contemporary Audiences." UTQ 76
(Summer 2007): 960-69.
Zygmundi, David. "Acting Out the Moralities for Today's
Audiences." Termagant Society Online.
http://www.nouniv.ca/terma/moral.html (accessed 22 August 2012).
B. MLA System: Parenthetical Author-Page References (humanities)
This streamlined format gives author and page in parentheses within the text of the
paper, then sets out full references in a Works Cited … list. Developed by the
Modern Language Association, it is now widely accepted in the humanities. The MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers gives detailed advice and examples, with
useful sections on citing non-print sources such as films, paintings, sound
recordings, and Internet sources. See also the MLA website for recommendations on
12 details of referring to non-print sources. The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook,
published in 2009, has made a number of changes to the system:
• It specifies that every Works Cited entry must name the medium of the item, for
instance, "Print" or "Web," "Film" or "DVD."
• It advises that URLs do not need to be included for Internet sources, on the
grounds that readers can find current web addresses by searching. (However,
some professors still expect URLs, as in the entry for Zygmundi below.)
• It specifies that for Internet sources you must include the date you read the
page. That information helps indicate which version of the page you looked at.
• It now also specifies that if you read a journal article online through
a database service such as Project Muse, you must give the name of the
service. See our section on Electronic Sources.
Example:
When Hamlet protests to his mother, "Leave wringing of your hands"
(III.iv.35), he is naming a universally recognizable gesture. As Smith says,
similar broad physical movements are "still the most direct way of indicating
inner turmoil" (960). Zygmundi confirms their continuing usefulness in
contemporary productions of other sixteenth-century plays. Renaissance
audiences would have recognized hand-wringing as a signal for inner
distress (Brown, Renaissance Stage 111), specifically for a condition that the
Elizabethan author Reynolds named "ague of the spirits" (qtd. in Mahieu 69).
Poor sight lines in Elizabethan theatres also required highly visible body
movements (Smith 964). In her new book, Brown attempts to show that such
gestures are related to stylized movements from religious ceremonies,
among other influences (Brown, Ritual 90). She argues that acting methods
responded to both the physical conditions of the theatres and the audience's
cultural expectations (Brown, Ritual 14).
Works Cited
Brown, Joan. The Renaissance Stage. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2000. Print.
---. Ritual and Drama in the Elizabethan Age. Toronto: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
Mahieu, Aline. Acting Shakespeare. Toronto: Gibson, 2004. Print.
13 Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Alison
Booth, J. Paul Hunter, Kelly J. Mays, and Jerome Beaty. 8th ed. New York:
Norton, 2001. 941-1033. Print.
Smith, Jasmine. "Renovating Hamlet for Contemporary Audiences." UTQ 76
(2007): 960-69. Project Muse. Web. 22 Aug. 2012.
Zygmundi, David. "Acting Out the Moralities for Today's Audiences." Termagant
Society Online. 31 Nov. 2002. Web. 22 Aug. 2012.
‹http://www.nouniv.ca/terma/moral.html›.
C. APA System: Parenthetical Author-Date References (social sciences)
The social sciences, management studies, and many sciences emphasize the author
and date as the most important information about a source. The American
Psychological Association has developed the most commonly used system. The sixth
edition of the Publication Manual of the APA (2009) offers very detailed advice on
style, format, and documentation practices.
This system uses only initials for authors' given names, no quotation marks or angle
brackets, minimal capitalization for titles of books and articles, and italics for volume
numbers as well as journal titles. The latest edition of the Publication Manual also
asks for Digital Object Identifier numbers (DOI), when available, to identify journal
articles and other recent publications. DOIs are now supplied as part of publication
information by nearly all journals and some book publishers. See the APA FrequentlyAsked Questions page for further advice on this and other APA requirements. … Strict
APA style, as shown below, gives in-text page numbers only for quotations, not for
paraphrases or summaries. However, many instructors prefer a modified system that
gives page numbers for all references. Ask your [supervisor] when to include page
numbers.
Students using the APA system are usually asked to format their papers as if they
were manuscripts being prepared for publication; that's why the examples here and in
the APA Publication Manual don't look exactly like what you see in journals or books.
