avoid plagiarism

As you review your sources as a body of evidence, imagine that they are en-gaging in a dialogue with one another. What kind of conversation would thesesources have and how can you contribute to it? Another way to establish con-nections 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 re-fer to?

The more questions you ask to establish relationships between each of yoursources, the better able you will be to view them as a collective body of evidence.

WHAT DOES MY EVIDENCE HELP ME DO?

Once you have assessed where your evidence stands and decided on the mainidea or ideas your essay will address, you can begin thinking about how to bestuse each source. Some sources are better than others for supporting a particularpoint. Consider an essay about the benefits of Internet dating, for example. Awriter gathers a variety of evidence, including statistics about how many peopleuse Internet dating services, interviews from people who have used Internet dat-ing services, and websites for specific services. Each source will help the writersupport a different point. The writer might use statistics, for example, to explainhow widespread the Internet dating phenomenon is. Interviews from those whohave used Internet dating services allow the writer to find out what individualparticipants did and did not like about the process. Finally, although a websitefor 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. Thewriter would not, however, use statistics about how many people use Internetdating services to prove the point that participants enjoy Internet dating. Whileeach source supports the writer’s main idea, they are not interchangeable. Somesources are better for establishing the issue’s background, while others can ex-plain a specific person or group’s opinion about a topic. Remember to ask of eachsource, “What can this evidence help me do?”

INTEGRATING SOURCES AND AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

To integrate sources into your paper, you can either paraphrase or directly quotean author. In both cases, it is important to use the author’s ideas to support yourpoint, 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 thesource relates to your argument. If you directly quote an author, then follow thequote with a discussion of how it is connected to your main ideas. Without ex-planation, the quote’s intended purpose is lost on the audience.

Deciding whether you should paraphrase or directly quote a source can bedifficult. In general, you should only directly quote a source when preserving theauthor’s language is important. There are many famous quotes, such as “To beor not to be, that is the question,” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this case, theauthor’s wording is essential—only this phrasing can convey the idea in the mostpowerful way. It is more difficult to determine whether you should directly quotea source when it is less well known. In most cases, however, you can paraphrasethe author’s wording and convey the same information, being sure to give creditto the author in your discussion. Quotations can be distracting, and many au-thors fall into the trap of using direct quotes to convey their main idea. Conse-quently, you should try to paraphrase in most cases rather than relying on directquotes from your sources.

It is essential that you document your sources as you integrate them intoyour paper. If you present another author’s ideas as your own, you are commit-ting plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in expulsion fromyour college or university. Certainly, you do not have to document every fact thatyou include in your paper. There are many facts that are considered general in-formation. Some examples are statements like, “Our solar system is comprisedof nine planets,” or “Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president.” Facts thatare not well known, however, and that cannot be found in several sources, mustbe documented. Furthermore, if you include the opinion, assertion, or conclu-sions of another author in your paper, you must cite the source from which itcame. Suppose, for example, that you are writing a paper about school vouchersand you find the following quote:

Today 63% of all black students attend predominantly nonwhite schools. Public edu-cation is also increasingly economically segregated. A voucher system may not fosterthe ethnic diversity of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between publicand 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 samewords and phrases as the author of the source:

Public education is actually increasingly economically segregated. So a voucher sys-tem may not foster ethnic diversity, but it will dilute the distinction between pub-lic and private schools. This will add much needed equality to American education.

To avoid plagiarizing, you might decide to paraphrase the author, in whichcase you should use your own words to convey the author’s ideas:

According to Walter Shapiro, the argument that public education ensures that stu-dents 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 eco-nomic diversity in education by offering minorities and the underprivileged the op-portunity to attend the school of their choice (Shapiro 72).

Alternatively, you might decide that you do not want to lose the author’swording and want to quote directly from the source. If so, you can introduce theauthor and include the page number on which the quote appeared.

