Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010
Why cite sources?
Citations
Citing sources
In part 2, we show you how to create citations that your readers will trust be-cause they are complete, accurate, and in the correct format. Now we know that most of you take no pleasure in this part of your project. Even the most persnickety researchers do not enjoy keeping track of their citations: it demands more attention to detail than most of us want to give. And if citations are tedious for experienced researchers who know what to expect, for beginners they can seem like slow torture.
So we understand if you'd rather just skip the citations. But we also know how much citation mistakes can cost you. If you fail to cite what you should, you open yourself to a charge of plagiarism (see chapter 10). If you cite in-accurately, you may lose the trust of readers: If I can't trust you with the small, easy things, then how can I trust you with the more challenging ones? Even a tiny slip in the format of your citations can harm you with the pickiest readers. Of course, at this stage in your career as a researcher, you cannot harm anyone with a bad citation: you do not yet have readers who need to trust you because their well-being depends on the results of your research. But you will. And so your teacher will be as demanding now as she knows your most important readers will be then.
Read Me First: How to Use Part 2
Citations are boring but crucial, so you will have to motivate yourself to be extra careful creating them. Because the job can be tedious, we want to help you get through it with ease, if not with pleasure. Because mistakes can be costly, we want to help you make sure you don't slip up. If you follow these steps, you will give yourself the best chance to create accurate, proper citations as painlessly as possible.
Before you start to research:
Read chapter 17: it will help you guide your research and drafting. It will also help you understand the rationale for the standard forms of citations, which will help you make better decisions if your sources do not exactly match the models. If you are interested, you might also read the introductory sections of the chapter that explains the citation style you plan to use. Don't try to study and remember all the models: you will consult them as you create and check individual citations.
As you research:
Record all the bibliographical data on each source as you find it, before you do anything else with the source. Be disciplined about this job and you will save much trouble later (see 4.2). You may have access to citation software. If so, record the data directly in the software. If you are working away from your computer, write down the information and enter it as soon as possible.
Before you draft:
Read the section that explains how to cite sources in your text (for Chicago 18.1.1, MLA 19.1, or APA 20.1). If you are using MLA or APA, add the in-text citations as you draft. If you are using Chicago style, do not create full notes as you draft: You will disrupt the flow of your drafting with lots of trips back to check on the proper form. Instead, quickly record the source and page numbers in your draft, so that you can come back later to create proper notes.
If you use citation software, you can let the software create citations as you draft, but only if you have already entered the bibliographic data on your sources. (Do not disrupt your drafting to enter bibliographic data as you go.) If you take advantage of this convenience, do not think that you can leave it all to the software. Many systems are outdated and all of them make mistakes, so you must recheck each in-text citation for the correct form and accurate information.
After you draft:
Once you are sure that your in-text citations are correct, create notes and a bibliography for Chicago style (18.1—2), a works cited list for MLA (19.2), or a reference list for APA (20.2). For each source, find the model for that kind of source and create an entry that matches the model exactly. Pay close attention to all the picky details, including capitalization, punctuation, and spacing. You can let your software create a draft of bibliographical entries, but you must check each one against the appropriate model.
The secret to success here is steady, systematic work. Apply yourself for an hour or two, and you'll get it right the first time and be done with this chore.
Go to www.turabian.org to find supplemental materials related to part 2.
17: Citations
17.1 Why Cite Sources?
17.2 When You Must Cite a Source
17.3 Three Citation Styles
17.4 What to Include in a Citation
17.5 Collect Bibliographical Data as You Research and Draft
17.5.1 What Bibliographical Data You Should Save
17.5.2 How to Find the Data You Need
17.5.3 How to Record Bibliographical Data as You Go
17.5.4 What to Do When You Can't Find the Data You Need
In this chapter, we explain what you need to know about citations, no matter which kind of citations you plan to use: why researchers cite sources, the general form of citations, and a plan for collecting information for your citations. You'll find models for your specific citations in chapters 18—20. But first read this chapter for an overview that will help you make better decisions when you use the models.
17.1 Why cite sources?
You have two kinds of reasons for doing the work to create citations that are complete, accurate, and in the proper format. First are the reasons that all researchers share: when you cite sources well, you help your readers understand and trust your research. You also help yourself, not only by gaining your readers' trust, but also by protecting yourself from inadvertently cutting corners in your research. But you also have more immediate, more self-interested reasons. We'll get to those in a moment. As a researcher in your future career, you will cite sources for four reasons:
1. To be honest about what you did and what you borrowed. With every citation, you give credit to the person(s) behind a source for the hard work that went into finding and reporting the information you used. You also avoid seeming to take credit for work you did not do, which protects you against a charge of plagiarism.
2. To assure readers that they can trust your evidence. You can't expect readers to accept evidence simply on your own say-so. They want to know where it came from and why they should trust it. For evidence you gathered yourself, they want to know how and where you found it. For evidence gathered by others, they want to know its source so that they can judge its reliability, perhaps even check it out for themselves. Readers do not trust a source they do not know and cannot find; if they do not trust your sources, they will not trust your evidence; if they do not trust your evidence, they will not trust your paper—or you. You establish the first link in that chain of trust by citing sources fully and properly.
3. To tell readers which earlier researchers informed your work. Researchers cite some sources for the data they use as evidence, but they also cite work whose ideas or methods influenced how they thought about their problem and its solution. When you cite sources that influenced your thinking, you show readers how your work connects to that of others.
4. To help readers follow or extend your research. Just as you used the references in your sources to find other useful works on your question (see 4.3.5), so your readers may use your sources to guide their research.
We understand that some of these reasons may seem distant from your immediate situation. But consider them as you work: with these goals in mind, the rules you must follow will make more sense, and you'll make better decisions in following them.
As a student now, you have some more immediate, practical reasons for being careful about citations. Unless your teacher tells you otherwise, assume that every research assignment requires proper citations for all sources. Get your citations wrong and you'll face a double penalty in your grade: not only will you lose what your teacher takes off for poor citations, but everything about your paper will seem suspect if you lose your teacher's trust. Fail to cite sources at all and you'll open yourself to a charge of plagiarism, which can cost you a failed assignment, a failed course, or worse—not to mention giving you the reputation of a cheater. So if you can't think of a better reason, work on citations simply because you have to.