Using Sources Properly

By now we’ve identified the right types of sources for our needs, used the right search tools and evaluated everything we came across.

But that still leaves a crucial step: actually using these sources to help write our paper.

Properly using sources involves a variety of skills, including effective note-taking, proper integration of source material and above all, correct citation.

Trying to remember all the articles and books you looked at and then manually writing up all your citations is a great way to keep you up all night before your paper is due.

But there are some strategies you can use to make the process a lot less painful.

But first it’s important to understand why citation is important in the first place, since there are several reasons why we do it.

1. To help make our argument and show that it is well-supported by objective evidence.

Why Do We Cite?

Recall that good college-level research is all about taking your own stance and supporting it with high-quality evidence that you get from your sources.

Different sources play different roles. Some give background info that your reader needs to know. Others provide actual evidence that supports your argument. Some might even argue against your claim, which shows you’ve considered other viewpoints.

As you read over the sources you’ve found, ask yourself

questions like

• Does this give me or my reader important context or background information?

• Does this give evidence to support my claim?• Is this a broader source, where my claim

could form a specific example?• Is this a narrower source, which could be an

application of my claim?• Does this argue against my claim?

This leads into the next reason why we cite.

Why Do We Cite?

1. To help make our argument and show that it is well-supported by objective evidence.

2. To give credit to those who influenced our ideas and avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism can be a scary word and it indeed carries serious punishments, but there are also some common misconceptions surrounding it.

Let’s answer a couple of questions to learn more about properly using sources.

Plagiarism means copying text word-for-word from a published work.

True or False?

Plagiarism means copying text word-for-word from a published work.

False

In fact, none of the red terms above have to be true. Some other things that could be plagiarized:

• Conversations or correspondence (ex. an interview)• Film, song or audio clips• Images and photographs• Data such as statistics, charts, maps or graphs

“Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.” (Indiana University)

Better Definition

It can be plagiarism even if you put something in your own words. There are three ways to integrate your sources and all of them require that you cite the source.

Quote – An exact phrase taken from a passage and put inside quotation marks.

Paraphrase – A restatement of a passage in your own words, about the same length as the original.

Summary – A much shorter rephrasing of the main idea of the passage (usually just one or two sentences).

Let’s use this passage as an example to explore quotes, paraphrases and summaries.

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem or an aspect of some phenomenon.

Example Passage

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Intellectual honesty is the recognition that humanity is linked together in a type of joint learning process. Not much is discovered new without really understanding other scholars' previous research and knowledge. Citing shows you are grateful and appreciate what other researchers have figured out about a particular issue.

Is this an acceptable paraphrase?

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Intellectual honesty is the recognition that humanity is linked together in a type of joint learning process. Not much is discovered new without really understanding other scholars' previous research and knowledge. Citing shows you are grateful and appreciate what other researchers have figured out about a particular issue.

No, not an acceptable paraphrase

Notice how the sentences are almost the same except for some synonyms thrown in. This is plagiarism since it’s so close to the original passage without acknowledging which words were taken from it directly.

• Original: Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process.

• Bad Paraphrase: Intellectual honesty is the recognition that humanity is linked together in a type of joint learning process.

No, not an acceptable paraphrase

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Hoemann says that there is very little absolutely new knowledge (2012). Most of our discoveries take advantage of work done by those who have gone before us. The process of learning is, in fact, a long tradition passed on from generation to generation. Acknowledging the source of ideas gives recognition to the contributions of others in this tradition and is, as Hoemann says, an “act of humility.”

Is this an acceptable paraphrase?

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Hoemann says that there is very little absolutely new knowledge (2012). Most of our discoveries take advantage of work done by those who have gone before us. The process of learning is, in fact, a long tradition passed on from generation to generation. Acknowledging the source of ideas gives recognition to the contributions of others in this tradition and is, as Hoemann says, an “act of humility.”

Yes, an acceptable paraphrase!

Notice how the sentences are much different, not just by a couple of words. It also names the original author and includes a short quote at the end.

Yes, an acceptable paraphrase!

• Original: “Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process.”

• Good Paraphrase: “Hoemann says that there is very little absolutely new knowledge.”

• Good Quote: “… gives recognition to the contributions of others in this tradition and is, as Hoemann says, an “act of humility.”

Hoemann says that most of our discoveries take advantage of work done by researchers who have gone before us. Therefore, we should acknowledge the contributions of others in our own work.

Is this an acceptable summary?

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Hoemann says that most of our discoveries take advantage of work done by researchers who have gone before us. Therefore, we should acknowledge the contributions of others in our own work.

Yes, an acceptable summary!

Intellectual honesty is the admission that humanity is linked together in a kind of collective learning process. Very little is discovered "de novo," that is, without a solid foundation in other researchers' previous exploration and understanding. Citation is an act of humility and an act of appreciation for what other scholars have pieced together about the nature of a particular problem.