The example below follows strict APA manuscript format. (Note also that it uses past
tense for summarizing sources, unlike the use of present tense in Humanities
systems.)
Example:
In his classic study, Pinker (1994) summarized the skepticism of current
researchers and observers about whether the signs produced in the Washoe
14 project were really American Sign Language. His conclusion was that
chimpanzees' abilities at “anything one would want to call language” were
almost nil (p. 339). A group of statisticians (Tannenbaum, Leung, Sudha, &
White, 2005) who re-analysed published data argued further that the
compound words once claimed as inventions of a particular chimpanzee were
the results of repeated random juxtapositions. Even Premack (2007) has now
rejected his own past claims for chimpanzee cognition, outlining the key
differences between chimpanzees and humans revealed by brain imaging and
calling for closer scrutiny of experimental results.
References
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New
York: Morrow.
Premack, D. (2007). Human and animal cognition: Continuity and
discontinuity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America, 194, 13861-13867. doi:10.1073/pnas.0706147104
Tannenbaum, R. V., Leung, K., Sudha, J. R., & White, M. A. (2005). A reexamination of the record: Pitty Sing's creation of compound words. Journal of
Biostatistics, 20, 368-396.
D. Numbered Note Systems (sciences)
Many sciences and applied sciences use a citation-sequence system. They give
numbered notes in the text of the paper that match a numbered list of sources at the
end--given in the sequence the sources were mentioned, not in alphabetical order as
in most other systems. Look at copies of journals in your discipline to see formatting
details, including distinctive punctuation, compressed spacing, and lack of
underlining or italics. Your professor may ask you to imitate the format used in a
specific journal.
The system worked out by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) is often used in Computer Science and Engineering. Consult the handy IEEE
Citation Style Guide.
Another very compressed system was created at a 1978 meeting of international
medical-journal editors (ICMJE) in Vancouver. These Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals are widely used (with variations) in
the life sciences and medical sciences. Model your entries on what you see in
journal articles in those fields, or consult the detailed guide prepared by the National
Institutes of Health. The Council of Science Editors includes this system among
others in its manual, Scientific Style and Format. The example below uses the
system developed by the ICMJE.
15 Example:
Gastrointestinal symptoms in some patients have been found to be related
to specific life crises (1, 2) such as marriage, retirement, or bereavement.
Nausea in particular often lacks an organic cause (1, 3), but can be
correlated with stressful events. A recent large-scale study of Danish medical
records (4) found that 84% of cases of reported nausea were not resolved by
medical treatment.
References
(1) You CH, Lee KY, Chey RY, Menguy R. Electrogastrographic study of patients
with unexplained nausea, bloating and vomiting. Gastroenterology 2006;79:311-4.
(2) Dauphin J, Colomba J. Nausea as symptom in school-entering children.
Sodeman WA, editor. Stress-related illness. Copenhagen: Munksgaard; 2009.
(3) Seaman WB. The case of the pancreatic pseudocyst. Hospital Practice 2008
Sept;16(9):24-5.
(4) Sodeman WA. Most reported nausea not medically resolved. Family practice
research updates [serial online] 2011 Aug (cited 2012 Jul 11];7(8):[6 screens].
Available from: http://www.hosp.da/res/vol7/aug.html
[Before moving on to Electronic Sources, it is important to review the above.
ii. Whatever citation system is used, all research includes others’ works, sometimes
in the same sentence. But it is up to you to weave it into your presentation, toward
the end of answering your questions.
iii. No matter what system is used, the same information is in use. So when taking
notes and recording the sources of your knowledge, make sure you keep all related
info tagged on to make your citation work easier.
iv. Only works actually referenced in the text are included in the
Bibliography/References/Work Cited.
v. Your supervisor will decide which citation system is relevant to your work.]
E. Electronic Sources
16 To refer to sources such as films, DVDs, or Internet documents, follow your chosen
system as far as possible in giving author, title, and date, though you may not be
able to give the equivalent of publisher or page numbers. You may have to improvise
for some details. To confirm the reliability of your source and help your reader find
the item, for instance, it may be helpful to name a publishing body (perhaps a
professional organization) or to give the title of the entire site. Note that MLA now
does not require URLs because they tend to be unreliable as well as unwieldy, and
APA advises giving them only where the content of the webpage is likely to change
over time.