Walter Shapiro argues that, “A voucher system may not foster the ethnic diversityof a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public and privateschools, 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 areseveral reasons for documenting your sources. Documenting evidence allowsother 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 awriter. Finally, documenting your sources protects you against charges of pla-giarism.

Each discipline has its own set of documentation guidelines. The ModernLanguage Association (MLA) style is often used in the humanities and requiresthat you document your evidence both within the paper by using parentheticalreferences and in a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper.

PARENTHETICAL REFERENCES IN THE TEXT

A parenthetical reference tells readers what sources you used in your writingand how you used them, as well as guides readers to the appropriate entry in theworks cited list at the end of the paper. In general, then, a parenthetical refer-ence should provide the reader with just enough information so that the sourcecan easily be located in the works cited list.

When you are citing a work by one or more authors. A typical paren-thetical 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 pagenumber in parentheses:

According to Rachel Carson, while humans may be at the top of the food chain, our ex-istence is dependent on the health of the environment (149).


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When you are citing a work without a listed author. List the title of thesource and the page number.

Many contend that the Food and Drug Administration does not possess enough re-sources to adequately inspect imported produce (“Fresh Produce, the Downside” 14A).

When you are citing an indirect source. When you quote someone who isnot the author of the book or article, you are using an indirect source. Indicatethat the source you are citing is quoted in another source by abbreviating theword “quoted.”

Describing feminism’s contemporary ideology Susan Stein argued that, “feminism todayis 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 doesnot have a page number, but uses paragraphs, sections, or screen numbers, writethe abbreviation par., sec., or the word screen and the corresponding number inyour citation. Place a comma after the last name of the author.

The program aims to teach low-income families how to use various software andcomputer technology (Hammill, par. 2).

If there are no divisions of any kind in the electronic source, simply list thelast 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, journalarticles, and websites.

A book w i th one au tho r

Bellah, Robert N. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in

American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.

Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Scribner’s, 1948.

D O C U M E N T I N G S O U R C E S 801

Author’s namein reverse

City ofpublication

Title of the bookPublisher’s name,abbreviated

Year ofpublication

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Ar t i c l e in a j ou rna l w i th cont inuous pag ina t ionth roughout the annua l vo lume

Popkin, Jeremy D. “Historians on the Autobiographical Frontier.” The American

Historical Review 104 (1999): 725-48.

Soules, Marshall. “Animating the Language Machine: Computers and

Performance.” Computers and the Humanities 36 (2002): 319–45.

Ent i re In te rne t s i t e ( s cho la r l y p ro jec t , i n fo rmat ionda tabase, j ou rna l , o r p rofess iona l webs i te)

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van Leeuwen. 2003. 29 Nov. 2003

<http://www.bartleby.com/>.

Library Spot.com. 2003. 15 March 2003 <http://www.libraryspot.com>.

BOOKSA book w i th two o r th ree au tho rs

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.


Author’sname

Title of journalunderlined

Page numbers

Title of article in quotes

Volumenumber

Date inparentheses

Title of websiteunderlined

URL in brackets

Date ofaccess

Name of theeditor of the site(if given)

Date ofelectronicpublication orlatest update

Names appear as they do on title page

Reverse only the first name andseparate names using commas

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A book w i th more than th ree au tho rs

McCartney, Paul, et al. The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000.

More than one work by the same au tho r( s)

Weinberg, Steven. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York: Pantheon, 1992.

---. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge: Harvard UP,

2001.

A book w i th an ed i to r

Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Mabel Loomis Todd

and T. W. Higginson. New York: Avenel, 1982.

A work in a se r i e s

Hock, Ronald F. and Edward N. O’Neil, ed. The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric.

Texts and Trans. 27. Atlanta: Scholars, 1986.


First namelisted on thetitle page

Followed byet al.

In place of the author’s name, three hyphens and a period

Editorabbreviated

Name ofeditors

Title ofthe series

Number inthe series

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An antho logy

McNamara, Peter and Margaret Winch, ed. Alien Shores: An Anthology of

Australian Science Fiction. North Adelaide, Austral.: Aphelion, 1994.

