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As you review your sources as a body of evidence, imagine that they are engaging in a dialogue with one another. What kind of conversation would these
sources have and how can you contribute to it? Another way to establish connections between your sources is to ask specific questions. Some examples are:
•
How do sources with competing views address their opponents?
•
What kind of evidence does each source use to support its main point and why?
•
Are some sources more interesting or persuasive than others? Why?
•
What do biased sources tell you that credible sources do not?
•
Are there certain ideas, facts, solutions, or themes that all of your sources refer to?
The more questions you ask to establish relationships between each of your
sources, the better able you will be to view them as a collective body of evidence.
W H AT D O E S M Y E V I D E N C E H E L P M E D O ?
Once you have assessed where your evidence stands and decided on the main
idea or ideas your essay will address, you can begin thinking about how to best
use each source. Some sources are better than others for supporting a particular
point. Consider an essay about the benefits of Internet dating, for example. A
writer gathers a variety of evidence, including statistics about how many people
use Internet dating services, interviews from people who have used Internet dating services, and websites for specific services. Each source will help the writer
support a different point. The writer might use statistics, for example, to explain
how widespread the Internet dating phenomenon is. Interviews from those who
have used Internet dating services allow the writer to find out what individual
participants did and did not like about the process. Finally, although a website
for a specific Internet dating service is clearly biased, by studying a specific site,
the writer can better understand how participants use the Internet to date. The
writer would not, however, use statistics about how many people use Internet
dating services to prove the point that participants enjoy Internet dating. While
each source supports the writer’s main idea, they are not interchangeable. Some
sources are better for establishing the issue’s background, while others can explain a specific person or group’s opinion about a topic. Remember to ask of each
source, “What can this evidence help me do?”
I N T E G R AT I N G S O U R C E S
A N D AV O I D I N G P L A G I A R I S M
To integrate sources into your paper, you can either paraphrase or directly quote
an author. In both cases, it is important to use the author’s ideas to support your
point, not to make it. If you are paraphrasing, first introduce the author and then
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summarize her ideas. Follow this discussion with an explanation of how the
source relates to your argument. If you directly quote an author, then follow the
quote with a discussion of how it is connected to your main ideas. Without explanation, the quote’s intended purpose is lost on the audience.
Deciding whether you should paraphrase or directly quote a source can be
difficult. In general, you should only directly quote a source when preserving the
author’s language is important. There are many famous quotes, such as “To be
or not to be, that is the question,” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this case, the
author’s wording is essential—only this phrasing can convey the idea in the most
powerful way. It is more difficult to determine whether you should directly quote
a source when it is less well known. In most cases, however, you can paraphrase
the author’s wording and convey the same information, being sure to give credit
to the author in your discussion. Quotations can be distracting, and many authors fall into the trap of using direct quotes to convey their main idea. Consequently, you should try to paraphrase in most cases rather than relying on direct
quotes from your sources.
It is essential that you document your sources as you integrate them into
your paper. If you present another author’s ideas as your own, you are committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in expulsion from
your college or university. Certainly, you do not have to document every fact that
you include in your paper. There are many facts that are considered general information. Some examples are statements like, “Our solar system is comprised
of nine planets,” or “Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president.” Facts that
are not well known, however, and that cannot be found in several sources, must
be documented. Furthermore, if you include the opinion, assertion, or conclusions of another author in your paper, you must cite the source from which it
came. Suppose, for example, that you are writing a paper about school vouchers
and you find the following quote:
Today 63% of all black students attend predominantly nonwhite schools. Public education is also increasingly economically segregated. A voucher system may not foster
the ethnic diversity of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public
and private schools, it would add much needed equality to American education.
Shapiro, Walter. “Pick a School, Any School.” Time 3 Sept 1990: 70–72.
Below is an example of plagiarism. The writer uses too many of the same
words and phrases as the author of the source:
Public education is actually increasingly economically segregated. So a voucher system may not foster ethnic diversity, but it will dilute the distinction between public and private schools. This will add much needed equality to American education.
To avoid plagiarizing, you might decide to paraphrase the author, in which
case you should use your own words to convey the author’s ideas:
According to Walter Shapiro, the argument that public education ensures that students attend schools with diverse students is erroneous. In fact, Shapiro asserts,
public school populations usually comprise students of the same race and economic
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background. Consequently, school vouchers might actually increase racial and economic diversity in education by offering minorities and the underprivileged the opportunity to attend the school of their choice (Shapiro 72).
Alternatively, you might decide that you do not want to lose the author’s
wording and want to quote directly from the source. If so, you can introduce the
author and include the page number on which the quote appeared.
Walter Shapiro argues that, “A voucher system may not foster the ethnic diversity
of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public and private
schools, it would add much needed equality to American education” (72).
