GCC English 101
Common Final Assignment for Spring, 2007
Topic: Volunteerism
Home ~~ Practicing thinking and writing ~~ Documenting sources
Documenting sources
College teachers expect students to not only develop their own thinking but also to connect their thinking to the ideas presented by others. Doing so demonstrates that you understand the history, background and context of your topic. This is especially important in an argument, where what you think can be bolstered by demonstrating that others agree with you. It is also important to demonstrate that you understand the positions of those who disagree with you, that you have considered those ideas carefully before disagreeeing with them.
When you include in your essays the ideas, words or information provided by others, you must give credit to those sources. This includes material that you summarize, paraphrase, or mention in addition to mateiral you quote. See the English Department Guide to Documention or your textbook for examples. The English Department uses the Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation format.
Watch "You Quote It, You Note It!" a short tutorial from Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University for help understanding the proper use of sources.
In general, it is best to summarize or paraphrase information from others in order to maintain a consistent tone and vocabularly in your essay. However, sometimes you will come across words or phrases that are so distinctive that you would lose some meaning in a paraphrase. Those "quoteworthy" phrases should still be integrated into your own sentences. Otherwise there might be a startling difference between what you have written and what you have included from others. Read this story about the "Quotation Interloper" to hear what that sounds like.
Include the author or title of any source you use by citing it in your sentence or in parentheses at the end of a sentence. Then list the full citation for each source in a Works Cited list at the end of your essay. Your Works Cited list should include any source you cite in your essay. Make sure your sources are listed in alphabetical order.
Submitting your essay
Once you have completed your essay, follow your instructor's instructions for submitting it to be graded. Then follow these instructions to submit a copy of your essay for reading by the English Department as part of its Assessment Program.
Home ~~ Practicing thinking and writing ~~ Documenting sources
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Last updated by Karen
Schwalm on
April 15, 2007
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