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1.      How do you type a bibliography?  A bibliography is your list of sources for your paper—books, journals, Web sites, etc.  Different disciplines have different systems: e.g., English and the humanities use MLA; social sciences and nursing use APA or ASA; history, CMS; journalism, AP; science and engineering, CSE, etc.  Here is an example of one of these, MLA.  A typical MLA bibliography is titled “Works Cited.”  It is a separate end page with consistent double spacing and standard margins.  Entries are alphabetized using authors’ last names (if available).  Each entry has a “hanging indent”: the first line is even with the left margin; each line of the entry after the first is indented ½” (the same as a paragraph’s beginning).  Here are four examples of common types of entries:

2.      How do you use these entries in your paper?  Use information from each “Works Cited” entry at least once in your paper, either as a quotation or as a paraphrase.  You may also show additional sources: (a) unused ones on an “Other Works Consulted” page or (b) highly recommended ones on a “Selected Bibliography” page. 

3.      What are quotations and paraphrases?  A “quotation” (“Q”) is a source’s exact words.  A “paraphrase” (“P”) is a source’s idea summarized in words of your own.  You must give credit to each source so no one accuses you of plagiarism.  Even if accidental, plagiarism can lead to your flunking a college course or being fired from a professional job.  To avoid such consequences, give authors credit for not only their words but also their thoughts. 

4.      How do you give credit?  Provide a source name and (if available) page #.  Start most Q’s and P’s with the first word from the bibliog. entry. (Compare the bold names below with the above).  Here are typical patterns.  The left side shows MLA & APA; the right, only MLA.  (Notice how APA uses the past tense, a publ. year, and a “p.”)

You also may use words of introduction such as “argues,” “asks,” “suggests,” “implies,” etc. in moderation.

5.      How do you know what not to credit?  If you use common knowledge or information similar to what is in a standard reference (such as a dictionary), you need not credit a source (unless you quote it).  One rule of thumb is that if you find the same idea in three sources, none of which credit another source, then the idea probably is common knowledge: don’t credit it (unless you quote it).  Your own idea also does not need credit.  However, if you find it in a published source, credit that source, too (e.g., “One idea is __.  This idea also is expressed by __.”)    

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            When writing a paper, it is important to have sufficient quotations and paraphrases.  In most courses in the first two years of college, there should be a good number of quotations and paraphrases in all sections of your paper.  This often is true of upper-division and graduate courses, too, though in some professional papers, quotations and paraphrases may occur in only one or two sections of a paper (for example, in business proposals and recommendation reports, in scientific proposals and reports, et al.).  

            If a summary is one of the sections in your paper, generally you should avoid quotations in it or limit them to no more than one or two short ones. The reason for this limiting is that a summary is just that--a summary. By its very nature it is supposed to be a condensed version of the reading and its ideas, not a repetition of parts of it. Quotations are repetitions of the content. Learn instead to condense what you are summarizing into fewer words--and almost always your own. However, if you do paraphrase specific ideas from specific pages (not from the reading in general), you may be required to provide page numbers for these paraphrases. As your instructor how she/he wants you to handle paraphrases.

            The main body sections of a typical academic research paper should, however, be rich with quotations and paraphrases.  A good rule of thumb in such writing is to average perhaps two or three short quotations or paraphrases (or one or two longer ones) per typed, double-spaced page, or very roughly every three hundred words. This is, of course, just a guideline--and it should be taken as an average per page (e.g., you might have four on one page and two on the next).  In addition, the actual number of quotations and paraphrases in any page or section often depends on a number of factors: content, course level, purpose of the paper (a quick, in-class analysis or a full-scale term paper), discipline (e.g., social science papers may have a large number of paraphrases and few if any quotations; literature papers, however, may have many quotations and few or no paraphrases), and your instructor's wishes.

            What is the importance of quotations and paraphrases?  They back up what you are saying.  They do so by offering details and proving your objectivity. The details help your readers better understand precisely what you mean by explaining or describing it through the thoughts of others.  And the fact that others--legitimate and well respected experts--can be quoted and paraphrased in support of what you are saying helps validate your own objectivity.  They also offer readers a chance to further explore other writings by authors whom you have quoted and paraphrased. (rev. 10-04; below not rev.)

            When organizing quotations, try to provide the more important or useful ones first in any given section, and others later. If you write quotations as you brainstorm your early draft, then you already may have them where they belong. However, if you need to rearrange them or if you are the kind of writer who adds quotations after she has written a first or second draft, then you'll need to place them into your text logically and smoothly. "Logically" means that you should place quotations or paraphrases where they can be most helpful in supporting what you are saying. "Smoothly" means that you can't just slap them in.

