BIO 200 - Topics in Anthropology: Human Sex Differences: Behavior, Biology, Ecology: Why Cite?

The standards for academic writing and attribution are much higher at the college and university level than they are in high school.  Your professors expect you to learn how to cite sources correctly in a given format, and often, proper citation techniques are not taught in class.  Having the initiative to learn and check your work is essential.  Errors in paraphrasing and citations can give the impression that you are plagiarizing, even if that is not your intention.  

Academic writing is no easy task, and it takes time to write a quality paper that has been properly cited.  Authors of scholarly articles know this - it takes years to write an article, have it edited, make corrections, and eventually have it published in a journal.  But, because scholarly journals only want to publish information that is of the highest quality, authors endure the long process and take the time to do things right.

If you choose to leave an insufficient amount of time to write and cite your paper, you should accept the possibility of a lower grade rather than risk an accusation of plagiarism.  Members of the Stonehill community adhere to the Academic Honor Code, and violating that code could result in temporary or permanent expulsion from the college.

Why Cite Resources?

• Citations allow readers to locate and further explore the sources you used to develop your thoughts and outcomes expressed in your paper. They are a measure of the depth and scope of your research.
• Citations are the method used to give credit to authors for their ideas and research.
• Citations provide the evidence for your arguments and establish your credibility by documenting that you have searched for and considered a number of resources during researching and writing of your paper.
• Citing enable you to have your own original ideas and outcomes standout from the other's research.
• Citing is standard practice in the world of academia.

What is a citation?

A citation is a way you inform the readers that certain materials in your paper came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find the source. Your citation should include the following elements in both your footnotes and bibliography.

• Author
• Title of work
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Date published
• Page numbers where the material is located.

When do I need to cite?

You need to acknowledge whenever you borrow quotes or ideas. The following are when you need to cite:

• Whenever you use direct quotes.
• Whenever you paraphrase.
• Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed.
• Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another.
• Whenever someone else's work has been critical in developing your own ideas.

1.  Always write your papers from scratch, starting with a blank screen.

2.  Cite at the time of writing to be sure that you are giving proper attribution to the original author(s).

3.  Don't cut and paste passages from sources - that's assembling, not writing.  

4.  When reading a potential source, jot down the main ideas that you want to use in your paper, but in your own words.  Make a note of where those ideas came from so that you can properly cite them.

Paraphrasing is using your own words to express someone else's idea.  You don't change the meaning of the original statement, but you do use your own vocabulary and unique writing style.  If your version is too close to the original, that's plagiarism.

Proper paraphrasing requires a thorough understanding of the original text.  You can't put something into your own words if you don't understand what you've read.  And if you don't understand it, you shouldn't use it in your paper!

Paraphrasing is preferable to quoting directly from a source.  Being able to paraphrase shows that you understand the information you've read, and that you can analyze it and add your own ideas.  It demonstrates your comprehension of the course content, and allows you to apply this newly-acquired knowledge to your own perspective.

Inserting a direct quote or two into your paper is fine, but it can become a problem if you use someone else's words all throughout your paper (Georgetown University Honor Council, 2014).  When your paper is a sea of quotation marks with only a few of your own sentences sprinkled in, you are showing that you did not do much thinking about your topic.  You haven't written a paper; rather, you have assembled a collection of thoughts from established scholars and presented them as your work.  Assembling a paper usually leads to poor writing, bad grades, or worse, an accusation of plagiarism.  Getting into the habit of using another person's vocabulary, sentence structure, and particular turns of phrase also stops you from developing your own voice as a writer.