Intro to Writing from Sources

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2 To start this discussion, listen to Andrea Lunsford, author of the Everyday Writer, talk about plagiarism s big picture. Plagiarism in the Remix Culture I really like what Lunsford says about how we re living in a remix culture.* Lunsford is saying that, in our culture where using others work in remixes has become so common, academic ideas of plagiarism may seem odd, silly or even contradictory. Sometimes the hardest ideas to learn are those that contradict our previous knowledge or actions. What can help make such learning easier is to realize that the new knowledge may contradict the old knowledge, and to spend time talking and thinking about this. *If any of you are as out-of-it as I often am, a remix is a piece of media such as a song, photo, or video that changes the original in some way. Often remixes combine pieces from two or more separate pieces, like those videos that compile lots of funny cats or those wonderful Glee mashup songs.

3 Second, watch Plagiarism: How to Avoid It (or how not to do it) from BainBridge State College. This video is a good explanation of how not to plagiarize (and maybe even funny enough to wake everyone up). However, the in-text citations are a different type than what we use in this class (MLA). MLA citations have the author and the page number instead of the year.

4 When you use words or ideas from someone else, you have to tell where the words or ideas come from. Each discipline has its own way of doing this. In English, we use a simple method called MLA documentation. (MLA stands for Modern Language Association, a professional group of English faculty)

5 MLA documentation has two parts. First, in your paper, after you use information from a source, you put what is called an in-text citation. A standard in-text citation goes after the information from a source and has the author s name and the page number the information came from, like this: (Obama 3).

6 Here s an example: The biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit. We are in great need of people being able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see the world through their eyes. And the great power of books is the capacity to take you out of yourself and put you somewhere else (Obama 2).

7 The second part of MLA documentation is a list at the end of your paper of all the sources you ve used, called a Works Cited.

8 In your essays, there are three ways to use information from sources. 1) Quote the source. Quotes are the exact words from the source nothing can be changed. - If you need to delete words from a quote, you use ellipses.... (see Everyday Writer ). - If you need to add a word or phrase to a quote to clarify it, you must put the addition in brackets [ ] (see Everyday Writer 401). Quotes are surrounded by quote marks ( ). Quotes need an in-text citation at the end.

9 Lunsford has great advice about when to quote: Use an author s exact words when the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so well that you cannot improve or shorten it without weakening it, when the author is a respected authority whose opinion supports your own ideas, or when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with others in the field (Lunsford 195). Notice the quote marks around this direct quote and the in-text citation after it.

10 2) The second way to use information from a source is to summarize. Summarizing is putting someone else s ideas in your words. Summaries are shorter than the original source, usually just covering the main ideas. Summaries don t have quote marks around them. Summaries can have short quoted phrases integrated into them. Summaries must have in-text citations after them. Summaries often have attributions (phrases like President Obama said) to show where they begin.

11 3) Paraphrase the source. Like summarizing, paraphrasing is putting someone else s ideas in your words. The difference is in the length: Paraphrases are about the same length as original source. Paraphrases don t have quote marks around them. Paraphrases can have short quoted phrases integrated into them. Paraphrases must have in-text citations after them. Paraphrases often have attributions (phrases like Your famous instructor said) to show where they begin.

12 Attributing Attributing is mentioning outside of the intext citation the writer (or writers) whose words or ideas you are using in your paper. In other words, attributing means mentioning the name of whoever wrote your source in your sentence rather than in the in-text citation.

13 Here are some typical attributions: Smith states, Time magazine reports, Miller s blog argues, Walker declares, Brown asserts, According to the Center for Disease Control, One expert thinks, A recent study reveals, Another sources refutes, Calkins suggests,

14 Attributing is important because it can provide a context for information from sources and can tell the reader crucial information about the writer. Attributions are a chance to add credibility by giving information about your source. Attributions also can act as transitions, helping to smoothly integrate information from sources.

15 With summaries and paraphrases, attributions are essential because they show where your use of others' ideas begins, just as an in-text citation shows the end of your use of a source. Just as quote marks show where a quote begins, an attribution will show where a summary or paraphrase begins. Attributing thus clearly identifies the contributions of others to your argument, making your own ideas stand out more obviously.

16 With long quotations, your attribution must come first in order to tell the reader why you are including the quote. With short quotations, paraphrases, and summaries you can vary the placement of the attribution tag, sometimes putting it before the information, sometimes beginning the information and then interrupting it to attribute, and sometimes attributing at the end of the first sentence.