Jud Sage
Distance Learning Center
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003
Copyright © Henry J. Sage 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The following suggestions are generally applicable for any writing assignment in any college course in the humanities or social sciences. Please note that they deal mostly with the mechanics of writing, not content or style. The preferences expressed are my own, but other teachers would probably find most of them acceptable. Nevertheless, be sure to inform yourself about local rules or practices (professor, department, college, etc.) before proceeding.
The first and most important step in doing a writing project is to understand exactly what is required. Begin by reading your course syllabus carefully. Then study any written requirements your instructor may provide for your research project and be sure he or she explains those requirements to your satisfaction. If written guidelines are not given, or if the instructions seem unclear to you, ask for clarification—you are entitled to it. Most college instructors will probably assume that you are familiar with standard practice regarding format, style, documentation, attribution etc. If you have any doubts about the nature of your assignment, be sure to ask well in advance of the due date. For online courses, email for advice if necessary.
The following suggestions should be followed for any written work submitted electronically or otherwise:
All generally accepted rules of attribution, quotation and fair use apply for any outside sources used, regardless of the medium in which it is presented, including the Internet. As a minimum, indicate the author, title and page number and publication data for any ideas used, and the URL of any web sites used, including date accessed by you.
First, put all direct quotations inside quotation marks and indicate the source either by in-text notes or by the traditional numbered footnotes or endnotes. (I prefer in-text notes as they are much simpler.) If you refer only to documents on my web site, in-text reference is sufficient. If you use outside references, include them at the end on a separate page titled “Works Consulted” or “Selected Bibliography,” using a proper format. (See samples of notes and bibliography later in this instruction.)
You may in no case use any external material as your own, no matter how it is obtained, and you must always document your sources to the best of your ability. In this digital age you should know that even material on the Internet that has no apparent author cannot be copied. It is copyrighted regardless, and it is not your work. (See below, "How to Avoid Plagiarism") See also my separate section on academic dishonesty.
Documenting Sources from the Internet
Documenting Internet and other online sources is an area which is evolving just like the Internet itself. Those of you who are likely to use information from the Internet should be able to navigate your way around in order to find what you need. Thus the best place to keep track of practices is on the Internet itself. The following sources provide information on current practices and standards: (Your don't need to consult all of these.)
For general guidance the following can be considered essential ingredients of the bibliographic entry for a print, web or Internet source: (Adapted from The Write Source)
This instruction is mostly about the mechanics of writing and says little about content or style. Writing texts and rhetorics abound, the kind used as textbooks in English courses. Many history texts also contain brief sections on writing, as do most college dictionaries. Nevertheless, here are a few tips for you to consider in writing your essays:
Tell me what you think. I have been teaching a long time and am not interested in your version of what somebody else thinks. I want to know what YOU think. Make the focus of your essay the documents you read or the site or virtual site you are using. The documents and sites will open a wealth of ideas for you—consider them as something you are visiting for the first time.
Approach it this way: Suppose I told you to go and visit, say, Jefferson's home at Monticello and tell me what you think of it. The only reason you would look in a book is to try to figure out what you are supposed to say, and you might do that. But if I directed you to an old house in Leesburg about which nothing had ever been written, you would have to decide for yourself what to say. That's what I'm after—what you think. I know this may go against things you heard in high school or elsewhere, but if so, I could not disagree more. Your job in education is to learn how to think for yourself.
As for “style”, or “theme” or “three main points” or any of those structural guidelines, forget it. Plunge right in. Don't feel you need to establish a context by paraphrasing the text or my topic summaries. For History 121 students, an opening sentence on the Patrick Henry Speech on the Constitution from the Virginia ratifying convention might be: "Why was Patrick Henry so opposed to the new Constitution? What was his problem?" For History 122, an essay on the Zimmermann Telegram might begin with: "Of all the stupid mistakes diplomats have made, this one is right at the top!" In other words, go right to what you have to say about the document; don't waste words on warmup.
