HOW TO USE YOUR SOURCES

1. HOW TO USE YOUR SOURCES ASSIGNMENT 3: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2. WHETHER TO QUOTE OR SUMMARIZE • QUOTE TEXT WHEN: • The wording is worth repeating (e.g. vivid or technical language) • The author makes a point so well that no rewording will do it justice • You want to cite the exact words of a known authority on a topic • The author’s opinions challenge or disagree with those of others

3. ELLIPSES • Indicate any omissions from a quotation with an ellipsis (3 spaced dots). • You may sometimes delete words from your quotation that are unnecessary for your point. • Be careful not to distort the source’s meaning.

4. EXAMPLES • Mark Twain writes, “I have never taken any exercise . . . and I never intend to take any.” • Sir William Osler states, “A well-trained sensible family doctor is one of the most valuable assets in a community. . . . Few men live lives of more devoted self-sacrifice.”

5. BRACKETS • Indicate an addition or alteration to a quotation with brackets. • Sometimes you’ll need to change or add words in a quote to make the quote fit grammatically in you sentence.

6. EXAMPLES • I tried to make the dish mild enough for everyone, but my idea of “add[ing] Cayenne pepper to taste” was not the same as my friend’s idea. • In Thomas Jefferson’s time there was definitely a notion that “a little rebellion now and then [was] a good thing.”

7. Punctuating quotations • Put periods and commas inside the quotation marks, except when you have a parenthetical citation at the end, in which case you put the period after the parentheses. • Semicolons, colons, and dashes are generally placed outside the terminal quotation marks.

8. EXAMPLE • “Country music,” Sam says, “is a crucial and vital part of the American identity” (23). • George wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”; today, we are in danger of forgetting the lessons of history.

9. ? & ! • These go inside closing quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material but outside when they are not. • If there’s a parenthetical citation at the end, it immediately follows the closing quotation mark, and any punctuation that’s part of your sentence comes after.

10. EXAMPLE • Speaking at a Fourth of July celebration, Frederick Douglass asked, “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?” (34). • Who can argue with W. Charisse Goodman’s observation that media images persuade women that “thinness equals happiness and fulfillment” (43)?

11. Signal Phrases • You need to introduce quotations and summaries clearly. • Let the reader know who the author is and if need be something about his credentials. • It makes clear that everything between the signal phrase and the citation comes from that source.

12. EXAMPLE • Professor and textbook author Elaine Tyler May argues that many high school history books are too bland to interest young readers (531). • A champion of civil liberties, Robert Ingersoll insists, “I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot.”