            Rather, you need to use what we might call the "hamburger method" of "sandwiching" quotations. Most quotations are the meat of what you are saying in a particular place on your paper. However, you shouldn't just serve them as a hunk of meat. They should be sandwiched in a bun--a sentence or phrase before the quotation, and another sentence or phrase after it. These two enclosing sets of words wrap around the quotation, making the quotation more easily understood by the readers. What do you write in these enclosing sentences? It varies, depending on the individual writer, the content, and the context. However, usually such sentences provide a statement of the importance of the quotation, connect it to the previous or following idea, restate it in another way, and/or offer a short introduction to the author's context or situation. The idea is to use the "bun" as two transitional devices (see below) to help your reader move easily and intelligently into the quotation's content and out again without having to stop and figure out why the quotation is there.

            If you know what paraphrases are and how to use them (if you don't, see Chapter 35 for examples), you may find that as you wrote your first or second draft, you added many ideas from the author of the reading. If this is so, all you need to do is to comb through your earlier draft carefully and provide corroborating page numbers and statements like "[author] says" for the paraphrases (all paraphrases must include credit for the author!). If you haven't already added paraphrases and need to, then you may do so as described above in the directions for adding quotations. (However, you may find that the introductory and concluding "buns" probably can be much smaller and less conspicuous: paraphrases tend to flow better with their surrounding intellectual content and so are in need of less sandwiching.)

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            Quotations always should have quotation marks (" ") around them, and when you are using quotation marks, you always should use the author's actual, unchanged words. 

            When you are using quotations, try to incorporate them smoothly into your text. You should establish the source of the quote and the page on which it appears. Establishing these is called "citing" or using "citations." There are many ways to cite: MLA (English and the humanities, APA (the social sciences and nursing, CBE (the sciences), Chicago (history), et al., as well as more casual systems that your instructor, workplace, or a magazine or journal for whom you are writing might require. The most common method of citing in the first four years of college is the parenthetical citation system used especially in MLA and APA styles. In this method, you cite using a credit/quotation/page system as follows:

credit           quotation    (page number)

Author said, "Quote" (XX). [MLA]
or
Author said, "Quote" (p. XX). [APA]
            

"Title" said, "Quote" (Author XX). [MLA]
or
"Title" said, "Quote" (Author, p. XX). [APA]

Here are examples:

Johnson said, "We value freedom" (36).
or
Johnson said, "We value freedom" (p. 36).
          

According to "Vote Well," "We value freedom" (Johnson 36).
or
According to "Vote Well," "We value freedom" (Johnson, p. 36).

            Another important element of quoting is to not just slap a quotation into a paragraph.  This means two things when you're writing:

(1) Don't start or end a paragraph with a quotation.  Every paragraph with a quotation in it should generally have its own short introduction and conclusion, just like a paper does: a beginning topic sentence (describing or implying what the paragraph will be about) and a closing sentence (describing what the paragraph was about, the importance of what it was about, and/or the way in which the paragraph's idea ties in with the next thought below it).

(2) Flow into a quotation anywhere in a paragraph with an introductory sentence and a concluding one: 

            The first sentence is an introduction or transition, which may prepare the reader for the quote, summarize the idea of the quote, or simply introduce it. The last sentence may summarize the idea for the reader, conclude the paragraph, or simply provide a transition from that idea to the next one. Notice how the sentence with the quotation is enclosed like a sandwich by the introductory and closing sentences before and after it:

Another important concept is that of remaining free. According to Amelia Johnson, "We value freedom highly" (36). This is particularly true in the United States.  For example. . . .

Using this pattern insures not only smooth, easily read writing; it also insures that the author's point you are trying to emphasize is clearly made in exactly the way you intend.

            If you need a bibliography--a list of your sources at the end of your paper--you can either use an informal one for your response or turn to the revising/editing section of the "Writing an Analysis" chapter in this book and learn how to make a more formal bibliography. For an informal one, simply list your sources, putting the author's name first, then the title(s), and then the publisher, city, and year.

            You may start a quotation and end it anywhere in an author's sentence where it is convenient for you--beginning, middle, or end. You also may leave words out of the middle of a sentence or even leave out whole sentences or paragraphs.  however, if you leave words out, you should signify this by typing three dots-- . . . –called an "ellipse," to signify that words are missing.