If you feel you need more material, try to find a more complete version of the document in Annals of America in your library or on some other site linked from the home page or your course page. In other words, try to use more of the same source or sources rather than going to secondary material. Use the questions in the project assignment as a starter, but only if you can't think of anything else to say. If you have read the sources and thought about them, it shouldn't be necessary.
For an excellent short reference on writing about history, see the following: Richard A. Marius and Melvin E. Page. A Short Guide to Writing about History. 5th ed. New York: Pearson, 2004.
PLAGIARISM is a serious offense in the academic world. The minimum penalty for plagiarism is generally a failing grade in the course; in serious cases, suspension or dismissal from the college or university may result. (See the NVCC Student handbook for more information on this topic.)
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to give credit for all sources you use and to be absolutely confident that everything else in the paper is your own work. Be sure you understand the limits concerning what you may use without giving credit. It is never wrong to use outside works in arriving at the ideas in an essay or research paper; in fact, it is generally a required part of all academic work. But it is always wrong to do so without acknowledging your sources. If in doubt, ask your instructor or consult any standard reference work on writing college papers. Such books are available in any college library or bookstore.
The evolving world of the computer, CD-ROM and Internet has created new problems regarding proper use of material, but the basic rules have not changed: you must still credit any source you use, and it is still wrong to submit someone else's work as your own, no matter where you found it or how “public” or “free” it may seem to be. Be sure to inform yourself on proper procedures for documenting on-line sources, beginning with the references listed above. This rapidly changing field requires even more rigor than traditional methods of research. Misuse of on-line resources is just as serious as misusing print media, and it is a more dangerous area because it is easier to access and copy materials.
The last thing you ever want to do is copy and paste material from the web into your essay. If you do, be absolutely sure that you place it in quotation marks and document the source.
Following is an example of proper and improper paraphrasing of a source, a paragraph from a text about the Anasazi:
Religious and social motives undoubtedly played a part in the building of the cliff communities and their final abandonment. But the struggle to raise food in an increasingly difficult environment was probably the paramount factor. As populations grew, farmers planted larger areas on the mesas, causing some communities to farm marginal lands, while others left the mesa tops for the cliffs. But the Anasazi couldn't halt the steady loss of the land's fertility from constant use, nor withstand the region's cyclical droughts. Analysis of tree rings, for example, shows that a final drought lasting 23 years, from 1276 to 1299, finally forced the last groups of Anasazi to leave permanently.
An improper paraphrase of that paragraph would be:
Indians undoubtedly had religious and social motives for building cliff communities and their final abandonment. The struggle to raise food in an increasingly difficult environment, however, was probably the main factor. As populations expanded, farmers planted larger areas on mesas, causing some communities to farm lands that were marginal, while others left the mesa tops and moved to the cliffs. The Anasazi could not halt the steady loss of the land's fertility from its constantly being used, and they could not withstand the area's cyclical droughts. Tree ring analysis, for example, shows that a final drought lasted 23 years, from 1276 to 1299, and finally forced the last groups of Anasazi to leave forever.
While some words have been changed or rearranged, the text follows the original too closely. Granted, this is a paragraph in a text that merely conveys “facts,” but the words belong to the author, and at least one part is a conclusion or idea—the assertion that struggles with raising food “was probably the main factor” in the Anasazi leaving. A better paraphrase might be:
The Anasazi had various motives for building and leaving their cliff settlements, including religious and social reasons, but raising food was difficult and was probably also a cause. Droughts and overuse of land were factors, based on observable data, that led the Anasazi to move from mesa tops to cliffs.
Because of the author's judgment or conclusion about probable causes, a footnote citation is in order.
Sometimes students get into the dangerous area of plagiarism by inadvertently doing things that can invite trouble, though it may not be apparent at the time. Photocopying pages out of a book may seem to save time taking notes, but when you have the exact text of your sources in front of you as you write, it is easy to transfer too much of that material into your own paper. As mentioned above, copying and pasting from the Internet is even more risky. It is much safer to take brief notes of your own, from the original or a copied portion, then write your essay from your notes. That will also help you be clear about what you want to say, since it will come from your own reflection, imagination and interpretation, rather than from what someone else has said.