For further advice, check the manuals mentioned above for each system.
The following examples show ways to include the necessary information in various
citation formats--thus the different types of indentation, and abbreviation. See also
the electronic references included on previous screens as examples of the different
systems.
e.g. [film on laser disc, listed by director: note in endnote/footnote system]:
7
Alfred Hitchcock, dir. Suspicion. Perf. Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. 1941.
Laser disc. Turner, 1995.
e.g. [e-mail message: MLA system, item in Works Cited]:
Sills, Paige. "Took that First Step!" Message to the author. 21 Sept. 2011. E-mail.
e.g. [e-mail message: APA system, reference in text] N.B. Don't cite personal
communications such as email in the reference list of an APA document, because
they cannot be consulted by other readers. Just give basic information in your text,
like this:
The most recent experiments in walking also use this method (P. Sills, personal
communication, Sept. 21, 2011).
e.g. [Web document: MLA system, item in Works Cited] N.B. This entry follows the
MLA requirement to provide the title of the full website, the date of publication
or n.d. if it is not available (as in this case), and the date of accessing the webpage
(here 11 July 2012). Note that no URL is required.
Procter, Margaret. "Effective Admissions Letters." Writing at the University of
Toronto. n.d. Web. 11 July 2012.
e.g. [Web document: APA system, item in References list]: APA requires n.d. in
parentheses when no publication date is available. The retrieval date and URL help
establish the version used, since this is a file that may change over time. .
Procter, M. (n.d.) Effective admissions letters. Retrieved July 11, 2012 from
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/admission-letters.
e.g., [article in print journal read online through database service: MLA system, item
in Works Cited list]:
17 Smith, Jasmine. "Renovating Hamlet for Contemporary Audiences." UTQ 76 (2007):
960-69. Project Muse. Web. 21 Sept. 2012.
e.g. [article in journal published only online: MLA system, item in Works Cited list]:
Horning, Alice S. "Where to Put the Manicules: A Theory of Expert Reading." Across
the Disciplines 8:2 (6 Oct. 2011), n.pag. Web. 20 June 2012.
e.g. [article in journal published only online, no DOI: APA system, item in References
list]:
Horning, A. S. (2011, October 6). Where to put the manicules: A theory of expert
reading. Across the Disciplines 8(6). Retrieved June 20, 2012, from
http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/articles/horning2011/index.cfm
e.g. [posting to newsgroup, numbered-note system, item in References list]:
(1) Sills A. Are blue stragglers still in the running? [online posting] 13 Nov. 2011.
VI.
Using Quotations7
A. How much should I quote?
The focus of your essay should be on your understanding of the topic. If you include
too much quotation in your essay, you will crowd out your own ideas. Consider
quoting a passage from one of your sources if any of the following conditions holds:
1. The language of the passage is particularly elegant or powerful or memorable.
2. You wish to confirm the credibility of your argument by enlisting the support of an
authority on your topic.
3. The passage is worthy of further analysis.
4. You wish to argue with someone else's position in considerable detail.
Condition 3 is especially useful in essays for literature courses.
If an argument or a factual account from one of your sources is particularly relevant
to your paper but does not deserve to be quoted verbatim, consider
•
•
paraphrasing the passage if you wish to convey the points in the passage at
roughly the same level of detail as in the original
summarizing the relevant passage if you wish to sketch only the most essential
points in the passage
Note that most scientific writing relies on summary rather than quotation. The same
is true of writing in those social sciences—such as experimental psychology—that
rely on controlled studies and emphasize quantifiable results. (Almost all of the
examples in this handout follow the MLA system of citation, which is widely used in
the humanities and in those social sciences with a less quantitative approach.)
7
Taken directly from Plotnik, Using Quotations. 18 …[See Section VII, paraphrase and summary, below].
