Citing Sources in the Text
There are three kinds of writing in a research paper:
1. Quotes
The actual words from a source of information. If you copy even a few words from another source, you must indicate them as a quote!
You must add both
a. quotation marks (“ . . .”) and
b. citation of the source (either in the sentence or in parentheses at the end of the sentence).
If you put a citation on a sentence or paragraph which has copied words without quotation marks, it is still plagiarism! The wording is not your own.
2. Paraphrases and Summaries
Information, ideas, data, opinions, etc. from the sources which have been put intoyour own words.
You must add
a. citation of the source (either in the sentence or in parentheses at the end of the sentence).
3. The writer’s own ideas,comparisons, interpretations, conclusions, etc.
These are the only sentences which have no source citations. They are the topic sentences the writer uses to separate ideas into manageable chunks of information for the reader, sentences with interpretation and commentary on the information collected in the paper, introductory and concluding remarks, etc.
Remember: do not just copy sentences from different sources and add them together one after the other. Your ideas and commentary are themostimportantpart. They are the glue that holds the information together and connects it logically.
The bulk of the research paper may be the first two kinds of writing. But your comments are what make the paper interesting and show why the information belongs together and what it proves.