If you have only a few sources in your essay, and use a footnote form that contains all information about the source, you do not need to add a “List of Sources” at the end of your paper. If you do list sources at the end, there is no reason to use the full footnotes below. In fact, I have recently read two fine histories by professional historians that use complete footnotes and have no bibliography, probably because the authors or their editors decided that containing full information in two places was redundant.
If you use multiple sources, however, I prefer a “List of Sources” for two reasons.
First, such a list will grow out of your research, and may be useful for you as a growing checklist of what you have used. Second, a list is easier to scan, so that your reader can see at a glance what you have consulted. In the cases cited above, both books were lengthy, and I was disappointed not to be able to look over a list of works used as a starting point for my own research on certain parts of each book. Instead I had to go through the footnotes one at a time, a tedious process.
Do not include anything in your list of sources which you did not use yourself in writing your paper. On the other hand, a brief bibliographic essay explaining your search for sources, and discussing works which sounded good but turned out to be unhelpful, may be very useful for others, including your teacher. Doing research is part of the job, and you have a right to take credit for that work itself, but recognize that the content of the paper is still the most important part of the assignment.
Beware of what I call the "stacked" bibliography. It is less than impressive to list 8 or 10 books as sources, only to have all your footnotes come from about 4 or 5 pages of just a couple of them.
SAMPLE LIST OF SOURCES CONSULTED (TRADITIONAL PRINTED SOURCES)
Bowen, Catherine Drinker. John Adams and the American Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950.
Braestrup, Peter, ed. Vietnam as History: Ten Years After the Paris Peace Accords. Washington: University Press of America, 1984.
Campus Unrest: Hearings Before the Special Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, 91st Congress. (Feb.-May, 1969). Washington. D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1969.
Chester, Lewis, Godfrey Hodgson and Bruce Page. An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968. New York: Dell, 1969.
"Clinton Certifies Vietnam on MIAs." The Washington Times. Reuters. 1 June1996: A4.
"Do or Die in Bosnia." Editorial. Washington Post. 26 May 1996: C6.
Fussell, Paul. "The Real War 1939-1945." Atlantic August 1989: 32-40.
Geyelin, Milo. "Lawyers Battling the Tobacco Industry Are Confronting Logistical Nightmare." The Wall Street Journal. 28 May 1996: A6.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, A History. 2nd rev. ed., New York: Penguin, 1991.
McCullough, John M. "U.S. Cruiser Sunk With Every Man Lost or Wounded." Philadelphia Inquirer. 15 August 1945: 1.
McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Knopf, 1982.
---. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988. (Also by McPherson)
Pressley, Sue Anne. "Weighing a Nuclear Waste Dump." Washington Post. 13 August 1996: A3
Sheehan, Neil. A Bright and Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random house, 1988.
Smith, Page. A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution. 2 vols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
Jones, Arthur L. Personal Interview. September 14, 1996. (Note: This format is to be used for interviews you conduct.)
Page Smith refers to America as being like "some strange new garden where all kinds of transplanted vegetables and flowers lived together in vigorous incompatibility,..." (I, 27).
Volume number is included for clarity.
In an editorial of 26 May 1996 entitled "Do or Die in Bosnia," the Washington Post argues that the solution to problems in Bosnia is "to put off elections until local conditions are improved."
No citation needed-all necessary information is contained in the text.
Sherman allowed the remnant of Johnston's army to slip away, saying, "I don't want to lose men in a direct attack if it can be avoided." (quoted in McPherson, Battle Cry, 830).
Short titles are included in both McPherson references to distinguish between two works listed.
The Confederate constitutional convention met in Montgomery on February 4, 1861. Some historians claim that the delegates were not concerned with what was happening in the Federal capital at that time but concentrated instead on establishing their own government. (McPherson, Ordeal 137).
Short titles are included in both McPherson references to distinguish between two works listed.
