HOW TO RESEARCH A PAPER: DOCUMENTING YOUR PAPER Citing Your Sources
Documentation means telling your reader where the material in your paper comes from; documentation says to the reader, in effect, "here is the source for the information." Documentation usually takes the form of footnotes or endnotes (to be explained below), but it can also include illustrations, diagrams, photographs, or any special material that you place in your paper to support your theme. Footnotes and Endnotes
Footnotes are forms of documentation that appear at the foot of the page while endnotes appear at the end of the paper. They both include the same information. If your instructor has no preference, you can choose to put your documentation in either place, but you must be consistent throughout the paper. You must number your notes consecutively. (When proofreading be sure that the number in the text matches the number in the note.) As both footnotes and endnotes have the same form, the following discussion that describes how to write them will, for convenience, use the word "footnotes" to refer to both types.
When to use footnotes
If you quote from or closely summarize your research sources, you must tell your reader where the original information can be found. In this way, the reader can check the accuracy of your quotes and statements, judge the bias and credibility of your sources, or carry out research of his or her own. On occasion, you may also want to use footnotes to make comments that qualify or supplement statements in your paper.
The question that troubles students the most is: Which of the statements that I make in my paper need footnotes? There are only a few hard and fast rules to guide you. However, three types of statements must be footnoted:
- Direct quotations
- Controversial facts or opinions
- Statements that directly support the main points made in your paper.
Another group of statements"those which summarize important points from your sources"should be footnoted and must be if they are used to sustain an important part of your argument. Finally, statistics are almost always footnoted.
Some clarification concerning rules 2 (controversial points) and 3 (support for main points) may be helpful here. Controversial facts or opinions are those on which your sources disagree or which will surprise your reader. Suppose, in your theme "Treatment of Slaves on Mississippi Plantations," you write that some slaveowners were kind to their slaves. This statement may surprise the reader and thus must be footnoted. Researching "European Discoverers of America" you find that all sources agree that Vikings visited the New World long before Columbus. However, if most people believe that Columbus was the first European to see the New World, then it is necessary to show the reader the source of your information with a footnote. Finally, statements of fact or opinion that directly support main points should be footnoted. If your theme concerns the Protestant Reformation, and you treat nationalism as a major factor in the break with Catholicism, then your references in the text to nationalist forces should be footnoted. On the other hand, if you treat the wealth of the Catholic Church as a very minor factor, then your references to that need not be footnoted.
The number of footnotes to use is another thorny problem. Some papers have more factual or controversial material than others and thus need more footnotes. As a rule of thumb, if your paper has quite a few pages without any footnotes, then you are probably not documenting as much as you should. On the other hand, if you are writing five or more footnotes per page, you may be overdoing it. There is no such thing as the right number of footnotes, but a twenty-five-page paper might contain anywhere from fifteen to seventy-five footnotes, depending on the subject.
One final point about what to footnote. Using a footnote does not give you permission to plagiarize. You should not use sentences or even phrases from your research sources. Your ideas may come from your sources, but the words must be your own.
How to write footnotes
Footnote for a Book (First Reference)
1. Edward Countryman, Americans (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996), 58.
Book (Second Reference)
2. Countryman, 98.
A second or later reference need only use the author,s last name and the page number. If, however, you cite more than one book (or article, etc.) by the same author, any second or later reference must include a shortened form of the title. If, for example, you cite two books by Countryman (Americans and People in Revolution), your second and later references to both books must make clear to the reader which of the two you are citing. To cite the first book a second time, the form is:
3. Countryman, Americans, 144.
To cite the second book a second time, the form is:
4. Countryman, People, 56.
Some book footnotes are more complex. If a book has several authors, if it has a translator or editor, or was published in several volumes, or editions, then the footnote has to include such information as in the example:
5. T. W. Wallbank and A. M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, rev. ed. (Chicago: Scott Foresman, 1954), 2:104^17.
Notice that when there are two authors, both are listed. If there are more than three authors, the footnote includes the name of the one listed first on the title page followed by "et al." ("and others"). If there is more than one volume to the work, the number of the specific volume used is placed before the page numbers and is separated from them by a colon. If you are using a later edition of a work, that too is placed after the title. If there is an editor or translator, that person,s name, followed by "ed." or "trans.," appears in the place reserved for the author,s name:
6. Thomas Dublin, ed., Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America 1773^1986, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 182.
