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As you review your sources as a body of evidence, imagine that they are engaging in a dialogue with one another. What kind of conversation would these
sources have and how can you contribute to it? Another way to establish connections between your sources is to ask specific questions. Some examples are:

How do sources with competing views address their opponents?

What kind of evidence does each source use to support its main point and why?

Are some sources more interesting or persuasive than others? Why?

What do biased sources tell you that credible sources do not?

Are there certain ideas, facts, solutions, or themes that all of your sources refer to?

The more questions you ask to establish relationships between each of your
sources, the better able you will be to view them as a collective body of evidence.

W H AT D O E S M Y E V I D E N C E H E L P M E D O ?
Once you have assessed where your evidence stands and decided on the main
idea or ideas your essay will address, you can begin thinking about how to best
use each source. Some sources are better than others for supporting a particular
point. Consider an essay about the benefits of Internet dating, for example. A
writer gathers a variety of evidence, including statistics about how many people
use Internet dating services, interviews from people who have used Internet dating services, and websites for specific services. Each source will help the writer
support a different point. The writer might use statistics, for example, to explain
how widespread the Internet dating phenomenon is. Interviews from those who
have used Internet dating services allow the writer to find out what individual
participants did and did not like about the process. Finally, although a website
for a specific Internet dating service is clearly biased, by studying a specific site,
the writer can better understand how participants use the Internet to date. The
writer would not, however, use statistics about how many people use Internet
dating services to prove the point that participants enjoy Internet dating. While
each source supports the writers main idea, they are not interchangeable. Some
sources are better for establishing the issues background, while others can explain a specific person or groups opinion about a topic. Remember to ask of each
source, What can this evidence help me do?

I N T E G R AT I N G S O U R C E S
A N D AV O I D I N G P L A G I A R I S M
To integrate sources into your paper, you can either paraphrase or directly quote
an author. In both cases, it is important to use the authors ideas to support your
point, not to make it. If you are paraphrasing, first introduce the author and then

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I N T E G R AT I N G S O U R C E S A N D AV O I D I N G P L A G I A R I S M

summarize her ideas. Follow this discussion with an explanation of how the
source relates to your argument. If you directly quote an author, then follow the
quote with a discussion of how it is connected to your main ideas. Without explanation, the quotes intended purpose is lost on the audience.
Deciding whether you should paraphrase or directly quote a source can be
difficult. In general, you should only directly quote a source when preserving the
authors language is important. There are many famous quotes, such as To be
or not to be, that is the question, from Shakespeares Hamlet. In this case, the
authors wording is essentialonly this phrasing can convey the idea in the most
powerful way. It is more difficult to determine whether you should directly quote
a source when it is less well known. In most cases, however, you can paraphrase
the authors wording and convey the same information, being sure to give credit
to the author in your discussion. Quotations can be distracting, and many authors fall into the trap of using direct quotes to convey their main idea. Consequently, you should try to paraphrase in most cases rather than relying on direct
quotes from your sources.
It is essential that you document your sources as you integrate them into
your paper. If you present another authors ideas as your own, you are committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in expulsion from
your college or university. Certainly, you do not have to document every fact that
you include in your paper. There are many facts that are considered general information. Some examples are statements like, Our solar system is comprised
of nine planets, or Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president. Facts that
are not well known, however, and that cannot be found in several sources, must
be documented. Furthermore, if you include the opinion, assertion, or conclusions of another author in your paper, you must cite the source from which it
came. Suppose, for example, that you are writing a paper about school vouchers
and you find the following quote:
Today 63% of all black students attend predominantly nonwhite schools. Public education is also increasingly economically segregated. A voucher system may not foster
the ethnic diversity of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public
and private schools, it would add much needed equality to American education.
Shapiro, Walter. Pick a School, Any School. Time 3 Sept 1990: 7072.
Below is an example of plagiarism. The writer uses too many of the same
words and phrases as the author of the source:
Public education is actually increasingly economically segregated. So a voucher system may not foster ethnic diversity, but it will dilute the distinction between public and private schools. This will add much needed equality to American education.
To avoid plagiarizing, you might decide to paraphrase the author, in which
case you should use your own words to convey the authors ideas:
According to Walter Shapiro, the argument that public education ensures that students attend schools with diverse students is erroneous. In fact, Shapiro asserts,
public school populations usually comprise students of the same race and economic

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background. Consequently, school vouchers might actually increase racial and economic diversity in education by offering minorities and the underprivileged the opportunity to attend the school of their choice (Shapiro 72).
Alternatively, you might decide that you do not want to lose the authors
wording and want to quote directly from the source. If so, you can introduce the
author and include the page number on which the quote appeared.
Walter Shapiro argues that, A voucher system may not foster the ethnic diversity
of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public and private
schools, it would add much needed equality to American education (72).