Paul Fussell writes that what filled American soldiers during World War II with contempt was their belief that their experience had been related to the American people so falsely that "it would never be readily communicable"; he claims, furthermore, that American soldiers knew, for example, that much enemy equipment was superior to theirs (32, 34).
Since the author's name is in the text, page number only is cited. Title, etc., are in the list of sources.
When he became president, Jefferson emphasized reduction of the national debt because he considered a large debt bad for democracy. He also wanted to reduce the influence of the federal government and opposed direct taxes, believing that revenues from trade would provide sufficient income. (Divine 233)
Reference to the textbook. The conclusions are those of the author of the text.
On April 1, 1965, President Johnson decided to provide two additional marine battalions and about 20,000 support troops to General Westmoreland. The logistics troops were felt to be necessary so that American soldiers in the field would have all the necessary comforts of home. Johnson also decided to allow the marines on Vietnam to begin conducting offensive operations rather than passively guarding American bases along the coast. Karnow states, "Johnson concealed that momentous step from the public." (433)
Karnow is mentioned in the paragraph and does not need to be included in the citation.
In a conversation with Stanley Karnow, General Giap said, "I had no idea where-or even whether-a major battle might take place." (quoted in Karnow, 205)
It is not entirely clear that the quotation is in Karnow's book, so his name is included in the citation. (The conversation might have been described elsewhere.)
During the Tet offensive of 1968 Viet Cong guerrillas made attacks throughout South Vietnam. They even managed to get into the U.S. Embassy grounds. The effect on United States public opinion was sharp, and many people believe it was the turning point of the war, at least at home. Later that year President Johnson decided not to run for reelection, clearly another casualty of the Tet offensive.
No citation necessary-this information is "common knowledge"-generally widely known or readily available.
Wilson's New Freedom stressed competitive business and small government. Because he believed in states' rights he wanted to restrict the influence of the federal government. He used the advice of Louis Brandeis to further his progressive goals. As Divine notes, Wilson said, "If America is not to have free enterprise, then she can have freedom of no sort whatever." (713-14)
Divine is mentioned in the paragraph and does not need to be restated.
The Constitution states very clearly that "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives" and not in the Senate.
No citation is necessary to the Constitution or other such historic public documents. Quotation marks indicate the actual words of the Constitution. Note that the capitalization in the original is followed.
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. The blast followed the first test-firing of the new weapon, which occurred in New Mexico on July 16 of the same year. The bomb had an impact the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. Some 70,000 persons were killed in the blast.
No citation necessary-this is “common knowledge”—information generally widely known or readily available.
The Constitution states very clearly that "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives" and not in the Senate.
No citation is necessary when using the Constitution or other public document identified in the test, even when citing exact words. Quotation marks are used to indicate the actual words of the Constitution. Note that the capitalization in the original is followed.
As Tocqueville states in Democracy in America, "I am persuaded that the only means which we possess at the present time of inculcating the notion of rights ... is to invest all members of the community with the peaceful exercise of certain rights." (Primis, 78)
The citation to Tocqueville's Democracy in America in Primis is sufficient-further citations are contained in the Primis book. Note also: You do not need to cite assigned tests in bibliographies for papers in that course. If you used this source for a paper in another course, however, you would need to include it in your list of sources for that paper.
Harry Truman stated in a speech to Congress 1947 that the way of life America must defend is "based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression."
No citation is needed because the full date of the speech is given, which is sufficient information for the reader to locate a source. Most major presidential speeches and other public documents of that kind are published verbatim in major newspapers or other easy-to-locate sources.
According to Stanley Karnow, General Giap deliberately misled the French about his intentions prior to the battle of Dienbienphu. (205) The author in mentioned in the text, so only the page number is used.
CITING INFORMATION FROM DATABASES and ONLINE SERVICES
The information below was prepared in part by the library staff at NVCC Alexandria. Thanks to Mimi Gronlund and Sylvia Rortvedt.