Footnote for Journal Article (First Reference)
The first time you cite an article, include all of the information as in the example:
7. I. C. Campbell, "Culture Contact and Polynesian Identity in the European Age," The Journal of World History 8 (1997): 46.
A first reference to an article should include:
Journal Article (Second Reference)
8. Campbell, 47.
If you cite more than one article (or book, etc.) by the same author a second or later reference must include a short title. For example, if you cite two (or more) articles by Campbell, the second and later references must make clear to the reader which article by Campbell you are referring to as in the example:
9. Campbell, "Culture Contact," 48.
Some journal article footnotes are more complex.
Magazine Article
10. Stacy Sullivan, "A Case of Alarming Anarchy," Newsweek, 24 March 1997.
Newspaper Article
11. Michael R. Gordon, "Russia-China Theme: Contain the West," New York Times, 24 April 1997, sec. A, p. 3.If the newspaper article has no author, the citation begins with the name of the article.
Quotations: When and How to Use Them
Quotation form
If a quotation is brief, taking up no more than two or three lines of your paper, then it should be written as a part of the text and surrounded by quotation marks. You should introduce the quotation by clearly identifying the speaker. The reader will always want to know who is speaking and in what context. Don,t say: The strikers were "a dangerous mob." Say: According to D. H. Dyson, the plant manager, the strikers were "a dangerous mob." If you do not wish to quote a whole statement, it is necessary to indicate those parts that you are leaving out by inserting ellipses (three periods "...") wherever words are missing. (See the example that follows.)
If your quotation is very long, it must be separated from the sentences that precede and follow it. It should be indented ten or more spaces and appear in single-spaced type. Do not surround it with quotation marks.
Short Quotation Example: The early settlers were not hostile to the Native Americans. As pointed out by the Claxton Banner in 1836: "Our Sioux neighbors, despite their fierce reputation, are a friendly and peaceable people."1
Short Quotation Example with Omission: As pointed out by the Claxton Banner in 1836: "Our Sioux neighbors ... are a friendly and peaceable people."1
Long Quotation Example: The early settlers were not hostile to the Native Americans. As pointed out by the Claxton Banner in 1836:
Our Sioux neighbors, despite their fierce reputation, are a friendly and peaceable people. No livestock have been disturbed, and the outermost cabins are unmolested. We trust in God that our two peoples may live in harmony in this territory.1
When you decide that a footnote is necessary, place a number at the end of the sentence that contains the information to be documented. Occasionally, you may want to footnote two different things in the same sentence. In this case, place each number right after the word or phrase you want to footnote. Some writers place the number at the end of a paragraph rather than at the end of a sentence. This is proper only if the footnote refers to the material in the paragraph as a whole. If you are footnoting specific facts or quotations, the number should appear right after the facts or quoted material. If you are footnoting a general idea or opinion, place the number at the end of the paragraph or paragraphs that discuss it. All footnote numbers in the text should be in superscript~that is, a half-line above the line of type. The number should not be put in parentheses and should be inserted after any punctuation (except a dash).
Footnote Form
Here are examples of footnotes showing the different forms required for citing different kinds of sources. Unless your instructor tells you to use a different form, follow the examples below.
The first time you refer to a book, list all of the information as in the example:
The second and any later reference to the same book is in shortened form, as in the example:
The second and any later reference to the same article is in shortened form as in the example:
Reference to a popular magazine requires author, title of article, title of magazine, date, but no volume number or page number:
Reference to a newspaper article requires year, month, and day (and edition if more than one) as well as author, title, name of paper, and section if appropriate.
Good general rules are: don,t quote too often, don,t quote too much, and rely on your own words unless there is a good reason for quoting those of your source. Unless it is necessary to use the very same words found in a source to make a point that is crucial to your argument, don,t use a quotation. However, if your source has said something highly controversial, you may want to make it clear to the reader that you have not misinterpreted it. In this case a direct quotation may be useful. If you do quote, be sure to include enough of the original statement to make its meaning clear. On the other hand, don,t make a quote any longer than is necessary. Finally, set off quoted words with quotation marks at the beginning and end. (A common error is forgetting one set of quotation marks.)
In most cases a paraphrase or summary of your source, properly footnoted, is sufficient. If you need to quote, however, here is how you should do it.