DOCUMENTING SOURCES
As you add evidence to your paper, you will need to document it. There are
several reasons for documenting your sources. Documenting evidence allows
other researchers who are interested in your topic to locate the same sources.
Documentation also demonstrates to your reader that your evidence is
verifiable; by documenting your sources, you give yourself credibility as a
writer. Finally, documenting your sources protects you against charges of plagiarism.
Each discipline has its own set of documentation guidelines. The Modern
Language Association (MLA) style is often used in the humanities and requires
that you document your evidence both within the paper by using parenthetical
references and in a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper.

PA R E N T H E T I C A L R E F E R E N C E S I N T H E T E X T
A parenthetical reference tells readers what sources you used in your writing
and how you used them, as well as guides readers to the appropriate entry in the
works cited list at the end of the paper. In general, then, a parenthetical reference should provide the reader with just enough information so that the source
can easily be located in the works cited list.
When you are citing a work by one or more authors. A typical parenthetical reference includes the authors last name and the page number:
(Lasch 14)
If you introduce the author in the sentence, you need only include the page
number in parentheses:
According to Rachel Carson, while humans may be at the top of the food chain, our existence is dependent on the health of the environment (149).

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

When you are citing a work without a listed author. List the title of the
source and the page number.
Many contend that the Food and Drug Administration does not possess enough resources to adequately inspect imported produce (Fresh Produce, the Downside 14A).
When you are citing an indirect source. When you quote someone who is
not the author of the book or article, you are using an indirect source. Indicate
that the source you are citing is quoted in another source by abbreviating the
word quoted.
Describing feminisms contemporary ideology Susan Stein argued that, feminism today
is whatever any woman who calls herself a feminist says it is (qtd. in Echols 264).
When you are citing an electronic source. If an electronic source does
not have a page number, but uses paragraphs, sections, or screen numbers, write
the abbreviation par., sec., or the word screen and the corresponding number in
your citation. Place a comma after the last name of the author.
The program aims to teach low-income families how to use various software and
computer technology (Hammill, par. 2).
If there are no divisions of any kind in the electronic source, simply list the
last name of the author.
At the end of 1991 over 4,000,000 people were connected to the Internet (Cerf).

MLA LIST OF WORKS CITED

Three of the most common documents used as evidence are books, journal
articles, and websites.

A book with one author

Bellah, Robert N. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in
American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.

Authors name City of

publication
in reverse

Publishers name,
abbreviated

Year of
publication

Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Scribners, 1948.

Title of the book

801

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Article in a journal with continuous pagination

throughout the annual volume
Popkin, Jeremy D. Historians on the Autobiographical Frontier. The American
Historical Review 104 (1999): 725-48.

Title of article in quotes

Page numbers
Authors Title of journal Volume Date in
underlined
name
number parentheses
Soules, Marshall. Animating the Language Machine: Computers and
Performance. Computers and the Humanities 36 (2002): 31945.

Entire Internet site (scholarly project, information

d a t a b a s e, j o u r n a l , o r p r o f e s s i o n a l w e b s i t e )
Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van Leeuwen. 2003. 29 Nov. 2003
<http://www.bartleby.com/>.

Title of website
underlined

URL in brackets

Name of the
Date of
Date of
editor of the site electronic
access
(if given)
publication or
latest update

Library Spot.com. 2003. 15 March 2003 <http://www.libraryspot.com>.

BOOKS
A book with two or three authors
Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The
Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North
Point, 2000.

Names appear as they do on title page

Reverse only the first name and

separate names using commas

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

A book with more than three authors

McCartney, Paul, et al. The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000.

First name
listed on the
title page

Followed by
et al.

More than one work by the same author(s)

Weinberg, Steven. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York: Pantheon, 1992.

---. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
2001.

In place of the authors name,

three hyphens and a period

A book with an editor

Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Mabel Loomis Todd
and T. W. Higginson. New York: Avenel, 1982. Editor

abbreviated

Name of
editors

A work in a series

Hock, Ronald F. and Edward N. ONeil, ed. The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric.
Texts and Trans. 27. Atlanta: Scholars, 1986.

Title of
the series

Number in
the series

803

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An anthology

McNamara, Peter and Margaret Winch, ed. Alien Shores: An Anthology of

Australian Science Fiction. North Adelaide, Austral.: Aphelion, 1994.

Name of editor or compiler

A selection from an anthology

Ruskin, John. The Lamp of Beauty. The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology
of European and American Writings 1750-1940. Ed. Isabelle Frank. New
York: Yale UP, 2000. 42-46.

