Heading with Name of Page
Where to Find Sources | Citing Sources Overview | Verb List and Sample Sentences |
Let's start with two definitions
Primary Source: The actual
literary text you are writing about. In an essay on Keats' “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” the primary source would be
“Ode on a Grecian Urn.” In an essay on Hamlet,
the primary source would be Hamlet.
Secondary Source: In
literature, this refers to letters, notes, or journals from the author,
essays or books by critics, historical documents, etc., which are used
when writing a research paper to support your ideas. The primary
source would be the work itself.
Broadly, you have two choices for secondary sources: literary
criticism (professor's interpretations of the work -- much like your own
work) or non-literary sources which are connected to your topic -- the
work itself. For example, if writing about "Shiloh," you could research
the role of communication in relationships which never even mentions
"Shiloh," but find information that helps prove your point and works
well in your essay.
Instructions on citing sources are in your textbooks, on
the Citing
Sources link, and below.
Where to Find
Sources
General online sources from the open web are generally not scholarly
and should not be used. Instead, try the Literature Resource
Center and Literary Reference Center
(in that order) from the Library Links to the left.
To make it clear, do not use quotes
from the open web ( as in sources found through an open web search via
Google, Bing, etc.). Wikipedia is not
considered a scholarly source nor are general encyclopedias
(Britannica, etc.) and dictionaries. If you choose to use these
sources, the highest grade you can receive is a D.
|
Two fine online databases from our library for
historical information are Facts on File and the Oxford
Reference Collection.
Textbooks are an often overlooked but very good source.
For some topics, you may not even use a "literary"
secondary source. For instance, if writing about "Shiloh," an
appropriate source may address communication or some other aspect of
relationships. Likewise, a secondary source for "Cathedral" may address
the role of physical contact in human behavior.
So . . . to recap resources for secondary sources:
- Literature Resource Center (OCC
library database)
- Literary Reference Center (OCC
library database)
- Facts on File (OCC library
database)
- Oxford Reference Collection (OCC
library database)
- Textbooks (particularly psychology, sociology,
anthropology and history)
- EBSCOHost or other database on a
non-literary topic (OCC library database)
- Other print sources associated with your topics
Sources to not use unless you want an automatic D, the
open internet (i.e. Wikipedia,
Citing Sources Overview
Citing
Sources Quiz (PDF)
"When do I cite
a source?"
Whenever you include a word, phrase, or idea from a source, it needs to
be cited. That source can include a web page, classroom lecture, an
interview with your Uncle Pete, quote or summary from a book, magazine,
etc. And note that I wrote "a" word -- singular. Even a single word
from someone else, when included in your own essay, needs to be set off
with quotation marks and then cited.
"How do I cite
using MLA?"
The number two is important to remember when using MLA citation because
it consists of two parts: an in-text citation (which includes the
author and page number) and works cited entry, as shown in the examples
below:
1) Sample In-Text Citation (the part that goes in your
essay)
Significantly, Sammy makes
this decision, and according to Ronald E. McFarland, "achieves a
certain degree of heroism" (61), at an A&P, an American
institution which symbolizes the kind of mindless obedience that Sammy
is fighting.
|
Note that the author's name and page number is enclosed
in parenthesis (no p. or page is needed) and that the period goes to
the right. If this was an HTML based source, no page number would be
cited.
2) Sample Works Cited Entry (the part that goes on a
separate page at the end) for In-text Citation above
McFarland,
Ronald. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on
'A&P'.""A&P".
Ed. Wendy Perkins. Fort Worth, Texas:
Harcourt
Brace College Publishers, 1998. 56-62.
Print.
|
Together, these two parts let the reader know who wrote
your article, where they can find it, and approximately how long the
article is.
This two part citation method works like a code. In
general, the reader looks for the author's name and page number in the
in-text citation, and then goes to the works cited entry for additional
information. Your job is to supply the correct parts of the code in the
correct order. You have to be sure that the name/word you include in
your in-text citation will match the first word of one of your works
cited entries. Thus, the word "McFarland" in the in-text example above
matches the word "McFarland" in the sample works cited entry. Get it?
Readers would know that the information before the citation is from a
writer named "McFarland." If they wanted to check your source, they
would turn to the Works Cited page and scan the first word of the
alphabetically arranged list of Works Cited entries until the word
"McFarland" appeared.
You must correctly document your sources to
receive a passing grade. I'm more than willing to help you with this:
just check with me.
|
List
of Verbs and Example Sentences
See
the Citing Sources link on the course site for detailed instructions on
citing sources for held by OCC library.
