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. |
