The Quotation Sandwich

Here are two basic rules for all research papers:

1. If you didn't think it up, tell the reader where you got it.
2. Don't waste your quotations.

On telling us where you got it

This one is absolute: don't pretend that the words of other people are your own. That's fraud. (In the academic world, we call it plagiarism, and it's a quick trip to becoming a former student of this fine institution.) Whether you are using a direct quotation or an indirect quotation, the text should make it clear to the careful reader when you stop talking and your source begins.

The rule applies whether you are using material from a book you paid $100 for or an Internet source that came to you free. Yes, Wikipedia and About.com are available to everyone, but you didn't write the words there, so don't lie and tell us that they are yours.

For a review of direct quotations, go to EasyWriter §23a (page 121) or Rules for Writers §37 (page 302). For a review of indirect quotations, to go to EasyWriter §23d (page 124) or Rules for Writers §13d (page 108).

Awkward question: common knowledge

You don't have to cite everything you look up. If you needed the dictionary to learn the definition of "acclimate," don't cite it. The general rule (which is difficult to implement) is that you don't cite common knowledge. And what is common knowledge? It's information that most members of your target audience should know or have easy access to. Is it common knowledge that Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the USA? Yes (even if you didn't know it—that information is available from dozens and dozens of sources). Is it common knowledge that he had lost the use of his legs because of polio? Perhaps, though it wouldn't have been in 1940. Is it common knowledge that he was a "C" student at Harvard? Probably not. You'd have to cite that one.

Making the sandwich

When you do a dropped quotation, you waste it. A dropped quotation simply drops into the text without any introduction or discussion. You assume that the reader can figure out why it's there and what it contributes to the argument. (Essentially, you're assigning the reader the task of explaining things, a job you should have done.) Here's an example of a dropped quote:

Anybody in this world can be classified as having a computer addiction. It does not matter if you are white or black, poor or rich, female or male, smart or dumb you could have this problem. Many children become addicted to all the different kind of games on their computers. "Some children play computer games up to 30 hours a week" ("Computer Addiction"). Nowadays many children play on their computers instead of concentrating on their school work.

A much better route is to make a sandwich of the quote:

1. The introduction (perhaps including a comment about why your source is worth listening to)
2. The quoted material itself (whether it's a direct quote or an indirect)
3. The citation
4. A discussion of the contribution this material made to your paper's argument

Here's an example:

Researchers from the Center for Urban Transportation Research surveyed research on the cell phone issue as of 1999 and concluded that there is "no nationally-accredited document to prove the connection between mobile phone use and traffic accidents" (Alasdair and Burris). Because research results have been so inconclusive, it makes sense to wait before passing laws that might well be unnecessary.

If you make quotation sandwiches in your research papers, you will get three benefits:

• If you were ever tempted to follow the stupid and lazy strategy of "putting in the citations later" (that's always a thin excuse for plagiarism when a paper comes without the citation apparatus), the sandwich will rescue you. The computer addiction sample above is simply using the quote as a substitute for the student's own writing; if she had postponed doing citations, she could have missed that one altogether. Actually doing something with the quote makes it stand out.
• If you have trouble writing short papers that just don't say enough, the quotation sandwich will give you legitimate content to flesh out your essay.
• Because the purpose of most research papers goes beyond mere reporting of what you found and moves into interpreting the findings, the discussion section drives your paper toward its destination.

The Citation Machinery

Though there are several citation formats used in the University, two are extremely common: MLA and APA (the citations above are in MLA style). They share several characteristics:

• Citations within the text are very brief comments in parentheses.
• A back page gives complete bibliographic material.
• Footnotes are for incidental comments, not for bibliography.
• Lots of help is available from grammar handbooks, online sources, English teachers, and library personnel. You don't have to invent things. Someone has already figured out how to cite your source.

On mixing and matching

When you are doing research, you will run into several different citation styles in your source material. When you are writing your paper, however, you must make everything consistent. If it's an MLA paper, the whole thing should be an MLA paper—not a collage of different kinds of styles and citations. Here are several very common student errors to avoid:

• Do not use APA in-text citations with an MLA Works Cited page. If you really want to do an APA paper ask permission, then do the much more difficult APA references page too.
• If you're writing an MLA paper, ALL of the in-text citations are MLA style! Do not throw in a couple of APA citations for variety! (The same rule applies to APA papers.)
• If you are writing an MLA paper, ALL of the entries on the Works Cited page are MLA style! Same rule for APA Reference page!
• Do not invent. The bibliographic page is no place for creativity. If you can't find what you need in a reference handbook or website, ask someone (librarian or English teacher, for example).
• If you are quoting a source that was written in APA style and you are writing an MLA paper, cite it in MLA style.

Internet rant

Most of my students think that a bare web address is all that the bibliography page needs. Wrong! If I were to cite the Wikipedia page for Franklin Roosevelt, there's a whole lot more to the MLA Works Cited entry or the APA References entry than www.wikipedia.org. Here's what the citations really should look like:

MLA:

"Franklin D. Roosevelt." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Aug. 2011. Web. 2 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Roosevelt>.

APA:

Franklin D. Roosevelt. (2011, August 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:55, August 2, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franklin_D._Roosevelt&oldid=442613417