Operation: Citation (March 24)

As the due date draws nearer for Project Three, please be sure that you are keeping in mind the requirements for secondary sources. As you will quickly learn, universities are hyper-aware of the issue of plagiarism, and, while I do not think you WOULD plagiarize your material, you need to be aware of hoe to properly indicate your source material. For that reason, today we will be discussing the academic guidelines to proper citation.

First of all, there are several resources available to you if you have questions about citing sources. The absolute BEST source of information can be found at the following website:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

The OWL (Online Writing Lab) is hosted by Purdue, and should have a answer for any question you may have about MLA formatting (which is most commonly used in English courses and SHOULD BE FOLLOWED for this paper).

If you would prefer an alternate source, The DK Handbook has an excellent section on MLA citations on pages 350-420. This provides an excellent example of how to format in-text citations (351-353), as well as a useful example on how to format an entire paper for MLA (406-418). BE SURE THAT YOUR PAPER INCLUDES A PROPERLY FORMATTED WORKS CITED PAGE!

However, realizing that you will most likely skim the above resources, I have condensed the essential tenets of MLA citation down into the following points for you to reference:

1. In-text citations

When to use them? - Any time you quote from another author's work or substantially paraphrase another author's work or thoughts. In-text citations simply make a marker in the body of your paper that indicates whom you are indebted to for your information.

How to use them? - In-text citations are very simple. All you need is parentheses, author's name, and page numbers (if available). As an example, if I wanted to quote the opening line of "Harrison Bergeron" (notice the quotation marks!), I would cite it thusly:

"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal" (Vonnegut, 7).

Notice that the parentheses are outside the quotation marks, and that the puntuation mark for the quote follows the citation. At this point, all you have to worry about is providing a proper citation in your works cited page and you should be good.

2. Works cited page.

When to use them? - Every student asks "Do we need to have a works cited page?" and, though I know you're going to hate this, the simple answer is Yes. Works cited pages may seem like a hassle, but consider them the best way to cover your own ass from charges of plagiarism. If you have used ANY outside resource in assistance to generating your paper, you should consider a works cited page a given. Fortunately, they're a lot easier to do once you know the general rules behind them.

How to use them? - Be sure that your works cited page follows your essay on a separate piece of paper. DO NOT INCLUDE THE WORKS CITED PAGE IN YOUR PAGE COUNT FOR THIS ESSAY. You need to list, alphabetically by last name, any other authors who have influenced your product. Be aware that your works cited page for this project should include a citation for Welcome to the Monkey House.

Since there is such a wide range of different types of sources, I won't be able to tell you here how to cite every individual source you might possibly encounter. However, it may help to keep this general format in mind.

All good citations seek to provide as much of the following information as possible:

- Creator of the source (author, sponsoring organization, etc.)

- Title of the work being cited

- Publication information, including when it was created and who published it.

The MLA has strict guidelines on how to orient this information based on what sort of source you're using, and I strongly recommend you consult either the OWL or the DK Handbook for the proper format for whatever sources you're using. As an example, however, consider the following citation for Welcome to the Monkey House:

Vonnegut, Kurt. Welcome to the Monkey House. New York: Dial Press, 2006.

Author name goes first, alphabetically by last name. Next, the title of the book in italics. Next, the place of publication, followed by a colon and the publishing company. Last, you need a comma and the year of publication (notice that the year used is when this paperback was issued by Dial, NOT when Monkey House first appeared).

These all may seem pointless, but it is very important that you understand the impact that plagiarism could potentially have on your career as a college student. In the vast majority of cases, the BEST you can hope for if you're caught plagiarizing is an F for the course. Simply put, it's not worth it to skimp on citing your sources!