DOCUMENTING SOURCES
As you add evidence to your paper, you will need to document it. There are
several reasons for documenting your sources. Documenting evidence allows
other researchers who are interested in your topic to locate the same sources.
Documentation also demonstrates to your reader that your evidence is
verifiable; by documenting your sources, you give yourself credibility as a
writer. Finally, documenting your sources protects you against charges of plagiarism.
Each discipline has its own set of documentation guidelines. The Modern
Language Association (MLA) style is often used in the humanities and requires
that you document your evidence both within the paper by using parenthetical
references and in a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper.
PA R E N T H E T I C A L R E F E R E N C E S I N T H E T E X T
A parenthetical reference tells readers what sources you used in your writing
and how you used them, as well as guides readers to the appropriate entry in the
works cited list at the end of the paper. In general, then, a parenthetical reference should provide the reader with just enough information so that the source
can easily be located in the works cited list.
When you are citing a work by one or more authors. A typical parenthetical reference includes the author’s last name and the page number:
(Lasch 14)
If you introduce the author in the sentence, you need only include the page
number in parentheses:
According to Rachel Carson, while humans may be at the top of the food chain, our existence is dependent on the health of the environment (149).
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DOCUMENTING SOURCES
When you are citing a work without a listed author. List the title of the
source and the page number.
Many contend that the Food and Drug Administration does not possess enough resources to adequately inspect imported produce (“Fresh Produce, the Downside” 14A).
When you are citing an indirect source. When you quote someone who is
not the author of the book or article, you are using an indirect source. Indicate
that the source you are citing is quoted in another source by abbreviating the
word “quoted.”
Describing feminism’s contemporary ideology Susan Stein argued that, “feminism today
is whatever any woman who calls herself a feminist says it is” (qtd. in Echols 264).
When you are citing an electronic source. If an electronic source does
not have a page number, but uses paragraphs, sections, or screen numbers, write
the abbreviation par., sec., or the word screen and the corresponding number in
your citation. Place a comma after the last name of the author.
The program aims to teach low-income families how to use various software and
computer technology (Hammill, par. 2).
If there are no divisions of any kind in the electronic source, simply list the
last name of the author.
At the end of 1991 over 4,000,000 people were connected to the Internet (Cerf).
MLA LIST OF WORKS CITED
Three of the most common documents used as evidence are books, journal
articles, and websites.
A book with one author
Bellah, Robert N. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in
American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.
Author’s name City of
publication
in reverse
Publisher’s name,
abbreviated
Year of
publication
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Scribner’s, 1948.
Title of the book
801
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Article in a journal with continuous pagination
throughout the annual volume
Popkin, Jeremy D. “Historians on the Autobiographical Frontier.” The American
Historical Review 104 (1999): 725-48.
Title of article in quotes
Page numbers
Author’s Title of journal Volume Date in
underlined
name
number parentheses
Soules, Marshall. “Animating the Language Machine: Computers and
Performance.” Computers and the Humanities 36 (2002): 319–45.
Entire Internet site (scholarly project, information
d a t a b a s e, j o u r n a l , o r p r o f e s s i o n a l w e b s i t e )
Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van Leeuwen. 2003. 29 Nov. 2003
<http://www.bartleby.com/>.
Title of website
underlined
URL in brackets
Name of the
Date of
Date of
editor of the site electronic
access
(if given)
publication or
latest update
Library Spot.com. 2003. 15 March 2003 <http://www.libraryspot.com>.
BOOKS
A book with two or three authors
Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The
Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North
Point, 2000.
Names appear as they do on title page
Reverse only the first name and
separate names using commas
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A book with more than three authors
McCartney, Paul, et al. The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000.
First name
listed on the
title page
Followed by
et al.
More than one work by the same author(s)
Weinberg, Steven. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York: Pantheon, 1992.
---. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
2001.
In place of the author’s name,
three hyphens and a period
A book with an editor
Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Mabel Loomis Todd
and T. W. Higginson. New York: Avenel, 1982. Editor
abbreviated
Name of
editors
A work in a series
Hock, Ronald F. and Edward N. O’Neil, ed. The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric.
Texts and Trans. 27. Atlanta: Scholars, 1986.
Title of
the series
Number in
the series
803
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An anthology
McNamara, Peter and Margaret Winch, ed. Alien Shores: An Anthology of
Australian Science Fiction. North Adelaide, Austral.: Aphelion, 1994.
Name of editor or compiler
A selection from an anthology
Ruskin, John. “The Lamp of Beauty.” The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology
of European and American Writings 1750-1940. Ed. Isabelle Frank. New
York: Yale UP, 2000. 42-46.