The most important purpose for citing electronic sources is to enable others to find the same information you used in case they want to pursue your topic further. A secondary reason is so that teachers can assist you in sharpening your research and writing skills and techniques, and for that reason they occasionally will want to follow up on your research. In any case, while formats are important for clarity. The most important thing you need to do in any citation is give clear and accurate information about where you found your information.
The difficulty with providing Internet addresses, however, is that they often change, sometimes without a trace. A "fail-safe strategy," according to Michael Arnzen, is to copy and save the documents you use, then print them out. Unless they are available elsewhere, it would be a good idea to attach all such documents to papers you submit.
Arnzen and others have also pointed out that material on the Internet may be unreliable. Books, magazines and newspapers have editors whose job it is to endorse the author or writer's integrity and help ensure that materials they publish are reasonably accurate and reliable. No such safeguards exist on the Internet-anybody can publish anything. You therefore must exercise judgment and discretion concerning what you use from the Internet and how you use it. Be especially cautious with unsigned pages or those which have no apparent reference to or connection with any other site. More and more, various Internet sites are being linked to others on related topics, and those links lend some validity to what you find there.
As the Internet and associated resources such as the World Wide Web continue do grow and evolve, techniques for citations will also evolve. This world is changing so fast that current literature on the process is hard to come by. For the present, the guidance offered here will meet the basic requirements for proper citation, but it does not pretend to be definitive.
The following is based upon the assumption that data bases and other online or electronic sources and documents are not necessarily identical to their printed counterparts. For example, The New York Times on line may or may not be identical with the same issue in your library or on the newsstand. Unless you are sure that it is, you should indicate what version of the source you used.
An enormous amount of information is appearing on the World Wide Web and at Gopher and other sites. Since much of this information does not exist anywhere else, the only way a researcher can readily locate a source used by someone else is from the web or Internet address. Since you need that address to get to the source, and since it is always displayed by various Internet servers, recording the Internet address should offer no difficulty. The key is remembering to do it before you leave the source. (Conveniently, many authors of web pages and other information include their Internet address within the document-but you should check it anyway.)
When information such as the full text of an article is obtained directly from a computer, whether from the Internet, CD-ROM, or other form of electronic database instead of from a printed source, your bibliography should contain the following:
Author's name (if given) Title of article or essay (in quotation marks) Title of Home Page or Internet location if possible Title of magazine, journal or book (underlined) Date of publication, or date on which Internet source is accessed Title of the database (underlined) Name of computer service (when appropriate) Internet Address when appropriate
The foregoing is based on guidelines in: Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 4th ed. New York: MLA, 1995. Be sure to record the name of the database you are using. The information needed for your bibliography will be on the printout that lists the citations (articles).
Examples:
Magazine Article -- full text from Academic ASAP
Bibliography entry:
Early, Tracy. "Running for brain power." Current Health 2 October 1995:22(2), Academic ASAP.
Magazine Article -- full text from ProQuest
Bibliography entry:
Saunders, Len. "Project ACES 1996 promotes fitness in children." Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. March 1996:6 ProQuest.
Newspaper Article -- Full Text from Washington Times on Newsbank--CD News.
Bibliography entry:
Hockman, Phyllis. "Spa Where Being in Shape is Cool." Washington Times 24 March, 1996. Washington Times on Newsbank.
Newswire Article-- full text from Front Page News
Bibliography entry:
Article # 95355pO382. "Governor's Council for Physical Fitness: Snow Shoveling can trigger heart" PR NEWSWIRE December 21, 1995. Front Page News.
Statistical Information -- text from Matter of Fact on Silver Platter
Bibliography entry:
United States Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. "Healthy Schools, Healthy Children." Hearing. 14 November 1991. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1992. Matter of Fact on Silver Platter.