B. Why is it important to identify my sources?
Quotations come from somewhere, and your reader will want to know where. Don't
just parachute quotations into your essay without providing at least some indication
of who your source is. Letting your reader know exactly which authorities you rely on
is an advantage: it shows that you have done your research and that you are well
acquainted with the literature on your topic.
In the following passage, the parenthetical reference to the author does not
adequately identify the source [emphasis added]:
The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged
outside the walls of the city state. "Hence we must turn to Roman antiquity to
find the first justification of war, together with the first notion that there are
just and unjust wars" (Arendt 12). Yet the Roman conception of a just war
differs sharply from more modern conceptions.
When you are making decisions about how to integrate quotations into your essay,
you might imagine that you are reading the essay out loud to an audience. You
would not read the parenthetical note. Without some sort of introduction, your
audience would not even know that the statement about Roman antiquity was a
quotation, let alone where the quotation came from.
C. How do I introduce a short quotation?
The following offers just one way of introducing the above quotation:
The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged
outside the walls of the city state. As Hannah Arendt points out in On
Revolution, "we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of
war, together with the first notion that there are just and unjust wars" (12).
Yet the Roman conception of a just war differs sharply from more modern
conceptions.
Since the quotation is relatively short, the brief introduction works.
You could, however, strengthen your analysis by demonstrating the significance of
the passage within your own argument. Introducing your quotation with a full
sentence would help you assert greater control over the material:
19 The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged
outside the walls of the city state. In On Revolution, Hannah Arendt points to
the role the Romans played in laying the foundation for later thinking about
the ethics of waging war: "we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first
justification of war, together with the first notion that there are just and unjust
wars" (12). Yet the Roman conception of a just war differs sharply from more
modern conceptions.
In these two examples, observe the forms of punctuation used to introduce the
quotations. When you introduce a quotation with a full sentence, you should always
place a colon at the end of the introductory sentence. When you introduce a
quotation with an incomplete sentence, you usually place a comma after the
introductory phrase. However, it has become grammatically acceptable to use a
colon rather than a comma:
Arendt writes: "we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war . .
."
[What is important, though, is to be consistent throughout your work. Either use the
colon or a comma.]
If you are blending the quotation into your own sentence using the conjuction that, do
not use any punctuation at all:
Arendt writes that "we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war
. . ."
If you are not sure whether to punctuate your introduction to a quotation, mentally
remove the quotation marks, [read what you have out loud] and ask yourself whether
any punctuation is still required.
Finally, note that you can deviate from the common pattern of introduction followed
by quotation. Weaving the phrases of others into your own prose offers a stylistically
compelling way of maintaining control over your source material. Moreover, the
technique of weaving can help you to produce a tighter argument. The following
condenses twelve lines from Arendt's essay to fewer than two:
What Arendt refers to as the "well-known realities of power politics" began to
lose their moral legitimacy when the First World War unleashed "the horribly
destructive" forces of warfare "under conditions of modern technology" (13).
20 D. What verbs and phrases can I use to introduce my quotations?
Familiarize yourself with the various verbs commonly used to introduce quotations.
Here is a partial list:
argues
maintains
states
writes
suggests
claims
points out
insists
demonstrates
concludes
observes
says
comments
counters
explains
notes
asserts
reveals
Each verb has its own nuance. Make sure that the nuance matches your specific
aims in introducing the quotation.
There are other ways to begin quotations. Here are three common phrasings:
•
In the words of X, . . .
•
According to X, . . .
•
In X's view, . . .
Vary the way you introduce quotations to avoid sounding monotonous. But never
sacrifice precision of phrasing for the sake of variety.
[That is, sometimes using identical phrasing to introduce a series of information
produces the most effective communication. We will turn to this during our 4th
meeting.]
Visit the U of T Writing Website's page on verbs for referring to sources.
