Download Quotations, Citations, and Plagiarism: Proper Use and Avoidance and more Papers Humanities in PDF only on Docsity! Quotes are like DRUGS Quotations, Citations, and Avoiding Plagiarism 1. Quotations • They can get you into trouble. • Good ones can make you (or your papers) better. • It’s bad to overuse them. • If misused, they can be dangerous. Quotes can make your paper BETTER • The best quotes are , NOT something one could easily paraphrase – SHOULD BE PARAPHRASED: Godbeer writes, “The frank and detailed testimony presented to the court by neighbors and acquaintances left no room for doubt that Senison had made sexual advances to many men in his community over a period of three decades” (Godbeer, 93). DON’T OVERUSE QUOTES • Don’t let quotes make your points for you. • Use quotes ONLY as evidence, example, or illustration -- after you’ve stated the proposition in your own words – limiting yourself to the use of only quotes usually takes care of this problem • Avoid unnecessarily long quotes. BLOCK QUOTES A prose quotation of two or more sentences that runs to eight or more lines of text in a paper should be set off from the text in single-spacing and indented in its entirety four spaces from the left margin, with no quotation marks at the beginning or end. A quotation so treated is called a block quotation (Turabian, 74-75). According to Kate Turabian: Use block quotes only when a shorter quotation or a paraphrase will not do. QUOTING • Be sure to quote accurately “Stephen Gorton. . . was suspended from her [sic] position [as minister] for ‘unchaste behaviour with his fellow men when in bed with them’” (101). – Ellipses (used to shorten quotes, show that some words in a quote are missing) – [sic] (points out an error that is the fault of the author you’re quoting, not you!) – Brackets (show changes or additions you’ve made to the author’s words, in the interest of clarity) – Quotes within quotes ( “… ‘……’ .” ) Quotations, Citations, and Avoiding Plagiarism 2. Citations – Follow every quotation or paraphrase with a citation • Footnote or Endnote – Followed by a bibliographical entry • Parenthetical notation – Followed by a full entry in a list of Works Cited – Construct citations and bib/works cited according to your chosen style manual AVOIDING PLAGIARISM • Use citations even when you’re NOT directly “quoting” – if the idea you’re stating: – was written, said, composed, recorded, performed, or otherwise created by someone else (or even yourself if it was previously published) – Is not common knowledge When in doubt, CITE EVERYTHING!!! IN SUMMARY. . . • Accurately copy quotations, and use quotation marks correctly • Paraphrase carefully and originally • Cite all sources of information you use in the preparation of your paper WHETHER YOU DIRECTLY QUOTE FROM THEM OR NOT!!!! . . . and you will avoid one of the most serious problems a writer can face.
