Citing Sources for the Outsiders Essay

 Citation

We cite sources to give credit to them. 

We cite sources to avoid plagiarizing.

Our seventh grade core requires you to understand how to use informal citation.

If you didn't know it before you read it, 

you need to cite it!

Informal:  For an informal citation, you tell where you got the information right in the sentence or sentences where you report the information.  
Seventh graders need to be able to use informal citation.  

Later you will learn how to create a works cited list for the end of an essay, but for this essay we will use only  parenthetical citations.  


We'll learn about formal citation later. 

Formal:  Formal citations will include a bibliography(works cited page)  at the end of the paper, and will require carefully formatted page set-up, footnotes, endnotes, etc. See an example of a paper written with formal MLA style: http://academictips.org/mla-format/mla-format-sample-paper/  Notice that this paper uses some signal phrases, too.

Examples for Citing Your Sources:  Parenthetical (In-Text) Citation: 

Parenthetical citation is when a writer directly puts into the text a note about where he or she got the information. Parenthetical or “in-text” citation allows your reader to know from what source each idea/fact came.

This is how it looks in the text of your paper:  

“In 2007, 37 percent of American adults sought medical information from the internet regarding a health problem they were experiencing before consulting a doctor” (Smith 38). That was a direct quote.  You can tell because the material quoted is within quotation marks. Here's an example with an indirect quote (paraphrased): Instead of going to a doctor right away, a recent study found that 37 percent of Americans are now turning to the internet for medical information (Smith 38).

ANotice that the information in parentheses (  ) comes after quotation marks if there are any, and BEFORE the period.

The words that are highlighted here create a signal phrase that helps the reader understand where the writer is getting the information.

Let us try it a few different ways with quotes from The Outsiders:

Direct quotes when the sentence does not tell who the author is: Example #1: In the novel The Outsiders, the character Ponyboy admits that "We deserve a lot of our trouble" (Hinton 16).  Example #2: Cherry Valance, a rich girl in The Outsiders,  tells the character Ponyboy, "Things are rough all over" (Hinton 35).

Paraphrase when the sentence does not tell who the author is:  Example #3: A poor boy and rich girl in The Outsiders, Ponyboy and Cherry,  admit they would both try to help each other if they could (Hinton  129).   Example #4: According to Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of the novel The Outsiders,  most of the kids in his neighborhood drink (Hinton  8).

“In 2007, 37 percent of American adults sought medical information from the internet regarding a health problem they were experiencing before consulting a doctor” (Smith 38).
That was a direct quote.  You can tell because the material quoted is within quotation marks.

Here's an example with an indirect quote (paraphrased):
Instead of going to a doctor right away, a recent study found that 37 percent of Americans are now turning to the internet for medical information (Smith 38).

Direct quotes when the sentence does not tell who the author is:
Example #1: In the novel The Outsiders, the character Ponyboy admits that "We deserve a lot of our trouble" (Hinton 16). 

Example #2: Cherry Valance, a rich girl in The Outsiders,  tells the character Ponyboy, "Things are rough all over" (Hinton 35). 

Paraphrase when the sentence does not tell who the author is: 
Example #3: A poor boy and rich girl in The Outsiders, Ponyboy and Cherry,  admit they would both try to help each other if they could (Hinton  129).  

Example #4: According to Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of the novel The Outsiders,  most of the kids in his neighborhood drink (Hinton  8). 

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If you have already given the author’s name in the sentence,  you will use just the page number in your parenthetical citation: Example #5: In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton,  the character Ponyboy admits that "We deserve a lot of our trouble" (16).  Example #6:Cherry Valance, a rich girl in The Outsiders, a novel by S. E. Hinton, tells the character Ponyboy, "Things are rough all over" (35).  Example #7: According to Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of the S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders,  most of the kids in his neighborhood drink (8).

Some of this is adapted from http://cimarron.edmondschools.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/MLA-style-guide.pdf