Author of
the part of
the book
being cited

Page numbers
of the cited
piece

Title of the part

of the book
being cited

Name of the editor,

translator, or
compiler of the book

A reference work

Unger, Rhoda K., ed. Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New
York: Wiley, 2001.

Editor or compiler
of reference book

Article in a reference work

Crawford, Mary. Gender and Language. Handbook of the Psychology of Women

and Gender. Rhoda K. Unger, ed. New York: Wiley, 2001.

Author of article
in reverse

Title of article
in quotes

Title of book
underlined

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

A translation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael Henry

Translator
abbreviated

Heim. New York: Harper, 1984.

Name of
translator

PERIODICALS
The entry for an article in a periodical, like that for a book, has three main divisions:
Authors name. Title of the article. Publication information.

Article in a journal that paginates issues separately

Gardner, Martin. A Quarter Century of Recreational Mathematics. Scientific
American 279. 2 (1998): 68-76.

Author of
article

Volume Issue number

number,
followed by a
period

Page numbers
Title of article Title of
in quotes
journal
Year of
publication in
parentheses,
followed by a colon

Article in a monthly or bimonthly magazine

Lapham, Lewis. Hazards of New Fortune: Harpers Magazine, Then and Now.
Harpers Magazine June 2000: 57-83.

Title of magazine Month of

publication

Page numbers

Year of publication
followed by a colon

805

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Article in a weekly magazine (unsigned/signed)

Soukup, Elise. Lights! Camera! Incision!: The Brave New World of Surgery on
the Internet. Newsweek. 14 Aug. 2006: 34.

Page number

Date of publication,
month abbreviated

Article in a newspaper
Wilkinson, Sean McCormack. Security Posts Filled. New York Times
26 Nov. 2003: A12+.

Date abbreviated
followed by a colon

Title of article
in quotes

Title of newspaper
underlined

If the article does not appear on

consecutive pages, write the first
page number and follow with a
+

Review

Fields, Suzanne. No Black-and-White Answers in Murrays The Bell Curve.

Rev. of The Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein.
Insight on the News 21 Nov. 1993: 40.

Title of book
being reviewed
Review underlined
Publication
abbreviated
in which
the review
appears

Title of review
Author(s) of book
in quotes
being reviewed

Date
abbreviated Page number
followed by
colon

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

807

ONLINE SOURCES
Pe r s o n a l w e b s i t e

Boucicaut, J. R. Home page. 9 Oct. 2001. 14 Sept. 2003 <http://www.geocites.com/

Colosseum/8019/>.

Name of creator Title of site, or

of website
if no title
Home page

Date of the
last update

Date of URL in
access brackets

Entire online book

Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. 1922. Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Ed. Steven van
Leeuwen. 2003. 10 Oct. 2003 <http://www.bartleby.com/162/>.

Authors
name

Title of
book
Date of
electronic
publication

Original
Title of
URL in
publication Internet site brackets
date of
underlined
Date of print version
access

Editor of
site

Article in a scholarly journal

Darby, Paul. Africa, the FIFA Presidency, and the Governance of World Football:
1974, 1998, and 2002. Africa Today 50.1 (2003). Project Muse. 20 Oct. 2003
<http://muse. jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/toc/at50.1html>.

Volume number
URL within Title of
journal
followed by
the
database
underlined period

Issue
Year of
number publication
in
parentheses

Date of
access
Name of
database
underlined

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Article in an online reference book or encyclopedia

Levi-Strauss, Claude. Encyclopdia Britannica. 2003. Encyclopdia Britannica

Premium Service. 28 Nov. 2000 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=49112>.

Title of
article in
quotes

Name of
electronic
service

Title of
online
reference
Date of
access

Date of the
last update
or electronic
publication
date

URL in
brackets

Article in an online newspaper

Becker, Elizabeth. Drug Industry Seeks to Sway Prices Overseas. New York
Times on the Web 27 Nov. 2003. 28 Nov. 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/
2003/11/27/business/worldbusiness/27TRAD.html>.

Title of online Publication

newspaper
date
underlined

Date of access Title of article

in quotes

URL

Article in an online magazine

Soros, George. The Bubble of American Supremacy. Atlantic Online December 2003.
28 Dec. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm>.

Date of access URL of the

article

Title of online
magazine

Publication
date

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

Wo r k f r o m a l i b r a r y s u b s c r i p t i o n s e r v i c e

McNeill, J. Historical Perspectives on Global Ecology. World Futures April-June

2003: 263-75. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group. Bergen County
Cooperative Lib. System, NJ. 20 Oct. 2003 <http://www.galegroup.com/>.

State/city of Date of Name of the

library
access database
underlined

Name of the Name of the

service
library or library
system followed
by a comma
URL

Material accessed through an online service

This citation is formatted the same as a work from a library subscription service (see example above).

