CALEB Science Club: Documenting & Citing Sources

Scientists and researches give credit to the people whose research they use or cite.   They do this so that the readers & listeners can go and find the original studies.  They also do it to respect the work of other people. 

The main pieces of information that we need to know to find articles:

Author(s); Year; Title of article; Journal title; Volume; Pages.    It can also help to have the DOI number and the issue number

The main pieces of information that we need to to know to find books:

Author(s); Year; Title; Publisher.   If you are citing a specific chapter & the author of the chapter is different from the editor of the book, then give the chapter author & title as well.

The main pieces of information that we need to to know to find websits:

Author (if available); Title; Date; URL

Citation style guides have been written to make the above consistent.  APA Style and MLA Style are two common ones.  Below are examples of the basic article and book citations:

    Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

   Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Paraphrasing is your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form (Purdue OWL).

6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
    
2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
    
3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
    
4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
    
5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
    
6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

Purdue OWL https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/02/

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author (Purdue OWL).

6 Tips for Effective Quoting

1. In most writing, you should use quotations for one or more of the following specific purposes:
2. Use quotation to reproduce distinctive, admirable, or felicitous phrasing--that is, when a paraphrase would be an inadequate representation.
3. Use quotation when your source uses words in a specialized or unorthodox way.
4. Use quotation when the speaker or writer is an expert on the subject or an otherwise famous person whose specific words might be newsworthy, of general interest, or add credibility to your paper.
5. Use quotation to reproduce important statements of information, opinion, or policy.
6. Use quotation to reproduce exactly a passage that you are explaining or interpreting.

The ultimate test of whether a quotation is necessary or not is this question: does it help support your thesis?

University of Illinois http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/tips/quotations/​