First, citing your sources helps you avoid plagiarism. It also provides a roadmap for readers to see the sources your arguments are built upon. If you rely on good sources, these citations actually help build the strongest case for your ideas. In the scholarly tradition, citing your sources is a way of continuing a conversation with those who have published before you, agreeing, adding to, or disagreeing with others who have read and thought about your topic.
While there are a few main citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Turabian), for this course you'll use the MLA style based on the 8th edition of the MLA style guide.
Always verify with your instructor which citation style you are to follow.
Once you’ve gathered some resources and have scanned them to make sure they’ll be useful, you’re ready to start taking notes, usually by paraphrasing from the original source. Paraphrasing is stating someone else's idea in your own words.
Paraphrase: Use the RAP strategy.*
An easy way to remember how to paraphrase is to use the RAP strategy:
* From Schumaker, J. B., P.H. Denton, and D.D. Deshler. The Paraphrasing Strategy. Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansas, 1984.
Here’s how one might paraphrase the passage below about the decline of sea otters in Alaska:
Original Passage:
After World War II, whalers killed hundreds of thousands of large whales in the area, scientists say in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Then killer whales, with their biggest meal ticket all but gone, shifted their ravenous attentions down the marine mammal menu to harbor seals, fur seals, sea lions, and otters in turn, gobbling each species into near oblivion. (Hayden, Thomas. “Otters Under Attack.” U.S. News & World Report. Oct. 6, 2003, v.135, p58).
Paraphrase
One reason the sea otter population is declining has to do with whales. When the whale population decreased because of over-hunting after World War II, killer whales began to look for other prey, including seals, sea lions, and sea otters. All these species suffered as a result.Notice that all the key information is included, but neither the style nor the language was copied.
Notice that all the key information is included, but neither the style nor the language was copied.
MLA Citation Guidelines (8th ed.)
Always give credit for any information, ideas, or actual wording you get from another source.
Do this by naming the author and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence in which you use the author’s idea. This is called in-text (or parenthetical) citation.
The APA and MLA formats for in-text citation are NOT the same. See the individual style guides for examples.