Notice how it is a much shorter restatement of just the passage’s main idea.

You also want to make sure you don’t have too many direct quotes or long paraphrases in your paper. Remember that the whole point of research is to make your own argument, not just summarize existing sources.

True or False?

Most cases of plagiarism are not intentionally planned.

Most cases of plagiarism are not intentionally planned.

True

Although it’s most common to think of plagiarism as “cheating” or deliberately stealing someone’s work, it’s actually more frequent for it to be a mistake! The most common reasons are sloppy note-taking and incomplete documentation.

Strategies to Avoid Unintentional Plagiarism

• Take detailed notes when researching. (You’ll thank yourself later!) Include: the original sources of ideas and which notes are

quotes, summaries, paraphrases or your own thoughts.

• Paraphrase without looking at the original source to avoid bad paraphrases.

• Focus on the meaning, not the actual words.

• Proofread and revise to help identify missing citations or attribution. (The Writing Center can help!)

True or False?

Plagiarism is only a problem among students, enforced by teachers.

FalsePlagiarism is only a problem among students, enforced by teachers.

Many prominent public figures have been caught in plagiarism scandals, including politicians, journalists and even professors!

FalsePlagiarism is only a problem among students, enforced by teachers.

FalsePlagiarism is only a problem among students, enforced by teachers.

Writing Your Citations

So now that we know plagiarism can mean a lot more than just copying and pasting text and it can affect just about anyone, how can we be sure we’re using our sources correctly?

For one, the way you actually formulate your citations depends on the requirements of your class.

Writing Your Citations

In general, classes like English or philosophy (the “humanities”) use a citation style called MLA, while social sciences (sociology, psychology, etc.), business and allied health disciplines at Sinclair use a style called APA. Hard sciences like biology and chemistry have many different citation styles.

Different styles (like MLA and APA) have slightly different rules for how to format your in-text citations (or footnotes or endnotes) as well as your works cited page at the end.

Be sure to ask your instructor what he or she requires and consult a style guide, which lists exactly how to format books, articles, websites and other materials.

Find a style guide in print at the library, online in the Citation LibGuide or possibly in your textbook or supplementary class materials.

There are also some tricks for getting your citations done much quicker. For one, library databases have an option to automatically generate a citation in many formats.

In LibSearch, look on the right-side Tools menu of an item record to find the Cite button.

After clicking “Cite,” LibSearch will display the citation information in a variety of formats, and you can scroll down to find the one you need. It’s a great idea to copy and paste the citation of every source you use into a Word document right away. This way you’ll save a lot of time when it’s time to make your bibliography!

If you’re searching an individual database instead of LibSearch, you can still generate citations but it will just look different and the procedure will vary slightly.

SIRS Knowledge Source

Opposing Viewpoints

Always think of the automatically-generated citations as a sort of rough draft. You still need to look them over carefully and check them against a style guide to make sure there are no errors. (And the databases sometimes do have mistakes, like all caps or missing italics.)

For the sources you find outside of library databases, you can type the citations manually or use a service like EasyBib. If you go this route, again be sure to double-check that the citation is correct based on what is required in your class.

1. To help make our argument and show that it is well-supported by objective evidence.

2. To give credit to those who influenced our ideas and avoid plagiarism.

3. To make it easy for someone else to retrace our research process and see how we arrived at our conclusions.

There’s one final reason why we cite

It’s important to cite properly so someone reading your paper is able to scrutinize your claim and see how you came to choose that particular argument.

In most cases this will be your instructor grading the paper, but if you ever publish in a journal, magazine or website, there could be many readers who want to see if your conclusions are justified. Using citation to show them which works you consulted makes this possible.

Next Steps: Look over the resources in the “further activities” section to the right and take the Quiz below it.

Also, please leave any comments or questions you have below this presentation.

Credits• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Citation_needed%22.jpg• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sleeping_while_studying.JPG• http://

www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-jane-goodall-book-postponed-plagiarism-questions-raised-20130325,0,7749699.story

• http://www.thesandb.com/news/econ-professor-swart-resigned-due-to-plagiarism.html• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/06/rand-paul-plagiarism/3451991/• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-plagiarism-accusations-against-sen-rand-paul/• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Copyright-_all_rights_reserved.png/1024px-Copyright-

_all_rights_reserved.png

• Passages - Thompson, Sue. “Plagiarism Prevention for Students. CSUSM Library. Aug 23 2012. https://microsites.csusm.edu/plagiarism-tutorial/

• Definition - Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University. (2004, April 27). Plagiarism: What it is and how to recognize and avoid it. http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

Key Takeaway: It’s very important to cite all the sources that you use. Citation allows you to make your argument more effectively, give credit to authors who influenced your ideas and avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is frequently unintentional, so be sure to take detailed notes and save the citations of all sources you consult using the “cite” button found in library databases.