If an interpretation was suggested to you by a critic’s work or if an obscure point was clarified by someone else’s research, it is your responsibility to cite the source. In addition to citing the source, you must place any borrowed language in quotation marks. In the following example, the plagiarized words are underlined.
Original secondary source
Here again Glaspell’s story reflects a larger truth about the lives of rural women. Their isolation induced madness in many. The rate of insanity in rural areas, especially for women, was a much discussed subject in the second half of the nineteenth century.
—Elaine Hedges, “Small Things Reconsidered: ’A Jury of Her Peers,’” p. 59
Plagiarism
Glaspell may or may not want us to believe that Minnie Wright’s murder of her husband is an insane act, but Minnie’s loneliness and isolation certainly could have driven her mad. As Elaine Hedges notes, the rate of insanity in rural areas, especially for women, was a much-discussed subject in the second half of the nineteenth century (59).
Borrowed language in quotation marks
Glaspell may or may not want us to believe that Minnie Wright’s murder of her husband is an insane act, but Minnie’s loneliness and isolation certainly could have driven her mad. As Elaine Hedges notes, “The rate of insanity in rural areas, especially for women, was a much-discussed subject in the second half of the nineteenth century” (59).