QEN 102 What is Your Lens?

Notes from this video.

• We use citations so our readers can verify our information.
• Citations help our readers see connections between our work and the work of other scholars.
• The most common types of citation styles are APA, MLA, Chicago and CSE.
• There are two types of citations.  In-text citations are short references included in the written body of the paper.  Works Cited pages, Reference lists, and bibliographies are more detailed lists that are located at the end of a paper.  

Notes from the video.

• Plagiarism is passing off someone else's words or ideas as your own.
• Plagiarism is always wrong.
• There are two types of plagiarism:  intentional and unintentional.
• How can you avoid plagiarism?  Use citations.

Notes from this video.

All information that is not created by you should be cited.  You are responsible for citing the information correctly regardless of the format.  Look in your citation manuals to identify the rules for all formats of information.

Common knowledge is information that is widely available in many places and information that everyone agrees on.  Statements that are too specific or too strong to be identified as common knowledge require a citation.

The following videos define and demonstrate several ways of introducing information in your work.  

Notes from this video.

• It is important to verify the authority and expertise of your sources.
• Including this information in your research will provide support for your argument and can be persuasive. 

Notes from summarizing and paraphrasing.

• Summarizing is condensing someone else's major points using your own word.
• Paraphrasing is rewriting a passage in your own words.
• Remember to always use citations when you summarize and paraphrase.

Notes from the video.

• Remember to quote selectively.  
• Use quotes when the words are memorable and vivid.

The citation guides listed below are available in Everett Library.  These items are located at the help desk and may only be used in the library. 

Zotero is a reference manager. It is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books and articles. In Zotero, each of these references constitutes an item. More broadly, Zotero is a powerful tool for collecting and organizing research information and sources. 

When you download Zotero and create an account you will have a plug-in for your browser that will collect bibliographic information for all items you view on your browser, including articles from databases, websites, books from the library catalog, videos, and music.  It is very easy to use, once you have the plug-in added you just click the report icon that looks like a sheet of paper.  Zotero will also act as a plug-in in Microsoft word and show up in your tool bar.  You will automatically be able to insert in-text citations and then create reference lists for all the citations you have used when you are finished writing your paper.  

We recommend using this product.  It is free and easy to use once you have it downloaded.  We have included links below to some set up guides and have created some screen shots in the document below for guidance as well.  If you need help with utilizing this helpful tool ask a librarian for help!!

The Purdue Owl provides online citation guidelines for APA and MLA citation styles.  It also contains writing guides and writing resources for many types of scholarly research.  The Purdue Owl will not generate citations but it will guide you through the citation format.

If you have questions about plagiarism or research the Purdue Owl has additional tutorials and guidelines.  

Check this site out to learn more!

Citation: Bibliographic information for a source

Citation style: A set of instructions for formatting citations, bibliographies, and other elements of your paper; common examples include MLA and APA

Common knowledge: Widely accepted information that is available in many sources and does not require a citation

Paraphrasing: Rewriting a passage in your own words

Plagiarism: Passing off someone else's words or ideas as your own

Quoting: Directly reproducing someone else's words and surrounding them with quotation marks

Summarizing: Condensing someone else's major points using your own words