If you use something, cite it!

Some salty language at the end if you scroll down, but it makes a good point. Original source here.

in-text citations the basics

Duke has a great guide to parenthetical citations with MLA - and as a KU alum it's hard to praise Duke. St. Cloud U. Writing Center also has a guide which points out how to cite when the author's name is mentioned in the text.

Something that bugs me - when I see the long and drawn-out slow wind up. It isn't concise. It amounts to filler. For example

Stephen Krashen, a world authority on No Child Left Behind and author of "Remarks on Race to the Top," wrote an interesting article. In it he said, and I think correctly, "Students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families score outscore all or nearly all other countries on international tests."

This is too wordy. The end text citation will give me the title of the article, and appeals to authority should be carefully used. Krashen is popular, but not the authority you might expect among serious scholars. It's better to frame the quote for your purposes, and let the parenthetical citation do much of the work for you.

Testing may not be the solution to our problems in education, but fighting poverty. "Students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families score outscore all or nearly all other countries on international tests " (Krashen).

It's shorter, and conveys much more information. Note: the above came from a web source. If it's a pdf, or paginated source - such as print - insert the page number after the author's last name but without commas. The two links above to a great job explaining that.

Citing the Dictionary

For some reason people like to start papers with by citing a dictionary. Maybe writers think it kills 2 birds with 1 stone in that a) it's an in-text reference and demonstrates a quote and b) gets something on paper.

I hate seeing quotes pulled from a dictionary. Call it a pet peeve; call it a fetish; call me an irascible curmudgeon and pedant, but it makes me cringe. I'd rather chew aluminum foil than read a dictionary quote of common word.

To make it worse, most dictionary quotes I see from students include several meanings of the word, in various parts of speech, and fail to identify what particular meaning will be focused on. It looks like filler - a great ploy to break writer's block and get started on a rough draft - but not something that should survive to a final draft.

I generally hate seeing dictionary quotes because its tried so often and almost never works - not that it can't be done. Maybe it's like cutting your own hair. I've known just one person who can pull it off, but I've know dozens who failed miserably. I strongly recommend against it. I can simply turn my head from looking at a bad haircut, but I'm required to read what students write, so for now I reserve the right to dock points for style.

I do encourage writers to define their terms as they use them, but be specific to the context and usage of your term, and define it in a way personally meaningful: preferably in your own words. All dictionary definitions of common words are going to be similar, so most such definitions are common knowledge and would be trite.

Mike Shapiro at UW- Madison writes

Three quick usage rules:

1. Incorporate a definition into your essay only when that definition is unusual and interesting—as a general rule, give definitions only for meanings that are uncommon (example: the theological sense of disgrace) or that have gone out of use since Shakespeare’s time.
2. Use the definition to further your argument. If you take the space to spell out an unusual meaning of disgrace but don’t explain how that unusual definition betters our understanding of the sonnet, that space will be wasted.
3. Don’t begin an essay with a definition. Although this might give you a way to break the blank page, your reader is more interested in the argument of your essay than in the OED definition of “love.”

A thread started on a public discussion board has a student asking if it's ok to quote the dictionary because her teacher said it was a rule she couldn't. There's a great discussion and only a little teacher-bashing.


Oh, and if one were to quote a dictionary, it'd better be the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), or a specialized dictionary like the Urban Dictionary or the Devil's Dictionary.

Quotations and context

I've noticed a rise in "news" (infotainment?) organizations taking quotations out of context - sometimes to intentionally prove a false supposition, and sometimes out of cluelessness. In an Associated Press article Oct. 30, 2010, entitled "Retired Chaplains Warn Against 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Repeal" I was struck by the pullquote - indicated in blue.

The quote reinforced an assumption about the sort of person who might lead a foundation with that sort of name. But what does this pullquote imply?

• Is it ambiguous?
• Did I read it the way most people would, or do different biases determine meaning?
• Who is the "you" implied by the pullquote?
• What is the "it" specifically?

When I came to the quote in context it surprised me. Examine the use of pronouns. In context, where does it appear Weinstein's sympathies lie?

For full text without the newspaper formatting, see LJW website here.

BTW: scans came from the LJW A5.

What I'm learning Re: SRTOL Papers - citing sources

I've only read a handful of papers. 1/2 have been amazing, and half have been ... uninspiring but generally ok. That's not too bad. Some advice, tips or clarifications for you-all.

