Working with Sources

Introduction to Working with Sources

OVERVIEW

Academic writing involves working with sources. Sources include books, articles (print and online), websites, interviews, films, artwork, and more. A writer who borrows ideas or words from something composed or spoken by another person is using that material as source.

Writers integrate sources by connecting borrowed ideas and words with their own. This unit describes integration as building-up, borrowing, and following-up on sources.

When borrowing ideas and words, writers must also acknowledge their sources. That means, writers must document their sources so that readers too can access them. Documentation includes two parts:

in-text citation, which appears within the same sentence as the borrowed material;
bibliographic citation, which appears at the end of the work.

The formatting required for each part depends on the documentation style such as MLA, Chicago, CBE, or IEEE. This resource includes a brief guide for MLA and APA.

Integrating and documenting sources are important skills for college writing. Becoming an effective college writer depends upon knowing how to build-up, borrow, and follow-up on others’ ideas and words. As you work through this unit and other assigned readings, see how often you can identify effective integration and documentation by looking for build-up, borrowing, and follow-up. The study pages provide additional tips for evaluating and integrating sources. The LearningCurve activity and pre/post-tests (if assigned) for this unit focus on correctly phrased and cited paraphrases and quotations.

WATCH EXAMPLES

This video features a paragraph that builds up to, then borrows from, and finally follows-up on ideas and words from Wendy Kaminer’s “The War on High Schools”. Reading Kaminer’s article is not required before watching the video; however, to better understand the analysis, you may find it helpful to see the excerpt in its original context.

Please note that the first video, “Borrowing from a Source–MLA Style” was created following the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook. Following the new eighth edition, the Works Cited entry would be as follows:

Kaminer, Wendy. “The War on High Schools.” The American Prospect, 14 Nov. 2001, prospect.org/article/war-high-schools.

Download transcript.

As you work through this unit and other assigned readings, see how often you can identify effective integration and documentation by looking for build-up, borrowing, and follow-up. The study pages provide additional tips for evaluating and integrating sources. The LearningCurve activity and pre/post-tests (if assigned) for this unit focus on correctly phrased and cited paraphrases and quotations.