POL S 390

Fall 2006

Citations

Crediting the work of other authors: A guide to avoiding trouble

1. You must give credit for everything that you use in your writings, other than your own ideas, your accumulated wisdom over time, common knowledge, or things I said in class.

"Everything" includes: data, ideas, paraphrases, and exact wording. If you take at least three consecutive (non-trivial) words directly from an author, they must be put in quotation marks and cited. If you paraphrase--that is, restate an author's words in your own words--this material must be indicated with a citation, and the passage must truly be rewritten in your own words.

Thus, cite everything you use from Haltom and McCann, whether it's an idea, a direct quote, a paraphrased passage, or information.

This University of Toronto handout gives a quite useful, concrete explanation of paraphrasing: http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/paraphrase.html.

2. Just put the page numbers in parentheses, since I’ll know it’s (Haltom and McCann, 2004). If you cite anything else, use this same (APA) style.

Not necessarily for this paper, but you may find this comprehensive collection of citation style guides useful: http://juno.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html.

3. Please use any endnotes for elaboration (not for citations, as Haltom and McCann do). Don’t use footnotes at all. You don’t need a bibliography unless you happen to use some source(s) besides the book.

4. Under the Code of Student Behaviour, papers lacking proper citations will be penalized or treated as plagiarism, depending on the severity of the problem and intent to deceive. Cheating (e.g., representing the work of others as your own, turning in the same work for more than one class) and misrepresentation of facts (e.g., reporting false citations) are also academic offenses. You can be punished for participating in an offense by helping someone else violate the Code: http://www.ualberta.ca/~unisecr/appeals.htm. Academic misconduct sanctions can be as severe as suspension or even expulsion.