INCORPORATE YOUR SOURCES

Integrating Your Sources (+ Handout) Before each quote, you should introduce the information. After each quote, you need to explain the material to the reader and then provide a response. By providing a response to the sourced material, you are integrating the support into your argument. After your explain and response, CONNECT your point to what you will say next.

What Is MLA Format? MLA Stands for “Modern Language Association” The MLA makes rules for the writers of research papers in English and the Humanities so that everyone who is doing research is following the same set of rules and we can all understand each other.

What kinds of things do I need to do to have correct MLA Format? Part of MLA style is format. Margins Heading Font, etc. Please see the formatting example that is on the class blog for my expectations on formatting. Part of MLA style is citation. This means giving credit to your sources and avoiding plagiarism. Citation is also meant to make is easy for your reader find your sources if he or she wishes to read them.

MLA Citation has two main parts: 1. Parenthetical citations. Ex: (Anderson 3) – Are in the body (main text) of your essay. – Come after each paraphrase or quote that you did not write or think of yourself, you must indicate which source you are using in order to avoid plagiarism. Consult your textbook, a handbook, or the handout on Moodle for more detail. 2. A Works Cited page: – On its own page at the end of your essay – Lists every source you used in alphabetical order by the last name of the author. – Each works cited entry must contain specific information in a specific order. Consult a handbook or the handout on moodle for more details.

Four Basic Rules for Avoiding Plagiarism 1. Make sure all word-for-word quotes have quote marks showing where they begin and end. 2. Make sure to make the difference between your ideas and your sources’ ideas clear when paraphrasing. 3. Identify where each quote OR paraphrased idea came from in the body of your paper using in-text citations. 4. Make sure that each source you quote OR paraphrase in your paper is correctly listed on your Works Cited page. Pass out the Incorporating Sources Handout and ask students if they printed the MLA Templates Handout

Some Myths about Plagiarism: Myth 1: As long as I have a source on my works cited page, I don’t have to mention it in the body of my paper. WRONG! Any time you use ideas or words from a source, you must include an in-text citation. Myth 2: As long as I change one or two words in a quote, I don’t have to put quote marks around it or do a citation. WRONG! Changing one or two words in a quote and replacing them with synonyms is STILL PLAGIARISM if you keep the original ideas and/or sentence structure. Myth 3: As long as I paraphrase correctly, using my own words and sentence structure to express an idea or give information, I don’t need an in-text citation. WRONG! Even if you use your own words, if the specific idea/information originally came from somewhere else, you must cite it.

More Myths about Plagiarism: Myth 4: I don’t need to cite exact words, ideas or information I find on the internet. WRONG! Treat your internet sources with the same respect you have for your print or online database sources. Myth 5: It is appropriate to use an old essay from a friend, buy an essay, or have someone help me write an essay using his or her wording instead of mine. WRONG! All of these are called collusion, and they are all plagiarism. Myth 6: I won’t get caught if I plagiarize. WRONG! Plagiarism is quite obvious to most professors, and many of them use plagiarism detecting software.

Resources to Help you Avoid Plagiarism Use turnitin.com ! Upload your essay several days before the due date, wait an hour or two, then “view” it. You should be able to see your own originality score and make sure all of your highlighted quotes are correctly cited. As long as it is well before the due date, you will then be able to check this then delete your essay and upload a new revised version when you are ready to submit. Other Resources: Online plagiarism tutorial and quizzes from Simon Fraser University Plagiarism Self Test from Western Carolina University University of Southern Mississippi’s Plagiarism Tutorial

So you know you have to quote…. ….but what is the BEST way to quote? It’s not a good idea to simply “drop in” a quote without making it a part of your own sentence. Original Quote from the source: “He is already fighting hard to stay alive. Which also means that kind Peeta Mellark, the boy who gave me the bread, is fighting hard to kill me.” Drop-In Quote: Katniss remains suspicious of Peeta. “Which also means that kind Peeta Mellark, the boy who gave me the bread, is fighting hard to kill me” (Collins 60). Integrated Quote: Katniss remains suspicious of Peeta. When she realizes that he is “already fighting hard to stay alive”, Katniss decides that “the boy who gave me the bread is [also] fighting hard to kill me” (Collins 60).

The “Quote Sandwich” This is a way to integrate quotes into your paper smoothly and avoid drop-in quotes. The first piece of “bread” Introduce quote, possibly mention author, connect quote to what you were saying before. The “Meat” Your quote, correctly cited with in-text citation. The second piece of “bread” Interpretation/explanation of quote (NOT simply rewording the quote), connect quote to what you will say next.

Another Way To Do This: Introduce: set up the quote, perhaps mention the author, give the reader the context they will need to understand why you are using this quote Quote: put quotation marks around the words that are not your own. Don’t forget to make the quote part of your own sentence—you can use only PART of their sentence and then EMBED their sentence into yours. Don’t forget the in-text citation! Example: Your words, discussing and “setting up for the quote that you have here” (cite). Explain: explain the quote further, perhaps restating its main points in your own words, especially if the quote is technical or complex. Connect: connect the quote to your overall argument, and/or what you will say next!

Online Examples of Quote Sandwiches jpg jpg Notice that both of these examples make the quote a part of a sentence the essay author wrote, and notice that both examples give credit to the source’s author.

