6.3 Research, Citation & Ethical Use of Sources
Key Takeaways
- A strong research question is focused and answerable; primary sources are firsthand evidence, secondary sources interpret or analyze them.
- Evaluate sources for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose (the CRAAP test); author expertise and identifiable authorship are strong credibility signals.
- Integrate sources by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing; use an ellipsis (three spaced periods) for omitted words and brackets for inserted or altered words.
- MLA in-text citation is author + page with no comma, e.g., (Morrison 84); APA in-text for a quotation is author, year, and page, e.g., (Garcia, 2020, p. 14).
- Plagiarism includes presenting another's ideas as your own even when paraphrased; paraphrasing still requires attribution, and academic integrity requires citing all borrowed material.
The Research Process
A research paper begins with a focused, answerable research question — narrow enough to investigate within the project's scope and specific enough to guide sourcing. "Is technology good?" is too broad; "How has one-to-one laptop access affected reading scores in U.S. middle schools since 2015?" is focused and researchable. From there the process runs: gather sources, evaluate them, take notes and synthesize (combine ideas from multiple sources rather than reporting each in isolation), draft with citations, and revise. A well-designed research project narrows the topic, uses varied credible sources, synthesizes rather than lists, and documents everything.
Primary vs. secondary sources
- A primary source is firsthand evidence created at the time of study: a novel, a poem, a diary, a letter, an interview, survey data, an original experiment, a historical document, or a photograph.
- A secondary source interprets, analyzes, or comments on primary material: a scholarly article about a novel, a biography, a literature review, or a textbook.
The original poem you analyze is primary; the critic's essay about that poem is secondary.
Evaluating Sources
Before citing, judge credibility. A widely taught screen is the CRAAP test: Currency (how recent), Relevance (fit to your question), Authority (the author's credentials and the publisher), Accuracy (evidence, verifiability, citations), and Purpose (why it was created — to inform, sell, or persuade). On the exam, the strongest single signal of a credible online source is usually identifiable authorship by a qualified expert and clear sourcing; anonymous, undated, or commercially motivated pages are weaker. A striking viral claim with no author, no date, and no cited evidence should be treated with skepticism and verified against reliable sources.
Integrating Sources: Quote, Paraphrase, Summarize
| Technique | What it is | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Quoting | Exact words in quotation marks | The original wording is precise, memorable, or authoritative |
| Paraphrasing | Restating a specific passage in your own words and sentence structure | You need a source's idea but not its exact wording |
| Summarizing | Condensing the main ideas of a longer text in your own words | You need the gist or overview, not the details |
All three require attribution. A good summary is shorter than the original, in the writer's own words, accurate to the main ideas, and free of personal opinion. When integrating quotations, use a signal phrase ("As Morrison argues, ...") to introduce the source and show its relationship to your point. Two punctuation conventions are tested directly: an ellipsis (three spaced periods, . . .) marks words omitted from within a quotation, while brackets [ ] mark words the writer has inserted or altered to fit grammar or clarity.
Avoiding Plagiarism and Using Sources Ethically
Plagiarism is presenting another person's words or ideas as your own. Crucially, paraphrasing without citation is still plagiarism — changing the wording does not remove the obligation to credit the source's idea. You must cite direct quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and any distinctive data or ideas that are not common knowledge (facts widely known and available in many sources, such as "Shakespeare wrote Hamlet," need no citation). Ethical use also respects copyright: the fair use doctrine permits limited use of copyrighted material for criticism, commentary, scholarship, and teaching — for example, quoting a few lines of a poem in a properly cited critical essay typically qualifies. Academic integrity means honest attribution, accurate representation of sources, and not fabricating or misusing evidence.
Citation Basics: MLA and APA
English and the humanities use MLA (Modern Language Association); psychology and the sciences use APA (American Psychological Association). Know the core patterns.
| Element | MLA | APA |
|---|---|---|
| In-text (quotation) | (Author Page) with no comma, e.g., (Morrison 84) | (Author, Year, p. #), e.g., (Garcia, 2020, p. 14) |
| Emphasis | Author + page (locates the wording) | Author + date (recency of research) |
| End list title | Works Cited | References |
| Book entry | Author Last, First. Title. Publisher, Year. | Author, A. A. (Year). Title. Publisher. |
The MLA book pattern is Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date — for example, "Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925." A website article in MLA is Author. 'Title of Article.' Title of Website, Publication Date, URL. A personal interview in MLA is Interviewee Last, First. Personal interview. Date. The date-in-parentheses format ("Fitzgerald, F. Scott. (1925). ...") is APA, not MLA — a favorite distractor. If an item shows the author and year in parentheses up front, it is APA; if it shows author then page with no comma, it is MLA.
Worked item — citation and integration
A student is writing a literary analysis for an English class and wants to include a direct quotation from a print novel. Which in-text citation is correct?
A. (Morrison, 1987) B. (Morrison 84) C. (Morrison, p. 84) D. (Morrison, The Bluest Eye)
Answer: B. English and the humanities use MLA, whose in-text citation for a print quotation is the author's last name and page number with no comma — (Morrison 84). Choice A is the APA author-year form; choice C wrongly inserts a comma and "p."; choice D substitutes a title for the page number. The full publication details would appear on the Works Cited page. On the 5038, first identify the discipline (English = MLA), then match the exact punctuation of the in-text form.
For a research paper, a student consults the original diary of a Civil War soldier and a historian's journal article analyzing soldiers' letters. Which classification is correct?
In MLA style, which in-text citation correctly documents a direct quotation from a print book?
A student restates an idea from a source in her own words but does not cite it, presenting the idea as original. This is best described as: