.

What Needs To Be Cited?

Direct Quotations. Any time you quote word for word, you must include a parenthetical citation.

Indirect Quotations. When you paraphrase (restate in your words) another writer’s ideas, you must give him credit with a parenthetical citation.

Facts or Statistics that are not common knowledge. Historical dates, general biographical information, general truths do not need to be cited. Specific information should be followed by a parenthetical citation.

Types of Citations

Direct Citations

These are word for word quotes from the author. These must be included in quotation marks, and must be followed by a parenthetical citation. The order for punctuation must be followed exactly as follows:

“Longfellow’s last decades were uneventful, save for the fatal burning of his wife, which eventually led to her death,” (Baym 578).

It is important that you do not “close” the sentence with its ending punctuation until you have given the parenthetical citation. This way the reader knows who said this about Longfellow before the end of the sentence.

Indirect Citations

With indirect citations, you keep the author’s basic idea, but you put it in your own words. You do not put indirect citations in quotation marks, because you are not “quoting” the author word for word. It is still important, however, to give the author credit for his idea, so each indirect citation must be followed by a parenthetical citation.

For example THIS is a direct quote:

In order to be clourophobic, one must, as a child, have

experienced a traumatic clown encounter. Herring 39

To indirectly cite this author, you must take the main idea and put it in your own words:

There are many different causes listed for clourophobia. One major cause insists that the victim must have had a traumatic clown experience as a young child (Herring 39).

Note that the parenthetical citation still must come before the ending punctuation, just as with direct citations. This format must be followed exactly.

Extended or Long Quotes

If the information on is more than four typed lines, it is called an extended or a long quote. Long quotes must be treated differently.

Long quotes are typed so that each line is double tabbed

Long quotes are always direct (word for word)

Long quotes do not need quotation marks; the indent at the start of each line indicates a direct quote

The ending punctuation goes directly after the quote, before the parenthetical citation

Below is an example of a long quote in a paper:

Plays in Shakespeare’s time were performed at a much swifter pace than what we would be able to follow. While most plays all consisted of five acts, they didn’t take as long as would be expected.

The pace of a performance was rapid; Shakespeare’s plays

were put on in two hours. There was no scenery, no lighting,

few props, and no curtain on the main stage. As a result, the

action moved quickly from one scene to the next. (Akley 132)

There were also very few costume changes in Shakespeare’s plays. The actors usually wore their own clothing.

Works Cited Page

Newspaper Articles

Bennigan, Jan. “When It Rains, It Pours.” Chicago Tribune 8 April 1994: A14.

“Children Fail at Learning.” Peoria Journal Star 30 March 1998: B14.

Newspaper or Magazine Article on the Internet

Andreadis, Athena. "The Enterprise Finds Twin Earths Everywhere It

Goes, But Future Colonizers of Distant Planets Won't Be So Lucky."

Astronomy Jan. 1999: 14 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe>.

Anita

2009-12-11