Author of
the part of
the book
being cited
Page numbers
of the cited
piece
Title of the part
of the book
being cited
Name of the editor,
translator, or
compiler of the book
A reference work
Unger, Rhoda K., ed. Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New
York: Wiley, 2001.
Editor or compiler
of reference book
Article in a reference work
Crawford, Mary. “Gender and Language.” Handbook of the Psychology of Women
and Gender. Rhoda K. Unger, ed. New York: Wiley, 2001.
Author of article
in reverse
Title of article
in quotes
Title of book
underlined
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DOCUMENTING SOURCES
A translation
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael Henry
Translator
abbreviated
Heim. New York: Harper, 1984.
Name of
translator
PERIODICALS
The entry for an article in a periodical, like that for a book, has three main divisions:
Author’s name. “Title of the article.” Publication information.
Article in a journal that paginates issues separately
Gardner, Martin. “A Quarter Century of Recreational Mathematics.” Scientific
American 279. 2 (1998): 68-76.
Author of
article
Volume Issue number
number,
followed by a
period
Page numbers
Title of article Title of
in quotes
journal
Year of
publication in
parentheses,
followed by a colon
Article in a monthly or bimonthly magazine
Lapham, Lewis. “Hazards of New Fortune: Harper’s Magazine, Then and Now.”
Harper’s Magazine June 2000: 57-83.
Title of magazine Month of
publication
Page numbers
Year of publication
followed by a colon
805
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Article in a weekly magazine (unsigned/signed)
Soukup, Elise. “Lights! Camera! Incision!: The Brave New World of Surgery on
the Internet.” Newsweek. 14 Aug. 2006: 34.
Page number
Date of publication,
month abbreviated
Article in a newspaper
Wilkinson, Sean McCormack. “Security Posts Filled.” New York Times
26 Nov. 2003: A12+.
Date abbreviated
followed by a colon
Title of article
in quotes
Title of newspaper
underlined
If the article does not appear on
consecutive pages, write the first
page number and follow with a
“+”
Review
Fields, Suzanne. “No Black-and-White Answers in Murray’s The Bell Curve.”
Rev. of The Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein.
Insight on the News 21 Nov. 1993: 40.
Title of book
being reviewed
Review underlined
Publication
abbreviated
in which
the review
appears
Title of review
Author(s) of book
in quotes
being reviewed
Date
abbreviated Page number
followed by
colon
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807
ONLINE SOURCES
Pe r s o n a l w e b s i t e
Boucicaut, J. R. Home page. 9 Oct. 2001. 14 Sept. 2003 <http://www.geocites.com/
Colosseum/8019/>.
Name of creator Title of site, or
of website
if no title
“Home page”
Date of the
last update
Date of URL in
access brackets
Entire online book
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. 1922. Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van
Leeuwen. 2003. 10 Oct. 2003 <http://www.bartleby.com/162/>.
Author’s
name
Title of
book
Date of
electronic
publication
Original
Title of
URL in
publication Internet site brackets
date of
underlined
Date of print version
access
Editor of
site
Article in a scholarly journal
Darby, Paul. “Africa, the FIFA Presidency, and the Governance of World Football:
1974, 1998, and 2002.” Africa Today 50.1 (2003). Project Muse. 20 Oct. 2003
<http://muse. jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/toc/at50.1html>.
Volume number
URL within Title of
journal
followed by
the
database
underlined period
Issue
Year of
number publication
in
parentheses
Date of
access
Name of
database
underlined
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Article in an online reference book or encyclopedia
“Levi-Strauss, Claude.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2003. Encyclopædia Britannica
Premium Service. 28 Nov. 2000 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=49112>.
Title of
article in
quotes
Name of
electronic
service
Title of
online
reference
Date of
access
Date of the
last update
or electronic
publication
date
URL in
brackets
Article in an online newspaper
Becker, Elizabeth. “Drug Industry Seeks to Sway Prices Overseas.” New York
Times on the Web 27 Nov. 2003. 28 Nov. 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/
2003/11/27/business/worldbusiness/27TRAD.html>.
Title of online Publication
newspaper
date
underlined
Date of access Title of article
in quotes
URL
Article in an online magazine
Soros, George. “The Bubble of American Supremacy.” Atlantic Online December 2003.
28 Dec. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm>.
Date of access URL of the
article
Title of online
magazine
Publication
date
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Wo r k f r o m a l i b r a r y s u b s c r i p t i o n s e r v i c e
McNeill, J. “Historical Perspectives on Global Ecology.” World Futures April-June
2003: 263-75. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group. Bergen County
Cooperative Lib. System, NJ. 20 Oct. 2003 <http://www.galegroup.com/>.
State/city of Date of Name of the
library
access database
underlined
Name of the Name of the
service
library or library
system followed
by a comma
URL
Material accessed through an online service
This citation is formatted the same as a work from a library subscription service (see example above).