Po s t i n g t o a d i s c u s s i o n l i s t

Insaaci, Gemi. Flow Around a Ship. Online posting. 20 Dec. 2003. CFD Online
Main Discussion Forum. 27 Nov. 2003 <http://www.cfd-online.com/
Forum/main.cgi?read =29211>.

Authors Title of
name
document as
given in the
subject line in
quotes

Description

Date of
access

Date posted

Name of
forum or list
URL

Electronic mail

Nichols, Mona. Re: Martha Stewart. E-mail to Elena M. Past. 20 July 2003.

Name of
writer

Title of
message,
if any

Description of
message that
includes the
recipient

Date of
message

809

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A synchronous communication

Harvey, Jon. Online discussion of how to create the ideal academic community.
7 Feb. 1996. PennMoo. 25 July 2003 <telnet:// www.english.upenn.edu/
~afilreis/103/pennmoo-exchange.html>.

Name of
the speaker

Forum for the Date of URL

communication access

Description
of the event

Date of event

OTHER NONPRINT SOURCES

M a t e r i a l a c c e s s e d o n a C D - R O M , D V D , d i s k e t t e,
or magnetic tape

Figure-Ground Contrast. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.

Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

Part of the
work you are
citing in
quotes

Title of source
underlined

Type of source

Pa i n t i n g , s c u l p t u r e, o r p h o t o g r a p h
on an electronic source

Munch, Edvard. The Scream. 1893. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century.
CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

Artists Title of work Date of work,

name of art
if available

Title and type of electronic source

(if source is a website, use date of
access and URL)

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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

An advertisement on an electronic source

Allen Edmonds Shoes. Advertisement. Comp21: Composition in the 21st

Century. CD-ROM. Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

Name of product
or company being
advertised

Descriptive label
of advertisement
always included

Title and type of electronic source

(if source is a website, use date of
access and URL)

A film clip on an electronic source

The Price of Freedom. Comp21: Composition in the 21st Century. CD-ROM.

Boston: Wadsworth, 2005.

Title of film clip, preceded

by director, if available

Title and type of electronic source (if source

is a website, use date of access and URL)

An advertisement

Ford Explorer. Advertisement. Time 15 July 2002: 20-21.

Name of product or
company being advertised

Publication information (if

on television, use name of
network and the broadcast
date)

Page numbers
in publication

811

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A p a i n t i n g , s c u l p t u r e, o r p h o t o g r a p h
Uelsmann, Jerry N. Tree-house. Jerry Uelsmann. Occasions for Writing:
Evidence, Idea, Essay. By Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy. Boston:

Institution or Authors of
private owner source

Wadsworth, 2008. 562.

Artists name

Title of work
of art

Title of source in
which the work of
art appears

Page number, slide

number, or figure
number

A film or video recording

Pakula, Alan J., dir. All the Presidents Men. Warner Bros., 1976.

Title underlined

Director

Distributor

Year of release

A television or radio program

Firestorm. Narr. Charles Wooley. 60 Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York.
23 Nov. 2003.

Title of
episode

Broadcast
date

Narrator or
director

Title of Name of the Call letters and

city of the local
program network
station

A letter
LEngle, Madeleine. Letter to the author. 10 June 2003.

Author of
letter

The kind of
letter

Date the letter

was written

An interview
Friedman, Stephanie. Personal interview. 20 July 2003.

Name of the person

interviewed

The kind of
interview

Date of
interview

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SAMPLE WORKS CITED

SAMPLE WORKS CITED PAGE

Works Cited
Bowman, Darcia Harris. States Target School Vending Machines to Curb Child
Obesity. Education Week 1 Oct. 2003: 1. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. U of Texas at Austin, Perry-Castaneda Lib. 3 Mar. 2004
<http://www.epnet.com>.
Chen, Chunming and William H. Dietz, ed. Obesity in Childhood and
Adolescence. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2002.
Drummond, Jon W. Man vs. Machine: School Vending Machines Are in the
Crosshairs of the Obesity Debate. Restaurants and Institutions 113.25
(2003): 63-66.
Fairburn, Christopher G. and Kelly D. Brownell, ed. Eating Disorders and
Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford, 2002.
Goode, Erica. The Gorge-Yourself Environment. New York Times 22 July 2003:
F1. InfoTrac College Edition. University of Texas at Austin, PerryCastaneda Lib. 22 Dec. 2003 <http://www.infotrac.thomsonlearning.com/>.
Goodnough, Abby. Schools Cut Down on Fat and Sweets in Menus. New York
Times. 25 June 2003: B1.
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Ed. Virginia Robinson. The
Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. 26 Mar 2004. 5 Apr. 2004
<http://www.healthinschools.org/home.asp>.

813