Below you'll find a list of verbs which are often used
to incorporate quotes into sentences and a list of sentences including
sources.
Use both as tools to help you work quotes into your own
prose.
These verbs can also come in handy when providing
context and for shifting into arguments.
add
agree analyze answer argue
|
believe charge
claim comment conclude consider
|
criticize declare describe define discover
emphasize
|
explain
feels illustrate imply indicate
list
|
maintain mention |note observe object
offer
|
point out reinforce report
reply respond reveal
|
show
stress suggest support think
write
|
What follows are a series of sentences which
successfully incorporate an outside source. Review these to get a sense
of the rhythm and cadence involved in setting up a quote and how the
verb list above can help "launch" a quote. These sentences conclude
with a works cited page which would be needed if these quotes were
included in a single essay.
From the beginning of the text, Bradford sets the
Puritans apart from others. He writes that "many became enlightened by
the Word of God and had their ignorance and sins discovered" (157).
Separating the "enlightened" from what seems to be the unenlightened
makes a clear "us v. them" distinction.
The power of O'Connor's "The Revelation" is derived
from its moral tenacity. As the writer Joyce Carol Oates observes, the
story "questions the very foundations of our assumptions of the ethical
life" (52). Since Mrs. Turpin's "foundation" was based upon a shallow
and limited view of religion, she was ripe for a fall.
Although some critics argue that surrealism began in
1924 after the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton
(Kershner 52), Kafka's work, published a decade earlier, shares many
qualities of surrealist art, and should be considered a precursor to
the later movement.
The critics David Boxer and Cassandra Phillips also
note Carver's seeming lack of style. They write that "what seems to be
casual talk, virtually empty of communication, is really very
deliberately and finely wrought" (99). This emphasis on the craft of
his fiction -- it is "deliberately and finely wrought" -- underscores
the nature of Carver's oxymoronic talent: he made conversation seem so
natural that it seems to merely record what is being said.
As Dickens wrote in an essay published in the same
decade as Hard Times, "It is probable that
nothing will ever root out from among the common people an innate love
they have for dramatic entertainment in some form or other" (305-306).
That Lousia and Tom, members of the upper-class, would also find
amusement in the circus shows that the differences between classes --
between people -- is not as well defined as we would think.
F. R. Leavis argues that the circus performers are
symbols of "human spontaneity" (344). As such, they operate according
to emotions rather than from the slow and measured intellect of
Gradgrind.
Mitchell Domhnal notes that "some critics allege that
to read Dickinson in any standard typographic edition is effectively to
read her in translation." This suggests that the usual method of
reading a poem in a textbook isn't the best way to read Dickinson.
Leypoldt Gunter argues that there are "two types of
Carver stor[ies]," with one being realistic and the other more
experimental (320).
Instructions on how to set up these entries are found
on the Citing Sources link (on the left).
Works Cited
Boxer, David and Cassandra Phillips. From "'Will You
Please
Be Quiet, Please?': Voyeurism, Dissociation, and the
Art of
Raymond Carver." Iowa Review.
10 (1979): 75-90. Rprt. In
"Raymond Carver." Contemporary Literary
Criticism. Ed.
Sharon R. Gunton and Jean C. Stue. Vol. 22. Detroit
: Gale
Research, 1982. 98-101. Print.
Bradford, William. From Of Plymouth
Plantation. The Norton
Anthology of American Literature.
Vol. A. Eds. Nina
Baym, et al . New York :
Norton, 2003. 157-196. Print.
Dickens, Charles. "The Amusements of the People." From
Household Words 30 March
1850. Rprt. in Hard Times. Ed.
George Ford and Sylvere Monod. New York:
Norton, 1990.
305-307. Print.
Kershener, R. B. The Twentieth-Century
Novel: An Introduction.
New York: Bedford Books, 1997. Print.
Leavis, F. R. "Hard Times: An Analytic Novel." From
The Great Tradition. London:
Chatto and Windus, 1948. 227-
48. Rprt. in Hard Times. Ed.
George Ford and Sylvere Monod.
New York :Norton, 1990. 340-360. Print.
Mitchell, Domhnall. "The Grammar of Ornament: Emily
Dickinson's Manuscripts and Their Meanings." Nineteenth-
Century Literature 55:2 (2001):
179-204.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 August 2001.
Oates, Joyce Carol. "The Visionary Art of Flannery
O'Connor." Flannery O'Connor.
Ed. Harold Bloom. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 43-53. Print.
Back to top
© David Bordelon 2015 |