In text quotations
Re: block quotations. Only one person's followed MLA so far. I notice Purdue's OWL and several other sources get it WRONG. Page 7 of the PDF Norton provides free online re: MLA format says:

When quoting more than three lines of poetry, more than four lines of prose, or dialogue from a drama, set off the quotation from the rest of your text, indenting it one inch (or ten spaces) from the left margin. Do not use quotation marks. Place any parenthetical documentation after the final punctuation. [emphasis mine]

See also the sample paper page 5 on pdf page 46.

Also:

• every source quoted or used to support an argument should show up in the works page. Even when you quote media such as: songs, films, TV, etc.
  
• if you quote something, there needs to be and immediate (or ajacent) indication of where to find citation info on the works page. Usually this is the author's last name.
  
• when quoting, include page #'s to help readers find the original quote. This is essential if quoting from a book, or database that uses PDF's with page #'s, or a periodical or anything that provides page #'s. Assume the reader will track down your quote, and make it easy. You may have to go back yourself.

Works Consulted info isn't just for your reader - it can help you track down your source again when you lose a draft, print out, whatever. That's why I work on / update the works page every time I find a new source. Just heard a sad story of a great source lost forever. I've been there. Work on your bib page from the beginning and keep it up to date.

Why some Journal Dates get Parenthesis (and some dont')

Someone asked why some periodicals (ie magazines or journals) put the year in parenthesis and some did not. Good question. I looked into that. Page 22 of the pdf notes:

DATES: Abbreviate the names of months except for May, June, or July:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Journals paginated
by volume or issue call only for the year (in parentheses). [emphasis mine]

It has to do with how periodicals are published. Some may not record exact month, but rather record volume or issue numbers. For those put the year in parenthesis.

Can anyone further clarify this issue? Please do in the comments.

Images in this post take from the free Norton online 2009 update to MLA documentation.

MLA documentation

Hopefully you've checked out what I've posted before on documentation in general. It looks like people are doing google searches for research - even though we found great research in the library using the database. I'm seeing sources that don't impress me and don't lend anyone credibility. Anyone can get a web site and say anything. If you want to do a web search use Google Scholar. It provides much better sources. Best bet -though - is the library database.

Norton has some resources on how to document sources in MLA format. they even provide a free PDF of the MLA updates - and IT CONTAINS A SAMPLE PAPER! (go to page 40). It's amazing how much I can tell from just a superficial glance at the physical format of a paper. Look at a sample paper.

I also recommend Citation Machine. Click MLA and follow directions.

We should all cite the 4 C's statement that we are responding to. You can find it several places. I put a phrase from the statement in quotes and entered it in Google Scholar. One site quoted it in its entirety - it's full text through JSTOR. I took info from that page and entered it into citation machine and voila!

Gilyard, Keith. "African American Contributions to Composition Studies." National Council of Teachers of English. 50.4 (1999): 639. Web.

It doesn't have the hanging indent - which is tough in electronic formats like blogs, web pages, etc. but otherwise it's solid. Notice you don't need or want "volume" or "Vol." or "page" ... if everything is in the right place I know the volume 50, the number is 4 and the page is 639.

Digital Rights Management, Copyright, and Citing Sources

If you can handle scatological terms there's an interesting thread to this discussion started elsewhere. Part of the goals of this class include the effective integration of the words and ideas of others. We need to all follow some practices to maximize communication (meta data rocks) and participate in a larger scholarly discourse community, whilst covering our collective and individual assets.

Citing sources impresses me - don't hide your research. Failing to give credit where it is due, to fail to "give props" in the popular parlance, is at best rude and at worst legally actionable. Give a shout out to the influences on your ideas when you can.

Some faculty have told me it stems from an inability to distinguish fact from opinion. Maybe...I have doubts. The unwillingness to express an opinion is not evidence of a lack of rational thought. It just appears that way in class. I'll also address this topic in an audio rant, I mean "lecture."

No citation is needed for ideas that are common knowledge - unless you use the specific language of someone else. That's lazy and doesn't impress anyone, but not illegal (as long as you place the other's words in quotes and provide citation information). That's one reason English faculty tend to look at Wikipedia with such disdain. To most writing instructors, using Wikipedia is like peeing in the shower. Maybe everyone does it (present company excluded), but no one talks about it in polite company.

Wikipedia is great for technology and math topics, where facts are relevant and opinion less so. Where knowledge can be debated, socially created references are of dangerous or lesser use

Make an effort to be fair to your sources and to your readers. Works Cited pages give readers an added resource - we can go find the same sources if we're interested. FYI: Links themselves are generally seen as citation in web publications. Material posted in ANGEL has an added safeguard of being behind a firewall.

We will be using Turnitin.com - which is a great resource for protecting ourselves from charges of intellectual misappropriation, regardless of our intentions.