Academic Writing
Session 12 – Incorporating And Documenting Sources In An Academic Paper
Session Overview
In this section we will learn how to incorporate information gathered from other sources into your essays and how to document sources of such information at the end of your essays in order to avoid plagiarism(the presentation of ideas of other people as though they were your own).
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this unit you should be able to
•Incorporate information from other sources into your properly
•Document sources of incorporated information
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•Incorporating information from other sources
•Using the APA style to acknowledge sources in essays
•APA reference/bibliography
•Using the MLA style to acknowledge sources in essays
•MLA list of works cited
Reading List
Adika (2014). Ghanaian graduate students’ knowledge …
Adika (2012). Language teaching, critical voice …
Faigley (2010) Chapters 18-25, pp 598-668
Topic One
INCORPORATING INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES
Depending on the purpose for citing the information you find in other sources, you may use one of the three methods of extracting information from texts.
•These methods include
•Summarizing an author’s opinions or ideas
•Paraphrasing ideas
•Quoting from texts
•These methods of incorporating information is to avoid plagiarism
•In general try to summarize or paraphrase information rather than quote directly.
Using summary as a technique
•This technique summarizes the major assertions and evidence of a source and the outcome is a much shorter version of the original text.
•This is useful when you want to record the most important ideas contained in a source.
•Everything you put in a summary must be in your own words.
Using paraphrase as technique
•Paraphrasing puts the original material in your own words.
•You may paraphrase the information in a text if there is no special reason for you to use direct quotation from the text to present the ideas or evidence.
•Paraphrase information from a source into your essay when you do not want to summarise or eliminate details that the writer has provided.
•By paraphrasing as a technique for incorporating information, you give your readers a sufficient and comprehensive report of the ideas that you have taken from a source.
Using quotations as a technique
•Sometimes it is necessary to use a direct quotation as it appears in the original source.
•Quotations can lend interest to your essay as well as support ideas. They should however be used moderately and appropriately.
•Write quotations precisely as it appears in the source, using quotation marks around it and writing down the page number.
•Direct quotations should be used only in the following cases
a)When the author’s sentence wording is unusual, noteworthy or striking.
b)When you feel a paraphrase may alter or distort the meaning of the statement
c)If the original words express the exact point you want to make
d)Quote when the statement is a strong one which is full of opinions, exaggerations or a disputed idea that you want your readers to know is not yours.
e)Use direct quotation when using legal language.
Using block quotations
•A block quotation is one that is forty words or more(according to the APA style of documentation) or is more than four lines (according to the MLA style of documentation).
•When you need to use such a long quotation, set it off from text of your essay by indenting the left as well as right margin and allowing extra space above and below the text.
•Quotation marks are not necessary around such a text.
Using punctuations in quotations
•By inserting a sentence within quotation marks, you indicate that you are borrowing certain ideas as well as words.
•If you include a quote in your essay, place it within quotation marks(“ ”).
•If you quote an entire sentence, begin with a capital letter and end it with a period.
•If you quote only part of a sentence then you have to incorporate it into the grammatical structure of your own sentence. Use an ellipsis mark to indicate you have omitted some words from a quotation.
Topic Two
USING THE APA STYLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE SOURCES IN ESSAYS
Choosing a verb
•In order to incorporate a citation into your essay effectively, use a reporting verb that introduces the source and also provides a better flow of information to your reader.
•You have to choose a more specific verb than the usual verb said to indicate the writer’s attitude to the information.
•You may also indicate your own attitude to the information you are presenting by your choices of reporting verb.
The following show reporting verbs and their purposes:
a)To achieve an objective- describes, observes, explains, notes, points out etc
b)To introduce a conclusion or defend an interpretation- maintains, predicts, insists. Suggests, analyses, concludes, alleges, assesses etc
c)To introduce an agreement- agrees, concurs, grants, consents
d)To introduce disagreement- condemns, opposes, warns, objects, criticizes
In-text citation
The APA format for documentation was established by the American Psychology Association purposely for those who are in the social sciences.
This style requires that you paraphrase, summarize or quote from other sources.
The following formats are the two basic ways of writing in-text citations.
Citation by attribution
•This requires you to mention the author’s name in the phrase or sentence that introduces the information and requires you to add the date of publication in parenthesis immediately after the name.
Parenthetical citation
•This require you to mention the writer’s last name and date of publication in parenthesis at the end of the citation.
•If it is a direct quotation include a page number and use comma to separate name date and page numbers.
The following provides detailed guidelines for writing in-text citations in APA style:
Single Author
•Include the author’s last name in the introductory sentence and put the date of publication in parenthesis immediately after name.
•If you do not mention the author’s name and the date of publication in your introductory sentence, put them both in parenthesis at the end of citation, with a comma separating name from date.
Two authors
•Include the last names of the co-authors and the dates of publication in either an attribution or a parenthetical citation.
•If you use a parenthetical citation, use & instead of the word to join two names.
Three to five authors
•Write the last names of each of them in the order in which they appear on the page
•In subsequent sources when you refer to the same source, write only the first author’s name followed by et al.
Six authors or more
•In all the citations in the text, write only the first author’s name followed by et al.
Two or more works by same author
•Cite the works chronologically in the order in which they were published.
•If both were published in the same year, use the lower a after the publication date for the first work and b after the second one in that order.
Authors with the same last name
•In addition to the author’s last names, use their initials.
•When you have used two or more sources that basically say the same thing, use a parenthetical citation to separate them with a semicolon(:). Arrange them in a alphabetical order.
A source with unknown author
•Use the title work and the date of publication in either attribution or parenthetical citation.
•If the title is a long one , write only the first two or three important words
•If it is a book underline the title but put quotation marks around the titles of articles that appear in journals
Sources in anthology
•Cite the author who wrote the work and the date of publication
Personal communication
•Mention the name of the person and the means of communication together with the date
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