III. Report Documentation:1.     Use of quotations

It is possible to write a paper without using any direct quotations. There are, however, some cases in which direct quotations are called for:

If your subject is a literary one, you would, of course, want to represent the style of the author. Indeed, your purpose might demand an analysis of certain passages in the work. In that case, you certainly must quote the passages that you intend to discuss its detail.

Use of quotationsIf the original is so perfectly stated that much of its value is in the way it is worded, you may want to quote the original.

If your source has made a statement which is so outrageous or controversial that readers of your paper might question whether you have represented the idea correctly, quote the original statement. When you bring in quotations from your sources, you strengthen your argument; you’re saying, “Not only do I think this is true, but here are some reliable experts who think so too.” (Kilian 116)

Use of quotationsWhen you use direct quotations, make every effort you can to work the quotation into your own statement. It will be obvious that you are quoting, but the flow of your sentence should not be affected by the quotation.1)      If the introductory words form a complete sentence, use a colon or a period: e.g. J. Jackson was emphatic: “We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.”

Oliver Wendell Homes drew greatly on common sense and life itself in his treatises on the law. “The life of the law has not been logic,” he wrote, “it has been experience.”

Use of quotations 2) If the introductory words do not form a complete sentence, imagine that the quote itself is the rest of the sentence and punctuate accordingly: e.g. As Jerome Frank said, “Rules we must have.”

Use of quotations3)    Sometimes no punctuation is needed.

e.g. Habeas corpus is said to be “the best and only sufficient defence of personal freedom.”

 

Use of quotationsLong quotations (generally speaking, those of more than four lines each) should be set off by themselves. The quoted matter should be blocked. When you block a quotation, you should not use quotation marks. That the material is blocked means that it is a long direct quotation.

e.g. According to Forster,

Long was but a foretaste of this nomadic

civilization which is altering human nature so profoundly, and throws upon personal relations a stress greater than they have ever borne before. Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task!

Use of quotations5) Ending the quotation with commas and periods inside the quotation marks.

e.g. “The intent was to defraud,” she admitted. His voice was firm: “The issue is disability.”

2. Avoiding plagiarismWhen you take facts or ideas from someone else, you must credit the source by footnoting or endnoting the material or using the in-text citationPlagiarism is the use of facts, opinions, and language taken from another writer without acknowledgement. Plagiarism is theft or cheating; a person has another person write the paper or simply steals a magazine article or section of a book and pretends to have produced a piece of original writing.

Far more common is plagiarism in dribs and drabs:

a sentence here and there, a paragraph here and there Unfortunately, small-time theft is still theft, and small-time plagiarism is still plagiarism.

For your own safety and self-respect, remember the following rules:

The language in your paper must either by your own or a direct quote from the original author.

Changing a few words or phrases from another writer’s work is not enough to make the writing “your own.” Remember Rule. 1) The writing is either your own or the other person’s; there are no in-betweens.

Notes acknowledge that the facts or opinions in your paper come from another writer. If the language comes from another writer, quotation marks are necessary in addition to a note.

3. DocumentationIn academic writing, two styles of documentation have become standard: the Modern Languages Association (MLA) system and the American Psychological Association (APA) system. The MLA system is common in the humanities (literary criticism, the arts, and so forth), while APA is the usual format for documentation in the natural sciences and social sciences. Both use parenthetical documentation, citing the source right in the text, but they have slight differences.

MLA styleAs we are English students, and the papers we are going to write are about the English language, literary criticism etc., which belong to the area of the humanities. So we use MLA style in our thesis writing. Therefore we only look at MLA style here.

1) MLA citation style When we quote, paraphrase, or summarize

material, follow it with a citation in parentheses containing the author’s last name (or short title if the work is anonymous) plus the page number. When the quotation or paraphrase is part of your text, this citation appears before the closing period and has no internal punctuation.

For example: According to one observer, “Combatants use

language ranging from the crude to the libellous” (Kilian 18). Other participants enjoy the no-holds-barred disputes. In the words of one veteran debater, “Flame wars are an acceptable price to pay for the freedom of speech” (Savage 144).

blocked quotations If a quotation will take more than four typed

lines, you should indent it, setting it off from the rest of the text with wider margins. In this case, the citation is two spaces outside the closing period.

e.g.Here are some general guidelines: You will waste all the energy you put into writing your report if your readers don’t believe you. Everything hinges on your credibility, and your credibility in turn hinges on how well you use your sources. In any research report that uses other people’s findings, you much show what is your own work and what belongs to your sources. Otherwise you run the risk of plagiarism, or at least of undermining your credibility. (Kilian 113)

If you mention the author’s name in your own text, all you need is the page number.e.g. According to Kilian, you should “remember

that you are using your sources to make your own points, not just to parrot what experts have said (113).

2) Bibliography/ Reference / Works Cited These citations will lead your reader to a

reference in the Works Cited section at the end of your report. This reference is normally listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Bibliography (A book with one author)In citing a book, the three basic parts are

Author (the last name first,followed by a period),title (italicized or underlined, followed by a period),publication information (city: publisher, year of publication,

followed by a period),

e.g. Kilian, Crawford. 2020 Visions: The Futures of Canadian

Education. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1995.

Bibliography (A book with two authors) Only the name of the first author is inverted.

The order of the names is the same as that on the title page.

e.g. Danziger, MarliesK., and W. Stacy Johnson. An

Introduction to Literary Criticism. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1961.

Bibliography (A book with three or more authors)

Only the name of the first author is given, and it is followed by “and others” or the notation et al. The name given is the first name that appears on the title page.

e.g. Bellah, Robert N., and others. Habits of the Heart:

Individualism and Commitment in American

Life. New York Harper & Row, Publishers,1985.