A se lec t ion f rom an an tho logy

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.

A re fe rence work

Unger, Rhoda K., ed. Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New

York: Wiley, 2001.

Ar t i c l e in a re fe rence work

Crawford, Mary. “Gender and Language.” Handbook of the Psychology of Women

and Gender. Rhoda K. Unger, ed. New York: Wiley, 2001.


Name of editor or compiler

Author ofthe part ofthe bookbeing cited

Page numbersof the citedpiece

Title of the partof the bookbeing cited

Name of the editor,translator, orcompiler of the book

Editor or compilerof reference book

Author of articlein reverse

Title of articlein quotes

Title of bookunderlined

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A t rans l a t ion

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael Henry

Heim. New York: Harper, 1984.

PERIODICALS The entry for an article in a periodical, like that for a book, has three main divi-sions:

Author’s name. “Title of the article.” Publication information.

Ar t i c l e in a j ou rna l tha t pag ina tes i s sues sepa ra te l y

Gardner, Martin. “A Quarter Century of Recreational Mathematics.” Scientific

American 279. 2 (1998): 68-76.

Ar t i c l e in a month ly o r b imonth ly magaz ine

Lapham, Lewis. “Hazards of New Fortune: Harper’s Magazine, Then and Now.”

Harper’s Magazine June 2000: 57-83.


Translatorabbreviated

Name oftranslator

Author ofarticle

Volumenumber,followed by aperiod

Issue number

Page numbers

Year of publication inparentheses,followed by a colon


Title ofjournal

Title of magazine Month ofpublication

Year of publicationfollowed by a colon

Page numbers

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Ar t i c l e in a week ly magaz ine (uns igned/s igned)

Soukup, Elise. “Lights! Camera! Incision!: The Brave New World of Surgery on

the Internet.” Newsweek. 14 Aug. 2006: 34.

Ar t i c l e in a newspape r

Wilkinson, Sean McCormack. “Security Posts Filled.” New York Times

26 Nov. 2003: A12+.

Rev iew

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.


Date of publication,month abbreviated

Page number


Title of newspaperunderlined

Date abbreviatedfollowed by a colon

If the article does not appear onconsecutive pages, write the firstpage number and follow with a“+”

Title of reviewin quotes

Dateabbreviatedfollowed bycolon

Page number

Author(s) of bookbeing reviewed

Reviewabbreviated

Publicationin whichthe reviewappears

Title of bookbeing reviewedunderlined

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ONLINE SOURCES Pe rsona l webs i te

Boucicaut, J. R. Home page. 9 Oct. 2001. 14 Sept. 2003 <http://www.geocites.com/

Colosseum/8019/>.

Ent i re on l ine book

Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. 1922. Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van

Leeuwen. 2003. 10 Oct. 2003 <http://www.bartleby.com/162/>.

Ar t i c l e in a s cho la r l y j ou rna l

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>.


Name of creatorof website

Title of site, orif no title“Home page”

Date of thelast update

Date ofaccess

URL inbrackets

Author’sname

Date ofelectronicpublication

Title ofbook

Date ofaccess

Originalpublicationdate ofprint version

Title ofInternet siteunderlined

Editor ofsite

URL inbrackets

URL withinthedatabase

Title ofjournalunderlined

Volume numberfollowed byperiod

Issuenumber

Year ofpublicationinparentheses

Name ofdatabaseunderlined

Date ofaccess

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Ar t i c l e in an on l ine re fe rence book o r encyc loped ia

“Levi-Strauss, Claude.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2003. Encyclopædia Britannica

Premium Service. 28 Nov. 2000 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=49112>.

Ar t i c l e in an on l ine newspape r

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>.

Ar t i c l e in an on l ine magaz ine

Soros, George. “The Bubble of American Supremacy.” Atlantic Online December 2003.

