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The sources and evidence you select to use in an academic paper should be of a higher caliber than what you use in your daily life and need to be verifiable, accurate, objective and authoritative. Before integrating research into your paper, follow these guidelines to select the best sources and evidence from those sources to support the ideas ...
If you choose the first three sources you find, you risk ending up with a paper that strings together unrelated ideas, rather than one that truly integrates the most important ideas to make a compelling argument. Sometimes requirements laid out in an assignment will help you shape your paper. For example, an assignment might tell you to "look ...
Oct 24, 2021 · Choosing & Using Sources presents a process for academic research and writing, from formulating your research question to selecting good information and using it effectively in your research assignments. Additional chapters cover understanding types of sources, searching for information, and avoiding plagiarism. Each chapter includes self-quizzes and activities to reinforce core concepts ...
- Sources and Your Assignment
- A Source's Role in Your Paper
- Here are some common roles that sources can play in your argument:
- Choosing Relevant Parts of a Source
- Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting
- When and how to summarize
- Guidelines for summarizing a source in your paper
- When and how to paraphrase
- Example
- When and how much to quote
- You should use quotations in the following situations:
- Guide to Using Sources
- Quotation
- Topic Sentences
- Example
- Framing source material
- Signal Phrases
- Quoting and Grammatical Sentences
- Example
- Ellipses
- Block Quotations
- MLA Block Quotations
- Block quotation introduced by a sentence ending with a colon
- Block quotation introduced by sentence that continues into the quotation
- Chicago Block Quotations
- Single vs. Double Quotation Marks
- Example
- Punctuating Quotations
- Inside
- Example
- Using Sic
The first step in any research process is to make sure you read your assignment carefully so that you understand what you are being asked to do. In addition to knowing how many sources you're expected to consult and what types of sources are relevant to your assignment, you should make sure you understand the role that sources should play in your p...
When you begin to draft your paper, you will need to decide what role each of your sources will play in your argument. In other words, you will need to figure out what you're going to do with the source in your paper. As you consider what role each source will play in your paper, you should begin by thinking about the role that source played in you...
Provide primary evidence: a source can serve as the main object of your analysis, or offer evidence that has not yet been analyzed by others. Establish what’s at stake: a source can present or highlight a problem, question or issue that provides a “so what” for your essay. Serve as a lens: a source can offer a theory or concept that gives you a f...
When you use sources in a paper, remember that your main focus should always be on what you are saying, rather than on what any individual source is saying. You will, of course, devote portions of your paper to what your sources have to say, but these sources should always be discussed in the context of your own argument. Your reader will be intere...
Depending on the conventions of your discipline, you may have to decide whether to summarize a source, paraphrase a source, or quote from a source. Scholars in the humanities tend to summarize, paraphrase, and quote texts; social scientists and natural scientists rely primarily on summary and paraphrase.
When you summarize, you provide your readers with a condensed version of an author's key points. A summary can be as short as a few sentences or much longer, depending on the complexity of the text and the level of detail you wish to provide to your readers. You will need to summarize a source in your paper when you are going to refer to that sourc...
Identify the author and the source. Represent the original source accurately. Present the source’s central claim clearly. Don’t summarize each point in the same order as the original source; focus on giving your reader the most important parts of the source Use your own words. Don’t provide a long quotation in the summary unless the actual language...
When you paraphrase from a source, you restate the source's ideas in your own words. Whereas a summary provides your readers with a condensed overview of a source (or part of a source), a paraphrase of a source offers your readers the same level of detail provided in the original source. Therefore, while a summary will be shorter than the original ...
This paraphrase below restates one of Milgram's points in the author's own words. When you paraphrase, you should always cite the source. This paraphrase uses the APA in-text citation style. Every source you paraphrase should also be included in your list of references at the end of your paper. For citation format information go to the Citing Sourc...
The basic rule in all disciplines is that you should only quote directly from a text when it's important for your reader to see the actual language used by the author of the source. While paraphrase and summary are effective ways to introduce your reader to someone's ideas, quoting directly from a text allows you to introduce your reader to the way...
When you plan to discuss the actual language of a text. When you are discussing an author's position or theory, and you plan to discuss the wording of a core assertion or kernel of the argument in your paper. When you risk losing the essence of the author's ideas in the translation from their words to your own. When you want to appeal to the author...
When you quote from a source, you should make sure to cite the source either with an in-text citation or a note, depending on which citation style you are using. The passage below, drawn from O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, uses an MLA-style citation.
Even as Jimmy Cross burns Martha's letters, he realizes that "it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental too, but mostly just stupid" (23). If you were writing a paper about O'Brien's The Things They Carried in which you analyzed Cross's decision to burn Martha's letters and stop thinking about her, you might want your reader to see the...
When you are using sources in a paper, it’s important to keep your readers focused on what you are saying about the sources rather than on the sources themselves. A useful way to keep your paper focused is to begin each paragraph of your paper with a topic sentence that sets up the point of that paragraph in your own words rather than beginning wit...
