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Citing Sources

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Is Avoiding Plagiarism The Main Reason to Cite Sources? Not plagiarizing the writing of others without crediting those others is

often the most common reason students give for why sources must be cited.

As covered in the copyright, fair use, and intellectual discussion we have had, this reason is not as straightforward as you might imagine.

Aside from that, there are many reasons why you cite sources that have nothing to do with protecting yourself against charges of plagiarism. That’s what this lecture is about.

Rhetorical Purposes for Citing Sources that are Less Familiar

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The previous slide discusses the reasons for citing sources that are grounded in writing for academic journals where researchers present findings for peer review.

Internal documents within a company or organization are also referred to by using a citation style. For example, an engineer needs to refer to the original

proposal in a progress report after a problem arises that is tied to something that was not addressed in a bid proposal.

Companies and organizations often develop their own styles for citing sources using as file names/numbers etc.

Some Rhetorical Purposes for Citing Sources

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Places your research within the context of other work on the subject. Answers the question: what is your research adding to this body of knowledge?

Acknowledges conflicts with other research findings. Answers the question: why is your research challenging the findings of others?

Provides support for critically important claims that are based on the evidence of others. Answers the question: where is the evidentiary support for this claim?

Directs reader to bibliographical information (not only where to find the source but also what weight to give the evidence). For example: a first-tier, peer-reviewed journal article by a major researcher will

have more weight with readers than a lower-tier journal or industry produced report or article.

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Documentation Styles Are: Discipline, company, organization, publication, and can even be

culturally specific.

Using a documentation style that is recognized by the discourse community you are in means you are:

Easily recognizable as belonging to that discourse community.

Novices often make the mistake that because documentation styles differ in how they handle various citation needs, this means that styles are arbitrary and interchangeable --- not true.

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Using automatic reference tools. If you use Word, learn how to use the reference tool.

The reference tool automatically inserts citations based on a style you choose and prompts for bibliographic information as you are writing a document.

Warning: if you are doing a master’s thesis or submitting a document for peer review, it’s a good idea to check that the tool got everything right. It’s not perfect, but for our purposes, it will work fine.

Two Basic Citation Systems

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Name-Year System Used By:-MLA: Modern Language Association-APA: American Psychological Association

Numbered-Sequence System Used By:-CMS: Chicago Manual of Style-CBE: Council of Biology Editors-IEEE: Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers

There are many others that can be categorized this way.

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Rhetorical Moves for Citing Sources

Some silly example sentences that follow are used to make a point.

Direct and Indirect Citation

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Direct citation. Author (and/or work) is identified directly and cited by parenthetical reference or through a footnote or endnote.

Indirect citation. Author (and/or work) is not identified but cited parenthetically or through a footnote or endnote.

How to choose. If the author and/or work should be emphasized, then use a direct citation. If not, then use an indirect one.

Direct Citation Two Parenthetical Documentation Styles

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APA [emphasis on date]Brie (1988) showed that the moon is made of cheese. Cheddar (1990) reached the same conclusion.

MLA [emphasis on page number]Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese (111-19). Cheddar reached the same conclusion (40-52).

Typically, APA is used in the social sciences, where the date of a research study is relevant to understanding it’s findings, while MLA is used by disciplines in the humanities (English, history, etc.), where the location of a quote is relevant for following the writer’s interpretation of what it means.

Three Documentation Styles Using Endnote Systems

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CMS [superscript number placed at the end of sentence.] Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese.¹ Cheddar reached the same

conclusion.²

CBE [superscript number placed closed to author’s name] Brie¹ showed the moon is made of cheese. Cheddar² reached the same

conclusion.

IEEE [uses brackets around superscript number placed close to author’s name or reference to research] Brie[¹] Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese. Cheddar[²] reached the

same conclusion.

These differences in formatting are simply what was agreed upon to keep documents consistent, and to differentiate the style from others.

All Documentation Styles

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In-text citation information (parenthetical or superscript) must be accompanied by a corresponding entry in a Works Cited, References List, or Bibliography where information about the source is provided.

Basic elements of a bibliography (any documentation style): Name of author Name of text Date of text Publisher of text

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Source Guide The Writing Center at Colorado State is a useful resource

for understanding documentation styles.

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/documentation/specific.cfm