Failing to distinguish between your ideas and ideas drawn from your sources can lead readers to think other writers’ ideas are yours. Examine how the following writer might have failed to distinguish his ideas from those of Joel Levine and Lawrence May, authors of a source he used in his essay.

Failing to Credit Ideas to a Source

According to Joel Levine and Lawrence May, authors of Getting In, entrance exams are an extremely important part of a student’s college application and carry a great deal of weight. In fact, a college entrance examination is one of the two most significant factors in getting into college. The other, unsurprisingly, is high school grades.

Because the second and third sentences fail to identify Levine and May as the source of the information about the second important factor affecting admissions decisions — high school grades — the passage implies that the writer is the source of that information.

As it turns out, the writer actually included the necessary attribution in his essay.

Giving Credit to the Source

You can use attributions to distinguish between your ideas and those obtained from your sources. As you draft your document, use the name of an author or the title of the source you’re drawing from each time you introduce ideas from a source.

Examples of Attribution

According to Scott McPherson . . .

Jill Bedard writes . . .

Tom Huckin reports . . .

Kate Kiefer observes . . .

Bob Phelps suggests . . .

In the words of William Hochman . . .

As Shirley Guitron tells it . . .

Shaun Beaty indicates . . .

Jessica Richards calls our attention to . . .