F. How do I introduce a long quotation?
If your quotation is lengthy, you should almost always introduce it with a full sentence
that helps capture how it fits into your argument [emphasis added]. If your
quotation is longer than four lines, do not place it in quotation marks. Instead, set it
off as a block quotation:
Although Dickens never shied away from the political controversies of his
time, he never, in Orwell's view, identified himself with any political program:
The truth is that Dickens' criticism of society is almost exclusively
moral. Hence his lack of any constructive suggestion anywhere in his
work. He attacks the law, parliamentary government, the educational
system and so forth, without ever clearly suggesting what he would put
in their places. Of course it is not necessarily the business of a novelist,
or a satirist, to make constructive suggestions, but the point is that
21 Dickens' attitude is at bottom not even destructive. . . . For in reality his
target is not so much society as human nature. (416)
The full-sentence introduction to a block quotation helps demonstrate your grasp of
the source material, and it adds analytical depth to your essay. But the introduction
alone is not enough. Long quotations almost invariably need to be followed by
extended analysis. Never allow the quotation to do your work for you [emphasis
added]. Usually you will want to keep the quotation and your analysis together in the
same paragraph. Hence it is a good idea to avoid ending a paragraph with a
quotation. But if your analysis is lengthy, you may want to break it into several
paragraphs, beginning afresh after the quotation.
Once in a while you can reverse the pattern of quotation followed by analysis. A
[suitably] worded or an authoritative quotation can, on occasion, nicely clinch an
argument.
There is some flexibility in the rule that block quotations are for passages of four
lines or more: a shorter passage can be represented as a block quotation if it is
important enough to stand on its own. For example, when you are quoting two or
more lines of poetry, you will probably want to display the verse as it appears on the
page:
In the opening heroic couplet of The Rape of the Lock, Pope establishes the
unheroic nature of the poem’s subject matter:
What dire offense from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things. (1-2)
If you choose to integrate verse into your own sentence, then use a slash
surrounded by spaces to indicate line breaks:
In Eliot’s The Waste Land, the symbols of a mythic past lie buried in “A heap
of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter,
the cricket no relief” (22-23).
vi. How do I let my reader know I've altered my sources?
If you need to alter your quotations in any way, be sure to indicate just how you have
done so. If you remove text, then replace the missing text with an ellipsis—three
periods surrounded by spaces:
In The Mirror and the Lamp, Abrams comments that the "diversity of
aesthetic theories . . . makes the task of the historian a very difficult one" (5).
22 If the omitted text occurs between sentences, then put a space after the period at the
end of sentence, and follow that by an ellipsis. In all, there will be four periods. (See
Orwell on Dickens, above.)
Many people overuse ellipses at the beginning and end of quotations. Use an ellipsis
in either place only when your reader might otherwise mistake an incomplete
sentence for a complete one:
Abraham Lincoln begins "The Gettysburg Address" with a reminder of the
act upon which the United States was founded: "Four score and seven years
ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation . . ." (1).
Do not use an ellipsis if you are merely borrowing a phrase from the original:
In "The Gettysburg Address" Abraham Lincoln reminds his listeners of the
principles that had inspired the creation of "a new nation" (1).
If you need to alter or replace text from the original, enclose the added text
within square brackets. You may, for example, need to alter text to ensure that
pronouns agree with their antecedents. Do not write [emphasis added],
Gertrude asks her son Hamlet to “cast your 23nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
Square brackets allow you to absorb Gertrude’s words into your own statement:
Gertrude asks her son Hamlet to “cast [his] 23nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
Alternatively, you can include Gertrude’s original phrasing in its entirety as long as
the introduction to the quotation is not fully integrated with the quotation. The
introduction can be an independent clause:
Gertrude implores her son Hamlet to stop mourning the death of his father:
“cast your 23nighted colour off” (I.ii.68).
Or it can be an incomplete sentence:
Gertrude implores her son Hamlet, “cast your 23nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
vii. How is punctuation affected by quotation?
You must preserve the punctuation of a quoted passage, or else you must enclose in
square brackets any punctuation marks that are your own.
There is, however, one important exception to this rule. You are free to alter the
punctuation just before a closing quotation mark. You may need to do so to ensure
23 that your sentences are fully grammatical. Do not worry about how the original
sentence needs to be punctuated before that quotation mark; think about how your
sentence needs to be punctuated. Note, for example, that if you are using the MLA
system of referencing, a sentence always ends after the parenthetical reference. Do
not also include a period before closing the quotation mark, even if there is a period
there in the original. For example, do not write [emphasis added],
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: "The Terror
had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two." (822).