Bibliography (A book with three or more authors)Bellah, Robert N., et al. Habits of the Heart:

Individualism and Commitment in American

Life. New York Harper & Row, Publishers,1985.

Bibliography (A book with an editor)The editor collected several documents about a

famous murder case. No authors are given, and the editor’s name is listed before the title.

Kallsen, Loren J., ed. The Kentucky Tragedy: A Problem in Romantic Attitudes. Indianapolis: The Bobbs Merrill Company, Inc. , 1963.

Bibliography (A translated work)Boll, Heinrich, End of a Mission. Trans. Leila Vennewitz. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1974. If the translate’s work rather the original text is

under discussion, put the translator’s name first.Ciardi, John, trans. The Purgatorio. By Dunte. New York: New American Library, 1961.

Bibliography (Two or more books by the same author) To cite two or more books by the same author, give the

name in the first entry only. Thereafter, in place of the name, type three hyphens, followed by a period and the title. The three hyphens stand for exactly the same name as in the preceding entry. If the person named edited, translated, or compiled the book, place a comma (not a period ) after the three hyphens, and write the appropriate abbreviation (ed., trans., or comp. ) before giving the title.

e.g.Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.---, ed. Design for Learning: Reports Submitted to the Joint Committee of the Toronto Board of Education and the University of Toronto. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1962.---. The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1991.---, ed. Sound and Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1957.

If the same person served as, say, the editor of

two or more works listed consecutively, the abbreviation ed. Must be repeated with each entry. This sort of label does not affect the order in which entries appear; works listed under the same name are alphabetized by title.

Bibliography (A magazine) In citing a magazine article, you should also

provide the author, title of the article in quotation marks, and magazine information including volume, year, and the first and last page numbers of the article.

e.g. Kilian, Crawford, “In Defence of Esther Surmmerson.” Dalbousie Review 54 (1974): 318-328

Bibliography (A newspaper)Kilian, Crawford. Why a BA May Not Pay.” Globe

& Mail 13 October 1994: A9[A—the section of the paper]

Bibliography (A book by a Chinese author)Yuan Ke 袁坷 . Zhonguao Gudai Shenhua 中国古代神话（ Ancient Chinese Mythology). Shanghai: Shangwu, 1957.

Bibliography (Online book) For citation to books available online, include all available

information required for printed books, followed by the date of access and the URL.

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1846. 16 Mar. 1998 <gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/02/50/1> Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. An Online Library of

Literature. Ed. Peter Galbavy. 22 Apr. 1998. 23 June 1998 <http://www. literature.org/Works/Mary.Shelley/frankenstein>.

Bibliography (Article in an online periodical)

Coontz, Stephanie. “Family Myths. Family Realities.” Salon 12 Dec. 1997. 3 Feb. 1998 <http://www.salonmagazine.com/mwt/feature/1997/12/23coontz.html>.

BibliographyBauman, M. Garrett. Ideas and Details: A Guide to College Writing. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1991.Ding, Wangdao, et al. A Handbook of Writing. 2nd ed. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,1998.Gu, Yueguo, ed. Practical Project Design.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1999.Hu, Wenzhong and Wu Zhenfu. Functional Varieties of English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1999.John, Langan. English Skills with Readings. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1988.

Kilian, Crawford, et al. The Communications

Book: Writing for the Workplace. Scarborough, Ontonrio: Prentice Hall Canada Inc., 1997.Spatt, Brenda. Writing from Sources. New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc. , 1991.

4. Footnotes and endnotes:

A note contains essentially the same information as does a bibliography entry, but the arrangement and punctuation of that information are a little different.

A first note reference to a book should include

the author--The author’s name should be in its usual order and followed by a comma.

the title--The title of a book should be underlined or italicized. The title of a short story or an article should be put in quotation marks. The title is by half of the parentheses.

the place of publication--The place of publication, either a city or a town, should be put in the parentheses, and the place is followed by a colon.

publisher--The press, company or publishing house is also put in the parentheses and is followed by a comma. Note that UP is used for “University Press” and P for “Press.”

date of publication--This is put after the publisher and is followed by the other half of the parentheses.

the page number(s)--The page number(s) is put outside the parentheses and is followed by a period.

e.g. Notes (p.363-p.365) 1 Sebastian de Geazia, ed., Masters of Chinese

Political Thought (New York: the Viking P. 1973)113. ……………………………………………………. 18 The Analects, trans. D.C. Lau (Hong Kong: the

Chinese UP, 1983) 105-07. 19 Ibid., 39. 20 Ibid., 103.

Difference between the Bibliography and notes:

BibliographyRyan, Edwin. A College Handbook to Newman. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Education Press, 1930.Note 1Edwin Ryan, A College Handbook to Newman

(Washington, D. C. : Catholic Education Press, 1930) 109.

Required format1. Covera. Titleb. Schoolc. Named. Supervisore. Date2. Acknowledgement3. Abstract4. Keywords5. Contents6. Text7. (Notes)8. Bibliography9. (Appendix)

Other requirements:1. Size of the paper: A42. English: Times New Roman (12)3. Chinese:宋体（小四）4. Space: 1.55. Copies: 3 copies6. Words: 2000-3000 (excluding notes and bibliography)7. Deadline: July 20028. Topics related to English language and literature9. Paper written in English and formal style10. Consult A Handbook of Writing when in doubt11. Send me an email if you need my help or a letter with your phone number

including your local area number and email address12. Email address: