1. Responsible Use of Source Material

2. Write First--We do research to solve writing problems, not as the basis for writing. n Write a couple of pages, explaining what you know about your topic already and what your position on important issues are. n Make a list of 5-10 questions for yourself. What do you hope to learn or accomplish as you do research?

3. After you have done your research and carefully read all the material, put it aside. Write a draft based on what you’ve learned, completely in your own words. It is a safe assumption that what you write will be “common knowledge” and won’t need to be documented. When you come across a particular fact you’ll need in your paper but don’t know, leave a blank and fill it in later.

4. After you’ve written a draft in your own words, go back and consult your source material, including important points you’ve left out, facts that you left blank earlier, and exceptional language that you think is important for the points you wish to make. Document this material carefully, according to your chosen documentation style.

5. Basic Parenthetical Documentation MLA: Only one article mentions this discrepancy (Wolfe 62). APA: One critic of Milgram’s experiments insisted that the subjects “should have been fully informed of the possible effects on them” (Baumrind, 1968, p. 34). *All examples taken from Little Brown Handbook, Eighth Edition

6. Whenever possible use the author’s name in your text. MLA: One researcher, Carol Gilligan, concludes that “women impose a distinctive construction on moral problems, seeing moral dilemmas in terms of conflicting responsibilities” (105). APA: Baumrind (1968) insisted that the subjects in Milgram’s study “should have been fully informed of the possible effects on them” (p. 34).

7. Works Cited or References On a separate, final page, provide a list of all sources cited in your paper. This page should be numbered in the same manner as the other pages in your paper. This list should be alphabetized by the author’s last name or by the first important word in the title. Each entry should contain all the appropriate information required by the particular documentation style and in the correct format.

8. Resources n A good college handbook. Cumberland currently uses Little Brown Handbook, Eighth Edition n MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers n Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

9. Dr. Harris’s Principles for Using Source Material Responsibly 1. Write an introduction to your topic in your own words, making no references to any source material.

10. 2. Write a conclusion to your topic completely in your own words, explaining the importance or implications of the information in your paper.

11. 3. Use topic sentences--don’t rely on source material. n Begin each major section of your paper or each paragraph with a transition and topic sentence in your own words. n Don’t use source material as support until you’ve made some general statement of your own worth supporting.

12. 4. Don’t use consecutive direct quotations without providing a transition in your own words.

13. 5. Always make clear why you are quoting by including analysis, in your own words, making clear how the quotation helps you fulfill your purpose in the paragraph or paper as a whole.

14. 6. Always know what all words and sentences in your paper mean and be prepared to explain how any given sentence helps you achieve your purpose. If you don’t know what a word in a particularly nice quotation means, then... at the very minimum, look it up and learn what it means preferably, you should paraphrase, putting the idea into your own words.

15. 7. Keep Long Quotations to a Minimum. If you use more than one or two long quotations in a paper, your reader may well perceive that you have little to say about your topic and are using long quotations simply to make your paper longer.