Po s t i n g t o a d i s c u s s i o n l i s t
Insaaci, Gemi. “Flow Around a Ship.” Online posting. 20 Dec. 2003. CFD Online
Main Discussion Forum. 27 Nov. 2003 <http://www.cfd-online.com/
Forum/main.cgi?read =29211>.
Author’s Title of
name
document as
given in the
subject line in
quotes
Description
Date of
access
Date posted
Name of
forum or list
URL
Electronic mail
Nichols, Mona. “Re: Martha Stewart.” E-mail to Elena M. Past. 20 July 2003.
Name of
writer
Title of
message,
if any
Description of
message that
includes the
recipient
Date of
message
809
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A synchronous communication
Harvey, Jon. Online discussion of how to create the ideal academic community.
7 Feb. 1996. PennMoo. 25 July 2003 <telnet:// www.english.upenn.edu/
~afilreis/103/pennmoo-exchange.html>.
Name of
the speaker
Forum for the Date of URL
communication access
Description
of the event
Date of event
OTHER NONPRINT SOURCES
M a t e r i a l a c c e s s e d o n a C D - R O M , D V D , d i s k e t t e,
or magnetic tape
“Figure-Ground Contrast.” Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.
Part of the
work you are
citing in
quotes
Title of source
underlined
Type of source
Pa i n t i n g , s c u l p t u r e, o r p h o t o g r a p h
on an electronic source
Munch, Edvard. The Scream. 1893. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century.
CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.
Artist’s Title of work Date of work,
name of art
if available
Title and type of electronic source
(if source is a website, use date of
access and URL)
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An advertisement on an electronic source
Allen Edmonds Shoes. Advertisement. Comp21: Composition in the 21st
Century. CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.
Name of product
or company being
advertised
Descriptive label
of advertisement
always included
Title and type of electronic source
(if source is a website, use date of
access and URL)
A film clip on an electronic source
The Price of Freedom. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.
Title of film clip, preceded
by director, if available
Title and type of electronic source (if source
is a website, use date of access and URL)
An advertisement
Ford Explorer. Advertisement. Time 15 July 2002: 20-21.
Name of product or
company being advertised
Publication information (if
on television, use name of
network and the broadcast
date)
Page numbers
in publication
811
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A p a i n t i n g , s c u l p t u r e, o r p h o t o g r a p h
Uelsmann, Jerry N. Tree-house. Jerry Uelsmann. Occasions for Writing:
Evidence, Idea, Essay. By Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy. Boston:
Institution or Authors of
private owner source
Wadsworth, 2008. 562.
Artist’s name
Title of work
of art
Title of source in
which the work of
art appears
Page number, slide
number, or figure
number
A film or video recording
Pakula, Alan J., dir. All the President’s Men. Warner Bros., 1976.
Title underlined
Director
Distributor
Year of release
A television or radio program
“Firestorm.” Narr. Charles Wooley. 60 Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York.
23 Nov. 2003.
Title of
episode
Broadcast
date
Narrator or
director
Title of Name of the Call letters and
city of the local
program network
station
A letter
L’Engle, Madeleine. Letter to the author. 10 June 2003.
Author of
letter
The kind of
letter
Date the letter
was written
An interview
Friedman, Stephanie. Personal interview. 20 July 2003.
Name of the person
interviewed
The kind of
interview
Date of
interview
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SAMPLE WORKS CITED
SAMPLE WORKS CITED PAGE
Works Cited
Bowman, Darcia Harris. “States Target School Vending Machines to Curb Child
Obesity.” Education Week 1 Oct. 2003: 1. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. U of Texas at Austin, Perry-Castaneda Lib. 3 Mar. 2004
<http://www.epnet.com>.
Chen, Chunming and William H. Dietz, ed. Obesity in Childhood and
Adolescence. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2002.
Drummond, Jon W. “Man vs. Machine: School Vending Machines Are in the
Crosshairs of the Obesity Debate.” Restaurants and Institutions 113.25
(2003): 63-66.
Fairburn, Christopher G. and Kelly D. Brownell, ed. Eating Disorders and
Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford, 2002.
Goode, Erica. “The Gorge-Yourself Environment.” New York Times 22 July 2003:
F1. InfoTrac College Edition. University of Texas at Austin, PerryCastaneda Lib. 22 Dec. 2003 <http://www.infotrac.thomsonlearning.com/>.
Goodnough, Abby. “Schools Cut Down on Fat and Sweets in Menus.” New York
Times. 25 June 2003: B1.
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Ed. Virginia Robinson. The
Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. 26 Mar 2004. 5 Apr. 2004
<http://www.healthinschools.org/home.asp>.
813