Article/Chapter from a Book -- Full Text from Britannica Online through the Internet
Bibliography entry:
"Weight Training." Britannica Online 1996. Internet
DOCUMENTING SPECIFIC INFORMATION
A bibliography is a list of all the sources of information used for your research. You must also use endnotes, footnotes or parenthetical documentation to direct the reader to the specific source and page(s) whenever you use an exact quotation, statistics or an original idea that is not your own. For example, if you include information in your paper that appeared in an article from the journal Skeptical Inquirer the citation in your bibliography would look like this:
Frazier, Kendrick. "UFOs Real? Government Covering Up? 50 percent Think So." Skeptical Inquirer. November/December 1995: 3-6. Academic ASAP.
If you include the following quotation from the article in your paper, you must document it in one of 2 ways
Parenthetical documentation in the article itself
"Half of America's adults believe flying saucers could be real and that the federal government is covering up what it knows about alien beings." (Frazier 3). (The reader then turns to the bibliography to get the full citation.
Endnote (listed on a separate sheet at the end of the paper) or footnote (placed at the bottom of the page on which the quotation appear) to document the information. Endnotes footnotes are numbered, both at the end of the quotation or reference or at the end of the sentence containing the reference, and before the endnote or footnote.
2. Kendrick Frazier. "UFOs Real? Government Covering Up? 50 percent of those surveyed think so." Skeptical Inquirer November/December 1995:3 (If all sources used are noted in this manner, a separate list of sources consulted is not needed, since all the necessary information is contained in the note.)
Ask your instructor which type of documentation he or she prefers.
General: Electronic mail (e-mail) is a significant innovation in helping students and faculty communicate, but as with all new technologies, problems exist. Some commercial or institutional servers are efficient and easy to use; others are less so. While e-mail can save time and effort, it is worth learning to use it well. If you have access to e-mail, please use it whenever possible; e-mail saves a lot of wear and tear on secretaries and other communications media.
Sending Messages:
If you need immediate feedback, try the telephone. Carrying on "conversations" by e-mail is inefficient. Don't count on your message arriving immediately. Some servers are not on line all the time, and sometimes e-mail is undeliverable or delayed for various reasons. Many people do not have terminals at their desks and therefore are not alerted when e-mail arrives, and don't necessarily check it hourly, so don't assume your message has been read until you get an answer. I check my e-mail at least twice daily, but not every hour. Thus if you have class at 7:30 p.m. and send me an e-mail message at 6:30, I probably won't see it before class. Check your own outgoing e-mail some time after you have sent a message to be sure it got delivered.
E-mail addresses generally must be exact. Case may or may not matter; it's best to get it exact. Always check with your teacher before sending papers via e-mail. Printing can be a hassle. See below. Identify yourself by name, class and section number (or day and time of class) in e-mail and fax messages. E-mail addresses do not necessarily identify senders. Be clear about time. "Tomorrow" isn't very helpful in e-mail because you can't always be sure when your message will be sent or received. I will acknowledge all e-mail back to the address from which it was sent. If you want a response sent elsewhere, tell me in the message. If you don't get an answer within 24 hours, I probably didn't get your message. If you request an extension on homework via e-mail you may assume you have it. Once you send your message you are covered. If you don't get an answer within 24 hours, send another message or call.
Submitting Papers via e-mail:
Do not include your paper in the text of your message. Attach it as a file that can be downloaded by the receiver. Please send all essay files in MSWORD, WordPerfect, Wordstar or plain text format. Do not encrypt or encode them. If you send from a MAC environment, check to see what you need to do when sending to a DOS/WINDOWS environment. If you send it as text it should be OK. After you have sent an essay by e-mail, keep a hard copy and bring it to class in case for some reason it does not arrive or cannot be read. You will not be penalized for lateness as long as you tried. Use the first four or five letters of your last name in the file name of the essay you transmit. (Smith#1.doc for example.) Do not use "Essay#2" or "History" as your file name as such generic names are hard to keep track of. Make sure your name is in the text of the essay. Transmit the file as you want it to look-double spaced, with the title, your name and the instructor's on the cover page, etc. Check the general instructions for essays below and apply them to your e-mail submissions where applicable.
Page Design by Jud Sage
Associate Professor, History
© 1996-2005 Henry J. Sage
hsage@cox.net | Updated January 4, 2010