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Chapter 15
How Do I Cite My Sources?
Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower.
MARGUERITE GARDINER
When you use someone else's words or ideas in your research paper, you must give credit. Otherwise, you're stealing their work. And whether the theft is intentional or accidental, the effect is the same: failure, humiliation, and perhaps even expulsion. Learn how to avoid literary theft by documenting your sources correctly.
What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the technical name for using someone else's words without giving adequate credit. Plagiarism is:
1. Using someone else's ideas without acknowledging the source.
2. Paraphrasing someone else's argument as your own.
3. Presenting someone else's line of thinking in the development of an idea as if it were your own.
4. Presenting an entire paper or a major part of it developed exactly as someone else's line of thinking.
5. Arranging your ideas exactly as someone else did—even though you acknowledge the source(s) in parentheses.

 

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While plagiarism is a serious lapse in ethics as well as a cause for failure and even expulsion in some schools, documenting your sources correctly is easy. It also gives your research paper authority and credibility. Here's how to do it.
How Do I Avoid Plagiarism?
Document Quotations
You must always set off direct quotes with quotation marks and give credit to your original source. It is considered plagiarism if you copy a part of the quotation without using quotation marks—even if you give credit.
Example:
Not Plagiarism
In a famous essay on the naturalists, Malcolm Cowley noted: "Naturalism has been defined in two words as pessimistic determinism and the definition is true as far as it goes.The naturalists were all determinists in that they believed in the omnipotence of abstract forces."
[Becker 56]
Plagiarism
Malcolm Cowley defined Naturalism as "pessimistic determinism" and the definition is true as far as it goes. The naturalists were all determinists in that they believed in the omnipotence of abstract forces.
[Becker 56]
Document Opinions
You must also document the way an author constructs an argument or a line of thinking. In addition, it is considered plagiarism if you try to fob off someone else's opinions as your own.
Example:
Original Source
Probably the most influential novel of the era was Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). More polemic than literature, Uncle Tom's Cabin nonetheless provided the North and South with the symbols and arguments they needed to get to war.
[Levin 125]
Plagiarism
Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852, was likely the most important novel of the pre-Civil War era. Even though the book was more a

 

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debate than a novel, it nevertheless gave the Confederate and Union sides the push they needed to start the Civil War.
Not Plagiarism
As Harold Levin argues in his book Roots of the Civil War, Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852, provided America with the impetus it need to plunge into the Civil War. Likely the most important novel of the era, Uncle Tom's Cabin cannot be regarded as "literature"—it is too strident for that. Nonetheless, its influence cannot be denied.
[125]
Document Paraphrases
The same holds true for paraphrases. It is not enough just to change a few words. Neither is it enough to rearrange a few sentences. Both practices can result in plagiarism.
Examples:
Original Source
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was the most important literary figure in his time. In addition to championing many American writers such as Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson, Howells promoted Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Emile Zola, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.
[Goldsmith 98]
Plagiarism
William Dean Howells was the top literary person in his time. In addition to advancing the careers of American writers like Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson, Howells championed the writing of non-Americans such as Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Emile Zola, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.
Not Plagiarism
William Dean Howells was the single most significant editor of his day. Howells helped the careers of Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Emile Zola, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy as well as those of Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson.
[Goldsmith 98]
Facts Vs. Common Knowledge
By now you're probably thinking that you have to document every single word in your research paper—or pretty close! Not really. You have to document another person's words, ideas, or argument, and everything that is not common knowledge.

 

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It's not difficult to document quotations, opinions, and paraphrases, but differentiating between facts and common knowledge can be tricky. Common knowledge is defined as the information an educated person is expected to know. People are expected to know general facts about many categories of common knowledge.
Examples:
Art
Geography
Mathematics
Computer science
History
Music
Cultural facts
Language
Science
Films
Literature
Social studies

How can you tell if something is common knowledge? If the fact is presented in several sources, odds are good that your readers are expected to know it. This means that you do not have to document it.
Examples of Common Knowledge
The Civil War started in 1861 and ended in 1865.
Abraham Lincoln was the president during that war.
He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
Andrew Johnson became the new president.
In the following instance, however, the facts are not common knowledge and so have to be documented:
Example:
Original Source
By the time the last cannon thundered across the Shenandoah Valley at Antietam, the battlefield echoed with the screams of 20,000 Union and Confederate wounded.
[Harris 415]
Plagiarism
When the last cannon roared at Antietam, 20,000 Union and Confederate wounded were left wounded across the Shenandoah Valley. They were yelling in excruciating pain.
Not Plagiarism
Antietam was one of the most devastating battles of the Civil War. By its conclusion, 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were wounded.
[Harris 415]

 

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MLA Documentation
There are several ways to document your sources. When you are writing in the humanities (English, history, social studies, etc.), you most often use the MLA style of internal documentation, a method created by the Modern Language Association. (In Chapter 16, you'll learn all about footnotes and endnotes.)
When you use internal documentation, you place as much of the citation as necessary within the text. The method makes it easy for your readers to track your sources as they read. Later, they can check your Works Cited page for a complete bibliographic entry. Internal documentation takes the place of traditional footnotes or endnotes.
What should you include in the body of the text? The first time you cite a work in your paper, include as much of the following information as necessary:
• The name of your source
• The writer's full name
• The writer's affiliation
• Page numbers
Example: Naming the Author
According to Van Wyck Brooks, Twain was a thwarted satirist whose bitterness toward the damned human race was the fruit of a lifelong prostitution of his talents. "The life of a Mississippi pilot had, in some special way, satisfied the instinct of the artist in him ... . He felt that, in some way, he had been as a pilot on the right track; and he felt that he had lost this track"
[252].
Example: Citing the Source
A recent Time magazine article, entitled "Video Madness," argues that small children become addicted to video games with devastating results
[35].
Example: Omitting the Author or Author Unknown
The Long Island "greenbelt" is becoming seriously damaged by snowmobiles
("Destruction" 29).

 

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Example: Citing an Indirect Source
Not everyone admired Twain's subjects or style. In a highly influential critical study, Van Wyck Brooks repeated Arnold Bennett's assessment of Twain as a "divine amateur" as well as Henry James' famous comment that Twain appeals to "rudimentary minds"
[Brooks 21].
In the following chapter, you'll take this process one step further when you learn how to use footnotes and endnotes.

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