Use the Quote Sandwich method to structure paragraphs! By using a detailed quote sandwich, we can write whole paragraphs using only one quote/point

Example of detailed quote sandwich using 2 different sources and comparing them: The poverty that faces District 12 is vividly described in the novel. The narrator, Katniss, describes how the people are so hopeless and defeated that they have “hunched shoulders and swollen knuckles” and they have even “stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails [or] the lines of their sunken faces” (4). In this sentence, Suzanne Collins describes the conditions of poverty and hopelessness, using words like ‘sunken’ and ‘hunched.’ All throughout the chapters that describe District 12 the language portrays a broken down people who have no hope because of their overwhelming poverty and hunger. Many readers may think that such poverty cannot exist in real life, or if it does it is only in other far-away countries. However, research into the poorest areas of America tells a different story. There are many communities and neighborhoods that are just as poor, oppressed, and downtrodden as District 12. In fact, there are many neighborhoods in the United States where the average salary per household is shockingly “below minimum wage” and even “two or three full time workers in a single household may not be enough to pay for basic necessities like rent, food, and medical care” (Scheckner). It is clear that although American Society may not be as obviously oppressive as the Capitol in The Hunger Games, there are still some very serious problems with our economic system when a hard-working family cannot even afford the basics without relying on credit cards, government aid, or working like a slave at more than one job. Introduce quote from literature Quote w/in-text citation Analysis of quote Introduction of outside source Outside source quote w/in-text citation Analysis of quote and connection to thesis and main point

Example Disagreement In the article “Why the Odds are Still Stacked against women in Hollywood,” the author interviews several women who believe that women are partially to blame for the gender imbalance in Hollywood, citing women’s tendency not to self-promote and to seek approval in a way that hurts their careers (Masters). However, by focusing on what women are doing wrong, the article overlooks the deeper problem of a business that seems to deny equal opportunity to women no matter what they do. If a woman acts boldly, “like a man,” in order to be successful, she risks getting a reputation as bossy and hard to work with, thereby missing out on opportunities. But if we are to believe the women Masters interviews, if a woman acts feminine and accommodating, she loses big opportunities to those who are willing to be more pushy. This is a choice with no right answer, no matter how a women chooses to present herself. Women in the entertainment industry should have opportunities based on merit alone, and now socially enforced ideas about “how women (should) behave”. NOTE: quote marks at the end are so-called “scare quotes” that indicate sarcasm/disagreement, not a citation Introduces article, summarizes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in-text citation. Responds to article with your own opinion Voice indicating phrase, identifying that these aren’t my ideas. Further explanation of why the writer disagrees.

Example Agreement Deryl Hannah argues that representations of gay and lesbian people of color are important because to portray the LBGT community and its allies as entirely white would “inaccurately promote a world in which it would appear that LGBT people of color do not exist, or that acceptance of LGBT people is exclusive to white populations” (Hannah). I agree with Hannah that inaccurate portrayals of the diversity within the gay and lesbian community are troubling, a point that needs emphasizing because many people still believe that minority communities are backward and intolerant when it comes to their own LBGT members. To portray white communities as “enlightened” and accepting and minority communities as oblivious at best and bigoted at worst perpetuates old, ugly racial stereotypes. Introduces article, quotes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in- text citation. Agreement + backing up their points Further explanation of why I agree, adding something to the conversation.

Example Agree and Disagree at Once In the article “Tyler Perry’s Money Machine,” Eugene Robinson argues that even though Tyler Perry has been called formulaic, he is successful because he is one of a very small number of film makers who is making films that portray African Americans as “people relating to other people” (347). Although I agree with Robinson up to a point, and I certainly see the importance of films in which minority characters are fully rounded, not stereotypes, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that African-American viewers are “settling” for Perry’s films only because there is nothing better that portrays them positively. In this time of dwindling ticket sales and increasing ticket prices, Perry’s overwhelmingly black audience must be getting something more out of his movies than positive representation and cliché humor, as Robinson suggests. Introduces article, quotes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in-text citation. Agree and Disagree, using “Although ” or “however” Further explanation of the point on which you disagree.

Review: Using Sources Right! ALWAYS enclose words that are not your own in quotes. ALWAYS make a quote the part of your own sentence. ALWAYS have an author or article name and page number in parentheses after the quote. ALWAYS give credit to authors whose ideas you use, even if you are not quoting them directly. ALWAYS make sure that the quote is sufficiently introduced and in context.

Annotated Bibliography The Annotated Bibliography will be comprised of at least 5 sources in MLA works cited format. This means that you will have a correctly formatted citation for 5 sources you have found in your research. I have provided you with resources for the most common forms of citations, but you may have to look up some on your own. Your textbook, The Little Seagull Handbook is an excellent resource, as are websites like the OWL at Perdue and YouTube.

How the Annotated Bibliography is DIFFERENT than a regular Works Cited page: The difference? Annotations! (notes on each source) Beneath each MLA citation on your works cited page, you need to write a short paragraph that briefly does the following 4 things: Summarizes the source Discusses where/how you found the source Gives the reasons the source is credible/reputable Explains how it will be relevant to your topic and useful in your paper.

Example: Booker, Joe. “Homelessness in LA: A Growing Trend”, Trends in Society Journal (2006): 5-6. Print. This article discusses how homelessness has increased by 50% in the Los Angeles area over the past 5 years, and how factors such as mental illness, economics, and racist and classist zoning of houses and apartments has affected these numbers. I found this argument using the Lexis-Nexis search engine, accessed through CSUN Oviatt Library. I searched for “homelessness in Los Angeles” and found this article after looking through my search results. It is a peer-reviewed article from a respected journal, so I knew it was both academic and trustworthy. This article will be useful to my essay because it provides some useful statistics that I will cite as support when I discuss homelessness as a persistent problem in our society that shows the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor. I will then connect this to the huge gap between the wealthy Capitol citizens and the impoverished workers who live in the districts, and discuss how The Hunger Games can be seen as commentary on the wealth gap in our own society.

Due Tuesday: Tuesday, May 12 Topics: Discuss Building a Strong Thesis. Discuss Planning Organization/Structure. Due: Annotated Bibliography – upload to turnitin.