Documentation

Remember the conditions when quoting is encouraged:

• the words themselves are key because they are unusually memorable, vivid, or inventive

• attempts to paraphrase may distort the meaning

• the words are from an important expert (on either side of the issue)

Remember also:

• a quotation includes only material relevant to your point,

• a quotation is edited to eliminate examples and other unneeded material, and

• a quotation over four lines in length should be indented without quote marks.

And remember that you document:

• to give credit to a source whose words or ideas you have borrowed (and thus avoid plagiarism),

• to add authority to your own argument so that our opinion alone does not make the case, and

• to provide reference info so that readers could find the same source you used to do follow-up reading

Two last points:

1. Common knowledge is like public domain software: it may be freely borrowed without attribution. For more discussion, follow this link.

2. Paraphrases must be cited!

For in-text citations, remember:

• citation requires parentheses after borrowing

• citation requires author and page (use shortened form of title if no author)

• if source is internet and author/title is provided in signal phrase, then use (n.p.) as cite (for "no page")

• consecutive same source citations only require new page numbers

• prepare your borrowing with smooth signal phrase or clause

• signal phrases that provide author (or title) do not need to repeat that information in the cite

• use brackets and ellipses as necessary to integrate borrowing into your text

• follow MLA standards for punctuation, including:

-  closing quotation marks occur before parenthetical cite
-  period occurs after citation
-  no comma separates author from page number

For the Works Cited page, remember:

• only include sources actually cited in the text of your paper: this is NOT a resource list!

• provide enough information so that the source can be found by any reader

• first piece of info in entry on Works Cited page must connect to in-text citation

• use the citation tools on EBSCO, ProQuest, and CQ Researcher to create cites; or use models from MLA section in a handbook; or follow links below to college or university websites that explain and illustrate MLA documentation

• if the URL for a website is particularly gnarly, use only the root of the URL. (See Purdue's Writing Center link, below, for specifics.)

• If the source is a subscription database, please follow cite tools but be sure URLs are not prolonged. (See samples here.)

• include a "Works Cited" title at the top of the page (underlined or italicized)

• create this page independently of the text of your paper so that you might customize your formatting (don't worry about page numbers for your Works Cited page)

• use the same font for this page as you did to write the rest of your paper (and keep font size consistent)

• always include a period after every entry

• use hanging indents to format each entry

• alphabetize your complete set of entries (no subheadings should be used)

• double-space both within and between entries

Some sources are tricky to document because of the source of your information. For example, if you find an article from the EBSCO or ProQuest database, you have information in your citation that would not appear in a cite using the print version of the same article. Here's a side-by-side comparison. You may use websites such as the Citation Machine or easybib to help you format your documentation. With all of these resources (including cite tools from our library resource databases), there is no excuse for not being able to document your sources properly.

In addition, internet resources for help in secondary source integration are plentiful from many academic websites. I don't need to re-invent the wheel, so I'm indebted to the following sources for illustrating what we're trying to do in our own research papers. Here's an online exercise to help you understand when you should document (from Cornell University). A PowerPoint presentation from English Professor Jason Snart, from the College of DuPage located just outside Chicago, can help walk you through tips and examples of the proper use of secondary source integration. His PowerPoint is a thorough overview and can show you plenty of examples (with annotations) to help you see the best way to integrate your sources.

A broad overview of documentation can be found in either of these university websites: Purdue's Writing Center and the University of North Carolina's Writing Center. Presentation points matter in the final draft, so be sure to give yourself enough time to compose and arrange your final Works Cited page.