            For example, if I were to quote parts of only one sentence--for example, parts of the sentence before this one--I could write the resulting quotation as follows:

"You also may leave words out . . . by typing three dots. . . ."

This quotation has words missing from both the middle and the end of the original (check the original sentence). I replaced the missing middle-section words with an ellipse. I also replaced the missing words at the end with an ellipse, though it may not look like it: what you see is the normal ending period, which comes first, and then the three-dot ellipse.

            Please note that there are spaces in an ellipse when you type it for a paper.  These spaces occur before, between, and after the three dots: 

--a total of four spaces.  However, if the ellipse occurs at the end of the sentence, then you should omit the final space: 

In addition, as just shown, when there is a period and then an ellipse (four dots), there is no space before the first dot because it is a normal period.  

            Finally, if you add a page number at the end, remember to place the period after the page number.  As a result, you will have the ellipse first, then the page number, and then the period: 

            You also may change or add an occasional word within the quotation marks for clarification.  If you do so, you should put the change or addition in brackets--[ ]--to show what has been added. One should use brackets as little as possible, but sometimes they are necessary. For example, here is a quotation of the sentence before this one with a phrase added for clarification:

"One should use brackets [in quotations] as little as possible, but sometimes [brackets] are necessary."

 

     

Avoiding Plagiarism

             The word "plagiarism" is mentioned above. Let's define and clarify what it is. Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit. We will define this more precisely in the "Research Writing" chapter; for now, however, let's state the definition more simply and clearly: If you use an author's phrase or sentence, put quotation marks (" ") around it and give the author credit by name. If you use an author's idea in your own writing (such as a summary--which is all an author's idea), don't use quotation marks when using your own words. However, you still must state the author's name. Here is a summary of these two guidelines:

             In academic writing especially, plagiarism is considered highly unethical. Very highly placed people in some of our top universities have been fired or forced to resign because of plagiarism, even in cases where the plagiarism was unintended or accidental. In the business world, too, it is considered unethical--and in some cases can lead to lawsuits and loss of jobs.

            Technically, you are cheating when you use someone else's paper, someone else's words, or even someone's ideas without giving that other person credit.  This is true even if you do so accidentally.  In particular, using someone else's paper is considered extremely unethical.  Though local services still exist that supply papers, and some individuals and/or social groups may offer you their papers, the most common form of using someone else's paper is to take it from the Web.  Whatever your source, there are severe consequences for doing it.  Moreover, it's usually not worth the effort, time, or money.  Here is why:

(1) If you're using the Web, you should know that the great majority of free papers on it  are so poorly written that they are dangerous to use.  

(2) Often it is very easy for a teacher to spot a plagiarized paper, for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways.  

(3) There are so few papers available on the Web that there is a good possibility that you will present the teacher with the same paper someone else has.  

(4) Many of the free or fee-based sites offering papers actually search the same database as do other such search sites, and the result is still #3 above, even if you and a friend use different services.  

(5) Custom-written papers may cost $20 to $40 per page.  

(6) Many sites and local services never tell you what kind of grade (if any!) the paper you are copying received.  

(7) You'll end up sounding like someone else.  

(8) You'll end up having a bibliography that is old or not available in your own libraries or at current online URLs.  

(9) You'll spend so much time searching, copying, and fixing a paper to make it fit your particular class that you probably could have done as well with a paper of your own in the same amount of time with less risk. 

(10) It's cheating, and you'll always remember that you cheated.

(11) There always are penalties, and some teachers make them very severe.

(12) Plagiarizing an entire paper is grounds for being kicked out of many colleges and universities.  If they're looking for an excuse, you may be handing it to them on a platter.

(13) It really is fair that you have to write every paper.  First, if you don't, you're cheating on your classmates: the great majority of them are having to do a real paper themselves to earn the grade that you're trying to get for free.  Second, you're cheating on employers or grad schools, which assume that your record indicates honestly you really did earn your grades, just like most other students.  Third, you're cheating yourself because, even if the paper is not on a subject you'll ever use again, the very process of writing it improves your skills as a student.

--Some of the information in this section was developed from Winn L. Rosch's "Term paper off the Web? Not worth it" in the 12-20-00 Minneapolis Star Tribune (E1, 11).  Rosch's article originally appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
  

     

Online Plagiarism Resources

• Plagiarism, learning what it is and avoiding it: Minnesota and Princeton.  

• Plagiarism avoidance resource list: Bedford Researcher

• Fee-based prevention programs: www.plagiarism.org & www.canexus.com

• Preventing Plagiarism of Papers: www.plagiarism.org