28 Dec. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm>.


Title ofarticle inquotes

Name ofelectronicservice

Date ofaccess

Title ofonlinereference

Date of thelast updateor electronicpublicationdate

URL inbrackets

Title of onlinenewspaperunderlined

Publicationdate

Date of access Title of articlein quotes

URL

Date of access URL of thearticle

Title of onlinemagazine

Publicationdate

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Work f rom a l i b ra ry subsc r ip t ion se rv i ce

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/>.

Mate r i a l a c cessed th rough an on l ine se r v i ce

This citation is formatted the same as a work from a library subscription serv-ice (see example above).

Pos t ing to a d i s cuss ion 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>.

E lec t ron i c ma i l

Nichols, Mona. “Re: Martha Stewart.” E-mail to Elena M. Past. 20 July 2003.


State/city oflibrary

Name of thedatabaseunderlined

Name of theservice

Name of thelibrary or librarysystem followedby a comma

Date ofaccess

URL

Author’sname

Title ofdocument asgiven in thesubject line inquotes

Description

Date ofaccess

Date posted Name offorum or list

URL

Name ofwriter

Title ofmessage,if any

Description ofmessage thatincludes therecipient

Date ofmessage

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A synch ronous communica t ion

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>.

Date of event

OTHER NONPRINT SOURCES Mate r i a l a c cessed on a CD-ROM, DVD , d i ske t te, o r magnet i c t ape

“Figure-Ground Contrast.” Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.

Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

Pa in t ing , s cu lp tu re, o r photog raph on an e le c t ron i c sou rce

Munch, Edvard. The Scream. 1893. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century.

CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.


Name ofthe speaker

Forum for thecommunication

Date ofaccess

URLDescriptionof the event

Part of thework you areciting inquotes

Title of sourceunderlined

Type of source

Date of work, if available

Artist’sname

Title of workof art

Title and type of electronic source(if source is a website, use date ofaccess and URL)

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An adve r t i sement on an e le c t ron i c sou rce

Allen Edmonds Shoes. Advertisement. Comp21: Composition in the 21st

Century. CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

A f i lm c l ip on an e le c t ron i c sou rce

The Price of Freedom. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.

Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

An adve r t i sement

Ford Explorer. Advertisement. Time 15 July 2002: 20-21.


Descriptive labelof advertisementalways included

Name of productor company beingadvertised

Title and type of electronic source(if source is a website, use date ofaccess and URL)

Title and type of electronic source (if sourceis a website, use date of access and URL)

Title of film clip, precededby director, if available

Publication information (ifon television, use name ofnetwork and the broadcastdate)

Page numbersin publication

Name of product orcompany being advertised

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A pa in t ing , s cu lp tu re, o r photog raph

Uelsmann, Jerry N. Tree-house. Jerry Uelsmann. Occasions for Writing:

Evidence, Idea, Essay. By Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy. Boston:

Wadsworth, 2008. 562.

A f i lm o r v ideo re co rd ing

Pakula, Alan J., dir. All the President’s Men. Warner Bros., 1976.

A te lev i s ion o r rad io p rog ram

“Firestorm.” Narr. Charles Wooley. 60 Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York.

23 Nov. 2003.

A le t te r

L’Engle, Madeleine. Letter to the author. 10 June 2003.

An in te rv iew

Friedman, Stephanie. Personal interview. 20 July 2003.


Title of workof art

Artist’s name

Page number, slidenumber, or figurenumber

Title of source inwhich the work ofart appears

Authors ofsource

Institution orprivate owner

Title underlinedDirector Distributor Year of release

Title ofepisode

Broadcastdate

Narrator ordirector Title of

programName of thenetwork

Call letters andcity of the localstation

Author ofletter

The kind ofletter

Date the letterwas written

Name of the personinterviewed

The kind ofinterview

Date ofinterview

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SAMPLE WORKS CITED PAGEWorks 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, Perry-

Castaneda 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>.

S A M P L E W O R K S C I T E D 813

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avoid plagiarism

Documents