Examine the references below to see the various ways to cite the source of quotes, paraphrased passages, and specific details.
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How do I cite information properly?
In order to avoid plagiarizing, it is NECESSARY to give credit where credit is due! The proper way to do this is to follow the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) guidelines. The MLA provides rules for every type of citation, from text books to websites. By following their guidelines and citing properly, you can avoid plagiarizing another person’s ideas.
Basic In-Text Citation Rules (for Books) In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what's known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the author's name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s):
ex. 1: Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).
ex. 2: As Burke states, human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (3).
*If you don't state the author's name directly, include it in the citation [see example 1].
*If you do state the author's name directly, you do not need to include it in the citation [see example 2].
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work, or italicize or underline it if it's a longer work.
Works Cited Page Because in-text citations do not provide the reader with enough information about the source, we need to create a “Works Cited Page” to tell the reader more about the source material. The Works Cited page is a separate page, stapled to the last page of an essay or paper. At the top of the page, it should read “Works Cited,” unless there is only one work being used. In that case, title the page “Work Cited.” Then, the sources are listed alphabetically by the author’s last name. First or single author's name is written last name, first name. The basic form for a book citation is:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
A Book with One Author Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
A Book with More Than One Author First author name is written last name first; subsequent author names are written first name, last name.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.
If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others"; no period after "et") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.
Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of
Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004.
Tips on smooth quote integration
It is also very important that the information you are quoting fits neatly into what you are writing. Don't simply drop in a quote and say something like "This is made clear in the following quote" in order to introduce it. Similarly, don't paste a quote as a complete sentence and then say something along the lines of "That quote shows . . . "
In order to review the proper way to integrate quotes, please see these websites-
https://web.ccis.edu/Offices/AcademicResources/WritingCenter/EssayWritingAssistance/SuggestedWaystoIntroduceQuotations.aspx
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/introquo.html
(for additional information, you can go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/07/
How do I cite information properly?
In order to avoid plagiarizing, it is NECESSARY to give credit where credit is due! The proper way to do this is to follow the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) guidelines. The MLA provides rules for every type of citation, from text books to websites. By following their guidelines and citing properly, you can avoid plagiarizing another person’s ideas.
Basic In-Text Citation Rules (for Books) In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what's known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the author's name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s):
ex. 1: Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).
ex. 2: As Burke states, human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (3).
*If you don't state the author's name directly, include it in the citation [see example 1].
*If you do state the author's name directly, you do not need to include it in the citation [see example 2].
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work, or italicize or underline it if it's a longer work.
Works Cited Page Because in-text citations do not provide the reader with enough information about the source, we need to create a “Works Cited Page” to tell the reader more about the source material. The Works Cited page is a separate page, stapled to the last page of an essay or paper. At the top of the page, it should read “Works Cited,” unless there is only one work being used. In that case, title the page “Work Cited.” Then, the sources are listed alphabetically by the author’s last name. First or single author's name is written last name, first name. The basic form for a book citation is:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
A Book with One Author Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
A Book with More Than One Author First author name is written last name first; subsequent author names are written first name, last name.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.
If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others"; no period after "et") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.
Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of
Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004.
Tips on smooth quote integration
It is also very important that the information you are quoting fits neatly into what you are writing. Don't simply drop in a quote and say something like "This is made clear in the following quote" in order to introduce it. Similarly, don't paste a quote as a complete sentence and then say something along the lines of "That quote shows . . . "
In order to review the proper way to integrate quotes, please see these websites-
https://web.ccis.edu/Offices/AcademicResources/WritingCenter/EssayWritingAssistance/SuggestedWaystoIntroduceQuotations.aspx
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/introquo.html
(for additional information, you can go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/07/