If you were summarizing part of Michael Sandel’s article “The Case Against Perfection” for an essay about his argument, you could begin with a sentence like this to let your reader know why they need this summary: In order to understand why genetic enhancement could actually have different effects than those Sandel suggests, it’s important to first...
Make sure that every time you use material from a source, you introduce it in your own words and follow it with your own analysis or discussion so that your readers understand what purpose the material is serving in your essay. You should always make it clear where your ideas end and the source's ideas begin. Your paper should never contain a parag...
A signal phrase is an introductory clause that signals to the reader a shift in point of view from you to your source. The appropriate use of signal phrases varies from discipline to discipline. Writers in the humanities often signal a quotation or paraphrase with the author's name (as in "Chen argues..." or "Cole notes..."). The choice of verb in ...
When you introduce a quotation with a signal phrase, that quotation becomes part of your own sentence. It's important, then, to make sure that the sentence is grammatically correct. If you are having trouble molding the grammar of the quotation to the grammar of your paper, you can use brackets to help you. In the following sentence from Peter Bozz...
The filmmakers highlight Echols's vanity by suggesting that it consumed him even when issues of his guilt or innocence and life or death were at stake; in actuality, however, his actions may have represented a typical response to correct for what Echols refers to in the second film as a "haircut [that] was actually given to me about five minutes be...
If you're quoting from a long passage and you don't want to use the whole passage, you can omit parts of it by using the ellipsis mark. The ellipsis is three periods, with spaces between them, and indicates to your reader that words have been omitted. Remember that you are obligated to represent a quotation accurately and that you should only omit ...
Block quotations should be used when the quotation you have chosen to include is too long to go into the body of your paragraph. When you use a block quotation in MLA, APA, or Chicago style, you should introduce the quotation with a sentence of your own that sets up the context for the quotation. You should also follow a block quotation with a sent...
If you are using the MLA citation style you should use block quotations for any quotation that is more than four typed lines of prose or three lines of poetry. In the MLA style, block quotations should either be introduced with a sentence that ends with a colon or with punctuation that allows you to connect the quotation with the rest of your sente...
The author investigated the different tours that Harvard students offer visitors and described her experience with Crimson Key in an article for Harvard Magazine: At no point in our official travels did anyone scream, which I suppose I should have expected. Crimson Key focuses, above all, on accuracy. The training handbook for the guides clarifies ...
The author pulls the curtain back on the official Harvard tour, explaining that At no point in our official travels did anyone scream, which I suppose I should have expected. Crimson Key focuses, above all, on accuracy. The training handbook for the guides clarifies confusing details and corrects popular myths. For instance, one rule states, “The P...
If you are using the Chicago citation style, you can decide whether to set off your block quotations or to run them into the body of your essay. If you do use block quotations in Chicago style, indent the quoted passage one-half inch from the left margin. Don’t float the quotation! Follow quotation with your analysis of the quotation. When you quot...
For MLA, APA, and Chicago, you should use double quotation marks when you quote material from a source. If you are also quoting passages from that source that were quoted in the original source, use single quotation marks to indicate that the original source contained the quotation. If you are using a block quote, then you should use double quota...
Use the Latin word sic to indicate that a grammatical or spelling error appears in the source that you are quoting and is not your error. Sic should be enclosed in brackets within the quotation. APA style and Chicago style require sic to be italicized; MLA style does not.
Use the Latin word sic to indicate that a grammatical or spelling error appears in the source that you are quoting and is not your error. Sic should be enclosed in brackets within the quotation. APA style and Chicago style require sic to be italicized; MLA style does not.
Use the Latin word sic to indicate that a grammatical or spelling error appears in the source that you are quoting and is not your error. Sic should be enclosed in brackets within the quotation. APA style and Chicago style require sic to be italicized; MLA style does not.
Use the Latin word sic to indicate that a grammatical or spelling error appears in the source that you are quoting and is not your error. Sic should be enclosed in brackets within the quotation. APA style and Chicago style require sic to be italicized; MLA style does not.
Use the Latin word sic to indicate that a grammatical or spelling error appears in the source that you are quoting and is not your error. Sic should be enclosed in brackets within the quotation. APA style and Chicago style require sic to be italicized; MLA style does not.
Before you decide to rely on a source, you should evaluate the source and decide whether it is appropriate to use in your paper. You should always determine the qualifications of the author, the purpose of the source (that is, in what context it was created), the scope of the source (what it covers and in what depth), and, where relevant, the currency of the source.
Jun 13, 2022 · Research databases. You can search for scholarly sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar. These provide a range of search functions that can help you to find the most relevant sources. If you are searching for a specific article or book, include the title or the author’s name. Alternatively, if you’re just ...
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May 19, 2022 · Revised on May 31, 2023. Throughout the research process, you’ll likely use various types of sources. The source types commonly used in academic writing include: Academic journals. Books. Websites. Newspapers. Encyclopedias. The type of source you look for will depend on the stage you are at in the writing process.
