THE USE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SOURCES

A primary task of the undergraduate student is to learn to use sources effectively and acknowledge them appropriately. Like all scholars, you--the beginning scholar--must build upon the work of those who have gone before you, using it to extend your own knowledge and to develop your own thinking; like all scholars, you must acknowledge in your writing any materials which you found in other writings.

Critical Reading
This is your crucial first step, once you have located your printed sources. You need to read actively, asking questions of the text, identifying its main points, noting the point of view or bias, considering the validity of its logic, testing it against other sources and against your own knowledge, and taking notes that will provide an acurate presentation of your reading as you develop your thinking and write your paper.

Taking Notes
Observe that "taking notes" is included above as part of the process of critical reading. Simply photocopying parts of your texts and/or highlighting important passages cannot serve your purpose adequately. You should record your reactions to your reading as you read, for they are essential to your study. Besides your own analysis and critique of your sources, your notes will include summaries of important points, some paraphrase, and, occasionally, exact quotation.

There are various systems for recording notes. Whatever system you use, you must follow two practices meticulously: 1. record clearly and accurately the reference of each note, i.e., the work from which it comes and usually the page number; 2. enclose in quotation marks anything you copy from a source, and copy it exactly in every detail, including punctuation. Be certain to do this for Internet as well as printed sources.

Writing a Draft of Your Paper
As you think about your reading and review your notes, you may be so daunted by the authority and superior prose of the sources you have read that you question your own ability to write an original and worthwhile paper on the subject. But learning to deal with your material in your own language is exactly what mastery of the material entails. At this point you will be glad that you have read critically and kept good, accessible notes, especially of your analysis. If you find it hard to get started, consult your instructor or go to the Writing Center, where tutors will help you explore possible approaches.

Documentation of Sources
In order to make your documentation clear and useful to your reader, you must choose one of the standard forms and follow it consistently. Be guided in your choice of form by your instructor's preference. The MLA Handbook is usually recommended for undergraduate papers in the humanities; the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is often used for papers in the social sciences; and A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, by Kate L. Turabian, which is based on the Chicago Style, is also widely used. These reference works and others are stocked by the University Bookstore, and the Writing Center has copies for students to use in the Center as well as a handout from the Library explaining how to document electronic sources.

Plagiarism: Failure to document sources is plagiarism, a serious academic offense. Binghamton University defines plagiarism as "the incorporation into one's written or oral reports of any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another. " This includes material found through the computer. In order to avoid even unintentional plagiarism, you should observe the following principles scrupulously:

1. Place anything you copy exactly from another writer--whole sentences, phrases, or even a single distinctive term--within quotation marks and identify its source, usually in a note.

2. Indicate the source, again usually in a note, of any idea or information that you take from another writer and that is not common knowledge. You should do this even though you restate the idea or information in your own words and don't use quotation marks. When in doubt about whether to credit a source, you should err in the direction of too much rather than too little documentation.

3. When paraphrasing (restating material in your own words), take care that you actually do restate. Retaining the sentence structure of the original source, substituting some synonyms, and/or deleting some phrases is not true paraphrasing. The following examples demonstrate the difference between appropriate and inappropriate use of a source:

Original: Englishmen of the educated classes today enjoy the reputation for unusual reserve and exceptional self-control under the most provoking circumstances. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tempers were short and weapons to hand. The behavior of the propertied classes, like that of the poor, was characterized by the ferocity, childishness, and lack of self-control of the Homeric age, and unless we can grasp these basic psychological premises we cannot hope to understand the true dimensions of the Tudor problem. Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy: 1558-1641 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 108.

Version A: Educated Englishmen of today have a reputation for unusual aloofness and self-control, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries men were short-tempered and always had their weapons handy. The propertied classes, like the poor, behaved with the fierceness, childishness, and lack of self-control characteristic of the Homeric age. Unless we understand these psychological principles, we cannot understand the exact nature of the Tudor problem (Stone 108).

(The author of Version A uses a parenthetical note to indicate that the ideas in this passage are not original with him or her, but by not using quotation marks, the author suggests the writing is his or her own.  If the author had not cited Stone, this would clearly be plagiarism.  However, even with the citation, this passage follows Stone's organization of ideas, sentence structure, and vocabulary too closely to be a true paraphrase.)

Version B: According to Lawrence Stone, in order to understand the "Tudor problem," we must first realize that wealthy sixteenth and seventeenth century Englishmen were quick to anger and lacking in self-control (108).

(This is a more appropriate treatment of the source. The author employs his or her own words to summarize Stone's ideas. The author uses the phrase, "According to Lawrence Stone...," to indicate that what follows was taken from Stone's work and places the one phrase he or she takes directly from Stone, "Tudor problem," within quotation marks. The author places a parenthetical note after the entire sentence in order to indicate the complete source of the information contained in it.

IMPORTANT: You must indicate in oral presentations as well as written assignments your use of the exact words or ideas of another. Plagiarism is most likely to result when your paper emphasizes the ideas of others rather than your own. Your research papers should never consist of a loosely-connected string of undigested quotations and ideas from other authors. Instead, you must interpret research material, integrate it with your own ideas, and develop your own controlling idea and organizational structure. You should refer to other sources, using them to support and develop your own ideas, rather than rely on them as a substitute for your own thoughts and analyses. If you aren't required to do research for a paper or presentation, it's usually wise not to consult any outside sources to avoid any possibility of plagiarizing.