As you are writing
your paper, it will become necessary to cite information from primary
and secondary sources. If you use information in your paper from any
outside source and do not give credit to that source, you are engaged in
an act of plagiarism. Plagiarism is intellectual theft, and is the
cardinal sin of the academic world. Avoid this pernicious habit at all
costs by scrupulously giving credit for any ideas that you borrow from
outside sources.
Citing
Sources
There are several
different ways to cite a source when writing a research paper. The most
common way is simply to sum up an author’s ideas in your own words
and then reference the source in your footnotes. For example:
Ex. 1.
Summarizing
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Kavastad
goes on to explain that if a person understands the meaning of a concept
in relation to a particular type of sense experience, he will also know
something about another type of sense experience if the same concept is
used. For example, if one knows what an unpleasant sound is, the same
concept that is used to describe the sound may be used to describe an
unpleasant odor. The smell may still be ineffable, but some aspects of
it can be communicated. (161-162) |
Another common way to
cite an author is to quote him directly. This can be done in various ways
as the examples below indicate:
Ex. 2. Selective
Quoting of Words/Phrases
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Smart
begins his analysis by defining mysticism primarily as "an interior
or introvertive quest culminating in certain interior experiences which
are not described in terms of sense experience or of mental images,
etc" (42). |
Ex. 3. Directly
Quoting a Sentence
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The
only true right that man possesses is the right to defend his life and
limb. For Hobbes and Spinoza, however, this right is always relative to
his power to do so: "Therefore the first foundation of natural
right is this, that every man as much as in him lies endeavor to protect
his life and members" (Gert 115). All other benefits that man seeks
to enjoy are likewise relative to the power he has to enjoy them. |
Ex. 4. Weaving
a Quote into Your Text
|
The
manner in which one loves the vast array of good things we encounter
within the world, furthermore, determines the entire moral direction of
one’s life. "My weight is my love," writes Augustine,
"wherever I am carried, it is my love that carries me there" (Confessions
104). |
A final method of citing
sources, and one that should be used sparingly, is to use block
quotation. A block quote must be at least two sentences and four lines
long. Such quotes should be single- spaced and indented 1 inch from the
left and right margins of your text. No quotation marks are necessary for
block quotes. For example:
Ex. 5. Block
Quoting
|
In Book One of
the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle maintains that, although
happiness must be connected primarily with virtue (arete),
certain external goods are also necessary in order to make life
supremely happy. Thus, the absence of such goods as health,
wealth, family and the like will affect the happiness of the wise
man:
Fortune
brings many things to pass, some great, some small. Minor
instances of good and likewise of bad luck obviously do not
decisively tip the scales of life, but a number of major
successes will make life more perfectly happy....On the other
hand, frequent reverses can crush and mar supreme happiness in
that they inflict pain and thwart many activities. Still
nobility shines through even in such circumstances, when a man
bears many misfortunes with good grace...because he is noble
and high minded. (23)
Thus Aristotle
is convinced that major successes in life can make the virtuous
man even happier, and his strength of character enables him to
bear minor losses. |
More
Information about Citing Sources
Documenting
Sources the MLA Way
Although in the past it
was common to document sources using footnotes or endnotes, the Modern
Language Association has decided to adopt a parenthetical method of
documentation, in which sources of information are noted within the text
itself. The following represent the most common forms of documentation:
1. Author’s Name
in Text: see examples 1 and 2 and 5 above.
2. Author’s Name
Not in Text: see example 3 above.
3. Citing Several
Works by the Same Author: see example 4 above.
More information
on Documenting Sources
Using
Endnotes
When using parenthetical
documentation, you can also use endnotes (1) to give information that
might be useful to the reader but which is tangential to the topic being
discussed in your paper or (2) to give the reader additional sources of
reference.
Examples:
1
Kvastad goes on to say that the same is also true with respect to the
mystical experience: the words used to describe such a state may not be
fully comprehended in their totality by the mystic, but they can impart
some useful information about the experience.
2
For more information on this topic see Kraut 98; Irwin 37; Schofield and
Striker 32; and O’Connell, 127.
More
Information about End Notes
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