The period before the closing quotation mark must go:
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: "The Terror
had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two" (822).
However, if you are using footnotes, the period remains inside the quotation mark,
while the footnote number goes outside:
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: "The Terror
had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two."1
In Canada and the United States, commas and periods never go outside a quotation
mark. They are always absorbed as part of the quotation, whether they belong to you
or to the author you are quoting:
"I am a man / more sinned against than sinning," Lear pronounces in Act 3,
Scene 2 (59-60).
However, stronger forms of punctuation such as question marks and exclamation
marks go inside the quotation if they belong to the author, and outside if they do not:
Bewildered, Lear asks the fool, "Who is it that can tell me who I am?"
(1.4.227).
Why is Lear so rash as to let his "two daughters' dowers digest the third"
(1.1.127)?
Finally, use single quotation marks for all quotations within quotations:
When Elizabeth reveals that her younger sister has eloped, Darcy drops his
customary reserve: "'I am grieved, indeed,' cried Darcy, 'grieved—shocked'"
(Austen 295).
24 VII.
Paraphrase and Summary8
A. When should I paraphrase, and when should I summarize?
To paraphrase means to express someone else's ideas in your own language. To
summarize means to distill only the most essential points of someone else's work.
Paraphrase and summary are indispensable tools in essay writing because they allow
you to include other people's ideas without cluttering up your essay with quotations.
They help you take greater control of your essay. Consider relying on either tool when
an idea from one of your sources is important to your essay but the wording is not. You
should be guided in your choice of which tool to use by considerations of space. But
above all, think about how much of the detail from your source is relevant to your
argument. If all your reader needs to know is the bare bones, then summarize.
Ultimately, be sure not to rely too heavily on either paraphrase or summary. Your
ideas are what matter most. Allow yourself the space to develop those ideas
[emphasis added].
B. How do I paraphrase?
Whenever you paraphrase, remember these two points:
1. You must provide a reference.
2. The paraphrase must be entirely in your own words. You must do more than merely
substitute phrases here and there. You must also completely alter the sentence
structure.
It can be difficult to find new words for an idea that is already well expressed. The
following strategy will make the job of paraphrasing a lot easier:
1. When you are at the note-taking stage, and you come across a passage that may
be useful for your essay, do not copy the passage verbatim unless you think you will
want to quote it.
2. If you think you will want to paraphrase the passage, make a note only of the
author's basic point. You don't even need to use full sentences.
3. In your note, you should already be translating the language of the original into your
own words. What matters is that you capture the original idea.
4. Make sure to include the page number of the original passage so that you can
make a proper reference later on [emphasis added].
When it comes time to write the paper, rely on your notes rather than on the author's
work. You will find it much easier to avoid borrowing from the original passage because
you will not have recently seen it. Follow this simple sequence:
1. Convert the ideas from your notes into full sentences.
8
Taken directly from Plotnick, “Paraphrase and Summary”. 25 2. Provide a reference.
3. Go back to the original to ensure that (a) your paraphrase is accurate and (b) you
have truly said things in your own words.
Let's look at examples of illegitimate and legitimate paraphrase. The original passage is
from Oliver Sacks' essay "An Anthropologist on Mars":
The cause of autism has also been a matter of dispute. Its incidence is about
one in a thousand, and it occurs throughout the world, its features remarkably
consistent even in extremely different cultures. It is often not recognized in the
first year of life, but tends to become obvious in the second or third year.
Though Asperger regarded it as a biological defect of affective contact—innate,
inborn, analogous to a physical or intellectual defect—Kanner tended to view it
as a psychogenic disorder, a reflection of bad parenting, and most especially of
a chillingly remote, often professional, "refrigerator mother." At this time, autism
was often regarded as "defensive" in nature, or confused with childhood
schizophrenia. A whole generation of parents—mothers, particularly—were
made to feel guilty for the autism of their children.
