Citing scientific works is important for a number of reasons: Each time you reference other person’s work in your paper, it needs to be properly cited. Many students who struggle with citing sources properly in their written assignments wonder: why is it even important to cite sources at all? The truth is that correctly citing sources that you used in your work instantly gives your paper a more scholarly feel and makes it acceptable for other scholars, whether it’s your professor or other members of the scientific community. Every day thousands of students are looking for a way to use Wikipedia in their academic writing and cite it the right way, but it’s not always easy. Using your own words by paraphrasing will better demonstrate your understanding and will allow you to emphasize the ways in which the ideas contribute to your paper's main argument.Wikipedia is one of the most commonly referenced sources in the modern scientific community. While direct quotations can be useful for illustrating a rhetorical choice of your author, in most other cases paraphrasing the material is more appropriate. Have I included too many direct quotations?ĭirect quotations are best avoided whenever possible.Otherwise, your paper becomes a book report on that one source and lacks richness of theoretical perspective. You may find one particularly useful study, but try to balance your references to that study with research from other authors. Most research papers should include a variety of sources from the last 3-5 years. Have I relied too heavily on one source?.
#HOW TO PROPERLY CITE SOURCES IN AN OUTLINE HOW TO#
See our synthesis demonstration for help learning how to use the literature in this way. When reading the literature, keep that argument in mind, noting ideas or research that speaks specifically to the issues in your particular study. Have I used the cited material to support my specific thesis?Īll material that you cite should contribute to your main argument (also called a thesis or purpose statement).Additionally, the reader may not understand your reasons for including that material. Without these aspects, you leave your reader without a sense of the paragraph's main purpose. The opening sentence of each paragraph should be your topic sentence, and the final sentence in the paragraph should conclude your point and lead into the next. Did I begin and end my paragraphs in my own voice?.For help with creating this commentary while also avoiding personal opinion, see our Commentary vs. Make sure your paper is more than a collection of ideas from your sources it should provide an original interpretation of that material. Remember that the cited material should illustrate rather than substitute for your point. Did I provide adequate commentary on the cited material?.Here are some factors to consider when citing sources: For more information on avoiding plagiarism, see our Plagiarism Prevention Resource Kit.Īlso make sure to consult our resources on citations to learn about the correct formatting for citations.Ĭitation issues can appear when writers use too much information from a source, rather than including their own ideas and commentary on sources' information. Read more about how to avoid these types of plagiarism on the following subpages and review the Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills video playlist on this page. Directly copy and paste phrasing from a source without quotation marks or citations.Do not include enough citations for paraphrased information,.Review Amber's blog post, "Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism," for more information! Plagiarism can occur when authors:
Plagiarism doesn't just mean copy and pasting another author's words. Not citing sources properly could imply that the ideas, information, and phrasing you are using are your own, when they actually originated with another author. Citing sources properly is essential to avoiding plagiarism in your writing.
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