Scandinavian Studies 374/Literature in Translation 274
Masterpieces of Scandinavian Literature:
The Twentieth Century. 

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Documentation in Papers

When writing a paper, you should give credit where credit is due.  Failure to do so can result in charges of plagiarism and serious disciplinary action. 

There are many acceptable documentation formats for papers. The following describes a simple method of documentation that is acceptable for this humanities course, and should serve you in most other contexts.
 
Footnotes or Endnotes 

You may choose to use either footnotes or endnotes. It is more common these days to use endnotes. If all of your references have been mentioned in the footnotes, then a bibliography section is unnecessary.

If you quote from a text, you must document the source.  For example: 

 The Thief admits at the outset, "I'm a thief. I live by stealing." 1 

1 Knut Faldbakken, Adam's Diary, trans. Sverre Lyngstad

(Lincoln: U. of Neb. Pr., 1988) 3. 

Such notes may be placed at the bottom of the page or placed together at the end of the paper.  If you will be quoting frequently from the same text, you may want to save space with the following strategy: 

 The Thief admits at the outset, "I'm a thief. I live by stealing." 1 Before long we realize he steals more than possessions.  For example, on one occasion, the Thief is able to "steal a little closeness" (34). 
 

1 Knut Faldbakken, Adam's Diary, trans. Sverre Lyngstad

(Lincoln: U. of Neb. Pr., 1988) 3.  All further references to this work will

appear in the text. 
 
Bibliography 

Include a bibliography only if you have used texts that were not quoted in your paper, and hence, have not appeared in your footnotes. At the end of your paper, provide an alphabetical list of all the texts you referred to when doing your research for the paper.  Note the different formats for footnotes and bibliographical entires.

 Faldbakken, Knut.  Adam's Diary.  Trans. Sverre Lyngstad.  Lincoln:     

U. of Neb. Pr., 1988. 
 

Paraphrasing 

Remember that even works that you paraphrase must be cited as sources.  In college, it is not acceptable to paraphrase reference works without giving credit.  This, too, is considered plagiarism.

Copyright © 2001 Susan Brantly. All Rights reserved.