What follows is an example of illegitimate paraphrase:
The cause of the condition autism has been disputed. It occurs in approximately
one in a thousand children, and it exists in all parts of the world, its
characteristics strikingly similar in vastly differing cultures. The condition is often
not noticeable in the child's first year, yet it becomes more apparent as the child
reaches the ages of two or three. Although Asperger saw the condition as a
biological defect of the emotions that was inborn and therefore similar to a
physical defect, Kanner saw it as psychological in origin, as reflecting poor
parenting and particularly a frigidly distant mother. During this period, autism
was often seen as a defense mechanism, or it was misdiagnosed as childhood
schizophrenia. An entire generation of mothers and fathers (but especially
mothers) were made to feel responsible for their offspring's autism (Sacks 24748).
26 Most of these sentences do little more than substitute one phrase for another. An
additional problem with this passage is that the only citation occurs at the very end of
the last sentence in the paragraph. The reader might be misled into thinking that the
earlier sentences were not also indebted to Sacks' essay.
The following represents a legitimate paraphrase of the original passage:
In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks lists some of the known facts about
autism. We know, for example, that the condition occurs in roughly one out of
every thousand children. We also know that the characteristics of autism do not
vary from one culture to the next. And we know that the condition is difficult to
diagnose until the child has entered its second or third year of life. As Sacks
points out, often a child who goes on to develop autism will still appear perfectly
normal at the age of one (247).
Sacks observes, however, that researchers have had a hard time agreeing
on the causes of autism. He sketches the diametrically opposed positions of
Asperger and Kanner. On the one hand, Asperger saw the condition as
representing a constitutional defect in the child's ability to make meaningful
emotional contact with the external world. On the other hand, Kanner regarded
autism as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices. For many years
confusion about this condition reigned. One unfortunate consequence of this
confusion, Sacks suggests, was the burden of guilt imposed on so many
parents for their child's condition (247-448).
Notice that this passage makes explicit right from the beginning that the ideas belong to
Sacks, and the passage's indebtedness to him is signaled in more than one place. The
single parenthetical note at the end of each paragraph is therefore all the citation that is
needed. The inclusion of explicit references to Sacks not only makes the job of
providing citations easier. It also strengthens the passage by clarifying the source of its
facts and ideas. And it adds an analytical dimension to the paragraph: the passage
doesn't just reiterate the points in Sacks' passage but lays out the structure of his
argument. Note that the paraphrase splits the original into two separate paragraphs to
accentuate the two-part structure of Sacks' argument. Finally, notice that not all the
details from the original passage are included in the paraphrase.
C. How do I summarize?
27 Summary moves much farther than paraphrase away from point-by-point translation.
When you summarize a passage, you need first to absorb the meaning of the passage
and then to capture in your own words the most important elements from the original
passage. A summary is necessarily shorter than a paraphrase.
Here is a summary of the passage from "An Anthropologist on Mars":
In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks notes that although there is little
disagreement on the chief characteristics of autism, researchers have differed
considerably on its causes. As he points out, Asperger saw the condition as an
innate defect in the child's ability to connect with the external world, whereas
Kanner regarded it as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices (24748).
References
Carroll, Jude. October 2012. “Academic Honesty in the IB”, IB Position Paper,
International Baccalaureate Organization, 9 pages.
http://occ.ibo.org/ibis/documents/general/g_0_iboxx_amo_1209_1a_e.pdf (accessed
25 January 2013)
Mulgrave School. March 2009. “Extended Essay Student Handbook”.
http://www.mulgrave.com/files/ablett/Extended%20Essay%20Guide.pdf, 26 January
2013.
Plotnik, Martin. “Using Quotations,” University College Writing Center, University of
Toronto Online Writing Center, http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/usingsources/quotations (accessed 26 January 2013).
Plotnik, Martin. “Paraphrase and Summary,” University College Writing Center,
University of Toronto Online Writing Center,
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/paraphrase (accessed 27
January 2013).
Proctor, Margaret. “How Not to Plagiarize”. Writing Support, University of Toronto
Online Writing Center. http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-notto-plagiarize (accessed 26 January 2013).
Proctor, Margaret. “Standard Documentation Format,” Writing Support, University of
Toronto Online Writing Center, http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/usingsources/documentation (accessed 27 January 2013).
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